Would the family survive without Facebook? Michael Blyth weighs up the perils
and pleasures of taking teenagers sailing in Greece
Heroditus and
high spirits on a family
holiday in Greece
ADVENTURE
C
rouching in the warm sun,
watching a group of burly,
unshaven fi shermen clean
their canary-yellow nets
alongside their bright blue
boats that bobbed on a bright blue sea,
I ate the best peach I’d ever tasted.
This was Greece, the land I had longed
to visit since I was a boy.
We had arrived the night before, my
wife and I, with our daughters age 17,
15 and nearly 12, having chartered a
yacht for a week's holiday. It was a bit
of an experiment really, and I really
wasn't sure if it would be plain sailingor a pressure cooker full of hormones.
The main criteria to give greatest
chance of success, were sunshine
and a yacht that had a decent-sized
foredeck for lying in said sunshine.
We also preferred not to be part of a
glorifi ed party, so fl otilla sailing was
out, and on this occasion we invited
no-one from outside the family. With
favourite eldest daughter turning
18 soon it might be our last family
holiday, and we parents wanted family
without added extras. Oh, and no
WiFi! All the Facebooks and Twitters
that would intrude into every momentcould stay at home, or better still go
hang on another planet.
The charter company, Sail Ionian,
came by recommendation from a
number of sailing friends. A smallish,
family-run company, it offered
bareboat or skippered charter, and
RYA courses, or a mixture of all three.
We arrived to a warm welcome that
included refreshments: wine, cheese,
beer, fruit and bread.
We spent the week pottering around
the Ionian from one little bay to
another; from little harbour to
little harbour, anchoring whereNOVEMBER 2017 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 15