Waking up on a ferry is a very surreal feeling... It was a very hot and very small cabin we were in and the boat was very softly humming. Weird! But at least we were closer to arriving in Greece - how exciting!! Our Topdeck tour is coming to its end and its very bittersweet, good, because I'm looking forward to getting home and sad, because I've been lucky to meet some amazing people. At least we had the three days of sailing together and partying in Mykonos to look forward to.
We tried to have a little bit of brekkie on the ship before we disembarked but I wasn't feeling the best so I passed. Noddy gathered us all together and collected our keys and we made our way to the exit of the boat... Man! Greek people are pushy!! So pushy! We were all waiting for the same exit and everyone pushed past us. Hopeless. But we finally got out and looked over the beautiful coastlines of Greece. Wow. Just stunning. The ocean alone made the 15 hour ferry ride worth it. We had a short 20 minute drive to the flotilla boat ports to meet our boat leader - Dimitri.
We met with Dimitri who seemed very scary... And very Greek... But he showed us our sail boat and explained how everything worked. Our boats official name was 'Meltimi' but Tom creatively came up with 'The Floating Semen' which we enjoyed more. We had two hours before we were setting sail so we had some gyros for lunch - Greek food is fast becoming one of my fav cuisines and its only my second day here! Then we stocked up on food, bottled water, sunscreen and anything else we thought we might need for our three days of sailing the high seas. Well maybe not the high seas, but at least around the islands of Greece.
We were off and moving, with Dimitri over the mic, guiding each boat out of the harbour and into the great open waters of the ocean. It was kind of scary and kind of exhilarating, I even got to steer a little bit on that first day (very scary)... We motored along for a couple of hours until we arrived at our first docking. Docking is even harder and more stressful as we need to drop anchors, throw ropes, tie off, and park these crazy boats. Then there is the even more stressful activity of getting ON and OFF the boat using the little plank. Scary... So scary.
We could jump straight back off the boat and into the ocean... It was pretty awesome. The place we docked at had some pools, a water slide, communal toilets and showers, bars and restaurant. Pretty great for a night stop. We swam for ages out in the bright blue water of the Mediterranean and then went up and had a quick rinse off for our first big Greek dinner. I think we all found a new appreciation for bread and olive oil, feta cheese, and Greek salad... SO YUMMMMMM. Plus the views from the restaurant down on to the dock, it's like we were living out a dream. Magical.
Day two was very similar, boating around in the sun, an amazing stop over at a random beach out in the middle of no where that did water sports, parasailing, donuting, jet skiing and heaps of other awesome stuff. I just stuck with swimming out on the beach, no adrenalin junkie stiff for Tegan. Alysha did some jet skiing and went in this crazy couch like donut. We went back out onto the boat and cooked some lunch.
The low down on the boats... There are 5 crew and a captain on the boat, there is a small pump flush toilet (that always stunk so badly), a baby kitchen with two burner stove and a fridge that didn't work. But we made it work as best as we could. It only was made difficult when we needed to use the bathroom - it was very frowned upon to use the toilet on board. One of the boats ended up blocked because someone had a big crap and didn't pump it properly... So we voted no number two's on the floating semen (unless absolutely necessary). We attempted to use our sails on the second day but the wind wasn't quite strong enough and it was a lot of work... Dimitri said we would try again tomorrow.
Our second night we stayed at a fishing village on a small island off Corfu. The port we docked at was absolutely rank... Faeces, urine, diesel fuel, fish guts, all in the water! A girl from another boat fell in off the back of her boat which was a bit disgusting... We all felt so bad for her. We also had to dock from the front of the boat so getting on and off the boat was so ridiculously hard and dangerous. But we had a delicious seafood dinner at one of the local taverna's, I got to try swordfish for the first time - which was amazing!! Along with more tzatziki and Greek salad.
We also had some delicious cocktails and enjoyed seeing and learning some Greek dancing... Which was absolutely hilarious. The couple who owned the taverna came and taught us some of the group dances which were mostly done in circle formation with some in lines. Then they demonstrated some of the couple dances... I wish I had filmed it!! So incredible! They moved so quickly and so precisely. It was a lot of fun. For the grand finale of the night the men danced around lifting a table with their teeth... I can't even properly describe how they did it or how it worked but THEY DID!! Most of the girls then got a chance to try it in pairs (apparently our jaws aren't strong enough to lift a table on our own haha). It was a great night.
Our last day sailing the Greek Islands was pretty amazing, it was also the day I got the most sunburnt as I ended up driving the boat for an hour with the sun baring down on me. Worth it. We had some open ocean swim stops in the morning, with one in super deep water (I didn't get in... The thought alone was terrifying) but the others gave it a go with the blow up rings. We got a little closer to a beachy island and anchored for another open ocean stop but it was only 7-8 meters deep. We were all anchored close together so every could swim around together, I had the theme song to jaws playing in my mind so once again I didn't partake haha, but one person had to be on the boat at all times so it worked out.
Before heading back to the original port we left from (which was our last stop of the sailing) we were going to sail!! After stuffing it up a lot the first time round we had a good plan of attack, roles delegated and we were ready, I was on the wheel while we got the main sail and front sail up and ready to pick up the wind. It was absolutely awesome, but on the inside I was kind of shitting myself haha, when the boat picked up a bit of wind it was moving pretty quickly and the boat had quite a lean on it so we all needed to be on one side of the boat. After a while I got Tom to take over, to much stress for me - I wanted to enjoy the views and majesty of sailing! I was standing on the side of the boat for the rest of the way. It was an unforgettable experience. We worked so well as a team and had a great time.
We were the first to dock back in and sort ourselves out, we had a free arvo before dinner, one last night to sleep on our boats, clean them for our boat inspection in the morning, shower (finally), use the wifi and charge our phones, and get some food. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon, scrubbed the decks (haha) and cleaned out our boat as best we could, there was a gorgeous souvenir shop just around the corner which a few us enjoyed, we popped down the beach which was near the boats... I didn't enjoy that (the ocean floor was slimy and weird... Yes I'm a drama queen). We got to have a GLORIOUS shower and wash our hair before dinner. I had a traditional Greek moussaka which is kind of like Lasagna but it has eggplant in it - or Aubergine as the Greeks call it. Pretty amazing, I want to learn how to make that!
We headed back to our boat beds for some shut eye - with a sneaky bit of Geordie Shore before turning in. This Greek sailing experience has been absolutely unforgettable, a very hard thing to do, sometimes stressful, but soooooo much fun, something I will probably never get to do again. I can't believe we are so close to the end of our time with our Topdeck crew - it has been a goddam incredible times and the people I've met here are some of the most awesome human beings - but it will be great to be home soon.
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