How to take a Mini across Europe

Categories: Black Sea · Cruising · Limanu · Mini · Mini Transat · Navigation · Odyssea · Racing · SailingTags: · · · · · Leave a comment

Once the excitement of buying a new boat faded away and my Pogo was safely resting in Marseille for the winter, I started pondering seriously about how on earth I would manage to bring it home, or more precisely, to the Life Harbour in Limanu. As winters tend to be long and mostly dark, they are perfect for adventure dreaming. With Google Earth opened in the cozy comfort of my home, I plotted different routes from Marseille to the Black Sea. And as it usually happens, it was just an email exchange with Marc, who graciously took care of the…

But then better things come around… (Part 2 of a long transitional post)

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Alas, it took me more than a year to get going again and retie the loose ends of my sailing stories 🙂 Just before Easter 2016 I received a call from a person interested in finding out more about Mem Pas Peur. Since for the previous six months I had already spoken to more than a dozen potential buyers and travelled many times to show them the boat without any second calls, I did not expect much from this new contact. But in any case I decided to give the boat a thorough sweeping, which was required any ways after…

Book Review: Bumfuzzle – Just Out Looking For Pirates, by Patrick Schulte

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I received this book as a gift from one of my best friends who was about to embark on a cruising vacation on a catamaran in the Cyclades. Talking passionately about my first sailing experience in the Greek islands, I convinced him that chartering a boat is the best way to explore the Aegean Sea. A regular sailboat seemed a bit small  and uncomfortable in rolling for my friend Mihai and as a consequence he made up his mind for a big cat. Wanting to get some prior experience about living on and sailing a catamarn, he came upon this…

Never trust great deals when purchasing antifouling paint!!!

Categories: Black Sea · Cruising · Limanu · Maintenance · Mem Pas Peur · SailingTags: · · Leave a comment

Last May I was over-thrilled when my friend Constantin Lascu, who was taking care of Mem Pas Peur, called me with some very good news – that he found a great deal for antifouling and primer. I was already keen to give Mem Pas Peur a good scraping and adorn her with new layers of paint at the beginning of a new sailing season and thus, without checking any other offers, I accepted on the spot. The name “International” already sounded familiar, in fact there were a couple of jars already on the boat from her former owner, Marc (the French sailor…

Black Sea Sailing Ep .2 – better later than never :)

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In a previous post (Gorgeous September Sailing 🙂) I promised to share the short movie that Robert filmed with his drone during our wonderful sailing episode back in September. As it happens most of the times, it took me an awfully loooong time to get the footage from Robert, select a few shots and combine them with some other clips shot on the boat to produce a short movie. The end result resides below: Alas, the summer season is finally here and I am eagerly waiting for the first longer sailing trips to Mangalia, Sulina, Balchik and finally Istanbul :)….

First sail of the season :)

Categories: Black Sea · Cruising · Mem Pas Peur · Odyssea · Sailing · UncategorizedTags: · · · · · Leave a comment

For the past two months and a half I’ve been monitoring the weather forecasts daily. Sometimes even a few times per day… every time with a deep sense of anticipation for a major change that would drive the night temperatures above freezing. After being disappointed for a 100 times, last week finally the luck shone on me. No more negative temperatures for as far as the weather forecast could load on my iPhone 🙂 I wasted no time and ran quickly to Constanta to see little Mem Pas Peur, a bit anxious about her state. Thanks to Constantin, who took…

Reminiscing about the “good old days”… and dreaming of the next!

Categories: Aegean · Cruising · Cyclades · Movie · Sailing · Vendee GlobeTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

In a previous post (About Odyssea) I presented briefly my first skipper training trip that I undertook with 3 goods friends last year. While editing my first sailing movie clip (check here :)) I came across some footage that I recorded with my iPhone and iPad during this trip. With my newly acquired iMovie skills, I decided to put together a short clip that reveals two equally beautiful sides of the Aegean – stormy weather with clear skies and peaceful sunsets. I thank Ioana, Ionut and Barni for an awesome trip! And just as I finished uploading the movie on Youtube,…

Black Sea Sailing – Ep. 1

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Since the sun has obstinantly refused to shine for the best part of the last month, I started to look for it in the pictures and short clips that I shot with my iPhone while sailing over the summer. Longing for the next sailing season and counting the bleak days that are still ahead, I started playing with iMovie. After a couple of hours I managed to concoct a very short movie clip using some of the very shaky and bad shots from a couple of memorable day trips. My first editing attempts can be enjoyed in full glory down…

Gorgeous September sailing :)

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Last Thursday we were blessed with a wonderful early autumn day with gentle, almost non-existent waves, and light winds. It was not a great day for racing, but such a spectacular day for cruising and basking in the sun. And for filming Mem Pas Peur and its crew from the sky, thanks to Robert’s great skills of piloting a serious drone 🙂 Before we get the chance to see Robert’s latest production (by the way, all his short movies shot with his DJI Phantom 2 drone can be enjoyed here), let’s take a look at some of the moments that…