Spirit of Adventure blog

We were successful in finding the Island of Crete and the port of Heraklion on its north coast. I had been monitoring the weather forecast for the last week as Crete was exposed to two fronts. First one brought the flood and the 2nd one brought winds. Luckily for us, the 2nd storm did pass just ahead of us, so it wasn’t as bad as the initial reports were showing. We asked the Pilot for the latest wind feed inside the port and we were told it was calm. Well, it didn’t feel like it was calm as we could hear the gusts and the anemometer was showing steady 25knots from the North. Nothing of concern for Spirit Class. We swung close to the outer breakwater in order to account for the wind that was blowing us on to the berth, then counteracted the wind for a soft and gentle landing to the fenders. Regardless that the Pilot and the forecast were saying the wind would die down, I didn’t want to take any chances by going ashore.

Next day, we arrived in Mykonos. We were originally supposed to be alongside, but a bigger ship that was in got the priority. The Chief Officer, Mr. Korbey, was the designated driver for an arrival at the anchorage. He did a bang up job and we were safely at anchor with tenders in the water well before 8 o’clock in the morning. The weather was perfect, a beautiful sunny day with no wind at all. Our guests were going ashore on their tours, and then back again after lunch for a free roam through the town. 2nd Officer Lennon was in charge for heaving up the anchor and taking us to open sea (if there is such a thing when you’re cruising between the Greek islands). We did not time it, but as he swung the ship, we ended up on the Westerly course sailing for the sunset. A perfect ending to a beautiful day in Mykonos.

Kind Regards
Captain Franko Papić