I never planned to drown in Linaria bay on Skyros island

in May 2022 I was staying in Skyros island in my apartment. Our boat was on mooring lines in Linaria port. But as I didn't have a crew I could not sail it during my stay. On the boat we also had an inflatable SUP (stand up paddle board), I had used it once like a canoe, it was pretty fast in calm sea and I enjoyed using it that way. On May 18th 2022 I thought it would be good to get some exercise and went down to the boat to use the SUP. I checked the wind on Windy app, stronger winds were announced later at night around midnight. So I thought it would be safe to go out in the late afternoon.

Around 6 pm I sat on the SUP and decided to paddle to another bay next to Linaria. I had packed my two iPhones in a red waterproof bag and put it in the net on the board. In retrospect this actually saved my life. (Thank you Apple btw. This could actually be a great advertisement for them.) I decided to take a short cut right across the bay and not lose any time staying close to the shore.

After about 30 minutes, the waves were getting stronger and I noticed I had problems keeping the board in the direction I wanted it to go. So I turned around and decided to back to the boat. I had only this one sided long paddle and in rougher sea this is not really helpful. I tried hard to get back closer to the island, but actually the waves were pushing me further out into the bay. I realized that I would never manage to get to the shore with this strong current. So I took one of my phones out and called Dimitris from the port. "Dimitris, I am on my paddle board in the bay under Kavos bar and I can't make it back to my boat. Can you please come and pick me up with your dinghy?" Dimitris: "I'm a bit busy right now. I call the coast guard to get you." "Wtf Dimitris, I don't need the coast guard.....!" "I call you back in 5 minutes" said Dimitris and hung up. I put the phone back in the bag and I was really angry and cursing inside.

A few minutes later a big wave hit the board and I capsized and was in the water. I managed to grab the board and put the paddle on it. I grabbed my red waterproof bag and hung it on my shoulder. I thought that maybe I could swim back to the shore by holding to the board but this was also not working , it felt like swimming on the same spot constantly. What I remember next is that another big wave turned the board around and I was again under the water surface. When I came up, a strong wind gust blew the board away and made it flip over the sea. My hat, my sunglasses were gone , the paddle too. I still had my red bag with me. So here I was now, swimming all by myself in Linaria bay! The rocky shore was about 150-200 m away. But swimming towards it against the waves and the current proved to be impossible. A fishing boat came in about 50 m away from me. I shouted and waved at it, but the guy on it was just staring in front of him and could not hear me because of the engine noise.

While I was swimming, my phone was ringing in the bag. Swimming and phoning at the same time is quite a difficult thing, so I had to let it ring. I said to myself:"No way, I will not drown here in Linaria bay! This is impossible, it cannot be!" I had no other choice than to stay afloat and wait for help. I actually didn't panic and luckily didn't get any cramp in my legs. I knew that Dimitris would probably worry as I didn't answer the phone and that he would come for help. At one moment I had to think about Cat Stevens, who once nearly drowned while swimming in the ocean. According to him he heard the voice of Allah at that moment and he later became a muslim as he was convinced that Allah had saved him. Well I didn't hear any voice. Only my own cursing.

After about 40 minutes I finally saw a fishing boat coming at high speed in my direction. I was relieved! Giorgos, a local fisherman, came to fish me out of the sea. He later told me that he hadn't been told where exactly I was . But he saw the paddle board still continuing to flip from time to time over the water. And figured out that I must be in a straight line from the board. And then he saw my red bag on my shoulder in the water. The color red also saved me! When the boat was next to me I was too exhausted to climb aboard. 2 guys pulled me out of the sea. A lady from the coast guard was on the boat too and gave me a blanket. But I wasn't cold, after all I had been continuously swimming. Giorgos said. " You are very lucky my friend. in 30 minutes the sun is going down. And then we would no longer have found you, impossible to spot a swimmer in the dark. Thank God you have this red bag, I could find you because of that."

I wasn't in shock. I never doubted they would come and get me out of the sea. In retrospect I made some big mistakes: I hadn't told anyone I was going out, I didn't wear a swimming vest and I hadn't strapped the cord of the board around my ankle. The only smart thing I did was the red bag and the phones. The new iPhones are really waterproof btw, they got wet of course, as some water got in the bag. I could not charge them for about half a day because of the humidity, but they survived the adventure and still work. My muscles however reminded me a few days of the incident. My whole body was aching a bit as I hadn't been swimming so long since years. I wanted to exercise that day and got it in another way.

Linaria is a small place. Of course my story was known in the whole port. A fisherman said to me that St. Nicolas must have saved me. This is the saint that the Orthodox Greeks believe to be the protector of the seafarers and fishermen. I simply believe that my old guardian angel was again watching over me. He saved my ass already several times and is still there watching over me. He doesn't get bored so easily with me.

I haven't been on a paddle board since. But I was back at sea on our sailing boat some weeks later.