Planning a trip to Northern Ireland? We've developed a focused, 10-day itinerary that has it all: hiking, history, charming villages, castle ruins, and stunning vistas. Chris and I love to get boots on the ground, so our plan involves three days of hiking the Causeway Coast Way. If you're not that into hiking, that’s ok!…
I've written a surprising number of articles about packing for our 6-week Ireland trip, including how I choose clothes and pack lightly, how I choose and pack toiletries, my initial packing list, and my final packing list. In this post I give you our line-by-line list complete with weights and notes. I'm sorry the "tables" are…
Overview In late June of 2013, Chris and I spent two full weeks sailing the Greek islands aboard a 40-foot catamaran along with our two sons, our niece and nephew, and my brother and sister-in-law. We hired a local skipper and set sail from Alimos Marina near Athens. It was an epic trip, stunningly beautiful,…
Originally published July 7, 2014 Our July 4th started very early as we prepared for our 55nm journey to the island of Poros, by far our longest single day passage. We awoke at 5:30am to close hatches and cast off, though we all alternated napping and reading throughout the 7-8 hour journey. Poros was a…
Originally published June 17, 2014 After a long but productive day exploring the treasures of Delos, we set sail from Mykonos for the adjacent island and small bay of Rineia. Here we taught our skipper the addictive social game Werewolf) and had quite a few laughs. We arrived at the sleepy harbor town of Finikas,…
Originally published May 23, 2014 Mykonos has a reputation: Mykonos is the great glamour island of the Cyclades and happily flaunts its sizzling style and reputation. The high-season mix of good-time holidaymakers, cruise-ship crowds which can reach 15,000 a day, and posturing fashionistas throngs through Mykonos town, a traditional Cycladic maze, delighting in its authentic…
Originally published May 7, 2014 Early Friday evening, June 28 2013, we left Ios to set sail for a an anchored bay visit between Antiparos and Despotiko. Wikipedia says: The strait separating Despotiko from Antiparos only has a minimum depth of about 1m, with the intervening islet of Koimitiri. This extreme shallowness of the strait…
Originally published April 5, 2014 On June 27 we set sail for Ios, an island I last visited in 1990 during the World Cup. The wind did not last so we slowly motored into a harbor at some prime beach location where Julie, Jacob, and Andrew swam into the beach. Matthew, Adrienne, and I paddled…
Originally published February 27, 2014 Are you following along on a map? Might be worth your while as the place names can run together. We are now hanging out in the lower part of the Cyclades islands, with Santorini positioned at the bottom of the circle of islands. We are sailing yacht pros by now,…
Originally published January 19, 2014 Our day started early in Serifos with Julie and I strolling into town for coffee and to catch some early morning sites and photos. The harbor was already vibrant, with fisherman just returning with their morning catches. Cats hung around waiting for scraps and we saw one rewarded with a…