Kos, 4th June
Over the winter we looked after our neighbour's herb planter while they were away, and as a thank-you gift they gave us a young basil plant. As it happened I had already bought a pot of the small leafed variety of basil from the market. So Leighton has built me a small basil garden on the stern rail to house them both.
Basil grows in pots everywhere in Greece. The common variety here has a small leaf and is very fragrant.
The Greeks don't tend to use it in cooking, but to bring good luck and to ward off insects. It is associated with St Vasily, who is the Greek Santa Claus, so you always see large clumps of the stuff growing outside churches.
Basil isn't terribly happy in salty conditions, so my little plants aren't growing as quickly as they should, but I've realised they say something about us as liveaboards. Most cruising boats have a basil plant or two on board. It goes with a settled, permanent presence onboard, and a certain outlook on life. We find we get on with people who sail in boats that grow things.
The watchword for BOBs, or 'basil on boards' is 'seega', the Greek word for 'slowly'. We think slowing down has much to recommend it and we are lucky to be able to do it. We have no deadlines, no schedule. We don't have to rush about from here to there to cram in as much as we can in a fortnight's holiday. We linger and explore our surroundings. If we like somewhere, we stay a while. If not, we move on.
We seek out boats that have basil plants growing on them and enjoy their company for a while. Every morning when I water the basil I run my hand over the leaves and breathe in that wonderful aroma and remind myself - seega, seega!
Over the winter we looked after our neighbour's herb planter while they were away, and as a thank-you gift they gave us a young basil plant. As it happened I had already bought a pot of the small leafed variety of basil from the market. So Leighton has built me a small basil garden on the stern rail to house them both.
Basil grows in pots everywhere in Greece. The common variety here has a small leaf and is very fragrant.
The Greeks don't tend to use it in cooking, but to bring good luck and to ward off insects. It is associated with St Vasily, who is the Greek Santa Claus, so you always see large clumps of the stuff growing outside churches.
Basil isn't terribly happy in salty conditions, so my little plants aren't growing as quickly as they should, but I've realised they say something about us as liveaboards. Most cruising boats have a basil plant or two on board. It goes with a settled, permanent presence onboard, and a certain outlook on life. We find we get on with people who sail in boats that grow things.
The watchword for BOBs, or 'basil on boards' is 'seega', the Greek word for 'slowly'. We think slowing down has much to recommend it and we are lucky to be able to do it. We have no deadlines, no schedule. We don't have to rush about from here to there to cram in as much as we can in a fortnight's holiday. We linger and explore our surroundings. If we like somewhere, we stay a while. If not, we move on.
We seek out boats that have basil plants growing on them and enjoy their company for a while. Every morning when I water the basil I run my hand over the leaves and breathe in that wonderful aroma and remind myself - seega, seega!
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