Help Connect Cheese, Honey and Wine Producers from Rural Greek Island Communities with Mainland Europe by Sailing Aboard a Cargo Vessel– or Take a Theatre Workshop Aboard a Sailboat!– with Istia Aigaiou.

By Sarah Arksey
Associate Writer

The enterprise Istia Aigaiou, founded in 2019, aims to connect the Aegean islands with each other as well as ports in mainland Mediterranean countries. The company also values keeping its operations as green as possible by returning to classic sailing, which harnesses wind power rather than fossil fuels. Istia Aigaiou has spawned several projects, including Aegean Cargo Sailing, SailMed, and

LAFRI On Art & Beyond, which offer some of the most authentic maritime explorations of the Aegean available! Learn more about these exciting initiatives below.

Aegean Cargo Sailing’s crew

Aegean Cargo Sailing and its sister initiative, SailMed, were co-founded by Jan Christian Lundberg and Loucas Gourtsoyannis. Lundberg was a spearheading figure in the effort to revive sailing as a means of transportation in the Aegean Sea and beyond. Lundberg sadly passed away in 2018 on the island of Ikaria but is remembered as a celebrated journalist, ecologist, and “philhellene”– lover of Greek culture. “There is a connection to the land and the sea, that has not been lost in Greece,” says Lundberg in a promotional video for SailMed.

Gourtsoyannis, a trained mining engineer with a PhD in Metallurgy, is now the head of Aegean Cargo Sailing and SailMed. In addition to working behind the scenes, Gourtsoyannis leads many of Aegean Cargo Sailing’s tours.

LAFRI On Art & Beyond

Istia Aigaiou has joined forces with LAFRI On Art & Beyond, a non-profit organization aiming to facilitate “artistic creation and education, environmental awareness, and the dissemination of cultural heritage”.

These tours will be led by Captain Nikolas Piperas, who boasts 20 years of sailing experience and became a professional skipper in 2015. In addition to his sailing expertise, Piperas is an actor, acting coach, published fantasy author, and musician.

Speaking to GoNOMAD via Zoom from the LAFRI– currently docked near the island of Andros, near mainland Greece- Piperas explains that the project is relatively new, having been initiated in September 2023. The project has two streams: workshop, in which a creative leader creates a schedule and brings an audience on board, and experimental, in which an open call for creative professionals is projected throughout the Aegean islands, and the collective of varied professionals– fields include theatre, dance, meditation and visual art– co-create a schedule for the trip.

A spot on an experimental journey costs 50 euros per night– this affordable rate is offered because participants are expected to collaborate with LAFRI Art & Beyond on future workshops. Per person, the workshops typically cost 100-180 euros per night, depending on the material covered.

The initiative’s “off-season” will arrive after the conclusion of the season’s third experimental journey on November 10th. In recent years, Piperas accepted acting roles during his time off, but his focus has now shifted to LAFRI. While he still loves the craft, “It doesn’t feel as creative as doing this,” he explains. “This feels more real.”

This winter, you’re likely to find Piperas making repairs to the boat as well as focusing on marketing. Though LAFRI Art & Beyond has already had successful voyages– including a workshop run in June, which focused on theatre and dance– the initiative is facing a hurdle in terms of getting the word out.

Piperas uses the saying “you captain the idea” to encapsulate the flow of these experimental journeys, for which applicants must be screened– in order to ensure they’re a good fit for the tiny floating artistic intensive. Piperas warns that if participants don’t mesh, tensions can build quite rapidly, given the intimate setting– so it’s important to get to know hopeful collaborators first!

So– how does being an actor, musician, fantasy author, and sailor all connect? “It’s just the flow of life– you have enthusiasm, drama within yourself and you need to express it somehow- so you grab an instrument… you pick up a pen and write” he relays, “But after a while, it felt like I was just running in circles.” He says that focusing on his career as a skipper took him on a different path– and he allowed himself to go with it. He emphasizes life’s rhythmic, connected nature: “It’s like the wind– like sailing.”

Aegean Cargo Sailing

The routes traversed by Aegean Cargo Sailing have been in use for over 1000 years. 

Aegean Cargo Sailing tours allow guests the opportunity to see the Greek islands through another lens– exploring lesser-known communities and sampling each island’s prized exports such as honey, olive oil, feta, and wine. The company’s ideologies have allowed less-connected island communities to once again market their wares to the rest of the Mediterranean.

In addition to rural communities, passengers can expect stops in more well-known tourism hotspots such as Santorini.

Should the trips be a little out of your budget, Aegean Cargo Sailing also offers limited volunteer spots, where you can harness your sailing or other relevant skills in exchange for free passage, room and board. Gourtsoyannis says that volunteers should be in it for the long haul– at least a full season, and ideally, willing to become a permanent fixture with the company.

SailMed & The Future of Istia Aigaiou

Aegean Cargo Sailing’s sister company, SailMed, offers an even grander adventure than Aegean’s short-term voyages– a 1.5 month journey from Sounio, Greece to Genoa, Italy, which takes place twice per year. The epic route focuses more on mainland ports than the tours offered by Aegean Cargo Sailing, making 25 stops along the Greek and Italian coasts along with the Italian island of Sicily and the Greek islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos. The main operational goal of this route is to promote premium Greek products to Italy and the rest of Europe.

“Passengers of the trips to and from Italian ports participate and train in the sailing manœuvres according to their capabilities, in the cooking, keeping order etc.,” says Gourtsoyannis, adding that the port stops offer participants the opportunity to play tourist in “some of the nicest coastal areas of Italy and Greece.”

What’s next for Istia Aigaiou? “I would like to see Istia Aigaiou grow to a sustainable zero carbon sailing transport and marketing service for quality Mediterranean Diet products to European and international markets, supporting small island and coastal producers and consumers of Slow Food and healthy nutrition,” says Gourtsoyannis. Of LAFRI on Art & Beyond, Piperas says he is most looking forward to “the interconnectedness between the participants on LAFRI’s projects that will have formed by then,” as well as the “‘secret’ of having such a real, deep, true onboard experience that will have been shared.” Piperas is an optimist at heart– “I’d like to think [we’re heading towards] a new reality– like a fairytale– [that] will keep us dreaming of a better world.”