2014

Land of ouzo and zucchini fritters

Land of ouzo and zucchini fritters

Lesbos, Greece Dear Nigel, Tom, Chris, Linda… We appreciate your interest in “The Adventures of Berkeley East” blog, and your requests for more frequent entries have been noted. Nigel, we don’t even know you, but we were overwhelmed that you expressed your concern for our wellbeing before letting us know that our lack of blogging […]

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Cocktails, sunsets and other stuff

Cocktails, sunsets and other stuff

Ayvalik Archipelago, Turkey As hard as we try to convince people that our cruising life is more than just cocktails and sunsets, most don’t believe us. Or perhaps they just don’t want to hear us, as the thought of something other than smooth sailing, idyllic anchorages, refreshing cocktails and amazing sunsets would tarnish the concept […]

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One more island

One more island

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 […]

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From rubble to ruins

From rubble to ruins

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 […]

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Is this still Turkey?

Is this still Turkey?

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 […]

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The Bosphorus Straight to the Black Sea

The Bosphorus Straight to the Black Sea

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 […]

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A hammer, a hose, a fork and a butcher’s knife

A hammer, a hose, a fork and a butcher’s knife

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. […]

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City Life

City Life

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 […]

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Spies or karma?

Spies or karma?

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 […]

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Killing spree

Killing spree

Sea of Marmara, Turkey We have never really given much thought to flies. We use a rolled-up magazine, or the two-hand clap method, to take care of any fly that annoys us too much. So when some fellow cruisers (upon hearing that we were headed to Turkey) told us to take a lot of fly […]

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