The Blog
The latest from Talata SailingAfter 30 years in the corporate world we decided to stop living at work and to start to work at living.
Together we’ve sailed over the past 11 years, chartering boats in the Med, Caribbean and Asia and now on our own sailing trimaran TALATA! This blog follows our experiences after turning our backs on careers and land life, buying a boat and jumping into full time sailing life!
The latest post
10 Reasons to Sail Albania
1. Out of Schengen This will be the main incentive for most cruisers who come to Albania. If your boat is non-EU VAT paid, you can reset the 18 month clock with a stop in Albania. If you are non-Schengen passport holders, you can use Albania as a base to extend your...
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6 Beautiful Anchorages in Albania
Save these bays for Sailing Albania! There are several protected bays to seek out, depending on weather and how far north you’ll be sailing.
These are our favourites.
Sardinia: Giant’s Tomb, Mountain views & Wild Horses
This is a lovely, short drive close to the city of Cagliari, Sardinia. Go for a hike, have a picnic and enjoy the nature and views.
Sardinia: Nature, Culture & Local Producers
This drive takes you from Cagliari, across Campidano through to the Parteolla area. On this trip you’ll see lots of animals, beautiful landscape and get to taste and buy spectacular wines, salami’s and cheeses.
Best shops for Provisioning in Cagliari
For those of you on a short stop in Cagliari with little time to explore and find your own favourites, we share a list of where to get the best tasting and freshest bread, spices, international goods and fruit and vegetables.
Reasons for choosing a Neel 47
One of the questions we’re asked the MOST (after how satisfied we are with our boat) is why did we choose a Neel 47? Here we reveal the reasons for our choice!
Retrospective and Statistics 2020
Looking back on the milestones, adventures, and misadventures of 2020: what a momentous first year it was! We pull up our logbook, photo library and analyse some sailing stats. Time for a 2020 retrospective!
Winter Sailing in the Med – Sardinia
The weather may be less stable and predictable than in summer but you can still travel around the Med throughout the year, choosing to get a berth for a shorter period should you want to.
Biggest Differences in Life as a Full-time Cruiser
We’ve given up the comfortable lifestyle we had and abandoned challenging careers. Too young to properly retire and older than most who take time off before going back to jobs. We haven’t done this because our life on land was bad. We thought it could be better. So 10 months on, how has reality matched up to the dream?
The Knives are Out
This one’s for all the chefs on board. Or anyone looking for a way to protect sharp knives. Or even store kitchen knives in a drawer.
Solar Protection – Sun Shades on a Boat
Though we have air-conditioning onboard TALATA (primarily for when we get to the tropics), in the Med this summer we’ve only used it twice. Both times in a humid marina where the refreshing sea breeze didn’t reach us. Otherwise we’ve mostly been on anchor with ocean breezes and better air-circulation to keep the cabins and saloon comfortable. Failing that, a refreshing dip in the sea cools us down nicely! Many times, that’s not enough. So what’s the solution?
Top Tips to Beat the Heat on a Boat
We LOVE summer, those long hot days, sunshine, blue skies and settled sailing weather. What we don’t like too much is excessive heat, especially at night when there’s no breeze at all. But there’s no need to suffer, here come our TALATA top tips for cool comfort on a boat in summer.
Foraging Cactus for Nopales
Here in the Algarve, the abundant vegetation provides so much to forage, especially in spring. And among the fig trees there’s usually a huge clump of cactus. So it got me thinking about Nopales…
Sail anywhere? Whenever you want?
In these COVID19 times, we’re stuck in lockdown on our boat in Portugal. So much for our new identity as an ocean nomad! So does loosing your freedom of movement make you a real stick in the mud?
Reducing risk before living the dream
As part of our plans to sell everything we own, buy a boat and travel the world, we ran through a list of scenarios that might impact our goal. Hey, even for us this life-change took guts so we wanted to make sure we had options to cover any setbacks.
Clam Dunk
One of the joys of travelling is discovering local food and dishes. Getting a taste for a place through its markets, restaurants and the people we meet.
Our first passage on Neel 47
Leaving La Rochelle isnt easy! As new Neel 47 owners, we completed our maiden voyage crossing the Bay of Biscay, sailing from France to south Portugal. What was it like? What did we like? What would we like?
Boat Naming: Ceremony and Ritual
It takes a bit of effort to find a good boat name and prepare the naming ceremony and weren’t keen to make too much of it. Until we realised what the consequences may be. This is how we went about it.
In search of an Alibi
There’s a place we go every time we’re in La Rochelle. Many of you have turned away after the...
What it’s like: Crossing the Atlantic Ocean
The crossing of seas and oceans has held a particular fascination for centuries. It’s still one of the great adventures and challenges on this earth.
We’ve done our training and as ex-managers, are practised in minimising risk, finding solutions and responding to the unexpected. Suitably prepared to sail across the Atlantic you’d think. Or are we…?
René Schneider, our resident nautical expert and one of the one of the most inspirational people we know, joins Tania for a chat about what to expect on Atlantic ocean crossing.