Every single day during our voyage was different than the other. And most of us felt the experience was better and overwhelming than the previous one. As we were coming close to end of the journey, there wasn’t much to left in our wishlist. Some of us were talking about the marine life — we had not seen much of  the sea creatures, except few dolphins, and small (very small) fish (but absolutely no sea monster).

This day will mark with something we talked about but could not expect that it will happen. Chris was the one to notice that there were lots of Dolphins who were jumping around and playing close to the Bow of the boat. We went to the bow and sat there with camera ready to grab any action. And there they were. I have been to seaworld and many cool aquariums, but this was something much spectacular – Dolphins were all about getting our attention. During the whole course of motoring (i.e. no wind, no sailing) to Sounion, we witness atleast 3 cohorts of dolphins — at least 100s of them. Words won’t summarize the feelings, but pictures may give you the feel. enjoy.

One would think that taking pictures of wild creatures is easy and same goes for Dolphins. Those who have never been in this setting may picture dolpins jumping out of the water will be usual occuring, so I thought too. But Dolphins as I witnessed were more about running around under the surface and racing with the boat close to the bow. I was keeping my camera at burst mode, and too approximately 500 shots, but it was almost impossible to capture them out of the water, jumping into the water. There are few of those shots,, which will decorate my desktop for years to come.

       This was among those rarest of shots when I was able to focus camera at the right directions at the right time. Folks, it’s not easy — hats off to those pros who spend days taking one of those rare shots.

Some of the best events during our sailing trip involved sailing to a beautiful, secluded beach and have a good time. We did this plenty of times, but this beach at Serifos (called “Ganema”) stands out — it was not only beautiful, but it was secluded and was far away from any town closest to our reach by boat or walking. And there were no public transportation available.

We had very less money for eating outside, so cooking on the boat and jumping in the water was on the only fun we could have had. We never realized that we had no wine or liqueur left onboard either, and we were ok with it for a change, till we reached on the beach. We all swam to the beach and had a great feeling walking around. There were two more boats, and about 3 couples in around the 2-3 km of the shoreline. That’s when we got the idea of doing a campfire on the beach. We weren’t sure if that was even legal, but we did not care.

The big problem was not collecting the wood fire — that was easy. The question was what is a campfire without some liquor?. That was when we decided to try anything to get the wine on the beach. We found out the nearest town was 10 kms. away from where we were standing. The walking was impossible because it was hot afternoon, the road was quite a climb beside the town being 20 kms. a round trip.

We had to wait 2 hours, ask few folks on the beach before one couple game us the ride to the town. It was quite a ride and very humbling experience. I along with skipper Peter were given the ride in the car which is probably good for two people and a dog to be max. The couple did not know english, but they tried understanding what we needed. They pulled their seats so that we can accommodate on the tiny back seats on their coup. The best past — dog sat with the driven on drivers lap all the way

This story may not reflect too much of the great experience we derived in the end, but for me it was a learning to shed inhibition, be loose, carefree to gain the little bit more fun when I needed.

On this day, we had no specific plans for any specific place. We were heading west because that’s where the wind could take us. And we reached a small Island called Kimolos, NE of Milos. This was a great surprise, and very unique place to anchor than other places we had been.

The place where we finally anchored was a tiny fishermen’s town called Goupa Kara. This is just north of port Psathi, both share the same town of Kimolos. This place is untouched by the boat traffic, offers a rocky coast, and it very different beauty than any other places we visited.

We visited Sifnos Island for the second time. We were here on Day 4 at Faros, on the other end of the Island.

By this time in our trip, we were overwhelmed by the Greek Island aesthetics. Any place we go makes us think that we have seen all — blue & white houses, crystal water, narrow stone streets, view from top of the whole island — all seems nothing unique. Yet, to many of us (and Peter in particular), this place – Kamares Marina, in Sifnos, seemed to be the best place we visited.

To me Kimolou is a great place to come when you are tired of all the Island aesthetics and wants to lay around and chillax. The restaurants are amazingly along the beach that can make hours go by without worring. Food is good and the water is amazingly shallow and clear as long as you your eye can travel.

I also will remember this place for going to their town – Appolonia for iPhone cable and ended up almost loosing my iPhone in the cab. The story is long, but the experience was great. All the time I have spent on Islands, and with those little experiences, my belief is that Island folks are very honest — they never take advantage of you and are the best people to trust.

Kamares is Sifnos’ main port and you can easily use it as base to explore the rest of Sifnos. It has a great, calm, longish, sandy beach, and just the right number of intimate bars and tavernas right on the water.   

Sifnos is famous throughout Greece for its clay and has been heavily involved in ceramics since ancient times. Now there are only two or so pottery shops in Kamares. However, pottery is still the most common locally produced type of gift item available from Sifnos. The two shops in Kamares specialize in glazed chimney pots.  

The view of the Marina – this is where we slept.

This was start of our second leg of the sailing trip. We had to change the plan and to go back to Ios Island (same place again) due to electrical problem with the boat. That was the place we knew we can get an electrician to diagnose the problem. Untimately we didn’t need the help, but coming back again to Ios wasn’t regretted at all. At least, this time it was Steph who was visiting for the first time.

This time we climbed all the way up to Chora and to the highest peak of the Island. The view of the Island and the wind at this place was amazing — can’t be summarized by the pictures.

Santorini was our final destination — we had to come here because this is the most majestic of all Greek Islands (at least in the Cyclades) — from the point of view of it’s unique beauty, geology or the per-historic civilization. We were also bound to visit this place because Steph, who could not come to join us on Athens, was arriving Santorini on 20th. Also, as was planned Mario had to leave us back home from Santorini. All in all, we stayed here for 3 full days, visited all over the island, tasted some of the best food, and took tons of beautiful pictures.

Ios is an Island exactly north of our final point on Cyclades – Santorini. We came here after overnight sailing and stayed the whole day and night, filled the gas, water and electricity before hitting out to Santorini the next day. The Island was great and walk to the Chora and have dinner and drinks was one of the most memorable moment for all.

Ios or Nios (as it is called by the locals) is a very beautiful and picturesque Greek Island with excellent sandy beaches and hundreds chapels. Its pretty Chora (capital), is a dazzling mix of white washed houses and blue domed churches. Ios Island is well know for its nightlife with sounds from every corner of the planet and offer all kind of entertainment. They say, Ios is heaven for folks to come here for beaches and all night parties and it competes with Mykonos head on to grab the attention.

After the last night of storm, we planned to move on to our next Island – Sifnos. We picked a very small beach town called Faros at the southern part of the Island.

We started the day by moving the boat to Finikos Marina to get water, electricity and power our electronics. We visited the town spent sometime at a beautiful cafe and bought provisions for rest of the day.

As you will see, the Island of Sifnos and Faros in particular torns out to be very beautiful. We walked around the place, and hit the restaurants. We topped off our budget for the bars – we almost visited all those places serving beer on that beach.

After consuming tons to beer, and having a great time with music someone came up with the udea of sailing under the moon light. It was almost full moon and we had never done this before. Guess what – no one countered the idea and we all decided to sail at night under the moon light to the Island of Ios.

The experience was great because we did it for the first time. But it was hard on the crew — no one could sleep because the sea was turbulent, we had to sit our side the Island and wait for the morning light for hours and when we reached it was a tricky maneuver to pull the boat on the marina.

The day when storm came — there were no predictions about the winds, but we received the text from Marcos that a wind up to 35-40 knots (nautical miles) can hit the Cyclades. 40 knots is serious wind and we did not want to take any chance. We reached Finikas Marina way ahead of night but did not get any place in the marina. So we had to anchor is another safe place near Finikas.

Leaving Sounion

Busy sea

Time for breakfast

Fresh and very authentic Greek food.

Approaching winds

Crowded Marina

Hunt for a new place to anchor

Heavy Storm