A Mykonos sunset cruise is an evening boat trip around the Cyclades island of Mykonos, timed for the setting Sun. It is one of the Greece tours that take place on the Aegean Sea.
What is a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise is a boat trip timed for sunset. Sunset is the moment when the Sun sinks under the horizon. A horizon is where sky and sea appear to meet. Mykonos lies in the Northern Hemisphere.
For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun goes down in the southwest in autumn and winter. That hemisphere is the half of the planet north of the equator. Even on the equator, sunrise and sunset shift back and forth through the year. A Mykonos sunset cruise meets a changing sunset.
Places beyond the polar circles have no full sunset or sunrise on at least one day each year. Earth’s axial tilt causes the polar day and polar night. These polar rules do not reach a Mykonos sunset cruise, because the island lies far from the circles.
In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus presented a detailed mathematical model of a moving Earth. Dusk marks the darkest point of twilight, right before night. The early to middle stages of twilight coincide with predusk. Twilight is the glow that follows sunset.
- White halo: Mie scattering also creates the daytime halo of white light around the Sun.
- The Moon: The Moon has no atmosphere, so a lunar sunset differs from one on Earth.
- Mars: From Mars, the setting Sun looks about two-thirds the size it does from Earth.
A Mykonos sunset cruise is easiest to grasp through these sky facts. Sunset, dusk and twilight each name a different moment of the same evening. The list shows that other worlds have sunsets too. The next section explains twilight in more detail.
What is twilight on a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise shares its evening hours with twilight, the soft light between sunset and full night. Twilight has three stages. They are named civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. Each stage shows how dark the sky has become.
Civil twilight leaves enough natural light that towns and cities need no artificial light to see adequately. At civil dusk, sunlight still clearly marks the horizon while the brightest stars and planets can appear. Venus is called the morning star or evening star because it can be seen during civil twilight.
Nautical twilight keeps the horizon visible, which lets sailors fix dependable sightings on familiar stars. In nautical twilight the human eye sees rough outlines of ground objects, but not fine detail. Astronomical twilight is dark enough to observe point sources of light such as stars.
Twilight lasts longer when the Sun meets the horizon at a more oblique angle. Oblique means slanted. Crepuscular is the adjective linked to twilight. The word suits anything that belongs to the dim light of dusk. It fits the evening setting of a Mykonos sunset cruise.
- Faint stars: Stars of about sixth magnitude, the faintest the naked eye detects, appear at astronomical dusk.
- White night: A night with only civil twilight from sunset to sunrise is called a white night.
- Three stages: The three stages run from civil twilight through nautical twilight to astronomical twilight.
Twilight explains how the evening light of a Mykonos sunset cruise fades in steps. Each stage has a clear name, and each name marks how much light is left. The next section turns from light to the wind of the Aegean.
Which wind blows around a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise takes place in the Aegean, where periodic summer winds are the Etesian winds. Periodic means that they return on a regular pattern. Locals on Chios call the Etesian wind the Meltemi. Very old texts name the Etesian winds.
On Ceos, Aristaeus is a god of the Etesian winds. Legend says the Etesian wind was decreed to cool the whole Aegean for forty days after Sirius rises. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. The legend ties the wind that touches a Mykonos sunset cruise to a god and a star.
Aristotle noted that the periodic summer Etesian winds come from different directions depending on where the observer lives. Pliny wrote that the summer Aquilo wind turns into the Etesian winds, the periodic wind Aristotle named. Aquilo is the Latin name for a north wind. Both writers described the same wind pattern.
The brisk meltemi blows from dawn to dusk at between fifteen and twenty-five knots. One knot equals a speed of one nautical mile in an hour. Chios winds are predominantly northerly, and locals call that Etesian wind the Meltemi. For a Mykonos sunset cruise, the name Meltemi is the one that islanders use.
- Nisyros: Nisyros can experience Etesian winds between June and August.
- Karpathos: West-coast sandy beaches on Karpathos are exposed to the Meltemi and open only in low wind.
- Argolic Gulf: Mountains ring the Argolic Gulf and shield it from the strong Meltemi winds of summer.
The Meltemi shapes summer across the Aegean, from Chios to Karpathos. Writers from Aristotle to Pliny recorded it, and islanders still use its name. A Mykonos sunset cruise belongs to the same sea and the same summer wind.
What does Rhenia add to a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise has a neighbour in Rhenia, an island that sits beside Delos. The Greek spelling of its name is Ρήνεια, and Rheneia and Rhenea are variants. Writers of the past also spelled it Rhenaia, and each spelling names the same island.
Rome later took Rheneia into its empire. An empire is a large group of lands under one ruler. The Cyclades are the island group of the central Aegean. Rheneia lies next to Delos, the sacred island of the Cyclades. A Mykonos sunset cruise shares these waters with an island that Rome ruled.
The writer Thucydides reports that Polycrates chained Delos to Rhenaia, the island next door. Polycrates used his powerful navy to take control of Delos. Holding Delos strengthened his claim to lead the Ionian Greeks. The Ionian Greeks were a group of Greek peoples of the Aegean coast.
In 522 BC Polycrates held a double festival for Apollo of Delos and of Delphi. The date 522 BC falls before the common calendar begins. A festival is a set of public ceremonies. The story shows that the waters around Delos and Mykonos mattered to rulers.
- Purification Pit: D. Stavropoulos discovered the Purification Pit on the islet of Rheneia.
- Museum: Alexandros Lykakis designed the Mykonos museum that houses the finds from the Purification Pit.
- Name: Rheneia, Rhenea and Rhenaia all name the island beside Delos.
Rhenia adds names, dates and a ruler’s plans to a Mykonos sunset cruise. The island sits beside Delos, and its finds are kept in a museum on Mykonos. These facts link the small island to the history of the whole area.
What does Tinos add to a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise has Tinos for a neighbour. Tinos is a Cycladic island whose closest neighbours are Andros, Delos and Mykonos. The Cyclades are the island group in the central Aegean Sea. An island group is a set of islands that lie near each other.
Tinos covers a land area of about 194 square kilometres. The census of 2021 recorded 8,934 inhabitants on Tinos. A census is a government count of everyone living in a place. Those numbers describe an island that a Mykonos sunset cruise treats as a close neighbour.
Greeks know Tinos for the Church of Panagia Evangelistria. Inside the church is an icon of the Virgin Mary that has the reputation of being miraculous. A yearly pilgrimage to the church takes place on 15 August, the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. A pilgrimage is a trip made for faith.
Pilgrims crawl on hands and knees over the 800 metres between the ferry wharf and the church. Tinos is also known for about 1,000 artistic dovecotes and about 50 active villages. A dovecote is a small building for doves. The island adds a stone landscape to a Mykonos sunset cruise.
- Exomvourgo: Fortifications built by the Venetians stand on Exomvourgo, a mountain.
- Jagged shape: Exobourgo has a jagged shape that looks more Alpine than Cycladic.
- Tsiknias: Tsiknias is the highest mountain on Tinos, rising to 750 metres.
Tinos adds a famous church, a count of dovecotes and a rocky mountain skyline. Each fact comes from public records. A Mykonos sunset cruise shares its sea with this island, which sits among the closest neighbours of Mykonos.
What does Syros add to a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise has Syros as one more island of the Cyclades in its region. Syros sits in the Aegean Sea at a distance of 144 km to the south-east of Athens. Its capital is Ermoupoli, a port town that was rebuilt in the 19th century.
Syros covers 83.6 square kilometres and had 21,124 inhabitants at the 2021 census. Ermoupoli stands on an amphitheatre-shaped site, with neoclassical buildings and white houses stepping down to the harbour. Neoclassical means in a style that copies ancient Greek and Roman buildings. These numbers set Syros beside the other Cyclades.
Ermoupoli was rebuilt in a Neoclassical style between 1822 and 1865. The Apollo Theatre, designed by Pietro Campo, is a miniature version of La Scala in Milan. The city hall stands in Miaoulis Square, surrounded by cafes, seating areas and palm trees.
Vaporia is the quarter of Ermoupoli where sea captains lived. A quarter is a district of a town. Venetians built Ano Syros on the hill of San Giorgio at the start of the 13th century. Ano means upper in Greek. The hill town shows how a Mykonos sunset cruise sits among islands with long histories.
- Distance: The island is 144 km from Athens, towards the south-east.
- Edward Lear: Edward Lear called the town “the old sparkly pile” in his diary.
- Apollo Theatre: Pietro Campo designed the theatre as a miniature version of La Scala.
Syros adds a planned port town and a hill town built by Venetians. Ermoupoli and Ano Syros sit in different styles on the same island. A Mykonos sunset cruise belongs to the same island group and the same sea.
What questions come up about a Mykonos sunset cruise?
A Mykonos sunset cruise prompts four plain questions. They deal with the airport, the season, the island group and the time zone. Published records answer each one, from station rainfall figures to the history of Eastern European Time. Each answer names its source.
Which airport serves a Mykonos sunset cruise?
Mykonos airport has a taxi service available around the clock outside its terminal building. It is easily reached by car along the Mykonos provincial road. In the 2014 peak summer season, general aviation at Mykonos airport had to be severely limited. General aviation means private and small aircraft.
Which season suits a Mykonos sunset cruise?
Rain at the Mykonos station of the Athens National Observatory averages 3.6 mm in June. The same station averages 10.4 mm of rain in September. It averages 55.0 mm of rain in December. The letters mm stand for millimetres, a small unit of length.
Which island group holds a Mykonos sunset cruise?
Cyclades is a name that points to islands arranged in a circle around Delos, the sacred island. Christos Tsountas coined the term Cycladic civilization. Late Cycladic boat models point to crews of fifty oarsmen drawn from island communities. An oarsman is a person who rows a boat.
Which time zone applies to a Mykonos sunset cruise?
Greece has used Eastern European Time since 1916. Eastern European Time is 2 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time, the world’s standard clock. The zone uses UTC+03:00 during the summer. The change shifts clocks forward by one hour, which moves the evening hour of sunset later.