Sailing with the Treleavens

You get only one life but plenty of dreams to fulfil. This was just one of our dreams - to purchase a yacht in the Mediterranean and slowly cruise back to Australia. Four years later we have bought a new yacht, a Beneteau Oceanis 50, and are heading for the Caribbean at the end of this European summer.After selling a successful nautical clothing business, which served Australia & New Zealand with brands such as Musto and Line 7, as well as licensed clothing for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, we decided to make the break for Europe. In 2003 a one-year-old Beneteau Oceanis 47.3 yacht was spotted on the Internet sitting in a marina in Spain.  Our immediate plan was to spend six months a year in the European summer and six months back in Australia, living an endless summer for a few years.Over four summers we have sailed 12,000 nm (nautical miles) and visited 12 countries. We have fallen in love with the Mediterranean, from Europe to the Near East to Africa. You get a completely new perspective from the sea when everywhere is more accessible - no airports, no hotels and no bags to pack.About the boatsWe have been very pleased with our Beneteau 47.3 (47 feet). Big and fat, she’s spacious enough down below for extended living, but not too large for two people to handle. She sailed well in all conditions, and had an excellent sail wardrobe with extras in a staysail and spinnaker. The big Yanmar 75HP engine also made life comfortable. The only disadvantage is that we are in the upper rating band when it comes to berthage fees, where they rate us by length and beam.Our new yacht has a few extra creature comforts, being a generator, air conditioning, bow thruster, water maker and a washing machine.About usIan already had a lot of miles under his belt, coming from a sailing family. His father was President of the New Zealand Yachting Federation. Starting out with his own dinghy at age seven, Ian represented New Zealand in the Laser class and later was bowman on the 1973 US Admirals Cup Team yacht Salty Goose. He has taught sailing at Club Med and worked for Bob Derecktors boatyard in New York. He has participated in many Sydney-Hobart club races and added records to his name.During a two-handed race from Sydney to Auckland in 1988 on Starlight Express he was hit by Cyclone Bola. Ian has also campaigned his own yachts including the Volvo Ocean 60 Merit in which he still holds the 420 nm Lord Howe Island Ocean Race record. This year in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race Ian unfortunately was the one on Maximus who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Masts do come down and Ian was under it.As for me, I grew up in Te Awamutu in New Zealand’s North Island and had no previous experience in writing or photography. I learned on the job. When we started cruising I began sending back a weekly newsletter to friends, which expanded to Treleaven’s Travel’s, a regular feature on http://www.sail-world.com - the southern hemisphere’s largest yachting website, with a readership of 20,000.‘Letters from the Med’The weekly letters culminated in a book ‘Letters from the Med’ about our first three seasons in the Mediterranean. Apart from the regular letters from Andrea, it includes over 150 high quality colour photographs, recipes using local produce of the various countries visited and easy cruising tips from Ian.The book has been such a success in Australia, New Zealand and the UK that the publishers, New Holland New Zealand, have contracted us to complete ‘Letters from the Caribbean’.Our fourth year in the Med is detailed in our ‘Cruising Log 2006′ which was awarded the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 2006-2007 seasons cruising trophy. You can read the complete log on this site.Why we do itWe’ve learned a huge amount in our four summers (so far) in the Mediterranean, from on-board technology to maintaining the yacht, from navigation (using GPS via the laptop) to the dive compressor that we use when cleaning the hull. One of the great joys has been sharing the experience - with old friends who join us on board, and new acquaintances who are doing exactly what we are doing: taking time out to smell the sea, sample good wine and food, enjoy the history, and dive into crystal-clear water.Andrea & Ian Treleaven, July 2007