Sarah Ayton OBE enjoys her first Neilson flotilla holiday

We are a keen sailing family. Actually, a little bit more than keen, I have a couple of gold medals in the sport and Ash has a background in yacht racing. Being active on and off the water is how we love to spend our time, and living in Poole we are spoilt with windsurfing, wing-foiling, mountain biking and running all on our doorstep.

Early in the year, on a dark and particularly rainy night, we decided to plan a week’s adventure in sunnier climes. Our daughter Elsie had been born a few months earlier so we needed to open our search to holidays where we could enjoy time with our daughter whilst still having the chance to do the things we love to do.

Having had a couple of great holidays with Neilson in the past, we checked out their website where the images of yachts anchored in crystal blue waters caught our eye. Being independent so and sos, we had never considered a flotilla holiday in the past, but with purees to be made, nappies to be changed and a baby to entertain, we felt the need for someone else to do the heavy lifting with logistics and planning that needs to be done when you go cruising far afield.

The holiday absolutely delivered for us on every point. We were very keen to maintain our independence and to be honest were slightly concerned that going on a flotilla would mean a strict timetable of group departures, arrivals and a detailed plan of where you can and can’t go. This couldn’t be further from the truth – apart from the location of our next stopover the rough eta the rest was down to us.

Every morning we would wake up in our own waterside floating apartment, a breakfast table with a different view We loved the fact that we could operate on our own timetable, mornings spent having a lazy cup of tea and family breakfast on board and a walk to the shop for fresh supplies, bread and a local speciality. After the coffee time briefing from our flotilla skipper Rob and his team to give us some intel on the day’s destination, along with any top tips for stops along the way, we were free to up anchor and make our own way exploring wherever we chose along the way.

For us, every day on the water was different. The mornings were spent in light winds, Elsie in her playpen which we created in the safety of the cockpit with a few of her favourite toys and I would go up onto the bow doing my press-ups(!) and having a little lie in the sun (safe in the knowledge that I could put on my bikini and work on my post-baby tan), whilst Ash was in his element head in chart, looking out for the most picturesque lunchtime anchorage. During the afternoons, the wind would usually build and we would while away our time ‘cruising’ as fast as we could, unable to shake our competitive mindsets, looking for any wind shift to give us an advantage over any other boat going in vaguely the same direction as us.

Keen to offset some of the calories taken on board at some very nice evening restaurants, we swam every day, sometimes exploring along the shallows of an anchorage, and sometimes alongside the boat at sea on a still morning. The yacht acted as a great swimming platform, complete with a warm water shower in the cockpit.

We also took our running pram and managed to use it in a couple of spots to run up to get a birdseye view of the stunning South Ionian islands.

Kioni on the island of Ithaca. Here we moored stern to the harbour wall and could watch the picture postcard-worthy fishing boats come back in from sea and deliver their catch to the restaurant at the end of the gangplank.

Fiskardo, Kefalonia. We loved the South of France vibe here. We anchored in the outer harbour with stern lines tied to the rock shelf off the transom. We devised a cunning plan with our neighbours to share a dinghy for the short trip to shore, using a simple rope system to pull the boat from boat to land and back again.

We were a little unsure of what to pack for Elsie, so we took everything we could think of! It turned out that the supermarkets, although small were well-stocked, and had most things we could have needed to survive if we ran out of anything. We took a folding YoYo buggy which fits into the overhead locker on the plane and used this day-to-day on short walks. We found that we could strap Elsie’s car seat into the buggy with a little loop system Ash knocked up with so 4mm spectra at the airport which saved space. The car seat was invaluable on days when there was a bit more wind we could strap Elsie in (on the windward side obviously). On flatter days, we used cockpit cushions to make a playpen in the cockpit, where she would spend ages watching the sky and playing with her toys that would be swinging gently with the motion of the boat. Finally, the last-minute item that proved its weight in gold was a fold-flat, screw-on high chair. She loved having all her meals here, watching all the comings and goings in the cockpit and around her. A good set of strong pram clips were a must so you can create some shade in various different orientation around the yacht.

This holiday was a winner with us. It gave us time to relax and spend time together as a family whilst allowing us to be in our element which is the great outdoors, on and around the water. We made some good friends, and even learnt a thing or two about Mediterranean mooring (not that we let on at the time!). Baby Elsie definitely loved her first Neilson holiday and although she was awarded her incompetent crew certificate at the end of the holiday, we think she’s a natural and this was just the first of her many sailing adventures...