Crete - an island?

I had a clear idea before leaving that I was going on a trip to 'one of the Greek islands'; but the reality is that you see never a one, partly because it's dark throughout the boat journey, leaving at 9 pm and arriving at 5 am, but also because it's open sea all the way from Piraeus to Heraklion, the other islands are all far away to the left or the right.

It strikes me indeed that Crete has for me no more of the feeling of an island about it than Britain or Ireland have - it's really a piece of mainland rather smaller than most ... Indeed Greece-expert Nick wrote "in" Crete rather than "on" ...

Maybe another time - if I can ever face the nightmare of Piraeus again - I can go somewhere that really feels like an island, maybe Corfu on the Italian side, Naxos in the centre of the Aegean islands, or the smaller islands surrounding Rhodos, from where you can row across to Turkey if you feel like a buccaneer...