An explorer yacht charter incorporating Delos uses the island as the cultural anchor of a wider Cyclades itinerary that stretches to the outer and least-visited corners of the archipelago. An explorer vessel carries the fuel, crew, and tender fleet to reach places that conventional charter yachts never visit, and the Cyclades contain many such places: uninhabited islets with submerged ruins, sea caves only accessible by rigid inflatable, and passages between outer islands exposed to the full fetch of the Aegean that require a robust hull and experienced seamanship. Delos sits at the geographical centre of the Cyclades and serves as the ideal departure point for a radial itinerary. Explorer yachts can push east to Amorgos, one of the most dramatic islands in Greece, whose northern cliff wall rises sheer from the sea for several kilometres. They can head south to Anafi, where a Byzantine monastery occupies a pinnacle above one of the quietest natural harbours in the Greek islands. Or they can sweep through the Small Cyclades, the chain of five tiny islands south of Naxos where the permanent population numbers in the hundreds and the bays are entirely uncommercialised. The explorer fleet in Greece numbers around three vessels ranging from 40 to 70 metres, with rates from approximately 100,000 to over 300,000 euros per week plus the customary 30 percent advance provisioning allowance. May and October are excellent months for explorer charters, when swell patterns are more manageable and the popular anchorages around Mykonos and Delos are uncrowded.
