Hi Mary, and thank you RWH for your kind words. We look forward to seeing you this weekend 😊 Yes Mary, we can help you with this. Not entirely sure you need a cook though. Most people eat out in an evening meaning there's only breakfast and a lunchtime snack to consider. You could have a hostess to get out the milk and cereal and make a light lunch for you each day, but I'm not really sure you'd need it. But it’s your choice. You mention; “four of us”. Do you mean two couples? Just thinking now about size of boat as you’d need cabins for the four of you and the skipper who will sail the boat for you. Depends whether you want shared or separate cabins. Presuming two couples, then the four of you plus a skipper would fit into a 3 cabin boat. You’re then down simply to how much space you want. Anything from a 349-up has three cabins, but you might want to consider 389 or 409 just to have more space? Or if you really wanted more space, a 349 and use the bunk cabin as extra storage space. Again, your choice. Check out our yacht details to help you decide. With a skipper you would be asked to help throw mooring warps when you dock, or slip and pull them in when you leave, plus drop or lift the anchor (press a button!), but people usually see this as a part of the fun of the holiday and preferable to having more crew on a boat with them. And the skipper is always there to show you want and how to do things. Another option would be to join a flotilla. You could either do a couple of days sail training before you joint the flotilla and do it yourself with the help of the Lead Crew, or still have a skipper. This would mean you’d have both your own skipper and the Lead Crew to help you moor etc. You’d also get the company of the others on the flotilla … if of course this is something you’d want? It would also mean sailing where the flotilla sails … although you could always break off. I’m summary therefore: - Yes we can provide you a skipper to do the sailing - Yes we can provide you a hostess although I’m not sure you’ll need one presuming you eat in a local taverna each evening (as most people do) - You could do a few days sail training just before the flotilla and so sail on your own, remembering the flotilla Lead Crew are there each morning and evening to assist you - You and your skipper can follow the flotilla or go your own route as you wish (and the winds permit) - You’d probably want to be looking at a 389/409 or possibly 439 yacht in terms of size depending on how much space you want Hope I’ve covered everything for you 😊

You can certainly visit the Cyclades islands by yacht and could use a skippered charter to provide you a skipper if you are not qualified sailors, however, you must consider yacht travels at 4-9kn depending on conditions and so you would be talking taking much of a day to travel from one island to another. Given your 5 day schedule I'm not sure that's rally what you are after. If you want to move quickly between islands then you may do better to use the ferry and hydrofoil services. Even then, you'll be pushed to see much of any one island is you have a round-trip time of 5 days. So yes we can help you with yacht. Yes we can provide you a skipper to get you from island to island, and yes we have a yacht large enough for 6 in your party plus a skipper, but it all depends on how far you want to travl and how you wish to arrive. To move fast doing as many islands as possible, then we would suggest the ferry and hydrofoil services. If you want a more relaxed space and ability to sail into quiet bays and anchor-off, then we can most certainly help, but you'll need to think in terms of fewer islands and a slower and probably more enjoyable pace. It's your choice :-) Drop an enquiry via our website if you'd like to discuss in detail and to also gain a view on where you might want to visit. Note there are some wonderful places on the Peloponnese 'mainland' which can be as remote and quiet as any of the islands. Whatever, we hope you have a great holiday.

Unless you are on an adventure trip where you join a skippered yacht, the pricing is for the charter of yacht irrespective of how many people are in your party, and so the price per person will depend on: 1. What size yacht you charter 2. What dates you book ... high summer is more expensive that autumn for instance 3. And how many people are in your party You can find a full enquiry form on our website which will help you define dates and yacht plus any options like whether you require a skipper. From that we can advise on availability and costs :-)

Sorry for the slow response Roman. How many in your party? Do you have any sailing experience and quite what would you like to do? Sail for an hour or two, stop and swim, lunch on the boat and sail back? Also, any idea on which day of the week you might want to do something. Fri-Sun are very busy for us as we have people coming back on the Fri and departing on the Sat, with new customers arriving on the Sat and leaving on the Sun

I'm afraid you would need to return the boat, although... We could make a special arrangement where we'd provide a crew to bring the boat back, but then I'm afraid you'd need to cover the cost of the crew, of us getting the crew to the drop off location and for the period of charter when the boat would be returning to base which I suspect wouldn't make it attractive. We are a family charter business rather than some large multi-base operator that might be able to allow boats to be dropped off at different bases, although I'm not aware of even the large operators doing this. The problem is that it leaves yachts in all the wrong places.

I’m not entirely sure I understand what you want, or maybe that you’re sure what you want. We ‘rent’ [charter] yachts for people to sail a. by themselves (bareboat), b. in a group of yachts with assistance (flotilla), or c. with a skipper who takes responsibility for the yacht leaving you free to (mostly) help as you wish, although the skipper will need help handling mooring lines and the anchor when coming into/leaving port, but will explain all this to you. Now a yacht travels at about 5-7 knots (nautical miles per hour) meaning a sail of 5 hours will take you 25-35 miles…and most people consider this a long sail when on holiday. The Cyclades islands, the islands between Athens and Turkey, are offshore and distances between islands will typical be a day’s sail, e.g. at least 5 hours, and they can be 10 or more hours, it just depends on from where and to where you are travelling. All this means is that in a yacht, you tend not to travel far unless you are a more experience sailor and happy both to make longer passages and, if you want to go out to the islands, travel well away from land and depending on your route, possibly completely out of sight of land. Now you can island hop in a yacht, but a week means 3 days out, 3 days back, and so even 3 days at 35 miles means you’ll not be going far in terms of island hoping. In terms of scale, is about 160 miles from Athens across the Aegean to Turkey. So depending on what you would most like do, I have two suggestions… 1. If you want to go and see the Aegean islands, you need to get ferries. They go fast, are regular and can take you all over the Aegean. As to where to go, my advice would NOT be to head for Santorini (Thira) as it is a looong way and it’s busy. Consequently my advice would be stay nearer to Athens particularly if you want to avoid open water. The ‘chora’ (hilltop village) on Serifos is particularly pretty…see our website for a location albums that shows this…but there’s still plenty of open water even to get to Serifos. Also, unless you want to go clubbing, better to avoid Mykonos as it is busy and more expensive, and again, a long haul from Athens although you might find an overnight ferry 2. If you want to sail in a yacht, then you can go from the airport to the port of Piraeus (the port of Athens). From there you can get a ‘Flying Dolphin’ hydrofoil of ‘Flying Cat’ (large jet-powered catamaran) and come across to the island of Poros where we’re based. It’s 60 mins on the dolphin, 75 on the cat. You can then take a skippered charter for a week and do either the Saronic or Argolic gulfs. See our website for ideas on what you’d see and where you might go. The Saronic is back towards Athens and shorter sailing days, well in sight of land and a ‘lighter’ sailing. The Argolic is longer distances and ‘slightly’ bigger sailing, but still well in sight of land. You can visit islands on both routes, but believe me, ports on the mainland are every bit as lovely as those on the islands. The Peloponnese is quite wild and so unless someone tells you you’re on the Peloponnese mainland, you’ll never know :-) If you like this option, we can help you with your transfer from the airport to us, you’d just need to let us know your flight times and we can work something around that So if you want to really hop across lots of islands, then I’d point you towards the various ferry companies depending on to which island and at what time you want to travel. If you want to sail in a yacht, then my guess is a skippered charter would suit you and probably the smaller hops of the Saronic. There are some wonderful little ports, and some of the prettiest are actually on the Peloponnese mainland. If you want to do this, drop us a message either via the website or to info [a t] Greeksails [d o t] com Whatever you choose to do, I hope you enjoy your visit to Greece :-)

We might be able to arrange something for you, however, August is peak season and so it is likely all our yachts will be out on charter. We'd also need to know numbers in your party as the yachts are licensed to only carry up to a specific number of crew. You would therefore likely require a larger yacht. If you drop your details to us at info [-at-] greeksails [-dot-] [c o m] or via the enquiry form on the website we can see what we can arrange for you

Oh my goodness, so many question to answer :-) So let’s start with the easier ones. There are no marinas in this part of Greece…well, not unless you were to sail up and stay in some of the huge Athenian marinas, and so you will find yourself in small harbours where you can either moor, typically stern-to, on a hard (quay) or you can anchor off. As Hugo D mentions, you are unlikely to pay any mooring fees with the only exception being Navplion at the head of the Argolic Gulf. Conversely you can’t expect mains power and water points every 20’; these are small village ports. However, you can expect several tavernas to choose from and so eating out on or near the quayside would be the normal experience. Re certification, yes, you will need certification. This is a legal and insurance requirement as opposed to something we like and the Port Police prefer to see a ICC - International Certificate for Operators of Pleasure Craft (we handle them checking your certification for you on arrival). It is possible the NZQA will issue you an ICC on the basis of your Boatmasters Certificates. The UK RYA do a similar scheme where holders of an RYA Day Skipper ticket can automatically be issued an ICC, they simply need to ask. So ideally an ICC is the magic piece of paper. We have people turning up with Oceanmaster certification and the Port Police will prefer to use the ICC even though a lower qualification! Something you haven’t mentioned is whether you are thinking bareboat of flotilla. What’s the difference? Think of bareboat like car rental – you’re given the keys and it up to you where you go and what you do; just please bring the boat back in one piece. In flotilla on the other hand you sail in your own boat and make your own way from stop to stop, but you have a lead boat and crew to give you morning briefings, advise on where to go, what to see, where to stop, and to help you get into port each evening. So you’re sailing on your own, but your route is with the flotilla. The benefit is the advice and support of the lead crew always being there to assist you. So you can do more with bareboat but need to be more self-sufficient and better qualified. Flotilla helps take the strain and even organises a tavern each evening…although you are not obliged to eat with everyone else. There is also the ‘assisted’ option Hugo D mentioned of having a skipper on board with you, maybe just for day 1. This might help you get familiar with the boat, this strange stern-to mooring etc. before cutting loose on your own. Now, 5 of you and keeping the costs down. Yes, you can take a 4 cabin yacht, but you are then looking at 43’ upwards, e.g. a larger, more expensive and bigger to handle yacht. No issue in that, but smaller yachts will give you three cabins = 6 couples + usually one can sleep in the saloon. It all depends how much space you want and how much Mum & Dad are happy to pay, so you might want to consider 3 cabins if cost is an issue. It’s all your call :-) So where to sail? You have a bit of a mix of crew with one who can be seasick and others who’d like a bit of a blow. So in general if you sail in the Ionian to the west of Greece, distances tend to be short and the winds light. Harbours also tend to be busy…it’s the area people first think of. Then if you go over towards the Turkish coast and the Cyclades distances are longer and the winds stronger. This probably is not a good place for you to go from what you mention. And in between you have us. From our base you can sail out to the Cyclades, although from your description I’d not advise this. We then have two options; ‘north’ into the Saronic Gulf between us and Athens. Shorter distances, but can be busier due to the proximity of the Athenian mega-marinas, so you are sailing towards these fleets, but then Sep would be quieter. Or you have our ‘southern’ route into the Argolic. This has longer distances and you can tuck in for gentle sailing or cross the gulf for those wanting a bit more of a sail. I’d be inclined to go that direction, but that’s a personal choice. There are some quite detailed pages on our website about the various routes and locations and plenty of picture to give you an idea. There’s also a ‘boat finder’ to give you an idea of how many berths, heads etc. each yacht has which may help you in your space vs. cost dilemma. Remember too; bigger yachts can be more of a handful and so you’ll always find yourself wanting a 50’ while at sea or once moored and a 25’ as you come in, manoeuvre and park :-) Hope this is of help. Take a look at some of the advice on our website as this may help to answer more questions/fill in blanks. Maybe we’ll get to see you in the summer :-)

Hi Yuda, why do you want to sail at night? Most people prefer the yacht to be quiet and still at night to help them sleep rather than moving and tacking. Also, unless you are expecting the yacht to be sailing for at least 8 hours, it means coming into port at some point in the early hours when you'd hope to be asleep, but then with crew walking across the decks, mooring up, dropping anchor and generally distrubing everyone...your party and any other boats. I suspect you'd be very unpopular. Also, a large yachr might have four cabins, possibly four and a single berth for a skipper, so I dont think you'll find a yacht large enough for 4 couples + a crew of at lrast two...not unless you are looking at something like 60 or 70' and that would be extremely expensive. Our suggestion would be to take two yachts, 2 couples on each boat, and each with a skipper. Sail by day assisting the skipper when required. You might only sail 4 or 5 hours a day...in fact as much or as little as you wanted...and so would have plenty of time to stop in bays and swim and then enjoy eating out in a taverna in a small port in the evening before coming back to the boat for a quiet still night's sleep. I can see what you are thinking of, but I believe it wouldn't work out as you think and you'd be unhappy moving at night and getting poor night's sleep. I don't think it woudl work for you at all.

This seems a simple question but it’s complex answer. The quick answer would be this isn’t practicable, but the longer answer is that this would probably not turn out as you imagine and you might find it’s not what you’d really want to do, but that’s an answer that demands a little more explanation, so let me try. Also, let me at least try and guess at what would be something nearer what you think you are requesting. So you have mentioned Santorini and Mykonos. Pictures of Santorini are everywhere and it is certainly a stunning location and Mykonos is known as the Ibiza of the eastern Med. Seems pretty straight forward, however… Santorini is very popular. That’s another way of saying busy, precisely because pictures of the town are everywhere. Everyone wants to go to Santorini because they’ve seen the pictures. Santorini (Thira) is also a flooded volcanic caldera meaning it is steep sided…just as you see in the pictures. Steep sides mean deep water and deep water means it is difficult to anchor a yacht. Yes there is a small harbour, but remember, Santorini is congested and congested means it can be impossible to get a mooring and if you do, it can be necessary to stay with the yacht because of other boat’s movements and that then destroys the reason for going there in the first place. Santorini is also the very most southern of the Cyclades islands. To the south there is nothing but 60+ miles of Aegean Sea before you reach Crete. A yacht, depending upon its length and the wind, travels at about 5-6 knots…5 to 6 miles per hour…and so you are talking 10 hours or more sailing in open sea to get to Crete. Of course you want to go north to Mykonos, but Mykonos is the same distance north. However, the trip north is not entirely open ocean and so you could island-hop north, however, the predominant wind in the Aegean in the summer is from the north and so it means a ‘beat’ to the north, e.g. sailing against the wind. This means you have to travel further, meaning you take longer, and the wind is stronger as you are sailing towards it. Sailing into stronger winds means it can be bumpier and the Meltemi wind can blow strongly. Generally, because they are offshore, sailing in the islands is considered more advance sailing for more experienced sailors and people used to sailing well out of sight of land. My concern is you would end up sailing long periods out of sight of land, upwind, into bumpy seas and find it was a whole lot more ‘full-on’ than you ever expected or wanted. So trying to read into what you say, and I hope not getting it horribly wrong, you seem to have a vision of sailing comfortably from port to port, a cook on hand and to enjoy a wonderful relaxing sailing holiday while seeing great sights. This is what most of us what, it’s just I don’t think Santorini and Mykonos fits with that vision, especially for people who have not got some reasonable amount of sailing experience. Personally I think you would enjoy a ‘Skippered charter’. This means you select a yacht and we provide you a skipper. He worries about the boat, you give him a helping hand in mooring and suchlike, but otherwise you are free to relax or participate in the sailing as you desire. You stay closer to the coast moving from port to port which means shorter passages of a few hours each day, not an entire day at a time as you ‘disappear out to sea’ passing from one island to another. Going out of sight of land can be a little daunting, especially if you’ve never sailed before. If you want to see wonderful sights, from our base in Poros you can sail and visit the ancient theatre at Epidaurus, the Temple of Aphaia, the amazing Venetian town of Navplion and its Palamidi Citadel, the ruins of Mycenae, or for me one of the great ‘must-see’ places in the world, the wonderful medieval walled town of Monemvasia. I know these places may not seem to have the ‘draw’ of Santorini and Mykonos, but I suspect they would give you a trip far closer to your vision than Santorini and Mykonos on a yacht in a week. My suggestion is go to Santorini and probably Mykonos by ferry and leave the ferry to take the strain of the longer distances and bigger seas. I hope this helps :-)