Sailing as a family from Croatia to Italy

They always ask us: what do you do when you are on board? Don´t you get bored? And the answer is no. We love to slide in the water.

We divided our stages into our nautical journey Med2019 that started in February in Kastel Gomilika, near Split Croatia and that for the moment we know that its course is to reach the Balearic Islands in July. While sailing we love to discover new places. For now we have arrived at 11 ports in Croatia and 4 in Montenegro.

At this stage, from Tivat Montenegro to Taormina Sicily, we would sail 400 miles with a scheduled stop to rest and get to know Santa María de Leuca, since it is a highly requested destination to sail and where we have 7 ships approved on Hostandboat. The place did not disappoint us.

Santa María de Leuca, in the province of Apulia, is just the point where the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic Sea meet. It is the southern end of the boot heel of Italy. It is a town of white houses, very Mediterranean. And right where its lighthouse is located, the point that divides the two seas, is the Basilica of the Sanctuary of Santa María de Finibus Terrae, built on the ruins of a temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva, the sanctuary of Santa Maria de Finibus Terrae ( from Latin for “at the end of the earth”) was destroyed by Turkish assailants on several occasions. It took its current form in 1507 thanks to the noble Del Balzo family, who also donated the beautiful painting of the Virgin with the Child on the main altar. The panoramic view that this place has leaves you speechless, the seas and seeing the sunset from there, we loved it.

But going back to our routine on board, in this first section we sailed 150 miles. We left at 9 am on Sunday the 10th from Tivat and arrived in Santa María de Leuca on Monday the 11th after lunch. We are in the exam period of the Argentina Distance School that Pachi attends, therefore we are dedicated to review. Pachi installs himself with his supplies and the iPad in the living room or in the cockpit; access to the bow is forbidden while sailing, unless you go with either of us. On this trip, which was short, we played making shapes with the colored masses for a long time, I asked for an objective and she made it.

Jorge was very focused on feeling the boat, adjusting course, trimming sails and maintaining his routine of always checking the engine temperature and that water leaks from the exhaust. We also talked a lot. The talks that appear are very interesting, they are spaces where we share a lot and it seems that browsing one opens more to communicate.

Some think that at night we sleep at anchor or that we stop at ports. But on these trips we don’t always stop for the night. In this section we cross the Adriatic Sea more than 500 meters deep, with no land in sight for 18 hours. We have dinner outside in the cockpit, we try to make it as late as possible and Pachi then goes to sleep in his cabin. And in theory, we start with shifts of two hours each, where we make guards taking care of the course with the GPS and the chart, if the wind changes intensity or rotates, and especially the maritime traffic that is quite intense in this area.

I say in theory, because the first 48 hours Jorge loses me, the rocking of the boat produces in me a cradle effect, where I sleep without stopping. Luckily, none of the 3 get dizzy or nauseous.

In Santa María de Leuca, we stayed one more day than planned, as the wind turned south, meaning this was a headwind. Then the captain decided to postpone the departure one day. We took a walk, we rented a car and went to tour non-tourist towns. We entered several churches, and we went to the supermarket to make a large supply of groceries, taking advantage of the car, the two refrigerators on board and the little boy from the marina that avoids having to carry a lot of weight for several blocks. Since visitor boats generally get moored on the first pontoons, and that is well away from the entrance.

Yesterday we left at 9:30 am from Santa María de Leuca, before we had filled the tanks with full water, we went to buy freshly baked bread and bills for the snack and Jorge proposed to listen to the mass that began at 8, something strange about him , because he does not practice any religion. But I was delighted that he wanted to join me and the reality is that the priest’s speech, who luckily understood his Italian perfectly, we both liked. It was the day of San Antonio de Padua and we were left pealing the concept of the vendetta of God and the pianezza.

We set sail with the desire to dive because the color of the water was turquoise, it looked like a swimming pool. During the morning I enjoyed “licking” in the sun, as I had not enjoyed for a long time. We left the summer in January in Angra and only now do we begin to show the European heat. Pachi prepared for the oral English exam and the 3 of us went to the bow with our cell phones to record their video. She should speak, according to the guidelines given by Miss Karina on the digital platform, in a video between 1 to 3 minutes about her favorite YouTuber or cardboard. We had a lot of fun in this filming session.

At noon we ate a delicious snack with an exquisite brie, and then the adults took turns taking a nap while Pachi was finishing the written exams, this time they are 5 written and 2 oral and since they are quarterly, they are quite long. While we were sailing, Tommy lowered them from the platform and sent them to us by mail, we printed them in the Navy and when we arrive in Taormina we must send them in an envelope by postal mail together with the crew list sealed by the immigration authorities that certify that we are outside the country.

In the afternoon, we had some delicious mates with a croissant filled with pistachio cream, Pachi told me how sad it was in our previous life because he missed me a lot when I worked long hours and came home very late. Then she started creating a recycled cardboard Apple computer which she glued with the heat gun, to give to her friend Violeta.

As you navigate, without the visual or noise pollution of the city, moments to be creative and think outside the box are easily provided. And just as we navigate we form a good team to maneuver, raise and lower sails, relieve ourselves in the night guards, etc., this exercise makes it easier for us to coordinate as a team when we work. Yesterday with Jorge we defined new contents for our company HostandBoat  and we began to shape a new project related to sailing that we are dreaming of and that motivates us to develop, which we have already found a way to monetize.

And because we are convinced that nautical must also be added value and must make its own digital transformation. We have several TO DOs left for both of us, which we will execute when we get to land and have unlimited internet signal. In this journey we are managing to connect with our wireless router when we are closest to land, but most of the trip we are not, since we are navigating the southern tip of Italy at the height of the Gulf of Taranto and we are several miles from land.

Shower time, which is always highly valued when you are sailing and more when your boat has a comfortable shower box with hot water and luckily, we were no longer as prone as the rest of the day. We saw the sunset, and at night Jorge cooked some delicious basil and pinoli sorrentines with mushroom sauce which we ate in the living room since the cockpit was wet, a lot of dew had fallen. Just before dinner and when the sun had already fallen, dolphins visited us, this time we did not even try to film them, the 3 of us stayed still watching them play.

Yesterday the day passed very quickly, so much so that we did not even have time to listen to any of the playlists that we have downloaded from Spotify.

But the most interesting thing of the day was that we sailed most of the day without a motor, with a good angle of heeling, the wind was good and gave us a pleasant navigation with the only sound of water running under the hull.

To meet the 200 miles that separate Santa María de Leuca from Taormina, we have approximately 40 more hours left to sail, so we hope that the forecast is fulfilled and we can sail with the sails held high. A very frappe champagne awaits us in the fridge to toast upon arrival, just as we have been doing for 3 years every time we finish a journey.