Atlantic crossing to anywhere or cruising in the Canaries
Hi, I'm Elio, on his third gap year (hopefully more to come), and I'm looking for an active and relaxed sailing adventure to share with nice people. I'd like to cross the Atlantic some time, in the meanwhile sailing in the Mediterranean or around Europe would be great, but we'll see what comes up.
For now my focus is on enjoying and sharing. I've awarded myself this luxury of time, having quit my job in late 2017.
My sailing experience consists of:
- a basic course with 30 hours actual sailing
- a 350 nm four-week cruising (well sometimes that, other times dodging 60/70-knot storms waiting in harbors, it was November) in my home country Italy, from Calabria to Sicily in the Eolian Islands; the longest passage was 48 hours and I could take care of my nightly watches by myself.
- a 800 nm coastal cruising in Norway from Stavanger to Tromsø on a 54-foot steel ketch in March 2019
- a 1850 nm delivery from Stockholm, Sweden to Lisbon, Portugal, crossing the Bay of Biscay and the Kiel Canal, with lots of dolphins and a few fin whales sightings, too. On the latter trip we were doing solo 3x4 hrs (night) + 2x6 hrs (day) watches, with the captain helping as needed.
I'm still a beginner and really eager to learn. I really care about safety and reducing chances of silly accidents, once that is taken care of I truly relax and enjoy the ride. I have an Italian recreational offshore sail/powerboat license, sometime in the future the RYA Yachtmaster certificates would be really nice to have.
I love water, and I especially love scuba diving and windsurfing: ideally we would be sharing a few dives throughout. I am a PADI Divemaster and have some windsurfing experience. I'd also like to learn/practise some more windsurfing and surfing.
I can share my language knowledge (I can speak fluently Italian, English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and learning Portuguese), cooking and other skills, such as photography, computer programming, teaching. Let's just talk and see what happens next.
I'm living off my savings, which will expire sooner than later, but I'd love to share as much as possible. While I'm on a budget, I'm not looking for a formal job though, so I'd prefer no structured obligations or work relationships. Of course sharing tasks onboard is a must, and I love that, especially the sailing watches themselves. I'm also fine if somebody is looking for any skills in exchange for covering fuel/marina expenses, as peers.
Sailing expeditions to some remote place, for documenting or research, would be a dream!
Let's have a chat and see what we're up to...