The Practice · Deep end
A week at sea, away from the noise, where the only thing asking for your attention is the weather.
Not a chartered-yacht holiday. Not a status trip. A five-cabin monohull, skippered, and a small group, with real days at sea between real conversations. You take part: hands on lines when there's wind, watches, meals, silence. The wind doesn't care about your job title.
Come on your own, as a couple, or with a few close people.
A small group, one boat. No programme to keep up with, the sea sets the schedule.
Sailing experience isn't required. Willingness to be on deck is. The work is in the doing.
Long stretches of nothing to solve. That emptiness is where most of it happens.
The days find their own rhythm. This is the shape they usually take.
Settle in, meet the boat and the others, and leave the harbour. The first evening is slow on purpose, the point isn't to get anywhere yet, it's to let the shore-brain start to loosen.
Short passages and the basics of being useful on deck. As the body learns the motion, the constant low bracing you carry on land starts, without instruction, to let go.
A short passage along the coast, hands on lines when there's wind. Out here the signal drops, and the noise you didn't notice you were carrying has nowhere to arrive from, this is where phones stop mattering.
A short passage and a long, open afternoon, with nothing to solve but the wind and where to drop anchor. A day this simple leaves a lot of room; most of the week's real thinking happens here, without being forced.
A quiet bay, a swim, a night at anchor. Space with nothing asked of it, which, after four days, is when the thing you actually came to sort out tends to surface on its own.
The passage back, with a crew that's quieter and steadier than the one that set out. The change isn't something anyone announced; you just notice you're different than at the harbour.
Back on solid ground, carrying something you can't quite point to but will feel for weeks. A steadiness that came from doing something real with your hands, not from being told to relax.
No. No experience is needed, only a willingness to be on deck and take part. You'll learn what you need as you go.
Solo travellers, couples, or a few close people. Groups are small by design. Everyone is welcome; nothing here is gendered.
Sheltered Mediterranean cruising grounds, in the shoulder season — May, June, September and October, when the weather is kindest and it isn't too hot like July and August. Short daily passages. The exact route is arranged around the group; tell me who's coming and roughly when.
The cabin, the sailing, and the guiding throughout. Breakfast and lunch provisions are included and we prepare them together on board; dinners ashore are not included. Travel to and from the boat is your own.
Reasonably mobile and comfortable on the water. If you have any concerns, tell me in your enquiry and we'll talk it through honestly.
A five-cabin monohull, skippered by me. Private berths, a real working boat, not a charter for show.
You have your own berth. Cabins are twin-share, two berths each; a single cabin is available with a supplement.
Five to eight guests. The departure runs with a minimum of five, and I keep it to eight at most, so the boat works and the week stays personal.
Limited single cabins available at +EUR 1,400.
Shoulder season — May, June, September and October, when the temperatures are at their best and it isn't too hot, unlike July and August.
Breakfast and lunch provisions included, prepared together on board; dinners ashore not included.
Minimum five guests for the departure to run.
Catamaran departures run separately, priced on their own, with more deck space for practice on board.
Personally by Matthaeus.
Per person, twin-share. The price varies by cruising ground. Participation confirmed after a short enquiry and a first conversation, never before.
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