Argentina and Antartica Nearly every sailor dreams of conquering the world’s most infamous routes. Passages that challenge skills, test nerves, stress even the soundest of vessels. Waterways like the Bering Sea, Cape Horn, and the notorious Drake Passage. So, when we found ourselves traveling to South America for waterfalls and wine, we decided it was […]
Iguazu National Park, Brazil and Argentina Every year, we have extensive physical and mental exams to prove how fantastically we are aging. This year, our doctor added a balance test to rate our risk of falling. Given the fact that neither of us have ever fallen, except for the occasional tumble while waterskiing, we were […]
Switzerland We had been on the road for 26 days. Paris, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Tuscany. Touring, exploring, wining and dining. On foot, on bikes, on buses. By ourselves, with good friends, meeting other travelers. The trip had already far exceeded our expectations. But we weren’t done yet. When we first decided to join our wine group […]
Tuscany, Italy When we decided to sell Berkeley East and end our cruising life, we went to the beach and made a long list of “next best things” to do. We tried to incorporate projects, activities and life experiences that would be fun, exciting, physically challenging, educational, interactive, character building, and memorable. One action we took early […]
Burgundy and Bordeaux France After spending a week riding bicycles throughout Burgundy, we were energized from the activity and decided to seize the momentum a bit longer in Burgundy, and also further south, in Bordeaux. Our bodies were primed and ready for the best that these two famed regions of France had to offer. It […]
France – Long before we went cruising, before we moved to Lake Norman, before we tried our hand at winemaking (or even wine drinking), we were avid mountain bikers. Every weekend, we rode the local trails in Southern California. And what little vacation time we had was often spent exploring the backroads of Big Bear, […]
Southeast Asia – Part Two Our plan to visit Thailand blossomed from a misguided thought that it is close to California, well closer than it is to North Carolina anyway. Stressful meetings on the west coast inspired us to recover from intense wine blending sessions in a warmer, more relaxing locale. But what we envisioned […]
Southeast Asia – Part One Vietnam and Cambodia We typically like to escape the cold North Carolina weather in early winter. So, when our presence was required on the west coast, we saw an opportunity to seek out a warm, tropical climate. The obvious, and simplest, choice would have been Hawaii, and while we love […]
French Polynesia There will come a time when we no longer relate these travel blogs to Berkeley East, but not today. Simply because BE, and our cruising life, were the inspiration for our recent trip to French Polynesia. Years ago, when we wanted to move on from cruising in the Caribbean, we pondered two potential […]
California, USA – We stopped working 16 years ago, although owning a boat like Berkeley East was really a full-time job in itself; it kept us constantly engaged in the complexities of maintaining, operating, and navigating a 54-foot vessel in unfamiliar environments. So, when the time came to move on from cruising, we knew we […]
