World Traveller August 2019

GREECE
‘
IT’S A CATERED VILLA,
A LUXURY MOBILE HOME
AND SPORTS RESORT ALL
ROLLED INTO ONE
’
success, it is impossible for me to get
cross with him.
That afternoon we drop anchor in a
preposterously cobalt-coloured bay,
Lakka, beloved of postcard-sellers
and yacht charters. We windsurf,
paddleboard, and take selfies
against the improbable blue, but
somehow the magic is gone, crowded
out by the yachtie hoi polloi.
‘How about a walk?’ suggests Charlie,
delivering a masterstroke. He drops
us ashore, then takes Argentous along
the coast to pick us up in the next
village, Longos, leaving us to follow a
thyme-scented donkey track between
beaches and abandoned watermills,
olive groves and hamlets. I’m not
saying there’s no moaning, but in
between grunts the boys chase crickets,
stroke goats and play Marco Polo
in the shallows at Manadendri Beach. It
feels like we’ve wandered off the tourist
trail to glimpse a Greece that few
people get to see.
What you don’t get on Argentous,
we discover waking to a force-six
wind the next day, is guaranteed good
weather. But Plan A's loss (we had been
aiming for the indecently photogenic
Voutoumi Bay on Antipaxos) is
Plan B’s gain, as we divert to Porto
Ozias, a one-taverna inlet at the
eastern end of Paxos. Glassily calm
and inexplicably free of other boats,
the inlet is a gloriously windless shelter
from the storm. For hours we windsurf
and wakeboard, sunbathe and read,
eventually sailing in for dinner in
Paxos’s main town, Gaios, where our
boys play football on the cobbles below
the church.
So far, so Instagram, but don’t you
get exactly the same memories — for
half the price — on a bog-standard
skippered-yacht charter? Well, actually,
no. For one thing those bog-standard
charters might occasionally have a
mini speedboat to ferry you between
boat and port, but with nowhere near
enough horsepower to tow a waterski or
wakeboard. Take away the water sports,
and a yacht — for kids — is basically a
floating prison.
But more than that, Argentous makes
you feel like royalty. It’s partly just the
sleek lines, the teak deck, the towering
mast. As we pulled into Gaios, people
actually got out of their boats (daubed
in rental-agency logos) for a better look.
But it’s also the service: no-frills yacht
charters are hard work. You cook, you
clean, you pull ropes, you shop: it’s fun,
but you’ll need a holiday afterwards. With
Joy below-decks and Charlie at the helm,
the only finger you lift on Argentous is
the pinky on your drink. It’s a catered
villa, a luxury mobile home and sports
resort all rolled into one.
On our last day, we sail back into
Gouvia marina on Corfu, all five of us
sitting silently on-deck in pre-emptive
mourning. ‘You’ll just have to come
back next summer,’ says Joy. Yeah,
right. At $13,000 a week and without
another inheritance on the horizon, it's
a 'probably not' from us. However, there
were times on this trip — wakeboarding
in that abandoned cove, swimming
round the boat at dawn, playing cards on
deck — when we felt so truly spoilt, so
dizzyingly privileged, I knew it was worth
every penny.
A year on, Argentous’s owners have
added three more luxury yachts to
their fleet. One, Aurous, is a five-cabin
catamaran with a trampoline and
sundeck. My advice? Nab it before my
kids get wind of that trampoline.
Inspired to travel? To book a trip, call
+971 4 316 6666 or visit dnatatravel.com
50 worldtravellermagazine.com