Where Passion Meets Courage.

Mondays are awesome on SwimVacation. Everyone has had their first night’s sleep on the yacht and the morning brings our first full day of immersion.

Miriam can backstroke as fast as she freestyles. She flips on her back if she’s feeling a little anxious, or just to change up her perspective.

First, it’s important to mention one of my most favorite things about SwimVacation in Greece: Lulu’s Coffee Service for Guides (aka me and Simon). With a smile she came, at 7am sharp, right before she and Richie moved us to our next location. I got to spend a lovely 15 minutes with my coffee in my nest. The coffin berth on this boat is deep and luxurious by crew cabin standards, and another of my favorite things to do on SV is to set up home in there. I put my clothes on one shelf, my lotions and potions on another. I hang a few pretty things from wherever in the world we are to set the mood. A little attention to aesthetic and comfort counts when you’re running one of these trips.

The sun came softly through a thin gauze of clouds first thing, casting everything in a gentle light. It promotes calm, this kind of light, so early in the morning. I emerged to find our swimmers chatting quietly and nibbling on the yummy things Lulu had laid out for a light breakfast as we got underweigh. 

Soft colors and calm waters start the day.

We moved to Mourtia paralia, which means “beach” in Greek. This beach was lovely, but hardly the main event of this swim. You may remember from our Ionian Sea blog that I diagnosed Greece with a cave problem. And so we jumped in and made our way to what seemed like a small insignificant islet, but on arrival revealed itself as a dramatic promontory complete with swim throughs and underwater ledges and all manner of sculptural coolness. A swimmer’s jungle gym. We moved to the cliffy shoreline to find a small underwater passageway that led to a secret room – decorated with roots between rocks and open to the sky. Those of us who made our way in squealed in the tiny space like kids discovering a new playhouse.

The first of many swim throughs came as we circumnavigated this dramatic promontory on Paralia Bay. Spectacular.

A short swim to the cliff lined shore brought is to more caves and a tight swim through that took a little courage but offered a secret room, just for us.

The Greece we know and love is an architectural playground above and below the beautiful Aegean Sea.

This shallow cave was “raining” fresh water, as it trickled down the rocks from the vegetation above.

Miriam hung back a little. I know that caves are not her thing, and I checked in with her as we meandered from cave to crevice to cliff to see how she was feeling. Miriam is a very strong swimmer and is truly passionate about being in the sea. But the thing that has always impressed me most about her is her courage. Though she loves what open water does to her and for her, the truth is it makes her nervous. She struggles to surrender to the water, to have trust that it wants to carry her, but when she is brave and gives over, she always comes out better. The amazing thing is that she has total faith in this process, even as she is afraid. And so she swims. Sometimes she does backstroke, sometimes she hangs close to a guide, but through her fear, she swims. That’s called courage. When she shared yesterday’s blog post on facebook, she said about it: “And here we go, when passion and courage meet again!”. So today when I saw her discomfort with a swim that was mostly about caves and promontories and things that make her generally nervous, I could see she was feeling a little discouraged. But she stuck with us, crept closer and closer to the cliff faces, and got back on the boat knowing she’d gotten a little closer to something new.

We had a bumpy sail to a windy little bay on the island of Alonnisos where we dropped anchor for lunch. Here we saw many beautiful and harmless barrel jellies – large, domed jellyfish with frilly skirts, sometimes purple, sometimes brown. It seemed a little unnerving until I assured everyone they could go have a closer look without risk. Kendra and Simon jumped in and bobbed around to examine a few of them.

After lunch we sailed a short way to the neighboring island of Peristera, where we did our afternoon swim. I hung with Marianne and Lexi and we worked on Lexi’s stroke and I made Marianne do a little sprinting just to remind her how strong she is.

While we were bobbing along the coast, Simon took Kendra, Susan and Miriam further down the steep island cliffs, where they came upon an underwater tunnel. After watching everyone else dive down and swim back and forth through this stone archway, Miriam decided to give it a try. Simon explained how important it is to exhale – to allow yourself to sink so you can safely pass beneath the rock. We can go longer than we think without lungs full of air, and once you believe in your ability to do it, it frees you up to explore a little deeper, a little longer.

Miriam listened, believed, and dove. She passed through the swim-through with ease (And yay Simon for catching it on video!). Knowing that just this morning she was anxious and stiff as she watched us bob in and out of caves and passages, witnessing this feat was pretty moving. When I caught up with them, they shared what she’d accomplished and I squealed and gave her a full body water hug. She beamed. That happens when you grow into new courageous corners of yourself, and it allows you to fully feel your passion.

Miriam faces her fear of caves and swims through and underwater passage way!

Warm figs with goats cheese and tahini honey. I’m sorry you’re not here.

So that was today in the water. Today on the yacht was about lovely lounging and incredible meals – breakfast eggs to order, a lunch of incredible quiche and salad and saganaki (it’s fried cheese, yall. Pan. Fried. Cheese. Let that sink in.). My favorite happy hour snack ever appeared – a warm fig (no you haven’t had a fig like this), topped with goats cheese and tahini honey. Trust me, you haven’t lived. Magnificent stuffed chicken and veggies for dinner and whoa hold on a minute, it’s crepe night. Yeah Crepes. Uncle.

So now our guests are finishing their big and busy day as they began it, with quiet conversations in various corners of our lovely yacht, here in a lovely bay, with gentle, calming breezes.

Is it the atmosphere that has them so comfortable, or is it knowing they are stretching muscles and parts of themselves that don’t get tended to in their everyday lives on land?

No matter really. They are fully here and not a single one of them belongs anywhere else tonight.

I’m going to join them for a few minutes before retreating to my nest. Lulu will come to my hatch with the rising sun and I’ll fuel up to find more corners to explore.

Kali Nikta, Greece. Good night.

Love,

Heather