All posts by Paul Blacknell

I caught the sailing bug in 2010 and have grabbed every opportunity to sail since then. Since then my family has trained as Competent Crew and we bareboat chartered in the Ionian in 2011 & Croatia in 2014 having an outstanding time. I’ve competed in all the Round the Island races since 2011 (skippering in 2014 & 2017) and vow to enter in each of my remaining years. I'm a commercially endorsed Yachtmaster Offshore.

Anchored in the middle of nowhere

Last night was our first anchored in a secluded bay in the middle of nowhere. We found it in our Ionian Cruising book and when we arrived at about 4pm there were several other boats there. Some had spent the afternoon there and I guess about 6 stayed over night. That’s 6 not including the dozen or so goats!

It was very peaceful and relaxing as we played Scrabble with the boys, turning in at about 11pm. The sky was absolutely full of stars since it was totally dark. Continue reading Anchored in the middle of nowhere

Our first (and last) accident

Well, today we did have an accident which taught everyone a lesson and Tom in particular.

Coming into the port of Sami, the weather was calm and we had plenty of time to reverse to our mooring as we had done several times already. Tom and Harry were standing by at the stern with their mooring lines ready to step ashore. To be fair, on most other occasions they had passed the lines to someone onshore and they’ve passed them through the mooring rings and back onboard to the boys. Continue reading Our first (and last) accident