Cruising


charter boat. There’s a nasty shoal in the most inconvenient place, meaning you don’t have much room to prepare your reverse run-up to the harbour wall, while broadside to Eric.) While we were there last autumn, dredgers were busy prior to the building of a marina which should make Vass easier to visit in future. If you’ve been to one of the huge dinghy


beach clubs and have been put off by the ‘hi-de-hi’ and the rush to sign up for activities, then you’ll find Ocean Elements much more relaxing. That said, almost everyone in the two weeks we were there did join in with one of the sailing, windsurfing or mountain-biking groups, which meant that just a couple of days into the holiday they had bonded with other guests. It’s hard not to chat over a drink with someone once you’ve bumped into them in a dinghy or survived a capsize together. Ocean Elements Vass is by far the most sociable beach club I’ve been to, so much so that by the end of two weeks we were sad to say goodbye not just to the wonderful sunshine and sea, but also to the people we’d had fun with.


A typical day Jon spent mornings glued to his Kindle, then blasted up and down once the wind got up, giving the club’s Lasers a thrashing. After dinghy sailing every morning in the first week, I did my own thing in the second: I discovered paddleboarding after joining in one of the 8am ‘sunrise paddle cruises’, gliding blissfully on mirror-calm water in the early-morning silence. In the afternoons I chased around after Jon in a smaller-rigged Laser, battling against Eric and hoping I might be getting fitter. Sometimes Eric delivers nasty, unexpected shifts, and I capsized most days, but rescue boats kept a good lookout and soon came and stood by while I got upright again. A typical day went roughly thus. Get up,


fling open curtains, admire gorgeous view of the sea and watch instructors rigging dinghies and setting buoys. Go to breakfast, included in the price. A new chef had started and was pulling out all the stops to impress. Every day we filled up for an action-packed day with full English including bacon, sausage, scrambled egg, beans, tomatoes and creamy, spicy mushrooms, leaving no


The club’s Laser dinghies take to the water


The state-of-the-art live webcam is advertised by a charmingly old-school chalkboard


room for the cereals, yogurt and fruit. Then off to the free group lessons till lunchtime. Some people ate lunch at the bar – pasta, burgers, chicken, salads – while others bought food from the excellent local supermarket and picnicked on their balconies. After that breakfast though, all I needed to cool off and fortify after a morning on the water was a frappé (iced coffee), the favourite Greek seaside beverage: just add sugar for a combined caffeine-sugar reviving hit. The afternoons were given over to water


sports or mountain-biking, or walks to the town, or trips out by hire car or bus. Ocean Elements doesn’t offer dinner every


night as there are so many good, reasonably-priced restaurants at either end of the beach: enough to dine somewhere different every night, although everyone seemed to find a favourite to which they kept returning. All have romantic little tables on the waterfront, and all serve a very similar Greek menu. We ate lots of delicious sea bass, sea bream and squid at various places before finding Stelios, a friendly restaurateur who offers a mezze for n15 a head. He keeps bringing dishes until you can’t eat any more. A couple of nights a week back at Ocean


Elements, the chef prepares a feast – Greek specials and spit-roast meats – and on the last night there’s a party in the big upstairs bar where RYA certificates are presented, followed by celebratory drinks and dancing. The Surf Hotel has been refurbished and


our room was basic but kept spotless by the daily cleaner, and had everything we needed including a smart shower room, fridge and kettle, plus a balcony which was useful not just for relaxing but also for drying wet sailing and swimming gear. As well as the daily free morning tuition


there’s a range of private lessons on offer. Last year, Andy Ridgway taught more than


The family that paddleboards together stays together 4


The ‘paddle-cruise’ is a great way to explore the bay Practical Boat Owner 584 March 2015 • www.pbo.co.uk


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