Postcard from the Aegean Sea - postmarked 02 October 2024

With most ambitious objectives, we rarely come out the other side the same person as we were going in. Indeed, with a little self-reflection we will likely realize how we have grown immeasurably. With this belief in mind, I accepted my brother, Stan's, invitation to join him and our cousin, Steve, on their annual week of sailing. This year, it was to be in the Dodecanese area of the Aegean Sea, beginning and ending on the Greek island of Kos, only a few kms across the bay from the Turkish port city of Bodrum.

As many of my regular readers know, I have sailed several times with friends, on my buddy, Kosta's 37-foot catamaran, always in and around the Argolic Gulf, the body of water that opens up south of the Greek Peloponnese town of Nafplio. I must come clean: after these few sailing adventures with Kosta, I failed to acquire more than 25% of the skills required to sail a boat. Perhaps now it is clear to you why I say that this sailing objective is ambitious, first being an inexperienced sailor and second spending a week in close quarters with two family members for the first time in decades. Between my brother and our cousin, together they have about 95% of the necessary skills. These are: navigational; technical; radio communications; choosing an awesome protected cove for lunch and swimming; good habits to minimize all risks of personal injury and of falling overboard; maintaining sufficient fresh water and gas; and the discharge of waste when permitted. Did you know that boats do flush their toilet's holding tanks straight into the sea, untreated, once they are at least 3 nautical miles away from land? It's best to choosing swimming spots close to the shore!

Now that I have sufficiently communicated these niggly details to you, let's get back to my adventure. The main town on the island of Kos, is predictably named, Kos. Nearly all references to Kos, when written in Greek capital letters, drop the last letter, leaving kappa omicron (ΚΩ vs ΚΩΣ). No Greek individual could explain this anomaly to me so I turned to AI: "Some Greek signs and casual writings abbreviate place names, especially short ones, for simplicity or stylistic reasons. This is especially common with tourist locations, where it’s understood that "Κο" still refers to "Kos." This is a feature of the Greek language’s flexibility with nouns, particularly proper nouns like place names."

The town is very touristy, dominated by its wide harbour and many, many large (tourist) pirate ships that each promises to take its passengers for a day sail to three nearby islands and the opportunity to swim at each stop, serve a lunch, and all the suntanning a 20-something could hope for. The street parallel to the harbour is lined with many restaurants, a few bars and more than a few tourist shops, all of which spill over onto the wide sidewalk. Several narrow streets and laneways in back contain many more shops, kebab stands, markets, and ruins, too. Similar to the rest of Greece, Kos has remnants of civilisations long gone: stone archways still standing, leftover columns with missing capitals, and pieces of ancient buildings strewn about. Hippocrates supposedly lectured his students here, they say under a large tree, still standing 2,400 years later, labeled the Hippocrates tree, one of Kos's must-see highlights. The main harbour, just referred to, is for commercial boats only. Our marina is a 15-minute walk away, very modern, with space for 400 sailboats, enclosed by a seawall which keeps out waves, currents and swells. Most of the boats here are from 35 to 55 feet in length, both monohulls and catamarans (which have two hulls). Our boat, The Hobbit, or Χομπιτ, is 35 feet long with three cabins and one head, or bathroom. Of course, we have a kitchen, dining area below deck, and living area on deck.

Ideally, we would have had light winds early in the week, which would get stronger as the week advanced along with our sailing skills. The gods had different plans for us! Our first day of sailing had winds of 25 knots gusting to 35 with swells of two to three metres. I believe that the Universe gives us not we want, but what we need. And evidently, we needed to sharpen our sailing skills with no time to lose as these strong winds can blow a boat over, or onto the rocks had we steered off course. The winds were blowing from the northwest today and guess what? Our first day's destination was to the northwest as well, to the island of Leros. Sailing into the wind is uncomplicated under normal conditions however when the winds are strong the forces acting on the boat can be challenging to manage, doubly so when the whitecaps are crashing against the bow as we pitch forward on the backside of each swell. If you are prone to seasickness, my advice to you will be predictable. An interesting phenomenon to note: even though our speed across the water is barely 9 knots (16 km/hr), it feels like 30 or 40. It is an illusion that nobody can explain. In any case, it is exciting to manage the sailboat's course, tacking occasionally, as we steer slightly left of straight upwind, then slightly right, to keep to our northwest bearing overall. One of our daily pleasures, which I alluded to earlier, is searching for and choosing a small cove or inlet for our lunch stop. If we can find one that is protected from the winds we will be sure that our anchor will hold so that we can enjoy our meal in calm waters. Did you know that the weight of the 40 metre chain, when letting out the anchor, is as much a reason as the anchor itself for keeping the boat from drifting?

It is always a thrill for me to dive into very deep water. There is no chance of touching ground (even if you tried to), so the swim has another degree of freedom. An entire world may exist below, perhaps schools of fish passing by in search of lunch, but at the surface it is just me and 360 degrees of choices of which direction to swim. The water is so very blue, I think its colour is enhanced by reflection off of the sandy bottom. Thankfully it is warm enough that I avoid getting the chills as so often happens at home in my lake after only fifteen minutes in the water. When I was an avid runner, I used to joke that all runners end up in the pool. Once your body starts complaining about the pounding it takes from too-frequent running, we turn to cycling as it is easier on the joints. Until the shoulders start hurting from continually leaning forward on the handle bars. In the pool, or in the sea, there is no tension at all. The water supports every swimmer's weight just perfectly. Even more so in the sea as salt water is more buoyant than sweet water, which makes it even easier to stay afloat and swim greater distances. A bonus: Salt water is nature's purifier of skin and nails, killing, over time, most superficial skin infections, pimples, toenail fungus, etc. I always swim wearing a long sleeve swim shirt, however, to protect my back and arms from the sun's rays. After a few minutes of using the same stroke, I confess that I start to daydream. It's a wonderful feeling, I highly recommend the experience, until thoughts turn to what may be lurking below! I sometimes wonder whether it is me that is on some deep-sea predator's fish of the day lunch order!

I imagine it must be quite a unique lifestyle to actually live full-time on a sailboat. All your worldly possessions have to fit in the boat as you have sold your home or given up your apartment. No fixed address. Pick a coastline anywhere in the world and spend the next year or two sailing from port to port, deciding on a whim to stay put at this town or another for a few days or a week, and then sail on. I suppose you could do this in an RV camper, too. But, it simply seems so much more practical to have the sea as your highway, with no traffic lights, speed limits, traffic jams, or roads under construction to contend with. I understand some people make a compromise effort and go on an around-the-world cruise for a year, if they can afford this. I have a friend who contracts himself out as a first mate and sails for weeks at a time, helping the captain on a daily basis. He is neither paid, nor does he have any expenses while aboard, and, he gets to see the world one port at a time. How would you choose to see the world?