At the helm

After nine years as the owner of Aphrodite, today I was, for the first time, at the helm. And it felt good. What happened to me sailing is the same as what happened to me flying. I could not stand not to be piloting. I have this pathetic need to be in charge. With flying, after a few years of owning my plane, I started asking so much about flying that one pilot recommended me to take flying lessons. And I did. I had time then as I had sold Jazztel and Ya.com, and had left Einsteinet unsuccessfully. This was in 2004. And, I became a pilot. But sailing is something I have been doing since I was 14. And I know how to sail. But Aphrodite is so much more complicated than any boat I had ever handled before that I always had a professional crew. But the tension was there. I felt like a guest in my own boat. Many skippers felt that it was their job to make me feel like a pampered passenger. And with 99% of the owners they would be right. But not in my case. So last year I took more sailing classes. And today I had my trial, my first day of sailing as a skipper. Here are some pictures of a day of sailing around Minorca (not all of today).

The day went well except that we had a serious mishap. The engine died at one point. But the 2 crew members discovered the failure. It was the pump that fed the day fuel tank. And we manually pumped fuel until we had enough to restart the engine and made it safely to port.

I take this opportunity to thank the many skippers over the years who helped me learn how to sail in my own boat.