Boats and fish
It all started in the seventies with a simple rubber boat, which a strong Meltemi wind had driven onto the rocks outside of the house. With it I went to sea and rowing had my first experience not only with the changing waves and currents between our peninsula and the opposite island of Kimolos, but also with the amazing variety of our coastal environment and its reefs, caves and colors.
Soon the rubber boat perished in the sun and was followed by the first MARGARITA, a small open wooden boat, that I bought in Perama near Piraeus and took it to Milos, rather foolhardy of me, as I had never been to sea before. But Poseidon was good and I was lucky. The Greek Malkotzi 5 hp diesel-engine was reliable then and took me to Pollonia as well as to the closer islands of the Cyclades as Sifnos, Folegandros, Ios, Paros, Naxos in the following years. And of course on the long trips around Milos with the trolling line for fish.. There was no round trip without good fish: sea bream (Sinagrida), barracudas (Loutsous), amberjack (Majatika), groupers (Stires, Sfirides)...
In the early eighties I got serious about fishing: a new boat, the second MARGARITA, a wooden "Trechandiri"- fishing boat, again built in Perama, where they still built very good boats at that time. Her strong Perkins diesel drove her for many years and was only replaced in 2018 by a modern Yanmar diesel. My fisherman friends from Pollonia helped and taught me all the things, that I didn't know. With the best feelings I remember Janakos and his Maria, Nikos Barbounis and his Arjiro. From them I learned to tie long lines and hooks, sew nets, splice ropes and much more. Catching fish fed us for a couple of years, since high quality fish in Greece always fetched a good price.
Today my son Max goes out fishing, because he also loves to be out in the sea, trying to find beautiful fish for our table, because we really still love to eat them. Who can resist the charm of an oven-baked seabream (Fangri, Sinagrida)? And we still know places, that not every fisherman knows and sometimes have success with hand or longline in depths of up to 200 meters, though nowadays the catch cannot be compared to those of 30 years ago. Sometimes we even go fishing with our guests, they mostly can catch some good-size barracudas or amberjacks, that fit very well in the frying-pan or on the grill. In September big schools of dolphin fish (dorados) come close to our shores, that can easily be caught trolling from a slow-going boat. They just need a piece of squid or kalamar and give a special fishing experience because of their beauty, power and swimming-speed. Their meat is white and tasty. From October there are also Kalamaria in the coastal waters, and fishing them is a popular pastime for us and the other inhabitants. You can even catch them from the piers, and - of course: who caught most of them?
MARGARITA was not only our fishing boat, she also took us around to many parts and most islands of the Aegean. The highlight of all was the realization of a long-cherished dream. Birgit and I set out for the big trip to Berlin.
Today we take her for trips to closer destinations, sometimes inviting our guests to experience the Milos-Archipelago as seen from the sea. There is also the rowing boat ELLA (with a small outboard-engine) and 2 kayaks to be used for adventure and exercise.