Lessons Learned From a Greek Ferry

I am not travel stupid.  Experience has taught me that a little planning ahead can make the difference between an enjoyable trip and a travel nightmare.  But you can't control every outcome, especially if you are going off season.
We had decided to drive to a Greek island and all I was able to do in preparation was to book a hotel, have Google-maps suggest a route and make sure I had some euros cash.  We set off without being sure of the availability of car ferries, of the weather or if the Greek truck drivers would cooperate in keeping the borders open.  None of that information was available to me.  I had tried online  research and 'tripadvisor'.  One post stated sarcastically,

"Why are you asking? You have been to Greece before, you obviously know how it works!"  I had been to Greece by car many times before, and I did know how unpredictable the service was there.  Why was I asking? I was hoping that this time I would be able to control each detail to conjure up the perfect holiday free from travel hassles and weather worries.  Good luck!
This is what I learned from the Greek island ferries:
1. The weather can turn from pouring rain that floods the streets and darkens the skies to brilliant warm sunshine in a matter of minutes.  Just take a seat out of the rain and wait it out.

2. The ferry men take their job very seriously.  Don't try to fight them for they are in control.  They somehow pack an endless number of cars, trucks and motorcycles into a limited space by expertly directing each driver to park the car in the smallest parking space available.  There are no accidental dings or scrapes on their watch.
3. And finally, the ferries are magic. This is how I know. We arrived at the port and bought our tickets with plenty of time to spare.  We joined what looked like some other passengers waiting on the dock.  When the boarding began an employee began directing traffic.  We were told to wait while he beckoned other vehicles into the belly of the ship.  We watched what must have been at least a hundred cars drive on in front of us.  Buses unloaded passengers and bikes slipped on board.  The car in front of us decided he had waited long enough.  As he inched forward trying to cut in, the ferry worker told him in no uncertain terms to wait.  A shouting match developed but it got us no further to boarding the ship.  They began letting trucks on next.  At this point I realized that we might not make it. The next ferry was in 3 hours. I felt panic rising and was ready to get out and yell at the ferry man, "It's our turn, we have been waiting! Let us on while there is still room." But he was in no mood to be nice and things did not look good for us.
Finally, when no other cars could be found waiting to board, we were waved on.  As a passenger I left the car and entered the hold of the ship.  By some miracle the whole inside was empty of cars.  I could see the trucks parked to one side but the large cavernous space the size of a gymnasium was virtually empty.  Where had they put the cars that boarded before us? I felt so foolish for worrying that there wouldn't be room for our one car. Obviously this is some magic ferry that can hold any number of vehicles and people.

There was so much I couldn't control, from the wind direction to the hotel WiFi.  I had to accept this and believe in the magic.
Although the weather was overcast and cool, the sun came out at just the right moments to make our pictures look beautiful.  The "not so good" hotel we reserved online never received our booking.  The winding track of a road that made us feel hopelessly lost brought us out exactly where we wanted to be, even if we weren't sure where on a map.  The Greek truckers never got around to closing the border and this trip turned out to be memorable for the lessons well learned.