The cruise started from Amoudi Bay, near the second biggest town on Santorini, Oia (pronounced e- a). We boarded the catamaran and headed out into the Caldera. The island of Santorini is a horseshoe (forming 3 sides of the cauldron, ie, the Caldera), Oia is at the North Western tip.
The first stop was at the Volcanic Island in the middle of the Caldera. There in fact two small islands here with a small passage between them. In the cove of the smaller island, there is a thermal spring, which was a an area of warm muddy water. Thus was the first swimming spot of the day. Andy did his good deed of the day here. From another boat a Japanese woman with a life jacket was panicking in the water (only about 4 metres from her boat), Interestingly the crew from her boat and our boat weren't too concerned, anyhow superhero Andy swam over to her and dragged her back towards her boat! Karma (I hope).
Next we sailed around the Southern top of the horseshoe towards two swimming bays. We stopped at the furtherest one first, The Red Beach. Here we swam in the water's about 150m off shore for about 40 minutes. It is so easy to swim in the waters here and not have to work very hard because the water is so salty, you float so easily.
Next stop only about 1 km away was the White Beach. The different colours are due to different parts/times of the explosion of the volcano. At the White Beach we snorkeled in 5m deep water and there was plenty of fish to view (it certainly helped that the crew threw a lot of bread in the water first!). This was very good. Still anchored in the bay we ate lunch, a typical Greek fare, kebabs,(cooked on the bbq) dips,salads . etc. Did I mention that this tour also had drinks supplied? By now we were onto about our fifth ouzo and coke ( ouzo, wine and soft drinks included but had to pay for beer!, go figure!), and occasionally ouzo and sprite as well.
The trip back to Oia took over an hour (a few more ouzos! ) but under full sail. This was very enjoyable as we laid out on the trampoline mesh of the cat. I did strike up a conversation with a nice American chap from Seattle, who reminded me of a young Nick Notle from the Rich Man Poor Man days, except the bugger must have been in his 40s!
After returning to our apartment we hit the swimming pool (remember it is 35C in the shade here) and relaxed etc. ..
Watching the sunset and pre-loading (as all youngies do!), we chatted with our neighbours on the balcony. A lovely Greek couple who now reside in Switzerland. We could have easily spent the night chatting and drinking with them, but we had a dinner booking at 9:15 @ Mezzo restaurant we had to wait a bit when we got there but the meal was delicious. We only had mains, Andy the lamb shank and Kristin the Mousaka .
Just as we got back to our hotel (~ 11 pm), the Greek couple were just heading out for dinner. Anyhow we have had a nightcap and Andy us writing the blog.
Another great day. We really are living the dream and as our travels are nearing an end we really appreciate how lucky we are and how good is Long Service Leave!
Cheers,
A & K
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