If you had to close your eyes and dream up the perfect holiday, what would it look like? If you are anything like our Yacht Sales Team your perfect holiday consists of two very important parts: the first part being a yacht and the second part being islands.
Picture yourself island hopping around the Greek Isles aboard a catamaran. Experiencing this type of vacation is a once in a lifetime opportunity for a lot of people. Unless of course you own a yacht with The Moorings, in which case this is the type of holiday you relive multiple times a year in multiple locations.
For Isabella, 12, she has grown up with the opportunity to take vacations similar to this with her family on a few different occasions. And while we love reading reports from our owners on their holidays in paradise, we thought you might be interested to discover what a powercat vacation in the Mediterranean might be like through the eyes of a young teenager.
Isabella, along with her parents, spent a week in Greece aboard a Moorings 434PC. This was her experience....
Arriving in Athens
We started off the first day going to the marina in Athens to pick up our boat. The waiting area at The Moorings base was very comfortable, and near the base there were many restaurants and cafes. While we were waiting we ate lunch and the food was great.
After lunch our boat was ready. We got on the boat, and wow, it was so pretty! The first thing that happened was picking out cabins and taking a look around. Then there was a guy who came on the boat and he explained where everything was located, for example the life vests, fire extinguishers, fenders, ropes etc. Right after the first guy left there was another one that explained how everything functioned on the boat such as the dinghy, the controls, the GPS, stereo etc. They were both extremely descriptive, helpful and friendly.
There was a supermarket not too far from our boat. It's super convenient because it's close, it has a lot of food options and they will deliver to your boat which is amazing when you purchase a lot of food. The boat provided us with many supplies like snorkeling gear and many kitchen utensils to cook with.
I really wanted to play music on the boat, so my dad showed me that there was Bluetooth. I connected my phone and the sound was great. I could also play it anywhere on the boat.
Finally, we ate dinner at Portofino at the base. Of course when we ate dinner my dad didn't check the price of the fish so he ended up paying 110 euros for a fish!
A day to snorkel and swim
I slept great, the bed was so comfortable. We started off having breakfast at a small restaurant near Portofino. I had the toast with ham, cheese and tomatoes. I totally recommend it.
Then we got the boat ready to go to Cape Sounion. It took about three hours to arrive there. We went for a little swim, then we ate lunch on the boat. After lunch my dad and I went snorkeling.
After the snorkel we went out to dinner. I had fried calamari which was amazing! It was all great until it started to rain all over us and our food. We had to move inside during dinner. Even though the rain was inconvenient, the food was excellent.
The boat to myself and the Island of Kea
This morning my mom made avocado and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast my parents went to the temple of Poseidon. I decided to stayed on the boat and clean it with a bucket that I filled with sea water and poured all over the boat.
When my parents came back it was time for lunch. They brought back food for all of us to eat. When we finished lunch we left to the next island, the Island of Kea. We anchored in Kavia. When we arrived we jumped in the water to cool off. Everything about it was beautiful and the water was so clear. We swam for a while, we took some pictures and we saw a swordfish jumping out of the water in the distance, it was like the fish was flying!
We wanted to eat dinner at a little beach bar but then realized the menu was limited so we went to a restaurant that was so unbelievably beautiful. It had tables right near the water and the view was amazing, and to make it even better the food was great. This was probably my favorite restaurant out of all of them so far. It was called Koundouros Beach.
Discovering Kythnos and some improvising
Today we woke up a little late, around 9:30am. We had breakfast on the boat and then relaxed for a while. My mom was getting ready, my dad worked and I worked on this blog.
After hanging out on the boat we went snorkeling for a little bit. After snorkeling we went to Kolona Beach on the island of Kythnos. It was beautiful here with a sand bar dividing two bays. We had lunch at the taverna. When we finished lunch my parents hiked to a little hill with a small church on top of it.
We came back to the boat and I saw other kids on floats attached to a dinghy. They were getting pulled at high speed. I really wanted to do it too but I didn't have a float. So I discussed with my mom how to improvise. We came up with the idea to use fenders. I told my dad and he thought it was a good idea. He tied two fenders together and attached them to the back of the dinghy.
Then we went to the sand bar/ beach and went swimming. The water was a little cold so my dad told us about hot springs and we took the dinghy there. There was a mini pool of water surrounded by rocks, we went in it and it was so warm and relaxing.
After the hot springs we went back to the boat and had dinner on board.
Setting off to Serifos
As soon as we woke up we started cruising to Serifos. On the way there we had breakfast.
After we anchored we took the dingy a shore and went to a taverna right on the water. The view was amazing and the food was wonderful. After lunch we bought some food for the boat and walked around these cute little streets with different shops. We did a little shopping and I got a bowl of ice cream. My dad and I did some swimming on the beach after that.
My mom made up dinner and then we all went to bed for the night.
A day-long journey to Poros
We woke up and had breakfast. Then right away we got the boat ready to go to Poros. It took about seven hours to arrive there. The first two hours there was a lot of wind and waves, things were falling everywhere, we could barely even walk!
My mom prepared some food for lunch when it was calmer.
We arrived to Poros and had the idea of docking but it was a little too loud and too busy, so my mom and I helped my dad anchor. We noticed the islands had a lot of street cats so we brought two cans of tuna from the boat to shore. We walked around, shopped and looked around for street cats, we found a lot so we fed them. After exploring we went to a restaurant that was very pretty called Caravella Taverna. The service was great and so was the food.
After dinner we walked around more and much later went back to the boat.
More exploring and then back to base
We woke up bright and early today. My parents went to have breakfast and I stayed back on the boat. When they got back from breakfast my dad and I went to Russian Bay which was about 15 minutes away. There was a very small island that had a house on it. It was very interesting to see. We enjoyed a snorkel around the little island. .
After that we went straight back to the marina in Athens where we picked the boat up. My dad docked the boat, and once we tied up we walked around the marina a while. We decided to have dinner at Portofino again, the same place we ate at the first day.
The trip comes to an end
We woke up and had a good breakfast at a cute bakery. We packed up our things and headed to the airport.
As we reflected on the past week, we all agreed that we had a wonderful time and I would love to do it again!
Isabella Bauguil, 12