Life On Sail

August 2025 overview We were really traveling this month, as we arrived the Italian coastline.  Which means less time spent on repairing (Although there are still repairs to be done),  so it means less heavy spending overall.  But you are wrong! It's the summer holidays, so our son was with us for a month or so.  Which means we spent for 3 people and had a mini holiday in Rome.  Total spending reached  €2965  for the month. (By the way error on last month, we spent  € 2938 and not  € 2891) August 2025 details This month's highlights: - The trip in Rome was the most expensive, with the transport, hotels, food but also all the cultural sightseeing that are pretty expensive.  -Mainly food! In these Eolian islands, gazoline is expensive and food is also not the cheapest.    August 2025 vs Budget With seven months into our sabbatical,  we’ve spent a bit more than 84% of our total budget,  leaving  €16817  for t...

That's our 87th navigation! and it concludes 6th month of of the sabbatical year as well! Just 8 months ago, end of Feb. we bought our Oceanis 40CC. Time flies!   Very short distance, 16 nautical miles while navigating during 5 long hours.  It was painful with no wind. Nico setting up and removing the spinnaker...  we finally had to find shelter from the swell somewhere nearby instead of going to Sicily. There was no wind at all. So we went back to the lovely island of Vulcano.

  Join us as we relive our first "3" sailings, filled with stress, struggles, and magical moments. Four months ago, we left everything behind—our expat life in Hong Kong—to chase a crazy dream: a sabbatical year on a sailboat, with zero experience! From our collision with a sandbank on the very first day (ouch!) to our clumsy circles in the water as total beginners, to my epic battle against my legendary seasickness during our "big" 8.5-hour crossing to Cap d’Agde, we’re sharing it all! 😷 We also talk about our chaotic boat license experience in Paris and my anti-seasickness tips.    

  It was a good windy day, which made the sailing more sporty.  We enjoyed the 16 knots squall that brought us up to 6 knots speed.  However, the next morning, it rained. We visited Santa Marina quickly the next day, but nothing worthy enough for me to generate a short vlog of that visit!

 We are going back to Lipari. But this time sailing VOGUE to get there instead of the ferry.  But after going in the water early morning, I got badly seasick. But we had to leave our buoy. It was a 1h20 navigation. we were a bit tired for this morning's activity. We just moored in front of the old pomice quarries. This time we didnt visit the city as we already did. Instead we moored in front of the abandonned Pomice factories.  It was abandoned ever since Lipari and the Eolian islands became part of the Unesco world heritage in 2007.  Check the beauty of those white canyons within the Pomice quarry!

  Probably our longuest navigation, 11h ! And one of the most pleasant one I guess it's because of many things: -no wind, our average speed was 3.1 knots with the Spi -we had 2 stops, one on Isola Basiluzzo (can't remember the name) -the other one Lisca Bianca where there was an underwater volcano. Nico dived to have a look at the bubbles from the volcano activity although it's forbidden to moor there. I took advantage of that to buy fish from the local fishermen touring all the boats mooring around. -last but not least, we only did 34 NM today... we tried 3 spots for mooring. Third one a charm. They were all crowded! we arrived late after 6 pm. For once we didn't visit the volcano immediately, but saved it for departure day. Instead we took the ferry to head to Lipari, the neighoring island, and also the biggest of all the Eolian archipelago. The next day, before leaving, we headed to the top of Vulcano, to walk arount is "gran cratere", towering at 391m. ...

 1 0h navigation for 42 NM is one of our longest navigation. We are now living mainland Italy towards Sicily. But before we hit Sicily we are going through its Eolian islands. We had good wind all throughout, and even got a 12.5 knot squall that brought us up to 7 knots speed. The best part is that we arrived at night time at the Sciara de fueco point where the lava pours into the sea. We could see eruptions every 15-20 minutes. Look at this in the video! Next day we visited the city and of course the Stromboli volcano, getting closer to its crater. We visited San Vincenzo village, then climbed 290m to get to the Sciara de Fueco to see the volcano's outburst. We can't see as well as after sunset but we were lucky enough to see volcanic rocks rolling down into the sea. On the way back we visited San Bartolomeo, very chill and relax village with houses styled like in Santorini or Mykonos. We had dinner then headed back to the boat! What a memorable mooring! with a volcano next...

  8 hours for 32 NM, a bit of engine and luckily some wind! I had the worse sleep yesterday so I slept well during this navigation. We visited Tropea, it is such a beauty! The port is right below Tropea. So easy to get to, which means we visited it as we arrived in the afternoon and again in the evening. The only bummer is that we haven't done any grocery shopping so far... so not much food left on the boat. The autopilot is not fully fixed... hopefully enough for tomorrow's departure to Sicily. Here are some videos of Tropea with the drone!

  6h of engine! There was absolutely no wind. We did 40 NM that day, 8hours of navigation. What a day picking up trash from the sea.

  We finally made it, a day late, to our goal. We navigated almost 6 hours today. At 4.9 knots on average which is great considering we lowered that performance by spinning around to find sheltered mooring spot. We did 28 NM today. Tomorrow we'll be less lucky as there is no wind. So we ll go as far as the wind will take us.

 We wanted to go further but the wind decided otherwise.  We woke up early to sail and take advantage of the wind, but it stopped after 6 hours of navigation.  So we went for a mooring spot.  We arrived at 3 pm. No visits tomorrow. We have to take advantage of the morning wind again. 

  9h of navigation to cross 32 NM. Not much wind today. Cruising speed was 3,7 knot. we won't be visiting anything tomorrow so more time to sail, and hopefully more wind.

  5h40 of navigation for 24 NM. We finally left the Amalfi coast and its lemons. The next morning we visited the medieval center. 

  NM, 2h navigation as we had no wind. Bad surprise when we arrived, no mooring space at all! So we had a lunch break then went to Minori to get a buoy. The plan is to fill up water and then last long enough to go to Sicily. Having a stable mooring will allow us to visit Amalfi from Minori. So we had 2 navigations that day. Here is our visit of Amalfi, we were caught up in a hailstone storm in the middle of the lemon farms. But finally the next morning, in Minori, we randomly visited a lemon farm.

 Much awaited stop over.  Well Capri was, but  We didn't visit capri because there was no way we could moor safely with the morning wind. Nico wanted to let me visit on my own. We just left. And we did well, because we arrived earlier at Positano. There is no marina there and no mooring spot that is free. The buoys are 144 euros. There is basically only one free mooring spot. And we managed to get it by arriving at 1 pm. now we need to find out how to disembark... to visit tomorrow morning. Also running out of grocery... We visited Positano in the morning, maybe too early. It's great, not many people in the street. Downside, the sun wasn't high up and most souvenir shops were closed. Churches closed as well. But we had a great coffee! Finally. I have a hard time having a real cold coffee in Italy... they never put ice cubes! Here is a summary of our stop over: Check out how spiffy was the mooring. 

 This morning we did visit Pompei.  Spent 4h in Pompei which gave us enough time to walk 12km as this city is huge. It was built 6 to 7th century BC and was later destroyed when mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. It is still well preserved given the centuries that went by. We didn't even have the will to visit the outside villas so much we were exhausted after the main site. I went to sleep at 6 pm just to say how much this visit took a toll on me under the scorching sun. In the afternoon we did rest and only left the next morning.

 We arrived a day where all major sights were closed! Dont go on Wednesdays and Thurdays. We are back after 20+! Last time we came we didnt take any picture of us! So we had to play catch up.  We only managed to visit Castello Novo, everything else, the Royal palace, the catacombs were closed on wednesday. We walked around the city, marvelled by the Umberto 1 galleria. Looking very much alike the Milan one. We left our dinghy to a grandpa at the port... gave him a tip when we left! The next day, we headed to Pompei. Navigation smooth with wind but not all throughout. We did 11.9 NM in less than 3h at 4.2 knots on average. I slept the whole time as I had a hard time sleeping those last 2 night because of my inflamed hip. It's really difficult for me to walk during the day without taking anti inflammatory tabs... I hope today's no walk day will help recover faster. I drank a small glass of curcuma... just in case.

 Next morning we didnt visit Sant'Angelo but went straight to Ischia Ponte, where the volcanic island has an impressive castle has been built on its top.  We visited Castello Aragonese then left for an interesting navigation ,  On our way to Napoli, we saw an island from far away, it happens to be Isola Procida.  We changed our heading to have a closer look at this beautiful and colorful village of Corricella.  When we were just approaching Naples, a storm with a good 20 knot wind gust hit us.  But it was just a short event, all went well and we arrived safely at Naples. 

  1h of engine, while waiting for the wind, it did pick up at 2 pm but it was mild. We prepared the spinnaker still, waiting for the wind to actually pick up. It did but late in the afternoon until we arrive Ischia. Sant Angelo. We travelled 6h40 at 3,4 knots and did 23 NM.

  We waited the afternoon to navigate as there was no wind before. We moored next to the Black Pearl, an impressive 106m boat that can go as fast as 30 knots with its 2900 m2 of sails! The equivalent of 6 basketball courts. Brad Pitt was on in sailing around Palermo beginning of august. We did a 25 NM navigation in less than 5 h at 4.4 knots average. With the spi. Here is cute little port of Ventotene, architecture in 2 levels.

  We stopped over at Palmarola but in total, 12 NM were done in 3h at 3,6 knots cruising speed. Beautiful island once again, but this time it's inhabited. So we got to visit the village the next morning.  

  The new video is out.  Presenting the interior of our boat.  As usual it was hectic to film. Because it is always in such a mess.  I did shoot some rushes to later find out it wasnt good quality.  But impossible to shoot it back because there is always someone on the boat, or it is too messy.  So I still used those rushes.  Surprisingly, it did better than the exterior video.  So I'm happy. Unlike the Macoui video, that I love, but didnt even reach the 500 views at the time I'm writing this.  Anyway, go check out the interior video here.  It's captioned in english.  If you want to watch Part 1 about the Interior, which I took more time to edit!! Check it here below Please go check out the Macoui tradition! It's so interesting and few people know about it! This one is the video I liked doing the most...

 We visited Anzio in the morning, in the hope of seeing Nerone's summer villa's ruin.  But those were closed when we arrived.  Maybe too early.  We went on navigating. A long 8h at 4,6 knots so it wasnt bad for a 35 nm distance. 

 End of the holidays with us, but start of a new one with his grand parents in France.  It was so sad leaving him.  We went on with our navigation, another long one! 8h40 mn, almost 9h, at 3,6 knots. 1h30 of engine used.  It was a long 31 nautical mile.  I went straight to bed, without eating so much I felt sick... although it was a pleasant navigation. 

  Very short 40mn navigation to the Port of Rome. This time we are closer to the city than before. We can finally have a full days on land! My dream! So after arriving in the morning, we prepared ourselves for the mini holidays. Long day, taking the bus then train to the city Center. Not to mention our son hates Italy. We've been all over Italy, Bologna, Milan, Firenze, Pisa, Cinqueterre... with him, starting when he wasn't even 1 year old, in 2006. We were already with him in Rome. So we tried to reenact some of the pics we took then. Anyway I didn't remember Rome to be that beautiful, probably we were too preoccupied with the pram at that time and weren't that mobile. We walked 9km in half a day... We stayed 2 and a half days in Roma. Here is our short but packed with adventure stay: We tried to retake some pictures wherever we went with him 19 years ago!

 V ery long navigation, 7 h for 35 NM to arrive this mooring spot. I did vomit twice along the way. Although I did get a breakfast. I guess the swell got the best out of me. We were alternating between wind and no wind. I didn't video tape much since I was sleeping the whole time. I felt so bad I did sleep even after arriving... And managed to sleep at night...

 We were supposed to stay just one day at the Civitavecchia port but we stayed 2 days because of the wind.  We visited the city after 7 pm and had lunch at the joint that did the Eat pray love pizza, it's a reference in Napolitan pizza. Since 1870!   The next day, we visited Tarquinia Impressive! Nestled in the heart of Lazio, Tarquinia is a time capsule of ancient wonders and medieval magic. 🏰✨ Wandering through the vibrant frescoes of the UNESCO-listed Necropoli di Monterozzi feels like stepping into an Etruscan storybook—banquets, dancers, and myths painted 2,500 years ago! 🎨🪦 Don’t miss the iconic Winged Horses at the National Etruscan Museum, a masterpiece of ancient art. 🐎 Stroll the cobblestone streets of the medieval center, where towers like Torre Barucci and the Romanesque Santa Maria di Castello whisper tales of kings and legends.

  We visited Porto Ercole early morning. It's a Spanish influenced city since the 17th century. That's also where painter Caravaggio died after he fled Rome. We visit before heading back to the boat for a long navigation! We were supposed to navigate 20 NM and moor today. But the swell decided otherwise. After 4h we decided to continue our route towards Rome. We ended up getting a berth at Civitavecchia, the port of Rome. our first time in an industrial port. It took at least 20 mn to get to the end of this long port, passing by huge cruising ships. We navigated 35 NM in 7hours.