Her grief was like something from a Homeric rhapsody. With three generations of ship captains in her life – husband, son and grandson – and hardened by a lifetime of fear and worry, 97-year-old Sofia was a rock in the face of the ultimate loss. As dusk settled over the port of Katapola in Amorgos last Sunday and the Blue Star Naxos sailed in from Piraeus, she bore witness to her child’s final journey on the waters he so loved and tamed.
Captain Giannis Skopelitis had died in Athens the previous Saturday. Being defeated by cancer on dry land at the age of 68 after battling waves and tempests was a death unbefitting his personality. At the pier, friends, relatives, fellow villagers and residents from all the surrounding islands waited to escort his body to the Church of Saint George. After the funeral service, the procession followed the coastal road to the cemetery. The Skopelitis Express, the legendary ferry that has provided a connection for the remote cluster of islands known as the Small Cyclades for decades, watched the procession from the sea, its mournful horn joining the sounds of the lutes and violins that escorted the captain all to his grave. It was a fitting tribute to a man for whom so many songs have been written. This was a man mourned not only by his family, but by the Aegean itself.
