About us

We are a couple (Thanos and Alicia) with a great love for the sea, the peaceful easy-going life of the islands and we really enjoy sharing this world with you. Our base is the small village of Rio at the north-west coast of the Peloponnese and we operate with our own yacht, providing a personalized service.

Our guests come from all over the world and for us this is our profession, but it is also a way of life as we spend a big part of the year cruising around the islands.

It all started back in 1993 when I (Thanos) who was born and grew up in Greece by the sea all my life, moved to the UK as a university student. While I was there and looking at Greece from the distance, I had the idea to create crewed yacht charters around my favorite Greek Islands. For a few years I followed a career at sea, sailing around Europe and the Caribbean but my dream never left my mind, so in 2004 I bought my first yacht Alexandros and started my cruises at the Ionian Islands of Greece.

In 2005 I met my future wife Alicia, who actually came to work on the Alexandros as a chef/hostess for the summer and together we kept cruising around the beautiful Greek Islands, extending the cruising areas to the Aegean and the Caribbean and giving the cuisine onboard its gourmet touch that it’s well known for today.

In 2010 we bought Velos (an Ocean Star 56.1) which was a lot bigger than Alexandros with very comfortable ensuite guest cabins, giving our cruises a more luxurious character. I and Alicia crewed Velos but we kept our first yacht Alexandros because we loved it, but also to provide a more ‘economy’ option for our guests. It operated with another captain and hostess/chef.

In February 2016 our son Nicolas was born and we knew the time had come for us to step off of Velos and let another crew continue the job that we loved so much. But to our surprise, Nicolas turned out to be the perfect baby, always happy, smiley, rarely crying and he slept all night, so the unthinkable happened!!!

We didn’t have to leave our magic world of cruising and what’s more, we did it together with Nicolas who spent two beautiful seasons onboard with us, not missing a single day!!! All our guests loved him and as you can imagine he loved all the uncles, aunts, granddads and grandmas that came onboard every week :)

And then in March 2018 our daughter Georgia was born and with two kids it was time to step off the yacht and enjoy the family life at home. Between 2018 and 2022 we still did the occasional cruise together with Nicolas and Georgia when guests asked specifically for us to be their crew, but those days there was a permanent crew on each of our yachts.

As our cruises had become so popular that the requests were more than we could accommodate and being land based I had more time to organize and run our cruises, we decided to order two new catamarans.

In January 2019 we had a disaster, as there was a fire at the drydock where Velos and Alexandros were stored for the winter and both yachts were destroyed. Alexandros was damaged beyond repair and Velos was so extensively damaged that it’s still waiting for a full repair and refurbishment. This was a difficult point for us both sentimentally, as we were very attached to our yachts, and financially.

For the season of 2019 which was already fully booked on both yachts we bought Mythos which is an Ocean Star 56.1 identical to Velos in every way except for the color of the hull which is beige, and chartered Malena (a Beneteau 523) for Alexandros’ bookings. It was a difficult year for us, but we managed!

The first catamaran we had ordered from the Lagoon shipyard in France was named Evi and it is a Lagoon 450F with 4 very spacious ensuite guest cabins. S/Cat Evi was delivered in February 2020, right at the beginning of the covid era.

The second and bigger catamaran ordered from the same shipyard was named Nicolas (after our son!) and it is a Lagoon 52F with 5 very spacious ensuite guest cabins and 3 crew cabins. S/Cat Nicolas was ready in September 2020 at La Rochelle in France, so together with little Nicolas and Georgia who were 4 and 2 years old at the time, we sailed it around the Atlantic coast of Europe, through the Straights of Gibraltar and across the Med to Greece, where we arrived in November of 2020.

Organizing cruises with 3 yachts was time and energy consuming and not at all what I had in mind back in 2004 when I created Anko Yachting. My idea was to sail and enjoy the Greek Islands while showing this beautiful world to our guests, rather than run a business. And as the kids were old enough to be back on the yacht, in April 2023 I came onboard S/Cat Nicolas as the full time captain and at the end of 2023 the two smaller yachts S/Y Mythos and S/Cat Evi were sold.

Since 2024 when Anko Yachting had its 20 year anniversary, we are cruising only with S/Cat Nicolas at the Ionian Islands, offering our guests unforgettable holidays!

From the very first day back in 2004 until today, our cruises have been addressed to people who are not sailors. The majority of our guests are actually people who were originally looking for hotel or villa accommodation on one of the islands, or a holiday on a cruise liner, but when they heard about our Greek Island cruises they liked the idea of visiting a different cove for a swim every afternoon and staying at a different village every night.

We take care of all the little details related to your trip, from the smooth running of the yacht to organizing your transfers. The only thing you will need to take care of, is booking your flights!

Our aim is to provide a relaxed and easy-going holiday for you, where you will feel at home onboard our yacht, you will taste some of Alicia's delicious homemade dishes and you will enjoy the fresh local products.

See you onboard for an unforgettable holiday!
Thanos and Alicia :)

Watch our video
made by one of our guests, Scott Jones in 2011