Cybercaptain: Greek cruising

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Greek cruising

Spotted m/y Klelia 1

Having arrived Piraeus in good order we then departed after some days having prepared ourselves as best we could. Provisions and necessities were purchased and loaded, some last minute maintenance things sorted out and ordered. We got new aft lines to use for stern mooring on the rocks in case needed. Below are some ships spotted along our cruise and views of places we visited.

Klelia 1

Klelia 1 (ex. Clelia, Klelia I, Klelia, Xinatra, Elda, Allebo II) specifications:

Length/ Beam/ Draft/ Tonnage: 44.7 m/ 6.52 m/ 2.5 m/ 281 GT
Builder: NV Scheepswerf Kerstholt, Groningen, Netherlands in 1957
Guests/ Crew: 15 / 10 persons
Speed max / cruising 16.0 kn/ 14.0 kn
Engine output on twin props: 1,312 kW, total output 2,624 kW

m/y Gene Machine

M/y Gene Machine arriving marina Zeas, crew of Gene Machine has been recognized for maritime rescue operations. In 2016, the superyacht’s crew rescued six Cuban migrants off the coast of Miami after their boat broke down. Later that same year, they successfully rescued the crew and passengers of a stranded 44-foot sailing yacht (the Minerva) after it suffered severe rig damage mid-Atlantic. She's built by the famous yard Amels in Holland back in 2013. Her length is 55m and 670 GT.

s/y Aetos, built 1972 in Perama (next to Piraeus)

I had next to us berthed this great looking Greek built, gulet style, motor sailer, she has seemingly been well taken care of with lacquer gleaming in the sun.

Variety cruises m/y Pan Orama

Pan Orama is a Greek built motor sailer, probably more motor than sail, she looked a bit tired like the rest of their fleet that came in on Thursday and left on Friday for their next charter. She is built 1993 and has a length of 53m and 498GT.

New uniform

We also finally received our new uniforms that had been in the making since the cotton grew on the Indian fields. Unfortunately they also missed several items that had to come later.

m/v Kapetan Christos

M/v Kapetan Christos (ex. Isartal 1970, Antwerpen 1973, Preseli 1974, Pointer 1977, Zebbug 1985, Fehim Bey 2005, Alastair 2013) is a local veteran ro-ro ferry that these days services the windy isles of Cyclades. Specifications: length 98m, beam 18m, 3633GT.

She's originally built by Kroger Werft in 1970 as Isartal in Rendsburg, Germany for Transbaltica Trailers. After that, as can be seen from her many names, she was sold several times and renamed and relocated, after her original name she sailed on various lines UK to Ireland, then to Malta, Turkey and Libya before ending up in Greece in 2017. She was put under Greek registry in Piraeus and renamed with the current name. She did ground in 2022 off the island of Kea.

Sunset over Dokos Is

Sunset over Argolides

m/y M2

M2 was originally built as Aranui 3 and she served as a combined passenger cargo vessel for the French Polynesia until 2016 when she was replaced by the Aranui 5 and sold to Middle Eastern clients. Originally built in 2002 at Severnav SA yard in Romania she has a length of 117m and beam of 17.6m with a draft around 5.5m. Her GT/NT is 7325/ 2197 and she carries cargo about 3000 tons and originally had guest cabin capacity for 200 persons. She's most likely been rebuilt to work as a support yacht with all imaginable toys and amenities + workshops to make repair anything needed.

m/y A+ (ex Topaz)

A+ was originally built in 2012 by Luerssen as Topaz for a middle eastern client and then sold and renamed but the client still remaining in Middle East. Her length is a whopping 147m and beam 21.5m with a 5.5m draft and a gross tonnage of 12532. She still carries only 12 guests but crew is up to 90 when so needed. Here I spotted both near Spetses in Greece. I once got the chance for a walk around her, she really is a stunner.

Peloponnese

Sunset over Argolides

Stern to rocks mooring in Spetses, Zastano bay

Spetses is a popular island next to Peloponnese, I once sat a week there watching ships coming and going from a deck of a 24m yacht, great entertainment. When we left we had luckily only fouled one anchor and it came off without any major cuss words or theatrics. I also have done the season closing run of the island twice and the route is 25km or so. Here I saw a new angle as we did the Med moor on the beach rocks. The bay actually had quite a current going past, perhaps from the strait next to the private island of Spetsopoula. There is a plethora of watertaxis in the area and easy to book, they only take 8 guests though considering they're capable of much more.

Stern to in Spetses

Monemvasia

After Spetses we headed off to Monemvasia that has a large old town that is still inhabited. The town has a lot of history but unfortunately I had no time to go explore. The client did not enjoy the scenery so we soon weighed anchor and continued to Elafonisos.

Monemvasia

Elafonisos town

At Elafonisos we anchored off a beach on the leeside so the young guests could swim and do watersports. The winds were from the west and they thought the famous white beaches were too choppy. Then for the evening we moved off the town where guests enjoyed dinner ashore. My chief mate had time to buy us all souvlaki for late dinner, it was delicious after so many years not having had one.

Elafonisos Town, sunset

m/y Deep Blue off Kythira Island

From Elafonisos we headed south towards Kythira, namely the small village of Kapsali nestled in a secluded cove on the southern part of the island. Here we passed the massive Deep Blue yacht anchored off the coast. She's a 134m long and newly built in Germany by Lurssen and delivered in 2026. Her power comes from eight MTU diesel electric engines. She has a gross tonnage of 9079 and a 19.8 m beam.

Kapsali on Kythira island

Kapsali approaches

Stern to rocks mooring

Kapsali was very interesting as an approach, the coasts just kept coming closer and closer until I saw the small port there. Next to it they had deep magmaflow walls that were ideal for attaching a shoreline. After some faffing about the deckies got the lines onboard and we were set for the day. In the evening we then departed for Pylos.

Sunset Kapsali

The weather was not so good and I ended catching my tender and doubling back so I could sail up north in leeside of Kythira and then follow the Peloponnesian coast to the entrance of Pylos. The weather rounding the northern tip was much better and the southern tip conditions came as a surprise as it was not forecasted that bad as well as the seas appeared like old, coming from elsewhere, maybe from a bout of meltemi further up north of the Adriatic sea.

Kapsali Chora lit up

Pylos

m/y Blue (ex project Opera)

In Pylos I also spotted another massive middle eastern yacht at anchor, the m/y Blue (or ex project Opera), she has following specifications:

Length/ Beam 160.6 m/ 22.5m. Top speed 20 kn. Tonnage 14785GT. Delivered in 2022 by Luerssen. Capacities: crew 80, guests 48 in 40 cabins. She did not stay long and after the day, she was gone.

Stern to rocks in Pylos

We headed for the northwestern end of the bay to the cliff faces and also did a rock mooring beside many other smaller yachts. The place was quite sheltered albeit the afternoon breeze made it hard work to tender to Pylos town jetty or the Gialova jetty. Here we stayed a couple of days and the guests enjoyed themselves.

Zakynthos Blue caves

Then from Pylos we left in the evening to arrive Zakynthos in the morning, the wish was for seeing the blue caves and we arrived at first light so I had first dibs and tied up on the rocks beside a resort. It didn't take long before we were surrounded by local tourist boats bringing loads of holiday makers for a dip in the blue waters and a jolly around the multiple caves in the area, the shoresides were literally holed like Swiss cheese. I also managed a quick tour through a holed up cave with our tender.

Zakynthos Blue caves

In the afternoon we shifted down the coast a bit to anchor off Nobelos restaurant. The venue is fantastic and they have a boat to pick up guests with, so the tender was easy with the amount we had. Unfortunately in afternoon the breeze blew up quite strong and I had winds over 30 knots blowing down the slope of the island. We didn't drift but the young guests were frustrated as they could not play on the water. We stayed the night and in morning wind was down. I weighed anchor and went on the west side to anchor off Porto Roxa beach. I got the opportunity to sail again around the northern tip and down the coast of the island, the cliffs are majestically high. As I passed down the coast one could spot small hidey holes along, e.g. Porto Vromi looked very inviting and indeed the inlet was full of small 12-15m sailing boats tied up to the cliff sides, unfortunately it is too tight for us with our length of 50m.

Zakynthos westside

Zakynthos, Skinari lighthouse in northern tip

Zakynthos, dragon's mouth cave

Zakynthos, dragon's mouth cave (note the boat for scale)

Zakynthos, sunset over Mikronisi

As I arrived Porto Roxa I made an approach after my tender had checked the depths and anchored a few hundred meters off the coast and swung there. There is a small inlet with a jetty but also too small for us to approach. After awhile I got instructions to sail more south to Limni Keriou, in the corner of Laganas bay on the south side, it is the only place where one could anchor as the rest of the bay is prohibited for anchoring. The port itself looked a sleepy town from the main hustle and bustle, some watersports was going on but in general the traffic was not too overwhelming and I anchored in 10m of water.

Zakynthos, limestone rocks beside Laganas bay

The next morning we were on our way again, this time to north, the island of Ithaca where Odysseus was said to have been from. We headed on the east side to avoid any wind coming through the strait on the west side. We started by anchoring off the island of the wild cats (Agriogatos) and behind it was a very secluded bay with a taverna ashore, multiple 12-15m sail boats had anchored inside. In the afternoon we again got a stiff breeze coming up so we then shifted at anchor off Frikes village. The wind was more or less the same but it was easier to go ashore and I also managed a short walk in the village that was mostly active just on the waterfront where there was an assortment of tavernas and a mini market.

Ithaca, Odysseus island at St Nikolaos cove

Ithaca, Frikes marina

Ithaca, Mosaique anchored off Frikes

Ithaca, Frikes town with old windmill on hill

Windmills of Kioni

Then from Frikes we shifted to Kioni village around the headland whilst guests were out on a speed boat checking out the pigs on Atokos island. I got a great spot and tied our stern to the rocks just off the marina. Soon the guests returned and was told the pigs had started biting visitors and the beach was littered with their excrement so perhaps not the best of outings.

m/v Karanfil

Despite the picture making this ship look small against the huge mountains she's a properly sized general cargo vessel able to load 12616 tons deadweight. She's a Palau registered ship built in 2008 and launched as Harmony SW to a Taiwanese entity. She has 127.8m in length and beam 19.6m and summer draft of 8.23m. Having had a look into Equasis she has quite the port state inspection track record with a total of 67 inspections in her lifetime and several detentions achieved since 2008. The first one was in France dated 2011 when she had something going on with voyage data recorder and radar, that was probably a detainable deficiency. Then going on next time in Germany in 2012 due to wet insulation on her main engine and again detained the same year later in Brazil for same deficiency + a slew of other things. Then all went well until 2022 when she arrived in Ravenna, Italy and she was detained for numerous things, 36 deficiencies in 7 days, poor crew. Maybe this was the point she was sold and renamed Karanfil with Turkish management. Still in Turkey, the following year, she was detained her 5th time due to something wrong with her sewage treatment plant + in addition some other 20 deficiencies. Real bad boy...

Kioni village by night

m/v NS Sabina

Here is an older lady, general cargo vessel, NS Sabina, her ex names include: - Atula (Until 1994) - Rms Mercator (Until 1996) - Atula (Until 2006 Apr) - Sabina (Until 2017 Feb). She is flying the flag of Gambia but apparently under Albanian ownership. Originally she was launched under German registry, then transferred to Tuvalu and Finnish flag as she was sold. Gross tonnage: 2006, summer DWT: 2722 tons, length: 81.55 m, beam: 12.7 m, draught: 4.5 m.

Going through Equasis she also has a very long track record, a total of 74 inspections since her inception in 1986. On record it shows her first detention was in Newcastle, UK in 1998 due to 6 findings with the lifeboat davit. Then next in Hanko, Finland in 2000 when she had some kind of hull damage and was detained. After that she was stopped in 2002 in Kotka, Finland when her crew did not have proper certifications. Going forward she then behaved until 2015 when in Malta she had a non working fire alarm detection system and 15ppm bilge monitoring system. In 2022 she called Orthona, Italy and was detained on a slew of things including structural deficiencies, looks like she was in a poor shape as she was again detained 3 months after this, calling Taranto, Italy. This time due to mostly admin deficiencies and poorly maintained safety equipment. Then last detention was served in 2025 whilst in Canakkale, Turkey. Deficiencies listed as radio communication, fire fighting and lifesaving appliances, really dumb things to get caught out on as everyone knows these are checked first... and, lets face it, it's about ... crew safety.

Ithaca strait

Then we left Kioni and headed for Assos, I spotted some cargo ships enroute and saw the strait was covered in morning haze. As we approached the headland we went a bit south of it and did a stern to mooring in Myrtos beach. The water was very blue, I guess from sandstone and the shore had many caves to explore. We spent the whole day there until evening when we cast off and sailed around the headland and then anchored in the Assos bay. Guests went ashore for dinner, we waited. Next morning I weighed anchor and headed for Anti Paxos.

Rocks of Vliotis point

Kefalonia, Myrtos beach

Kefalonia, Assos Fort

Kefalonia, Assos town

Sunset Kefalonia, Assos

Anti Paxos

As we arrived Anti Paxos I looked for a spot to tie up on the rocks or anchor it quickly became obvious that Anti Paxos was not the sleepy uninhabited island anymore. It was more like tourist hell and mayhem on the northern bays where there were boats by the dozen, swimmers, tourist boats and hundreds of people on the beaches. We observed this for awhile and then headed for Paxos where I anchored off Ben's bar that was much calmer.

Local classic, m/y Celestial

M/y Celestial is built in 1963 by the Dutch De Beers yard, she has previously been named as Trelawney, Arbitrage, Fontaine Bleu II and Chambel III. She was designed by Philip L. Rhodes, who also completed the naval architecture. Her specs as follows: length 41.76 m, beam 7m, draft 1.92m, top speed 14 kn, tonnage 301 GT, crew 8, guests 8 in 4 cabins.

Paxos main town

Paxos, villa

As the afternoon went on the wind got up and we were running a bit of chop so I got a request to sail for Corfu and arrive there by sunset. Said and done we weighed anchor and sailed away. The weather was much calmer on the east side of Corfu and some 2 hours later we let go anchor off the NAOK marina that is just south of the old town. The bay was choc-a-bloc with sailboats but the depth was enough for us to anchor off without going too close.

Corfu by night, old town

Old town in daylight

The next morning we carried out official paperwork and then went mooring stern to the NAOK jetty. Temperatures soared quickly to nearly 36 degrees and it was a stiflingly hot day, the A/C was barely making it better. The mooring was pretty tight but as I got closer there was enough space to drop anchor without being afraid to foul anyone else's pick as well as no sailboats in the way. Time went fast and we discharged rubbish and offloaded the guest luggage. As soon as we had disembarked guests in their vans for the airport we cast off and set sail for our next commitment in Croatia. Time was short and I had to hurry. The weather was fine and soon we had passed Corfu and the last light house of Peristeres when the views gave away for the massive Albanian mountains.

Old town and the southern bay

Palazzo in the woods

Local ferry, Rigel VII

F/B Rigel VII is the flagship of Ventouris fleet, she has quite the specs and capacity. She trades between Albania - Italy and Greece. Looking at her port state performance she had one detention in Bari, Italy in 1991, detention based on ISM related matters and passage plan monitoring. I reckon a case of usual Italy vs Greek rivalry perhaps. All in all she has now had 17 inspections on record.