"I don't fear the sea at all and the possibility of me drowning never crosses my mind. Whenever I can't see the sea, even from afar, I feel afraid and think I'm dying. I was once taken to Panagia Sumela church inMacedoniaa and I hardly managed not to go crazy in the mountains. I suppose that Holy Mary saved me".

He fought for the port's construction

Sometimes the waves almost swallow his boat but Kyriakos Prekas, a fisherman from Nimporio of Santorini, trusts it because it has a double frame. It is strong, all made of pine  tree wood, not only the keel but also the planks. Last year he burnt it (took off the paint by setting it on fire), he calked it (put tar on it), he nailed it back together using galvanized nails. He spread oil and red lead on it several times, he slicked it and painted it with three coats of paint.

The boat's engine is a heavy type Leyland, which works as a real strong, healthy human heart. Santorini has no islets for the boats to anchor in, so fishermen don't go into the Cretan Sea and unless they have a really sturdy boat. Before the port in Vlychada was built, the inhabitants of Santorini owned small boats so that they can easily pull them ashore when the weather was bad.

Many boats have been destroyed by the furious waves and their owners were left with nothing. That is why during the winter they used to pull them out with a bulldozer and "throw" them in the fields. The poorest ones were even obliged to sleep on the boats from March to October in order to be prepared for the weather's change. Kyriakos fought hard for Vlychada to have a port; he even went on a hunger strike.

"My grandfather didn't leave my father a port, neither my father. But I didn't want to pass on the problem to my children; that's why I struggled to have a port built. I wouldn't be able to talk to you right now if there wasn't a shelter for my boat, I would have had to run and save it from the wind. Now that we have a port we bought some bigger boats and we can go further out to fish. When we get tired, though, we just leave them and go back home".

Savaged sea

In Santorini, an island with many tourists, the demand for fish is high, but the sea is impoverished. It is some fishermen's fault as they illegally throw out nets with tackles and deflower the sea. They care about nothing; they sweep everything up, from the spawn to the octopus along with their dens. It is the amateur fishermen's fault too, who use their modern GPS systems to find spots filled with fish and accurately return to those areas until they totally deplete them.

The old depth ammeters used to only show the bottom of the sea, but the new ones X-ray the sea and every organism living in it. The old fishermen used to put signs on the surface of the sea but these were often lost because of the bad weather and the reduced visibility, but the new ones use electronic means to locate the regions that have plenty of fish.

A very important problem for the fishermen in Santorini has to do with the price of fuel which is soaring. In order to buy fuel at a lower price they have to report about how many fish they catch and when they do so, they must have an accountant and keep books. "Get a diary, the customs officer told me. But I don't know how to write, I said. That's none of my business, he furiously said. How can it be none of your business, man? Do you know how to play the violin for me to dance? How can you ask me to write while I'm illiterate? Unbelievable…"

The huge increase in the price of oil will force the islanders to stop eating fish even though they are surrounded by water. The fisherman's profession will disappear since every family tries to take its children away from the sea. Technology and fishing may have developed during the last years, but the people's stress has increased as well. The older inhabitants of Santorini didn't have any money and comfort but they were calm.

"At Nimporio we used to have two postmen, two field guards, two nurses and a midwife. Now we have a doctor two days per week and the taxman is always present. They don't care, as long as they can take your money. As soon as I open the door, my wife comes to me with a lot of bills. We are trapped, stop it, I'm up to here, don't give me another bill, I don't want you to".

Jokers

A few years ago, when the fishermen went to raise the nets, they used to light a fire on the beach and eat fish along with their families and play some music. They used to pool their food together. They also used to tell spicy jokes which made them laugh out loud.

Phouros, a legendary fisherman in the region, whose real name was John Livadaros, racked his brain all day long trying to find the jokes he would tell to his friends in the evening. Phouros never put an engine on his boat, "I won't put a ghost on my boat", he used to say. He always used his paddles, and that's how he fended for his family and became a homemaker. He had a clear and calm mind, like most of the people who inhabited Santorini back then.

Great musician

"I don't know much about music but I play some. Everyone plays music in our family, grandpa, father, mother, me, my brothers, my son Antonis. Toussa, my sister who died before her time, used to play some zither. I don't appreciate modern Greek songs. I see them as a bout of the flu that comes and goes".

Kyriakos is a great fisherman and lute player. When he faces serious problems or the work is not going very well, he sets everything aside and picks up his lute. He plays in order to drive the madness away and to clear his mind. "When I lost my sister I played some sad tunes. But when I buried my father, I didn't play any music at the funeral. I wanted to, but I was worried about the gossip. I was sorry and regretted it afterwards".

Since he was 13 years old, Kyriakos earned money with his lute. He is self-taught and doesn't know music theory, besides there weren't any conservatories in Santorini back then. He is respectful for the contemporary musicians, but he believes that they often expend themselves in a pointless and superfluous demonstration of their virtuosity. He thinks that salad doesn't need kilos of salt to be tasty; very few grams of it are enough. Apart from a musical instrument, the lute is for him a means of communication among people as well.

"Back in the day, when women used to go to the church's women’s loft and men looked at them from downstairs, they exchanged glances and at night men used to serenade them from outside. I used to serenade to my friends' girlfriends, as they often as they asked me to. The girls always enjoyed it, their parents sometimes also enjoyed it, but there were cases where I was asked to get the hell out of there".
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

He plays very often in the public events of the island.

Very few are the boat shelters in volcanic Santorini.

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