Having dropped Marisa off at the airport we did a big shop at Lidl to stock up for the next month or so. Once all the shopping was away I went to visit the Nautical Museum just outside Sami.
A Greek Trireme 
The lowest of the oar ports were only just above the water line and were sealed with sheepskin ‘gaiters’ around each oar and naied to the hull.
It is more of a collection of ship models than a museum but is absolutely fantastic. The model maker and curator, Marketos, is an ex marine engineer who has built, from scratch, some awesome ship models. He has models from the ship Odysseus used right up to the Titanic. He used ship’s plans for most of these but for the earliest models. For these there were no plans so he based the models on contemporary drawings!
Twenty two, amazingly detailed, hand made, plank on frame wooden models
Marketos is also a bit of a cynic. He wonders how it was that Odysseus was clever enough to invent the Trojan Horse and conquer Troy, but when all the other Greeks sailed straight home, Odysseus got lost and took 10 years to get back! The Aegean isn’t that big! He has a theory though. In his seafaring days he found a fragment of a Greek Amphora in a museum in Caracas, Venezuela …..
Odysseus’ ship from an engraving on an amphora dating from 590BC. Length approx 24m.
Clipper Ship 
Fantastic attention to detail, even the model of the windlass works!
Cargo vessel from 1000BC 
Cargo and passenger vessel from 1500BC
These last two were my favourites. being created based on contemporary pictures and engravings. That takes some serious shipbuilding knowledge! In the 1000BC vessel the cargo of clay amphorae containing such things as olive oil and wine were suspended from the deck beams. The passenger boat from 1500BC had a ‘ram’ and ramps on the stern to allow it to be driven stern first onto a beach to be loaded and unloaded!
I had a really entertaining hour chatting to Marketos about his creations.