As a new skipper, getting your license is only the start of your journey. While exploring the Ionian in our Sun Odyssey 33i we dealt with some unforeseen situations along with some simple oversights. Hopefully, I can help you avoid some of the mistakes we made by shining light on them in this blog!

After getting my skippers license in Croatia, I started looking into buying a boat. My end goal was to spend 2-6 months a year on board, so chartering was out of the question. I had around 24,000EUR (in GBP) saved up from contracting and after a lot of research I knew that a 32-36ft monohull would be in the range of 25,000EUR - 35,000EUR depending on the age and location. I wanted the boat to be based in the Ionian and I wanted something that I could sail straight away.

So I should start by saying I never really had an interest in sailing growing up and only recently got into it via watching cruising channels on YouTube. I have, however, always strived to work less and live more, and as an IT Contractor, I'm fortunate that I can work remotely from anywhere in the world. This led to me wondering what life living aboard would be like, mixing cruising with working, along with what the sensible path towards that would be. I didn't want to just throw our mortgage away and disappear...