“Happy is the man, who before dying, has the good fortune to sail the Aegean. Many are the joys of this world, but to cleave that sea in the gentle late summer season, murmering the name of each islet, is to my mind the joy most apt to transport one's heart into paradise.”    

 [Nikos Kazantzakis]

 I wholeheartedly agree, and to my mind, there is no better way to “cleave” than on the the Nissos Kalymnos, that “Grand old Lady” of the Dodecanese.

The NK has been around forever, and I have been sailing on her for almost two decades now. It is one of life’s great pleasures to bask in the sun on the top deck daydreaming as she plods from island to island on her way from Kalymnos to Samos. And all for the price of about five frappes!

I always worry that each season will be her last, but, no, she keeps on going. I’m always so reassured when I see her hove into view. Life in the Dodecanese without the NK is almost unthinkable. Long may she “cleave”!