Kaklamanakis’ Aegean crossing UPDATE

Nikolas arrived last Friday, October 21 in Andros island and the next morning sailed for the Aegean crossing.

He first called Myconos island, passed Delos and finaly for the night he had to stop in Donoussa due to heavy weather.

The journey proves more demanding than expected due to the hard weather conditions – wind mostly of force 7 and waves 3.5 to 4.5 meters on Saturday and 4 to 4.5 meters on Sunday.

Tumbled sea on the leg from Andros towards Tinos.

Mid Mykonos till past Delos ideal freeride conditions, but on the way to Donoussa things changed: 7 hours with waves and windward sailing, Nikos was forced to sail unhooked most of the time!

SUNDAY 23th of October

Today he sailed to Koufonissi and early in the aftenoon headed to Amorgos, where he arrived later in the afternoon, so he will spend the night there.

  The sailling to Tilos & windy Karpathos is for tomorrow, with moderate wind forecast. 

 

MONDAY 24th of OCTOBER

Well, maybe the forecast about “moderate” wind is just averaging the greatly variable conditions of this last sailing leg. Here is the description given by Nikolas’ support team late in the afternoon:

Good evening to everybody.. difficult day today..for those who dig about weather..the Karpathian Sea is one of the hardest aereas..The last update we got was 2 hours ago..(mobile phones are out of reach and we have no other means for information..)..Even if something happens they have to get really close to the island to get network signal.What we know is that the wind in quite a few places was dropping to 6-10knots(that is 2-3bft) demanding pumping…for extended periods..while there were spots where wind suddenly was coming back very strong…in 1hour & 28 minutes the sun will set and the port of Karpathos(facing East-not West)will have not much light after sunset..We are very worri

BUT HE DID IT ! Pumping & struggling in the dark he dropped his sail docking in the port of Karpathos…Bravo Nikola & THANK YOU.

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Kaklamanakis’ Aegean crossing – Reminder of the Greek fighting spirit

In 1997 he challenged himself against the elements of nature and won, making with his windsurfing board the long distance crossing from cape Sounion down to Crete, in two days.

Back then, Nikolas Kaklamanakis  wanted to try his limits and at the same time promote his homeland, the Greek tourism and the effort of Greece  to claim the Olympic Games of 2004.

Fourteen years later the double Olympic medallist, rigs his windsurfing board and puts prow for one still bigger overshooting: Sail Aegean covering 320 naval miles in two days!

With ally the air and drawing energy & force by his internal need to prove that Greece always fights and overcome difficulties, the 43 y.o. champion will start from Andros -in the waters  of which  his father baptized baby Nikolas as a sailor – will pass in succession from Mykonos, the holy island of antiquity Delos and from Amorgos, will cross small Cyclades at Donoussa & Koufonissia and after a stop-over in  Tilos, he will end up in Karpathos.

There in the blue waters of Aegean, Nikolas will give asymbolic big battle, which he considers as his debt toward Greece & Greeks, that suffocate from the economic situation and are maligned internationally.

Go for it and for us Nikola!  (click to watch the short video)

FOLLOW NIKOLAS during his crossing: CLICK HERE

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