Aegean Odyssey

Newbie sailors take on an ambitious voyage in unfamiliar waters

- Ian Drogin

Feelings of awe-inspiring exuberance were in the air when my friends Spencer, Anna and Aaron and my brother Tyler walked through the door of the Zeus hostel in Athens, Greece. While the five of us have spent a lot of time adventuring together, the expedition we were about to embark upon was certain to be the most unfamiliar and ambitious to date.

Six months earlier we had been living together in Lake Tahoe, California, for the ski season, fantasizing about the idea of sailing around the Greek Islands to climb rocks and explore new places. At the time, our combined sailing experience was minimal—none of us had ever skippered a boat for more than a daysail. Nonetheless, we sat around the kitchen table in our winter cabin and came up with a plan to make the trip happen the following summer.

As it came closer to our departure date, we had completed the prerequisite sailing classes, arranged a bareboat charter and figured out how to get ourselves to Greece. Shortly thereafter, we moved onto our new home, Hellenic Sky, a 44ft Bavaria sailboat, and looked forward to six weeks of exploring the Aegean Sea. 

Sailways, our charter company, perhaps sensing our inexperience, offered to provide a local skipper for the first two days of our voyage, and welcoming a friendly Athenian local named Fiori to show us the ropes was no problem for us. In fact, Fiori proved invaluable in helping us get acquainted with this unfamiliar environment: teaching us how to use our navigation tools and showing us the nuances of the sailboat, and most importantly, how to identify a good spot to drop anchor.