Seattle Swimmers in Santorini

There’s nothing better than finally taking the trip you’ve been waiting for all year long. Tickets were purchased months ago, our excursion The Big Blue Swim had the Santorini (Greece) hotel, swim routes and other goodies sorted out and the rest was for David, me and our 12 mostly-Seattle swim friends to get there.

David and I went by way of a nonstop red eye on BA from Seattle to London Heathrow. We had an overnight stopover at Hilton T4 London Heathrow. The stopover has the double benefit of allowing us to go explore the city and allows one lag day to adjust to the time change…a little, anyway.

We dumped our bags, hopped the Paddington express train into town and met my friend Melanie at Victoria Pub. Mel, who lives in Norwich UK, came to Catalina in August for her victorious triple-crown swim that I helped crew. What a wonderful short visit: Guinness toasts, a lovely dinner in an historic pub and upstairs restaurant called Fuller’s, and a little night stroll where she showed us the charming barges that people live aboard. She also presented a gift of thanks for crewing: a fun montage illustration created from photos by Spokane artist and channel swimmer Robin Davis. Now I just needed to keep it flat for the next week through Europe-and the copy she gave me for pal Kate.

British Airways sent me a late-breaking “location change” calendar alert for the flight to Santorini that directed us to Terminal 3 rather than Terminal 5. Have you been to London Heathrow Airport?! That is a huge difference in location. When we showed up with bags to check, the attendant looked at us like we were crazy. The flight was actually STILL out of T5. She said RUN. Her boss said RUN. We bolted to T3 (lifts, waiting on trains, running through tunnels, and more long lines), had to beg our way on through special services—just showed the text, we tried getting through security three times (!), and if the flight hadn’t been slightly delayed we would have missed it – and been stuck another day or two. Then, our nice prepaid seats were off our reissued boarding passes and we were relegated to the worst, windowless lavatory-area seats for the next 4+ hours. First world problems, I know: “Cry me a river, you poor thing.” I wrote BA for a seat refund and the miles that we should have received for that flight. That scramble was wholly induced by the airline’s own false alert. No fun for any of us.

Once in Santorini, life felt right again. The humid warm air, the scent of eucalyptus, the beauty in the scrubby volcanic cliffs and that blue, blue sea…swimming was going to be a blast! And it really was. If you swim around the volcano, know that you’re going to stain your suits. There were natural hot spring areas the boat pilot took us to—so cool. Lots of coastal point-to-point lets between 2-3k, just a leisurely workout, typically one in the morning and another in the afternoon. We also got an afternoon to hike atop the volcano and see the steaming vents and dramatic views – neat! Bring your underwater cameras if you go for pictures of a lifetime. And the sunrises and sunsets…WOW! The farm fresh cheeses, wine, tomatoes and squid on the menus are so delicious. We ate really well but food is pricier on this island; I blame all the cruise tourism. The stray cats broke my heart. I wanted to rescue them all. More ouzo!

This is my third swim trip on The Big Blue Swim: the first two were blissful in Lefkada (2014) and Crete (2017). I highly recommend this outfitter for the quality of tour for the money, great guides, swim analysis, breakfast and hotel included (El Greco hotel in Fira/Thira was not my favorite for a lot of reasons: Combat breakfast buffet, miserable-to-complacent f&b staff, only bottled water with zero recycling, and noise traveling into the rooms). From the US West Coast, the heavy expense is really in the flights. Get it out of the way early in cash and just worry about the swim fees six weeks out (the early 20% deposit is painless). The Big Blue is now offering Ithaca swimming as well; I’ll either do that or go back to Lefkada in the future. David swam like a champ, but he’ll forego future swim adventures for his bees at home.

The swims accept all swim abilities: at the start you are grouped by speed (and filmed underwater for later analysis) and given a corresponding swim cap – yellow/beginner, orange/mid-pace, and pink/fast. It’s all relative to who shows up on the trip. In competition, I’m very “middle”. Here, I was “fast.” Our group, since we swim together at home, we know we really swim pretty close in pace, but for the excursion they phase it so you have two Zodiac ribs, one each for the yellows and oranges, and the pink group goes in last and follows the big main boat…the idea is that all the swimmers finish together each journey. It works pretty well.

With tans aglow, swims done and goodbyes to most, we spent three more days on the other side of the island on Kamari Beach at Sigalas Beach Hotel—one of the only true, walk-easily-to-the-beach hotels. Main activities: just reading under thatched umbrellas and enjoying the freshest Greek food with three friends who wrapped the trip there, too. We chartered a wine tour and learned about the Santorini style of vine cultivation with the “basket” v trellis, its history, and tasted varieties grown on the island. Drink the Assyrtiko (say uh-SEER-tee-KO), a delicious dry white with great acids, somewhere between an off-dry Riesling and unoaked Chardonnay. I liked the Santo, Venetsamos and the Argylos Estate-made ones. Aaron at Vashon Thriftway ordered in the Santo, and it was so good.  

It takes many hours of working to sock away the cash for these travels, but it’s always worth it. I never regret a trip. Greece in general is very affordable, like Costa Rica, really. Next year: Croatia swimming with my Vashon and Seattle mermaids!