The author very kindly sent me a copy of Orchids for Aphrodite well before Christmas and I have been dipping into it ever since and at last, now the sun is shining and the sky is blue, I am writing about this record of an Aegean Odyssey. I had this by my bedside and during the winter I would look out the window and see snow, blizzards and ice while I read about Ursula (who had never been on a boat before) and Bob, an experienced sailor and how they restored a classic wooden yacht and set off to explore those islands and coasts that were only accessible by boat. There is a map of their wanderings and I just sat reading these names out loud: Amorgos, Kalinos, Kithera, Santorini, Anafi, Ios and so on. These words just drop off the tongue and sound so alluring as does the Route of Cappelle, The gulf of Themal and the Straits of Karpothos.
Our two intrepid travellers did not just sail through turquoise seas in serene weather, they had their fair share of storms as well:
"We beat in Force 5, pointing as closely as we might. The sea roughened, time dragged cruelly. Weary of Cappelle's head butting I longed for the wind to go down with the sun. Bob vomited and I lurched into the cabin to pull on oil skins. From baying like a pack of hounds,the wind, developing an edge, began to hone the nerves like a razor"
Whether they realised it or not, It was clear they needed an extra crew member on board and one day they unexpectedly met somebody determined to join their yacht:
"Between the sea shuffled boulders at my feet, in the approximate position of the Colossus's right foot, the bedraggled head of a black and white kitten appeared, its body rocked by wavelets...I grabbed it by its scruff and dropped it into my shopping bag, filthy and tar streaked it screeched louder....."
Ursula's plan was to clean it up and let it go with the other cats in the rocks but as we all know, cats have a mind of their own "the decision was not mine to make for the kitten intended to keep Capelle" and so Wacky, as he was christened, joined the voyagers as they continued onto Turkey.
When I read Orchids for Aphrodite I was full of admiration for Ursula who had never sailed before - through storm and tempest and then: "Riding the yacht's movement as she bounded forward on an even keel, her bit between her teeth, I was to all intents and purposes along while the captain slept. With the sails well balanced, I did as Odysseus 'who never closed his eyes but kept them on the Pleiades'".
I was also full of envy and a desire to hop on a boat and set sail myself, but then I remembered that I am the woman who when camping one weekend when the children were small, went armed with duvet, pillows, socks, books, chocolate and a hip flask full of vodka; remembered that I prefer when I wake up in the night and need the loo not to have to stagger across a field full of bats intent on attacking me; remembered that on the few occasions I have been sailing I have been sick with permanently churning stomach, get fed up with not being able to sleep properly, suffered from sun burn and salt laden hair and, in short, I turn into a miserable whiny grouch. So perhaps it is best that I read gorgeous books like this and live vicariously.
And when the voyaging was over, Wacky the official Ship's Cat came home with Ursula and Bob after further adventures in Italy, Corsica and France and after six months in quarantine on return to England, he was soon back on the Capelle on the River Arun in Littlehampton. It seems he was a guest star at the National Cat Club show in Olympia where he was presented with a champion of champion rosette inscribed To Wacky for his Love of Adventure. Isn't that something? He ended his life ashore in Scotland where Ursula and Bob now live.
This is a lovely book full of wit and humour, a myriad collection of characters with their quirks and eccentricities who Bob and Ursula met on their journey and I enjoyed it very much indeed. I will be honest and say the addition of Wacky to the boat gave Orchids for Aprhrodite a little extra something that I found most endearing.
I have visited Greece twice and have taken boats around some of the islands and they exert a fascination that I have yet to find in other islands when I have have taken to the sea. There is something about the navy blue and turquoise of the Aegean sea, the way the colours change endlessly, the sun beating down from a stunningly Greek-blue sky, which you see nowhere else, that gives me a feeling of inner excitement and the expectation that any time now something wonderful will happen. I also found this when I visited Delphi and Mount Parnassus. Perhaps it is the knowledge that this is the land of the gods that makes me feel this way......
Ursula and Bob have taken a trip and undertaken adventures and experiences that will stay with them for the rest of their lives - I loved reading their story.
