WHO WE ARE
We are Vasilis Lekkas and Venetia Gigi. Aphroditi and Oddyseas are our two children, SPUR is our floating home and Eco cruising is our family effort since 2010.
Vasilis is a marine biologist –environmentalist with a MSc on Coastal Zone Management, PADI diving and first aid instructor, our skipper in SPUR and the ‘fix it all ‘guy.
Venetia is ichthyologist with a MSc on Coastal Zone Management, developer of this blog, crew and she who try to keep our family life organized.
Back to 2010, when we started to run environmental cruises with our traditional wooden boat we thought that if a name describes ideal what we do, that name is Eco cruising.
Today we believe that we couldn’t find a name to characterize us better!
Now the prefix “eco” of our name in addition to the concept of ecology, declares the concept of economy (careful management of available resources) that sailing implies and also housing, from Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos=house) as SPUR is not just a sailing boat but our home!
We love nature and the freedom of sailing, we are thankful to live in the wonderful planet Earth and we believe that through the environmental awareness we can motivate people to contribute positively to the heritage that we’ll leave at the next generations. That’s how the idea of eco cruising was born and so it goes on!
We continue our effort with the same goal but with the little difference that from now on we try to follow a little bit more of our family dream too… dream to travel with our children, see and explore as much as we can, live the adventure as long as we can!
We found ourselves in the area of Amvrakikos in 2009 and since our first trips we got fascinated from the beautiful nature and the rich flora and fauna existing here. Living next to this place and getting to know it better, it didn’t take us long to realize how fragile and precious this ecosystem is. Although it’s special meaning has been recognized many years now and it is a part of a protect regime within the framework of many aspects (Ramsar,Natura, National park etc), during the past few decades there is reported such degradation of the water quality in the Gulf, which unfortunately makes Amvrakikos a part of the growing list of the ”dead” maritime zones in the planet. Even though the anoxia problem is major, Amvrakikos remains a small paradise in which countless fish, birds ,sea turtles and of course the famous dolphins are living. Wanting to introduce this heaven to other people and believing that, only when someone experiences the amazing, intense feeling that the contact with the wild nature creates, he can recognize the worth of this nature and help at it’s protection, the Eco cruising idea was born. Although the environmental cruises back then seemed something impossible and utopic for the Greek aspects we decided that it was worth it to give it a try. Today we know it was worth it more than we could ever imagine.
All these years have been a huge school for us .We got to know better the nature that is hidden beside us, we learned how to take care a wooden traditional boat, we worked with remarkable people and we created this blog, because we wanted to transmit our news and projects with as many of you is possible. Our journey except from creative and adventurous was very beautiful due to your response. Your excitement was the best confirmation of our idea, your kind words and your positive comments was our strength to keep moving forward and all the awards you gave us away was the most precious reward. Thank you so much!In October 2017 we decided tocontinue our journey and our live in a totally different way. After all these years it was very hard to leave the dolphins of Amvrakikos, but we felt that it was time to set sails for new adventures! We transformed SPUR a 14m sailing boat into our floating house, and on July with our two children Aphroditi and Oddyseas, we moved on board.
Sourcing power from the wind and sun, simplifying our lifestyle and following a more sustainable living, we feel more ‘eco’ than ever, and although we have less 'luxuries' we have more time to enjoy nature and life! Of course living on a sailing boat is not an easy issue, but its fun, adventurous, educational and for sure is building nice memories!
Through our blog, we still share our stories and projects, hoping to continue to do what we started with our cruises: show to everyone how beautiful and fragile our amazing world is and the great importance of is it’s protection.
