Christos and Annie are a young couple who first met at an altitude of 1680m. at Kallergis Refuge .
It was love at first sight! After a while, their love for freedom and sailing led them to create this company to organize sailing trips.
Christos Paterakis was not born in any hospital of Chania, as some believe, but his existence is the result of limestone and granite distillation back in 1979. From an early age, he‘d rather climb rocks and mountains as those appealed to him. There was also the sea beside the mountains though.
Having practically grown up inside the sea he was always attracted by water so he started sailing from a very early age, participating in many sailing rallies across the Aegean Sea, even obtaining first place in the International Aegean Sailing Rally in 2011.
He is a holder of the HORC Skipper Certificate. Today he is the captain of the ”Soupia'' sailing boat during the summer months and the owner of Sailingsouthcrete company (the previous name of the company was Sailingcreta (the old website was sailingcreta.com).
He also runs the Mountain Refuge of Kallergis (Kalergi Lodge) located on the White Mountains at a 1700m altitude and he is the owner of the Hiking Creta company that organizes ski trips in the island of Crete during winter.
Moreover, he is a journalist for the motorcycle magazine MOTO.
Annie Kakouri Maraka, was born in 1988.
She is a Civil Structural Engineer who changed her life from a job in the office to pursue her travel and entrepreneurial dreams.
Her main objective was freedom and a sailing boat was the means to freedom.
So hers has come true.
Apart from her degree in Civil Engineering, she is a holder of the HORC Skipper Certificate and she also has a master's in Tourism.
Moreover, she has a degree in Mental Health counseling.
She loves painting, dancing, and writing, as she is also writing a love story and one of her dreams is for her story to become a book.
Join us in any of our trips to get to know us!
by SailingSouthCrete team