Category: Underway

Happiness

Position: 42°16’36.7″N 8°49’20.9″W Carol’s dad, Bob, asked us if we were going to see anyone on our journey north to the Baltic? It was a reasonable question. Our contact list is, after all, long. We thought about it during our …

Sintra

Position: 38°47’14.6″N 9°23’27.7″W The Palácio Nacional da Pena is a shining “jewel in the crown” of Portuguese royalty. That Portuguese royalty, like Britain’s, were Germans is neither here nor there. The where, since you asked, is in Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, …

Orcas

Position: 38°24’50.5″N 9°13’23.9″W “Aleta, Aleta, Aleta, Billaroo, Billaroo, Billaroo.” The VHF awoke with an unmistakably Australian accent. Twenty-four hours into our passage, we approached our final leg to Lisbon by rounding Cape Espichel and crossing the depths of the Lisbon …

Spanish Customs

Pop Quiz! You have ten minutes to complete this quiz. Good luck! You are motoring late at night towards the lights of Málaga. A vessel appears off your port side, but not on your Automated Identification System. Is it: A …

Awe! Dolphins

Position: 36°31’47″N 3°52’08″W As the sun rose over Aleta’s stern and Carol arose from her slumbers, it was time to change watches. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a dolphin and called down to my first mate. …

Cosyhousing

Position: 45°37’26″N 122°40’42″W It’s only been four and a half months, Lauren reminded me. I thought it was six, and that we’d more than passed our sell-by date. After all, fish and house guests smell after three days. Then I …

Interim Update

Position: 37° 35′ 49”N 0° 58′ 48”W The last few weeks have flown by for reasons that can’t be fully explained by your devoted correspondent. Pushing our US departure date out by a month meant C. Northcote Parkinson‘s “…observation that …