After the DIY and maintenance fun and games in Zea Marina in Athens we at last headed off to sea and the beautiful islands, coves and bays. We could not go too far as we needed to be back in Athens in a week to drop Charlie off to fly home – we were determined to pack in as much fun and new experiences as possible!

After a couple of nights on the island of Aegina we headed an hour away to the tiny harbour of Vathy – this was another case of ‘how the devil did Jacques manage to get us in there!’ Beautiful place, lovely people, full of fishing boats and local characters!

Whilst in Vathy, Charlie decided he absolutely had to have a hair cut! Strangely enough there were not many professional barbers who knew how to ‘skin fade’ to choose from in Vathy village but the local harbour master, Cosmos, offered to drive us (in his slightly beaten up Greek version of a 2CV) to the ‘big town’ Methana, about 15 minutes away. What transpired was that on the way he had to pick up his wife and two sons so we all crammed into the car and when we got to the many steep inclines, instinctively we all leant forward! I really wasn’t sure the car would make it!

We drove past a local archaeological site which Cosmos gestured towards and spoke the words ‘two hundred’ in broken English. I was absolutely bowled over when his teenage son turned to us and, in perfect and very fast English said ‘No Dad, those ruins are at least 2000 years old dating from the Ancient Egyptian dynasty’!! I asked him how come his English was so fabulous and he said he attended extra English lessons and that his neighbours were Scottish! Once he mentioned it I did think I could hear a faint hint of Glaswegian in his accent!

In the last week I have lost count of how many times I have said ‘oh it’s so hot’ and for us this just means getting in to the sea to cool off and at night sleeping on deck. For others this is now life threatening and I’ll come to this later. On a lighter note this is Charlie’s preferred sleep mode and technique for dodging the heat of the rising sun at 7am!

After 2 nights in Vathy we headed back in the direction of Athens and to an enchanting cove where we had the time to inflate and try out the Stand Up Paddle board – Charlie certainly got the paddle part and sometimes the actual stand up as well!!

The following day we headed to the beautiful island of Agistri, the harbour was not particularly scenic but the village was. We also found a wonderful small bar slightly up the hill with great views across the bay – forgot to take photo so you’ll have to trust me on this but this is one of the small tavernas in the village. So pretty.

Our last night at sea before heading back to Athens was spent in another small cove off the island of Agios Thomas – this is a map that shows the area we covered – the pin is Agios Thomas and you will also see marked the two huge wildfires that started on that day.

Overlap this with the satellite image and our photos of the surrounding area – truly sad, scary, eery and most of all so tragic for the people whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed. This will only get worse if the pace of climate change is allowed to continue year on year.

The sky was a huge ash cloud, the smell of acrid burning was heavy in the air and the boat was covered in a layer of ash. I was also included on the Greek text alert for emergency situations.

We headed back to Athens the next day, the sky still a thick orange fog which started to clear as we approached the city. We had a few lovely surprises on the way seeing turtles and dolphins – almost like nature re-asserting itself.

And for Charlie’s last night in Greece we decided to hit the town….more on this next time!

Night night and stay safe

Tracey