“Kalimera!” Nicole and I said as we stepped onto the sailboat in Mykonos Harbor.
“Kalimera!” Two pretty dark-haired women and a man and a blonde woman who seemed to be a couple replied. They sat on opposite benches from each other on the boat deck.
Nicole sat next to the women and I sat across from her, next to the couple.
“We’re waiting for four other people and then we will depart,” the first mate announced.
“Four other people?” One of the dark-haired women asked.
“Where will they sit?” Nicole looked around at the small deck where the six of us were already snug on the benches.
“I hope they’re fun people. Nicole and I manifested a fun boat trip with fun people,” I said.
Everyone laughed tentatively, like they weren’t quite convinced that the people surrounding them were going to be the fun people we’d hoped for.
“While we wait, can we have alcohol?” The blonde woman next to me said with a big smile. She had a European accent of some kind but I’m terrible with accents, so I didn’t even try to guess where she was from. But her question was a sure sign that she would be fun!
After a few minutes, the first mate came up from below deck and said, “We are leaving!”
“We aren’t waiting for the people?” The blonde woman’s spouse asked. He had short brown hair, a mustache and goatee and a big smile, just like his partner's.
“We waited long enough,” The first mate said.
And like that, the motor started, and Dimitrius, the Captain began steering us out of the harbor. It was a beautiful morning. The blue cloudless sky met the blue waters on the horizon.
"We need music!" One of the women said.
Poppy music came on and suddenly everyone had glasses of white wine. I don’t like white wine, so I opted for a beer and climbed to the front of the boat to watch as the islands passed us by.
“I just saw a shark!” The dark-haired woman who had introduced herself as Alysha yelled.
“Where?” The first mate asked.
“Over there!” Alysha pointed out to the endless sea.
“Impossible,” he said, shaking his head.
“I swear. I saw the fin!” She brought a hand to the part of her gold cover-up that covered her heart.
“There are no sharks in these waters. Maybe a dolphin,” the first mate said with a wink and a smile.
“I don’t know…” Alysha shook her head and scanned the horizon.
Everyone laughed and settled into the sunshine and flow of the boat. After about 30 minutes, we approached an island called Delos.
“We’re going to dock here so you can look at the ruins,” the first mate said.
The six of us piled off the boat and began to explore. Nicole and I read a pamphlet that explained the island was the mythological birthplace of Apollo and that some of the archeological ruins dated back to the 3rd century BC. The island was a sacred religious center and more serious people might have approached the experience with a certain solemnity, but Nicole and I began laughing our heads off while snapping pictures and coming up with ridiculous captions. For example:
She probably shouldn’t be touching that.
The world’s first charging station.
We discovered the original Pottery Barn.
By the time we got back to our boat, we'd been cracking up for almost an hour. The couple who we now knew were Philipp and Regina and the two women, Alysha and Aseela, were already on board.
“Are we late?” I asked.
“No. I got scared. Too many animals!” Alysha said.
“Sharks?” I asked.
Everyone laughed.
“No. Lizards,” she said.
“There were a lot of lizards,” Regina said.
Twenty-five years in LA had me used to lizards. Interestingly enough, during my travels in Greece, I’d found a lot of similarities between Greece and California. Olives, figs, oleander, and grapes were abundant in both places and the climate was similar – hot but relatively dry – especially in Lesvos. But that day, we were far from Lesvos, where I'd started my journey in Greece.
We pulled away from Delos and motored back out onto the sea. After a while we anchored in an area with a few other boats. One by one, we jumped into the water.
I put on a mask and looked down. There were no fish and no coral. It was like a barren sea – so different from snorkeling in Bonaire where the coral and fish whirled around me in rainbow colors.
“No fish!” I yelled after raising my face out of the water.
“Sharks?” Alysha asked.
“No sharks!” Everyone yelled, laughing.
While the captain and first mate prepared lunch, my boat mates took turns paddle boarding. They drank more wine and we all swam, lounged on the deck and of course, took ridiculous pictures.
We are the kings of the world!
We learned that Philipp and Regina were from Germany and Alysha and Aseela were from Toronto. We’d all been in Mykonos for two days.
“We took the ferry from Santorini,” Aseela said.
“You did?! So did we!” Nicole said.
“So did we!” Regina said.
“It was horrible!” I said.
“So hot,” Alysha said.
“I cannot believe we were all on that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ferry,” I said.
“This boat is much better!” Regina said.
“Yamas!” Someone said the Greek word for “cheers.” We all brought our glasses together and cheered, “Yamas!”
The first mate appeared from below deck carrying a giant wok full of beautiful pasta with mussels and shrimp and a Greek salad and placed them on the table between our two benches.
“That looks amazing,” Philipp said.
We ate like we were lifetime friends.
“You should come to the male review tonight!” Alysha said to me and Nicole.
“Male review?” Nicole asked.
Alysha showed Nicole something on her phone.
“How do we get tickets?” Nicole asked. They began to try and make reservations. After a few minutes, Nicole said, “It’s a minimum of 250 euros per person.”
“I feel like we could arrange to see naked men for way less than that, don’t you?” I asked.
"Definitely!" Regina laughed.
“Come to dinner with us!” Philipp said. “We’re going to 180 Sunset Bar.”
“That sounds good!” Nicole and I said together even though we had no idea what that meant. All we knew was that we liked this German couple and that we’d had a fabulous day with our new friends and that this episode of The Boo and Shorty Show Board The FUN Boat proved that manifesting what you want is totally possible.
180 Sunset Bar: It's as fun as it looks!
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