Friday, August 29, 2014

Sail Away With Me

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Paradise. The only word to describe the beautiful islands we visited on our Medsailors trip to Greece. Stunning, deep-blue water, rugged coast lines, island adventures, secluded bays, good friends and lots of fun. A week of absolute delights! Can you tell I enjoyed it?!


Our journey started when we set sail from Athens and crossed the idyllic eastern shores of Aegina to the small fishing village of Perdika. This was where we spent our first night on the yacht after enjoying a beautifully traditional Greek supper in one of the local tavernas: Greek Salad, olives, potatoes, lamb, fish, calamari, the list goes on! Naturally the evening involved plenty of wine and other such beverages, there's nothing quite like an ice cold glass of wine on the first night of your holiday.


Ermioni was the next stop on our voyage, a small fishing port with beautifully traditional architecture absolutely oozing with character and charm. We enjoyed a stunning meal overlooking the harbour before exploring the local nightlife. The bars were literally a few feet away from our yacht which made stumbling back in the early hours not too bad at all (if you don't mind walking the plank onto the yacht when you are half cut!) 


We couldn't believe our luck when we were joined by a pod of dolphins as we made our way to Spetses on the third day. They swam next to the yacht and were so close we could almost touch them. 


Spetses was definitely one of my favourite islands and we spent the day exploring on motorbikes and relaxing in the most gorgeously secluded little beach bar. I won't lie...I could get used to island life! The night ended in a rather raucous way involving skinny-dipping and shooting stars...



The next stop was without a doubt my favourite of the whole trip: the island of Hydra. En route we all decided to don our pirate costumes and run riot around the yacht, walking the plank, hoisting the sails and tacking (a sailing manoeuvre where you switch between the starboard and port tack...see?! I did learn how to sail!). 



Wheeled vehicles are banned from this island and donkeys and water taxis are the main forms of transport making this island incredibly special and atmospheric. As we sailed into the harbour I tried my best to capture just how beautiful it is, this is one my favourite photos from the holiday:


After docking up and partaking in some cliff-jumping (!) Karl and I left the group sunbathing and snorkelling in the stunning bay and went scuba-diving for the afternoon. I had high hopes for the dive given the dolphins we had seen the day before, but unfortunately the area we went to was massively over-fished and we saw little more than a few teeny tiny fish and a crab (definitely a stark contrast to the Red Sea when we went there last year). Despite the lack of fish it was still great fun and always good to get a dive in whenever you can.


In the evening we enjoyed some frozen cocktails and then went to a restaurant famed for it's views of the spectacular sunset, known to be one of the best in the world. I have to agree, it was definitely one of the best I've seen.


Feeling a little worse for wear the next morning we made our way to the tiny Greek island of Poros, famous for its water-sports and lemon trees. Some of the group headed off to enjoy the ringos and I spent the afternoon sleeping on the beach, there are definitely worse ways to spend an afternoon mid-week.

We went to a lovely taverna in the harbour for dinner later on that evening before heading out into Poros for some cocktails. We were actually lucky enough to be invited onto a huge catamaran by a Ukrainian businessman where we had a fabulous time posing for pictures pretending to be one of the rich and famous!


On our final night we moored up in Agistri where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, messing around on the paddle board and polishing off a few beverages on the yacht. Medsailors organised a toga night for us which of course, we all naturally got fully involved with. The evening was spent eating more traditional Greek food and joining in with some traditional Greek dancing.

The next morning we set sail back to Athens and endured a rather rocky voyage back to the capital which would have turned the strongest of stomachs (especially if you are hungover and fall asleep below deck!) 



It was a fantastic trip and excellent introduction to the world of sailing, and another thing I can tick off my list of things to do before I'm 30! Andy, our skipper, was brilliant and taught us all how to hoist the sails, drop the anchor and steer the yacht; we even took part in sailing regatta against the other Medsailors yachts. Karl absolutely fell in love with the sailing world and is actually completing his day skipper course as I type this!

We will be looking to book a sailing trip to Croatia next summer with Captain Karl at the helm, who's in?!!!







5 comments:

  1. Hey, loved your blog post. Sounds like you had just as great a trip as me and my sister. We did Medsailors Croatia Discovery Route this year, and it was AMAZING!! SO good, we are thinking of either doing their voyager tour or the Turkey one. Such a wonderful way to see a country I think. Vicky xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Vicky, thank you for your comment! Great to hear you had a brilliant time in Croatia, it's definitely on my hit list for next year. I completely agree too, one of the best ways to see a country :) xxx

      Delete
  2. This blog is genuinely helpful to pass on upgraded enlightening endeavors over web which is really examination. I found one productive instance of this truth through this blog. I will use such information now. Sailing Yacht Charter in Greece

    ReplyDelete