A week in the Cyclades, planned around the meltemi

The meltemi is the Aegean's great misunderstood asset. Guests read the forecast, see thirty knots, and imagine a week at the dock. Captains who know the Cyclades read the same forecast and start planning the best week of the season.

The wind builds through the afternoon and dies with the light. So the week runs on the wind's clock: passages at first light in flat water, anchored by noon, and the long golden afternoons in bays that face south while the sea to the north turns white.

Day three is the hinge. If the system holds, you are in the lee of Naxos with a taverna table booked; if it breaks, you cross to Amorgos and get the monastery at sunset almost alone.

This is why we insist charter itineraries in Greece stay unsigned until the week before. The itinerary is not the product. The crew's judgement is.