Pireaus/Cape Sounion, Greece
Finally under way at 5:00pm! It’s been a very long day for some of us who have just arrived from across the ocean. Others had run around Athens, up the Acropolis, shopping in the Plaka, and trying to pack a 3-day stay in Athens into half a day. Those that had arrived a few days early had a chance to see both the acropolis and the archaeological museum. After a coffee or lunch at the Electra Palace Hotel, many of us took a drive through the city before finally boarding the Panorama in the Marina Zea near Pireaus.
Captain Nondas, our Expedition Leader Tom, and everybody else were busy with last minute operations, before settling in to greet us and introduce us to the ship. Settle in, security instructions, life-saving, etc. and 1600 means time to sail, but the fuel tanks were not yet full! So . . . 1700 and off we go, heading to Cape Sounion for a late, by now very late, afternoon swim. On the hill above the bay stands the beautiful temple of Poseidon like a lyre against the sky . First one, two, then a few more, then families, then divers all in the water at sunset, bobbing in the buoyant waters. What a start to our voyage through the Aegean Sea.
“Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,
Where the waves and I can only hear,
Our mutual murmurs sweet . . .” – from Don Juan, by Lord Byron
Finally under way at 5:00pm! It’s been a very long day for some of us who have just arrived from across the ocean. Others had run around Athens, up the Acropolis, shopping in the Plaka, and trying to pack a 3-day stay in Athens into half a day. Those that had arrived a few days early had a chance to see both the acropolis and the archaeological museum. After a coffee or lunch at the Electra Palace Hotel, many of us took a drive through the city before finally boarding the Panorama in the Marina Zea near Pireaus.
Captain Nondas, our Expedition Leader Tom, and everybody else were busy with last minute operations, before settling in to greet us and introduce us to the ship. Settle in, security instructions, life-saving, etc. and 1600 means time to sail, but the fuel tanks were not yet full! So . . . 1700 and off we go, heading to Cape Sounion for a late, by now very late, afternoon swim. On the hill above the bay stands the beautiful temple of Poseidon like a lyre against the sky . First one, two, then a few more, then families, then divers all in the water at sunset, bobbing in the buoyant waters. What a start to our voyage through the Aegean Sea.
“Place me on Sunium’s marbled steep,
Where the waves and I can only hear,
Our mutual murmurs sweet . . .” – from Don Juan, by Lord Byron
