Once again and for the very last time this weekend, most of us skipped the morning workout (today was a sunrise run) before being woken up to board a water taxi at the last minute.
With all the partying the past week we had forgotten that we signed up for an optional day trip to the photogenic island of Hydra.
A picturesque port with no cars allowed, this is the cobblestone “Venice” of Greece. You can spend hours here roaming the portside for shopping and people-watching, hosting a summit with lovers and friends, wandering the back alleys, petting donkeys, and climbing up for views of the sea from cliffside:
After a bit of shopping and helping out Umbi with getting 2 dresses for his partner, I jumped into the cold waters with Amelia for a swim by the rockside beach bar of Spilia:
Our lunch afterwards at the Greek fusion restaurant Techne was some of the best food of the trip:
After about 6 hours wandering Hydra, we jumped back into our pre-arranged water taxis at around a whopping unexpected €35 per person. We’d find out along the way that the up-charge was for them to ferry us specifically back to our makeshift raft of yachts that had already set sail back to Poros ahead of time.
Once back on our rafted fleet, we were given about 2 hours to swim before getting dressed for our final party theme: Sirens Call!
As the sun began to set and our last golden hour together flooded the air, we boarded water taxis to take us to the venue at SEEN Beach Club.
This was the night to let it all out and shoot your shot…and to find out you’re a 2x TYW Regatta Winner!
After dinner and an initial party at SEEN, we took our own private water taxi back at midnight, where we had a 2 minute window to jump off on one end of the raft and jump from yacht to yacht like an drunken Olympic level hurdle course to make it to the other side (dropping off some clothes and picking up our leftover bottles of alcohol), where the water taxi by then had circled around for us to take us to the final after after party back at Malibu.
I was surprised nobody died or fell between the yachts as none of us would be taken as track and field types especially after a week of sleepless debauchery. But we made it, and with so much stuff in our system after 7 days on the water, we were ready to rage; a party that already lives up to the legendary status that Cavo Bianco already had branded itself onto our collective hippocampus. We walked shirtless along the marina, unopened bottles in each hand. We left them behind to get back to dancing on the barrels at Malibu. And we let out a collective groan at 3am when TYW staff told us that the water taxi would have to take us back to our yachts and couldn’t wait any longer. By 4am we were chowing down on spicy ramen Taejin and Victor made for those of us still up, knowing this was it and the goodbyes were about to begin.
The next morning we preceded our sail back to Athens with one last morning swim and breakfast, of which I think only Jay and one other person bothered to take advantage of. By 2pm we returned to Alimos port where we began our sorrowful farewells to an eventful week that I know in my bones will be consequential for man. Just how and what will come out of it will take time to know for sure.
But the adventure always continues; those of us staying behind an extra day headed together to Athens to check into our fancy penthouse by the Parthenon.
Thanks to Sidian’s suggestion, we then enjoyed one last dinner at Savvas rooftop for the 25 of us remaining.
Afterwards for sunset, we reconvened for drinks at Gina’s favorite rooftop bar at 360:
Weighed down by both the entire past week and the heat, however, we eschewed the rooftop penthouse jacuzzi for an air-conditioned wholesome winding down back at our apartments.
An attempt to watch our videos from the past week felt so emotionally taxing we called it a night soon afterwards.
- At time of posting in Hydra, it was 29 °C - Humidity: 47% | Wind Speed: 11km/hr | Cloud Cover: heat waves after waves