Balearic Islands, Spain We were in a shop stocking Berkeley East’s wine bilge and asked the clerk for Laurel, a Spanish wine that we were familiar with. He looked perplexed. We repeated, “Law-rehl, from the Priorat, Clos i Terrasses”. At that, his face lit up and he said, ” Low-relle’, si’!”. We knew that many […]
Barcelona, Spain That’s how long it had been since we left Berkeley East in Marina Port Vell, Barcelona Spain, 594 days. By far the longest we had not seen our boat since we launched her almost 15 years ago. Needless to say, we were elated to hear that Spain would be welcoming COVID vaccinated Americans […]
Barcelona, Spain As we stared at the photo of Berkeley East being towed out of the berth she had occupied for the past 10 months, we whispered in unison, “this was a bad year to have the boat in Barcelona.” But when we made the decision, last summer, to return to Port Vell, no one […]
Charlotte, NC We awoke to a calendar item: “Lufthansa Flight 429 to Munich / Barcelona departs 6:30 pm.” Obviously, that flight was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but the notice on our phones was a stark reminder of how quickly things have changed. Just a few weeks ago, we were managing all our house, […]
Barcelona, Spain As we sat on Berkeley East watching clouds of black smoke rise high over the city, the deafening roar of a police helicopter hovering directly above BE’s mast, we wondered what had happened to our beautiful Barcelona. Berkeley East spent her first Mediterranean winter, nine years ago, in Port Vell Marina, Barcelona. After […]
Mallorca, Spain The drone of the engine was exhausting. We had been motoring for 26 hours, through black lumpy seas, towards Menorca, Spain, the light of the moon frequently slipping behind dense clouds. The air was heavy, the decks were damp, Berkeley East smelled like a wet dog. At least the sun was beginning to […]
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 […]
