Greek Isles: In Between

Did you know that most of the Mediterranean is so severely over fished that National Geographic recently called it a "Dead Sea?"

The last passage we made on my week-long GAdventures sailing tour of Greece was from Koufonissia to Santorini. The day was lovely, mid-eighties and sunny. We saw the first breeze of the entire week and did a bit of proper sailing for a good hour or so before we had to switch again to motoring.

But for an hour we were under sail, no sound but the wind and the snap of the sheets and the lapping of the waves against the hull. I spent that hour in my favorite spot on the boat, portside forward, legs dangling over the side.

"Dolphins!" Came a surprised cry from our skipper. A small pod had joined us, frolicking happily in our bow wave. They stayed with us for nearly ten minutes, jumping in and out of the way of the ship, playing with us. The ancient Greeks deemed this a good omen for a journey. It's easy to see why, the beautiful, sleek animals exude a happy vibe. Luck was with us.

Because the Med is so very  over fished, the fish that are found there are generally very small and few between. The very few areas of the Med that are healthy are protected marine reserves. Because there isn't much food to be found for large marine mammals, seeing Dolphins at sea is a very rare occurrence among the Greek isles. And I'm told there aren't sharks in the area at all. Sad. Well, not the lack of sharks, because I'm sure that if there were sharks on this trip that I would have been attacked, with my luck. But sad that the sea has been so grossly abused.