Season 1 – Route and Key Stats

The Red line shows our approximate route from Spain to Greece. Here are some brief trip stats:

• We visited Spain, France, Italy and Greece.
• The main islands visited on route where; Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Sardinia, Corsica, Capri, the Pontine Islands, the Aeolian Islands, Sicily and lots and lots of Greek islands…
• We travelled just under 2900NM, of which we sailed 1800NM, the rest was under motor because there was no wind.

We were on board for 178 nights non stop of which:

• 91 nights were at anchor (our longest spell of anchoring was 21 consecutive nights)
• 4 nights on a Bouy
• 6 nights were on a passage (at Sea)
• 41 nights  spent on Town Quay’s
• 36 nights in Marina’s.

It is often said that cruising on a yacht is nothing more than fixing a boat in exotic locations, so, here is a list of major gear failures we encountered while underway (there were lots of minor ones too!):

• Head Sail (Head attachment gave way)
• Fridge (Packed in)
• Forward Heads stop cock failed (jammed shut)
• Fuel tank needed cleaning (Clogged engine)
• Dinghy seams came unstuck (leaking water)
• Both dinghy paddles broke
• Various hatches/windows leaked and needed fixing
• Engine Battery died and was replaced
• Windlass failed (turned out to be just a loose wire)
• Main Sail leech gave way
• Gas solenoid valve failed and need to be replaced – along with most of the gas system!
• Almost every light switch on the boat failed at some point or another and needed fixing/replacing!

Plus, a whole host of ongoing maintenence!

Best bits of Kit:

• Our Engine, she never missed a beat, once we gave her decent fuel
• Our Solar Panels – Between June and September we never needed shore power and were completely self sufficient from a power perspective.
• Our Anchor – Our 25Kg Ronca allowed us to sleep easy every night. She set first time and never dragged once despite anchoring in winds over 40 knots.