Lagos Portugal After the end of the ARC Europe Boat Rally, we spent a few days visiting with people from the remaining ARC boats, and planned a land trip through Portugal. This was the first big trip that we have taken on land since we took delivery of Berkeley East three and a half years […]

Lagos, Portugal We sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, the wrong way! We knew the sailing would be difficult, and that joining a rally wouldn’t change that. But we felt that sailing the passages with other boats would give us comfort, even though we probably would never see the other boats after one night out. We […]

Lagos, Portugal We began the last part of our crossing in cloudy skies, with a brisk wind on the nose. As usual, we started Berkeley East in the back of the pack to avoid the congestion at the start line. She built speed quickly and we began to pass the boats one by one, until […]

Azores Sao Miguel is the largest island in the Azores and its commercial center. The town of Pont Delgada, the capital, is a large city with a lot of activity, but once in town, you can still see the picturesque churches and 16th century buildings. At each stop, there were fewer and fewer ARC Europe […]

Azores Portugal After a week in Horta it was time to leave, so at 5:30 am, about eight boats from the ARC rally, including Berkeley East, set out for Angra do Hermiso on the island of Terceira. It was a 70-mile trip, but we lacked wind and had to motor most of the way. The […]

Madalena Pico Azores While in Horta, we could sea the island of Pico just to our East. The massive volcanic peak, actually the tallest point in Portugal, was usually shrouded in clouds. But one day when the weather cleared we took the local ferry over for a day tour of the island. We had been […]