With a background in finance, Joe Hede is a Norwalk, Connecticut, venture capital partner who focuses on identifying value-driven growth companies. A travel enthusiast, Joe Hede enjoys exploring destinations across the globe, and has particularly enjoyed sightseeing in Italy and Greece.
One of the highlights of visiting Greece is the small island of Hydra, which first became wealthy in the late 1700s, when its seafaring inhabitants slipped past British blockades of France-controlled ports during the Napoleonic Wars.
The island subsequently became known for shipbuilding and its heavily fortified harbor protected a large fleet of Greek ships during the country’s War of Independence in 1821. Unfortunately, the harbor, with its twin forts, also sustained heavy damage and casualties, and the local economy turned to sponge diving and fishing for sustenance in the following century.
After the hit Sophia Loren film Boy on a Dolphin, which premiered in the mid-1950s, Hydra reawakened as a destination for celebrities, artists, expats, and well-heeled vacationers. Among the poet residents of the 1960s was Leonard Cohen, who penned his classic Bird On the Wire while in Hydra. This combination of scenic, cultural, and historical interest has turned the island into a major yachting and tourist hub that defines the best of the Greek isles for many visitors.
