TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

It is late in 2006 when it becomes obvious that my sister who normally comes sailing with me is getting interested in “going walkabout”, and spending her vacation time visiting parts of the world that she has always wanted to see. She has booked a trip to Alaska next year, and is looking at going to Patagonia later in 2007 and then Outer Mongolia in 2008…

If I want to go sailing next year I will need a new crew member!

I suggest the idea to one of my friends and he is definitely interested, but there is one slight problem, he has never ever even been out in a dinghy or ever seen a yacht before.

The flotilla company that I use is Sailing Holidays (www.sailingholidays.com) and besides letting you book a complete boat they also operate a “share a yacht” booking service where singles or couples can book and they match parties to share one of their Beneteau 361’s  mixing experienced sailors and novices to make up the crews. It is a great way of getting away if you are a novice or are not quite sure if you can handle a boat on your own.

Diving into a cruise with only a complete novice as crew is not a good idea so I decide to book us up to do a “share” with two other crew members. 

The London boat show comes early in January so I take Gary down for a day to show him what a yacht looks like, and explain a bit of what to expect from a 36 footer.