Everything that has a Beginning has an Ending.

 

NASA said that its InSight Mars mission has ended.  The robotic spacecraft after a more than six-month journey landed on Mars, Nov. 26, 2018. Since then, InSight has been studying the planet's interior and seismic activity.  It detected more than 1,300 quakes with a 4.7 quake that shook the planet for six hours. On De. 21, 2022 NASA announced that two attempts to contact the spacecraft failed, likely because its batteries had lost power after dust accumulated on its solar panels and the rover fell silent thus its mission has ended.

This blog was a byproduct of a mission to transport the car of my friend the late Milos from Florida to his son in San Francisco.  My son John decided that it was risky to me to drive alone so we drove the three thousand miles together.  From San Francisco we returned to Chicago ( 2000 miles) by train and then by bus (400 miles) to Columbus, Ohio for a total of 5,000 miles.  My intend at that time was to stop posting but on advice of a friend, I continue posting mostly on my travels.

The most memorable posts were from an epic journey when together with my brother and two friends brought a sailboat from Spain to Greece a 1,400 nautical miles journey. It was our Odyssey and I described it as such on posts from Aug.15, 2015 to July 16, 2016. 

In the past 10 years, I uploaded 228 posts in my blog Cross Country Chronicles but as Jack Kornfield said in his Buddha book "everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well" 

There are many individuals from my immediate family, and those who love and care about me who encouraged and inspired me to write.  I want to thank and express my gratitude to seventy thousand plus individuals who followed my musings. I wish them all a good a pleasant trip in their lives. 

2013-2021; a Travelogue

In the past 7 years, I uploaded 202 posts in my blog Cross Country Chronicles.  As this is the first post of 2021 and maybe the final of this series that started with a trip, I took with my son John, from Orlando to San Francisco to Chicago and on to our starting point Columbus, Ohio.  Also, it included among others the remarkable crossing from Spain to Greece on my brother Nikos 29-foot sailboat Okyrhoe.  The trip from Florida to California and back to Ohio is described in 55 posts in January and February 2014.

The trip from Spain to Greece is described in 23 posts from August 2015 to July 2016.  There are many individuals from my immediate family, and those who love and care about me, to friends I love dearly, to professional associates at places where I lived and worked, and all those who encouraged and inspired me to write.  I want to thank and express my gratitude to all and wish them a good a pleasant trip in their lives.  The pictures in this post are from Porto Rafti, the beautiful little bay, I have made my domicile while in Greece.

                                                                       The three pictures in this post were taken by my brother-in-law Kostas Fotos.

Most Popular Posts

As you know on the first day of the new year, I publish the all-time favorites.   This year the top three from the 190 posts were:

1.    In the Land of the Cyclops

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2016/04/in-land-of-cyclops.html

2.   Poseidon’s Temple and the Aegean Sea

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/04/poseidons-temple-and-aegean-sea.html

3.   Porto Rafti

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/03/porto-rafti.html

Most of the 50,000+ visitors were from the United States, followed by Greece and Russia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia.

I wish you all and your loved ones a healthy and happy New Year.  I also hope 2020 will bring peace on home planet Earth.

Top Three

Five years have passed since I started my blog.  During this time I have uploaded 164 stories.  The three most popular posts are:

Poseidon Temple and the Aegean Sea

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/04/poseidons-temple-and-aegean-sea.html

  

Porto Rafti

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/03/porto-rafti.html

  

The Goddess, the Queen, and the Plant

http://dgscrosscountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-goddess-queen-and-plant.html

Most of the visitors were from the United States followed by Greece, Russia, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Malaysia in that order.

The picture is from Poseidon’s Temple in Sounion.    It is a place you can enjoy the expanse of the Aegean Sea and the blue of the sky that inspire people when there, so here are some thoughts first in Greek and followed by its translation

Σουνιο, Βραυρώνα, Ναξος, Κρυφο Μανδρακι
Είμαστε πλασμένοι γι'αυτες τις μικρές τις χώρες
Και οι αρχαίοι ναοί που η μουσική τους αντηχεί στο πέλαγος
Αυτος ειναι ο ύμνος της αγάπης μας μεσα στην απεραντοσύνη του γαλάζιου

Sounion, Vravron and Secret Mandrakion

we were born and attached to these places

their Ancient Temples and hymns that

resonate in the sacred Aegean

 and echo

our love's story in the immense expanse

of the blue sky and sea.

On this first day of 2018, I wish you all, your families and friends a Happy New Year.

Summer 2016 Cruises; Serifos

We left Kythnos, and sailed due south to the island of Serifos.     

Just before we entered Koutala bay in the southernmost part of the island we passed by a beautiful sailboat.   The tiny islet Macronisi is seen on the left and barely visible behind the boat is the island of Sifnos.    

We entered the bay in fair weather with George, my 12-year-old nephew, resting against the lifelines.  In the back, one of caves legend has it was the dwelling of the Cyclops.  Of course the other contender where the Cyclops lived is the charming little town of Aci Trezza in Sicily where the stones Polyphemous catapulted in his effort to sink Odysseus boat can be seen. 

Alas, our peaceful time at Koutala bay did not last as the feared seasonal wind Meltemi started blowing at night.  We recorded velocities of 30-35 knots and gusts of 40-45 knots.  Although our primary anchor, the lightweight 7lb aluminum Fortress, buried itself in the sand and provided good holding, we dropped a second much heavier 26lb Cobra anchor.  As the two anchors were dropped at different points resulting in lines of different lengths they caused us to swirl and swivel all night long.  The endless boat dancing was a minor inconvenience as we felt especially at night when not assessing distance from the other boats and our proximity to the rocks is not easy.

As it was near impossible to use our dingy against the fierce wind, my brother Nikos, cooked a wonderful dinner of spaghetti using seawater.  We will all remember the saltiness of the pasta but because we were hungry we did not mind it or cared about the lack of sauce.  The dinner was complete as it was accompanied with stale bread and raki a potent alcoholic drink for the adults and treats for the kids.

In the 20th century, the mining company “Société des mines Seriphos-Spiliazeza exploited the iron ore mines of Serifos. In the summer of 1916, in response to inhumane working conditions, the 460 miners formed a union and organized a strike. Their leader was K Speras, a Serifos native, who had experience with labor struggles, on the Greek mainland. In response to the strike, Grohman, the director of the mines, asked help from the Greek authorities, who dispatch a 30-man gendarmerie detachment.  After detaining Speras and the strike committee, the gendarmerie lieutenant ordered his men to fire on the workers, who had gathered at the ore loading dock at Megalo Livadi and did permit the loading of a cargo ship.

In the morning of August 21 after the gendarmes fired at the strikers they in turn reacted with stoning them. Four workers died and tenths were injured. The lieutenant and two of his men were stoned to death and their bodies were thrown into the sea.  And there was the famous French flag incident: “Suddenly I heard cheers and in the midst of the crowd I saw a woman holding the French flag. I didn’t lose time and grabbed the flag and shouted: In the name of the French Democracy, put your weapons down!!” Speras writes in his book.

On August 26 the French warship «Henri Quatre» arrives at the island. Its crew honored the French flag and the captain declared support to the requests of the miners.  In early September, the Greek warship “Avlis” with 250 soldiers aboard was sent from the island of Syros. The union leaders and some of the workers were arrested and imprisoned in Syros. Thus the short summer of anarchy ends in Serifos but this strike led the way to the establishment of the 8-hour workday in the rest of Greece.

The capital of the island -Hora- is perched on a high hill and is defended by its Venetian fortifications.  As the weather forecast was predicting strong northerly winds we left the island of the Cyclops that is also associated with two more great heroes of Greek Mythology, Odysseus and Perseus, hoping that we will return again to get to know it better.