Nai Nai, like a horse neah neah, as in "can you do this before we leave" they reply "nai nai", it sounds like no they cannot, but the meaning in Greek is yes! The reality is it means nay nay as in no we cannot do it, but we'd rather have you believe we can.

We made a detour on the way to the boat, by going on spring break with Keegan in Guatemala. We found Guatemala to be very friendly. The food yummy & the sights spectacular. We saw the amazing Mayan temple ruins that appear from no where out of the jungle. Amazing what was accomplished with a few thousand slaves and a heavy handed king. Keegan had us do a death march up an active volcano, and a campsite overlooking the eruption. In the middle of the night the thing blew and we felt the percussion wave course through the paper thin tent. You can't help but duck, but really we would be straight to gaseous state. The long winter in Connecticut binge watching Netflix had left us in no shape to carry a 40 pound pack up and down the mountain and my legs gave out in the last few meters. Keegan ran down the mountain with a full pack!

Bobo the little dogs apartment from last year was booked for our stay in Agio Theodoroi, but he cancelled on us at the last minute. We ended up staying with another dog Dukas who was just as nice as Bobo and greeted us in the morning with the same cheery demeanor. The landlord was very clever providing a particularly hard bed (think board) and then prominently displaying her massage table so Colleen would see it. So Yeah you pay for the hard bed then you pay for the massage to counteract the hard bed.

We left most stuff ship shape for the next season and were better at handling the yard worker's shenanigans. That being said the boat was literally being backed into the ramp as the life raft was delivered & was being inserted and the shrouds were being tightened. The newly cleaned deck was covered in greasy mud from their boots. I did not even have time this year to get anxious & worked up. We were told we would be launched at 2 but woke up to the guys lifting our boat onto their machinery. The launch guys were yelling in Greek and the starboard engine wasn't working right. We popped open the engine hatch opened the circulating valve (should have been opened already PK) and we were off. As we were leaving, Peter says to the main guy, "Hey, nothing like last minute" to which he replied as we were backing into the water "everything in Greece is last minute".

The din of the yard fell off behind us and we made our way to the little islands near Aigina. The island choices were either a island with a grilled fish dinner in port or an empty isle with peacocks and deer. The peacocks won and they surrounded us with their shrieking. The little tiny heads and beady eyes were like velociraptors, trust was an issue.

This time of year we see a lot of people on learning to sail cruises and/or groups of 4-5 guys out on a cruise. The learning to sail crowd are fun to watch as long as they are away from our boat as they dock and re-dock and hoist and lower sails. The air is warm then quickly cold. I jumped in the water for a quick swim and my balls didn't reappear till late that afternoon, worse than Rhode Island.

The Tilley hat is a wonderful thing. Made in Canada it has a pocket on top to put some emergency cash, it floats, it can be crumpled in a back pack and still retain its stylish rake (according to me but not Colleen) , provides shade with a snug fit to the head so it doesn't blow away. I had purposely left it on the boat so it would be ready for my return, but we could not find it for the first weeks! I blamed Colleen for getting rid of it in one of her many purges but the Tilley finally surfaced when she was doing a organizing sweep of everything & it was under one of our travel bags on the top shelf, and now its right where it should be, on my head.


We visited the ancient Roman amphitheater. It was huge and built to be acoustically perfect with a full crowd the people in the last row can hear as well as the front row. We couldn't help but think about the Mayans and their towering temples when looking at the Romans temples and amphitheater.

Hydra is an island that lay in our path again this year. Last year still wet behind the ears we made a stab at the incredibly tight harbor. It is notorious for anchor tangling and doubling and tripling boats end to end a hopeless mess, to be greeted by a harbormaster with a hefty bill in hand and rude temperament. Last year we did a quick turn and ducked out, this year we went to the harbor across the way and took a day ferry over. When we got there it helped us know it was okay, watching boats come in and go back out as they swung into a large freighter and tried to get back in again. Hydra itself is lovely. There are no cars allowed on the island, so they use donkeys or carts to move everything. We saw a pea pod donkey go by with groceries hanging off the sides of the saddle. The town clings to the hills around the tiny harbor and is a warren waiting for exploration.

So nai nai although technically yes, in our Greek experience means best do it yourself, or maybe it just didn't need to happen anyway. Clean the boat today and the dust is back tomorrow anyway so nai nai we'll get right on that :).

*** Please note there are Photo & Homecoming's location links depending on what you are using they are either at bottom of the page under the first blog written or to the right or left of the page