Guest blog by Kaitlyn
I arrived in Greece expecting sunshine, swimming, and a relaxing week aboard KORA. Instead, my second full day at sea began with what felt like a practical demonstration of fluid dynamics.
The sail from Schoinaoussa to Astypalea (some spell it Astypalaia) was about 50 nautical miles and took roughly ten hours. Sustained winds hovered anywhere between 15 and 30 knots, gusting close to 40, with waves somewhere between 3-6 feet. Dad’s face tells it all – even if you look beyond the fact that he’s wearing his life jacket and tethered to the boat!
Fortunately, I was a little jet lagged, so while everyone else battled the sea, I slept through a surprising amount of it. Every now and then I’d wake up, poke my head outside, spot another tiny uninhabited Cycladic island drifting past, decide the sea still looked thoroughly uninviting, and happily return to bed.
I’d packed one of those inflatable floating loungers in my carry-on, imagining long lazy afternoons drifting around crystal-clear bays out the back of KORA. At this point I’m feeling like it might have been wasted luggage space in my small carryon bag as Astypalea greeted us with considerably more wind than swimming opportunities. With swimming not an option, I settled in up on the front deck to enjoy the surrounding view which was really nice.
That evening I was promoted from passenger to crew and assigned dinner duty. Spaghetti Bolognese turned out surprisingly well considering the kitchen kept trying to move independently of the rest of the boat. Afterwards we played Skip-Bo, a long-standing family tradition. Needless to say, I won! Some traditions are important to preserve.
Because of the forecast, someone needed to stay awake keeping an eye on KORA throughout the night in case the anchor dragged. Mum and I volunteered for first watch. We watched Jane Austen’s Emma (the newest movie version), although the wind whistling through the rigging occasionally drowned out entire conversations. Just after midnight we handed responsibility over to Dad. Years of taking the night shift as a radiologist have him well-prepared. Funny story – when I was young I use to tell my friends my dad was nocturnal. Haha!
The next morning Mum produced an excellent breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast while Dad and I conducted what I’m fairly sure qualifies as a formal risk assessment regarding the dinghy ride to shore. Dad eventually concluded, “If we’re doing this, let’s go now while the coast guard is here!”
Mum remained aboard in case KORA’s anchor dragged again. I became slightly less enthusiastic when Dad started explaining what Mum would need to do if the dinghy motor failed (it’s a little temperamental) and we couldn’t row back against the wind and current. Fortunately, none of those contingency plans became necessary. The ride ashore was bumpy but successful, and mum got a few good pics of us.
Oddly, once we stepped onto land it was as though someone had switched the wind off completely.
Astypalea is beautiful. Whitewashed houses climb the hillside toward an imposing Venetian castle, tiny blue-domed churches appear around unexpected corners, and old windmills stand overlooking one of the prettiest harbours I’ve seen.
Dad and I wandered all the way to the castle, explored inside the old walls (that’s all left standing today), admired the incredible views back across the bay (mum is out there on KORA – the furthest boat from shore), and somehow still had enough energy to continue exploring the winding streets.
We also accomplished several highly important scientific objectives.
- Purchased pudding for Mum.
- Sampled a coconut Red Bull (Dad’s experiment, not mine).
- Located a souvenir magnet.
- Conducted a thorough comparison of multiple supermarkets.
- Sampled some Greek zucchini pie (highly recommend it!)
- Ate gelato.
I also discovered that nearly every shady spot seemed to come pre-equipped with at least one cat. As a bonus, we even found a bench where two cats had clearly established a sophisticated alternating-shift arrangement for avoiding the afternoon sun (picture below for Candis 🙂 ).
Eventually we headed back down to the dinghy. Dad noticed one of the stern lines had worked itself loose, so there was a brief episode of emergency knot-tying before we launched back into the bay.
The return journey was… wetter. Significantly wetter! By the time we climbed back aboard KORA, drying off on the bow in the sunshine sounded like an excellent life decision.
A little rest before it was back to business as usual with a research meeting from aboard KORA.
Despite the rough seas, I definitely enjoyed Astypalea. You have to agree that the night views are particularly spectacular! And while the swimming may still be on hold for now, the inflatable float hasn’t officially been declared dead luggage…yet.
