Now it is close to two months since we started with our journey. It happened for the first time that when we were heading back to our boat from long walk on the shore, we used the term “home” instead of “boat”. So, we now officially have a floating home!

We have been sailing in Greece from the beginning of May and we love it. For numerous reasons. Our captain loves that there is always wind as he dislikes the sound of a motor running and is delighted to see our diesel supply intact:). Waters in Greece are very clean with a lot of shelters so you can always find an anchorage if you want to throw a hook.

But definitely the most important reason for all of us are people. Greek people are kind and communicative. They are smiling and talking to each other most of the time and prepared to start a conversation with us anytime. They are very happy when boat approaches a shore and they will almost always help you with docking. The first word is not about fees – it is the welcoming Kalimera. On a lot of occasions berths were actually free – only electricity and water were payable if needed (since we have our own power plant and reverse osmosis for water we didn’t even need that service). Bus driver got out of his bus to help some tourists figure out which bus they need and to show them where to buy tickets and lady selling tickets got out of her office to show us the right bus when she saw that we didn’t have any idea which one is the right one… We were buying oranges in one of small shops and came out each with a biscuit that the lady running the shop had baked just a little before. And the list of little surprises just goes on and on… We feel very safe here.

And as we really like to eat well, the next reason for loving Greece is food. Food in Greece is awesome. Oranges are from local farmers and they are veeeery tasteful, juicy and sweet. There is plenty of fish and vegetables – all local products. Their dairy products from sheep and goat milk are mmmm… 

Lana and Zan love Greece for their sandy beachesJ. They can play for hours building sandy sculptures or just jumping around in water. It is perfect for Zan who is trying to learn how to swim.  

But first thing first, we had our first celebration on the boat, Lana’s birthday – happy birthday Lana!!! 

Our boat is working great (someday we will tell more about our boat, for now, it is Beneteau first 47.7, very fast cruiser, some are call it performance cruiser, we will see:)) with some minor glitches like one day we found out that there is a lot of salt water inside the boat – the captain started to panic that the water had come inside around the keel. Fortunately, just one of the side windows that is under water when you are extremely heeled during sailing was leaking. It took one day to reseal all six windows, other five of them just in case. Also, the next day we had another flood – this time it was fresh water. It turned out that the main pipe of the plumbing system was leaking. 2 hours later (and after some dirty words), also this problem was fixed.

In Greece, we started with Ionian islands and visited Erikousa, Corfu, Paxoi, Lefkada, and Ithaka. We liked them all, maybe Lefkada the most – it was so green and peaceful. Captain’s goal is to test Gyros Pita at every location we stop, so far the best was in Ithaka… The sun finally managed to warm sea enough so we can enjoy short swims and during one beach visit, Lana managed to catch small octopus. We had some hard time convincing her that octopus is not most suitable as a pet.

Our first Lady stated that we almost ran out of our fresh supplies so the captain lifted the anchor and headed towards Patras, 3rd biggest city in Greece. 

This was our first night in marina in Greece and given the prices of marinas in Slovenia and Croatia we found this one very inexpensive, little more than 20 euros per night and City center just 2 kilometers away. We were a little confused at first since there was a lot of traffic and noises – we spent the last month more or less on deserted anchorages… But city life definitely has pluses - we were lucky to arrive just in time to see their show on the shore with traditional music and dance.

Our next goal was to cross the Corinth canal. It is impressive how narrow and long the canal is, especially as it was made without the heavy machinery that we have today! Good bye Ionian and welcome Aegean Sea. 

First we planned to visit Athens but Athens as a very big city is crowded with all kind of ships and also offers no anchorages. We decided to anchor at the nearest Island Salamina and go with the 15 minutes’ ferry to Athens. In practice this was quite a logistics project: with our dingy to the shore, then search for a Taxi to Ferry, with a Ferry to Athens port, with a bus to Athens Metro and finally with a Metro to city center:) We visited magnificent Akropola. Did you know that it was severely damaged as late as in 1687 when the Venetians attacked the Turks and opened fire on the Acropolis causing an explosion in the Parthenon, where the Turks were storing gunpowder?

Our next destination was the beautiful island of Aegina. We had a nice downwind sail to Aegina averaging 8 knots and we were there in just one hour. The town of Aegina is really beautiful and cozy. Aegina is specialized in pistachio farming so we ate them constantly and in every form: salty, in ice-cream, in cookies… Near the Aegina there is natural park Moni island. It is a beautiful place with a lot of fearless peacocks and roe deers – it sounded like Jurassic Park. Lana loves animals and this was her dream come true. She could feed them, even managed to touch one of them to feel what they were like and could watch male hitting on female. Very impressive…they really put a lot of effort to get what they want:).

Of course, our captain found the highest point of the island... and convinced us to go see the view from above. It was definitely worth the effort. All the views from above are outstanding. He had a plan to climb (with us?) on the highest point of our every island stop. Luckily, he is not too strict with this idea as some of the peaks really are high above the sea.

Back to Aegina we had another task to do, visit the ancient sanctuary of Aphaia. It is breathtaking how old and well preserved these big buildings are. It is part of so called sacred triangle together with the temple of Parthenon dedicated to Athina at Akropola and the temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, where we also stopped.

Our next goal is to explore Aegean islands and experience meltemi winds. See you next time!!!