Sailing – Conclusion
Table of Contents
Nile cruising 1
More Flotillas 1
Free Sailing 2
The Open Road 3
Skippered Charters 3
At some point – Jean and I realised that we had got increasingly bored with sedentary beach/ pool holidays and went on to try things like Nile cruises – where the excursions got you out and about and – in the case of Egypt – were absolutely fascinating.
Nile cruising
Getting up at 06.30 for a trip to the valley of the kings – because the temperatures made later visits impractical – was actually, worth it – when you entered the lavishly decorated underground tomb of Rameses II – just stunning.
In fact, we did three cruises – the Nile, Luxor to Karnak, Lake Nasser and Abu Simbel.
Just a pity about the constant need for Imodium.
But we eventually realised that the holidays we came back from, most rested and most refreshed – were sailing holidays – even though, they were the most active – or because of?
More Flotillas
In the years –that followed our first flotilla trip – we did at least, another five annual flotilla holidays on the Southern Ionian – mostly with Nielsons – though we did try one with Sunsail.
We did find out that we were lucky, in that our first flotilla had the best lead crew. Subsequent Neilson lead crews not being in their class e.g. no beach barbecue only one group dinner.
One even came up with an itinerary which took us from Nidri – into the Northern Ionian – which is windier, colder and rougher and included a long, tough sail to Corfu and back – I ran aground once – luckily in soft sand and managed to wiggle free.
Hence – we tried Sunsail – who were fine but a little regimented i.e. fixed itinerary – no free sails
Woody and Bridget actually moved on (not together) -the following year – as seems common with professional sailors.
We did maintain contact with Bridget – not directly, but through linking on Facebook. The last notification we got – some years ago – she was a member of a spiritual commune in Australia.
We did move from the late June/July period – to earlier in the year – as it was increasingly too hot for us – and May was more comfortable.
As I got more competent – we switched to some trips – based on what are referred to as ‘bareboat charters’ –
That doesn’t mean that the crew are naked. Only that that we would, hire or (more correctly) charter – a yacht from a charter company who hand the boat over for two weeks – with a deposit guarantee covering any damage – no lead boat support and left to your own devices. You can radio the base in an emergency.
UK companies, of course, want sight of the appropriate RYA and/or ICC accreditations as a matter of course.
We did one two-week charter with an Athens based Greek charter company with boats based in Levkas – to the north of the South Ionian Islands.
Got there – booking our own transport – with all the accreditations – they never even asked to see them – just handed the keys over – in exchange for a Euro 250 deposit guarantee against damage.
We got back in one piece – and got the deposit cheque back -no problem.
Free Sailing
Our bareboat adventures did really show us the advantages of completely free sailing – which overcame the disadvantages of no close support if we had a problem.
You can go where you choose and stop where you choose and go the way that you choose – and get up when you like!
Imagine, physically moving your holiday accommodation to another location any time you fancy!
The Open Road
It may sound obvious – but there are no roads on the open seas – no lanes – no crossroads – no traffic lights – no pedestrians and very few other vehicles.
You do, of course have to be aware of other vessels, particularly ferries (who don’t dodge you) – and – if you want the fastest route – you need to plot the best course – which Jean quite like doing.
But I loved – leaving a berth in the morning – with a clear destination and coming out into open water with a rough idea where I wanted to go and no particular route or heading to get there.
The huge advantage of the Southern Ionian – with its coast and islands so close together – being ‘line of sight’ navigation – pick a landmark and head for it – do a figure eight if you fancy.
However – as I got into my 40s – I still found the sailing easy enough but the berthing process was increasingly stressful, l with just the two of us and no support on land.
Skippered Charters
We tried ’skippered charters’ – the most successful being a boat based in Levkas – at the top end of Cephalonia on the southern Ionian – owned and skippered by a British lad who used to work for Sunsail and married to a Greek girl with two children.
Went great – he had a similar sense of humour, so we had a good laugh.
We decided where we wanted to go, and he took us – with us being competent crew if needed.
We eventually had to accept that even that was becoming an effort and my strokes and jean’s growing lack of mobility, meant that our sailing days came to an end.
We always agreed that discovering sailing was one of the best things we ever did.