What an exceptional review of your inaugural seasons! I shared the link to this episode with my wife, and once she started watching, she couldn't stop. We've been following your channel for about a month now, starting from Episode 1. Your approach, which integrates spreadsheets and project management, strongly resonates with my pragmatic and detail-oriented mindset. Despite a hiatus from sailing (including dinghies, keelboats, racing, cruising, etc.) spanning over two decades due to career and family obligations, we're now contemplating our next steps. We're seriously considering acquiring a yacht again, this time to sail around the Mediterranean, fully prepared to embrace the uncertainties ahead. Looking forward to your upcoming episodes with great anticipation!👍
Hi, first of all, very nice videos you have made, both interesting and with high quality, thanks. I look forward to follow you in your 2nd season. We (a norwegian couple) sailed (a Bavaria 46 Vision) from Oslo to Almerimar in Spain last year. We will continue now in mid April from Almerimar to the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and most likely end up in Monastir for the coming winter 24/25. Our plan is to continue and sail Greece, Turkey, Croatia in the coming seasons. Fair winds 😀⛵
Thank you, glad you are enjoying the videos. Sounds like you have a great voyage ahead of you. If we don't bump into you somewhere out in the Med we will be sure to see you on Monastir.
Thanks for sharing your experience in such a candid way. I purchased a SO410 and took delivery in 2022 (it was delayed too) and you’re inspiring me to sail further afield. I’m planning to take her from UK waters to the med in a couple of years so will enjoy watching your content….keep it up! Also, interested to follow any technical challenges in order to compare notes. Happy Sailing folks!
Thank you. I hope you are enjoying the 410. We are loving our boat. We have some further upgrades coming up in videos in the next two months. We are enjoying the Med so far but want to come over and sail the UK in a few years. We might have to swap notes.
Wow S01E35 Completed: I honestly can say I thought you had a few year’s experience sailing Richard, Jude sure learnt quick on being First Mate. So lovely to see you both together. Loved this look back at the last year. Today for me catching up with the channel is 02/11/2024 so time for a Cuppa and next episode. xx❤️💙⛵️
Loved the video! We are also from Melbourne starting our first full season this May from Athens in our new Beneteau. Hopefully see you in Greece somewhere. Cheers Andy and Stefanie SV Supernova.
I really love your films. Thank you for sharing your adventures. As a wannabe cruiser it’s very inspiring to watch. Honest and straight-forward story telling. Just a small observation about this film and it’s only a personal preference, I would prefer the background music to be half as quiet. But that’s just me! Anyway, wish you well getting the boat back in the water and your next season to Malta, Sicily and Greece. Happy Easter to you both. X
Hi Rob. So glad you are enjoying the videos and thank you for your feedback, it is appreciated. I think music is important and it helps express the emotion but it shouldn't detract from the experience either. I've tried not having background music before and had people request it so I think that we will just have to keep trying to find the best level. FYI this music was at -21.5 decibels.
@@sailinghelios2023 thank you for your kind reply. Sound is so subjective and I agree the films are better with some background music. Maybe you can experiment with different levels in future films. Happy Easter :)
Thanks for your feedback Susan. I had a watch of the video again and can see what you mean. Its amazing how you hear things differently when you know what is being said and after hours of editing I can typically recite the video word for word. I bit quieter next time.
Thank you for sharing your adventures. Greece is amazing don’t rush going through Greece. Turkey is also a great cruising destination. See you on the water in Greece. S/Y Selini 🇳🇿
Thank you. We are looking forward to Greece. I'm not sure how much we will see this year so I think we will be back again to do some more and of course Turkey. Hopefully we bump into you in Greece.
Dear both, thanks for sharing your adventures on this channel. Very nice to watch... I guess we have in 2023 (almost) met at the lovely achorage spot at Lerins island close to Cannes (late summer 2023). We have been there close to you anchor spot with our SO440 called "Vivianne Lee", sailing under German flag, however being in Italy since a couple of years. If I got your right, your are currently located at Monastir, Tunesia. Have a great upcoming season and see you maybe somewhere at med-area....Best regards Michael & Ute
Dear Michael and Ute, thank you for your kind words. Lerins was definitely a lovely spot and finding the old Monastery on the Island was a special bonus. Yes, we are currently in Tunisia but will be heading off soon. All the best for your sailing this year. Regards Jude and Richard
Many thanks for taking the time and effort to put this most informative (and entreating) video. Loved it. If you have a few minutes, would very much appreciate any feedback you can provide on couple things from the video. 1) couldn't catch the name of the pretty anchorage off Naples (sounded like Barkley ???), 2) Do you recommend the head set/microphone for communicating (e.g. while docking); and 3) Is the "around-Schengen's" visa limitation strategy you discussed practical? recommended?
Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it. 1. Bacoli. It is just west of Naples. 40.79039085567144 east, 14.08071312520293 north 2. The headsets have been great. We still use some hand signals just in case they fail so that we are use to doing. Most of the time we are just whispering to each other and you can convey so much more information with an open mic. They are from Sena 3. It has proved to be workable so far and we know a number of people in our winter home doing it. You will see all sorts of info on the internet saying you can't do it but in practise this is not the case. Obviously if you are going to publish something on the internet you need to be able to stand by it so the only plausible thing to publish is that you can't do this. We do not try and evade any authorities and where required will use agents. The authorities seems to be very familiar with this process. This does not mean that at some stage that will not get questioned by some authority who thinks we doing something wrong but our defense will be that we have only followed what other authorities have advised. This is a hot topic and we have chosen to stick our neck out to let others know so they may benefit from this too. Regards Richard and Jude
@@sailinghelios2023 Many many thanks for taking the time to provide this DETAILED informative response… swiftly. 1. Will try the visa strategy this summer. We will be sailing the Balearics… and do have an agent. 2. I am guessing you may be considering the Greek islands next. If so, I highly recommend you consider Turkey’s southern coast… for cruising as well as winterizing. It is gorgeous sailing… PLUS: interesting/different culture, food. Cheaper than Europe. And may be SAFER (vs N African coast). If you do… try to skip August… VERY HOT. Again, many thanks for your reply… and wish you happy sailing snd fair winds!
The mix of local history, sights and culture with the sailing is brilliant. Nice to see you back Jude. Keep up the good work. Have you see Sailing Trinity? They have a few vid about sailing across from toe to heal to Greece. Some weird currents and eddies and greek myths to go with it!
A'hoy Richard and Jude, so glad to have stumbled upon your RUclips channel. Its so nice to revisit my previous travels in the Med. Love the quality of your content and the mature commentary, guess it must be an age similarity thing. As you head into season 2, could I suggest a seafaring topic? We became enthralled by the 'Antikythera Mechanism' as we sailed Greece, then finally saw it in reality in Athens museum, Wow! Highly recommend Ithaka, its a place I'd like to revisit annually, the jewel of the Ionian. ❤
Hi Mark, we will be travelling around that area this year so we will be sure to visit Ithaka. The Antikythera Machanism sounds amazing. Incredible that something like this from 200BC was not replicated again until the 14th century.
Hi again Richard, firstly sit down and review your whole passage plan what worked, what didn’t etc. watching your episode I could see the mistakes piling up. Yes I’ve got the benefit of my comfy sofa but not putting time pressure on yourself and having alternative plans will keep you safe. I’m not rubbishing your efforts, rather this is a great learning opportunity. Your doing fantastically well and I’m hoping your back on the air soon. Log your engine run times so you can keep a secondary watch on your fuel usage. What is it costing you to stay at the marina for the six months, if you don’t mind me asking. Did you contract for the period or did they give you a rate? Good place to hole up apparently.
Hi Bob Yes, we are learning a lot. The marina here is about 1650 Euro for 6 months and about the same for a year so most people just take a years contract which gives them options if required, We currently log our engines times but have not been doing fuel estimates so we will add this to the ships log for this season. We are just completed work in the yard and will have the first episode of season 2 up this weekend. Regards Richard and Jude
There are lots of great options for winter and we are looking forward to Turkey. It is really just about what part of the Med we are sailing and this year Monastir was convient and also it was a know when it came to getting the stainless work completed. Our plan is to be sailing for a long time and to also venture all around the world and for this we felt the OCT dinghy was the best choice. It is very light weight which suits our choice of it going on the forward deck and because of its foam sandwinch/fibreglass contruntion I know I can fix it myself anywhere in the world and make it look like new again. A bigger cost up front but over ten years I think it will be cheaper and cause us less problems.
Hi guys, really have enjoyed your videos right from the beginning, my partner, Silvia and I have Loved sailed the med over the years, A humble suggestion to you both, considering your plan to get to Corfu ( which is fabulous, by the way) and beyond , would be to winter, in what we believe to be close to paradise , Turkey, probably easier than going back to Tunisia, also out of the EU, and places like Fithiye and Marmaris are fabulous, lots of yacht services, great Marinas, Turkey is not expensive, the people are so friendly, an amazing country, lots of fantastic things to see, maybe hire a car over winter, you will have a ball, guarantee you won't regret it, thanks for listening to me 2 cents worth, best regards Glyn and Silv, Adelaide
Algeciras, Spain across the bay from Gibraltar is an IKEA you can walk to and take an Uber back with all the pillows you want. If you want decorative pillows and you enjoy the style of Turkish Kilims and such Antalya and other Turkish towns have great shopping at really good prices.
Hello, our young family also from Melbourne are looking to buy a boat and move to the med next year. How did you get around the 90 day tourist visa situation? Thanks
Hi, that sounds like a great adventure for the family. The 90 day Schengen rule makes it difficult to cruise the Med. We have managed to be cleared into the EU as crew on our own boat and thus are not actually checked into the EU and don't come under Schengen. The rules here are not clear and are not consistent across the EU member states. Have a look at two videos on this process that we have made: How we beat the Schengen Shuffle - Episode 12 and then the update we did a couple of weeks ago. If you have more questions let us know.
@sailinghelios2023 thanks for your reply, your other videos were very helpful. Did you get the ICC (or equivalent) licence before you set off? It's not mandatory if you own your boat but heard some countries like Greece, Italy, Croatia often ask to see a licence and it helps reduce insurance for the boat. Trying to work out if it's worth the investment
Hi, I did the RYA Coastal Skipper course. RYA will issue you a ICC certificate as the Coastal Skipper exceeds the ICC requirements. I think it is a good idea to get some qualifications. For me it extended my knowledge just a little bit but it added a qualification to my acquired knowledge and experience over many years. I understand that Greece want an ICC cert so will be getting this from the RYA.
I’ve watched a few of your videos 👏👏. This is a great video telling it how it is, again👏👏👏. I just wish my wife would take the leap and we could do the same. Congratulations and best of luck PS. I’ll find the time to binge the videos I haven’t yet watched👍🏽🇦🇺
Thank you so much Peter. Get your wife to reach out to Jude if you would like. Its a lot of fun if you can do it and a great community thta is very supportive.
Only recently discovered your channel and very much enjoying it. I have just done a post on you guys on "RUclips Sailing Channels", and hope that may help to get you a few more subscribers. Like you, I am from Melbourne too.
Hello After hearing about your Schengen-get-around strategy in your videos (and your kind reply to my earlier comment), I proceeded to investigate doing the same with my agent in Palma. I immediately hit a formidable stumbling block: the apparent requirement to first obtain a "Seaman's Book" (a sort of a quasi-passport)... in order to get "stamped-out." I had looked obtaining a Seaman's Book a couple of years ago... and concluded it would be very difficult for me to obtain, as it is really intended for professional/paid crew on super yachts. It is possible, however, that this requirement may be unique to Spain. I hope it is. Hence my question: Did you need to apply for and obtain a Seaman's Book. If yes, was it straightforward?
Hi, what you are finding is the inconsistency of application that happens right across the Schengen states. I was just talking with a person last week that told me there is a port in Spain where the authories would stamp you out of the EU and allow you to be crew on your vessel. You go to Marina Sant Carles de la Rapita and then go to the town Tarragona to get processed with your crew list. We haven't been to Spain so have no first hand experience. The seaman book is the position a lot of people will go to but not all authorities require this. Sorry I can't be more helpful but please let us know how it goes.
There is currently a 2021 410 for sale in the UK with in mast furling and a 1.6 keel. The 410 is a beautiful boat 🥰 Do you know what the difference is in boat handling between your keel and a 1.6 shoal keel? Much thanks 🙏
I believe there’d be less stability with the 1.6 keel which is bound to affect sailing. In reality, we’ve never been concerned about our draft being too much for the places we go.
We are currently in turkey and are looking to buy a boat. I am very interested in your method of avoiding the “Schengen Shuffle”. What happens when you are confronted with a customs official. How do you prove that what you are doing is legal or conforms to the rules of the Schengen Zone?
Hi, we haven'y been approached as yet so we haven'y had to test this but all we can do is present the process and paper work that we do have. First off it is immigration that would be of a concern. There is no problem for customs as we are allowed our boat to be in the EU for 18 months. But just on this, we will get a vessel arrival form completed when we enter the EU so that other member states know how long we have been inside the zone. So for Schengen you only need to present yourself at the border of the first member state which for us this year will be Malta. However as we go through Italy and Greece we will also complete the procedures that they have. These are not immigration but rather transit logs and cruising tax.
What an exceptional review of your inaugural seasons! I shared the link to this episode with my wife, and once she started watching, she couldn't stop. We've been following your channel for about a month now, starting from Episode 1. Your approach, which integrates spreadsheets and project management, strongly resonates with my pragmatic and detail-oriented mindset. Despite a hiatus from sailing (including dinghies, keelboats, racing, cruising, etc.) spanning over two decades due to career and family obligations, we're now contemplating our next steps. We're seriously considering acquiring a yacht again, this time to sail around the Mediterranean, fully prepared to embrace the uncertainties ahead. Looking forward to your upcoming episodes with great anticipation!👍
Wow, amazing. So glad you are enjoying the episodes. We would say just do it. We have not regretted our choice and it is great sailing in the Med.
Well done, thank you! Beating Schengen is a gift to all! Bon voyage!
You are welcome.
Hi, first of all, very nice videos you have made, both interesting and with high quality, thanks. I look forward to follow you in your 2nd season. We (a norwegian couple) sailed (a Bavaria 46 Vision) from Oslo to Almerimar in Spain last year. We will continue now in mid April from Almerimar to the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and most likely end up in Monastir for the coming winter 24/25. Our plan is to continue and sail Greece, Turkey, Croatia in the coming seasons. Fair winds 😀⛵
Thank you, glad you are enjoying the videos. Sounds like you have a great voyage ahead of you. If we don't bump into you somewhere out in the Med we will be sure to see you on Monastir.
Thank you guys! I enjoy following your adventures! Good winds!
Thank you. So glad you are enjoying the videos
Thanks for sharing your experience in such a candid way. I purchased a SO410 and took delivery in 2022 (it was delayed too) and you’re inspiring me to sail further afield. I’m planning to take her from UK waters to the med in a couple of years so will enjoy watching your content….keep it up! Also, interested to follow any technical challenges in order to compare notes. Happy Sailing folks!
Thank you. I hope you are enjoying the 410. We are loving our boat. We have some further upgrades coming up in videos in the next two months. We are enjoying the Med so far but want to come over and sail the UK in a few years. We might have to swap notes.
Wow S01E35 Completed: I honestly can say I thought you had a few year’s experience sailing Richard, Jude sure learnt quick on being First Mate. So lovely to see you both together. Loved this look back at the last year. Today for me catching up with the channel is 02/11/2024 so time for a Cuppa and next episode. xx❤️💙⛵️
Am very happy for you both. Thanks for the Schengen tip. I hope to be doing the same in a few years time.
You are welcome. Hope you plans become a reality.
Great summary, so glad to see your passion is still very much there.
Thank you. We are very excited for the year ahead.
Loved the video! We are also from Melbourne starting our first full season this May from Athens in our new Beneteau. Hopefully see you in Greece somewhere. Cheers Andy and Stefanie SV Supernova.
Thank you. Not long now. You must be excited. What a place to start from. Hope to see you around Greece over summer.
What an adventure! Great job on your videos. What a beautiful boat, too.
Thank you. We love our boat.We will hopefully have a long overdue boat tour out soon.
I really love your films. Thank you for sharing your adventures. As a wannabe cruiser it’s very inspiring to watch. Honest and straight-forward story telling. Just a small observation about this film and it’s only a personal preference, I would prefer the background music to be half as quiet. But that’s just me! Anyway, wish you well getting the boat back in the water and your next season to Malta, Sicily and Greece. Happy Easter to you both. X
Hi Rob. So glad you are enjoying the videos and thank you for your feedback, it is appreciated. I think music is important and it helps express the emotion but it shouldn't detract from the experience either. I've tried not having background music before and had people request it so I think that we will just have to keep trying to find the best level. FYI this music was at -21.5 decibels.
@@sailinghelios2023 thank you for your kind reply. Sound is so subjective and I agree the films are better with some background music. Maybe you can experiment with different levels in future films. Happy Easter :)
I agree. The music isn’t bad, it is just a bit loud and distracts from what is being said.
Thanks for your feedback Susan. I had a watch of the video again and can see what you mean. Its amazing how you hear things differently when you know what is being said and after hours of editing I can typically recite the video word for word. I bit quieter next time.
Thank you for sharing your adventures. Greece is amazing don’t rush going through Greece. Turkey is also a great cruising destination. See you on the water in Greece. S/Y Selini 🇳🇿
Thank you. We are looking forward to Greece. I'm not sure how much we will see this year so I think we will be back again to do some more and of course Turkey. Hopefully we bump into you in Greece.
Dear both, thanks for sharing your adventures on this channel. Very nice to watch... I guess we have in 2023 (almost) met at the lovely achorage spot at Lerins island close to Cannes (late summer 2023). We have been there close to you anchor spot with our SO440 called "Vivianne Lee", sailing under German flag, however being in Italy since a couple of years. If I got your right, your are currently located at Monastir, Tunesia. Have a great upcoming season and see you maybe somewhere at med-area....Best regards Michael & Ute
Dear Michael and Ute, thank you for your kind words. Lerins was definitely a lovely spot and finding the old Monastery on the Island was a special bonus. Yes, we are currently in Tunisia but will be heading off soon. All the best for your sailing this year. Regards Jude and Richard
Many thanks for taking the time and effort to put this most informative (and entreating) video. Loved it. If you have a few minutes, would very much appreciate any feedback you can provide on couple things from the video. 1) couldn't catch the name of the pretty anchorage off Naples (sounded like Barkley ???), 2) Do you recommend the head set/microphone for communicating (e.g. while docking); and 3) Is the "around-Schengen's" visa limitation strategy you discussed practical? recommended?
Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it.
1. Bacoli. It is just west of Naples. 40.79039085567144 east, 14.08071312520293 north
2. The headsets have been great. We still use some hand signals just in case they fail so that we are use to doing. Most of the time we are just whispering to each other and you can convey so much more information with an open mic. They are from Sena
3. It has proved to be workable so far and we know a number of people in our winter home doing it. You will see all sorts of info on the internet saying you can't do it but in practise this is not the case. Obviously if you are going to publish something on the internet you need to be able to stand by it so the only plausible thing to publish is that you can't do this. We do not try and evade any authorities and where required will use agents. The authorities seems to be very familiar with this process. This does not mean that at some stage that will not get questioned by some authority who thinks we doing something wrong but our defense will be that we have only followed what other authorities have advised. This is a hot topic and we have chosen to stick our neck out to let others know so they may benefit from this too.
Regards Richard and Jude
@@sailinghelios2023 Many many thanks for taking the time to provide this DETAILED informative response… swiftly.
1. Will try the visa strategy this summer. We will be sailing the Balearics… and do have an agent.
2. I am guessing you may be considering the Greek islands next. If so, I highly recommend you consider Turkey’s southern coast… for cruising as well as winterizing. It is gorgeous sailing… PLUS: interesting/different culture, food. Cheaper than Europe. And may be SAFER (vs N African coast). If you do… try to skip August… VERY HOT.
Again, many thanks for your reply… and wish you happy sailing snd fair winds!
Thank you for the information, we will certainly be going there either this year or next.
Hope you Go on with your Trips, and Show us your Adventures 😀👍
Thank you. We are looking forward to setting off again this season and bring you more episodes.
Excellent wrap up of what has been such a successful journey thus far. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a great report … truly inspireng to make the best of life … THANK YOU … and great travels!!!
So glad you enjoyed it.
Very informative, so thank you, all rhe best in ure future travels.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
Nice review video guys. Looking forward to your next adventures. Stay safe.
Thank you. Glad you are enjoying the videos
The mix of local history, sights and culture with the sailing is brilliant. Nice to see you back Jude. Keep up the good work. Have you see Sailing Trinity? They have a few vid about sailing across from toe to heal to Greece. Some weird currents and eddies and greek myths to go with it!
Thank you Scubachick. We haven't watched that channel but we will have a look.
A'hoy Richard and Jude, so glad to have stumbled upon your RUclips channel. Its so nice to revisit my previous travels in the Med. Love the quality of your content and the mature commentary, guess it must be an age similarity thing.
As you head into season 2, could I suggest a seafaring topic? We became enthralled by the 'Antikythera Mechanism' as we sailed Greece, then finally saw it in reality in Athens museum, Wow!
Highly recommend Ithaka, its a place I'd like to revisit annually, the jewel of the Ionian. ❤
Hi Mark, we will be travelling around that area this year so we will be sure to visit Ithaka. The Antikythera Machanism sounds amazing. Incredible that something like this from 200BC was not replicated again until the 14th century.
Just found your vid. Excellent. My ben 350 is in greece. You will love the area.out in june
Thank you. We are looking forward to Greece.
Great job guys thank you
Thank you. Glad you are enjoying the videos.
It’s been great to see places that other channels don’t visit so I’m looking forward to the next season.
Thanks! We are having an awesome summer so far. I hope we can do this Greek beauty justice.
Jude
Hi again Richard, firstly sit down and review your whole passage plan what worked, what didn’t etc. watching your episode I could see the mistakes piling up. Yes I’ve got the benefit of my comfy sofa but not putting time pressure on yourself and having alternative plans will keep you safe. I’m not rubbishing your efforts, rather this is a great learning opportunity. Your doing fantastically well and I’m hoping your back on the air soon. Log your engine run times so you can keep a secondary watch on your fuel usage. What is it costing you to stay at the marina for the six months, if you don’t mind me asking. Did you contract for the period or did they give you a rate? Good place to hole up apparently.
Hi Bob
Yes, we are learning a lot.
The marina here is about 1650 Euro for 6 months and about the same for a year so most people just take a years contract which gives them options if required,
We currently log our engines times but have not been doing fuel estimates so we will add this to the ships log for this season. We are just completed work in the yard and will have the first episode of season 2 up this weekend.
Regards Richard and Jude
Good video 👍 You didn’t mention the Turkey winter option.
Why did you choose the OCT dinghy over an inflatable Highfield dinghy?
There are lots of great options for winter and we are looking forward to Turkey. It is really just about what part of the Med we are sailing and this year Monastir was convient and also it was a know when it came to getting the stainless work completed.
Our plan is to be sailing for a long time and to also venture all around the world and for this we felt the OCT dinghy was the best choice. It is very light weight which suits our choice of it going on the forward deck and because of its foam sandwinch/fibreglass contruntion I know I can fix it myself anywhere in the world and make it look like new again. A bigger cost up front but over ten years I think it will be cheaper and cause us less problems.
Hi guys, really have enjoyed your videos right from the beginning, my partner, Silvia and I have Loved sailed the med over the years, A humble suggestion to you both, considering your plan to get to Corfu ( which is fabulous, by the way) and beyond , would be to winter, in what we believe to be close to paradise , Turkey, probably easier than going back to Tunisia, also out of the EU, and places like Fithiye and Marmaris are fabulous, lots of yacht services, great Marinas, Turkey is not expensive, the people are so friendly, an amazing country, lots of fantastic things to see, maybe hire a car over winter, you will have a ball, guarantee you won't regret it, thanks for listening to me 2 cents worth, best regards Glyn and Silv, Adelaide
Turkey is definitely on the list of places for us to go and explore. It sounds wonderful to sail and go inland as well.
Nice review. I also appreciated your Shingan Shuffle video. Both gave me more hope for cruising the Med one day as an American :)
You are welcome
Algeciras, Spain across the bay from Gibraltar is an IKEA you can walk to and take an Uber back with all the pillows you want. If you want decorative pillows and you enjoy the style of Turkish Kilims and such Antalya and other Turkish towns have great shopping at really good prices.
Thank you, we will be sure to have a look when we are in Turkey
Hello, our young family also from Melbourne are looking to buy a boat and move to the med next year. How did you get around the 90 day tourist visa situation? Thanks
Hi, that sounds like a great adventure for the family. The 90 day Schengen rule makes it difficult to cruise the Med. We have managed to be cleared into the EU as crew on our own boat and thus are not actually checked into the EU and don't come under Schengen. The rules here are not clear and are not consistent across the EU member states. Have a look at two videos on this process that we have made: How we beat the Schengen Shuffle - Episode 12 and then the update we did a couple of weeks ago. If you have more questions let us know.
@sailinghelios2023 thanks for your reply, your other videos were very helpful. Did you get the ICC (or equivalent) licence before you set off? It's not mandatory if you own your boat but heard some countries like Greece, Italy, Croatia often ask to see a licence and it helps reduce insurance for the boat. Trying to work out if it's worth the investment
Hi, I did the RYA Coastal Skipper course. RYA will issue you a ICC certificate as the Coastal Skipper exceeds the ICC requirements. I think it is a good idea to get some qualifications. For me it extended my knowledge just a little bit but it added a qualification to my acquired knowledge and experience over many years. I understand that Greece want an ICC cert so will be getting this from the RYA.
I’ve watched a few of your videos 👏👏. This is a great video telling it how it is, again👏👏👏. I just wish my wife would take the leap and we could do the same.
Congratulations and best of luck
PS. I’ll find the time to binge the videos I haven’t yet watched👍🏽🇦🇺
Thank you so much Peter. Get your wife to reach out to Jude if you would like. Its a lot of fun if you can do it and a great community thta is very supportive.
Only recently discovered your channel and very much enjoying it. I have just done a post on you guys on "RUclips Sailing Channels", and hope that may help to get you a few more subscribers. Like you, I am from Melbourne too.
Life is not a rehearsal > Enjoy
Too true. So glad we made the choice to do this.
Hello
After hearing about your Schengen-get-around strategy in your videos (and your kind reply to my earlier comment), I proceeded to investigate doing the same with my agent in Palma. I immediately hit a formidable stumbling block: the apparent requirement to first obtain a "Seaman's Book" (a sort of a quasi-passport)... in order to get "stamped-out." I had looked obtaining a Seaman's Book a couple of years ago... and concluded it would be very difficult for me to obtain, as it is really intended for professional/paid crew on super yachts. It is possible, however, that this requirement may be unique to Spain. I hope it is. Hence my question: Did you need to apply for and obtain a Seaman's Book. If yes, was it straightforward?
Hi, what you are finding is the inconsistency of application that happens right across the Schengen states. I was just talking with a person last week that told me there is a port in Spain where the authories would stamp you out of the EU and allow you to be crew on your vessel. You go to Marina Sant Carles de la Rapita and then go to the town Tarragona to get processed with your crew list. We haven't been to Spain so have no first hand experience. The seaman book is the position a lot of people will go to but not all authorities require this. Sorry I can't be more helpful but please let us know how it goes.
Hi, what size keel you have? The deep keel or shaul keel?
We have the standard keel. Draft is about 2.1m
There is currently a 2021 410 for sale in the UK with in mast furling and a 1.6 keel.
The 410 is a beautiful boat 🥰
Do you know what the difference is in boat handling between your keel and a 1.6 shoal keel?
Much thanks 🙏
I believe there’d be less stability with the 1.6 keel which is bound to affect sailing. In reality, we’ve never been concerned about our draft being too much for the places we go.
We are currently in turkey and are looking to buy a boat. I am very interested in your method of avoiding the “Schengen Shuffle”. What happens when you are confronted with a customs official. How do you prove that what you are doing is legal or conforms to the rules of the Schengen Zone?
Hi, we haven'y been approached as yet so we haven'y had to test this but all we can do is present the process and paper work that we do have. First off it is immigration that would be of a concern. There is no problem for customs as we are allowed our boat to be in the EU for 18 months. But just on this, we will get a vessel arrival form completed when we enter the EU so that other member states know how long we have been inside the zone. So for Schengen you only need to present yourself at the border of the first member state which for us this year will be Malta. However as we go through Italy and Greece we will also complete the procedures that they have. These are not immigration but rather transit logs and cruising tax.
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