A Cretan stopover…

Continuing my culinary journey, after I left Sunderland Poly, I joined a rusty old nail of a Greek ship as an oiler in 1978. The job had nothing to do with cooking with virgin olive oil, and my station was not the kitchen but the confines of a sweltering and steamy engine room. I had to shadow the cantankerous second engineer wherever he went and hand him the right tool whenever he demanded it in Greek. In the early days, he always gave me a mouthful of swear words in his native language if I handed him a wrench instead of an adjustable spanner. After a while, I learnt the Greek for just about every single tool on the ship so much so that he mellowed and we became quite pally.
During a trip between Marseille (France) to Larnaca (Cyprus), in March 1979, the weather turned nasty, and the usually calm Mediterranean Sea became too rough for the flimsy ship to continue her voyage. The captain decided to weigh anchor overnight in a tiny Cretan cove. Little did I know that our cook could see his family home from the ship.
The following morning, as the crew got up to glorious Mediterranean sunny morning, ready to continue the journey, the cook treated us to a sumptuous breakfast. Grilled lamb chops flavoured with wild oregano, sardines so tender and juicy that the flesh came off the backbone in one go, chunks of his mother’s own feta cheese marinated in the greenest first-press olive oil and jugfuls of local red wine. His father and his brother had earlier brought these delicacies to the ship in their fishing boat.
Michalis was delighted to have seen a few members of his family after many months away at sea. The rest of the crew enjoyed many lamb dishes over the next few days. One of which is Kleftiko, Dimi’s old favourites. The ex-Hartlepool and current Middlesbrough goalkeeper enjoyed it on numerous occasions at Casa del Mar.