Our anchor appears to be working again, setting on the first try! When we were in the Caribbean, I had commented that the French boats tended to anchor very close, too close in most cases. While the captains appeared very competent, they would always try to squeeze into a space like parallel parking a car. […]
Marseille, France We spent eight days in Provence, the southwest region of France, and quickly learned the local daily routine. First, everyone gathers in the morning, with their dogs, at an outdoor café for coffee and pastries (in our case, Pepsi Light and chocolate croissants, no dog). Noon until about 2 pm is spent in […]
Marseille, France As we listened to our Pimsleur’s French lessons, we felt like deer in headlights. This was nothing like Spanish. We were on our way to Marseille, crossing the Gulf de Leon from Spain, frantically trying to learn some French before arriving the next morning. The French language is beautiful, but it is terrifying […]
Cala Culip, Spain It took us six tries to anchor in this cala in far north Spain. We needed to wait out some weather and the cove was protected, but the cruising guide said nothing about the rock seabed. The conditions were calm; we heard a cell phone ring on shore, great we’d have Internet. […]
Cala Culip, Costa Brava Spain Last night, as we sat at anchor, eating Iberian ham and sipping Spanish wine, we decided to change our cruising plan this year and put Berkeley East in Croatia for the winter, rather than Turkey. This will allow us to spend more time in France and see more of Italy, […]
Barcelona, Spain We came back to Barcelona three weeks ago planning to do “a little” boat work, and then travel more in Spain. But Berkeley East had other plans for us. We actually have “traveled” a lot though – to and from the boat yard, to and from the marine store, the paint store, and […]
Our adventure has turned out to be even more than we expected in many ways. In the summer of 2009, after returning from the Caribbean and Venezuela, we developed our plan for the next few years. While we had enjoyed the last two years of island life in the Caribbean, we were looking for something […]
Spain Recently, we have received numerous complaints that this blog has not been kept up to date. We appreciate that people follow our travels so closely, but we make no apologies. When we started documenting our cruising adventures aboard Berkeley East, more than three years ago, we promised ourselves that we would not be slaves […]
Balearic Islands, Spain Neither of us has ever really cared much for Sangria. The ones we’ve had in the past were just too sweet. Adding sugar and fruit to perfectly good wine seemed like a waste. But when we arrived in Spain, everywhere we went, people were drinking Sangria, white wine Sangria, red wine Sangria, […]
Menorca, Spain Menorca is the north, and east most, island in the Balearics. While it is the second largest island, it is quieter and has far less tourists then Mallorca or Ibiza. After pounding our way to the north of Mallorca, we waited for calmer seas before heading to Menorca. As a result we hade […]
