Life On Sail

     Budget overview: We left Narbonne Plage on 1st April, one month after buying and renovating the boat.  And we finally returned back to France, at Leucate Port, our final destination on 16 March 2026.  So I'm ending our expenses at this day.  However, spendings are still ongoing, as you need to pay for the harbor yearly, and most of all, we are putting Vogue for sale. Which means we need to do some little repairs on it, which has a cost.  But if we leave it on 16 March,   We spent a total of  1596  euros, for 2 weeks.  March spending details: The reason we spent so much is because it was our last leg of the trip. We had a friend onboard, so we went out and about, for our last spending spree. But most of all, we started to order plenty of spare parts ahead of our return to the harbor, for the final repair before the final on sale listing of Vogue.  March vs the overal Budget:   So the questions we've been all await...

  Our final sailing day! Nico’s dad joined us and was thoroughly entertained as we hit 7.1 knots with gusts reaching 25 knots. Arriving, we struggled to berth due to the strong winds and had to dock at the entrance of the port instead of our final berth. We’ll dock again tomorrow. We covered 47 nautical miles in 8 hours and 35 minutes averaging 5.5 knots. So may things happened after docking that we haven't realized yet that this one year at sea is over! here is the video in 2 parts

  what a day, windy, which was perfect, until we heard a loud crack. It was the shuckle holding the genoa that let go. We had to furl it back and use the jib to resume our journey. Last solo sailing for us as Nico's dad will join us for our final last sail to Leucate. We reached 15.7 NM today in 3h34 at 4.4 knots average, with dolphins greeting us when we broke our shuckle!

We are getting closer to ending our gap year. Sunny today, we reached 24,1 NM in 5h58 min at 4 knots average.   Next week, we'll be arriving our final port in Leucate! Excited but also sad at the same time.  

 4 0,5 NM in 8h51 min at 4.6 knot average. 32 knot wind gusts today. Luckily there wasn't too much swell. Calmer winds after noon and weird on and off wind by the end of the sailing day. We cut it short as we had headwinds at the end of the trip.

  4,1 MN in 5h44 at 4,2 knots. No wind today, a bit at the beginning and the end. Today we are sheltering at the port because of the bad weather tonight.

 

  We left later than planned, because of the standing rigging checks. We were supposed to sail for 8h. But it was cut short as we arrived a military zone. It was too large to go around so we cut our sailing short. Which wasn't bad as it's raining heavily. We only reached 18.4 NM in 3h53 at an average of 4.7 knots

  We reached 42.7 NM in 7h28 min at 5.7 knots average. It was a windy day, we peaked at 7.5 knots, with 16 knot winds. We re back to Hyeres for 2 nights in order to get our standing rigging checked again before we finish our sabbatical year !

  16 knot winds and 7.6 knot peak speed. We reached 18.1 NM in 3h09 at 5,8 knot average. It's Alex's last day with us. He was at the helm stirring.

  14,3 NM in 2h39at 5.4 knots average. Swell and 27 knot wind gusts! It was a rough day! We arrived Cannes, on the same pontoon as Henri, who is following us on YT and is also an Oceanis 40CC owner. What a coincidence!

  10,6 NM in 2h30 at 4,3 knots average, sunny but so much swell I was sick. So not much videos. Alex was all smile despite the swell! Lucky him! We took advantage of this stopover to visit our Catamaran friends Elmo again.

  We reached 14.8 NM in 2h43 at 5.1 knot average. 20 knot wind gusts and a lot of swell. It got me sick. We passed by Monaco. Peaked speed was 7.2 knots.

 Alex's first sail with us, and we're bringing him back to France.  It was a very short stay in Italy for him.  And it was the most memorable trip! We had wind, sun and an amazing dolphin family swimming alongside Vogue for 15 minutes or even more as we were about to cross the French border.   It was absolutely amazing.  They were so close to me I could have touched them with my feet.  We reached 33.5 NM in 6h36 min at 5.1 knots average.  You can watch on YOUTUBE a 360 video of this interaction with dolphins.  360 degree video means you can scroll anywhere on the screen and watch the video from the angle you want to. Try it out and try to watch the dolphins as they swim! Best viewed on YOUTUBE directly:  https://youtu.be/U6QRBzIjES4

    Budget overview: It was one of our lowest spending months. But still more than we would have wanted because of unexpected event.  We had our dinghy stolen, no extra costs yet, it will incur next month.  It it is our last month before crossing to the French border.  We spent a total of  1711  euros, which is one of our lowest spending during this gap year.  February spending details: We had to stay in ports more than we would have wanted to. Unfortunately, in Italy, the low season price is as expensive as the high season in France.  Also sailing in winter is rough, either too much wind therefore we had to shelter, or not enough, we used the engine far more than we would have wanted. So we had to fill up the tanks twice this month! And last but not least, our autopilot hydraulic pump broke down, we had to get spare parts delivered quickly. It did entail extra costs.  February vs Budget:   We only have 1700 euros left to spend for ...

 No wind today, last sailing day in Italy.  Tomorrow we'll be heading back to France.  We reached 18.7 NM in 4h19  at 4.3 knot speed.  Alex is joining us for 5 days and experience life on sail with us!