I + 21 : Epilogue - How the Minoans, Phoenicians and Dorians dominated Trade

Am often asked “what was the highlight" of the 2025 trip? Most people expect an answer like the "Turquoise Beach of Kasos", or the "Temple of Athene in Lindos" or the "Minoan Palace in Knossos". But for all of us, it was the Meltemi, the strong northerly wind blowing from the Bosporus. We realised it was a structural feature of the Mediterranean. Not some thing that occasionally happens. These are the - at times - violent summer winds we met first in 2017 and 2019. The Meltemi in the Aegean, the Bora in the Adria and the Mistral in France are winds from the north. Cold air is sucked south by the Saharah where hot air rises to high altitudes. The cold and heavy air replaces the rising air in the desert.

Our trip led us in three weeks from Rhodes via Crete to Pylos on the Peloponnese

From the very first day, we had to take wind speed, direction and swell into account for our travel planning. It made us chose the eastern side of Rhodes, staying a day longer in Kasos to wait for more favorable winds for the crossing to Crete. We delayed the sailing from Agios Nikolaos to Heraklion to Sunday evening, stayed two days in the Port of Heraklion to sit out a strong Meltemi spell and departed earlier than planned from Chania to the Peloponnese. On many days we lifted anchor at 5 am to avoid the gale-strong winds.

Choppy Swell an hour before Arriving in Chania

We also learnt to appreciate the ancient ports and bays which protected us at night from roller-coaster sleeping. The port of Lindos, the harbor of Karpathos, Agios Nikolaos and Spinalonga, Heraklion and Chania port, the bay below the Kythera castle, the lee side of Koroni and Methoni and the bay of Navarino. As our Heraklion guide, Katherina, confirmed, these locations were already used by the Minoans who built tiny way stations there.

Our route for the last three weeks from Rhodes to Pylos

Navigating these choppy waters in antiquity was a challenge. With no weather forecast, no satellite pictures or Windy App, the early mariners had to rely on indirect weather indicators and anticipate what was going to hit them. Not being precise in their forecasts, they always had a plan B. In other words, a safe harbor not farther away than half a day’s sailing. As if by design, we hopped from one safe place to the next during our entire trip. Then, every day after dinner, we discussed with our captain the route for the following morning and confirmed at sun rise the decision. Or was it better to wait another day or sail at night?

Artist's Impression of the First Minoan Sail Boats

These questions made us wonder who were the best sailors in these waters. The locals of course! Through decades of fishing, they understood the volatile nature of their waters well. They also knew by heart the position of neighbour islands, which bays were the safest during storms and which were the treacherous shores. It is thus not surprising that the Minoans became the first mariners of the Mediterranean. They had to battle with these winds and swells every day. The local cypress forests provided the long timber needed for building ships – as well documented by the replica Minoan ship in Chania’s Naval Museum.

The Replica Minoan Ship sailed to Athens with 30 Crew to demonstrate its sea worthiness

The Phoenicians who superseded the Minoans in the 13^th century BC faced similar issues. The winds in the Levant are strong westerlies or turbulent thermal winds. By fishing and shipping cedar logs to the Pharaohs in Egypt, they figured out how to navigate these waters They were also the first to use large timber beams for ship construction and devised the block method to make the planks watertight. A Phoenician replica boat successfully circumnavigated Africa and reached America in a second expedition. On the way to the western Med where the Phoenicians procured precious metals and tin, they established small colonial settlements on several Greek islands, Rhodes was one of them.

The Replica Phoenician Ship halfways in Cape Town

The Dorians were the latest in this context. Originally from the Macedonian borders, they slowly moved south, settled the Peloponnese, then hopped from island to island until they reached Crete and eventually Rhodes. On these islands, they bumped into the Phoenicians who showed them the ropes or – at least – did not mind being copied. The Phoenician art of ship building transferred to the Dorians who - by 300 BC - had the largest merchant navy in the eastern Mediterranean.

Dorian Migration from the North of Greece to the Dodecanese where they met Phoenicians

Stormy winds and choppy waters during the main sailing season forced these three people to come up with novel sailing and shipbuilding techniques. Skilled sailors meant safer sailing and fewer ship losses. When losses dropped to a fraction of ships undertaking a trip, long-distance trading became profitable. Fewer ship losses also meant that experienced captains could pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Sailing became a sustainable business where knowhow accumulated rather than being lost in too many shipwrecks.

Winds on 9th of August 2026 - we could not have reached or

left Crete without getting everybody on the boat seasick

Did not find any documents supporting my theses but having just sailed these waters with their strong summer winds makes me confident that there is something too it. Maritime innovation tackled a local problem and as a by-product created the long-distance trade that powered the Mediterranean economy and later the Roman Empire. There would be no Roman Legion without grain from Sicily, Carthage or Egypt. And no purple for the Roman Emperor's toga either. Also, Saint Paul would never have reached Rome. Christianity may have stayed a local religion. When Mediterranean long-distance collapsed, everybody got poorer, populations shrank, the dark middle ages commenced.

The Purple for Emperor Marcus Aurelius' Toga came from

Tyre in the Levant. A Replica can now be bought as Halloween

Costume for USD 59.- on the Internet

The highlight of our trip was thus the wind, the ports we used to get to our destination and learning how the ancient mariners dealt with the challenge. We arrived in the Peloponnese as planned – thanks to the tactical choices and innovations we copied from the Minoans, the Phoenician and the Dorians.

If Air was a colored Gas, this peaceful Picture would look rather different

With this epilogue, my blog will “hibernate” for a few months, until the 2026 trip is planned and prepared. The third and last leg of Saint Paul’s journey will take us from Malta to Rome. Having just experienced the summer winds, we may reverse the direction and sail from Rome to Malta instead. Sailing head-on against the wind is cumbersome and slow. Knowing that a Romen freighter could sail from Ostia to Alexandria in 2 weeks’ time, makes me confident that we will reach Malta in the three weeks we have available next summer.

See you all in December when this blog resumes! Thank you for reading.