A few charters on...

Hi again,

Is now my week off and i'm spending a few days on the island of Mykonos, which i'm sure everyone has heard off as it is definitely on most tourists radar. Last night there was not one but 5 massive cruise ships visiting! However i've done some exploring on my bike and found some magic spots off the tourist track.

Sooo the last few weeks have been full on. On one of my trips to Kos i had no pax (passengers) so sailed it with a friend, Suzanna from Munich which was brilliant. A highlight was hiking up to the traditional village on Anafi, with stunning views and really off most tourists radar. Also meet this cool old Swiss Guy Eric, who every year sails his yacht around the med for a couple of months solo while is non sailing wife stays home. Nice to meet these guys and not just other charter yachts.

The funny thing was when i arrived in Kos which is in the eastern med, next door to turkey i was told i had no pax for the next charter back and told to sail eva solo straight back to Santarini! GAP can be a bit crazy to work for at times. Eva is pretty easy to sail solo thanks to the auto pilot and being able to handle all the sails without leaving the cockpit. She has a furling main which means that the main sail furls inside the mast rather than sitting on top of the boom. As you'd expect, this is super easy for one person to handle. It took two days and i spent the night in magic cove on the island of Astpalaya with only goats and full moon for company.

Eva got left for a week in Santarini while i took Frank's (head skipper) Virgo up to Mykonos with 2 kiwi girls, one aussie and a new GAP guy as crew. We call Virgo the 'mother' ship as it is the biggest, is fast to motor with its big engine, which it needs as it is a heavy boat with a seperate generator, electric stove and oven and aircond! Is a true Greek boat, more like a house than a yacht..It also has nice 'toys' such as electronic chart plotter, radar, bow thruster and even a microwave. Unfortunately it had a few issues that frank has yet to sort out such as hatches that leak like a waterfall and a leaking fresh water system. Issues asside we had a great trip up and everyone had fun with only 2 wet bunks :).

After arriving in Mykonos the other week it was straight back to Santarini to do the same trip again on Eva. I had a full ship with 8 pax. 6 of those were friends (3 Can, 2 Aus, 1 US) which is good as the hardest thing about working for GAP is not the sailing but managing 8 people who don't know each other in a confined space for a week! Luckily i had two psychologists on board, one a Dr so had good help if i needed it, luckily we didn't. Again it turned out to be a great trip, even though there was literally no wind for most of the trip so we had to use the engine a lot. A highlight was taking the guys to a traditional bouzouki music and dance night a historic Venetian castle on the island of Naxos. Brilliant night.

So has been a great few days being a landlubber again and catching up on much needed sleep and r&r...Later in the week I plan to go to Munich for a few days and then will be back in Athens on Sunday for my next charter back to Mykonos with 7 American, British and Canadian girls! Think i'll have my work cut out!

Yasou!

Damon.