Greece sailing tours are trips under sail on catamarans and sailing yachts, from the Santorini caldera and Mykonos to Milos, Naxos, Crete, Rhodes, Corfu and the Saronic Gulf. The page is part of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.
This page covers what Greece sailing tours are, the boats and the wind, the sailing areas island by island, multi-day sailing, sailing history, rigs, safety and the seasons. Common questions come last. Each section links to the Greece Ville posts on single tours.
What are Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours are trips in which wind acting on sails moves the boat from one Greek bay or island to the next. Skippers read the sea and the forecast, and the wind rather than a timetable sets the course.
Wikipedia defines sailing as the use of wind on sails to propel a craft on the surface of the water. Greece sailing tours apply that idea to the Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea.
One account holds that sailing arose independently in at least two regions, Island Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean. The earliest representation of a sail, from Egypt, dates to circa 3100 BCE.
The Greece boat tours hub covers trips by motor boat. This page sorts the trips under sail and links each post about a boat type, an island or a stretch of coast.
A sailing craft cannot derive wind power on a course too close into the wind. Even so, forces from the sails, hull, keel and rudder make it possible to sail both upwind and downwind courses.
Until the second half of the 19th century, sailing craft were the primary means of maritime trade and transport. Today sailing is mainly recreation or sport, and Greece sailing tours belong to that group.
- Power: Sails turn the push of the wind into forward motion.
- Limit: A course straight into the wind is closed to a sailing craft.
- Past: Sail carried trade and transport until steam replaced it.
- Present: Recreation and sport are now the main uses of sailing.
The sections below follow Greece sailing tours by hull type, wind and island. Each section names the posts that cover its routes.
How do Greece sailing tours differ between catamarans and monohulls?
Greece sailing tours use two hull types: the monohull, which has a single hull, and the catamaran, which has two. The choice changes stability, deck space and handling, so each design suits a different kind of trip along the coast.
A monohull is a boat with only one hull, and the type is the commonest form of waterborne vessel. A multihull has two hulls or more, joined to one another.
The catamaran vs sailing yacht post compares the two designs by ballast, stability, space, speed, draught and history. Greece sailing tours on either hull make more sense after that comparison.
Ballast gives a monohull tremendous inertia, which makes the boat less manoeuvrable and slower to accelerate. A catamaran avoids that problem because its stability comes from the wide gap between the two hulls.
The vertical clearance between the waterplane and the bottom of the bridge deck decides how frequently waves touch the deck. More clearance cuts that contact and raises seaworthiness, within limits, on Greece sailing tours.
Designs with four hulls or five hulls have been proposed, and a pentamaran adds a second pair of outriggers to a narrow central hull. Such craft remain experiments rather than island charter boats.
- Monohull: One hull keeps the design simple and familiar.
- Catamaran: Two hulls spread the weight across a wide stance.
- Clearance: The gap under the bridge deck affects how waves meet the boat.
- Trimaran: A trimaran adds outrigger floats on either side of a main hull.
Hull type is the first choice on a sailing holiday. The rest of the page applies it to winds, islands and coasts where Greece sailing tours run.
How does the wind shape Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours follow the meltemi, a strong and dry Aegean wind from the north. The wind gives leisure sailors a steady breeze, yet it also shapes each route and decides which bay offers shelter on a given day.
The same winds reach Cyprus as westerlies to southwesterlies, and there they are more humid. In the Aegean they stay dry, which sets the character of Greece sailing tours.
The Turkish name for the wind is meltem, and the Greek plural is meltemia. Low pressure in a trough over the Eastern Mediterranean drives the summer flow, according to Wikipedia.
The meltemi wind post covers the Aegean north wind, its strength on the Beaufort scale and what it means for crews. Greece sailing tours plan around those facts.
Sailors judge strength on the Beaufort scale. Its first use came on the voyage of HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy, and the scale remains a standard for forecasts at sea.
In Chania, the prevailing etesian winds blow from the Aegean Sea and moderate the heat of summer. Strong heat waves are therefore not common there, even in the hottest weeks.
- Cyprus: The same winds blow there as westerlies and are more humid.
- Names: Meltemi is the Greek form and meltem the Turkish form.
- Pressure: A trough of low pressure drives the summer flow.
- Scale: HMS Beagle carried the Beaufort scale on its first voyage.
Wind decides the day on Greece sailing tours, so every route in this hub comes back to the same Aegean north wind, and skippers plan each leg around the forecast.
Why do Greece sailing tours sail into the Santorini caldera?
Greece sailing tours enter the Santorini caldera, a flooded volcanic bowl in the southern Aegean where the Kameni islands stand near the centre. The route passes beneath the villages that line the rim and over the water of an ancient eruption.
Non-volcanic rock is exposed on Santorini at Mikro Profititis Ilias, Mesa Vouno, the Gavrillos ridge, Pirgos and Monolithos, while the Kameni islands lie at the centre. Greece sailing tours show that contrast from the water.
The Santorini sailing tour post covers the voyage under sail around the caldera, and the Santorini catamaran cruise post covers the same waters on a two-hulled boat instead.
An ancient eruption about 520,000 years ago breached the sea surface and covered three nearby islands in volcanic deposits. Greece sailing tours cross the water above that eruption.
Pyroclastic flows covered the seafloor 70 kilometres from the vent, with deposits up to 150 metres thick and 90 cubic kilometres in volume. That is more than six times the volume of the Minoan deposits.
The African plate slides beneath the Aegean subplate in a northeasterly direction, and that subduction causes earthquakes at depths of 150 to 170 km. Greece sailing tours sail above this meeting of plates.
- Rock: Non-volcanic rock is exposed at Pirgos and Monolithos.
- Depth: Subduction causes earthquakes at depths of 150 to 170 km.
- Flows: Pyroclastic flows covered the seafloor 70 kilometres from the vent.
- Scale: Its flows were 10 times larger than those of the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption.
No other place sets a sailing route inside an active volcano. That feature is why Greece sailing tours treat the caldera as a core route, and the water inside is the draw.
What do Greece sailing tours offer around Mykonos?
Greece sailing tours around Mykonos pair the island with nearby Delos, a small sacred island only 2 km away. The two islands share a long record as a place of supply and transit, and the sea between them is a short crossing.
Delos lay only 2 km from Mykonos, so Mykonos became an important place for supplies and transit. Greece sailing tours repeat that old link between the two islands.
The Mykonos catamaran cruise post covers the south coast bays and the crossing to Delos on a two-hulled boat. It sits beside the other Greece sailing tours in this hub.
The ongoing excavations on Delos are among the broadest in the Mediterranean, and the French School of Archaeology began that work in 1873. Visitors land at a site still under study.
British and French ships fought the Battle of Mykonos in the harbour in June 1794. The last Venetians withdrew from the region when the castle of neighbouring Tinos fell to the Ottomans in 1718.
The Ottomans imposed a system of self-governance on Mykonos with a governor and an appointed council of syndics. Tourism later came to dominate the local economy, and sailing forms part of that trade.
- Neighbour: Delos lies 2 km from Mykonos.
- Harbour: British and French ships fought there in June 1794.
- Digs: The French School began work on Delos in 1873.
- Rule: A governor and a council of syndics ran Mykonos under the Ottomans.
Mykonos and Delos form one sailing pair. Greece sailing tours treat them as a single short passage between a busy harbour and an ancient sanctuary.
Where do Greece sailing tours go around Milos?
Greece sailing tours around Milos follow a volcanic island at the south-western edge of the Cyclades. Its coast has been a landing place for boats since obsidian hunters beached their craft in coves, and the shoreline still shapes the day.
Obsidian from Milos was traded long before farming began. Those in search of it arrived by boat and beached it in a suitable cove, so Greece sailing tours follow an ancient habit.
The Milos sailing tour post covers the coast of Milos under sail, with its coves, rock formations and swimming stops. It belongs among the Greece sailing tours of the Cyclades.
Waves driven by north winds shape the white volcanic rock at Sarakiniko into forms compared with a moonscape. The ship Africa crashed there in 2003, and visitors can see the wreck when the waves retreat.
Kimolos lies next to Milos, separated from it by a channel 1 km wide. Kimolos belongs to the same island group, so Greece sailing tours also add it to a route.
Phylakopi, on the north-east coast, held a shrine with the figure known as the Lady of Phylakopi. Part of the site has been washed away by the sea.
- Obsidian: Boats beached in coves to cut the volcanic glass.
- Sarakiniko: Wind and waves erode the bone-white rock into odd shapes.
- Kimolos: A channel 1 km wide separates it from Milos.
- Phylakopi: The sea has washed part of the site away.
Milos suits a sailing route because its history began with boats. Greece sailing tours there follow coves that visitors used long before any harbour existed.
What do Greece sailing tours see around Naxos?
Greece sailing tours around Naxos start from the largest island in the Cyclades, a place with a Venetian past and a marble temple gate above its harbour. The island also anchors a chain of small islands to the south-east.
Herodotus describes Naxos circa 500 BC as the richest Greek island. Naxos was also the first Greek city-state to attempt to leave the Delian League, around 469 BC, and Athens quickly quashed the attempt.
The Naxos sailing post covers sailing from the main port, the nearby bays and the islands beyond. It fits with the other Greece sailing tours in the Cyclades.
Marco Sanudo conquered Naxos in 1205 to 1207 and burnt his galleys to steel his companions. Twenty-one dukes in two dynasties then ruled the Duchy of the Archipelago until 1566.
The Lesser Cyclades lie south-east of Naxos, and Irakleia is the largest of them. Greece sailing tours that add the chain cross open water to reach those small islands.
In the 13th century, refugees from Antalya and Alanya settled on Naxos after the Seljuk Turks captured those towns. The arrivals show how sea routes joined Naxos to Anatolia.
- Prosperity: Herodotus called Naxos the richest Greek island around 500 BC.
- League: Naxos tried to leave the Delian League around 469 BC.
- Dukes: Twenty-one dukes ruled the Duchy of the Archipelago until 1566.
- Chain: Irakleia is the largest of the Lesser Cyclades.
Naxos pairs a long history with a clear sailing base. Greece sailing tours there combine harbour life with passages to the smaller islands, and each stop carries its own story.
How do Greece sailing tours work off Crete?
Greece sailing tours off Crete use the Sea of Crete, the Aegean’s southern part, with its harbours at Heraklion and Chania. The island is very large, so sailing trips start from one harbour and stay on one stretch of coast.
The Sea of Crete lies north of Crete, and ferries cross it on the way between Piraeus and Heraklion, and between Crete and the southern islands of the Aegean. Greece sailing tours share the water with those ferries.
The Heraklion sailing tour post covers trips from the harbour of the island capital. The Crete catamaran cruise post covers two-hulled trips along the island, so the two posts serve different coasts.
The Chania catamaran cruise post covers the west of the island, with the old Venetian harbour as the base. Greece sailing tours there run beside the ferries that use Souda.
During the Ottoman period the harbour of Heraklion silted up, so nearly all shipping shifted to Chania. The modern port was built by Sir Robert McAlpine and completed in 1928.
Souda, 7 km east of Chania, is the city port, with daily ferries to Piraeus. Kissamos port lies 41 km to the west and has ferry links to Kythira and Antikythera.
- Heraklion: Its harbour silted up in the Ottoman period.
- Port: McAlpine finished the modern port in 1928.
- Souda: It lies 7 km east of Chania.
- Kissamos: Its port lies 41 km west of Chania.
Crete offers two harbours with different histories. Greece sailing tours there choose between the capital in the centre of the north coast and the Venetian town in the west.
Why do Greece sailing tours call at Rhodes?
Greece sailing tours call at Rhodes because the island has served sailors since antiquity, and its trade, shipbuilding and harbour made the city a crossroads of sea routes. Its harbour still anchors boat trips along the coast of the Dodecanese.
In medieval times Rhodes was an important Byzantine trading post and a crossroads for ships sailing between Constantinople and Alexandria. Greece sailing tours now follow parts of those old sea lanes.
The Rhodes catamaran cruise post covers two-hulled trips from the island capital, with stops along the east coast, and it completes the island list of Greece sailing tours.
The Romans took the maritime law of the Rhodians and applied it to their own shipping. That rule shows how far the reputation of Rhodes at sea reached in the ancient world.
Excavators recently found the Byzantine harbour and medieval shipwrecks. The finds show that the harbour of Rhodes served trade for centuries, long before modern Greece sailing tours began.
Arabs captured the island in the 7th century AD and removed the scattered pieces of the Colossus from the port. They moved them to Syria and destroyed them to make coins.
- Crossroads: Ships passed between Constantinople and Alexandria.
- Law: Rome adopted the maritime law of the Rhodians for its own ships.
- Harbour: Medieval wrecks lie in the excavated Byzantine harbour.
- Colossus: Arab forces moved its pieces from the port to Syria.
Rhodes closes the island list of this hub. Greece sailing tours there connect a Dodecanese harbour with a sea history that spans antiquity and the Middle Ages, from Rome to the Arab conquest.
What do Greece sailing tours offer around Corfu and the Ionian Sea?
Greece sailing tours in the Ionian Sea centre on Corfu and on the chain of islands that runs south from it along the western coast of the mainland. Corfu itself offers a long coastline, a fortified town and air links to Lefkada and Paxos.
Corfu is about 64 km long, and its greatest breadth is about 32 km. A boat that follows the shore covers a coast with capes at Drastis in the north and Megachoro in the south.
The city of Corfu faced four notable sieges, in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716. Its powerful Venetian fortifications held each time, mainly because of how effective they were.
The Corfu sailing tour post covers sailing around Corfu itself, including the Corfu Channel, anchoring and the radio and tracking systems used at sea. It suits readers who are planning a route in these waters.
Further south, Lefkada has a place in Homeric debate. The German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld dug on the island and suggested that it was Homer’s Ithaca, which helped him win funding for the work.
Scheduled seaplane flights run from Corfu to Paxoi, Lefkada, Ithaki, Kefalonia, Ioannina, Patras and Brindisi in Italy. The route list shows how the same islands tie together from the air.
- Length: Corfu measures about 64 km from one end to the other.
- Sieges: The city of Corfu faced attacks in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716.
- Lefkada: Dörpfeld proposed that the island was Homer’s Ithaca.
- Air links: Seaplanes connect Corfu with Paxoi, Kefalonia and Patras.
Greece sailing tours here therefore join a long coast, a defended old town and a string of islands; the next section moves east to the Saronic Gulf.
How do Greece sailing tours use the Saronic Gulf near Athens?
Greece sailing tours in the Saronic Gulf start close to Athens, because the gulf sits between Attica and Argolis, two peninsulas, and the main port of Piraeus sits on its north-eastern edge. The gulf is also the eastern end of the Corinth Canal.
Salamis passed from Megara to Athens after a war between the two cities around 600 BC. Today the island hosts Salamis Naval Base, the headquarters of the Hellenic Navy.
Before the Persian invasion, Athens was in conflict with its neighbour Aegina, which possessed a formidable navy. That rivalry helped drive Athens to build a large fleet of triremes under Themistocles.
In 2007 a National Geographic Traveler panel of 522 experts rated Hydra the highest of any Greek island, placing it 11th out of 111 islands worldwide for preserving its integrity of place.
The urban area of Athens surrounds the northern and eastern coasts of the gulf. Beaches line the shore from Piraeus down to Anavyssos, and from Poros to Epidaurus, which gives the coast landing places.
A pine forest grows in the south of Salamis, which is unusual for western Attica. The majority of the island’s inhabitants work in maritime jobs such as fishing, ferries and shipyards, or commute to Athens.
- Shape: Attica and Argolis, two peninsulas, bracket the gulf on either side.
- Canal: The Corinth Canal ends at the gulf on the eastern side of the isthmus.
- Hydra: A panel of 522 experts placed the island 11th of 111 worldwide in 2007.
- Salamis: The island is home to the headquarters of the Hellenic Navy.
Greece sailing tours in the Saronic Gulf therefore combine a busy working coast with islands that carry a long naval history.
How do multi-day Greece sailing tours link the islands?
Greece sailing tours over a longer route link harbours in a chain, moving a boat from island to island across the Ionian Sea or the Aegean Sea. The ancient name of the Aegean, Archipelago, now describes any island group.
Aegean harbours carry a long history. The Ottoman Empire conquered the area, apart from Crete, a Venetian colony until 1669, and held a presence over the sea for over 500 years.
At the peak of the last ice age, about 18,000 years ago, sea levels stood 130 metres lower, and large well-watered coastal plains covered much of the northern Aegean.
On a route around the Peloponnese, Cape Matapan marks the southernmost point of mainland Greece. It separates the Messenian Gulf in the west from the Laconian Gulf in the east.
The Greek island hopping tours post covers island hopping by ferry from the mainland ports, and it sorts the main island groups for readers who want a route by island rather than by boat.
The Aegean is the stage for island chains, since the Aegean Islands include the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, the Sporades and the Saronic islands. Greece sailing tours treat them as stepping stones.
- Archipelago: The Greek name of the Aegean later came to mean any island group.
- Crete: The island stayed a Venetian colony until 1669.
- Ice age: Sea levels stood 130 metres lower about 18,000 years ago.
- Matapan: The cape is the southernmost point of mainland Greece.
Greece sailing tours over a longer route therefore read as a sequence of harbours set in a sea whose shape and rule have changed over the centuries.
What do old ships add to Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours follow routes that Greek ships have used for thousands of years, from oared triremes to sail-rigged caiques. The Olympias trireme replica, built in Piraeus between 1985 and 1987, shows how an ancient warship worked on the water.
Behind Greece sailing tours lies the trireme, named for its three rows of oars. It was the dominant Mediterranean warship from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC, before larger quadriremes and quinqueremes replaced it.
The trireme grew out of the penteconter, a warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side. According to Thucydides, the Corinthians introduced the trireme to Greece in the late 8th century BC.
Olympias was built from Douglas fir with tenons of Virginia oak. She is a commissioned ship of the Hellenic Navy, the only vessel of her kind in any of the world’s navies.
In 2004 Olympias carried the Olympic Flame ceremonially from Keratsini to Piraeus. Between 2016 and 2018, a number of trips in the Saronic Gulf carried amateur rowers and passengers.
The caique is a traditional wooden fishing boat of the Ionian and Aegean seas. It has a short mast, a bowsprit and a tiller that is sometimes carved as an animal’s face.
- Name: The Greek word for the trireme means three-rower.
- Crew: A classical trireme carried 10 sailors for handling the sails.
- Hull: Planks were joined with closely spaced and pegged mortise and tenon joints.
- Paint: Builders paint caiques white to counter the powerful sun.
Greece sailing tours under modern sails thus follow the wakes of oared warships and wooden working boats, and the old hull shapes explain much of what the harbours still look like.
Which sail plans appear on Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours use fore-and-aft rigs, in which the sails sit on the centre line of the boat when at rest. The Bermuda rig, developed in the 17th century, has largely replaced the older gaff rig on sloops, ketches and yawls.
A Bermuda sail is triangular and set behind the mast, with its head raised to the top of the mast. It is also called the Marconi rig, because its mast wires recalled early radio masts.
A gaff rig sets a four-sided sail from a spar called the gaff, and it carries 25 percent more sail than an equivalent Bermuda rig. The gaff rig remains popular for schooner mainsails.
On Greece sailing tours a ketch has a second, shorter mast forward of the rudder post, while a yawl carries its mizzen aft of it. A sloop has one mast, a mainsail and a headsail.
A schooner has a mainmast taller than its foremast, which sets it apart from a ketch or a yawl. A catboat has a single mast set far forward and carries no jib.
Square sails hang across the vessel and have a front and a back, with the back facing the wind when the sail drives the ship. Fore-and-aft sails have a left and right surface.
- Bermuda: The rig takes its name from Bermuda, where it was developed.
- Gaff: A gaff rig needs running backstays rather than permanent ones.
- Ketch: The mizzen mast stands forward of the rudder post.
- Catboat: The single mast carries one sail and no jib.
Greece sailing tours therefore meet rigs of every age, and a quick look at the masts tells a sailor how a boat will handle the wind.
Who keeps order and safety during Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours at sea fall under the Hellenic Coast Guard, founded in 1919 by an Act of Parliament. It is a paramilitary body that stays under civilian control in peacetime, and its main mission is enforcing Greek, European and international law at sea.
For Greece sailing tours, the Hellenic Coast Guard fleet totals about 240 to 250 vessels, including five offshore patrol vessels of 45 to 60 metres and eleven lifeboats. It adds seven airplanes and six helicopters.
From 1964 to 1980 the Coast Guard flew its own flag, based on the Greek ensign with a crossed anchors badge on the centre of the white cross.
Petty officers train for two years at the Palaskas Naval Training Centre, while enlisted members train at a school in Piraeus. Coast Guard officers hold the same ranks as Navy officers.
Marine VHF radio is a two-way voice system for ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore contact. It uses the 156 to 174 MHz band, with transmitter power limited to 25 watts and a range of about 100 kilometres.
The modern life jacket is credited to Captain John Ross Ward, who made a cork vest for lifeboat crews in 1854. A personal flotation device keeps the wearer afloat even if unconscious.
- Founding: The Coast Guard dates from an Act of Parliament in 1919.
- Fleet: The fleet counts eleven lifeboats among its 240 to 250 vessels.
- Radio: Marine VHF radio works in the band from 156 to 174 MHz.
- Life jacket: Ward made a cork vest for lifeboat crews in 1854.
Greece sailing tours therefore sit inside public cover at sea, from the Coast Guard fleet to the radio aboard each boat.
How do the seasons and sea temperature shape Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours meet Aegean surface water that warms to between 19 and 24 °C in summer. In winter the same layer runs from 8 °C in the north to 13 °C in the far south, so the sea changes with the season.
The Aegean is a hot-summer Mediterranean sea overall, but its large body of water keeps summer highs below those of arid climates, especially along the coasts and on the islands.
For Greece sailing tours in the north of the Aegean, the climate is cold semi-arid, which brings cooler summers than the hot-summer Mediterranean climate found elsewhere in the sea.
According to the climatic atlas published by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, South Crete receives more than 3,250 hours of sunshine per year, the upper end of the range the atlas records.
Sea state is the general condition of the water surface, and a trained mariner can assess it by eye or by instruments such as weather buoys, wave radar and satellites.
On calm days the sea surface temperature can vary by 6 °C over a day. Ocean temperature at depth lags the air temperature by 15 days for every 10 metres.
- Summer: Aegean surface water reaches 19 to 24 °C.
- Winter: The same layer drops to between 8 °C and 13 °C.
- North: The north Aegean has a cold semi-arid climate with cooler summers.
- Sun: South Crete tops 3,250 hours of sunshine a year.
Greece sailing tours therefore track a sea that moves between warm summers and cool winters, with the sun record and the daily swing in temperature adding detail.
Who can join Greece sailing tours as a family or first-time sailor?
Greece sailing tours suit first-time sailors because recreational sailing includes coastal sailing within sight of land and daysailing, not only long offshore passages. Cruising boats such as the sloop use a smaller headsail that a short-handed crew can manage easily.
Personal flotation devices come in different sizes to suit variations in body weight, and designs differ by wearing convenience, activity and the level of protection the wearer needs. Foam is the usual material.
Sails derive power from the wind, generating both lift and drag, so a conventional craft can sail upwind and downwind courses but not on a course too close into the wind.
A dinghy is a small open sailboat used for recreation, sail training and tending a larger vessel. Youth sailing programmes favour dinghies because they are simple to operate and need little maintenance.
Sailing craft were the main carriers of sea trade and transport into the later 1800s. Steam slowly replaced sail in commercial shipping, so Greece sailing tours are now recreation or sport.
The cutter carries its mast further aft than a sloop and flies two foresails, a jib and a staysail. A small staysail can be flown from the inner stay in high winds, which suits cruising boats.
- Coastal: Sailing within sight of land is one form of cruising.
- Dinghy: Youth sailing programmes use dinghies for training.
- Headsail: A smaller headsail is easier for a short-handed crew.
- Sizes: Flotation devices are made to suit different body weights.
Greece sailing tours for families and newcomers therefore start from the right sized life jacket, a manageable rig and a coastal route within sight of land.
What do travellers ask about Greece sailing tours?
Greece sailing tours raise practical questions about the boat, the wind scale, the radio and the vocabulary of Greek seafaring. The answers below cover the difference between sail and motor, the Beaufort scale, marine VHF radio and the origin of the word caique.
How do Greece sailing tours differ from motor boat trips?
A sailboat is propelled partly or entirely by sails, while a motorboat gets its propulsion exclusively from a motor, not from wind or human power. Greece sailing tours belong to the first group, so wind direction and sail handling shape each day on the water.
Which wind scale describes conditions on Greece sailing tours?
The Beaufort scale links wind to what can be seen at sea. Its first classes described the effect on the sails of a frigate, from a wind just sufficient to give steerage to one that no canvas sail can withstand. The Royal Navy adopted it, and it spread internationally.
Which radio do Greece sailing tours rely on at sea?
Marine VHF radio carries voice calls between ships and with harbours, locks, bridges and marinas. It also summons rescue services. The distress call SOS was agreed in 1906, after the letters CQD first served as a Morse code distress call in 1904. Greece sailing tours use the same system.
What does the word caique mean in Greece sailing tours?
The Greek word kaiki comes from Ottoman Turkish kayık by way of Italian caicco and French caïque. It names a traditional fishing boat of the Ionian and Aegean seas, built from the boatbuilder’s craft and memory, not from plans. The word bears no connection to kayak.