One if By Land Two If By Sea

Author: Dan

  • Spanish road trip May 2018

    Before starting our summer on True East, we decided to see some more of Spain from our base in Barcelona. We flew from Barcelona to Seville and rented a car for a circular route.

    This area is Andalusian Spain with a tremendous Moorish influence. It is also the olive growing region with over 300 million olive trees, each with it’s own GPS location in the national data base.

    Our highlights in Seville included the Jardins de Murillio and the Real Alcazar Palace complex. We had time to visit three smaller palaces and the Cathedral of Seville. Even after the Moors were expelled, the Christians continued the mosaic art forms in their constructions.

    From Seville, it was about a three hour drive to Malaga with a route detour to go by Marbella and work our way along the coast. Marbella was typical high density residential without any character, Malaga in contrast was a wonderful city. On to a full day in Grenada, first to the Cathedral, then a ‘forced march’ up to Alhambra where we had a private guide for three hours. One of the wonders of the world.

    On to Cordoba, about a two hour drive. Cordoba is the home of the Cathedral in the Mosque. This building was originally built at a huge mosque, capacity about 100,000 people. After the expulsion of the Moors, a Cathedral was built inside the mosque. Like Alhambra, an amazing piece of work.

    All in all, a great side trip to take on thru a lot of Spanish history.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • Sailing the Grenadines 8-22 Apr 2018

    it’s another sailing adventure in the Caribean. This time we are off to the Windward Island near Barbados.

    The first half we will sail from St. Vincent to Grenada with two of Marcia’s brothers and mates and Dan’s daughter Kristi and her husband. Most of us overnighted in Barbados before taking a morning flight to St Vincent.

    Our boat is a Lagoon 45 catamaran from Dream Charters, a new boat with a few teething problems otherwise first class. After a several hours of provisioning and a captains orientation, we were off the dock about 5pm and headed for Bequia. The highlight of this trip south is the Tabago Cays and Salt Wistle Bay on Mayreau. Be sure to enjoy the beach side BBQ of lobster.

    Continuing south, we had to clear customs out of St Vincent at Union Island and then clear into Grenada at Carriacou. This gave us a chance to explore each of the island a little and buy some more beer.

    All of the harbors and anchorages are equipped with mooring balls and each has a small group of ‘boat boys’ to help with the mooring lines, and provide ice, fish, lobster, water, etc. Most places have a number of restaurants ashore and sufficient provisioning.

    Arriving in Grenada, we took a half day tour of the island. This island has excellent agriculture with many fruits, vegetables and spices. It is also an exporter of seafood with a very positive balance of trade. The inland tour is highly recommended, you can see our route on the map.

    We said our goodbys to Kristi, Chris, Tim, Kelly, Mike and Cheryl here in Grenada and met our new crew of Glenn, Gale, Bill, Kathy and Keith for the sail back up to St Vincent. Our weather on the way down was mostly sunny with winds from the east at 15-20 knots and seas of 5-7 feet. We were able to sail essentially all the way down. Headed back up, the winds were stronger, the seas bigger and we faced a current against us. Despite that we were able to sail without any motoring for most of the trip.

    While the itinerary was much the same on the way back, we did try to find different anchorages and explore different snorkeling spots and restaurants. On Bequia we had a chance for a road trip that tooks us to the highpoints of the island and the whaling museum.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • Winter 2017-8

    Click on the photo to an album of the winter.

    Dan returned to Miami to witness the devastation of hurricane Irma as the clean up continued. Thankfully, we had only minor damage on the roof top terrace and scratches on True South. Marcia, Carla and Allesondro took another couple of weeks in Europe traveling around northern Italy.

    Back home it was great to see our friends, play tennis, and take in lots of performances. Christmas found us in St Augustine to visit Marcia’s mother and some of the siblings.

    Our New Years party was a grand affair and features some musicians from Barcelona together with friends and family. In January, Marcia enjoyed some Colorado skiing with brother Tim and family while Dan visited his brother in Rhode Island.

    The Gala at Fairchild Gardens was a wonderful affair followed shortly thereafter by our Art’s Festival/Boat Show party. Many old friends, including two ex-captains of Canim, and a number of new ones made this a great time again.

    Off to Barcelona for a week to finish up the summer plans, check on the boat and take in an opera and a concert. Marcia and Carla take a short trip to take in some theater in New York City while Dan suffers with a sprained wrist. Two sets of friends from Belgium visit for a few days as we make plans to see them this coming summer.

    The season is then topped off with our spring sail, the Grenadines this year.

     

  • Return to Barcelona Sep 2017

    Back on the boat, after our side trip to Florence, we headed 60 miles up the coast to Genoa, first leg of our return our Barcelona. This port city was very different than Florence as it was not dominated by a single family but many competing trading families who built magnificent palazzos. Clearly a city of great wealth.

    While the waterfront was heavily damaged during the war, via Garibaldi was essentially untouched and it is beautiful. A visit to the aquarium was a treat with some new species we had never seen before.

    On to Imperia, one of the newer mega yacht ports on the coast, then to Monaco where we spent a few days wandering around while Monaco prepared for their annual boat show. The aquarium in Monaco is one of the best in the world, what a treat. Great private auto collection, even visited the zoo. A tour of the famous Casino at Monte Carlo and a great lunch at Cafe de Paris.

    Beaulieu was next and served as our base for a couple of road trips. One trip took us to some of the ‘hanging towns’ like Castallar. While there we asked why would this town have been established in the first place. “Well, the Saracens where raiding the coast, so everyone moved to the other side of mountain so they could not be seen. When the raiding stopped, they moved down here as there was no fresh water on the coast.” OK, but why build hanging on this mountainside? Who knows, but its really beautiful.

    The gardens at Hanbury and Eze are magnificent, so often these great gardens are built by people who will never have the chance to see then mature. Back on the road, we headed to Cannes and Antibes. Lunch at Eden Rock cost more that a week of food in Spain, but the setting is pretttttty nice. On to pick up some of the wines of Provence before heading back to the boat. From Beaulieu we were within walking distance to the beautiful Cap Ferrat and took advantage of the pathway around the cape.

    Next stop on the boat was Beautieu sur Mar next to Saint Tropez, a short bus ride away. On to Toulon that served as our base for a few days as the winds howled. Renting another car, our first stop was Marseillie to pick up Luke Yuan, Dan’s ‘grandson’ who would join us for five days. After a hike to the Basilique Notre Dame, we headed up to Aix-en-Provence with a few stops for wine tasting along the way. The next day we went the other direction and drove back to Saint Tropez.

    Continuing east on the boat we next stopped at Port Saint Louis at the mouth of the Rhone River. Next summer our plan is to head up the Rhone to the interior of France to explore the rivers and canals. This gave us a chance to do a little exploring of the Rhone and the Petit Rhone passing thru a lock and looking at docking. While we planned to dock at Arles and get Luke on a train from there, the dockage there was non existent. Back down the Rhone, and on to Carnon that gave us access to the Montpellier train station. After dropping Luke at the train in another rental car, we headed on to Nimes, Arles and Avignon. This area really takes you back in time while standing in a Roman ampitheatre. We look forward to returning to Avignon in the spring. Back on the boat to Sete where we will enter the French river and canal system in the spring taking the Sete Canal to the Petit Rhone to the Rhone.

    From Marseille to almost the Spanish border, the coast is a very flat delta and not at all interesting. However, this delta area has some of the largest marinas we have ever seen. Our stop at Gruissan was in a 1,600 boat marina others in the area were up to 3,000 boats. Our Florida marina at Dinner Key has 580 boats and is one of the largest on the east coast.

    Back into Spain, our first stop was the town of Roses along the Costa Brava trail. The Costa Brava coastal trail is a series of paths, built by fishermen and the police force who patrolled the coast on the lookout for smugglers, that extend over 200 kilometers. We saw neither smuggler or Corsais but lots of hikers. While in Roses we did not visit the Castillo de la Trinidad but will try to so of that in the spring. Our last stop before Barcelona was Blanes, home of the Jardi Botanic Marimurtra. This was breathtaking beautiful along the lines of the Hanbury Garden. Definitely a stop in the spring.

    Finally, back to Barcelona after 3,000 nautical miles and 48 ports of call. Here the boat will get its winter serving while docked at the Club Real Nautica de Barcelona. We did arrive the day before the independence vote in Catalonia and had a front row seat in the demonstrations.

    Click on the photo to see the album of this trip

  • Tuscan Train Ride Sep 2017

    Leaving the boat in Viareggio, we hopped on the train to Lucca where we again caught up with Alessandro, our friend from Florence.

    The original wall of the city still stands in Lucca and it is magnificent. Here we spent time at the annual flower show and wandered the city.

    The next day we took the train to Florence where we spent several days exploring the city. Florence is so well preserved and thankfully, it was not heavily damaged during the wars. One example is San Miniato al Monte, a cathedral on hill built in 1013 AD….that’s like forever ago. The Basilica here, the Duomo, is one of the finest in the world. We took the tour and climbed to the top of dome, what a hike. The views are spectacular as you can see in the pictures. The structure is actually a dome within a dome and our tour took us up a passageway between the domes. The Duomo museum was exceptional. We have now climbed to the top of St Paul’s in London, Notre Dame in Paris and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

    The beautiful Ponte Vecchio bridge was also spared, several of the other bridges were replaced with replicas of the original. Florence was a city dominated by one family, the Medici. The Ponte Vecchio was an enclosed walkway from the main residence to the offices. Alessandro introduced us to Catia Scarleppi who is one of the premier artists in natural stone mosaics, amazing work. We picked out a small piece for our Miami collection, but were really in awe of piece his son did of the Ponte Vecchio.

    Marcia has seen the old Fiat 500’s around Italy and decided she wanted one for Miami. Dan thought the best cure would be to spend some time driving and riding in one. Sure enough, there is a company that does tours in original Fiats from the 1960’s. Off we went with five other Fiats and half a dozen Vespas to tool around the Florence countryside. Marcia loved it, but got cured of the need to bring one home.

    Finally, on the way back to the boat we passed by Pisa with it’s famous leaning tower.

    Click on the photo to view the album of this trip.

  • TE on Tuscan Coast of Italy Aug 2017

    Wow, what a month this was. Leaving Corsica, we had a fine passage to La Spezia, Italy. We had arranged to get a replacement alternator here, a couple of hours after arrival we were good to go again. Our Italian friend, Allesandro acted as our guide while we visited the quarries of Carerra including the Cave di Marmo. On to Colonnata for lunch in the middle of the Lardo festival…yes, there is a festival for everything.

    From La Spezia, we headed north up the coast along the Cinque Terre to Camolgia where we anchored up and took the tender in to explore this classic seaside town. That night we picked up a mooring at Cathedral at Fruttuoso. What a night as the wind came up broadside to the swell, like being in a washing machine. Daylight took up to Rapallo were we enjoyed a trip over to Portofino. Back to La Spezia where we dropped off Allesandro and now headed south along the coast.

    From Marina de Pisa we took a bus into see the leaning tower, one of our few encounters with America tourists. On to Liverno where we found the most amazing little Cathedral, so many churches, so few parishioners. Moving down the coast, we jumped over to Elba where we enjoyed a night at anchor in Seagliari and a magnificent sunset. Back to the mainland, we headed down to Port Ercole about 70 miles north of Rome. This would be our southernmost port on the Italian coast.

    On to the islands, first stop at Giglio, the site of the Costa Concordia shipwreck where the captain hit a reef showing his girlfriend where he grew up. Ten years later they are still cleaning up the mess. From Giglio it was on to Elba for a circumnavigation and a drive around the island. From the sea, the island looks sparsely populated, from the interior it is in fact very developed. Wonderful hikes in the national park and up and down the hills of the medival cities.

    On the lovely little island of Capriaia where Marcia inquired about renting a car…..for the whole two miles of roads? A great dinner where we would all in blue.

    Returning to the mainland, we stopped at de Medici then on to the boat building capital of Italy, Viareggio. Perini Navi, Codecasa, Benetti and many more mega yacht builders have their operations in this small city. This would be our base for a few days while we explored some inland cities in Tuscany.

    Click on photo to see album of this trip.

  • Sardinia and Corsica 2017

    Sardinia and Corsica are close neighbors but separate by language, Italian and French, and culture. We were lucky enough to have Marcia’s brother Tim and his family join us for part of this trip and our friend Alessandro from Florence also had a chance to spend a week with us.

    Our cruising of Sardinia was intentionally limited to the north end of this very large island. If you look at our other posts you will see we took extensive road trips to the rest of the island. Our cruising of Corsica was limited to the west side of the island, where again we took a number of road trips.

    The area between Sardinia and Corsica on the east side contains La Maddelena archipelago that is likely the most popular cruising ground in the western Mediterranean. This area including the port of Bonifacio on Corsica and the Costa Smeralda on the west side of Sardinia. It is also one of wealthiest places in the world. Megayachts crowd the waters, I mean 500′ plus yachts….150′ looks like a tender in these waters.

    It was hot during our stay on the islands and we found the number of good anchorages for us to be limited by the winds and swells, often at odds with each other. Fortunately, we were able to find dockage when required without too much hassle.

    Our observation is that there are few ‘cruising yachts’ in these waters and certainly no Americans. Most boats seem to select a ‘home base’ harbor and day trip or perhaps take a short ‘around the island’ type cruise. There is none of the warmth among boats that we are used to cruising the US and Canada, it’s hard to solicit a ‘bonjour or buongiorno’.

    The waters are very salty, crystal clear and 75 degree warm. However, there is very little to see when snorkeling. Recreational fishing is almost unknown. Aqua-farming including mussels is quite extensive as are local gill nets, shrimp and lobster traps.

    Most of the boats, outside of mega yacht haven are either sail boats, RIB outboards of every size or 12-20 meter power boats with only two speeds…off and full throttle. Boating etiquette is minimal with water skiing in mooring areas and power boat wakes without concern. Alternatively, they know how to anchor and dock their boats.

    Click on photo to see album of this trip

  • Corsica Road Trip 2017

    This is the ruggedest island we have visited so far. We thought the road builders in Spain and Italy did some amazing work through the mountains, now comes Corsica.

    Sea level to 4,000 feet and back again….over and over. We did several samples of the number of turns per kilometer on these windy roads. We averaged fifteen turns of the wheel per kilometer, that’s over 10,000 turns on our Corsica road trip.

    Our first day on the road, July 31, was with Tim, Kelly and Claire Kisielnicki starting from the lovely Bonifacio. First, northeast thru the mountains to the port of Propriano, sea level to 4,000 to sea level. Very touristic town built on the slopes above the harbor, a place we do not plan to visit by boat. On to the beautiful town of Zona for lunch on our way to Cascades de Polishellu national park. The park is a spectacular set of mountain peaks combined with a river valley flowing to the east. We arrived at sea level at Cote des Nacres on the river delta. Once again the shore road rose up the mountainside and then down again to Port Vecchio where we stopped for a drink before returning to Bonifacio.

    Returning to Corsica on Auguet 9th, we docked at Ajaccio where we had a few days to figure out how to connect with Alessandro Tombelli from Florence who is to join us for a week. On our first day we headed up the west coast to Ota. What an amazing drive thru the mountains, then along the coast on a one and half lane, two way road hanging on a cliff. One of the best drives in the world.

    The second day we headed up to Calvi taking an inland route on the way up and a coastal route on the way back. More little villages tuck up on moutain sides in the most precarious fashion. More winding roads, sometimes in dry mountains, sometimes in forests. Many, many microclimates throughout the island. The port city of Calvi is definitely worth a return to explore the fortress city on the hill. Returned along the coast on the magnificent cliff road.

    The third day we headed over to the east coast on our way up to Bastia. If there is any kind of beach, it’s crowded. The east coast is a coastal plain and much more populated than other areas of the island. At times, impossibly slow traffic. In Bastia we met up with Alesandro and then drive back to Ajaccio. Compared to these roads, the boat on autopilot is going to be quite a relief.

    Click on photo to view album of this trip

  • Sardinia Road Trip 23-27 Jul & Aug 5 2017

    Having made the 200 mile passage from Menorca, we arrived in Algero in the north west corner of the island. Looking at the weather ahead, we decided to stay in port for a few days and take a road trip around the island. As you can see on the map we covered a lot of the coast and had several inland adventures over the course of four days. From Alegero, we made our way by boat around to Olbia, via Corsica. From there we again rented a car and explored the Smeralda “gold coast”.

    Sardinia is about the size of Sicily and two thirds the size of Vancouver Island with a coast line of about 1,000 miles. As we were unsure if it was worth cruising all the way around the island, we decided to first explore by land.

    We started down the west coast, first passing along the shore up on very steep cliffs in a national park. Dramatic scenery on a very rugged coast. About 50 kilometers south we came to Rosa, a beautiful town set on both sides of a winding river. Above the town was the magnificent Castilla Malspina. Headed inland aways, we stopped at Padria for lunch in a small cafe very much off the tourist trail.

    On to Aborea, about 100 kilometers further south. This area is a low coastal plain where the swamps were drained and is now corn and dairy country. Our hotel was likely the only 3 star hotel within 50 km, set in a town built in 1928 by ‘Il Duce’.

    Continuing south, we headed back into the mountains stopping at Iglesias for a coffee and walk around. The walk was after making a wrong turn down the main pedestrian walkway…oops. The main street was decorated with hundreds of colorful umbrellas hanging above. On to Sant Antioco for lunch, frankly a disappointing stop out on this peninsula. Along the southeaster corner we were back up in the mountains along the coast on our way  into Cagliari for the night. Cagilari is a major city with lots of transport connections, it was here we got our first feel for the immigration from Africa.

    Leaving Cagliari and headed to the east coast we were again back up in the mountains.We stopped at Marina di Arbatax, one of the few ports on the east coast, for lunch and a walk about. We continued on up the coast to Olbia where Tim Kisielnicki and family would arrive in a few days. Staying at the Grand Palace was a relief after our hotel in Cagliari.

    A week later, we returned to Olbia by boat passing the Emerald Coast in the northeast corner of the island. Never have we seen so many mega yachts, I mean like 300-500 footers with perhaps a hundred yachts over 150 feet. From Olbia, we again rented a car and took a day to drive along the Emerald coast and it’s opulence.

    Sardinia is a large and very diverse island. As we passed from area to area, we found ourselves making comparisons to places we have traveled in the US….the coast of Maine, the dunes of Cape Cod, the forests of Vermont, the Blue Mountains, Coral Gables, Santa Fe, La Jolla, along with the corn field of Iowa and the desert southwest. One could easily spend a month exploring the place.

    What we did not see was any sign of Americans….not people, or products or influence of any type except some music. We also saw few motorcycles, what a great place to cruise by bike.

    Click on photo to see album of this trip

  • True East Returns to Balerics 2017

    Previously we have toured the main island of Mallorca by car and by boat. We are now returning to spend time on the smaller islands of Formentara, Ibiza and Menorca before heading east to Sardina.

    While Mallorca was much like the coast of Spain with large settlements of British and Germans, each of the smaller islands has a unique personality.

    Formentara is the smallest and has a  port at La Savina where ferries from Mallorca arrive every 10 minutes scooter rentals dominate the scene. The beaches are great as are the several anchorages.

    Ibiza is party central. It’s all motor boats and booze in the larger cities of Ibiza and San Antonio. On advice from locals, we passed on both of these and spent our time in Santa Eulalia that we loved. Dockage was stern to the seawall right in the middle of town vs being on a pontoon is a monster marina. Walked and biked around the area that is kind of upscale with lovely small calas (bays) with crystal clear water.

    On to Mallorca, we stopped again at Andraxt and enjoyed it as much as we did on previous visits. This place has to have the highest ratio of real estate agents to residents, storefronts or any measure you can imagine. Moving on up the north coast, we passed by Soller where we stayed last time and selected an anchorage in a the beautiful Sant Vincente.

    On to Menorca, what a treat this place is. It is just the opposite from Ibiza – all sailboats vs all power boats, anchorages vs. marinas, beautiful small communities vs party all night cities. Port Ciutadell is a real treasure where we enjoyed several days. While we intended to go up the north coast, the weather suggested otherwise so it was east along the south coast. Beautiful anchorage as Galbana and and Cala Porte. On to Mahon where we planned to fuel up and make the 200 mile run to Sardina. A few days in town for the weather to calm down, a nice drive around the island….this island is as good as it gets.

    Before heading to Sardina, we wanted to make sure all systems were go. Dan had been unhappy with the way the house electrical system had been acting and also unhappy with the water maker that kept shutting down. After a number of attempts to arrange assistance in Mahon – ‘no problem two weeks’ – we made the decision to head back to Barcelona where we could count on Jose to assemble a team for us. It was nice to be back to our second home in Barcelona, be welcome at the Real Club Nautico de Barcelona, and have Jose on the boat two hours after we arrived. It turns out there was no one piece of failed equipement, except for the washing machine. Every one of the problems had to do with a switch, a setting, a tightening, a purging…..no matter how well Dan thinks we knows this boat, it keeps coming up with surprises. Now we will sprint back to Mahon, 130 miles, and then on to Sardina, 200 miles.

    Here is the link to Sailing Yacht A, pictured below. We ran across her anchored up in a cove on the south shore of Ibiza where she is in the midst of sea trials.

    Click on photo to see the album for this trip