"Yiamass! The Greek Experience... "

We borded our boat, a 55 foot Atlantic yacht, at 12 noon Monday. Our crew, Matthew and Jill (Matt's from the UK, Jill is from Holland) were awesome. Our crewmates were all our age and we settled in for a rockin' trip! We caught a slow but fair wind to the other-side of Leros and anchored off the beach for some fabulous swimming. We hiked up to the castle that was built to defend the island from the Turks--it was closed unfortunatly and we headed back. After we wore ourselves out we got cleaned up and went to dinner which was set up by the restraunt on the beach. We ate a great meal on the beach (which felt like a deserted island) with the moon rising above us. Romance! Greeks keep GMT time which is Greek Maybe time--the equivalent of island time. They are slow to get going in the morning but go all night. We were sitting down to eat between 9-10 pm and this is normal and was what most nights were like.

After dinner, we headed to a local bar to have flaming lamborghinis--you mix kaluha, vodka and sambuca--light it--drink it with a straw and the waitress pours a shot of milk and blue curacao into the glass as it goes down. All the couples shared one of these as one alone might do you in. It was pretty good, but mostly tasted like licorice. After that I got to talking with a German, an English and a Danish girl and we yakked until 4 in the morning. other than myself, Treb, our captain and first mate, the rest of our crew had headed back to the boat. We had a fabulous time talking with people from all over the world and learned to say Cheers in about 5 different languages. It was a blast.

The next day we sailed from Leros to the island of Arki--there wasn't much to Arki--a cool church on top of the hill which we watched the sun set from. Only about 40 people live on Arki. The sailing that day had been pretty good. I had the helm most of the time and loved it. Matt told me I was a natural sailor and quite good. We then went to the local taverna for what Treb and I think was the best meal of the entire trip--lamb and fried potatoes. mmmmmm my mouth waters to think of it. Tonight we got in around 1 or 2--no more flamin lambourghinis!

The third day we headed to the island of Patmos--the most touristy of the islands we went to. It is quite beautiful and I got a lot of great shopping done. Some cool pieces of jewelry and pottery. The biggest thing about Patmos is the monestary of St. John. It is dated from 11 century and is old. Many people of the Greek orthodox faith pilgimage here to kiss the foot of Mary/Christ or their patron said that is painted on the walls of the church. The wear is visible on the icons, but they are incredibly beautiful and you know that you are in a holy place. There is a treasury at the monestary with many priceless christian relics and objects of the orthodox faith. The other biggest sight (my favourite) is the cave of the Apocolypse. There is a cave down from the monestary where St. John wrote the book of Revelations. There are two indentations in the wall from where he rested his head and placed his hand to list himself up. There is a notch in the wall where he wrote the text and a large crack running the ceiling of the cave where St. John heard the voice of God calling him to write Revelations. It was an unbelievable experience to be in something like that.

We rode around Patmos on a scooter and went to the beach and watched the cup and all that good stuff. Another good dinner and another late nighter in a local taverna playing silly games with our friends.

After Patmos, we set sail to the island of Marathi--Treb manned the wheel and we had the most fantastic day of sailing with 30 knot winds, 25-degree heel on the boat--we had to reef the main as the winds were so good and we were pitching and rolling through the waves and giggling with glee as the water showered us. We were hooting and hollering through it all and all agreed it was better than an roller coaster. We responded to our late night and rolling waves with a 3 hour nap by all in port. Once we got ourseves going again we ate a the most scenic restraunt of them all with all the ambiance California strives for and never reaches. This was the taverna or tavernas and you wished you could stay there forever. Marathi is a neat little island--there are only three families that live there, and two of them have tavernas with little motels. Boaters and vacationers go there to get away from everything.

From Myrathi, we sailed to the island of Lipsi known for its 42 blue domed churches. Treb and I joked that they had one church for every inhabitant on the island! It was great. We say a goat farm and hiked around checking the island out and having a good ole time. The winds were gusting 30-39 knots and it was rough on the boat. Docking was an adventure we all sweated through as the boat kept beating against the quay. We had to slowly push her off against the wind with a line for counter-balance and then swing her around to the other-side of the cay. For those of you who are sailors, this is a test of strength, patience, preparedness. Captain Matthew told us the saying they use in the UK Navy, the six P's--Preparation and Planning Prevent Piss Poor Performance! With that motto in hand, we pulled the boat around and got her docked safely. We cracked open the beer at that point for some de-stressing.

We left Lipsi the nexy day for Leros--it was our last day of sailing--and we made some stops along the way. The first was at some cliff islands--uninhabited--that had and underwater cave that you could swim down and under to a swim hole on the other side. This was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. With snorkeling gear on, you dive about 3 feet down and through the cave opening for about another 9 feet until you surface in the swim hole. The scary thing was that you had to clear the cave--if you came up, you hit your head--and well you have to hold your breath that long--I did it, with a few cuts and scrapes and had a nice swim and then had to talk myself into doing it again to go back. I lost my flipper on the return trip, but made it through and I have never been so proud of myself. It was one of those things in life that screams, "ACCOMPLISHMENT!" I had used up my stores of adrenaline, so the rest (Treb stayed with me) climbed up the cliff and jumbed 35 feet off the cliff into the ocean. NUTS!

We then went to another cove that had great snorkeling and beaches. We just took it easy as we were all worn out from our adrenaline adventure. As the sun went down, we sailed for Leros for our final night. We all had long faces as we pulled into port and all were trying to find ways to stay for a few more days. We packed up our stuff and headed out for one last night on the town. And it was a blast of a night.

One thing about the trip--it was HOT the whole time. Highs in the 90s and no relief from the sun--we didn't see a cloud the entire time we were on the boat. Surprisingly, though, the water was a bit chilly--low 70s. Not uncomfortable, but not as warm as the SC beaches. Then we realized that Greece, for all its tropical appeal to the Europeans, is farther north than SC.

Sunday, we got up, said our teary farewells and headed to the airport. We flew from Leros, to Athens, with a 4 hour layover to watch the World Cup final (Germany lost :( ) and flew into Frankfurt at 1915. We are home now and trying to get back in a working mode. .... The same company we sailed through has a Turkish coast sailing trip we are looking into for next year. We highly recommend SeaScape Sailing for the adventure vacation of your dreams. Check their website out: www.seascape-sail.com

yamass! (cheers in greek)

Anna and Treb

View Anna & Treb's photo collection from Greece