Ros and Garth, along with John Rowling, Brad, Heidi and their daughter Sally, form the new crew for Trilogy's voyage from Athens through the Greek Islands to Marmaris in Turkey.

We settled for a brief encounter with Athens, a city of six million people, taking in the Acropolis and the beautiful museum down below and some of the Plaka district, before joining John at Marina Zea, Piraeus. There was the usual flurry of activity to settle ourselves on board, complete all the tedious paperwork of officialdom and load up the fridge, freezer and pantry with provisions. Myra and her sister Karen joined us for an evening meal at a quayside restaurant and we farewelled them before retreating to our cabins for much needed sleep.

After final preparations were made the following morning, we departed Athens for our long awaited voyage in the Aegean Sea. Trilogy was in good order, with no major issues to contend with at the outset. The meltemi made its presence felt once we cleared the harbour, which was a welcome relief from the heat of Athens.

The meltemi however has not stopped to our dismay and this has of course provided plenty of sailing breeze, but not always in a favourable direction. The wind predominantly blows from northeast to northwest, and so long as we don 't loose too much north we figure we can avoid too much punching into it. With this in mind, we sailed along the mainland coast and by late afternoon we had anchored in Chapel Cove an enclosed bay on the west side of Ormos Anavissou. The bay was surrounded by a large number of substantial homes on a rise of land offering beautiful sea views.

With everyone feeling a little more settled on board, we set sail on a beam reach next morning for the island of Kithnos, a barren rocky island, which is little touched by tourism. We anchored in Ormos Kolona, a bay which is formed by a sand spit connecting from the island to a very small island, with a large white chapel perched on top. The sand spit was an inviting spot for Sally to run and splash in the shallows. Alas, there was stickyl black grease lurking in the sand and before we knew it we were all sporting large patches of black goo which required petrol to dissolve. There was no signage to warn of the potential problem in Greek or English so we suspect a lot of yachties have succumbed as we did. The chapel was barricaded from any visitation and the taverna looked somewhat bleak, so dinner on board was an obvious choice.

Next morning we were reminded of a more traditional Greek island lifestyle being rapidly overtaken when a farmer rode close by side saddle on his donkey, carefully picking their way across the stoney cliff behind Trilogy. We, however, were now keen to reach something more hospitable - after all we were supposed to be in cruising heaven. We chose Syros Island and beam reached over several hours to tuck Trilogy into the beautiful bay at Foinika, on the south west coast. Syros is described as an authentic merging of traditional and modern Greece, and one of the smallest in the Cyclades Group. Excavations at Kastri in the north of the island date from the Neolithic era (2800-2300 BC). Finikas was quite delightful, with a coarse yellow sand beach surrounding the clear swimming water. As the summer crowds we now thinning it was delightful relaxing in the sun, watching Sally frolic happily along the water's edge. There were many tavernas offering simple fare and after sprucing ourselves up a little we went ashore for a pleasant few hours of wining and dining. There had been some debate about catching the local bus across the island to Ermoupolis, a small city of 13000 which promised to be lively and likeable. However, the decision was made that perhaps we would prefer the time in Mykonos, the next island calling us.

Again a great beam reach with the meltemi powering us along at an easy nine knots brought us swiftly to Mykonos and the island of Delos nearby. Trilogy was nudged up into Porto Ornos, a deep bay that we hoped would shelter us from the penetrating meltemi. Not so.... the meltemi would not abate and we felt like there was no relief as there was no protection. Weather reports indicated at least another 24 hours of full on wind!

We opted to go ashore and check out Ormos, which was interesting enough, with a beach full of cafes and lounge chairs with umbrellas. They were serving all manor of drinks, frozen yogurts and mezzes. John and Ros went in search of a highly recommended restaurant for dinner, which with a bit of luck was found in the dusty back blocks. All the buildings are white washed and have azure blue shutters and doors. Crimson bougainvillea adorned some buildings and tree trunks (often eucalypts) were painted white, if they were in close proximity to a building. We began to worry if we stood still for too long, we might end up white washed! Having made our way back across the bay in the meltemi gale, without hesitation the decision was taken that we could not risk a trip across the bay in the dark for dinner.