Oceans of Hope Sailing Challenge - Sardinia

In December 2024 I was fortunate enough to be accepted and offered a place on the Oceans of Hope Sardinia Sailing Challenge scheduled late April / early May of 2025.

Oceans of Hope are an independent UK registered charity which aims to offer people from all over the world the opportunity to experience sailing as a way of learning new skills and restoring the self-confidence which can be stolen by MS.  It’s for people with MS, led by people with MS who are uniquely placed to understand the condition because they are all living with it themselves.   Oceans of Hope

Initially the organisation set up some Zoom meetings to allow us all to better understand what we were about to embark on and of course to get to know the faces behind the organisation and the other participants on the boat. The pre sailing chats were great, a good way to get to know your crew and captain and an excellent way to organise our weekly shopping requirements, menus and needs in advance of our arrival in Sardinia.

So come April I am organised,  packed, armed with my anti sickness tablets,(just in case)  some Scottish shortbread for my fellow sailors, and what turned out to be way too much luggage.  So off I go ready to embark on my journey to Sardinia with a little apprehension of what lay ahead,  wondering if I’d be ok or not.

I travelled from Aberdeen to London on the Thursday, before my early morning flight to Sardinia on Friday morning. At the hotel I met up for lunch with a few of my fellow travellers. On Saturday at 3pm we all gathered at the Marina in Cala del Rai. We were to be in 3 boats of 8 people.   My boat had a good mix of people, most had done a fair amount of sailing before, a few had a little sailing experience and I had never done any sailing at all. Now at this point I have to tell you the cabins are very small, you are sharing a bed with another crew mate and the boats are fairly compact,  so it is imperative you do travel light and you all make some effort to get along well. For us that wasn’t difficult,  we had a good mix of crew,  Peter from Holland,  Darrin from Kent,  Kate from Derbyshire,  Louise from Auckland, Shirley from Ireland,  Bill our captain and Rob one of the founders both from England and me from Scotland.

After meeting our organisers, fellow crew mates, and captains we received our welcome notes and Oceans of Hope T-shirts.   After a few hours chilling in the sunshine chatting to each other, whilst we waited for the chartership paperwork, and pre-ordered food for our boats to arrive and be loaded, we all boarded and were allocated our respective cabins. The first night was a get together in the Marina for a meal and a couple of drinks to get to know each other and begin to bond. There were many stories shared, some banter, and lots of laughs around what was to come.

Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast on board before we did our safety briefing, got our life vests and set sail.  It was a little cloudy and drizzly as we left the marina, however the weather soon picked up as we sailed up round the North East coast of the island for our first night anchorage in Cala di Volpe.

I soon realised that sailing is actually quite physical and there is much to learn. Everyone mucked in, the experienced sailors and the not so experienced, like me, all doing our bit to sail and manage the boat, support one another and share experiences and fun under the control of our experienced and knowledgeable Captain Bill and OOH founder Rob.   I learned how to let out the genoa (that’s the front sail),  then the main sheet (the main sail),  making sure we had the correct tension on the sails,  tightening up the ropes, using the torque tools,  observing the wind direction and looking at the tell-tales to trim the sails.   Day 1 and I really had started to learn about the boat, the ropes and control of the sails.  I even took the helm as we navigated our way through the waters,  understanding who has right of passage and lots more.  It definitely was all very interesting and fun to get some speed up, which I soon realised was an ongoing challenge for the more experienced sailors amongst us.

We arrived at our destination, and let down the anchor.   It was time to chill,  enjoy some evening sun and prepare dinner.   I had agreed to cook dinner that evening so I busied away in the galley cooking up some chicken fajitas which were a great success and welcomed by my tired crew mates after our first day at sea,  quite an experience.

Unfortunately one of my crew mates hadn’t been feeling well when she boarded on Saturday evening and had now fallen ill, this was sadly the start of what turned out to be a bug that wiped us all out over the course of the next 3 or 4 days.  It was a challenge for sure, however the camaraderie and support offered from each of us to the others during this period really was quite outstanding.  I personally thank all my crew especially Shirley and Louise who assisted me in ways I couldn’t have anticipated.    We definitely bonded in a way that I couldn’t have imagined, and by the Thursday evening we were all feeling a little better laughing and joking about the events which had unfolded.

We continued sailing throughout the week, navigated by various crew members, each of us learning and developing more skills as we progressed.  We all crewed the boat, cooked meals, did the dishes and cleaned up, looked after each other between bouts of sickness and rested when needed.  We did a lot of sailing, really got to know each other, shared so many stories, and saw some spectacular coastlines and sunsets as we continued round the island.  Day two was Porto Palma, then onward to La Maddalena,  Cala Francese and Liscia di Vacca where we had our last meal on board the boat, before we headed back via Porto Cervo on Friday and then back to Cala del Rai Marina on the Friday evening.

Friday was another evening of us all coming together for dinner, sharing experiences and joy - there was laughter,  there were tears, there were stories of so much success and encouragement, bravery from all the groups and the captains - but most of all so much fun.

I travelled home after a fond farewell to all my new friends at Oceans of Hope and arrived back in Aberdeen late on Saturday evening for a much needed rest in my own comfy bed.    Quite an adventure for sure !!   If you’ve ever wondered whether to do this,  I’d say,  do it,  step outside your comfort zone,  connect with others who live with your condition, support each other,  make new friends,  learn a new hobby,  you never know you might just love it …… 

Pam Barclay - Copywright October, 2025 Reproduced here by kind permission of the author