APRIL 2022 – THE BEGINNING
Our new home for the next 6 months. Athens. Greece!!!
“We’re leaving, on a jet plane” in 2 days…!
First, a quick flashback to 2014. I had been married for a short 3 months when I trotted off to Greece with 4 of my close girl friends to celebrate a 50th birthday! (Had been planned long before there was a wedding on the horizon.)
I remember sitting on a beach in Skiathos, Koukounaries to be exact, (such an amazing name that I could never forget it), looking out over the bay at a beautiful yacht anchored just off the beach, and saying out loud, “I will be here, in this bay, on our own boat one day.” Irma van der Vyver, I know you remember that!
We bought our boat 5 months later in South Africa and had huge dreams of sailing the 7 seas. Sadly, cancer was waiting to pounce, and pounce the bitch did. 11 months later, my new husband was no longer beside me, planning our new life. I had a boat, a broken heart, and a dream.
However, as we all know, life marches on relentlessly.
Fast forward 8 years, and guess what?
In 2 days, Captain Mike and I will fly to Greece to start a new adventure! Based in Athens (can you imagine!), we will be flotilla yacht leaders for 6 months. I will be sailing very close to where I said I would when I sat on that beach a few years ago! The power of manifestation.
It all happened so fast.
Saw a position posted for “flotilla leaders” in the Med on Facebook a few weeks back. Sent an email. No response. However, the idea intrigued me, and I did a bit of research about what it entailed, which sounded RIGHT up our alley. Spotted a second ad for “flotilla leaders” hidden away on a website on Monday, 28th March. Applied for fun, never in my wildest dreams thinking we had a hope in hell. Neither did the Captain, who at this stage was rolling his eyes at another one of my harebrained schemes. We didn’t have the qualifications, we are too old, and we are at the bottom of the world in faraway Africa. Surprise, surprise, invited to be interviewed via Zoom on Tuesday afternoon of the 29th. Apparently a good meeting as we were offered the crew position later that day!
So what exactly is a flotilla leader? Based in a marina 15 minutes from the centre of Athens, skipper (Captain Mike) and hostess with the mostest, me, will be the lead boat guiding a flotilla of boats around gorgeous Greek islands on 7 or 14-day sailing adventures. Basically, we are there to ensure everyone (on their “rented” yachts) gets from point A to point B safely and has a ton of fun on the way! The guys who rent the yachts all have a skipper’s ticket, so they should know a thing or 3, we are just there for help if needed, both mechanically and socially. We will live on a very comfortable 46 ft Bavaria yacht, which is slightly bigger than SV Knowind. All expenses covered (yes, even a wine allowance), paid in British pounds.
In just less than 3 weeks, we:
Frantically (and even that is an understatement) yet methodically and with a clear, unwavering goal in mind:
– submitted mountains of documents, renewed passports, spent hours with Swiss and Greek consulates, with the added complication of a new surname for me and an update of marital status in Switzerland for Michael. Stringent regulations applied by the overzealous ever efficient Swiss (I had to supply an unabridged birth certificate for heaven’s sake, I am over half a century old!!) and the utter hopelessness of SA “No” Home Affairs, applied for my Schengen visa which took several years off our lives as we waited to see if I could get an extended Schengen visa until our marriage is registered and I can travel on a Swiss spousal visa. I can’t. So, into Greece I go, and they will supposedly supply me with a 6-month working visa once I am there.
– booked flights, we have a 90-minute stopover in Doha, and I am already having nightmares of Captain Underpants doing an Usain Bolt in the wrong direction. He has done it before. I speak from experience.
– parked our beautiful boat at Royal Cape Yacht Club and then subsequently decided Simons Town was a better option, so we had 2 days (weather window) to get around Cape Point, and that was fortunately done with ease and radar in the fog. Had our interview to become members, paid a stack of money to keep her safe for 6 months, organised insurance for her, and some other odds and ends.
– Fanbelt blew on my car, borrowed Attie’s car and the boot decided it would rather fly open randomly than stay closed so I drove through central Cape Town with a boot popping open like a yawning hippo every few minutes, Greeks lost my visa photos so did another dash into the centre of Cape Town (have you TRIED to find parking in the centre of town??). Plus, of course, another exciting trip to Home Affairs to renew The Princess’s passport…..the mind boggles.
Loads of other trivia in between, which necessitated copious amounts of wine, practising, you know……
Anyway, what’s done is done, what isn’t can bloody well just wait. Michael’s SA passport will expire while we are away. He has lost his SA ID., should be fun coming back into SA, but that problem is months away! Threw a few sarongs and tons of sunblock in a bag and we fly on Sunday 24th…..2 weeks “training” around the various islands, meeting taverna owners, seeing all the secret nooks and crannies so we can give our “guests” the best possible experience. To think we are being paid to drink! Plus, socialise and have fun, I mean seriously, can any job be better suited for Captain Underpants and me?
The best part of all this? Our family/friends are allowed to visit and sail with us whenever they can! With the Captains’ daughters and their families in Switzerland and the UK, this is a magnificent perk! Naturally, The Princess and the rest of my gang will visit too.
At the beginning of the year, I mentioned to Michael that I was determined that 2022 would be my BEST year ever, and I am going to blast into my sixties and another decade as exuberantly as I possibly can. What a year so far, got married, first utterly gorgeous grandson arrived, and my 60th turn around the sun will be celebrated in Greece in June! Strangely, I had my 52nd birthday in Athens too, celebrated by seeing Zorba the Greek performed in the Arena on a hot summer evening. Unforgettable! (Especially when the cork popped off our hidden booze bottle in the middle of the show and we nearly died of embarrassment when the Greeks near us dived for cover) …..Lise Mostert, Annelie Roux, Anlie Malherbe Irma van der Vyver!!!
Dreading the long flight with the Captain, he is not a good traveler, especially in the air, too far away from the water! However, onwards and upwards, Athens here we come!
τα λέμε σύντομα!
(See you soon!)🙂
Place: Alimos Marina (37.914245, 23.7060908)
Address: Pier 9, Alimos, Greece
….and we’re off….
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/171V51uvns/ for the video link of the very first time we took Primavera out of the marina in Athens! Let the fun begin!
Lunch stop in Mandraki Bay on the island of Hydra. Been busy bees the last 2 days. We have to learn the ins and outs of 10 anchorages, harbours, etc, and meet all the relevant restaurant owners in 4 days! We have never been so spoilt with so much food and drink!! All incredible. The extreme physical exercise we do every day compensates, though!
Flippen exhausted and incredibly happy!
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