Oh, Bless!

My goodness. I don't even know where to begin to describe the last week of sailing.

The three Australian sisters were absolutely a blast. The islands were fantastic. The memories are still vivid. But I will begin my story with Helena's perennial comment, Oh, Bless!

Helena is from England. She is a school teacher. We love her. We pronounce her name Helener because that is the way English people and Aussies pronounce things, with the inevitable -r on the end. We had a blast talking to her about anything from her students to John's lack of knowledge about women. (John will be getting his own story soon) I seriously cannot imagine the trip without her wit and sarcasm.

Patrick our skipper is from New Zealand. He always kept a few tricks up his sleeve, such as his ability to produce bottles of alcohol seemingly from random places around the boat. He also was good for a laugh talking about former passengers. The story about the 82 year old woman who had short term memory loss and a drinking problem was my personal favorite. And not to disappoint, he also managed to keep it under wraps that he is engaged and going to get married to a Brazilian girl in October.

The Aussies are from Sydney! Two of them work in London right now but Bromwyn is moving back to Sydney soon. She was a nurse for Chelsea... yeah. Her sister Larissa works in London and probably will stay for another year or so. Sarah was the eldest sister. She was the quietest but I could sense she knew how to push her younger sister's buttons. The first few days of sailing with them was a blast because the wind just died. The water was flat and we would stop and have a swim off the boat in the middle of the Aegean!

John. Oh John. He was from a smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall town near Chicago. So small I have never heard of it. He travels several weeks a year, alone. He has no family and is in his 60's. He acts as if he is poor but he's not. He is the most random person I have ever met in my life but despite all of that we all still managed to enjoy his company. He also had an obsession with ferry boats. Since the Aegean is filled with island hopping tourists, there are many boats daily between them. Every time, and I do mean, EVERY time he saw a ferry boat he would say in his monotone drawl, "There's a ferry 20 degrees to our port. It looks like a High Speed 2." Patrick would either nod or disagree. But by the end of the week we had all unwittingly become members of the John Cramp Ferry Boat Spotting School. Later he confessed to Katie that he does not have an obsession with ferry boats, but he is simply afraid they will run us over. Every time he points them out he is concerned Patrick will steer us into one of them. Needless to say it kept us amused for hours.

So one night we were out and we anchored off the coast of Serifos I concocted a game to compete with everyone. It was called the Fender Olympics. The fenders are the buoys you hang from the side of the boat to stop the boats from rubbing into eachother. They were about a meter long and white. So, we had a game where we tried to ride the fenders like a bull. It was quite tricky until after hours of trying, Patrick jumped on and told us the secret. Instead of locking your ankles together, you keep them floating by your side. Genius. Anyway, then there were different levels of difficulty. It came down to Bromwyn and me over the swinging of the rope attached to the buoy. She got points for style, I got points for athletic ability. It was great fun.

But all in all, the trip was amazing. We saw so much more than I had expected to see. And I met some great people. I am back in Athens now for a few days meeting up with Fezekas. She should be coming to our hostel at any moment. The suspense is growing but after that I think we will head to the Ionians and Corfu. I hear good things and the 6 hour bus trip staring us in the face should prove many fun blogs as well.