Honest Boatlife: Haircuts, Toilet Hoses & Dog Duty - Luna episode 38

After seventeen days at sea, sailing from Barcelona all the way to Croatia, we finally reached our destination… but not in the condition we had hoped for. Our final hour turned into one of the most intense passages we’ve ever experienced — a brutal Adriatic summer storm, almost no fuel left, and 45 knots of wind straight on the nose.

This is the story behind Episode 38.
A story of calm seas, chaos on the radio, teamwork under pressure, and the very real, not-so-glamorous side of living aboard a boat with two small children, a dog, and a dream.

From Italy’s Warm Coastline to One of Our Favourite Towns

In the previous episode, we reached Otranto, Italy — a coastline that always feels like a warm embrace. Charming alleys, lively lights, real Italian pasta, and golden summer evenings. It’s a place that makes you want to stay forever.

But we continued on to Monopoli, one of my absolute favourite destinations.
Here, you can stay for 24 hours for free right on the city quay, and if something on your boat breaks, you can ask permission to stay longer. The gelato, the tiramisu, the atmosphere — Monopoli is pure Italian magic.

A Calm Crossing Turns into Chaos

The passage from Monopoli to Croatia is roughly 110–115 nautical miles.
It began as a dream crossing: calm seas, flat water, perfect weather. But we kept a close eye on the radar — storms were building on the other side, and the Adriatic is known for its unpredictable summer systems.

The further we sailed, the darker the sky became.
A wall of lightning lit up the horizon — a nonstop electric show.

And then the VHF radio erupted.

Mayday after mayday.
Reports of ferries running aground.
Ships on the rocks.
Someone calling for help because his finger was “only hanging on by a piece of skin.”

That’s when the adrenaline kicked in.

The wind began to climb — stronger, harder — and with every gust my fear grew. Kay stayed calm, focused, trained for moments like these. I… was shaking like a leaf.

I asked him if he still had things under control.
At one point he looked at me and simply said:

“Let me sail the boat. I’ve got this.”

And he did.
Mostly.

Except for one thing no sailor ever wants to mention:

Fuel.
We were almost out.

45 Knots on the Nose — and Running Out of Diesel

For over an hour we motored hard into 45 knots of wind. That kind of headwind eats diesel like crazy. Kay had calculated our fuel perfectly for Croatia — but this storm changed everything.

Pitch-black around us. No moon, no horizon, no visibility.
We approached Lastovo completely blind, steering only by chart plotter. The wind kept pushing us sideways. The margin for error was tiny.

But then… finally… we made it.

We entered a protected bay, dropped anchor, and felt the adrenaline hit all at once.
Silence. Safety. Darkness. Calm.

The next morning, in the idyllic stillness of that bay, we woke up to a knock on the hull.

The boat baker.
Fresh bread delivered to the boat.
Only in Croatia.

Life at Anchor in Kaštela

We continued on to Kaštela, a small town next to Split — the very place where our adventure began in March 2022, and where we set sail in April 2024 to explore the world.

We’re back because:

• Kay has a new business opportunity here
• Luna is getting hauled out for maintenance and repairs
• And our temporarily patched hole in the hull will finally be properly fixed

At anchor, our days slow down.
Kay is completely consumed by meetings, troubleshooting, and his boat automation app — a system that monitors everything aboard and allows him to control many systems remotely:

– freshwater vs seawater for the toilets
– lights
– bilge pumps
– watermaker
– battery systems
– tank levels
– anchor alarms
– and much more

Meanwhile, the kids, Ollie, and I enjoy the calm rhythm of bay life — whenever the water isn’t too rough to take the dinghy to shore.

Dog Duty & Dinghy Anxiety

Every time Ollie needs to go ashore, I take the tender.
And somehow, he always knows exactly which dinghy is ours.

I’m always a little nervous going alone — not because it’s dangerous, but because one small mistake can become a very expensive one.

One wrong angle…
One unexpected wave…
One scrape of the propeller…

Boat life keeps you humble.

The Least Glamorous Job at Sea: Replacing Toilet Hoses

Let’s talk about honest boatlife.

This week we tackled one of the dirtiest tasks we’ve ever done:
replacing all four toilet hoses.

Why?
Because inside those hoses… things stay behind.
And in warm temperatures, those things begin to smell. Badly.

The hoses lead to the holding tanks, and over time, leftover waste sticks to the inside of the pipes.

Kay went full engineer-mode:

✔ Installed brand-new hoses
✔ Wrapped them in aluminum tape to isolate odors
✔ Converted our toilets from seawater to freshwater intake
✔ Integrated the system into his automation app

If you’ve never lived on a boat: when seawater and urine mix, they create urine scale — a hard, crusty buildup that narrows the pipes. Narrow pipes mean more gets stuck, which means more smell, which means… this job becomes unavoidable.

It’s messy, smelly, and definitely not glamorous.
But this is real boatlife. And we wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Seventeen Days, Countless Memories

Barcelona to Split.
Seventeen days.
Four countries.
Hundreds of miles.
Storms, sunsets, pasta, fear, courage, maintenance, and magic.

This is what living at sea truly looks like — the beautiful, the chaotic, the terrifying, the hilarious, and the deeply rewarding moments that make this floating life worth it.