This is a very personal account of approximately six months, May to October 2002. During this time I went on two sailing trips with my boat, Thetis.

1. The first trip originated in Leros, an island in the eastern Aegean, where Thetis spent the long winter months. From Leros I singlehanded to the Aegean islands of Lipsi, Marathi, Samos, Chios, Lésvos, and Limnos.
   In Limnos I was joined by my high school friend Manos Castrinakis and Nadia Demetropoulou. Together we sailed to Samothraki, and to Thrace, of the mainland. stooping in Porto Lago, Maronia, and Alexandroupolis.
   In Alexandroupolis Manos and Nadia left Thetis and I continued singlehanding back to Limnos, Lésvos, and Oinouses where I joined with the S/Y New Life and the Ayker family. Together with them I sailed to Çesme in Turkey. I stayed there for almost a week helping my friend Turgut Ayker re-wire his boat New Life. From Çesme I singlehanded to Kirdilim Liman, and Samos. Unfortunately at that time my digital camera broke down so, for the rest of the trip, I have no photographs.
   There follows a period of a several weeks of staying ashore in our family house in Samos. During this time my wife Alice and I took a few days to sail Thetis to Arki, and Lipsi, ending in the Lakki Marina in Leros where Thetis stayed most of these weeks.
2. The second trip originated from Leros. My wife Alice and I sailed to the islands of Yiali and Niseros, in the Dodecanese, and from there to the Hisarönü Körfezi (Gulf of Doris) in South Turkey. In Marti Marina in Keçi Bükü we linked with my brother’s traditional boat the Faneromeni. Both boats sailed together in Hisarönü for several days. We also linked, in Bençik, with Turgut and Arzu Ayker and their S/Y New Life as well as with Fatih and Kadriye Uysal of the M/Y Jeopardy and the M/Y Nuket.
   From Bençik Alice and I sailed to Bozburun and then to the Dodecanese islands of Simi, Yiali, Kos, Kalymnos, Leros, Lipsi, Patmos, Marathi, and back to Leros where Alice took the plane for Athens and the US.
   From Leros I singlehanded to Archangelos and Lipsi, Samos, Agathonisi, Marathi in the Dodecanese, then to the Levitha, Amorgos, Schinousa, Naxos, and Iraklia in the Cyclades, and finally back to Leros where Thetis was hauled out of the water and where she will spent the winter.