tobixen

Izmir, Türkiye -> Varna, Bulgaria, by the end of February / Early March

The Med in the winter time is wonderful - admittedly the swimming temperatures may be lower than optimal, and admittedly the sun goes down early, but the landscape is green, it's rarely too hot, there is always plenty of space in the anchorages and harbours, not too many tourists in the towns nor on the beaches, no loud music from the beach bars, the weather is more exciting than in the summer time.

UPDATE 2025-01-26: I have enough crew for February now. At least one is planning to leave from Izmir the 27th of February - so next possibility to join is from Cesme or Izmir around that date. I do have plans to take the boat up from water in Bulgaria or Romania later in March, do some maintenance and have some weeks break from the boating life, but those plans are not set in stone yet, I haven't done research into that yet.

SUMMARY

* You gain some experiences and/or a cheap holiday, I get some assistance, company and possibly someone to share the costs with.
* While I can handle the boat alone, I think the ideal crew size is 3. 4 sleeping places on board. Couples and children tend to compress well, we've once been 12 on a multi-day-trip.
* You're welcome regardless of gender, qualifications, etc.
* I usually have a "first-to-the-boat" or "first to book flight tickets" policy of accepting crew.
* Common meals if possible (tell me about your food preferences)
* We share the food costs
* For other costs, a crew contribution of 10-25 EUR pr day is appreciated if you can afford it. Alternatively some extra help with maintenance tasks and daily chores.
* Planning is usually done in plenum, and although the captain always have the last word, any suggestions and wishes from the crew will be heard and considered.
* Be honest and keep me updated if you decide not to join or if you need time to make a decision.
* If you don't like reading long texts, you may skip the rest.

CREW EXPECTATIONS

You're welcome on board regardless of age, gender, qualifications and experience, as long as you're prepared to give a hand when it's needed. Children are welcome. I've had a dad joining together with his toddler - that did work out very well. I've also many times had helpers on board that had absolutely no experience with sailing. Either you learn, or the primary task on your shifts will simply be "wake up the captain if anything happens".

If we decide to sail throughout the nights, most often we'll put up a duty plan where we share the burden of staying awake at the helm - but I still expect to be woken up when I'm "off-duty" if needed. If someone happens to be wide awake when their duty ends it's OK to stay a bit longer, and if someone happens to fall asleep over the rudder it may be important to wake up the next duty even if the time is not there.

I generally expect that we share doing the chores (cooking, dish-washing, maintenance tasks, putting out fenders, cleaning the deck, organizing ropes, etc), but as I also need to spend significant time on my day job I may have a bit reduced capacity.

I expect to be informed about food allergies and preferences. I'm flexible when it comes to diet, I eat almost anything (but be warned, I tend to eat quite much). If crew has special requirements (i.e. vegan diet) I will try to adapt. I can do some cooking, but I'm not very good at it, so I'm generally happy with my crew taking care of it. I've had crew members on board cooking food only for themselves - that's faux de pas, in this ship we try to eat together when possible.

Some boat owners don't allow shoes on deck at all. I'm not that strict on it, but I certainly don't want dirty shoes down under deck. I'd appreciate if you at least take off shoes or change shoes before entering the boat.

I was once asked about my stance on nudity (he didn't join though). I do expect crew to keep some clothes on most of the time. I don't mind people going fully nude while changing clothes, swimming or sunbathing, but I probably wouldn't feel comfortable with people hanging around in full nudity in the cockpit or saloon, especially not during meals. Also, if we have neighbours or are in a harbour, then consider that other people may find it inappropriate.

I do expect my crew to have opinions. While the captain always have the last word and veto rights, planning is usually done in plenum, wishes and suggestions from the crew will be considered, and the crew usually have relatively big freedom to experiment with the sail setup.

I do expect some of my crew to become get sea sick. If you're not feeling 100% well, then please stay in the cockpit, best place to be is by the rudder with the autopilot disengaged or (if conditions allow) out on the deck. You may alternatively try to lay down in the bed - for some people that's the best thing. Make sure to ask for the bucket before you need to puke.

THERE MAY BE DRAGONS

I've had people staying only for some 1-3 days before leaving. Once it was due to bureaucratic problems preventing me from leaving the harbour, but most of the time it's because the crew gets sea sick (or possibly scared). Sea-sickness usually goes over during some few days, and I hope to have learned to be gentle and do short trips on the first days with people who haven't had much experience with sailing. In any case it may be an idea to have a plan B ready in case you find that sailing is not for you, or in case the boat gets stuck for whatever reason.

There may be situations when personalities don't mix very well. I once told my crew to leave the ship (though, only after a year and a 5000 EUR halyard wrap issue).

Plans may change - sailing may be unpredictable. Sometimes it's needed to spend anything from some hours to a full year repairing the boat after something breaks down or after an accident, other times plans needs to be revisited due to rules and bureaucracy. Weather is of course also an unpredictable factor. I do put a lot of pride into meeting up for my appointments, I've so far only once been two hours delayed for picking up crewbay crew.

Long-time planning is not my game, so please don't ask me what I will be doing several months in the future. I ended up sailing from Constanța in Romania and almost to Myconos in Greece, single-handedly most of the way, for no other reason than that I'd done a commitment to meet someone there ... and then they couldn't come anyway, all flights cancelled that day due to the Crowdstrike incident.

APPLICATIONS

There is not much of a point wasting time writing up up a long presentation of yourself bragging about your skills and qualifications. I will read it - but the proof is in the pudding, and it's always better with crew that "exceeds expectations" than the other way around.

While I may perceive some candidates as more attractive than others, my policy is most often that the first ones to commit to joining is accepted as crew. If you're coming in by airplane or similar, then I consider it to be a commitment as soon as tickets have been purchased.

I've had 18 candidates responding to this ad, one has joined, one has booked flight tickets, one is probably coming, but the rest ... most of the rest never bothered getting back to me. I'm wondering ... WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? I don't know, perhaps there are a lot of people that are only dreaming about sailing, but never really find the time or money to break out from their "real life". Perhaps there are crew candidates writing to tens of captains and ending up on another ship. Perhaps people decide to go sailing while they're drunk and then forget all about it when they are sober the next day. Whatever - I do consider it normal politeness to inform me if you have decided not to sail with me (and I also expect you to be frank about the reasons). If you need some time to decide, I also expect you to keep me informed on that.

COST SHARING

I expect the crew to take their part of the grocery bills. If you could also afford contributing like 10-25 EUR pr person per day to help with other costs (as listed below), it would be appreciated.

There are three models for sharing the food costs, we can count every cent of the food shopping, we may contribute equally to a "food piggy bank" and use that one for grocery shopping, or we may also simply do turns on paying for the grocery shopping, I'm flexible, but I prefer the latter model. Most other "extra costs" with having more people on board are negligible.

Travelling by sail is probably the most expensive way of travelling for "free"! The costs include:

* Maintenance - this is big, probably ~1000 EUR/month. It can't be counted and shared "on the go", the expenses comes down unevenly. Sails, rope, rigging and any equipment tends to get worn out and needs replacement every now and then, things get destroyed due to carelessness or negligence from the crew, skipper doing some serious mistake or just bad luck. Sometimes things may be mended on the go, other times it's needed to buy expensive replacement parts or get professional help. We do not argue about who is to blame when things go wrong, we rather discuss what went wrong and try to learn from the mistakes. I will not claim any compensation for broken equipment from the crew, it all goes on the "running cost"-budget.
* Diesel (has been around 100-500 EUR pr month lately),
* Harbour stays - this is usually fairly low, as I prefer to stay by anchor when possible.
* Insurance, local taxes and other administrative costs ... like fines. I think I have gotten two fines during the last 5 years. The captain does of course bear most of the responsibility for checking up local regulations and adhere to it, but it's not always easy to be up to date on all local regulations. In case of fines, I think it would be fair to share it up until 100 EUR per person on board, with the rest taken by the captain.
* Laundry, refill of drinking water, gas, sometimes electricity in harbours, ....

Q&A

Q: How much crew do you need?

A: I usually consider three persons on board to be optimal. For relaxed sailing in sheltered waters I'm quite comfortable sailing single-handed. Two persons on board works out fine for rougher sailing, three persons are better when doing night-time sailing, four is even more optimal when doing night sailing. Five and it starts getting crowded.

Q: How many people can there be on board?

A: Many! Children and couples also tend to compress pretty well. In 2018 we've been six adults and six children on board for four days. In 2024 we've been four adults and five children for more than a week.

Q: How many do you expect joining?

A: Including myself, three. Four is the limit. If there is any risk that we'll be more than four persons on board on any legs, I will inform!

Q: How many cabins are there?

A: There are only two cabins on board and two sofas. Unfortunately none of the cabins are very comfortable when sailing in rough weather.

Q: Do you have a shower on board?

A: Yes, but don't use it too often. I've had crew that "needed" to take daily showers. I'm not much happy with that, fresh water may be a scarce resource, and hot water even more scarce. Anyway, feel free to ask for the best time to take a shower.

Q: What do I need to bring?

A: Passport! And of course, some spare clothes. The rest is mostly up to you. Some people bring their personal towel and sleeping bag - but we do have towels and bed clothes (I wash it at 60C in laundromats between each crew - it's supposedly clean, but some of it does have some spots that seems to be permanent). If you ask politely I will probably even manage to find some extra clothes if needed. I've had guests staying for two months bringing only a small bag (under-the-seat-sized hand luggage). I've also had guests bringing with them heavy suitcases. I generally prefer people travelling lightly, we don't really have that much space on board.

Q: Can you tell me what boat model it is?

A: No. This boat didn't come out from a factory line, it's a unique ship, built on the spare time by a Norwegian, based on design drawings from Bruce Roberts in New Zealand.

CONTACT

Please write a message through crewbay so I will have your profile on the candidate list. If you find it easier to communicate off the platform, please remind me to share my contact information

REFERENCES

I may provide references from earlier crew members if needed.

• Copy URL
• Print
• Share
• Phone
• Website