Sailing in the Greek Islands... Are you Kidding me?

How many people have always dreamed of sailing around the Greek Islands on their own personal yatch?  Well, fortunately for me, Greece is only a short flight away from Basel and well sailing, why not?  So, in May 2010, 6 of us headed out from Basel for an incredible adventure to try our luck in sailing.

Our home away from home for 7 days....the mighty "Utopia"

The trip was such that for the first 4 days we would be accompanied on our boat by a skipper who would teach us everything we needed to know to stay alive while at sea.  Provided that we all demonstrated to her our abilities to hoist sail, drop anchor, dock, navigate, chart, rescue, read the wind, and work the radio in just 4 days, we would get our able seamen certificate (enter joke here)

Goose Winged sails are when the jib and the main sail are on opposite sides of  the boat.  It is only possible going directly down wind.  It's a tricky move because if you lose the wind the main sail can swing across the boat violently

Successfully graduating from this sailing crash course meant we would join the flotilla ON OUR OWN to navigate our way around the Greek Islands for the final three days.

A working fishing boat preparing to set off for the day.

Fortunately, our skipper had a good sense of humour and was not put off by our irresponsible drinking, our attempts to film a rap video to the song, "I like big butts" or our unhealthy infatuation with halyard swinging.  In the end, after running way too many "man overboard" drills, we were granted our qualifications and off we went to join the flottila.

A small private greek fishing vessel with the flotilla in the background

We spent the next three days visiting different port towns for lunch and dinner.

We woke on day 2 to an absolutely perfect morning 

We took relaxing long picnic lunch breaks in secluded bays and snorkeled along side the boat.  We also tried fender surfing while under full sail which also meant we got to practice our man overboard drill.  The evenings were spent competing in the social events against the other crews.  Fortunately, in the "protect Humpty Dumpty" challenge our hastily prepared egg protection contraption (aptly named Eggscalibur based on it's sword like shape) won the night.

A small greek row boat on our way into harbour on Day 2

The week was filled with laughter, excitement, fear, concern, anger, fun, food, beer, wine and amazing Greek Island scenery and hospitality.  There is already talk of another sailing trip this year to Croatia.  He's hoping!  Stay tuned to see if it happens.