Ready to set sail - Piraeus, Greece |
Our ferry between Piraeus and the island of Poros Greece arrives |
Ferry disasters, like plane crashes, make headlines for the obvious reasons. Loss of life, the human error or malfunctioning equipment grab the readers’ attention. And those disasters – thanks to the internet – can live on for decades with the flick of the wrist and a Google search.
Car/passenger ferry links Poros island with mainland Peloponnese |
* The Express Samina, one of the oldest ferries sailing at the time, went down killing 82 of 550 passengers, just two kilometers off the coast of the island of Paros. Reportedly the crew had left the bridge to watch a replay of a goal in an important soccer match on television and the ship hit some rocks.
* The other disaster that year took place near Falkonera island, when the Heraklion sailing between Chania (Crete) to Pireaus (Athen’s port city) capsized in a storm. Only 46 survived out of 73 crewmembers and 191 passengers.
Minoan and Anek Lines ferries in Chania, Crete |
* In 2016 the ferry Pangia Tinou sank while in port in Pireaus. It wasn’t in service and no one was on board at the time.
Heading to Loutro village (white spot on the coastline) from Hora Sfakia |
* There are 164 passenger ferry sailings daily from Piraeus. That means more than 50,000 sailings a year from that port alone. If you go back to 1966, the year of the double disasters, and do the math, you find that there have been more than 250,000 sailings from Piraeus alone in the last five decades.
* In 2000, the UK’s Guardian reported, “According to the Annual Ferry Review produced by research company IRN Services, 50 million passenger trips are made on Greek ferries each year, and between 1994 and 1999 there were no fatalities - an impressive track record for a country which has the biggest ferry fleet in Europe.”
One of our favorite Greek ferries, Samaria I, southern Crete |
The size of cruise ships and nicely appointed - we took the Blue Star above to Piraeus from Crete |
Arriving Mykonos about the high speed ferry (Cosmote is a telephone company ad) not the ferry name |
Car/passenger ferry for short haul runs to the Peloponnese |
However, there are three things we’d advise you to keep in mind when planning a ferry trip in Greece: 1) Ferry travel – even for walk on passengers – is not inexpensive. Airline tickets might be cheaper than the ferry tickets. 2) a storm at sea can cause major delays or cancellations of ferries so if you are heading to Athens to catch a flight give yourself some wiggle room when planning your ferry trip because if the weather doesn’t impact it, 3) there just might be a strike by ferry or dock workers.
One of the best sites we’ve found for researching Greek ferry travel is http://www.directferries.co.uk
That’s it from us this week. We wish you happy travels and smooth sailing ~ And as always a big thanks for stopping by TravelnWrite!
Linking this week with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration