The morning call

What happens if the wind comes up on a Santorini boat tour

9 min read

Wind, not rain, is what stops a Santorini boat tour. The captain makes the call on the morning of departure, once he has the overnight forecast and can see the sea. Most windy days produce a changed route rather than a cancellation. If we do cancel, you are refunded in full or moved.

This is the page nobody wants to need. It exists because the worst version of a weather cancellation is not the cancellation itself — it is finding out late, from a website, with no explanation and no money back.

So here is the decision as it actually happens, from the side of the phone call you do not see.

Why the call is made on the morning, not the day before

Guests reasonably ask why we cannot tell them on Tuesday what Thursday will be like. The answer is that a forecast at 48 hours is good at one thing and poor at another.

It is good at telling you a meltemi episode is coming. Those episodes settle in and repeat for days, so their arrival is rarely a surprise.

It is poor at telling you what the sea will be doing at 10:00 on a specific morning, at a specific anchorage, on a specific side of the island. Wind strength shifts. Direction shifts more. And swell outlives the wind that made it — a sea left over from yesterday can make a stop unworkable on a day that is barely blowing.

Cancelling on Tuesday for a Thursday that turns out flat is not caution. It is a lost day you did not have to lose. So the call waits for the morning, and it is the captain's alone.

How it works

The sequence, from the night before

Four steps. The only one you take part in is the last.

The night beforeThe captain looks at the forecast models for the following morning, and at what the wind has already been doing that week. A meltemi that has blown three days in a row is a different proposition from a first day of breeze. If it looks marginal, he says so, and nobody sleeps well.
About 07:00He looks at the sea rather than at a screen. Wind direction, what the swell is doing, whether the water has settled overnight or is still working. This is the moment the day is decided, and there is no substitute for standing there and looking at it.
The decisionThree outcomes, in order of likelihood: sail as planned, sail a changed route, or do not sail. The middle one is much the most common on a windy day and is the one nobody ever explains to guests, which is why it is set out below.
You hear from usDirectly, on WhatsApp, as soon as the call is made. Not by checking a page. If your cruise is cancelled you are told what happens to your money in the same message, so there is nothing left to chase.

The numbers

What different mornings usually do to the day

These are patterns, not a published threshold, and they are deliberately described by direction and coast rather than by a knot count. A single number would be tidy and it would also be wrong half the time.

What the morning looks like	What usually happens to the day	What it means for you
Light northerly, settled sea	The route runs as published: three swim stops, lunch at anchor, home past the lighthouse.	Nothing. This is a normal day and most days are this.
Meltemi filling in, moderate northerly	The order of the stops changes. Exposed legs get taken early while the water is still flat, and the sheltered ones are saved for the afternoon.	You may swim at the stops in a different order than the itinerary shows. Same five hours, same lunch.
Strong northerly	The south-coast stops are comparatively sheltered from a northerly, so they usually survive. The open water outside the rim does not. The basin becomes the working area.	A stop may be dropped or swapped for one in the lee. The captain will say which and why.
Strong southerly, a sorokada	The opposite picture. The south coast becomes unworkable while the caldera basin stays flatter. The route is often reversed outright.	The day you get may look very little like the itinerary you read. It is still five hours on the water.
Yesterday's swell still running, wind now light	Swell outlives the wind that made it. Anchorages that were fine on Monday can be rolling on Tuesday with no breeze at all.	Usually a shortened route rather than a cancellation. Occasionally a cancellation on a day that looks perfect from a terrace.
Hard wind, big sea, or both building	We do not sail. No route change makes a boat safe when the sea has passed the point where the day works.	Full refund, or move to another date. You choose which.
Bright sun, no cloud, blowing hard	The most common cause of an argument, and the least persuasive one. A meltemi day is usually cloudless.	The sky is not the sea. The sea decides.

We have not published a wind speed at which we stand down, and we are not going to invent one. Twenty knots from the north with a settled sea is a working day; twenty knots from the south with swell already running is not. Guides that publish a single figure are simplifying something that will not simplify.

What a route change actually looks like

This is the outcome nobody describes, and it is the one you are most likely to get.

It means the same boat, the same crew, the same five hours and the same lunch, in a different order or in different water. Perhaps the hot springs come before the beaches instead of after. Perhaps one swim stop is replaced by another in the lee of the cliff. Perhaps the boat spends more of the day inside the caldera basin, which is often the calm option when the open sea is not.

It is not a downgrade and it is not a cost saving. It is a captain moving fifteen people to where the water is workable, which is his job.

You are told what has changed and why. On any Santorini boat, no two sailings of the same product are identical, and anyone promising you a fixed route in a fixed order is promising you something the sea has not agreed to.

Why a cancellation is the right outcome, not a failure

A cancelled cruise feels like something going wrong. It is the opposite. It is the one part of the system that is definitely working.

The alternative is a boat that goes out because fifteen people have paid and the crew do not want the argument. That day ends with people frightened, sick, or worse, and the money would have been refunded anyway.

The captain's authority to stand the boat down is the single biggest safety measure on any of our cruises, and it is not negotiable — not by us and not by a guest with a flight tomorrow. We would rather move you than sail a day you will not enjoy.

It happens. Santorini is a windy island: the long-run average at the airport is north-west at 12 knots with mean gusts of 29 knots, from observations spanning November 2000 to July 2026 (windfinder.com, seen 25 August 2026). Build for that and it is an inconvenience. Ignore it and it is a ruined last day.

The policy, in plain words

If the captain cancels for weather, you are refunded in full. Or you move to another date, whichever you prefer. An operator cancellation is not a guest cancellation, so the seven-day rule does not touch it.

If you cancel, seven or more days ahead, you are refunded in full. Inside seven days, message us and we will tell you honestly what we can do.

The captain may also change the route or the order of the stops on the day, for the same reason. That is not a cancellation and it does not trigger a refund.

We may run your cruise on another boat of the same class if the one you booked is unavailable. We tell you before you sail, never after.

The full text is on the cancellation policy, and the weather-specific detail is on weather cancellations and refunds.

How to protect yourself

Book a date early in your stay. If we stand the boat down on day two of a week, you have five more chances. On the morning of your flight home, you have none. This one piece of advice is worth more than everything else on this page.

Keep a spare day in July and August. That is peak meltemi, and it is when rerouting and cancellation are most likely. See the meltemi explained.

Message us if the forecast worries you. We would much rather tell you what we are actually seeing than have you refresh a weather app for three days.

Ready when you are

Worried about the forecast for your date?

Send us the date. We will tell you what the wind has been doing that week, what we would expect, and whether we would hold a second day back for you.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

What happens if the weather is bad?

The captain may cancel the cruise or change the route for safety, and that call is his alone. If we cancel, you take another date or a full refund, whichever you prefer. Most windy days produce a changed route rather than a cancellation, and you keep the full five hours.

Do tours run if it's windy?

Usually yes, with changes. Santorini is windy as a baseline, so a boat that only sailed on flat days would barely sail at all. What wind changes is the order of the stops and which coast the day is spent on. Only hard wind or a big sea stops the boat completely.

What wind conditions trigger a cancellation, and how are guests notified?

There is no single wind speed at which every boat stands down — direction, sea state and leftover swell all count. Our captain decides on the morning of each departure. You hear directly from us on WhatsApp as soon as the call is made, with the refund or reschedule in the same message.

Will I receive a refund if the operator cancels?

Yes, in full. An operator cancellation is not a guest cancellation, so the seven-day rule does not apply to you. You can take the money back or move to another date. Book early in your stay so that a rescheduled sailing still fits before you fly home.

Why won't you tell me the day before?

Because a forecast at 48 hours predicts that a windy spell is coming, not what the sea will be doing at 10:00 at a particular anchorage. Cancelling a Thursday on Tuesday for a day that turns out flat costs you a day you never had to lose.

It's sunny — why is the cruise cancelled?

Because the sky is not the sea. A meltemi day in Santorini is typically cloudless, hot and bright, and blowing hard. Rain almost never stops a boat here. Wind and the swell it leaves behind almost always do, and neither is visible from a hotel terrace.

Can I cancel myself if I think it will be windy?

Yes, free of charge, seven or more days before departure. Inside seven days, message us and we will tell you what we can do. Bear in mind that the captain may well sail a changed route on a day the forecast looks alarming, so ask us before you cancel.

Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.

Updated August 2026