D-Marin Didim As we began our final preparations to return to Berkeley East and begin our ninth season of cruising, the excitement was mixed with anxiety. Where did the winter go? There was still so much to do in order to leave our land life and go back on the sea. Spring had finally arrived […]
Fethiye, Turkey When we first checked into Turkey two years ago, we were told that we had to purchase a Blue Card. Turkey’s Blue Card Scheme is designed to keep the country’s coastal waters clean by requiring people on recreational boats to use holding tanks and pump out at designated stations at frequent intervals, or […]
Agathonisi, Greece As the end of our cruising season approached, we continued south through Greece, selecting islands that we had not visited while looking for a good hiding hole to wait out the coming Meltimi winds. First stop was in the Oinousses islands. We went to the only harbor, Mandraki, and when the anchor was […]
Bergama, Turkey We have been to a lot ancient sites in Europe. Some were meticulously renovated so it was easy to picture the history that took place there, while others were rocks and rubble that required more information and imagination to conjure up a visual image of the past. On a day trip to Bergama […]
Bozcaada, Turkey We arrived at the island of Bozcaada expecting much the same as we had seen in the rest of Turkey. Surprise is the only word to describe what we found there. Until 1925, the island belonged to Greece so much of the town feels Greek, with Turkish sounds and Turkish scents. By their […]
Black Sea, Turkey With Berkeley East in Istanbul, there was one more major cruising goal for the season: a trip into the Black Sea. The idea came to us one cold winter evening when the Sochi Olympics were on. For some crazy reason, we thought the fact that we were in Turkey, which borders the […]
Istanbul, Turkey One day we were in a marina, sitting in the cockpit of Berkeley East when some repairmen arrived to work on the boat next to us. As we watched, we became curious as to what they were going to do with the garden hose that they seemed to be attaching to the boom. […]
Istanbul, Turkey When most people think of cruising, they imagine floating at anchor off a beautiful deserted atoll. We love that life, but we also enjoy the challenges of taking Berkeley East into big exciting cities. To get to Istanbul, we fought current, freighters and flies, sometimes individually but often all at once. It was […]
06 July 2014 | Canakkale, Turkey While sailing along the Atki peninsula, it selected Todd Rundgren’s “We Gotta Get You a Woman”. This peninsula is a very unique place, where women are not allowed. It is full of large monasteries with lonely monks. We’re convinced that the NSA and Apple have conspired to hijack the […]
Istanbul, Turkey & Lake Norman, North Carolina No blog updates until late August. Berkeley East is in Istanbul, while we are vacationing at home in North Carolina.
