a family sailing blog
It just so happened that there was a festival on in Otranto on our last night there. Summer is in the air and everyone was out late into the night listening to traditional music from the Salento region of Italy. The kids were the early entertainment highlight with them congo dancing and waltzing around the... Continue Reading →
The morning after arriving in Italy we woke and it was still blowing hard. The coast guard appeared in a high-speed rib, full of bedraggled looking figures wrapped in foil survival blankets. Yoannia (from Calyxia) and I walked over to see what was going on. They were refugees, I have read a lot about the... Continue Reading →
We left Ericoussa, an island north of Corfu, at 9pm and headed out towards Otranto in Italy. The wind was due to steadily build, and it did, from the north west. As we were heading north west this meant that once again we were beating into a steadily building breeze. At midnight... Continue Reading →
Since we left the Peloponnese and headed into the Ionian sea things have been busy, and have not really gone to plan. Our sail from Pilos to Zakinthos was not as expected. The forecast promised F4 on the beam, but instead delivered flat calms for the first 20NM followed by a F6 close reach for... Continue Reading →
No, its not what you think... Cormac, one of the kids on Antigoni had a nasty fall 6 weeks ago, before we met him. He was playing on a breakwater when he fell off, fractured his skull and broke his arm. At the time he was on the island of Folegandros and there wasn't a... Continue Reading →
Cruising through the Peloponnese has been fantastic fun. I think it's one of the nicest parts of Greece we have visited to date. It is well off the beaten track for sailors, which makes it super quiet. There are no charter yachts here – only live aboard cruisers. It is rugged and remote but... Continue Reading →
Before leaving Milos we managed to hook up with another cruising boat full of kids. Sarah and Dan and their three kids Bee, Cormac and Rory are sailing on an Australian registered boat called Antigoni had got in touch with us through ayachtmoretolife. Cruising families are all pretty much on the same wavelength and needless to... Continue Reading →
The Greek Islands are a fantastic cruising ground. From a sailors perspective, anchorages are plentiful and the distances between them as long or as short as you want them to be and as long as you keep an eye on the wind, there is not much to go wrong. To my surprise though, at this time... Continue Reading →
On our second day in Loutra we decided to go on a trek to an old castle perched high up on the cliff tops. Unfortunately, we let Heather navigate. I have been lost in mountains a number of times thanks to Heathers navigating skills, so i should have seen the warning signs coming as she stepped... Continue Reading →
Our first sail was from Aegina Town to Poros. A short day sail on a blustery overcast day. Unfortunately as we had put up our main sail the previous day we had furled it with out sufficient tension and on un furling it jammed. It would furl in ok, but we could not get it... Continue Reading →
a yacht more to life 