Crete

Town of Agios Nikolaos, Island of Crete: Greece---On any map Crete seemed to me as a massive mystery in the Mediterranean. Almost an entity of itself, it's hard to think of as as a part of the “Greek Islands.” I was anxious to see it because of the mystery in my mind since I was young.

Up at 5am, we left Santorini by six, which was not easy since we ended up rafted between 2 boats in the Marina. The other boat owners had been warned and they were good sports about getting up to help us untie and slip away.

Thirteen hours later, we pulled into a marina the town of Agios Nikolaos, Crete.  The island is 155 miles long. Thankfully, we rented a car and I drove us to the Palace of Knossos, located towards the middle of the Island about 60 miles away. This gave me a good chance to view the inner island.

Knossos was the Minoan civilization that was said

to have disappeared due to the Santorini (Thera) Volcano and following earth quakes and tsunami  1700 BC. The uniqueness of this archaeological site is that it lay uncovered for thousands of years. In 1878 excavations started followed by Arthur Evans coming in 1900 who bought the land and decided to recreate some of the areas as his interpretation as they would have originally looked. It was controversial but after seeing many sights where you have to use your imagination 100% of the time, it was refreshing to see some areas clearly.

The town in Crete where we were docked, was again an area focused on the water. Wonderful traverna’s along a bay lined with colorful fishing boat. Amazing shopping that was a mix between tourist and high fashion city shops.

The Marina it self was the best I’ve visited on this trip so far. Showers with plenty of HOT WATER! This you see, is a luxury compared to the boat bathing that is salt water wash in the sea, followed by a sparse amount of fresh water from the sun shower up top.

Leaving Crete, we were about a mile out when the Captain noticed something was trailing us. A line? …but all our ropes were accounted for. Still, we had caught something and were dragging it behind us. So, by process of elimination; it can’t be the children and it can’t be the Captain, I was left to dive off the side with a knife in hand to cut us free. Now, most of my fantasies have the knife in my mouth diving in, but I quickly dropped everything, grabbed the knife and dove in. Lucky for me we were only moving at a couple knots and the motor had long been put in neutral due to the situation. I dove in and the world above me disappeared as the cool blue water engulfed me. My focus was only on the bottom of the boat. With another big breathe I swam under the boat and quickly saw that a loop leading to a mass of rope and fishing line had gotten wrapped around the zinc attached to our Rutter. Simply un-attaching the loop that caught us, we were free.

Passing up the ball of line to my boat mates, they found a few hooks I was glad I didn’t find and we were off. Leaving Crete behind us and heading towards Mykinos for our next chapter.