Life On Sail

  We left at 4:30 pm. We were supposed to have a head wind against us so we planned a 20h journey to reach Calabria but the wind changed, we had strong side wind and close hauled, and maintained 20 knot wind speed. So we reached destination in 15h13 for 66.4 NM at 4.4 knot average. We didn't have wind for part of the passage. Arrived too early to get into the marina but didn't wait too long before everyone came to help us dock!

  On the way to Greece, it took us 12 hours to cross the Italian boot. We were graced by great wind. On the way back, Nico planned 20h instead. So we woke up at 4 am to make it happen. Turns out we were again lucky with the wind, we made it in 13h30 for 72,2 NM at 5,3 average.

  A short sailing day turned into our 2nd longest one as we continued our journey straight from Corfu to Italy. It took us 23h30 with 113 NM with tacking. Averaged 4.8 knoats after the night sailing brought us 20 knot sustained close hauled wind.

 Back to Corfu, we'll be stuck here 2 days because of the strong wind.  Unfortunately, just like last time, it's raining non stop.  We arrived 4h ahead of the planned 15h journey! We're lucky. We reached 57,8 NM in 10h50 with a 5.3 knot cruising speed. No tacking. Pretty smooth despite the swell and rain. One of our last stop before we leave Greece.

  We reached 40.8 Nm in 9h20 at 4,4 knots average. It was supposed to be windless but we were lucky some parts of the passage. And it was also sunny which we didn't expect given the wet start of the day! No rainbows today!

  46.4 NM in 10h43 min at 4.2 average. We got a thunderstorm, rain and even hailstone on the way. We were to go to Ithaki but decided not to as the weather will be dreadful the full week.

  We started at 4 am to be sure to arrive before night. And we did, after 71.6 NM and 13:13 hours at 5.4 knot cruising average. We got good 26 knot wind gusts upping our speed to 8.2 knots. But we did have some passage with no wind at all, alternating between sail and engine. We'll be sheltering here for 3 nights.

  We reached 37.1 NM in 7h20 at 5.2 knot average. We had good wind throughout except at the beginning. We had 28 wind gust at some point. We managed to catch up the delay we gained yesterday and even arrived earlier than planned. Not early enough to have lunch at our favorite restaurant but let's try tonight. And we managed to go back to our fave restaurant, it was as good as usual!

  13.1 NM today in 3h15 at 4 knot average. We cut the trip short as there is no wind. We'll catch up tomorrow.

 This video was a bit cleaving.  Some love life at large, some see some points of improvement.  Well, truth is it is not as glamourous as it seems.  But some people are built for it, they are more resilient than others. Some others like me, like the comfort of modern life.  And this video unfolds our truth. 

  We did 22.9 NM in 6h a 3.8 knot average, only by engine. The planned 10 knot winds never came. We got to change route thanks to that and avoid a huge detour by going around the islands. Instead we went straight through them.

2nd longest sailing. But everytime I say that, everytime the 2nd longest becomes the 3rd... Sailing with 16h at sea for just 80.6 NM, we did a lot of tacking. We averaged at 5 knot speed today. Arrived midnight.  

  24,3 NM in 5h54 min at 4.1 knot average. Engine only. Boring sailing day. But we got to find shelter for the upcoming windstorm.

  It was quiet at first, good tail wind, until we reached the cape. Wind gusts 20+ started. We reached 31 NN in6h16 min at 5 knot pace. Saw multiple rainbows.

 This week will be pretty windy, so we are sheltering ourselves at this port we now know so well.  And it's the occasion to climb up to the top of the island again to check out things we havent had time to visit before. 

  We reached 41.1 NM in 9h at 4.5 knot average. No puking today. And last day of the 3-day wind storm until the next one tomorrow. We peaked at 7.5 knot speed, at the beginning as there was no swell and good current.

  We're on day 2 of 3 of heavy winds. We had wind gusts up to 23 knot plus. And constant wind of 19-20 knots. Peaking at 6.5 knots, but this time, a lot of swell. So i had to cut the trip short so we arrived Spetses island, and I puked 30 minutes before. Nico did set the fenders this time. I was in no shape to make it happen. We reached 23.3 NM in 4h45 min at 4.9 knots average.

 I am a bit lazy lately.  For a lot of reasons, one of them being the weather.  Not that it makes me lazy, but the solar panel doesnt charge up the battery fully.  So Nico doesnt like it when I use my latpop (as I need to charge and it uses up a lot of electricity) and it gets even worse coupled with my external hardrive, on which I edit all my youtube long videos.  I guess it's also an excuse for not putting efforts on updating this vlog and not releasing one video a month...  Anyhow... you can still watch the daily sailing shorts I still upload on Youtube and our Instagram.  The long video of December is still on the way to be finished,  but I haven't touched it for a while.  The last video barely got any views... So it's a lot of work for nothing.. which doesnt encourage me to work on new ones...  That's the New Year 2026 mood!

 Winter weather is no joke! 25 knot wind gusts today, and it ll be like that for the next couple of days. 20 knots constant wind, close hauled stirring. We peaked at 6,6 knots. But at arrival we got our anchor stuck during the docking maneuvers. We reached 19.3NM in 4h at 4.5 knot average. We're finally landing on a place we havent visited before on our way back!

  Budget overview: HAPPY NEWY YEAR! ALL THE BEST TO OUR READERS! Last month of the year, and it's the holidays season, and usually for us, it's the season we usually spend the most. Not necessarily on gifts. But mostly on traveling. We usually try to spend either Xmas or the NY in another country.  Well this year is no different. We flew our son to gather up for the end of the year celebrations.  And of course, we went above our usual spending.  This month, we spent 4206 euros .  December spending details: First half of December, we spent as usual, maybe a bit extra on the Sailing Vignette and diesel as we didn't get much wind in Greece. Also it got colder, so we did have to use a bit of extra diesel to heat up ourselves at night.  But then the holidays preparations started and we probably spent 2400 euros on these holidays, as we spent 10 nights in hotels, in different locations, from Athens, to Santorini, and went to some day excursions in Meteora. My mo...

Happy New Year and best wishes to the few people who will ever lay eyes on that post!  We're January 1st, first day of the year, and first sailing day for us! It's sad, but we are starting off our return to France.  We were to return end of Jan, but it looks like it won't happen as winter is known for its turbulent windy weather.  We'll be definitely stuck in few places.