Sailing Ragdoll

Sailing Ragdoll Boat Life.. chasing sunsets and broken boat parts 🙃

Goodbye Santa Maria Di Leuca.. It’s been a pleasure 💙
10/05/2026

Goodbye Santa Maria Di Leuca.. It’s been a pleasure 💙

Santa Maria di Leuca is giving us one of those pauses that boat life seems to offer whenever the weather goes to absolut...
08/05/2026

Santa Maria di Leuca is giving us one of those pauses that boat life seems to offer whenever the weather goes to absolute… crap. With waves over 2 metres high outside the breakwater, we’re settled in a nook in the harbour.

We’re tied up on the free quayside here waiting for a weather window to make the crossing to Corfu on Sunday, and between checking forecasts, pottering around the town, and watching the swell roll around the harbor walls, we settled into a somewhat different rhythm than life at anchor usually offers.

At the very bottom of Italy, where the (angry) Adriatic and Ionian seas meet, Leuca feels like a proper edge-of-the-map town (or middle ass end of nowhere 🫠). The Romans called it De Finibus Terrae.. quite literally “the end of the land” and when you look at the cliffs beneath the lighthouse above the cliffs, it’s easy to see why.

Beyond here there’s nothing but open water and the long 70-80nm route east toward Greece. This coastline was a waypoint for sailors for thousands of years, and I guess it still is. Ancient Greeks believed the area was sacred, and later the Romans used it as one of the final ports before crossing the Adriatic. Arriving here by boat feels like joining a that very old pattern.. many cruisers waiting on weather and preparing for the next crossing, east, west, south or north. Every conversation circles back to the same thing… “When are you heading across?” or; “Where are you headed next?”

The town itself has that slightly weathered but very Mediterranean charm we always end up loving. Old 19th-century villas facing the sea, a cute little fishing harbour, scooters racing through narrow streets… gelato everywhere. Nothing to really complain about. Except, maybe a decent supermarket within walking distance… (yeah, I know, I know).

We’re making a conscious effort to move with the wind, with the weather, trying to avoid motoring and spending days running the engines so for now, we wait.

If all goes to plan, next stop: Corfu 🇬🇷

220nm later, we are tucked away at the quay in Santa Maria Di Leuca on the bottom of the heel of Italy waiting until the...
07/05/2026

220nm later, we are tucked away at the quay in Santa Maria Di Leuca on the bottom of the heel of Italy waiting until the workweek finishes and we make a move towards Greece this weekend.

An uneventful journey overall, some seasickness/mild food poisoning, not entirely sure but generally all well. We stopped in Crotone for some hours rest and a pharmacy visit before setting off again and here we are…

We’ve caught up with friends, enjoyed playing with the floofs at the quay and will explore/hike a little before we head for Othoni/Corfu 🇬🇷

Few days rest is welcome after a few days on passage but the Bank Holiday gave us a fantastic weather window 🤌

Sailing past Etna, we promised ourselves we will get to hike it on our way back south later in the year and damn, that view did not disappoint.

First big passage this year in pretty big following seas but we rode it out on our code zero and asymmetric most of the time. Flying at 8kts on our assymetric in 23kts of wind was maybe pushing it a little but great fun.

Code zero from has become our absolute favourite new sail, boy that thing is a beast! 😂 We didn’t motor all that much other than in a few lulls because it just… drove us 👌

Ah, and despite not feeling great… that sunrise at sea? Ah 👌

Greece, here we come ☀️

This Bank Holiday weekend is really what life should be all about 🥰We’ve pottered around and did the usual house and lif...
03/05/2026

This Bank Holiday weekend is really what life should be all about 🥰

We’ve pottered around and did the usual house and life admin but we’ve hang out with friends, explored Syracuse, I knocked off a couple of runs, did some sewing, we’ve taken dinghy adventures far and wide and it’s been…. Superb 👌

Add the gelatos, fresh lemonades, Italian food and sunshine and really… life couldn’t get much better 💯

Happy Sunday ☀️

What did you get up to this weekend? 👀

We always get to the point of “ok, let’s go to another country now, we’ve been here a while” but it’s always SO GOOD to ...
29/04/2026

We always get to the point of “ok, let’s go to another country now, we’ve been here a while” but it’s always SO GOOD to come back for the little things that you don’t think about on the day to day.

Italian pastries, their espresso, their super friendly approach (and sheer love!!) of dogs, phenomenal people and their relaxed approach to life…. It’s so welcoming 🤌

We’ve been enjoying our time here and ventured all around Syracuse now 😂 Morning and evening ventures, running in new surroundings, playing on silks, balancing work life and home life quite well, life is goooood 💚

Happy Wednesday ☀️

Running away to the circus is always an option 🎪😂☀️
25/04/2026

Running away to the circus is always an option 🎪😂☀️

23/04/2026

It’s not a bad life ☀️😇

We had a lovely crossing from Malta to Syracuse, Sicily. Light winds for the most part, riding our main & code zero, fol...
23/04/2026

We had a lovely crossing from Malta to Syracuse, Sicily.

Light winds for the most part, riding our main & code zero, followed by some stronger winds as we approached the SE coast of Sicily where the wind and wave accelerates, before completely flattening out as we came around the corner and got ready to enter Syracuse bay.

Syracuse is one of those few anchorages where you have to report your arrival on VHF16/11, ask permissions to anchor in the relevant zone (there’s a few) or tie up to the town quay (which is free for up to 5 day stays). It’s a bay with good access to amenities; however most importantly it has good holding and ample space.

Our first day here was windy, so we didn’t get off the boat much. Blowing 25kts from the south all day, white caps in the bay, before the wind dropped to 0kts by the evening.

The following day was fairly calm, we got out to beach, got some groceries and had an easy going work and school day onboard. Helped our friends who arrived from Malta with some 3D printed parts for their swim ladder and enjoyed the sunshine.

Thursday and Friday look to be a little cloudy here and the bay was a little bumpy early this morning so we re-anchored deeper into the bay for some more shelter. Less movement in this part of the anchorage but easy going day, though with little sunshine ⛅️

We will wonder around here for a few more days but looking at weather windows for the next hop ⛵️

Nice to be back here 🇮🇹

A day of silks, sailing (thanks to Kidani!), running & picking out baby porcupine quills out of the dogs 🫣 it’s been a d...
19/04/2026

A day of silks, sailing (thanks to Kidani!), running & picking out baby porcupine quills out of the dogs 🫣 it’s been a day 😂

Address

Valletta

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Sailing Ragdoll posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Sailing Ragdoll:

Shortcuts

Share

Category