Monday, May 5, 2014

Day 125

4/9/2014

The sun rose and so did a fire on a nearby mountain.  Was it controlled?  Was it spreading?  Bright flames leaped out of the woods about a hundred meters from a mansion overlooking the sea.

George called the fire department, twenty minutes later an engine rushed past us to put out the flames and potentially fine the arsonists.

A motorcycle showed up on the beach.  The man wore a black leather jacket and a helmet that completely obscured his face.  He watched us for a while.  I said “Hello.”  He said nothing, and wondered if we were the ones who broke up his arson.  Would he have to order a hit on us?  Maybe.

We launched.

The king of Crete, a big southern Aegean island, had a minotaur.  The creature wandered its maze and killed people who were foolish enough to bump into it.  This amused the king, and since hay gave the minotaur gas it was really better all around.  So the king made the people of Athens send men and women every year to wander the maze and feed the minotaur.

Theseus , son of king Aegeus, from Athens wasn’t too bright, and volunteered to go.  Despite the boy’s shortcomings, his father loved him all the same.  “Theseus,”  the king said, “do not make me wait to learn your fate.  I’ll wait here in the temple, and when your ship returns, hoist a white sail to tell me you live.”

“Don’t worry about it, Dad, I know what I’m doing.  I’ve been practicing on bulls for a quite a while now and I’m basically invincible.”

Theseus went to Crete.  And he slew the minotaur.  And felt pretty badass.  He only needed to remember to replace the black one with the white one when the got to Athens so his dad wouldn’t worry.

But King Aegeus wasn’t in Athens, he was waiting in the Temple of Posidon, which George and I now paddled under.  When he saw the black sail, he threw himself from the cliffs above us and went kersplat on the rocks below.

We entered the sea named after grief struck king.

With a nice tail wind we were making good time so we decided to stop and investigate the ruins on the first island we passed.  A small community of communists was jailed there back when Greece had a dictator in the sixties.  They left a church, a few houses, and some goats.  Some of the goats had been penned in a house.  Apparently people come here from time to time to take care of them.  We climbed up a hill where we had a nice view of a theatre and some mountains, then resumed our paddle.

After the second crossing of the day we arrived in Kea’s port.  The supermarket sold fresh eggs for only a fraction more than regular eggs, so I bought two fresh eggs and six regular.  I also got supplies for two days and two nights and loaded my boat.

We paddled around to the other side of the island, so that tomorrow’s crossing would be over before the afternoon storm came.  We passed numerous caves and steep twisted cliffs as the sun set and the moon rose.

We made camp on the beach.  A kindly drunk approached us and offered me a bed and a shower.  The bed was in the kitchen of the bar he was getting ready for the summer, and the shower was outside, but it was everything I needed to be happy.

I boiled all eight eggs together.  I could not pick out the two fresh ones.

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Nautical miles paddled: 24
Current location: 37.646842,24.40159

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