36:19.63N 025:25.53E

Vlikadha Marina, Santorini

Tuesday 31^st August – Sunday 5^th September

We had hired a car for the day after Viv and Tim left which was the only way to reach a shop selling more than the marina mini-market.  At 45 Euros for the day it was pretty good value so we took the opportunity to explore as well as re-provision.  The first cliff top town we had seen on the way into the caldera yesterday was Oia (pronounced Ay-ah) which looked older and more interesting than the main town of Fira with equally spectacular views.  It was fabulous.  Part of the early settlement on the island it had been pretty much destroyed in the 1956 earthquake and abandoned soon after.  Restoration started in the 1970’s and has been done sensitively and very well. 

Back to the Americans.  Adam and Jessica arrived early afternoon on the hydrofoil from Crete.  They had a nightmare crossing with most of the passengers very seasick so they arrived feeling terrible with the Force 6 wind that had upset them in the first place still making it’s presence felt in the marina by blowing us about and throwing waves over the seawall behind the boat.  They both put a very brave face on it and big respect to them for that.

Their friends Lauren and Ross arrived by plane from Rome, delayed, very hungry and so not a terrific start for them either.  We had met at Adam and Jessica’s wedding nearly two years ago, learnt that Ross loved sailing, “Come with us” we said, “Love to” they said – and they did!  But now the lovely Mediterranean was chucking ‘weather’ at us so who knows what they thought but they both put a brave face on it too.

Wednesday 1^st September

Late night and an unavoidably long sail in rough sea didn’t help the seasickness or thrill of being on Tashi Delek but the banter started nonetheless and everyone got stuck in.  Then Lauren and Ross did the sensible thing and went to sleep. Quite impressive with harnesses clipped on and the sea rolling.

Everything perks up though once the anchor is down, the first swim has been swum and the Martini’s are in hand as the sun sets.

Adam was a particularly enthusiastic explorer of the deep so most evenings this was all we could see of him........

But still the wind blew and the sea rolled and Jessica kept smiling as she worked her way through an armoury of sea-sickness defences and cures which included a slightly alarming wrist band that delivered electric shocks.  By the end of the first day nothing had worked so we set about the Tashi Delek advanced sea sickness regime and deployed the Scopolamine Patch for the first time.  First heard of from Libby Purves column in Yachting Monthly and procured from a posh pharmacy in London this small patch is stuck just behind the ear and lasts for 72 hours.  It worked – hurray, hurray, hurray.  Jessica laughed in the face of rolling seas and choppy currents; she ate heartily; she turned back from green to pink; she pulled on ropes and sang sea shanty’s with gusto, she considered buying the island that was for sale for 199,999 Euros and coming to live here.  Well maybe not the last couple but you get the idea.

This is the island in question in case it takes your fancy.  Just on the edge of the caldera (remember this is technically an active volcano) and not a thing on it.  No water supply, just a big piece of rock.  Bargain for 199,999 Euros.

Ross is an experienced sailor and so was very quickly comfortable on Tashi Delek.  The others had no experience but they all got the hang of sailing the boat very quickly.  Naturals to a man.  Except for Adam when it came to hauling up the mainsail and using the winches for which he was subjected to endless abuse and mockery.  The winches have two gears – turn one way and the rope moves slowly but easily; turn the other and you work much harder but the rope moves much faster.  Every time Adam went for the easy way (girly winching) thinking he’d got the difficult way and every time we let him know with as much derision and mockery as we could muster.

In his honour we have started a competition to see who can get the sail the furthest up the mast on arm power alone.  Adam being our last visitor will sadly be our only contestant until next year however the record has been carefully made in the visitors book that he made it to the eighth car (which is actually pretty good) and we will start from there next year.  Future visitors get weight training now – you have been warned.

The four days passed far too quickly before we had to head back to Santorini for their last night and dinner in Oia. 

This was even prettier in the evening light as the sun went down.

We hope they will come again; if only so that we can continue our discussions on where best to site Adam’s evil villain’s lair (too much James Bond and Thunderbirds as a child we think); what the layout should be in terms of rocket launchers, nuclear warheads, dock for the spaceship and shape of swimming pool.  Oh, and we need to learn a lot more about Zombies which had, up to that point, escaped our attention as something to worry about.  We are much better informed now thanks to Lauren, Ross, Jessica and Adam and their encyclopaedic knowledge of the threat they present.

Lauren, Ross, Adam, Jessica, Carol, Mike