Ancient Greeks and their Mythology had it right!

A few days ago, I was in my favourite bookshop, Plous. (Πλους as it is written in greek means "sail" as in to sail somewhere, to navigate) Plous bookshop is a lovely space. Old wooden bookshelves, a small area for coffee, tea and quiet reading in the back, the best place to "navigate" the world of books. 

So there I was and I found this little gem:

 

 

The book is to do with one of my favourite subjects, which is the amount of Greek words that are to be found in the English language. One in twenty words of English is of Greek origin!

It lists words and expressions that originate from Greek Mythology and are used often. Another interesting fact is that plenty of them are used in the English language but not in Greek, at least not anymore. 

 

Anyway there was a little "fact" that I did not know and it was that ancient Greek Mythology had the world divided into three "parts" and not two. So when the sons of Cronus, won the battle against the Titans they drew a lot to see who would oversee which part. Dias (Zeus) got the top world, his brother Hades got the Underworld and Poseidon got the sea... 

I like the idea that the Sea is separate. 

 

Because it is my world. It is where I feel at home.

 

 

 

A home that is fluid and in perpetual motion. 

 

I know it looks frightening. This was in a winter storm, NAOK sailing club in Garitsa. The waves got so msteep because they bounce off the wall and go back, and when their length coincides, this is what you get...

 

A world of depth and of an everchanging surface. A world full of life, full of blues and greens, sometimes grey. 

 

 

One of the bays in Meganisi

A small bay in Ithaka

Small waves somewhere in the Ionian sea

Another bay in Northern Ithaca, opposite Afales.

 

My favourite bay in Meganisi

And more of the same bay, but four years before...

 

Kalypso bay in Othonoi.

A world that swallows the sun once a day, only to have him rise up out of it and above it the next...     

The sun kisses the sea, behind Paxos, viewed from a bay in Antipaxos.

All of this and much more is what my clients enjoy when we go sailing together. A tour of my world. Well mine and Poseidon's anyway...

How boats and sailing became my life

When I finished school I went to work in one of Corfu's oldest and most established shipping agencies. It was called Three Seas Travel and belonged to Kostas Kontis, who was also a sailor. Amongst the big ships we catered to, we also dealt with a few yachts. Here are a few names I remember

 

Al Diriyah (ex Massarah ex Serendipity) I knew her when she was called Massarah. She was owned by an Arab Sheikh who had his full harem onboard too. I never went onboard but regularly met the ship's chef or purser to go shopping with them to the market. We often needed to get weird things organised for them, like iceberg lettuce that had to be flown out from Canada or something ridiculous. They stayed for months, anchored off Vido. It is possible the Sheikh tried to buy Vido, he was so fond of it. 

I would go shopping with the crew and organise delivery by the dock in the Old Port. I would then wait by the stacks of crates and fresh produce, while the crew ferried it over in the tender. When they finally left, there was a hundred dollar bill left on my desk, as a tip.

 

Another yacht we catered to was the Empress Subaru. It belonged to the US Subaru dealer. They had a helicopter onboard and a 3.5L Subaru AWD car. When they left Corfu, they went to Italy for the winter. There the crew apparently had a big party onboard and enrolled the services of a stripper. They then refused to pay her. Unfortunately for them she was very well acquainted with the local Police chief. The Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza, came down on them like a ton of bricks. The car and helicopter were impounded and the Captain had to come back in early spring to pick

the car and helicopter up. The yacht generally did not have good luck as I have found out. Here you can see why. She was built in the CRN yard, hull no 071.

There was also a beautiful converted North sea trawler called Sonne. The german owner was a big coffee importer to Germany. The yacht was run by a Portuguese skipper called Jose. He was short and grey haired with a thick mustache and had the most amazing stories. He had been a dancer and choreographer. He had been sailing in Greece since the early seventies. We became friendly and I spent some time onboard with him. He was a great cook too. I learned how to make pasta with anchovies and olives from him. One evening over conversation I discovered he had known my Aunt Sheena, who used to live in Athens in the early seventies with her Greek boyfriend who was also a sailor and owned a pet monkey called Arthur. They used to hang out wityh lots of artists, amngst them Mariza Koch, a greek singer.It was such a peculiar coincindence. I later confirmed they knew each other when I spoke to my Aunt. A few years later I would also meet her boyfriend's cousin Christos Aggelakis, a greek sailor and poet. He owned a Sunkiss 47 called Kouros. The sailing world is small as I would have the opportunity to realise many times over the next years.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of Sonne but she looked sort of like this:

This was the sort of style, but Sonne was older. About 12,5 meters long and with a big bowsprit in front. The beds inside were made in a reclining shape and the interior was painted a pastel green with a platinum patina, apparently a paint they ordered especially for Sonne. Jose spent a winter in Corfu and I helped him prepare the yacht for lay up. It was likely the first time I realised how much I enjoyed even just "messing about on boats" 
Sonne was built as a fishing trawler near the turn of the century and had been converted to a yacht. She also had a bronze bathtub.

Finally there was also the yacht that was to be my first opportunity to possibly become a professional crew member. The yacht was Columbia (US-16) an America's Cup defender. Columbia had succesfully defended the Cup in 1958 against Sceptre. By the time she was in corfu she had been converted to a cruising yacht. I remember goin onboard and meeting the French crew. The mast was so big I could not get my arms around it. They needed an extra crew member for the summer. The deal was I would sail with them as far as Rhodes or Κos and then return. I turned down the offer, something I regret to this day. I still had my national service to do, I was in love, I had a stack of excuses for not sailing on an America's Cup defender yacht which seem quite feeble to me now. This is what she looked like. Yes I know. I should have gone.

But my sailing career thankfully did not end here. More in the next post.

How it all started

 Hi everyone!

My name is Peter Papageorgiou and I am a professional Yachtmaster and Sailing Instructor, based in Corfu. My home waters are the Ionian Sea and throughout the last few years I have extended these to the Peloponnese, Patras ans Corinth Gulf and the Saronic Sea.

It all really started quite some time ago, when, at the young age of 19, I enrolled in the HORC sailing school in Corfu. I had already been sailing a few times with friends, often skipping school to do so, in a Carter 30 that belonged to a friends uncle. But the first time I ever went on a day's sailing, was when I was about 10, with some friends of our family. They were from Finland and had their own boat.

Here it is:

Going to the sailing school was the logical next step. The club had a busy racing season and I was quickly invited to join one of the teams. 

I had tried my hand at various sports till then, from javelin throwing to cricket, but sailing just clicked.

I loved every aspect of it. Navigation, being practical, trimming the sails, learning about the weather and nautical traditions, and just plain sailing. Holding the tiller, setting the sails for the wind and making the boat come alive. There were moments when I felt I would be very happy to just keep going, and never return, onwards to new seas.

Here are a few photos from that time:

 

 

 

The first picture is of Kyma Too, a boat I was to crew on soon. The second is of Lena, a boat designed and built by Andreas Bottis in his garden next to my high school. This is the forst boat I learned how to sail on. The engine did not work so we learned to sail in and out of harbour during our outings over the three months the lessons lasted. The third photo is Glafki II, heeling over on our way to Lefkas during a race and the fourth photo of me and my fellow crew members on an Aloa 27 I also trained on.  

This was my beginning in sailing. The first few times I went to the club, all the boats looked alike to me, white with masts. Soon I would be able to tell makes and models from miles away...