Life at sea.

Betsy
Fri 29 Jul 2022 16:20
People ask what it’s like sailing a yacht 2500 miles from UK to Greece. Do you stop to sleep? What do you do all day? What if you get injured….? Etc.

We have been at sea for 16 days now, apart from a 24 hour stop in Gibraltar. The crew are divided into 2 watches of 3 hours overnight and 4 hours during the day. When on watch we make sure we avoid other ships, maintain the course, trim the sails to the optimum angle and steer, if the autopilot fails. Off watch we sleep, read and listen to music. Once in the rhythm it’s best to keep going. We all eat together at the change of watches and food is a big part of the day.

Sometimes life at sea is boring, we just sit in the cockpit enjoying the warm night breeze, looking at the stars; other times it can be scary to the inexperienced - crashing over the waves in pitch black, waves breaking over the deck and imagining what might happen if things go wrong. Then dawn breaks, we watch a wonderful sunrise, dolphins come to play……Life at sea is indeed a land of contrasts!

We are motorsailing towards the Straits of Messina, about 220m miles away, which means we hope to transit this busy narrow waterway between Sicily & mainlands Italy on Sunday morning. About 500 miles still to go to our destination, Preveza.

Love to all

Simon
SV Betsy

Noon position Friday 28th July
38.37.61N 10.20.24E