Well, it’s Wednesday and I’ve made it to the airport.  Did keep my eye on the online edition of one of the english language greek newspapers to see if the taxi drivers were likely to cause me a problem (apparently they do things like surround entire ports and airports and cause lots of disruption).

Was rather strange on the ferry that I recognised places that we’d sailed – especially when we stopped at Aigina and I could see where in the bay that we’d anchored (and drifted and re-anchored) that first night.  And the beach where we’d had dinner at a table on the sand and how I’d walked from the table into the sea and swam to the boat.

I got here far too early and chanced a charm offensive to see if Aegean would move me onto the flight two hours before mine.  Sadly it was full but one thing I have learned is that ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’.

I treated myself to mousakka, a bowl of salad and a beer – and it cost more than the €20 I found in the sea (a nice person at a bureau de change changed it for a more respectable looking note for me).

Glad to have put my big bag in at the drop-off but am keeping the trolley for my just-about-too-big hand luggage.  Well, I paid a euro to rent it and I’ve got to make the most of it.

I’ve had a peek at some of the photos of our sailing that Anna posted on FB – there’s a fantastic one of me diving into the sea that was taken from water . . . I’ve asked her for a full size copy to post here.  I’ve also uploaded my meagre set of sailing pics to an online album that I’ve created for the five of us to share all our pics – I might make it public once everyone has had a chance to veto (there is a pic of me in swimming shorts doing a bit of a ‘dagenham sandwich’ that is proably best kept from the eyes of the sensitive).

It’s Monday today and I fly home to London on Wednesday.

I’m having my last few days in Poros.  Staying in the apartments where Michael and I stayed back in June, it’s not too far from Athens and I thought it would be a good place to rest-up and have a bit of a mental regroup before my summer here is over.

I’m glad I haven’t been weighing myself – I have a feeling that a couple of kilos that I shed on Tinos crept back in with the fantastic meals and not-insignificant amount of beer and wine consumed over the course of the week.  I’m also willing to believe that such an active thing as sailing will of course cancel out the overindulgence.  But I’ll never know, and that suits me right now.

I’m sitting with this view:

Thinking back to Thursday of last week when I woke up in the yacht out in this bay.  From there my view was this:

And that Thursday morning, I did this:

Like had done for my three or so swims a day during the fantastic week on the boat.

In a way the sailing week was such a big thing for me that it eclipses quite a lot of the earlier time on Tinos.

I am writing myself some little lists to look back on about my skippering week – the stuff that went well, what didn’t go so well, things I learned, things I’ll ask sailing instructor Jim about when I have the weekend to complete my Coastal Skipper course.

I’m also jotting down some random memorable things . . . I think the WOW! of sailing into the main harbour on Hydra is going to stick with me for a long time.

One downside of being at the helm and the others all being on standby for their mooring jobs is that it is hard to get photos at those moments.  I am looking forward to seeing the pictures the others took when I get home.

After asking my Facebook pals for recommendations I ordered a smartphone yesterday so that it should be waiting for me when I get home.  Deciding that it was time to make the leap to a smartphone was accelerated by the fact that I destroyed my old nokias by forgetting they were in my pocket when I got very wet in the dingy on our first night.

and so little opportunity write about it.

Have sailed from Athens to Aigina, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, a different part of Poros.

So much to say, some fantastic photos – but electricity and broadband signal not always great.

I’ll have to write a few snippets and upload after the end of the week on the boat.

A M A Z I N G!!!