The 2nd half of our passage was slightly more boring than the 1st half, mostly because we motored more and sailed less – especially during the last 3 days. But, we weren’t without some interesting moments to break up the monotony. The Straits of Messina were really beautiful – lush hillsides covered with white houses and red stucco rooftops just like you see in pictures of…
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Passage to Croatia…Part I
We made it! It took 7 full days, but we’re finally in Dubrovnik. The sail was mostly uneventful, but punctuated with several memorable incidents, so I’ll split the post in half so it’s not so long. We headed out on Saturday, June 5th around 10:30 am with good wind. On our way out, barely 3 miles offshore, Anthony was at the mast, playing with the sail…
Continue reading ...Breaking Free…
We left La Grande Motte on Thursday at 11:30 am– later than we had hoped, but leaving land takes lots of time. First, we had to fill up with fuel, which is not as simple as driving to the nearest gas station to “pay at the pump”. We had to leave our berth (which we already explained is no small feat), maneuver along rows of other…
Continue reading ...Croatia… here we come!
Our EU/Schengen clock is ticking away fast and so we need to get moving out of the Schengen area. Americans are only allowed to stay in the Schengen area for 90 days within a 180 day/6 month time span (there are 20+ EU countries in the Schengen zone which allows for borderless travel). We’ve explored the long-term stay visa options for France and Spain, but COVID…
Continue reading ...Life on a Boat….
Is not always sunshine and roses… It sounds so wonderful and in most ways it is. However, it’s not really a vacation because, living on a boat, we still have daily responsibilities like answering email, doing laundry, etc. Depending on where you are, and the weather, it’s sometimes more challenging. We always try to remember how lucky we are to be living this dream, but some…
Continue reading ...A Kite Surfer’s dream…
When you buy a sailboat, you look forward to using the wind for propulsion. However, there IS such a thing as too much wind… And that’s what we got recently. Depending on wind direction, anything from 8-20 knots is great (less wind is better if it’s a headwind, more wind is great from behind). This week brought really strong winds up to 48 knots and sustained…
Continue reading ...Settling in…
Hard to believe we’ve been here a week already. It’s flown by and so much has happened. As I write, we are out sailing…. Just the two of us. We’ve had lots of training (well mostly Anthony has been in training) on the sail configuration and components, docking, electronics, (watermaker, circuits, batteries, charger, solar panels, etc.) plumbing (i.e., how to empty the holding tanks for the…
Continue reading ...I Christen Thee…
Moxie! May her crew have fast, safe, and enjoyable passages wherever she may take them. Moxie was “officially” christened (named) on Friday, May 1st with a very nice bottle of French champagne. We are in France after all… Much like the religious christening ceremony for infants, boats are christened (named) for good luck and safe travel. This ritual has been enacted since the Greeks wore wreaths…
Continue reading ...Sorting our new home
It’s been a very busy 2 days. We’ve checked out of the hotel and moved our belongings onto the boat. That was a challenge because we were rafted next to an Outremer 45 and had to put our things on that boat and then pass it over to our boat – lots of up and down and over and under! And the bags all weighed somewhere…
Continue reading ...We’re here, We’re here!
We’re here! After 2 long years (it was exactly this day 2 years ago, when we were here for the Boat Show). A lot has happened since we left London on Sunday, 4/25. We weren’t sure whether we would be allowed into France and have taken many different steps to smooth our path, but in the end, all immigration wanted to know was “where we were…
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