Guest Blog Post by Oscar McNally
As the sun chased the moon off the night shift, we all rose from our slumber and were starving. Rushing up to the buffet breakfast, we were all quickly munching down our bacon and eggs, anxious for the journey ahead.
Finally, we arrived at the marina where we met up with Aunty Karen and Uncle Doug. It was there that the toughest part of our sailing odyessy began. Shopping!
With a 16 day adventure ahead of us, it was no small feat buying all the snacks, drinks, fruits, vegetables, breakfasts, lunches and dinners. We bought so much food that they filled up a multitude of bags, putting even Santa’s sack to shame, except his sack brings happiness and ours brings back pain. This is evident as even after less than a minute of carrying the groceries, my parents (Steve & Catherine) gave up and gave Oscar and Chelsea all the bags!!!
Eventually, we set sail and enjoyed panoramic views of Greece. Our dad had a very fun time too!
We filled up all our time playing Golf, a card game, which was, by chance, constantly skewed in Chelsea’s favour, she seems to be a magnet for all the good cards. If only the same could be said about Aunty Karen’s language, which was propelled by consistently losing. This led to a new rule where bad words (the less nicer form of “shoot”) earned you an extra point (you are trying to have the least number of points). Although, at the end of the day Aunty Karen won, even though she had 5 points added.
After around 6 hours we arrived at Sounio Bay, greeted by the Temple of Poseidon on top of a hill. The temple has a striking resemblance to the Parthenon atop Acropolis in Athens, which left us wondering a lot of questions. Why did they build another temple so similar? Why was it built here? Was it the Parthenon’s long lost brother that was separted at birth as Athens wasn’t expecting twins so they sent it far away? Who knows?
The internet knows! It was built to honour the god Poseidon, which wasn’t exactly a shocking revelation considering he is the god of the sea. A great move on Greece’s part as it seems pretty important to be good mates with the sea god when you have around 6,000 islands. It was also built to showcase naval dominance during the Golden Age, which the Parthenon couldn’t do. They must’ve delivered it too far inland – those delivery guys can be very incompetent. Just look at this image sent by Amazon informing Aunty Karen where her package to Emily was delievered. Incredibly helpful!!!
We immediately jumped in the water and began refining our paddleboard tricks, pulling off an impressive headstand as part of the routine.
Dinner was an absolute treat, salmon and Greek salad which we wolfed down in record time. We incorporated carob rusks, which added a delicious saltiness and crunchiness into our dish, instead of the common lettuce leaves you mix in, so our salad didn’t look like this 🥗 . That emoji was pretty cool!
We all settled down and took in the magnificnnt views of Sounio Bay at night. The shimmering lights enchanted us, especially the Temple of Poseidon all lit up.
Exhausted, we headed to bed around 10pm and all slept pretty well. What a relief! Imagine having to document another 2 hours (until midnight) – writing is pretty tiring! Anyway, today’s blog is over. Goodbye!
