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Cruising Feature

What originally was just describing thethree pillars of my life, has turned into ourblog with considerable following and thename we tend to be known by in thecruising community: Sailing Yoga Family.But let’s wind back four years. Who werewe then? And who are we now?Then, we looked like a typical young Sydneyfamily with proper jobs, a house nearbeautiful Bondi beach, a great communityand a toddler. However, as soon as baby

number twoannounced himself, wesold everything andleft for the other sideof the world.Exploring cruising as alifestyle with my mostloved ones had beenmy lifelong dream andI didn’t want to waitany longer. I am a freelancewriter, yoga teacher,doula – and all-timesailor. My husband isan Argentinean-bornaccountant who –growing up inPatagonia’s mountainshad never set foot on a

boat before meeting me. Our two boys arenow two and four and rather free-spirited,global nomads, as well as avid boat kids –and well, also just normal toddlers.

Start in the MedWe decided to start our adventure in theMediterranean due to the lack of extremeweather, like the cyclones we regularly getaround Australia’s East Coast; the biggermarket for blue-water-sailing yachts at equalor cheaper prices than Australia; and theproximity of extended family who we hopedto visit during the stormy winter months. The first six months saw us living in acampervan, skirting along the coastline ofItaly, France (South), Spain, Portugal, back toFrance (Atlantic) and eventually the UK. Wewere set on a centre-cockpit with reputablename around 40 feet and stopped at everyport we could to further define our search.When we saw our first Moody 425 byaccident just as we were about to cross intoSpain, we knew what we wanted. Neverbefore had we imagined that we could affordthe luxury of a guest cabin, let alone with en-suite, in the size-boat we were looking for.However, the French price tag didn’t fit ourbudget and the subsequent Spanish andPortuguese models didn’t fit our ready-to-sailrequirements (Read: mould everywhere,water intake left, right and centre, rust allover etc). Finding our boatIt was a cold and rainy November night whenwe finally crossed the English Channel. Wewere boat-less, homeless and quickly eatinginto savings put aside for the boat and firstyear of live-aboard life. The colder it got inour little motor-home, the lower the morale

Gorgeous Greece

Lefkas Castle

by Dini Martinez

A family’s quest for life’s

essence – becoming

live-aboards on their

Moody 425

Sailing Yoga Family – Part 1

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Cruising Feature

sunk. Then my husband decided to fly toGreece to look at the last Moody 425 aroundwhich seemed in a good state at a reasonableprice, slightly under our maximum of€100,000 (approximately £75,000 at thetime). The moment he stepped on board, hecalled me – just as the gas was about to runout in the campervan, the kids snotty andfreezing, my credit card just been stolen and Iabout to buy a one-way ticket back to thensummery Australia: “Darling, I found ourboat!”We didn’t move aboard in the middle ofwinter as we were after the best possiblestart. Instead, we used the few months wehad in a good economy to top up the kittyand work in Southampton where we metmany lovely MOA friends, who we havebeen in regular contact with ever since.When spring arrived, we were ready andBasimakopouloi Shipyard in Kilada on thePeloponnese Peninsula welcomed us aswarmly as only Greece can: brightestsunshine, ripe oranges, delicious creamyyoghurt, over-filled fig trees, cheap wine,traditional music from inviting tavernas alongthe waterfront of this sleepy fishing villageand our Happy Dancer happily moored in thewell-protected bay. A big plus was that one ofour newly-made MOA friends not only hadexactly the same boat, but also in exactly thesame yard as ours. Needless to say that,Ralph, from Alchemy, soon became our newbest friend and we are still thankful for manytips, tricks and insight he gave us from thestart of our big journey.

Moving abroadMoving from a 21 foot motor-home into a 42foot boat was a massive upgrade, but still noteasy. Nothing is easy with two toddlers in-tow. Nevertheless, we had fun and tookthings slowly, at our own pace. We had norush and nowhere to be. Week three aboard,we hired a professional RYA Yachtmastertrainer and mechanic to spend a week onboard, finalise my practicals which I hadn’tmanaged to get before leaving Australiabetween saving up,jobs, kids andpreparations. NickBlandy, who wecannot recommendhighly enough, was anangel for us. He jumped from thelocal promenade inErmioni just as ourengine was about tofail, our anchor hadn’thooked in properlyand our stern wasabout to be destroyedon the dock in theupcoming 30knwinds. Mediterraneanmooring manoeuvresweren’t something wehad gotten much practice in back home inSydney Harbour! He saved us in many ways– from spending two solid days with Pablo inthe engine and making a hands-on mechanicout of a long-standing accountant; over

Fish for supper

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Cruising Feature

giving me the confidence I needed inmooring skills as a young female skipper; toboosting our self-confidence which — atregular, at times even hostile, doubt emailsfrom many family and friends did make uswonder whether we had gone completelynuts, apparently putting our kids through theworst life possible. Becoming liveaboardsIt takes many months from moving yourtoothbrush on board to starting to call yourkitchen ‘galley’, to truly live and feel likelive-aboards. Many of the daily familyroutines are similar to those on land, but thenagain most are a world apart. As much as Ihave been trying to reveal through myarticles, blog and videos what the reality of alive-aboard family can look like, I believe itis impossible to grasp everything until youhave experienced it yourself. Nothing is likeyou imagined it to be. Some things are evenmore amazing, breath-taking and beautiful,while others are incredibly hard, tedious andexceptionally draining. Safety, although the top thing on everyone’sminds, was never a big worry for us. Wesailed conservatively, knew our limits,constantly improved our knowledge andskills and got to know the boat as quickly andas well as we could. Honestly, any normalroad-situation with busy traffic all aroundfeels way more dangerous to me for my kidsthan being out in the open sea on a safe andcomfortable vessel. The kids were tetheredonto the boat (cockpit strong-point or jack-lines when it was calm and we went to thebow to watch dolphins) at all times when wewere underway. At sea, they also wore theirlife-jackets, and so did we, if conditions wereanything but dead calm and at always atnight. At anchor, one of us was always withthem on deck, and in the dinghy, life-jacketswere a must.

This is just one example and what felt rightfor us. We met several other cruising familiesthroughout the following cruising years andfor some, our approach seemed liberal, whilstothers would consider it completelyconservative and over-the-top. Like on land,each family does what they believe is the bestfor the safety and happiness of all itsmembers and it’s for no-one to judge anyoneelse.Sailing — GreeceAs our skills and confidence improved, andwe slowly found our groove (Read: rightbalance between me-time, couple-time,family-time, boat-time, off-time, educational-time, exploring-time, purely kids-fun andhomey-time), we enjoyed one of the mostbeautiful sailing paradises in the Med:visiting places like over-filled yet stillpicturesque Poros, slightly more off-the-beaten places in charter-base Aegina, beingthe only boat crossing the Corinth Canal on awarm and spooky night, checking in with theOracle of Delphi, forming an unexpectedDominican friendship which kept us inGalaxidi for much longer than expected, andeventually, another unforgettable MOA catchup in the Ionian, where we sailed for severalfabulous weeks feeding on the veteranknowledge of the area of London Lass andher wonderful crew. Eventually, though,hilarious flotilla armies became fewer andfewer. Most summer sailors started pullingtheir boats out of the water and we could feelthe occasional autumn breeze in our sails. Itwas time to find another wintering home.This time, we wanted to stay on board andMalta was the only, and also closest, place inthe Med where we had although remote, yetat least slight hopes, of finding jobs. From Greece, over Sicily to MaltaThe first over-night crossing from Lefkas,Greece, to Taormina, Sicily, went uneventful

and dead calm. Like on land, so at sea. Thekids and us settled into a comfortable, quietroutine shaken up by the occasional bite ofrather big tunas and subsequent freshsashimi-vaganza. After months of Souvlaki,we were ready to treat our taste-buds tosomething different and looking forward tothe arts of Sicilian cuisine. Once again, thewelcome could not have been better. Visitingfriends jumped on board for a couple ofweeks as we indulged in, and enjoyed, theincredible hospitability and contagious smilesof Sicily’s East Coast. It was October by then which meant avoidingbig marinas, as we tend to do — being a self-sufficient boat in terms of power and water— that we barely ever paid mooring fees.Moreover, with the kids and my rusty yetsubstantial knowledge of the Italian language,we were always embraced by the locals likepart of their family. Italian style. It was hardto leave, but by then work in Malta hadalready started to materialize and I had to getto The Rock to start teaching yogaworkshops, retreats and classes while Pablowas in the process of lining up some morefinance work which luckily turned out to be along-term engagement.2015 and beyond in the next CompassissueMore on our winter in Malta, the followingsailing season in Southern Greece, a haul-outin Turkey, some surprise adventures, a fewmishaps, many highlights and – anunexpected and somewhat sad temporaryending to our cruising life in the nextCompass issue. Until then, fair winds, clean diesel and happysailing on those fabulous boats which are theMoodys.Namaste,Your Sailing Yoga Family

Poros

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