Greek flotilla questions

[Sailfree]

We are currently at sunsail Vanouki resort doing dinghy sailing/tennis/mountain bikes. There is also windsurfing Kyaking (spell) and swimming pools. Food is excellent. For children the variety is fantastic. Currently they allow booking of yachts wither on a wdaily basis or weekly basis. Those ising the resort can enter into a raffle for one of 4 boats that are allowed out on day sails at no extra cost. So far in 2 weeks I have been booked to skipper one on 4 days. There is a kids club and creche.

I cannot praise the resort/food/staff high enough.

 

[curtius]

Glad to hear that Vounaki is maintaining standards. Have been there a couple of times and always excellent. Also glad that the day sail yachts are still available for free, got the impression from the Sunsail website that they are now charging.

 

[dennism]

Can I tag a question on your thread as I am looking to Flotilla early August (with a 13 yr old...so had the same reservations re kids, boredom etc so thread was useful, thanks).

What is it like to sleep on the boat in the height of summer? Having caravanned several times and spent nights in a "sweat box" just wondering if a boat is a bit cooler being in the water ... or is it a case of sleeping on deck and bearing it!

 

[jhr]

Yes it can be hot. We did a flotilla in the Sporades in August a few years back and were reduced to sleeping on deck on several nights. That was better, but still not ideal. One suggestion would be to buy a wind scoop, which you fit over the for'ard hatch and which channels any breeze through the interior of the boat. They're not very expensive (about thirty quid, iirc) and do help a bit.

It is a bit cooler on the water, in my opinion.

Our kids (then aged about 11 and 14) very quickly teamed up with several other children in the flotilla, and had a great time. They particularly enjoyed arriving somewhere and immediately hopping in for a swim

 

[derekgillard]

I'm booked to go with Neilson in a few weeks, they supply a wind scoop as part of the package and they do work, In previous years we found it cooler when at anchor in a bay away from from buildings which retain the heat at night.

We go on our own and sometimes join the flot if they are going somewhere we fancy it's also god to know where they are in case of breakage as they always have an engineer around.

This is a 5th year and we love it even though we have our own boat at home it's just bliss..........

 

[Daedelus]

Oh, and remember this - the lead crew might be over the horizon but they tend to find out about little mistakes or indiscretions and you will inevitably be awarded some sort of booby prize at the end of flotilla dinner. Everyone gets one, the lead crew will make sure of that!

Our lead crew upset one of their pals (they nicked his dinghy to go ashore) and so he put on his scuba gear and discreetly tied all manner
of junk to their anchor chain (it included the postcard display stand from one of the shops. He then played "Always look on the Bright side of Life" over his deck speakers as they struggled to get the anchor up.

At the end of the week someone had managed to find a model anchor and tied it up with bric a brac and string etc and at the end of the prize-giving the lead crew were presented with their own booby prize.

 

[Jamesuk]

Vounaki 2 week holiday

 

[richardbayle]

I have sailed with sailing holidays several times in both the south and north. They operate differently from other flotilla operators and it really isn't a case of follow the leader. During the morning brief you are given the destination and advised of any safety issues, weather etc. Generally you are asked to arrive at the destination by a certain time but after that it's up to you. Depend ending in your experience you may be able to go off for a few days, we did and had a few overnight stops in secluded bays completely on our own. But it is about the sailing, you can arrive early at your destination if you wish and go ashore but that rather misses the point IMHO. Anchoring in bays, swimming and snorkelling, lively venues in the evening all fill up the days and they go at light speed! I doubt anyone will be bored! When we were last out there, there was a couple of young families and they had a great time! The Sailing holidays teams are very aware of client needs and will help you work it all out.

Absolutely agree with mrplastic. had 3 great holidays with Sailing Holidays, great bunch of people and really laid back. Mind you it's b****y hot in July

 

[oioi]

we are back! I wanted to capture my thoughts and impressions, they might help others and I think they are worth sharing.

first thought great holiday!
from being met at the airport to being delivered back at the airport sailing holidays were really good and professional - although not faultless. they picked us up at the prevezza airport and took us to our boat, which for a 15 year old charter boat I thought was in better condition than could really be expected. everything was clean, it worked and there were not any niggles. I don't think you can ask for more than that. extra bonus was there was an outboard for the dinghy provided free of charge. looking at other companies, they charge extra for an outboard on the smaller boats (ours was 32ft).

first days sailing was great, we had a lovely sail from plataria over to petriti on corfu. dropped the anchor for a swim and some lunch at the spit near lefkimi and then motored into petriti, at which point things went a bit off script. our youngest son (Evan, 4) quickly developed a raging temperature, was throwing up and soon became quite floppy. I walked into the bar where the lead crew were preparing the briefing and and said I needed a doctor. the hostess was superb. she leaped into action, organised a taxi and really helped to get our son seen as possible. the response by kerri really justified to me flotilla versus bareboat. whilst we would have coped by ourselves, having the help and experience of kerri made all the difference, to what was a very stresfful situation. we went to a local gp and then onto a clinic in corfu town, where my son and wife stayed overnight. myself and the oldest son (Freddie, 7) returned with kerri back to the boat at petriti. the next day Freddie and I took the boat to corfu town (mandraki harbour - lovely spot on a better day) with the assistance of a sailing holidays staff member - limited sailing experience as she was working on the office, but the spare hands were useful.

the clinic didn't like some of the x-rays and referred evan to see a paediatrician in the main corfu hospital. essentially he had pneumonia with a small amount of fluid on the lungs. fortunately the main corfu hospital is 5 minutes walk from the largest marina on corfu (Gouvia). whilst we were in an ambulance going from the private clinic to the hospital, sailing holidays very kindly moved our boat into gouvia marina so Freddie and I could be near the hospital.

it was Monday night when evan fell ill, and by Friday lunch time he was well enough to come out of hospital. fortunately the flotilla had been going north, and were now heading back south so we rejoined them in Corfu Town. from that point on we had a blast.

our 2 boys were by far the youngest, the next child being 12. this didn't seem to cause to many problems as the other kids really welcomed into the group and were so kind and generous. I think in many ways the other kids made our holiday the success it was. we were a small of flotilla of 5 boats, so all the kids played together. as soon as we stopped they would all being swimming and laughing. all of the children were really kind and generous and kept an eye on our two (especially the youngest).

as far as the sailing goes, in my mind there wasn't enough, but in the kids view it was a tolerable amount, I think much more would have proved intolerable. we tried to sail early to mid afternoon, as the kids would sleep then. I was surprised by how much wind there was, with a couple of days of 4 to 5s. some of the fleet made the mistake of not watching the wind build and ended up with a nasty 1.5hr beat into a 5. we had seen it build and had skipped the lunch stop so had a nice sail direct into the evenings port. the scenery is beautiful and it is a really lovely place to sail.

I have one niggle with sailing holidays. we went to the very small mongonisi at the bottom of paxos one night. here it turned out there was another, large (12 boats) flotilla, from sailing holidays! on the same night. not sure of the why and where fors but it seemed there was a disagreement between the two lead boat skippers. this was a huge cock up as the harbour was essentially full. normally we would have expected to have all boats on the harbour wall, but a good number of us had to anchor. not a problem until 5am when a small micro storm came through with a number of the boats in the bay dragging anchor (both flotilla and private). at least two boats dragged onto others as the bay was so crowded and finding new anchorages was problematic. one boat ended up touching rocks. fortunately the bay was flat calm so no bouncing onto them and no harm done. whilst the storm wasn't avoidable and not really a problem, the crowded anchorage was.

apart from that issue, sailing holidays were great. staff were very friendly (my wife and I ended up drinking in bar with them one night until 2:30, long after the rest of the flotilla had gone to bed), hard working, attentive and generally superb.

being on a flotilla was great fun and we enjoyed the company of others. yes it was hot, but never unbearable, the wind kept us cool and sleeping at night was not a great problem. the mosquitos were numerous and unavoidable.

would we go again? in a shot! with sailing holidays - without a doubt. having now done it, I am confident I could bareboat charter without any difficulties, but the support when needed plus the sociability for the kids would make me want to flotilla even with the downsides of pre planned route.

a final thought. I took plan2nav on my sony experia tablet and my Samsung galaxy s5/ this was a great help. it meant I could navigate with confidence whilst my wife looked after the boat and kids! only issue was, the sony seemed to take an age to find satellites, sometimes needing a reboot, whilst the s5 found our position straight away.