OutsideYourWorld
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2014
- Messages
- 276
- Reaction score
- 370
- Location
- Vancouver, Canada
- Website
- outsideyourworld.wordpress.com
Hey all, so big news in regards to my travels. I was in heraklion, Greece the other day, sitting in a park and contemplating what to do. Do I go East, and by ferry go to santorini and Rhodes on my way to Turkey? Do I go back to western crete and do some hiking through a gorge or two first? one way or the other really.
Being that I needed a place to stay for the night, as I didn't feel like hitching out quite yet, I hit up the local squat. I got an answer, but the guy really wasn't sure about letting me stay a night. Of course that's understandable.. I can imagine most have had problems letting in just anyone. So I'm told to come back later. I show up maybe five times before they let me in late that night, probably to give me a bit of an interview to see if I'm a bad guy, or what. So I hung out at their bar until the early hours, talking some but mostly listening to Greeks talk Greek. But eventually they let me stay. I did want to learn more about their anarchist ways and what the screen was like, more or less. But it wasn't so easy getting straight answers.
The building itself had a colorful history, however. It was built in the early 1900s I believe, and used as a hospital until naze occupation, where it was the headquarters of the waffen SS. After that it became a hospital, and then a university building before being abandoned in the early 90s, and then taken over by homeless, hippies, anarchists, etc. Eventually everyone left except for the anarchists, who fixed it up and now use it for sleeping, meetings, a bar, and probably other things.
I only spent on night there, but the guys I talked to were very nice, and made me feel quite at home.
The next day I still hadn't decided on my course of action.. Until I got a notification email from the boat hitching forum on couch surfing. There was a boat docked in heraklion, a gulag (Turkish), heading for the Bahamas on a trip which would make it the first of its kind to actually sail across the Atlantic... And they were looking for crew.
It took me about five minutes to decide. Instead of East to Turkey, was going back to the Americas!
I was told to stroll on down to the port and meet the crew. So twenty minutes later I'm on the boat meeting everyone. four Americans, two turks, and a day later a Brit (and later on still a couple more). Everyone was pretty much welcoming and cool, and while they would have preferred someone with experience in... Anything! They still took me in. Hell, only four of the 10 we will have in total have much experience in sailing.
The boat is being delivered to the Bahamas, to the new owner. It's a bigger one, I think 70 feet, but made for coastal cruising not the open ocean. And it bloody well rocks like a motherfucker (learned that in a trial by fire yesterday). The idea is to stop at Malta, Gibraltar, the canaries, and maybe the azores, I'm not sure. A six week journey from now, but things keep breaking so we'll see..
Yesterday we finally left port. Literally as soon as we cleared the breakwater, the ship tilted to the point where a table, a heavy one, crashed across the deck, almost pinning one of us against the railing. Then it to the other side, almost taking out the side... And they waves only got bigger.
Three hours or so in we had two people down with seasickness, a phone and a few other things lost overboard, and a lot of crap spilled everywhere. The worst was the cable connecting the two masts breaking. And u suppose the highlight was having to climb out on deck, up onto the roof, and washin the cockpit windows as we said back and forth on a bloody well wet roof.
We had to change our course and make for the closest cove as the wind battered us. And after colour hours and twenty miles gained, we were about done for the day. At the end we were just sitting around giggling like idiots at what we just went through. I lit up a smoke and smiled at this little trial by fire.
That was nothing compared to what the seas can conjure up. I wanted adventure.... I think I got it.
Today it's a relatively calm sea and we steam for Malta!
Being that I needed a place to stay for the night, as I didn't feel like hitching out quite yet, I hit up the local squat. I got an answer, but the guy really wasn't sure about letting me stay a night. Of course that's understandable.. I can imagine most have had problems letting in just anyone. So I'm told to come back later. I show up maybe five times before they let me in late that night, probably to give me a bit of an interview to see if I'm a bad guy, or what. So I hung out at their bar until the early hours, talking some but mostly listening to Greeks talk Greek. But eventually they let me stay. I did want to learn more about their anarchist ways and what the screen was like, more or less. But it wasn't so easy getting straight answers.
The building itself had a colorful history, however. It was built in the early 1900s I believe, and used as a hospital until naze occupation, where it was the headquarters of the waffen SS. After that it became a hospital, and then a university building before being abandoned in the early 90s, and then taken over by homeless, hippies, anarchists, etc. Eventually everyone left except for the anarchists, who fixed it up and now use it for sleeping, meetings, a bar, and probably other things.
I only spent on night there, but the guys I talked to were very nice, and made me feel quite at home.
The next day I still hadn't decided on my course of action.. Until I got a notification email from the boat hitching forum on couch surfing. There was a boat docked in heraklion, a gulag (Turkish), heading for the Bahamas on a trip which would make it the first of its kind to actually sail across the Atlantic... And they were looking for crew.
It took me about five minutes to decide. Instead of East to Turkey, was going back to the Americas!
I was told to stroll on down to the port and meet the crew. So twenty minutes later I'm on the boat meeting everyone. four Americans, two turks, and a day later a Brit (and later on still a couple more). Everyone was pretty much welcoming and cool, and while they would have preferred someone with experience in... Anything! They still took me in. Hell, only four of the 10 we will have in total have much experience in sailing.
The boat is being delivered to the Bahamas, to the new owner. It's a bigger one, I think 70 feet, but made for coastal cruising not the open ocean. And it bloody well rocks like a motherfucker (learned that in a trial by fire yesterday). The idea is to stop at Malta, Gibraltar, the canaries, and maybe the azores, I'm not sure. A six week journey from now, but things keep breaking so we'll see..
Yesterday we finally left port. Literally as soon as we cleared the breakwater, the ship tilted to the point where a table, a heavy one, crashed across the deck, almost pinning one of us against the railing. Then it to the other side, almost taking out the side... And they waves only got bigger.
Three hours or so in we had two people down with seasickness, a phone and a few other things lost overboard, and a lot of crap spilled everywhere. The worst was the cable connecting the two masts breaking. And u suppose the highlight was having to climb out on deck, up onto the roof, and washin the cockpit windows as we said back and forth on a bloody well wet roof.
We had to change our course and make for the closest cove as the wind battered us. And after colour hours and twenty miles gained, we were about done for the day. At the end we were just sitting around giggling like idiots at what we just went through. I lit up a smoke and smiled at this little trial by fire.
That was nothing compared to what the seas can conjure up. I wanted adventure.... I think I got it.
Today it's a relatively calm sea and we steam for Malta!
