I fell asleep without the now familiar pangs of panic when my thoughts start revolving about the life ahead. I get this weird feeling of being suspended somewhere between heaven and earth, and although I knew that it will be difficult to work through my suddenly solitary state, I knew I will have to accept it.
But for now I am in a dreamlike situation, and I was actually becoming quite at one with the world.
Anyhow, I knew that it would be hellish to wake Nikos up at 5.30am, but that was my instructions, as their driver, as well as a taxi would pick us up at six for Faliro where the yacht is anchored. Nikos was outside himself with fury for being woken up, and his screams reverberated through the house, waking up Ermioni as well. She was staying with the Ya-Ya. But somehow I got the message that we are going on the yacht through to him, and he suddenly fell silent, looked at me with wonder and mused: 'You are like a giant!' Well, in a house where the tallest person couldn't be higher than 1.5 meters, I must have looked like a giant as I am a healthy 1.75.
Mouth fell open when I saw the amount of luggage the parents were taking with. The Taxi was just for the luggage! Goodness!
At Faliro we stood on the top deck watching the preparations, and also the people. It is wonderful, as different restaurants have tables and chairs all along the quayside, and it looked so gay with all the different tablecloths, and the waiters scuttling around to get everything ready for the day. All over people were bustling around their yachts to prepare for their different voyages.
At last we were off, and I felt a lot of my cares fell away as the soft breeze kissed my cheeks. It was a huge yacht, with three bedrooms, one en suite for Dorah and Yannis, one room alone for me and Nikos, and one for the woman who would do the cleaning and cooking. The captain slept up in his tower. Then there was our bathroom, a nice kitchen and a huge sittingroom. There was also the downstairs deck, and upstairs a small one where Dorah suntanned.
Nikos and myself had the downstairs deck to ourselves, and it took some doing to keep him safe as he insisted on leaning far over the side of the yacht making my insides churn like a fan running at top speed.
Our first port of call was Korissia, also called Livadi, one of the safest natural harbours in the Mediterranean, according to our captain, who with his almost non existent english vocabulary, would become my source of information on the trip, where we anchored, and slept.