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Whenever you hear about people chartering yachts and sailing them themselves you immediately, as we did, think loads of money. We did it and it wasn't that expensive.

We chartered an Atlantic 31, plenty big enough for 4 for a week, from Aegean Sailing Holidays of Bridport, Dorset. UK.

Aegean handled all the arrangements with the agent in Athens, and checked with us that we fulfilled all the criteria. Those being, at least one of the party have relevant qualifications, and at least one other having sailing experience. We all sail, and my mate Pete has the qualifications.

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The boat "NATAZA" had been booked for us to collect from Athens. Lizzy and I flew out a few days prior to sample the sights, sounds and smells. I must say that we were pleasantly surprised, having always thought of Athens as smelly and grotty, to find it so very interesting was nice. OK it was smelly; it was also very hot in June. This particular year was when the med. was in terrible trouble due to extremely hot weather. We were there just ten days before the hottest day EVER in Athens.

Apart from the heat though the city of Athens is amazing. I knew that there were plenty of ancient monuments to see, especially the Parthanon. To walk in the city centre, round a corner and find an ancient gateway was amazing.

Anywhere else it would be fenced off, with an entrance fee, here you could walk up to it and touch it. We visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was five minutes walk from our hotel - including us there were five people there! The Parthonan was busy, but as we went in the early morning we managed to avoid both the intense heat and the crowds.

The Parthanon was amazing for several reasons: One being its magnitude, the other, how ashamed I was to be English. In England the marbles from the acropolis are being "preserved in the British museum" (The Elgin Marbles) In Greece Elgin was a crook who stole the marbles from the Greek people. It wasn't only the marbles he stole either, many of the pillars and statues are casts of the originals being "preserved" in the British museum. All that aside though it was a fantastic place to visit.

Athens is, of course, famous for being the city in which the modern Olympics were first held. There is a fantastic replica of the original stadium right in the middle of the city. This is definitely worth a visit, even if only to do what ever one else does, run a lap of the track, well everyone apart from me that is - far to tiring in 40 degrees centigrade!

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All we really wanted to do was pick up the boat. The night before we were due to embark on our adventure, Pete and Jo flew in from Rhodes where they had been for a week in the sun. They both arose early the next day to take in some of the sights before our Taxi ride to the marina.

After the short taxi to the marina we found the agent, purely by accident. He showed us to the boat. We loaded all our gear on board, signed a few papers and waited for the owner to arrive. Whilst waiting, the agent arranged for a car in the morning to take us to a shop to get supplies. We didn't set off the first evening as it was far to windy and a little late in the day. That night we sat on board, drank Champagne to toast our impending adventure and ate at a local taverna.

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The next morning our holiday started proper. We were fully supplied, fully safety briefed and had a plan of where we wanted to go. We left the marina, hoisted our sails and left the smog of Athens behind. The wind built and built to the stage where a reef in the main was needed! Just as quickly as it built though it died, leaving us becalmed. No problem we thought we'll start the engine, motor for a while and wait for the wind to build again in the afternoon. Things however didn't quite go to plan - we had a flat battery, the secondary - emergency battery was also flat! A quick phone call to the agent and a plan was hatched. We'd wait for the wind to build in the afternoon - which it duly did - and sail to the leeward side of the island and anchor in a bay - which we did - however it was very windy and quite choppy. We did make it into the bay and we did anchor. The owner arrived by water taxi, changed the batteries (it turned out to be loose battery connections) and we were all OK again. It was getting a little late in the afternoon so we opted to motor to Aegina, arriving just at sunset with the wind still blowing force 5. These were not the ideal conditions to attempt our first "stern to" mooring, made all the more difficult by the 5 on our beam! After nearly coming to blows with Pete, a few swear words and a bit of hitting and missing we did it. I must say at this point that by the end of the holiday we were bloody good at the "stern to" manoeuvre. It was then off to the bar.

The next day we arose bright and early to find clear blue skies and a nice gentle breeze - Perfect for a days sailing to Poros.

The trip was AMAZING we had dolphins joining us all they way. The sun shone, the sea was as blue as can be. We sailed, we motorsailed and motored. Whilst sailing we would trail a line behind the boat which we would take turns to hold on to and be dragged through the water. We had a fantastic day, far better than the first. Now we really started to relax and enjoy ourselves. The view of Poros as we rounded the headland was stunning, truly beautiful.

We'd arrived at Poros, this actually turned out to be my and Lizzy's favourite place.

Wefilled the boats water tank, and then found a suitable bar in which to have a late afternoon snack, and a pre-dinner drink. I must say at this point, Poros was the only port on our trip where we had to pay a mooring fee, and that was only about 60 pence, the water cost us about £1.50.

We had a good look around Poros, sampled many of the bars and ate plenty. The town is wonderful, so picturesque; the view out into the bay is lovely.

We couldn't stay forever though. We set of late morning, with a plan for a two-day trip to Hydra, finding a suitable bay to moor for the night on route. Once again we had a lovely days sailing punctuated by the lunch time becalming, at least that gave us time to recharge the batteries and cool down the fridge whilst motoring.
At this point I'd like to mention the fridge: They are essential for keeping beer and wine cool, and margarine etc. However they do drain the batteries - so therefore have a false bottom, with a drained hole, into which you pack as much ice as you can to help the cooling when the fridge is turned off. Most ports have a number of shops where you can buy ice. You can have a shower at some of the shops along the quays at many ports as well.

Along the Peloponnese coast that evening we found a lovely bay in which to anchor, it was nice and steeply shelving so we were able to anchor only a short row from the beach. Here we swam and ate, then visited the rather odd bar that was carved out of the cliffs.

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After an early morning swim we were off again. Off to Hydra an island we had heard so much about - no cars or vans etc. - only donkeys and hand carts. This proved to be accurate, and Pete and Jo's favourite port. We arrived nice and early in the afternoon, a good plan we thought to get a good mooring spot. We got a mooring spot after only a short wait bobbing around the tiny harbour. Late arrivals, however did not get a decent mooring spot, this didn't matter though. They just dropped anchor and moored stern to against the bows of a boat moored against the quay, and then, they would have boats moored to them! It actually got to 5 boats deep. So, our good plan turned bad, very bad. The crews for these non quay moored boats had to get to their boats, how did they do this - by clambering over ours of course ALL NIGHT…one French crew came back to their boat at 5am - pissed and very noisy! How we loved them -not! Hydra did fulfil all its promise; it really was a beautiful port. We ate that night in a lovely restaurant, away from the quay, where we were serenaded by a couple of musicians.

The following morning was the turn around point, time to head back. We departed Hydra for Poros, another lovely sail. In Poros we stopped briefly to fill the water tank, buy some food and then it was off to a little bay we had noticed on our way in the first time. We dropped anchor, swam, rowed, ate and drank. It was a lovely bay, quiet and the water was so so clean.

In the morning we thought that we'd head off to Angistri. We had to motor most of the way, as the wind never turned up at all. It was VERY hot. Angistri failed to inspire so we decided on Aegina again. Our stern to mooring went a little better than the first time we visited.

After another look around the island, the dreaded day had arrived - back to Athens. Plans for stealing the boat were hatched and dashed. The journey back was a little sombre, but we had really enjoyed ourselves. As far as Lizzy and I were concerned it was our best holiday - Ever.

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A few notes:

It transpired on our return that the agent was far more flexible than we were led to believe. For example, we could have picked up the boat in the early morning of our first day, and bought it back much later on our last.

Water proof Sun cream is ESSENTIAL it gets bloody hot, with no escape apart from a quick dip.

Stern to mooring is an art. We found that dropping the anchor at least 3 boats length from the quay was necessary, keeping the chain taught whilst going astern helped to stop the bows from swinging around.

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