News and Blog

Thanks to everyone who came to see us at Annapolis Sailboat show. The weather was glorious which in turn got everyone outdoors to see the latest yachts and boat gadgets at the show. Our very own Steven Parry was captured on camera at the show by the ASA (American Sailing Association). You can view the short video here. 

It’s been a while since we posted on our News page and we’re sorry about that! September was a very windy month and this meant typing at the same time as sailing was not possible for our crew! Our 29th August departure left Athens with two cabin charter yachts and midway through the first week, we were lucky enough to have our first overnight anchorage of the year at Kleftico on the southwest tip of Milos. Kleftico is a spectacular stop and the dinghy tours through the caves to the old pirate haunts is an unforgettable experience for everyone. The 12th September departure, will go down in history as the trip with lots of yachts, strong wind, much fun but definitely a few problems thrown in – par for the course when nine yachts are involved, this is adventure sailing after all! Clients joined us from Australia, Canada, United States and the UK aboard the three cabin charter yachts and we saw birthday celebrations, yacht breakdowns and fouled anchors on many occasions! The stories from this departure will go on for many years we are sure! Finally the last departure of the year was a just a quick week but ended the season on an amazing high. When friends and family travel together it always generates a unique type of vacation for everyone – this trip was no exception and we can honestly say that we have never heard so much laughter coming from two yachts in the history of Poseidon! We really hope that we get to sail with the ‘Sanders’ group again!

Every few months we publish a short newsletter. It always gives an update on where we are, what’s coming up and our sailing question for a bit of a refresher or learning if you’re new to sailing. If you want to receive this, then click here to receive. View the latest Poseidon Charters newsletter.

We’ve been busy keeping you posted on what is happening in Greece over the Euro crisis…now it’s time to remind ourselves of what is great about Greece. Here’s a few snippets you may not know!

GREECE UPDATE: THURSDAY 16 JUL 2015 12:30 EST

With everything that is happening in Greece at the minute, it is easy to forget that we have trips that are taking place. It’s easy to forget not because it’s unimportant, but more because everything is still the same and people are saiilng, shopping, and eating wonderful food in the restaurants. This trip has to be called the ‘2015 family flotilla week’ with Poseidon Charters! It was a large departure from Athens and included families from Calgary, Canada with a 12 and 8 year old; a family from Montreal with 3 kids; 8,12 and 14. A family from California with 2 teenage boys and a double family on a large catamaran from Long Island New York with relatives coming from Rome! There was also a family coming from Australia meeting relatives from Bahrain! Great fun was had by all as the boats set sail from Athens and kids hiked up to see the Classical temple of Aphaia before cooling off in Aegean sea!. Hydra offered more swimming, donkey rides and kids had fun paddling the dinghies! We were sad to lose a couple of people from our lead cabin charter yacht who decided to leave for personal and medical issues but we hope that they sail with us again in the future on a different trip. As with the democratic vote in Greece this week, the group took a vote on the choice of islands, and decided to skip Mykonos this trip and headed for the beauty of Syros on their way back to Athens. 

We would like to reassure our customers that the economic crisis and bank closure in Greece will not affect our customer’s valuable vacation time in any way aside from needing to carry additional funds. Poseidon Charters are still  fully operational in Greece and our crew and clients aboard our flotilla and cabin deparutre this week have not experienced anything other than a ‘normal operational Greece’. Funds paid to Poseidon Charters are placed in Intrust bank accounts in Canadian bank accounts which are regulated by Canadian banking laws and your charter is therefore guaranteed to be delivered.

The adventure started this week with 5 yachts and guests coming from California, Australia, Canada and UK. There was lead yacht Christianna with her crew from Windsor Ontario, the second lead yacht Poseidon with folks from UK, Chicago and California. Joining the flotilla we had 3 yachts,  with crews from Queensland Australia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The flotilla motor sailed through Aegina, Poros and Hydra with very hot and still weather, finally finding some relief from the heat swimming at Kythnos. Arriving at the sand bar we enjoyed a huge BBQ for 24 people. On the menu was grilled lamb, chicken, juicy Hydra sausage and kalamari stuffed with tomatoes and feta cheese. A wonderful time was had by all ashore while the food was expertly grilled by Capt. Satefanos and Capt. Steve. Once the meal was eaten ‘buffet style’ aboard the rafted yachts, 2 bonfires and 20 tea lights lit up the beach from one end to the other. A few late night guests made it to the hot tub for some milky-way gazing and an after dinner nite-cap! Another unforgettable night experienced under the Aegean stars!!

From our halfway point at Ios we skipped through the waves past Homer’s point to the little islet of Skinoussa. Here we indulged ourselves at Sweet Deli taverna, on Kalamari stuffed with sundries tomatoes and feta cheese along with a delicious local goat with fettuccine. Heading North after Skinoussa,  we arrived for a swip stop at Tigania and a fantastic lunch prepared by the crew. Everyone swam and loved the azure waters of this little cove just around the corner from Paros island. A group decision to skip Mykonos was made so next we sailed to the very beautiful and less visited island of Syros where everyone hiked up to see both the Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals on their respective hills! We’re always on the look out for new restaurants to add to our repotoire and in Syros wondering the streets the crew found a new restaurant named Mazi. The beautiful lush vegitated dining courtyard is surrounded by 19th century arches meeting 40ft in the air! Said to be an old ceramics factory, but more likely to have also been a church at some point, Mazi was put down as one to try on future trips! Sailable winds took us all the way back to Athens via stops at Paros and Kea. A perfect cruise was the consensus arriving back in Athens on Friday evening.