Day 13 – Departed Volos

Hi Everyone,Welcome to day 13 of our voyage. This morning we departed Volos following a wonderful two day visit. From the moment that we arrived we were shown friendship and kindness and I cannot speak highly enough of the Volos Community. It is a amazing city with warm hearted and friendly people and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about going to Greece for a holiday. To the Volos Deputy Mayor Georgia Bontou and Mr Nikolas Ntokos I would like to pass on my sincerest appreciation from the Staff and Crew of Young Endeavour for inviting us to Volos and for ensuring that our visit was such a success. You are kind and generous and we will always remember our visit to your beautiful city.  Sadly today we had to farewell Jennifer Reilly from the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme who has now returned to Australia and will join us again in Norway. During the past month Jennifer has assisted with the arrivals and departure of World Voyagers Passages 2, 3 & 4 and has been the tour guide for all of the tours during the Centenary of ANZAC, Cadiz, Canakkale, Istanbul and Volos visits. On top of this she has written articles, taken photos and posted them on our Facebook and Captain\’s Log pages and assisted in so many other things during her time on board. A huge Thank You!! Jen for all of your efforts, you will be missed by all of the Staffies and World Voyagers and we look forward to having you back onboard in Norway.  Tonight it is back to Blue Watch writing the Log and volunteering to write about their experiences in Volos are World Voyagers Stefan from Malta and Reina. Enjoy!  Until tomorrow, take care.Yours AyeCaptain Gav  Captains Log: 06MAY15Ahoy mateys! Welcome to the Captains Log of Day 13 of Voyage 4! Reina and Stefan here!  On Monday morning we had the pleasure of waking up to beautiful views of the Greek Islands and sailing into the small city of Volos, Greece. The reception was out of this world. We were greeted by many sailing yachts and tug boats, as well as other trainee sailors on Lasers and tiny yachts similar to those used in the Australian Tacker programme. They really made sure we had a very warm welcome, with endless tooting of horns and even a film crew out on a RHIB (rigid hull inflatable boat).  Once we had arrived we had a number of Greek high school students on board to have a tour of the upper decks and learn about the ship and the voyage. Then we were taken on a short walk by the Deputy Mayor and her staff to the City Hall. There we learnt about the famous boat, Argo, and the Argonauts programme. This consisted of building an exact replica of the prehistoric ship, using only wood and ancient techniques. After a lot of hard work training and testing a crew they sailed the rebuilt Argo around the Aegean and Black Seas. The ship now resides in the Port of Volos waiting for its next big adventure.  A small group of the crew (Zack, Jared, Kirra, Derry, Stefan and Ailesh) decided to go exploring a part of Greece. Ailesh had seen a small blurb of Meteora on some advertising material and it sounded like a good place to go. No words or photos could prepare us for what we were going to see. Meteora is known for its one of a kind, monasteries. What makes them so special, you ask? The latter are built at the very top of huge rock formations that seemed to have been carved by giants. The only two things that deterred us a bit was the two and a half hour car ride to arrive there, and the fact that Greeks drive on the wrong side of the road! (relatively speaking) All our worries quickly faded as soon as we put on some tunes and put the pedal to the metal! That drive definitely helped us bond and become even better friends than before.  Those of us who chose not to go to Meteora, stayed in Volos and explored the town. This involved walking around and finding beautiful churches, in the backstreets, on the waterfront, and even in underground caves (go explorer Nikki!) We hired bicycle carts, checked out the local shopping, and enjoyed cocktails at friendly cafes. Royal Greek treatment! Later in the evening most of us got to together to go out for a Greek seafood dinner. We had a lovely time and received two rounds of free beer from the restaurant owner!  Tuesday morning was a little bit like being thrown back in time. The mayoral staff of Volos took us up Mt Pelion, home of the Centaurus (half horse, half man.) We went through a few different villages on the way up and got to see traditional Greek architecture the whole way. After getting lost in the narrow winding roads we stopped for a few souvenirs from the locals. We explored the village and and the Vice Mayor shouted everyone to a tea and coffee on the mountain top square, overlooking the rest of Volos. The views were stunning on the hot and sunny blue-skied day.  On arrival back from Mt Pelion, the ship had launched into its open day. With the help of staffies and crewies throughout the afternoon, we had over 500 people on board including many children who enjoyed putting on the pirate hat and taking turns on the helm. Shortly after the open day, we started to prepare for hosting our second Sundowners (a small cocktail party) on the ship. Many dignitaries attended the event, the Mayor and his son came as well as the Australian Ambassador for Greece who drove in especially from Athens with other colleagues. The night was a huge success and very entertaining with Greek dancing from the locals and only a few drinks spilt!   After Sundowners Jen made the big decision to join us for drinks and more dancing. Keeping everyone together was like herding a group of cats but eventually we found a small bar which we very quickly filled up with authentic Australian (and Kiwi) spirit. It was a very long night of dancing but like all good things it had to come to an end and we headed back to the ship to rest up for sailing out of Volos the next morning.  At 0830 this morning we were all up and ready for out departure out of Volos and learning about setting the square sails. Once again, we had a convoy of yachts and tugs seeing us out of the port and with a heavy heart we waved them goodbye. Our time in Volos was incredible and we were blown away by the standard of hospitality from the Greeks. Many of us certainly want to come back, some of us even thought of retiring here!While setting the topgallant and topsail as we were sailing away, we quickly realised that a late night prior to sailing wasn’t the best of ideas, but like the sailors we are, we pushed through it and got the job done! :D  This afternoon we had our “morning” brief and were given the opportunity to have a “make and mend”. This involved hand washing all our dirty laundry and spending our time resting, getting ready for passing through the Corinth Canal tomorrow.  We are now on our way heading to the tiny island of Malta! Excitement grows as Stefan tells us about all the exciting things we can do! Fingers crossed for good winds and seas along the way.Stefan and Reina.  p.s Hey mum, dad, Carlos, Chantelle, and Ox! Love you all so much and missing you even more. Looking forward to seeing you when I get home from my fantastic journey around Europe! Xx  p.s.s Happy Birthday bro! Stefan here, I’m really sorry I couldn’t be there on your twentieth birthday, but I will surely make up as soon as we arrive back in Malta! Hope you’re taking good care of Meatloaf (our cat)! See you soon!”