As we stroll past the memorial commemorating those who died in the evacuation of allied troops from Chora Sfakion to Egypt following the Battle of Crete in 1941 our ferry, the blue-hulled Neptune, makes its way into harbour.
Could it be the same boat I travelled on from Agia Roumeli when I last visited all those years ago? Surely that was white. Was my memory deserting me? As the lines are thrown ashore and the boat is drawn towards the quayside I notice chips in its dark blue paintwork revealing white beneath the blue. The layers of paint so deep that, like the rings in a tree trunk, they betray the many years served by this trusty workhorse.