A taste of Summer 🌅

It is so good to finally have our boat, Myrto, in the water where she belongs. The adventure we had been planning for over 5 years has begun. We have been blessed with unseasonably warm weather. Weather that was a little bit hot in the boat yard was perfect out on the water.

After checking that all systems were working correctly, we headed towards Aegina island, a 2 1/2 hour trip. Aegina is an island we had been by before but not stopped. Previously we had anchored at Monty island, just west of Aegina. It is home to many peacocks, rather strange. The wind was from the north so we proceeded to an anchorage that was protected from this wind direction.

We soon found our friends on Marlin anchored on a small island about halfway to Aegina. A quick stop to say Hi and confirm that we will be headed to the same bay for the night.

The wind soon picked up and sails went up too. Nina and I were pleasantly surprised that we had not forgotten how to sail our boat. Soon we were on a nice reach with 25 knots of wind and the boat sailing nicely at 8-9 knots! Remembering how to take in a reef and shorten sail, we prepared for a few jibe maneuvers as we made our way downwind through the channel between Aegina and Monty islands.

Soon we rounded the south end of the island and tucked away our sails as we approached our bay for the night. As hoped the water was nice and calm as we dropped anchor. It was not long until the boys and I were in the water swimming.

We had a nice dinner in the cockpit of Myrto with our friends from Marlin. The next morning we spent time on the sandy beach swimming and exploring. We had to help save a local woman’s glasses, she had lost them while swimming. The boys snorkel mask came in handy, and she was very appreciative. Our friends on Marlin headed off to Epidauros and we said our good bye’s hoping to see them again in the Ionian in a few months.

We had planned to spend another night in the same bay, but our boat was over run by little flies. Realizing there was no way we’re were going to be able to sleep with all the bugs in the boat, we yanked up the anchor and headed to the east side of Aegina. A massive shake out of the boat to rid it of flies was successful.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the bay of Agia a beautiful inviting location. It’s surrounded by small cliffs and caves and a well persevered Temple on top of the hill. The morning was warm. We took a taxi to the Temple on the top of the hill. In the heat there was now way our boys would have made the walk up.

Gravity works wonders on these boys. After an ice cream revival, they were quickly headed down the trail back to the bay. We spent the afternoon swimming, playing on the rocks and paddling about.

It was a great start to our sailing sabbatical. We had not expected to enjoy swimming off the boat until May.

Stay tuned for the next update where the weather takes a turn.