OOOOOOOOOOHWEEEEEEEEEEE did it storm last night. A good old fashioned squall. The lightning! Webs of electricity across the sky, near constant thunder in a howling wind. Of course I awoke to it in my tiny little coffin berth and had to pee desperately, but that meant a journey out into the weather. I waited for a break in the rain, then tried to wait for a time when I felt at least a little hopeful I wouldn’t be struck by lightning. I still made the trip with my eyes shut tight and fingers crossed hard. I survived and returned to my berth, shut the hatch and texted Simon, who normally sleeps outside.

The starboard “coffin” berth has been my home this week. I like to nest and add special touches to make it home. The lovely blue bag hanging on the wall came from Amy’s cool store back in Denver!

“Are you in the other coffin Simon?”

“Yeah”

“I’m scared!”

“Of what? (insert smart ass emoji here)”

Spiders, you smart ass. Okay. No empathy from Simon.

Next I saw Skipper Richie appear above my hatch, doing his skipper duties and checking on the anchor and pulling towels down from the lines.

“Skipper I’m scared!”

“Thunder and lightning, very very frightening” he gave me in a sing songy voice and ambled back to bed. No empathy or special scaredy cat tuck-ins from Skipper. Ok.

I sent Lulu a message on facebook and she never even woke up. Fine.

Ok so it was a crazy storm, but really, no big deal for a life at sea. A little excitement in an otherwise delightfully boring weather week. Perhaps the Ionian Sea was having a little tantrum, protesting this being our last night out in it.

Kendra and Heidi have gone from strangers sharing a room to fast (and fast swimming!) friends.

We woke to sunshine and skipper moving our yacht (actually, I woke to Lulu handing me my coffee through my hatch. Mmmmm.). We were headed for The long tail of Maganisi Island, home of Papanikolis cave, Mama of all caves. We had a ball here last year, and so it proved to be again. Meganisi and its serious caves is a place I lose my sense of scale. The little caves in our yacht parking spot look small, until Simon swims out to secure us with a stern line. It takes him a long time to swim to the rock, and once he stands on it, you realize how big the place is. Likewise for Papanikolis. It looks big, but it’s so big, it’s hard to really decide just how big it is. Until you see a VERY big boat pull all the way inside of it. Oh. It’s THAT big. We were postulating that it might actually be bigger than the little bay we swam in on Thursday. A bay in a cave. It’s BIG.

Our yacht parking spot and personal caves make a perfect leap off point to swim around to Papanikolis, and a perfect staging area for swimmer portraits.

Simon got this pic of me working with my swimmers and my camera. I love this spot for photographs!

We swam out of it just as the big boat parade of tourists began. I was so glad to have gotten in and out before the madness. We headed back to our little yacht and I spent time in the water with my big camera and each guest. Our triple cave parking spot made a perfect location for swimmer portraits. I felt like I could see the magic of these islands in each of our swimmers through the camera, like I was photographing them through the spell Greece has cast.

We climbed back aboard and made for upper Meganisi and our final swim. It was an ok swim – in a bit of a busy harbor. We had some wind move in so we were forced into a place that was part shelter, part within reasonable striking distance of Lefkada. It’s often hard to find good swims as we have to leave the outer islands and get close to the marina. But here’s the thing: the fab five didn’t really care. No caves, no amazing sights, just a swim. And still at the end of it, they bobbed around in easy laughter. They were just happy to be in the water together. No geological spectacles required. I love this group for this.

We reluctantly climbed out and Skipper set sail for home. I cloistered myself in my editing cave prepping the slideshow from the week for our last night together.

Enjoying our final voyage to into Lefkada.

We sat down to a fantastic dinner of delicate fish with a lemony sauce and amazing vegetables and yumness. The wine flowed. We all started to discuss our favorite swims of the trip, and we all agreed it was too hard to decide, though the swim with the ringing of the bell had a slight edge. We were all a little emotional. Not only did Greece really deliver this week, but these 5 – along with Simon and I and Richie and Lisa – really connected in a way that makes it really hard to say goodbye.

Richie and Simon hung a sheet for the slideshow in the cockpit. It was still too light out to project, so Richie put on an impromptu shadow puppet show. He’s never done this before and it showed. Laughter.

Watching the week in pictures fly before our eyes set to music brought us all to tears again. The gang asked me to wait on writing and posting this blog entry so we could all just hang out together. So I took the night off and it felt great to just hang with these dear, swimming friends of mine.

We hung out and laughed until it was late. Very, very late.

Now it’s Saturday and we’ve said goodbye to Jeff and Amy, Heidi and Simon. Natalie and Kendra fly out later tonight and they are kicking back on the boat deck as I am catching up on paperwork and the blog – all of which I am doing from a horizontal position. The re-provisioning for next week is mostly done, the boat has been cleaned and we are more or less ready for another go….

We work hard and take what we do on SwimVacation very seriously, but I think the specialness comes from the love and fun with which we do it. And so when the work is done and we know we gave our guests a safe and spectacular week, the fingers of relief soften our muscles and close our eyes….Lulu, Richie and I are having a bonafide afternoon crash.

We can’t take all of the credit of course. Kudos and so much thanks to Simon, without whom we might not have found so many treasures and fantastic swims this week. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Amy & Jeff, Heidi, Kendra and Natalie. Your faith in us and your embrace of each moment makes what I do such a gift. To share in the delight of Greece’s offerings with you has been a special thing indeed. Your complete immersion in this experience is what makes this whole shebang magic. And Efcharisto to these Greek Islands and this Ionian Sea. You wowed and romanced us in mythical style.