Champagne sailing ⛵️

Sarah Jacobs

As chief stew I topped up the groceries before leaving Stari Grad helped by 1st mate Becca. Great to get a water taxi back to the boat thanks to the captain. It’s hard to predict what 9 people want to eat especially when snacks are frequently being requested 🤔 Although safe sailing round Hvar was muted as an option it was a unanimous decision to press on to Vis with a stop tonight at the Paklinski islands. Every bay we stop in is beautiful with everyone jumping in and enjoying the sea. We’ve already learned to hope for a mooring buoy or a convenient place to anchor after the last 2 nights being a bit stressful. The guests are in awe of the skills of Captain Chris & 1st mate Becca 👏 1st meal cooked on board - tricky with one hob and a grill plate but everyone seemed happy with grilled veg & pesto pasta 😋

Chris Jacobs

A lovely start to the morning exploring Stari Grad, getting pastries and wandering the cobbled streets. The boat’s water tanks were filled, deck cleaned (no more evidence of our slime line muddy fiasco!) and provisions topped up - with RIB collection, straight from last year’s Sardinia trip! No wind in the morning, so we gently motored out of the bay and along Hvar’s NW coastline. Everyone was shocked by the complete change in sea state from yesterday! There were 8 bays before our planned lunch spot, each got a rating out of 10. This was a fun game at first, which soon dawned on me to be very risky as we kept motoring past 8s and 9s 😬. Fortunately “Ringo Bay” went down a treat. I don’t even remember how anchoring with the long lines went, so it must have been simple! Maybe we didn’t use lines actually 🤷‍♂️. The kids got towed behind the RIB on the inflatable rings and Becca had a go at wakeboarding. We then had a decision to make - the wind had picked up and we could see white horses out of the bay. Should we stay here and do shorter trips, or press on to the Paklinkski islands to keep the option open to visit Vis later in the week. The initial vibe was to avoid going out into another choppy sea after yesterday. It was the voice in the crew I least expected to start the rebellion - Grandma Jacky announced “WHY NOT JUST GO FOR IT?!” Within seconds the whole boat was chanting and we pulled up the anchor / lines / mooring buoy (who knows?!) The wind had picked up, but was on the nose at first. We motored quite comfortably into the sea and wind. My quick trip to the bow to look out for lobster pots turned into a full crew rite of passage to surf the swell titanic style. I will never forget watching the same people who were thinking of staying put safely in the bay, now having the time of their lives smashing up and down into the waves. The kids were buzzing when they came back. Great family 😍. (I was also permanently ready for a MOB recovery at this point 😂) Once we got round the west corner of Hvar, the sails went up and the engine off. We had a really fun sail to our night spot, planning our angles to tack through a very narrow gap in the island chain. My grandad and Becca planned our approach and Jay researched our options for the night. Lesson for Becca on the helm was Leeway. Asti really has a lot more than any other yacht I’ve sailed (does towing a heavy dinghy affect this?). We had to really overdo our angles to avoid being blown onto a lee-shore. Fun! After passing through the gap we bore away and bobbed downwind towards the beautiful bays. First one with buoys was full so we went to Tarsce Bay round the corner. The bay was very busy, but large so it didn’t feel cramped or chaotic - more like pitching up in a lovely campsite. Anchor and long lines…here we go! Improvements: - everyone had their job - we started the anchor further out and let out an initial 20m and then 5m more at a time until we were our desired distance from shore Weak spots: - one long line swimmer’s line wasn’t tied onto the boat 😂 - the other’s wasn’t long enough to reach the shore - neither knew how to tie a bowline, so couldn’t adjust their loops. Becca to the rescue ™️ to re-tie the knots and we eventually were secure in a perfect spot. It was a bit of a struggle holding the boat’s position without getting that windward line on quickly. I had to motor forward to straighten up, but this almost pulled our short “long” lines out of the shore crew’s hands. After we were done, I practised extending a long line without having to undo it, to get a better angle. That was fun 🤩. Lessons: - incremental anchor is great 👍 - make sure line crew is ready and lines are prepared - make lines even longer than you think - pay the line out, don’t send them to shore with a huge pile of line that can fall in the water 🙈

Chris Jacob

A lovely start to the morning exploring Stari Grad, getting pastries and wandering the cobbled streets. The boat’s water tanks were filled, deck cleaned (no more evidence of our slime line muddy fiasco!) and provisions topped up - with RIB collection, straight from last year’s Sardinia trip! No wind in the morning, so we gently motored out of the bay and along Hvar’s NW coastline. Everyone was shocked by the complete change in sea state from yesterday! There were 8 bays before our planned lunch spot, each got a rating out of 10. This was a fun game at first, which soon dawned on me to be very risky as we kept motoring past 8s and 9s 😬. Fortunately “Ringo Bay” went down a treat. I don’t even remember how anchoring with the long lines went, so it must have been simple! Maybe we didn’t use lines actually 🤷‍♂️. The kids got towed behind the RIB on the inflatable rings and Becca had a go at wakeboarding. We then had a decision to make - the wind had picked up and we could see white horses out of the bay. Should we stay here and do shorter trips, or press on to the Paklinkski islands to keep the option open to visit Vis later in the week. The initial vibe was to avoid going out into another choppy sea after yesterday. It was the voice in the crew I least expected to start the rebellion - Grandma Jacky announced “WHY NOT JUST GO FOR IT?!” Within seconds the whole boat was chanting and we pulled up the anchor / lines / mooring buoy (who knows?!) The wind had picked up, but was on the nose at first. We motored quite comfortably into the sea and wind. My quick trip to the bow to look out for lobster pots turned into a full crew rite of passage to surf the swell titanic style. I will never forget watching the same people who were thinking of staying put safely in the bay, now having the time of their lives smashing up and down into the waves. The kids were buzzing when they came back. Great family 😍. (I was also permanently ready for a MOB recovery at this point 😂) Once we got round the west corner of Hvar, the sails went up and the engine off. We had a really fun sail to our night spot, planning our angles to tack through a very narrow gap in the island chain. My grandad and Becca planned our approach and Jay researched our options for the night. Lesson for Becca on the helm was Leeway. Asti really has a lot more than any other yacht I’ve sailed (does towing a heavy dinghy affect this?). We had to really overdo our angles to avoid being blown onto a lee-shore. Fun! After passing through the gap we bore away and bobbed downwind towards the beautiful bays. First one with buoys was full so we went to Tarsce Bay round the corner. The bay was very busy, but large so it didn’t feel cramped or chaotic - more like pitching up in a lovely campsite. Anchor and long lines…here we go! Improvements: - everyone had their job - we started the anchor further out and let out an initial 20m and then 5m more at a time until we were our desired distance from shore Weak spots: - one long line swimmer’s line wasn’t tied onto the boat 😂 - the other’s wasn’t long enough to reach the shore - neither knew how to tie a bowline, so couldn’t adjust their loops. Becca to the rescue ™️ to re-tie the knots and we eventually were secure in a perfect spot. It was a bit of a struggle holding the boat’s position without getting that windward line on quickly. I had to motor forward to straighten up, but this almost pulled our short “long” lines out of the shore crew’s hands. After we were done, I practised extending a long line without having to undo it, to get a better angle. That was fun 🤩. Lessons: - incremental anchor is great 👍 - make sure line crew is ready and lines are prepared - make lines even longer than you think - pay the line out, don’t send them to shore with a huge pile of line that can fall in the water 🙈