Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

Mafia Strongholds, Wax Museum, and Being Fed in Crete, Greece

Posted on by
Reply

Wednesday, May 20 This afternoon Andronikos, Eric and Christi set out to go to an archeological site called Axon, located in the mountains. We followed the same road that we took the day we took the day we went to the monastery and cave last summer. Last year it had been and the hills were dry. Right now the hills are verdant and green, with the flowers in full bloom. It is absolutely gorgeous. Just like last year, we saw lots of goats running around on the hills and several hanging out on the road.

mar-may2009-849-small.jpg

We passed the monastery, but before we got to the cave we turned off onto a different road. We passed through several more small villages. One of them was the village where we had gone to the wedding with 3,000 guests a few years ago and has a reputation for being one of the most traditional villages left today. In another village, we spotted a 16th century church that looks like it is still in use. We tried to go in, but it was closed.

mar-may2009-851-small.jpg

The towns are nothing more than Continue reading →

My Brother’s Big Fat Greek Wedding

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday May 17 — Today was the big day. The wedding began at 1430. Eric wasn’t feeling good, so he spent the morning resting. The women spent the morning obsessing about minute little details. The men waited anxiously, looking at their watches every 5 minutes until it was finally time to get ready. Costas has had a beard for a while now and his male friends decided the beard needed to go and forcibly shaved it off.

We arrived at the church 20 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. The tradition is that everyone stands outside and waits for the bride to arrive. The groom meets her outside and they walk in together, then everyone follows them in. It was a small wedding with only 900 guests, and the courtyard outside the church was jam packed. Were we being facetious when we said “small wedding?” No. In villages, the whole village is invited, and weddings with as many as 5,000 guests are common. We went to a wedding with 3,000 people once a few years ago. It was crazy. In the cities, though, weddings tend to be much smaller. We noticed a few men were dressed in traditional Cretan costumes. Here are some of the more traditional dressers posing with Costas.

mar-may2009-557-small.jpg

The church is at the top of a hill, with a long path that leads from the parking lot up the hill. Here is a shot of it from the parking lot.

mar-may2009-530-small.jpg

We knew the bride had arrived when Continue reading →

The Homecoming and Adjusting

Posted on by
5

Saturday, May 2 — We were up early, which was painful given that we had gotten no sleep the night before last and had a long day yesterday. We got ready and put up the dress flags. Trevor, our crew member on the passage to Ensenada, and his girlfriend Katie arrived at 0845. The original plan had been for them to wait in the channel for us and to take photos of us coming in. Given that we had snuck in a day early, we were going to “recreate” the arrival this morning for the camera. Actually, I am glad that we will be photographed clean and fresh, instead of tired and grungy after a night time run, as was originally planned. We left the slip about 0900. Interestingly enough, on our way out of the slip, we spotted the 57 Nordhavn we had met in Panama. They saw us, too, and gave us a call on the radio to congratulate us.

We went back out to the edge of the bay and Trevor snapped photos all the way up to the dock on Coronado. Our welcoming party was small, just some family and close friends, which was good. We think we would have been overwhelmed by too many people. Here is a shot of Trevor and Katie taking pictures of us.

mar-may2009-282-small.jpg

And then us with Kosmos at the dock on Coronado, and then Kosmos with downtown San Diego in the background.

mar-may2009-292-small.jpg

mar-may2009-293-small.jpg

And few of the people who came out to see us.

mar-may2009-289-small.jpg

Monday, May 4 A few friends had gatherings to welcome us over the weekend. We saw quite a few people, some close friends, some casual acquaintances, over the weekend. Since the thing that we missed most was Continue reading →

What Now?

Posted on by
2

Q: Is the blog over?
A: We have a few more posts coming about re-adjusting to life in San Diego, a trip to Nordhavn in Dana Point and a trip to Greece for Christi’s brother’s wedding. After those, the posts will become erratic (but real time). We will continue to write about both our boat and about our travels (and hopefully, both at once!) whenever interesting things happen. We’ll also continue to do Q & A, so send us questions!

Q: Are you going to start doing presentations/seminars about the trip?
A: We are working on a presentation now that we will be giving at a Nordhavn event in October. We are open to giving the presentation to other groups and/or participating in seminars, so if anyone is interested in having us speak, please let us know.

Q: Are you writing a book?
A: Yes, and we hope to have it published before Christmas. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Q: Are you planning any more interesting adventures?
A: We are planning something in the spring that we think will be interesting. Details will not be announced until the then, and we are sure you’ll be entertained when we do it.
As far as long range cruising goes, we do hope to go again, but at this point in time we can’t say when. It is a matter of money. So, make sure to buy a book for everyone on your holiday shopping list because the more books we sell, the sooner you can start living through us vicariously again!