Greece 2023....

 I am too lazy to post frequently or almost at all but wanted to share a bit 

 This is BabaJaga.... 44' Moody English built Yacht from 1995....

....and this is Bruno the skipper who does not usually sport a beret but there was a moment....from La Rochelle with a lifetime of sailing experience which he generously shares and imparts......

.....there is a site called Crewbay where people with boats can find people looking for boats......sounds a bit dodgy?.... but here we are.....

his boat is moored in Greece for now and he spends a few months of the year sailing about...

...this is our (loosely proposed journey, as i post this we are just at the top of the bay under the last "e" of Greece as written on the map, moored in a quiet bay near Melina.....which we did not like as the people seemed overall grumpy  for some reason.....

Note: - the bay, it reminds me of lakes, here there are houses meters from the shore, extraordianary.....

.....i have not really had so beautiful a travel since my early 20's (hitchhiking across north africa,...unplanned, random ).....motorcycle travel is hard work, the bike vulnerable, it can be hard to know when to stop, possesions limited and somehow encumbered.... travel has changed, it's no longer a case of rcocking up and looking for a pension for the night, it's booking dot com airbnb etc and leaves less room for the accidental.....camping cars have a lot going for them but it can be hard to wild camp and the closer you are to nice places the more hostile it becomes......that is if you want to avoid camp sites etc. and lets face it you are on land!!

sailing in greece is infinite.....endless coast ....wild moorings abound....our days are about planning the next leg, adapting to wind, keeping the larder full and the boat in order, a kind of maritime house keeping the pace of which is at best 7 or  knots with a good wind, averages about 4 with motoring in calm conditions......and getting to and finding the next mooring, and if there is a good taverna for en evening meal, or cafe for a cappucino, yes please..... for someone like me who has been in a rush all his life, here i am forced to be with the speed that is.....

there is down time and a siesta, a swim......always a cup of tea and a biscuit, time to read, reflect learn ...whatever.....

....on the plane out a french woman seated beside me mentioned henry miller's book, and also bruno so it was downloaded and read with pleasure.....but clearly that was another greece, another time but there were clear echoes and resonances, i am now reading Tropic of Cancer which I would love to have read as a younger man as it might have allayed much the guilt and shame carried by my younger 

self....  howandever... thats another theme

Here : it seems Miller was unfettered somehow, abandoning all sense of time and concern for "worldly affairs" .... imbued with present aliveness to feel somehow humanity divinity merge .... and that the place was imbued with the same energy and the Greeks and the land in infused with this .... essence?

Perhaps the "quality" spoken of and searched for by phadrus in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mainteance

(

I like his freedom to be opinionated, to judge and divide, criticise and condemn, to celebrate the vibrancy of all that..... and oh boy do we enjoy slandering the catamnaran sailors who seem mostly to rush around playing loud music (pornoboats), the  big motor boats (oligarchs) and speed boats, babygarchs.....etc etc.... but somehow the world does split into two as usual, the tourist and the traveller, bobo and hobo... 

Today we crossed paths with the owner of this tiny yacht, a Romanian man who bought it in Amsterdam, sailed it down the Rhine, Danube to the Black sea, was arrested by the Turks during Covid because he ran for shelter in a port, did a runner ..... and was as he called it his tiny slice of freedom..... there are so many stories of that time, people locked in ports ..... and anything is possible.....

My Greek Odssey is as follows - sailing , out there, uncapturable in an image is timeless....

...vast, elemental.....its wind, wave, shore, mountain and even when inhabited or over developed the underlying rock and its hardy vegitation dominate, stepping ashore can be at times a shock, or a pleasure to step into the world of cars and concrete and consumables, dip in and out, occasionally touch a smile or a gesture that can surprise, and also leave one so dissapointed as the whole experience can be so  commercial....

as we venture north away from the cyclades the land and people generally became more easy and pleasant....

....a town based around thermal springs (name escapes me)  - 

such a different feel to the white cubes of southern greece

our best supermarket experience (mejdool dates and greek mountain tea amongst other wonders)..... and again the pleasure to return to the familiar cocoon of our floating home and set off again, re stocked, revitalised and refreshed, having shared a moment with lots of older greeks sunning themselves and partaking of the hot mineral waters....

I have taken endless videos and pictures as all the time it is breathtaking, and none capture the breathless wonder of simply being pushed about by the wind.... the boat is a bit like a musical instrument and she sings when everything is just so, and surges, swushing, thrusting , powered as if by magic..... drift off course a bit and you feel her wilt ..... so nice when she hits that sweet spot in the wind and heels over and surges..... tried and failed

 here link to you tube     https://youtu.be/W_HUFOsbj0I

Moorings.... so far we only go to port to shop , get  fuel etc.  

To find a quiet bay devoid of others, hear the birds and crickets ashore, see the sunset.....

.....i'll take that anytime.....

love to all

thanks to bruno, babjaga and babyjaga

ian