a family sailing blog
Bonifacio is a must visit destination on any Mediterranean sailing trip. The old town, with a labyrinth of narrow streets and historic buildings, is perched high on the cliff tops over looking the straits of Bonifacio’s azure blue waters. It’s the kind of place where you just wander, explore and soak up the vibe. We... Continue Reading →
When I was learning to fly…way before kids…I read a magazine called Pilot. It had an article on the back page called ILAFFT or "I Learned About Flying From That". It was the best section in the mag, and the first bit I read each month. Pilots could admit to their worst, most embarrassing, or... Continue Reading →
Whilst in the Alta Rocca Mountains we decided to go canyoning. For those that don't know, and there can't be many, canyoning is a fancy word for throwing yourself, and your kids, down a pristine, freezing cold mountain river. Location southern Corsica. On the morning of our canyoning expedition we were running late and as... Continue Reading →
After the mistral the weather was fine and settled so we headed back to Porto Veccio to meet up with S/V Intention and head into the mountains. Given our previous experience, rather than head into the marina we decided to leave the yachts at anchor and after a pre dawn start, took the dinghy ashore... Continue Reading →
There was another mistral coming. At present they seem to be an almost weekly occurrence, but vary from fairly mild to really quite nasty. With winds gusts of 50 knots forecast we had decided to leg it from north Sardinia to shelter in Porto Veccio on south east Corsica. It actually worked well, as we... Continue Reading →
Other cruisers told us the east coast of Sardinia was a boring place to travel, with limited anchorage opportunities and lots of expensive marina time the order of the day. That may be the case in the wrong conditions, but we had a ball and anchored all the way up this spectacular coast. Sure, we... Continue Reading →
After the wind subsided we ventured out into the tail end of the Mistral, and she was still a little more spirited than we had expected wth gusts of 30 knots, but we were sailing down wind and flying along. First stop was Nora, just 12NM across the bay. The beach was picture perfect, fine... Continue Reading →
Italian names don't get much more Italian than Cape Carbonara! The cape is a great place to arrive and has a couple of really good sandy anchorages which provide great protection from most winds. Sand is always good to see, not just because it looks great, but because when it comes to digging your anchor... Continue Reading →
The passage from the Aegadis to southern Sardinia is about 140NM and the forecast wind looked good but the swell/waves looked a bit gnarly. As we left Marettimo the wind was a good F6 on the beam and we were flying, but soon we were out out of the island effect the wind dropped away... Continue Reading →
In our first season we had been sailing for 7 weeks and not met another family. To be fair it was very early season and there weren't many boats about, but our kids, and especially Ben were crying out for other kids. One afternoon we pulled into an anchorage in Mahon, Menorca and next to... Continue Reading →
a yacht more to life 