It had been a frantic few days. Beduin, my partner Aleko’s Nicholson 32, had been out of the water for the first time in six years but Aleko had been busy all winter. So there was a last minute rush to get the essential jobs done, most importantly fixing the leak around the rudder stock and replacing skin fittings. The actual launch from the boatyard in Milina was a fairly relaxed event, involving a tractor with a trailer on a long bar, and a coffee break in the middle.
The previous autumn we’d been down to the Cyclades and Peloponnese from Aleko’s home in the Pagasetic Gulf, so now planned to cross the Aegean to the Dodecanese and eastern Cyclades. The Sporades being familiar territory, we didn’t linger, and were out to Skyros in four days. From there we were heading for Psara, the easiest stepping stone to the eastern Aegean islands. But the wind was not as forecast and we were headed more and more to the south. A small group of striped dolphins came to play and then I spotted some larger fins. Aleko allowed me a downwind diversion to investigate, provided I agreed to continue south and sail through the night. The reward was a delightful encounter with a pod of Risso’s dolphins, an unusual species in the Mediterranean. These deep diving, squid-eating dolphins become paler and heavily
