Life On Sail

 Not much wind today, we reached 28.8NM in 8h15 at 4.6 knot average.  It's our last 2 days in Italy before we cross the border to France. 

  We reached 8.3NM in 1h50 at 4.6 knot average. We arrived the city of Christopher Columbus! We visited the city the same day And bonus, we even shot our YOUTUBE episode 24h in our boaters' life in Genoa. 

  We cranked the engine and went further than planned for to get closer to Genoa. We reached 43,2 NM in 8h32 at 5.1 knots. We passed by the infamous Cinqueterre!

  Emerald green sea today, dead calm, we could see our reflection on the sea. We reached 29.8 NM today in 7h02 at 4.2 knots average. The autopilot was finally fixed so we couldn't finally enjoy the cruise!

  46NM in 11h14 min just by engine. At 4.1 knot average. We moored in a river (Arno) for the first time ever. Closer ever to nature. And the next days we went to visit the infamouse Pisa. First time for Nico, and also celebrating our 25th anniversary there.

  no wind today, only cruising with the engine at 4 knots average, we reached 23 NM today in 5h44 min. It's warm and sunny today, so overall pretty pleasant.

  We reached 42,7 NM in 9h22 at an average of 4.6 knot. Sunny day, unexpected wind! It was all fun.

  We didn't expect wind today! But we did have some after lunch, which propped up our cruising speed to 4,3 knots average, for a 9h43 minute sailing day reaching 40.9 NM with tacking as we had headwinds.

  The autopilot died on us today! We had to steer and stay alert the whole sailing trip. We did reach 37.4 NM in 7h42 at 4,8 knot average. Staying here for 2 nights.

  We’ve reached another milestone – we’ve arrived in Rome! We’re getting closer to France. Today we had a good tailwind, averaging 4.5 knots on a 29.9 nautical mile sail in 6 hours and 37 minutes. The marina was pretty windy upon arrival and the staff had to push the boat to dock. It's a good occasion to stay a bit longer and celebrate the CNY with our friends who also left HK to leave in Rome.

  We didn't expect wind after 8h30 on engine but we got unexpected 15 knot sustained headwind the whole 8h left on our trip. We reached 70.3 NM in 16h33 at 4.2 knot average. We came across family of dolphins for 5 long minutes swimming alongside Vogue. What a surprising day.

  We reached 35.8 NM in 8h24 min with 4,6 knots in average. We passed Naples, the weather is pretty bad, rain throughout the passage. Soon we ll have to shelter as heavy winds are incoming. We took advantage of the clear style in the afternoon to visit the medieval city before being stuck the whole next day in the boat.

  51.9 NM in 11h28 at 4.5 knot speed but it was mostly engine all this time. We arrive again at Procida island and once again we won't be able to visit the beautiful colorful town of Corricella. Wrong Calculus, I thought this one was our 200th sailing but it's not!

  We reached 31.8 NM in 7h33 min at 4.2 knot average. Rainy sailing, and very boring.

  we did reach 10,9 NM in 3h at 3.7 knots. No wind at all. Only engine against a lot of swell.

  Huge waves when we came out of the port. It was a rainy day. we reached 38,5 NM in 8h32 mn at 4.5 knot average. We were to moor here two nights as there is no wind tomorrow. But the swell is strong despite being in a secluded bay! Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

  52.9 NM in 10h15 at 5.2 knot speed. We alternated between no wind and too strong wind gusts. The side swell and the heavy rain made it even worse. We ll stay two nights in order to wait for the wind to subside.

  I think it's the strongest winds we went though so far, gusts at 34 knots and 20 knots maintained a very long periods during our passage between Italy's boot tip and Sicily. Huge swell as well by the end. We reached 45.3 NM in 8h48min at 5.2 knot pace. We're staying couple of nights to shelter from the windstorm. We've been to Tropea late summer and this time of the year, the town is totally empty, all shops closed.

Making a Youtube video from scratch is not easy. And I have to say I have lost the motivation for it.  It takes a lot of time and you are not even sure someone will watch it.  My goal was to create one long episode per month.  And so far, I only reached 10 episodes, although it's been now 11 months into the sabbatical.  Here below are the ones that totally flopped.  One only got 312 views as of now...  This one is fine, as it was rather fast to create and I actually had pleasure editing it. However, for the "TOP 10 Galeres" and the "6 months review", it took so much time to create and edit, I poured all my heart in, for just a bit more than 1000 views each.  It think these back to back flops in October had me demotivated.   But I still released one more video, "5 reason not to live aboard" that I think could be the last if I can't summon more strength in me to create 2 more... However, that  last one had a good viewing, 4000 views so far...

  Budget overview: First month of year 2026, and finally, we are spending less! We splurged during the Xmas holidays with our family over, lived in hotels and went to restaurants almost every day.  So January was the sobering-up month. On our way back towards France, being stuck in ports for days because of the strong wind, ports in Greece were free most of the time.  And there were almost no restaurants in the small Greek coastal cities we passed by.  We spent a total of 1371 euros, which is by far our lower monthly spent by far.  January spending details: We mainly spent on French taxes, for owning the boat, it was something like 200 euros.  And the rest was mainly food.  January vs Budget: We officially overspent vs Budget after the December holiday craze.  We still have 2 months to go, one to successfully return to France.  And another one to successfully renovate the boat to sell it.  So far there is only 3376 euros left for these...

  We sailed 85.2 nautical miles in 18 hours and 19 minutes averaging 4.7 knots. It was another long night at sea and we didn’t even arrive at our destination. Instead, we found ourselves in a charming marina in Occhio with a breathtaking view of Mount Etna and incredibly welcoming people. It was pure serendipity!