"Then we are all set and ready to go."
***
A week passed. It was May 24th, a little before noon. The day was Tuesday. Nikolas took his chain off his neck and placed the ring he had bought for Anna on it, and then put the chain back on. The men sat on the deck. "Let's ask the protector of sailors to be with us." They all touched the icon of St. Nikolas.
Nikolas showed them the list of the monasteries and islands they would be searching. "There will be no stone left unturned, no monastery or island unexplored,
God be with us."
Adoni untied the ropes and the Ithaka left the Piraeus Marina, four days shy of Nikolas's fortieth birthday, in 1952. He had lost more than ten years of his life, and he could not afford to waste any more time.
The winds were in their favor and the ship cut through the relatively calm sea with grace. Nikolas steered the ship east, toward Samos. He was thankful to his uncle Spiro, who had left him a thousand pure gold pieces of British sterling, which he combined with his back pay from the Greek Navy. He paid for the boat in full and still had some left, which he hoped to use to buy a house one day.