Since we dubbed ourselves a boating family last summer, we all became excited by the prospect of taking a boat around the island of Santorini while we were visiting. When I say a boating family, take note: I mean my mom doesn’t get nauseous on our boat in Cape Cod and I tolerate and at times love it. However, like my mom said last night about a half hour into the ride, there are boats and then there are boats.
All I can say is thank god for the ginger tea, sugar and water concoction we made because without it I might have thrown up. While the concept was nice and the waves calmed down in time to enjoy watching the sunset on the water, the beginning was quite rocky. The views by boat were quite amazing though.
Let me explain very briefly how current Santorini came to be. Many, many years ago, the volcano, which was in the middle of a huge landmass, then called Thira, erupted and sent most of the land into the ocean. Thanks to the Volcano, 2,000 feet of water took the place of land and the Caldera was born. The Caldera is basically a giant circle of water around the volcano. Now Santorini is one island and there are multiple islands with different names on various sides of the volcano. Because the split happened from the eruption, the rocks are mostly hardened volcanic ash. Brief history lesson: complete.
The colors on the cliffs of Santorini are beautiful. There are multiple colors in one part of the cliff alone. With the sunset, the colors were heightened even more. It was a very unique perspective on the island. Once the waves calmed down and we could actually enjoy the boat, it was pretty cool. We opted for a boat that we haven’t really experienced before, a non motor boat, and it looked a little like a miniature pirate ship. It also only went about eight knots, for those of you who are not so familiar with the measure of knots, it is VERY slow. There were sails which he doesn’t use unless the in-board motor dies. That was a scary thought since I had no interest in going on a sailboat. Thank god we got there and back with no need for sails.
Right before we docked, we caught the last seconds of a proposal happening on a nearby boat. Once the woman said yes all the boat horns starting honking and the people on the boat popped champagne and started snapping a lot of pictures. It was a really awesome moment to witness. The really crazy thing we found out by the end of the trip was the man who took us out is basically the tourist rental boat guru of Santorini. He owns all the boats that take tourists out, including other companies, and his brothers are captains! Talk about a family business!
We got off the boat to watch the last few minutes of the sunset. This was done both in effort to avoid the people leaving Oia and the boats coming back to the dock after sunset. It was really beautiful watching it from the rocks. We got out of there so fast. We did hit a few bumps when we got lost once or twice, or maybe three times coming home. Take note: there is more than one road in Santorini, no street lights and no signs. Rental car: not advised. It was an enjoyable experience and the sunset was pretty spectacular from the sea. Getting lost and nauseous, I could have done without though.
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It sounds amazing! I wish we could see some of those pictures 😉
HCxo, Hima
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