A Chania catamaran cruise sails along the coast of western Crete on a boat with two hulls. The cruise is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other Crete tours and day trips from Chania.
This post covers sea distances, how a catamaran uses the wind, speed and sea marks, whales, stinging sea life, colour under water, knots, tides, cliff plants, the best months and common questions.
What is a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise is a trip on a two-hulled sailing boat. It follows the coast of Chania, in western Crete. Sea distances here are counted from the Venetian harbour. Souda and Kissamos are the other two main ports of the area.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the sea distances are measured from the Venetian harbour. Heading west, Platanias lies 5.5 nautical miles away. Kolymbari lies 11.2 nautical miles away by sea.
The western bays sit farther out. Menies bay lies 14.9 nautical miles by sea from the Venetian harbour. Kastelli, the town of Kissamos, lies 30.0 nautical miles to the west.
On a Chania catamaran cruise heading east, the first landmark is close. Stavros lies 6.5 nautical miles from the Venetian harbour. On the eastward route, Souda port lies 23.5 nautical miles away.
Souda is a working port with its own radio watch. It sits at about 35°29.5′ north and 24°04.7′ east. The Souda harbour office answers on VHF channel 12. Two hospitals lie within 4 km.
On a Chania catamaran cruise in the west, Kavonisi is the port to know. This port of Kissamos sits at 35°31.0′ north and 23°38.4′ east. Its port office stands in the village of Trachilos.
- Georgioupoli: This bay town lies 38.5 nautical miles east of the Venetian harbour by sea.
- Antikythera: The small island lies 42 nautical miles from the Venetian harbour.
- Far islands: Kythira lies 75 nautical miles away, Folegandros 79 and Milos 82.
- Land shape: About three-fifths of the Chania regional unit is mountain, and one-fifth is plain.
The Chania regional unit holds about 65.9 people per square kilometre. Trachilos counted 137 residents in 2021.
How does a catamaran catch the wind on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise moves on the wind its sails meet, called the apparent wind. That wind mixes the true wind with the wind made by the boat’s own speed. The sails then work together like one large wing.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the deck wind can feel very different from the true wind. Take a boat doing 10 knots with a 5-knot wind from behind. It feels only 5 knots, straight on the bow.
Turn that boat across the wind and the numbers change. At 10 knots, at 90° to a 10-knot true wind, it feels about 14 knots. That apparent wind comes from 45° off the bow.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, two clues show the two winds. Waves show the true wind direction. A flag on the boat shows the apparent wind, the one the sails actually use.
Fast multihulls, windsurfers and planing monohulls can all sail faster than the true wind. A craft that fast keeps the apparent wind ahead of its mast. It can then tack even when heading downwind.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the sails share the load. A jib and mainsail together act as one larger wing. In that pair, the jib gains the bigger boost in lift.
- Dead downwind: A boat running more downwind than a broad reach cannot beat the true wind.
- Zig-zag rule: Sailing 45° either side of downwind covers about 1.4 times the distance.
- Wind near water: Over open water, surface friction cuts the wind by only 20% to 30%.
- Quick reefing: Slab reefing lines can lead back to the cockpit, so nobody needs to go on deck.
To heave to, the crew backs the jib against the wind. The boat then nearly stops and needs no steering. In 2009, a hydrofoil trimaran set the world sailing speed record on water at 50.17 knots.
How are speed and distance measured on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise measures speed in knots and distance in nautical miles. A log on the hull reads speed through the water. GPS reads speed over the ground, and the two differ when a current runs.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the knot has a long history. The old chip log method gave a knot of 20¼ inches per second. That is less than 0.02% away from the value used today. In 1637, Robert Norwood proposed 6,120 feet for a minute of latitude.
The old method had weak points. A following sea, currents or a stretched line threw off a reading. So did a sandglass upset by heat or damp air.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, a current changes the numbers. Take a boat making 8 knots through the water, with a 2-knot current behind. It moves at 10 knots over the ground.
Sailors describe a current with two words. Set is its direction in true degrees, and drift is its speed in knots. An electromagnetic log senses seawater flowing past the hull and has no moving parts.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, GPS does the rest of the work. Its satellites orbit 20,180 km above the Earth. A receiver needs at least four in view: three for position and one for its clock.
- Nautical mile: A minute of latitude is about 1,862 metres at the poles and 1,843 at the Equator.
- Cable: One tenth of a nautical mile is a cable, or 185.2 metres.
- Chart depths: Depths on a sea chart are measured down from the chart datum.
- Other systems: GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo work alongside GPS as global satellite systems.
The ancient Stadiasmus Maris Magni gives 60 stades by sea from Akoition to Kydonia. That city had a harbour with rocks at its entrance.
Which buoys and sea marks steer a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise sails inside IALA Region A, the buoy system used across Europe. Each mark tells skippers something by its colour, shape, topmark and light. Near Chania, lighthouses on Souda Island and Cape Maleka add their own signals.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, shape is as important as colour on a channel mark. Colours cannot be told apart in poor light. People with red-green colour blindness also need the shape to read it.
Two matching cardinal marks side by side warn of a new danger not yet on official charts. A south cardinal mark shows 6 quick white flashes and then 1 long flash. The pattern repeats every 10 or 15 seconds.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the isolated danger mark has a clear look. It always carries two black balls on top. Its light gives two white flashes, then a longer darkness.
Safe water marks are also called fairway buoys. Their topmark is a single red ball. Special marks are yellow, carry an X-shaped topmark, and any light they show is always yellow.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, a blue and yellow buoy means a fresh wreck. It has 6 to 7 vertical stripes in those colours. No other sea mark uses blue or shows a blue light.
- Souda Island: Its light gives a green flash every 4.8 seconds from 20 m, atop a fort.
- Cape Maleka: About 25 km northeast of Chania, it shows two white flashes every 12 s.
- Flash timing: The dark gap between flashes must last at least three times as long as each flash.
- Special uses: Yellow marks can flag fish farms, pipelines, cables, water-skiing areas and protected areas.
Stylianos Lykoudis headed the Navy’s Lighthouse Service for 25 years. In that time, 191 new lighthouses were installed. An emergency wreck buoy stays for the first 24 to 72 hours, until permanent marks replace it.
Which dolphins and whales swim off a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise starts from Crete, where sperm whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales and Risso’s dolphins live offshore. The sperm whales gather along the Hellenic Trench. Ship strikes and plastic are big threats to these animals.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the deep water offshore matters to whales. Sperm whales gather in the greatest numbers over the 1,000 m depth line. That line runs along the landward slopes of the Hellenic Trench.
Major shipping routes run on or very close to that same line. The International Whaling Commission named the trench one of four ship-strike areas of particular concern worldwide.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, one whale tells that story well. A sperm whale named Ifaistos was photographed off south-west Crete in 2004. It bore deep propeller marks between its head and dorsal fin.
A simple fix exists. Moving the routes a little further offshore cuts the collision risk by around 70%. The shift adds no more than 11 nautical miles to major routes. For the bulk of ships, it adds around 5.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the deep divers are rarely seen, but they are counted. One estimate put the eastern Mediterranean sperm whale population at 164. That figure leaves out young calves. Cuvier’s beaked whales stranded along the trench had eaten the same deep-sea prey as local sperm whales.
- Loudest animal: Sperm whale clicks reach 236 decibels under water.
- Plastic: Large plastic pieces turned up in 60% of the stranded sperm whales examined in Greece.
- Squid eaters: Risso’s dolphins feed almost only on squid, and they hunt mainly at night.
- Odd teeth: Risso’s dolphins have two to seven pairs of teeth, all in the lower jaw.
Greece belongs to ACCOBAMS, the whale and dolphin treaty. It came into force on 1 June 2001. The sperm whale brain is more than five times heavier than a human brain.
Which sea creatures sting swimmers on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise stops for swims where a handful of animals can sting. Weever fish, scorpionfish, sea urchins, bearded fireworms and anemones all carry spines, venom or stinging cells. Knowing them helps swimmers avoid them and treat stings.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the weever is the fish to know about. Its name is believed to come from the Old French word wivre, meaning serpent or dragon. Its stings are common around low tide.
The venom works through a clever spine. When a greater weever spine is pressed, its skin sheath tears. Venom then runs down a deep groove into the wound. Its main harmful protein is dracotoxin.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, heat is the first aid for a weever sting. Wash the wound, then soak it in water of 40 °C, or as hot as bearable. Keep it there for at least an hour.
Sea urchins are the commonest spiny worry. About 80 of the 600 urchin species carry poisons, yet they cause no significant harm to humans. A wound can show small purple or black dots from their dye.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the bearded fireworm is slow and calm. It poses no threat unless a swimmer touches it. It averages 15 cm long but can reach 30 cm.
- Scorpionfish: Their spines carry venomous mucus, and the black species has the Latin name porcus, meaning pig.
- Urchin spines: Bits too deep for tweezers work out through the skin or dissolve over time.
- Fireworm sting: Putting isopropanol on the skin can help ease the pain of a fireworm sting.
- Trumpet anemone: Found in the Aegean, it grows to 12 cm tall with up to 100 tentacles.
In 1782, a fisherman stung by a greater weever cut off his own finger to stop the pain.
Why do colours fade under water on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise swim stop shows how water filters light. Water absorbs red light first, then the other colours, while blue and violet travel farthest. That is why the sea looks blue and red fish look dark at depth.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, red is the first colour to go. In liquid water at 20 °C, the main red absorption band sits at 740 nm. A second red band sits at 660 nm.
Other colours last longer. Pure water absorbs visible light least at 418 nm, a blue-violet colour. There, light travels about 227 metres before fading. Violet light at 400 nm lasts to about 100 m.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, invisible light vanishes even faster. Infrared light at 800 nm is gone within about 3 m of pure water. Ultraviolet light at 300 nm is fully absorbed within about 25 m.
The colour of the sea surface also depends on the view. Part of the colour is reflected sky. Part is light scattered up from below. The mix depends strongly on the viewing angle.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, fish see this filtered world in their own way. Fish active by day in clear water have more cone cells, the colour-seeing cells. Fish in dim water have fewer.
- Red fish: The Mediterranean swallowtail sea perch is pink to red and lives 15 to 200 m deep.
- Deep sea: In the deep sea, red works the same as black, because no red light arrives.
- Sharks: A study of 17 shark species found that 10 had no cone cells at all.
- Hard to spot: Grey and black are the hardest colours to see at the limits of visibility.
Gladstone found no blue in the scenery of Homer. The word kyanos, later meaning blue, meant “dark” in Homer.
Which knots and ropes hold a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise relies on a small set of old sailing knots and modern ropes. The bowline, the cleat hitch, the figure-eight and the reef knot do the bulk of the work. Each one trades part of the strength of a rope for grip.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the bowline is the knot to know first. Sailors nickname it the “king of the knots”. It stays easy to untie, even after it has carried a heavy load.
That grip has a cost. A rope tied with a bowline keeps about two-thirds of its strength. The knot also tends to work loose when it is not under load.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, mooring lines go round cleats on the deck. A cleat hitch starts with a turn round the cleat. It crosses over it in an “8” shape and ends with an upside-down half hitch.
Pull a knotted rope until it breaks, and it almost always fails at or near the knot. A splice weaves the strands back into the rope. It can keep the full strength of the rope.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the rope itself matters as much as the knot. Nylon rope absorbs water and is 10 to 15% weaker when wet. Polyester stretches less and is not affected by water.
- Figure-eight: This stopper knot keeps about 80% of the strength of a rope.
- Reef knot: It is at least 4,000 years old, and ancient Greeks called it the Hercules knot.
- Floating rope: Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene has a specific gravity of 0.97, so it floats.
- Horn cleat: This traditional deck fitting has two horns and looks rather like an anvil.
John Smith first wrote about the bowline as the “Boling knot” in his 1627 book A Sea Grammar. The name figure-of-eight knot appears in a rigging book printed in London in 1808.
How do tides and currents move on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise sails along a coast that is almost tideless. The northern coast of Crete has a tidal range of less than 10 cm. Wind and Atlantic water shape this sea more than the Moon does.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the small tide still follows the Moon. Seleucus of Seleucia, an astronomer of the 2nd century BC, correctly said that the Moon causes the tides.
The main lunar tide is called M2. It rises and falls once every 12 hours and 25.2 minutes. Neap tides take their name from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “without the power”.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the navy keeps watch on sea level. On Crete, its tide gauges stand in the ports of Souda and Heraklion. They sample the sea every 5 minutes and store 15-minute averages.
Wind moves the sea more than tides here. On northern Crete, strong north winds raised the sea 10 cm in a sheltered cove. That was 3.3 times more than at an open beach nearby.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, harbours can rock gently. Bays and harbours can swing with small seiches only centimetres high. They swing back and forth in cycles of minutes. The word seiche possibly comes from the Latin siccus, “dry”, since the beach dries as water pulls back.
- Behind reefs: Behind a reef on the Cretan shore, the sea can rise more than 0.4 m.
- Wind drift: Wind drags the top 10 to 100 m of the sea with it.
- Rip currents: A rip flows fastest at the surface and cannot pull a swimmer under water.
- Atlantic inflow: Atlantic water enters the Cretan Sea mainly through the Antikythera Strait.
The inflow matters. Without it, the Mediterranean is set to drop by about 1 m every year.
Which rare plants cling to the cliffs of a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise passes the cliffs of western Crete. They hold the richest cliff flora on the island. These cliff plants are called chasmophytes. They grow in rock cracks, where trapped soil supplies water and food.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the name of these plants is pure Greek. Chasmophyte joins chasma, meaning crevice or gorge, with phyte, meaning plant. The seed capsule of one cliff plant, rock lettuce, opens by three pores in its middle.
Botanists studied 100 almost vertical limestone cliffs on Crete. They recorded 614 plant taxa growing on them. Among plants found only on Cretan cliffs, endemism reaches 76%, counting Greek and Aegean endemics.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, wild dittany is the famous cliff plant. Greece estimates its cliff habitat at 17 km² and rates its quality as good. Its vertical cliffs are almost totally out of reach.
That safety has a reason. Grazing animals and people cannot reach the plant, so it faces no significant threats. Bees, drawn by the scent and bright colour of its flowers, pollinate it.
On a Chania catamaran cruise, the islet of Theodorou sits off the coast. A grazing study measured it at 68 ha. Plants covered 39.9% of the island, and bare rock and soil covered 21.2%. On an ungrazed islet beside it, the main plant is Lotus cytisoides, which goats like to eat.
- Cretan ebony: Ebenus cretica grows on steep cliffs from sea level up to 600 m.
- Rock lettuce: Petromarula pinnata is the only known species in its genus.
- Own genera: Crete and its islets have two plant genera of their own, Petromarula and Horstrissea.
- Goat food: Lentisk and thorny burnet lead on Theodorou, and wild goats find both poor food.
Greece reports 204.8 km² of limestone cliff habitat with crevice plants in its Mediterranean region, rated Favourable overall.
Which months suit a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise suits the late spring and the early autumn best. Across the Aegean, calm wave conditions prevail in the month after April and mainly in September and October. Those months also bring long days of light.
On a Chania catamaran cruise in spring, the days stretch fast. On the first day of the month after April, Chania gets 13 hours 37 minutes of daylight. By the last day of that month, daylight reaches 14 hours 22 minutes.
Spring weather settles slowly. The switch from winter to summer weather takes about three months, from March to the end of spring. Winter-type storm systems can still appear late in that last spring month.
On a Chania catamaran cruise in summer, the sun stands high. At solar noon on 21 June, it climbs to 77.9° above the horizon at Chania. The island’s mountains slow the northerly Etesian winds before they reach Crete.
Early autumn keeps the light longer than expected. On 1 September, Chania still has 12 hours 55 minutes of daylight, with sunset at 7:51 pm. By mid-September, each day is 2 minutes 12 seconds shorter.
On a Chania catamaran cruise in October, evenings come early. On 1 October, the sun sets at 7:07 pm, and civil twilight ends at 7:33 pm. By 15 October, the midday sun reaches only 45.9°.
- Short autumn: Autumn lasts about one month, October, before winter weather takes over.
- Winter seas: From November to February, Aegean waves grow steadily rougher.
- Warm water lag: Greek sea temperature follows air temperature with a lag of 5 to 10 days.
- Autumn rain: Autumn rains fall heavy, because the warm sea under cooler air drives strong evaporation.
From 2008 to 2021, Greek seas warmed mainly because their cold-season lows grew milder.
What do visitors ask about a Chania catamaran cruise?
A Chania catamaran cruise raises the same practical questions on every deck. Visitors ask about life jackets, water in the heat, phones near the sea, children, glare and sunscreen. Each answer below rests on safety or science sources.
Which life jacket suits a non-swimmer on a Chania catamaran cruise?
Manual inflatable lifejackets are not recommended for people who cannot swim. Level 275 jackets suit wearers whose clothes trap air and stop a normal jacket turning them face-up. Foam buoyancy aids last roughly three years of use.
How much water does a body need on a Chania catamaran cruise?
A WHO report puts water needs at 4.5 litres a day for manual work in high temperatures. Losing fluid equal to 1% of body weight brings thirst. At 4%, work capacity drops by 20 to 30%.
How safe is a phone near the sea on a Chania catamaran cruise?
The IP code on a phone tells the answer. IPX4 means splashing water from any direction does no harm. The IPX7 test sinks a device until its lowest point sits 1000 mm deep. An X means no test data.
What do parents need to know about water safety on a Chania catamaran cruise?
The WHO says people aged 0 to 29 make up 57% of all drowning deaths. Children aged one to four drown in home pools more than elsewhere. Drownings in natural water rise with age.
Do polarised sunglasses help on a Chania catamaran cruise?
Light reflected off a shiny surface such as the sea becomes partly polarised. Mathematician Étienne-Louis Malus noticed this in the early 1800s. Polarising sheet is stretched plastic doped with iodine, so its chains line up and block that glare.
Does sunscreen harm the sea on a Chania catamaran cruise?
One study estimated that about 25% of the sunscreen on skin washes off during a 20-minute swim. At three Majorca beaches, four main sunscreen chemicals turned up in the sea. Spray sunscreen proved more toxic to a diatom than cream.