Sailing Dates

With our sailing weeks becoming more and more popular each year and our 2016 sailing weeks fully booked, we have been asked to release our dates for 2017 Naturist Sailing Week.

So 17th June to 24th June 2017 (only one cabin left)

&

2nd September to 9th September 2017

Give us a call if you would like to join either of these trips next year. I have also included in this post an amazing article written by Arthur who I think captures the essence of our sailing trips

SAILING

Some things in life go together so well, and compliment each other so perfectly, you wonder if there has been some divine intervention at play.  Like strawberries and cream, sea and sand – and for us Naturism and Sailing. All these things have a sum that is greater than their two parts – they are perfect!  And sailing naked for us has been a truly ‘bucket-list’ activity.

 Sailing bay
We all know the absolute pleasures of skinny dipping.  This is often the first activity that seals it for most of us that we want all our holidays to be unclothed.  That feeling of freedom of swimming naked that is followed by the added bonus of no wet sticky clinging fabric that takes an age to dry.  So it is the same feeling once you go sailing – unclothed.  I have to be frank here – I am not talking about sailing to the Fastnet Rock, or in global latitudes that would freeze you solid.  Sailing where the sea is azure blue, the breeze is warm and dry, and that the sun shines from rising to setting are the kind of places to sail.  Then you have found perfect naturist sailing conditions.  The freedom of naturism marries perfectly with being blown by warm breezes freely over clear blue waters.

We discovered the very same perfect combination whilst staying at the beautifully maintained resort of Vassaliki Naturist Club, on Kefalonia, an island that is a jewel in the Ionian Sea. One of the excursions was for a day’s naturist yacht trip.  The trip sounded nice and our fellow holidaymakers spoke highly of their experiences.  With other guests from our resort we embarked on the stunning 38 foot yacht, ‘Ino’, out of Argostoli, a beautiful port on the south west corner of the island.  Even before fully leaving harbour we were seeing huge loggerhead turtles swimming just below the surface of the crystal clear waters.  That day we cut through gentle waves under the power of taught white sails to a deserted ‘tropical’ isle where we swam and snorkelled in crystal waters, and dined on simple greek cuisine and wines.  The simplicity of the whole day harmonised with everything we love about naturism.  We were hooked.  Sailing naked was in our blood.

So what do you do when you have discovered your love of this divine combination?  Well, our answer was to go sailing for longer. Day trips are an awesome fillip – but sailing naked for a week with a ‘crew’ of likeminded people becomes an apex in naturist holiday-making.  Once again we returned to Kefalonia and journeyed from our naturist resort base of Vassaliki to Fiskado in the north of the island where we boarded a 42 foot, six cabin luxury catamaran.  This magnificent sleekly double wedged piece of luxury marine boat building took us around the blue seas that divide Kefalonia, Lefkas, Ithaka and mainland Greece.  We sailed with our very able skipper Mark Taylor (owner of Vigla Natura), and his hardworking most amiable hostess Annie, and six other ‘crew’ (our fellow holidaying guests).  The popularity of this sailing week was evident with guests joining from the UK, Israel and South Africa. We sailed together to quaint traditional harbours, isolated white beached coves and across deep blue channels legendarily sailed by Jason and his Argonaughts.  We BBQ’d on curved marble white stone coves, snorkelled over tantalising green dancing sea grasses, and excitedly grabbed for our cameras when a pod of dolphins chose to chase their silver prey beneath the bows of our trusty two white hulls.  And not only are the days wonderful but the nights are beautiful – to sit up on deck, anchored in a far off cove with your fellow travellers, waxing lyrical as the heavens slowly spin above is a magical experience.  A week of this leaves the heart full and the spirit re-charged.

Special to naked sailing in the Ionian is that you share those resplendent waters with a special community of yacht loving transient neighbours.  Many are ahead of you in realising the joys of being naked on their well manicured sailing vessels.  It is not an infrequent occasion to see fellow sailors in naturist garb.  We’re back to that perfect combination again!  However, those evenings spent in port had to revert to traditional textile coverings, that were only to be cast aside moments after sailing away from those old quaint sailing refuges.

Those long warm June days spent on the Ionian Sea, shared with fascinating people who had travelled from around the world to be there, gave us an appreciation of the feeling of freedom and accord that we have only truly experienced with sailing naked.  We had felt warm winds blow over us.  We had swam in waters that can only be reached by boat.  We had travelled with people who like kindred spirits had made that discovery that sailing and naturism are a very special combination – one of those experiences that every person who is comfortable in their own skin should really add to their ‘bucket-list’.