24 September 2015 When we began our 2015 sailing season, the plan was to get back to Italy for the winter via Southern Turkey, Crete, the Peloponnese and the Ionian Islands. But as in most years, our plan changed. After reaching Corfu, our jumping off point for Italy, we decided to go back to Turkey. […]
24 August 2015 We had just dropped the hook in Varkos Bay, a large anchorage off the mainland of Greece with water as blue as the Caribbean Islands, when the Captain said “that looks just like Gattopardo,” a boat we had encountered several times in the Caribbean. A bit later, a dinghy approached Berkeley East […]
Gaios – Paxos, Greece Berkeley East and Amante were built at the same time, nearly nine years ago, by Queenlong Marine in Taiwan, and commissioned by Hylas Yachts, side by side in Hollywood, Florida. While the boats are the same brand, they are very different in size and design. We ran across each other during […]
Ionian Islands, Greece Have you ever been so chilled on a vacation that you think your departure is a day later than it really is? That’s what happened to Tim and Teresa while visiting us on Berkeley East. When we first heard from brother Tim that they wanted to join us in Greece, he gave […]
Kalamata, Greece It has been nearly two months since we’ve posted a blog, which is a good indication that we have been having an excellent cruising season. Our last entry was from Chania Crete, where we left on June 26th to cross yet another windy corner of the Aegean. Once again we waited for a […]
Crete, Greece In the past three years, we have been to over 50 Greek islands. Just a drop in the bucket considering there are more than 6,000 (of which around 200 are inhabited). But the moment we arrived in Crete, we knew that something was different there. This was not just another Greek island; it […]
Santorini, Greece We have been trying to get to the Greek island of Santorini for three years. During our first year cruising in Greece, we planned to sail there. But after some investigation, we learned that the only marina in Santorini was not deep enough for Berkeley East, and the water surrounding the island was […]
I am sure most of you have recognized that the blog hasn’t been updated in a while. And those of you that follow us on Marine Traffic know that we are nowhere near our last blog entry. The explanation for this is that we are having too much fun to blog about it. Don’t worry […]
Southern Dodecanese Islands, Greece It is often difficult to leave a port or anchorage where you are comfortable. There is always sense that you could stay one more day. That’s how we felt about leaving Rhodes, we could easily stay one more day, or two, or three. But when cruising, weather always wins over the […]
Rhodes, Greece We had heard horror stories about the Greek island of Rhodes, particularly the conditions for cruising boats in Rhodes Town. The word was that the main harbor of Mandraki is impossible to get into, as it is filled with tour boats and charter fleets. And when one could find an open space on […]
