About the book

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Author Elizabeth Rakoczy and her husband sail through the Greek islands to explore the enduring legacy of Ancient Greece. Their journeys weave together stories from antiquity, the medieval world, and the present day, enlivened by sailing adventures and enriched with maps, citations from iconic European authors, and photographs that bring the landscape and history vividly to life. The images alone are breathtaking.

Beyond the beauty of the voyage, the book offers practical value: insightful anecdotes about modern Greece and clear, experience-based tips for navigating and negotiating your way around Aegean ports. For sailors, this alone makes it indispensable. Yet Rakoczy’s achievement goes further. She demonstrates how Greek history is not confined to the past but continues to shape our thinking, our institutions, and the world we live in today.

In Defence of Rational Thinking

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published his infamous article in The Lancet, suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Though retracted and scientifically discredited, it has had enduring consequences, undermining public confidence in vaccination and threatening one of humanity’s greatest achievements: the control—and in some cases elimination—of epidemic disease.

To me, the Wakefield paper marked more than scientific fraud. It signalled the beginning of a cultural unravelling: the erosion of rational thinking as a guiding principle of public debate. In countless discussions with vaccine opponents, I have witnessed the same troubling pattern: arguments rooted not in evidence but in entrenched belief, impervious to reasoned exchange.

The causes are multiple, but I suspect that the decline of education in the intellectual tradition of Ancient Greece—where rational thought was first enshrined as the foundation of medicine, science, and civic life—has played a significant role. In its place we see irrationality on the rise: from religious fundamentalism to the emotionally charged but scientifically empty rhetoric surrounding climate change, vaccination, education, and politics, all amplified by the echo chambers of social media.

I sensed these tensions most acutely in the early 2000s, while sailing through Greece with my husband. Surrounded by the ruins of the culture that first elevated reason above myth, I could not escape the contrast with a world increasingly adrift from its moorings. This book is therefore not only a light-hearted travelogue, but also a meditation on that legacy: a reminder that the ancient gift of reason remains as vital today as at its birth.

 

About the author

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Elizabeth Rakoczy is Emeritus Professor of Molecular Ophthalmology at the University of Western Australia. She has published more than 160 scientific papers and several books. She was awarded the prestigious CSL Florey Medal in 2017 and inducted into the West Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2024 for her pioneering contributions to medical science. Beyond the laboratory, she and her husband have sailed across the world’s oceans with enthusiasm and a historian’s curiosity, chronicling their voyages at http://blog.mailasail.com/fenix. Based in Perth, Western Australia, with two grown children, she continues to divide her time between scholarly work, writing, and sailing the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

 
 
 
 
 

 What People Are Saying

“Rakoczy’s journey on the yacht is through “space, time and the human mind”. Water-covered parts of space aside, the discovery of several Greek islands and their towns and cities makes equally absorbing reading.”

 
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AMARNALL via BOOKTOPIA

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“For those that have sailed, are sailing, or dream of sailing the Aegean; this book needs to be in the cockpit. It provides wonderful anecdotes on today’s Greece with valuable tips and insights into navigating and negotiating your way around Aegean ports."

 
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CLIFFHANGER V. via AMAZON

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"Told through a scientist’s outlook on matters pertaining to life, including religion the book explores Greek mythology, history, cuisine, culture and the landscape via a sailing adventure. The images in the book are breath-taking, to say the least.”

 
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EmunahAn via BOOKSHELVES

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“For all those with interest in Ancient Greece: sailors or not, or even if without any inkling of the history and achievements of the Hellens; this book is a must.”

 
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ROB WEATHERBURN via CRUISING HELMSMAN

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“The author made a perfect synergy of three things; visiting Greek ports, creating an encyclopaedia-like summary of the rich history and culture of Ancient Greece and their connection to our present life.”

 
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ZOLTAN CSEPIGA via AUSTIN MACAULEY

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