Brindisi, Italy - Bari - Vieste - Ploče, Croatia NOW
Sailing from Rome to Croatia. While I enjoy sailing alone, I do feel safer and more comfortable with extra hands on board, especially when sailing through the nights, for long distances and along coasts that doesn't offer any shelter.
Boat is a relatively comfortable 43 feet sailing vessel built from wood and epoxy, Norwegian flag.
UPDATES
* I have one skilled crew member with me all the way, so we're two persons on board - three is considered optimal, five and it may be crowded.
* We have crew leaving in Brindsi now, so there is available space on board.
* Boat will be crowded from Ploče to Dubrovnik, so this opportunity is closed as for now.
* We've passed the south side of Italy. It's possible to jump on in Brindsi, Bari, Vieste or any place in between, and it's possible to jump off in Bari, Vieste or Ploče.
* There seems to be some problems with the autopilot now, hence it may be needed with one person at the helm all the time while sailing.
THE PLAN
We left from Rome Tuesday the 21st of November, and will now arrive to Brindisi in the evening the 2nd of December. The plan is to follow the Italian coast up towards Vieste during the upcoming week and cross over to Croatia during the weekend.
Latest arrival to Ploče the 15th of December (my eldest son will meet me there). I expect to take it easy the next few days and then cross the Adriatic the upcoming weekend (9-10th of December) from Vieste, possibly via one or more of the small islands that are located on the way.
The remaining part of this trip will most likely be done more in "tourist mode" with stops on the way, rather than "mile-building mode" with non-stop sailing. Totally there is around 200 nautical miles remaining before Ploče.
COST SHARING
For this trip I'm willing to take any cost I would anyway have had doing this journey, but I expect crew to pay any extra costs. Food is the most obvious "extra cost", I do expect the crew to participate in the food shopping. If the crew prefers expensive guest harbours rather than anchorages, or prefers motoring rather than sailing, then I hope we can share harbour dues and fuel costs as well.
There is always equipment breaking on a boat, sometimes due to carelessness or negligence from the crew. It's anyway my responsibility to assess if the crew has sufficient competence for the assigned tasks and give clear instructions, so I take those costs.
CREW EXPECTATIONS
You're welcome on board regardless of age, gender, qualifications and experience, as long as you're prepared to give a hand when it's needed. I've once had a dad joining together with his toddler - that did work out very well. I've also many times had helpers on board that had absolutely no experience with sailing. Either you learn, or the primary task on your shifts will simply be "wake up the captain if anything happens".
If we decide to sail throughout the nights, we'll put up a duty plan where we share the burden of staying awake at the helm. I still expect to be woken up when I'm "off-duty" if needed.
I expect that we share doing the chores (like cooking, dish-washing as well as maintenance tasks - there are always things that needs to be fixed on a boat), but be aware that I also need to spend some time on my day job and have a bit of reduced capacity due to that.
I think two persons on board will work out fine, three persons are more optimal if we are to do night-time sailing, four will work out, five and it starts getting crowded (we have double beds, so 3 persons plus a couple works out quite well).
I'm flexible when it comes to diet as well, I eat almost anything. If crew has special requirements (i.e. vegan diet) I will try to adapt. I can do some cooking, but I'm not very good at it. I've had crew members on board cooking food only for themselves - that's faux de pas, in this ship we try to eat together when possible.
REFERENCES
While I'm new at crewbay, I have long experience with greeting crew and guests, I've been hosting travelers since 1998. I have a profile on the BeWelcome hospitality site with quite many good reviews, though unfortunately it's needed to have an account to view it. I may provide references from earlier crew members if needed.
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Thumb's up
Together with an other crew, I had an enjoyable time on Solveig. It's a unique ship with a welcoming skipper, who made me feel at home immediately. While doing a mix of short trips and longer passages, including night sailing. I had the opportunity to test my sailing skills under supervision of the skipper. In four weeks we made around 500 miles. I had an exceptional good time and learned plenty about life aboard.
13th Feb 2024