Traveling on Moonbeam from Crete, the southernmost Greek Island, northward through the Aegean Sea lies the northwestern most Cycladic Island of Kea, which in ancient times was known as Hydrosa due to the abundance of the island's fresh water sources. It was our last port of call east of the Greek mainland before entering the Gulf where lies Athens and beyond that, our destination to the Corinth canal. Kea has recently attracted a rash of second home development as a cool escape for those Athenians still able to afford a retreat from the summer heat and its political and economic disparity.

Like most of our modern day odyssey, after leaving the Minoan port site at Kommos on Crete, Kea afforded us the continuity of Minoan settlement exploration and a good excuse to visit one thematic island after another, narrowing the multitude of choices. Captain Ken and his able bodied mate Lil sailed into nine other ports in the Cyclades before reaching Kea's Aghia Nicolaos (Saint Nicolas) Bay where tucked into a secluded protected harbor lay Minoan Aghia Irini. The Greek Orthodox church of Aghia Irini sits right on top of a sacred Minoan site that dates back to 1800 B.C. Cultural site appropriation has always happened and in Greece the invading Italian Catholics and Ottomans even constructed a church, then a mosque inside the walls of the sacred venerated Parthenon of Athenian Acropolis.

Back at Aghia Irini three significant Bronze Age structures were excavated by American husband and wife archaeologists John and Myriam Casky, 1960 - to 1976, who, like the husband and wife excavators of Kommos on Crete, were sponsored by the American School of Classical Studies Athens. "The site is a striking example of early, well organized urban forms, featuring narrow streets with drainage channels below paved streets, carefully built walls with stone door frames 2." There are three principal structures discovered here to date, a corner bastion, a main administration building with shops for metallurgy and the working of stone and a temple. There were store rooms with Minoan, Mycenaean and island pottery. Fresco fragments in the Minoan style along with the shattered remains of terracotta female figures were found and are now housed in an archaeology museum in the island capitol of Ioulis.

Now - at the time of this writing - we are under sail, heading to the island of Aegina in the center of the Saronic Gulf. Having concluded our Minoan inspired Cycladic romp, we will say good bye to our two able bodied sailor Mikes and carry forward, the comradery and hospitality of the Bardons. Perhaps a bit of Minoan cultural experience will also remain with us.
1: The relatively tiny island of Makronisos is actually further west of Kea; it is famous as the prison island for political dissidents and Greece's famed composer (Zorba the Greek, Never on Sunday) the Cretan Mikis Theodorakis. Between Makronisos and Kea the sister ship to the Titanic Britanic sank in less than an hour, when it hit a mine.
2: Blue Guide The Aegean Islands Nigel McGilchrist 2010