Sailing in the Greek Islands (Day 14)

The kids’ favorite thing in the Greek islands was going on day sailing trips. It was the perfect way to beat the crowds on Santorini, and the views were probably even better than from land.

The sailing is especially nice in Santorini, where the crescent shaped island provides a naturally calm and beautiful place to sail. It is actually a volcanic caldera 11 miles in diameter and flooded by the sea. Crazy to think about how many huge volcanic eruptions it would take to make that! (And when is the next one??)

Here, the kids ponder that question... Actually, they bounce on the nets at the front of the boat – probably their favorite part of the sailing day!

There are lots of operators that provide small group excursions. We sailed to small empty beaches, one of which was covered in pumice rocks - rocks that actually float in water! Pumice floats because of gas bubbles trapped inside from lava cooling very quickly in the water after an underwater volcanic eruption. Hugh thought this was unbelievable and wanted to collect them.

We also went to the new and old volcanic islands and swam in the hot springs. The new volcanic island is maybe the newest island in the Mediterranean, being only about 400 years old. That is super young in geologic time! It looks like another planet, with jagged rocks that have not been worn down by the elements and a ring of red mud at the water’s edge, probably due to iron from the volcanic vents below.

The best part was really just relaxing and soaking in the view.

In Mykonos, we sailed to the nearby islands of Delos and Rhenia. We went to a small empty beach in Rhenia where Hazel practiced swimming while holding her breath.

We also had some just grown ups water days where we went scuba diving. We scuba dove together on Santorini and saw dramatic rocky reefs. Also, Jamie did a solo scuba trip in Mykonos, where he dove to shipwreck.

There was also a dive spot off Mykonos where there was ancient Greek pottery all over the ocean floor!