The Santorini boat journal
Fourteen articles, none of them written to fill a content calendar. Every place fact carries a source and the date it was checked, and where we do not know something the article says so.
The journal is fourteen longer articles written from the deck of our Santorini catamaran rather than for a search engine. It carries the things guests ask between swim stops: how long you actually get at each anchorage, what the crew cook and when, and why the volcano is still called active.
The guides answer one question each, quickly. This is the other half. These are the conversations that happen at the stern rail while the anchor is down and the grill is going, written out properly.
If you only came for one answer, take it from the table and go. The articles are underneath.
Which article answers which question
Fourteen questions, fourteen articles. The middle column is the whole answer if that is all you need.
| The question | The short answer | The article |
|---|---|---|
| How long do we actually get at each stop? | Twenty to twenty-five minutes in the water at each beach, and about an hour at the hot springs with lunch inside it. | A day on the caldera, minute by minute |
| What is the food really like? | BBQ chicken and shrimp off a grill at the stern, Greek salad, pasta, dolmades, the dips and Santorini wine. Almost all of it prepped ashore. | What the crew cooks on board |
| Is the volcano still active? | It last erupted in 1950 and is quiet now, monitored continuously by ISMOSAV. Active means watched, not smoking. | The volcano from the water |
| How was the caldera made? | One eruption about 3,600 years ago at VEI 7. The hole it left is roughly 12 km by 7 km and 385 m deep. | How the caldera was made |
| Is Red Beach closed? | The cliff path has been restricted since 2013, with rockfalls reported in 2018, 2023 and 2025. From the water it is simply there. | Why Red Beach is better from the sea |
| Can I still walk up the steps from the old port? | No. The Karavolades stairway closed on 28 July 2026 after a landslide, and no reopening date has been published. | The steps, the cable car, and 2026 |
| What are the hot springs like? | A swim of roughly 50 m through cold open water into a warm, ochre, faintly sulphurous bay. Warm, not hot. | Swimming in the hot springs |
| Do the catamarans actually sail? | On some legs. A caldera walled by 300 m cliffs eats wind, and four fixed stops leave little room to tack. | Sailing vs motoring in the caldera |
| What is the meltemi? | The northerly summer wind. Near-continuous in July and August, building through the day and easing towards sunset. | The meltemi explained |
| What happens if wind cancels my cruise? | The captain decides on the morning. You move to another date or take the money back in full. That is the whole policy. | What happens if the wind comes up |
| Where is the best place to watch the sunset? | Oia and the water see the same sun within about a minute of each other. Only one of them comes with a crowd. | Sunset from the water vs sunset in Oia |
| Can I do this on a cruise-ship day? | Sometimes. The cable car moves 1,200 an hour in both directions combined, and 60 to 90 minute queues are reported at peak. | Cruise day: Santorini in six hours |
| What should I put in the bag? | A dark swimsuit, a layer for the ride home, and shoes that come off easily. Towels are already on board. | Packing list for a day on a catamaran |
| Is Thirassia worth the detour? | Only on the ten-hour private cruise. It is the far rim of the same caldera, with 249 people living on it at the 2021 census. | Thirassia, the island left behind |
Prices and capacities in these articles are ours. Everything about the island — the eruption dates, the queue figures, the closure order, the census — carries a source and the date it was checked inside the article it belongs to.
The day itself
Four articles about the five hours you actually buy.
The island under you
Geology and history, read from a deck rather than from a museum label.
Wind, light and weather
Three articles about the thing that decides whether any of the rest happens.
Getting on and off the island
Three articles for people whose day has a deadline in it.
What this journal is, and what it is not
It is not a blog kept alive so a search engine has something to crawl. Every article here started as a question somebody asked us on the boat.
A product page has a job. It tells you the time, the price, the capacity and what is in the fare, and then it gets out of the way. It is the wrong place to explain why the grill cannot be lit while the boat is moving, or why the water at Palea Kameni is the colour of rust.
So those answers live here instead, at the length they actually need.
Three editorial rules. Every price is ours and is the whole price. Every fact about the island — a date, a queue, a census figure, a closure — carries a source and the day we checked it. And where we do not know something, the article says we do not know, rather than filling the gap with an adjective.
That last rule costs us more than the other two. There are things guests reasonably want to know that we have not published yet: the water temperature at the springs on your date, how many days a season we stand the boat down, our accepted payment methods. When an article reaches one of those, it stops and tells you to ask.
If you would rather have the short version of all of this, the guides are one question each, and the FAQ is the whole lot on a single page.
Ask the question the article did not answer
Send it on WhatsApp. Somebody who works on the boats reads it, and you get a real answer the same day rather than a form response.
Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888
Common questions
Who writes the journal?
The people who run the boats. That is the point of it. A crew member can tell you how long the anchor takes to bite in the hot springs bay and why lunch lands when it does, and no aggregator or content agency can copy that because they have never been there at 13:00.
How is the journal different from the guides?
The guides answer one practical question each, in the shortest honest form: what to wear, which month, how far ahead to book. The journal is longer and slower, and it is about the island and the boat rather than about your booking. Read the guides to decide, the journal to understand.
Are the facts in these articles checked?
Yes, and dated. Anything about the island rather than about us carries a named source and the day we looked at it, because Santorini keeps changing: the stairway closed in July 2026, Red Beach has been restricted since 2013, and the cruise levy arrived in 2025.
Do I have to book a cruise to read this?
No, and plenty of people who read the journal never book anything. Several articles will talk you out of a boat trip if you are prone to seasickness, travelling with a very young baby, or in port with four hours and a hard all-aboard time. That is fine.
How often is the journal updated?
When something on the island changes, and not on a schedule. A closure order, a new levy, a rockfall or a revised fare gets folded into every article it touches. Each page carries the month it was last reviewed at the foot, so you can see how fresh it is.
Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.
Updated August 2026
Every page in this section
- A day on the caldera, minute by minute
- Cruise day: Santorini in six hours
- Greek words you hear on board
- How the caldera was made
- If the wind comes up
- Packing list
- Red Beach from the sea
- Sailing vs motoring
- Sunset: water vs Oia
- Swimming in the hot springs
- The meltemi explained
- The steps and the cable car
- The volcano from the water
- Thirassia, the island left behind
- What the crew cooks on board