Sunday Sporades Splash
Oh I have been waiting for this moment.
First, our guests. Four of them, all seasoned pro SwimVacationers. Taylor, Miriam, Celine and Kendra, all showed up at noon exactly where I had directed them. These four know what they are doing which makes for easy pick up, boarding and departure. If only the windlass control had gotten that memo….we dropped our lines and wheeeeee we are free! Aaaaaaand no. The anchor wouldn’t come up. Not the fault of our crew but quickly became our problem to solve. We ran around and tried a few things, bish bosh problem (mostly) solved and Take Two we are on our way.
To sea!
Jemima put out a fantastic lunch spread, and my water bottle gets showy with a mermaid cozy from Miriam. XO
At last. First stop, sweet little Tsougkriaki island. A perfect place for lunch and a splash. Lunch was a table full of yummy little Mediterranean dishes and salads and we scarfed them up. Side note, we do our best to accommodate food allergies and diet preferences on SwimVacation, and as a special little treat for Jemima on her very first trip with us, we rounded up a significant batch of them. No problem, she put out a safe table and everyone was sated.
Splash time!
Ask me what I love most about swimming in Greece. Go ahead, ask. Alright I’ll tell you.
Play. This is an underwater playground full of subsea landscapes and structures that turn full grown adults into little children. Sometimes it takes our guests a few days to let go and reclaim their sense of play. Not these 4. We jumped in and almost immediately we were diving down and laughing and oohing and ahhing at water so clear it seemed we could see for miles.
I love making underwater photographs in Greece. It’s textural and complex and simple and light light light light light bouncing off of everything.
So our swim was playful and quick with a little swim through cavern to wet our whistles and really it was just a taste of things to come.
Back on board and a motor sail found everyone relaxing into our boat home. The sail brought us to Limnonari Bay where we sit tonight.
Dinner was outstanding - pan fried sea bass on a bed of sweet potato and carrot puree with dill and orange roasted fennel. Wow. Room for dessert? How about chocolate coconut mousse. With figs, no less. If you’ve read my Greece blogs before you’ve heard me wax on about the figs in Greece. If you’ve had the figs in Greece, you’ll never eat them anywhere else, ever again. So. Anyway I’d let you try some of it but it’s all gone.
After dinner, a Greek digestif of Mastika. Smooth, notes of pine. A perfect with the surrounding cliffs of Skopelos in the dim. Suddenly a card game breaks out - it’s got all sorts of letters and Celine, Miriam Jason and Simon are slapping cards down and shouting words and Kendra is kind of side line reffing and it was all manner of boisterous fun.
Jason got this lovely pic of the Blood Moon while Kendra and I were being magical fairies. XO
Fatigue finally took hold and one by one they ambled off to bed, perfectly satisfied with a pretty fantastic start to this adventure. Everyone that is but me and Kendra - we can’t really ever call it a night in Greece without a lap or two around the boat, naked, if I’m honest, in the dark. What made tonight particularly spectacular was the Blood Moon - a total eclipse of the moon by the Earth's shadow. Large and red, it presided over us as we kicked and paddled making underwater streaks of bioluminescence. When I wave my hand and the water lights up around me, I can’t help but whisper “I’m a magical fairy! I’m a magical fairy!”
You’d feel magical too, here in Limnonari Bay tonight.
It’s clear Greece aims to please this week. These four ladies are ready to play and gobble it all up.
Kali Nikta,
Heather
