The Dodecanese are a chain of 12 islands which are closer to mainland Turkey than Greece. We've visited three of them to date: Leros, Kos and Symi
Kos.
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We arrived to Katapola, Amorgos on Sept. 11 and learned about the NY and Pentagon tragedies in a mini-market. For the first couple days, we were anchored in the town harbour.
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With Paros as our base, we took a day trip over to Delos and Mykonos. An important archaeological site and sacred island, Delos is the mythical birthplace of the twins Apollo and Artemis. It was first inhabited in the 3rd millennium BC. During the Hellenistic times, it became one of the three most important religious centers in Greece and a successful commerce center. Wealthy merchants, mariners and bankers resided here. It became a free port in 167 BC.
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From Paros, we took a ferry to Santorini/Thira with my mom, sister and her friends Heidi and Angel. Santorini is thought to be the most spectacular Greek island of all. The island was originally circular, but around 1650 BC, a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurred and the center of the island sunk, leaving a caldera with high cliffs. Read More...

From Naxos, we sailed over to Parikia, the main ferry hub of the Cyclades. Once ashore, you can leave the mainstreet and enter a maze lined with shops, greenery and flowers. There are two open air movie theatres and we watched "Traffic" one night. It was in English, subtitled in Greek, so all the spoken Spanish was translated into Greek. We picked up occasional words and verbs, so I think we made some sense of it.
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We sailed into Naxos harbour (city of Hora/Naxos Town) after sailing for 5+ hours through winds that gusted up to 40 knots and nice rolling seas. Funny enough, thankfully our onboard guests, Tamra's mom, sister Laura and Laura's Seattle neighbor friends, Heidi and Angel, seemed to enjoy the little adventure at sea. Maybe being in the adventure mode is the secret to staving off seasickness.
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Siros is known as one of the less touristy cycladic islands. Ermoupolis (named after Hermes, god of trade, messengers and thieves) is the largest city in the cyclades and the capital city of this island group.
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After Monemvassia, we sailed over to Porto Kheli and spent a week there (they had assorted marine chandlaries to keep the captain content). We met up with La Zuccherina (Mark, Louisa, Chester and Griff, who we sailed with to Greece in April). After PK, it was onto Ermioni and then we left the Peloponnisos and sailed east to Hydra's Mondraki Bay. Read More...

The name, Monemvassia, comes from "Moni Emvasis" meaning single entrance. From the mainland, there is a kilometer-long bridge to enter into the walled village. Built in the sixth century by the Byzantines, it was an important port until the 20th century. Read More...

For the trip to Greece, we were joined by Ryan's dad and sister who flew over from the states. After leaving the Tiber River, we landed four days later on the island of Zakinthos. From Zak, it was on to the mainland of the Peloponnisos. Read More...

Trial Run to Greece

As land-dwelling sailors for the past five-plus months, we jumped at the chance to join fellow Americans, the Heer family from San Francisco (whom we met at Tecnomar), on their journey from Rome to Greece. We left aboard La Zuccherina on April 1 with Mark, Luisa, Chester (age 10), Griff (age 6) & Read More...