In the Med - Overview

We planned to leave from Barcelona around the 15th of May (More or Less) and head off to Pollensa on the island of Mallorca in the Balearics. We rented a car and toured the island, amking a point to see Soller. It is a pretty neat town with a great scenic train that goes to Palma. In the Fall we spent a few days in Palma but never made it to Soller. We enjoyed taking the train across the island, across the scenic farmland and trhough the mountanous areas. When we got to Soller however, we found that the local buses stopped running so we had no way to get back to Pollensa. Fortunately for us, Julian on La Perla, a fellow cruiser from Barcelona was in Pollensa and he agreed to pick us up. What luck! From there we crossed to Santorini and Mahon harbors in Menorca, where we met up with Cor Leonis, Marnie and L'ame Libra, our other buddies from Barcelona. We waited a few days (Just enough time to rent a jeep and tour the island of Menorca) in Mahon for a proper weather window, and then we left for Northern Sardinia . We cut between Sardinia`and Corsica through the Strait of Bonifacio to the Maddalena islands off the NE Sicilian coast (Now a National Park), just North of the home/resort area of the Aga Kahn, Porto Cervo. After a very short stay in Porto Cervo, (we were not impressed with the facility) we headed South through the Starits of Messina and stayed in Messina marina. That was a difficult marina to tie up in for our size boat, especially given the strong wind and current running and that a boat our size is an exception for that marina. It was blowing out so hard that squid could be found on the mole every morning, having been blown up onto the dock by the strong winds. In addition to that the facilities were not kept in good condition and we were losing power several times a day, water was difficult to obtain since they did not have any working water lines near our boat and water hoses had to be run several dundred feet to reach us. That would be fine normally, but the Italian coast Guard, that shared the dock with us, felt that it was their convenience to sever the water hoses and use it for their purposes. I had to supply all the water hose end fittings and also had to supply a multitude of electrical fittings in order to tie into the p;oser. I would not recommend the marina for any purpose except one of sheer desparation. We rented a car there and drove around the island. We found an absolutely delightful restuarant up in the mountains, though the food was cooked home / farm style. The ambiance of the place and the delightful owner and wait staff mad ]e up for any culinary defficiencies. From Messina we went around the souther portion of Italy and stopped in the southern to the Southern boot of Italy. Our almost 8 foot draft pretty much porecluded us from stopping anywhere else along the way. We day hopped our way up the Eastern coast of Italy to Brindis (the people there still love Mussolini BIG TIME) and from there crossed over to Craotia where we spent the greater part of the Summer with a small jaunt to Venice, Italy. We Venice we headed South back to Croatia and spent some additional time there, visiting several places that we had missed on our Northward journey, including Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is a much see by any standard. We waited in Dubrovnik for a weather window and then began our jurney South. Weather was not good b ut we took off anyway since it was getting late in the season. We hadn't gotten very far when we and L'ame Libra turned around and headed to a protected anchorage near Dubrovnik. We headed out the next day. THe weather was good to start then picked up so we kept a WSW course toward Brindisi. Things improved and both boats were about to turn South when L'ame Libra developed engine problems so we carried on to Brindisi. As it turned out, it was a simple issue to fix and we were off the next day to enter Grecian waters. We continued South and go through the Corinth Canal ala Jason and the Argonauts and visited a variety of islands in the Cyclades and the Dodecones, making our way finally to Turkey. To read more on our Cruise in the Med, Click Here!

The sections below discuss the trip in more detail.

Click on one of these items to see more details on each island/location (Items are presented in sequence of visit):

Croatia (Includes The Sea Coast and inland adventures)

Venice (includes Chioggia and Brindisi)

Greece (Includes the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea)

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We stopped in Mallorca (and Ibiza) on our way to Barcelona in 2003. We spent our time then in Palma and Anthraix. On our return visit, we went to Puerto de Pollensa on the NE corner of the island before making our way to Menorca. Mallorca is the largest (3,640 square km), most populous, and most visited (around 7 million visitors per year) of the Balearic Islands.

Dakare Anchored in Ensa De Sta Ponsa, Mallorca, courtesy of Bin on Draconis, Fall 2003

In Mallorca, we anchored in Pollensa in the NorthEast corner of the island near Cabo Formentor for several days while we did land touring by car (Pollensa, Cape Formentor, Soller, San Telmo, Andraitx, and various pre-historic sites) and the famous antique train (Palma to Soller). While there, we met up with Amor Fate (John and Nancy).

Click Here to see additional details, maps, charts and pictures of our visit to Mallorca.

From Mallorca we sailed directly to Mahon (Bay) situated in the SE corner of the island. This was an excellent location to wait for a fair weather window on our way to Sardinia. While there, we rented a jeep and tooled around the island. We were greeted with spectacular scenery. In many ways the island reminded us of Block Island, Rhode Island, USA. It must be said however, that having made this analogy, that there are mountains on Menorca, the like fo which you will never find in Block island. We fount the climate and fauna to be very similar. Click Here to find additional pictures and discussions of our visit to Menorca.

We took a direct overnight hop to Sardinia from Menorca. We had a fine trip, although we motor sailed almost the entire way. When we got there we went to the Magdelena Islands. In many ways they reminded us of Tobago Keys in the Grenedines. The water was picture perfect, clear as can be with the green/blue hues one comes to expect from the best of anchorages.We only spent one night there as we planned to go to the South section of the same park but found the anchorage there uninteresting and we were told that they charged over $50 US to anchor there. In our opinion, the place wasn't that attractive and the cost of anchoring made it all the more unattractive. So we carried on and went to the resort built by the Aga Kahn. Again, we didn't understand what all the fuss was about. Porto Chervo has a fantastic reputation as being a boaters paradise. It is pretty, but we and L'ame Libra found it limiting and not so swank. In fact, our favorite story to tell is how we were sitting at and ourdoor restuarant having a cocktail, trying to decide what to do for dinner and watching a waiter set adjacent tables. In the process he spotted a soiled table knife, and, in keeping up to the Porto Chervo standard of setting a proper table, he licked the knife to wet it and then proceeded to clean it with his apron and upon reaching a satisfactory shine, he deposited on the table as one of the place settings. Ugh!

We rented a car and drove around on the island, looking for other "hot" spots recommended in the tourists guides. More on that can be found by clicking Here.

Sicily and the Aeolian Islands:

We stopped in Lipari and Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands. In Lipari, while touring a museum, the wind shifted and Dakare dragged here anchor. She was abruptly stopped by a metal floating dock and unfortunately suffered many small scars. These cosmetic repairs we will do in Turkey.

From the Aeolian we went to Sicily where we rented a car and toured extensively with our buddy sister ship L'ame Libra.

We rounded the boot of Italy via the Straits of Messina. In the Straits, we were accosted by very strong winds (55 knots.) Fortunately, they only lasted about 2 hours and they were from astern, so at least we did not have to beat into them and they pushed us along towards our destination, Santa Maria on the heel of Italy. After a one night stay there, with sufficient time to our the area and hike of the "Steps of Mussolini", we headed towards the East coast of Italy and the industrial town of Brinidisi. Brindisi turned out to be a charming stop. We had some good times there. It was amazing how the people of Brindisi held Mussolini in high regard.

Click here to see more on Mussolini, Brindisi, the Aeolian, Sicily and Santa Maria.

We spent over 2 months in Croatia and did pretty extensive touring during that period. We also rented a car and drove inland to visit various points of interests, parks, towns, etc. Most interesting of all is a visit to Karen's grandparents home town in Dresnigrad. There we searched high and low for some family members, the Krismanich family. We lucked out! We found Krismanich relatives in the small town of Dresnigrad. It was impossible to tell exactly what the family linkage was, but given the smallness of the town and the same name, there had to be a connection. They were very kind and invited us for a walk in the woods where other Krismanich family dwellings were once located, now fully overgrown. They also invited us back to their home. One thing we noticed while driving around in that area is the extensive amount of plum trees all bearing small plums. Our first thoughts were - "who would want to eat these plums, they are so small." Well we found out the answer to that question. The Croatians grow, harvest and make there own plum spirits called Livonia (pronounced phonetically as Sliv o vee cha.) Slijvovica is to Croatia what Ouzo is to Greece and grappa is to Italy. In fact, we were treated to home made Slijvovica when we arrived at the home of Karen's family namesakes. It was great. Better than we had drunk at most local establishments. It was a sad moment when we had to pack up and leave. We will always have fond memories of that visit.

For more details and pictures on our Croatia adventure, click Here!

(Click on Picture to visit Link)

For more details and pictures on our Venice adventure, click here!

Although Greece was not an intended cruising area for 2004, we had to cross Greek waters in order to get to Turkey. So... we stopped at a number of places along the way such as the Ionian Islands, the Gulf of Corinth (and the Corinth Canal in the Peloponnes), the Cyclades and the Dodecanes Islands. We really enjoyed the Greek Islands and are planning to go back - when to be determined. We have tons of pics. For more details and pictures on our Greek adventure, click Here!

A good sized Tuna caught on the way to Kithos in Greece

We spent the Winter of 04/05 in Marmaris Turkey. From this location it is our plan to do some inland travel to some of the many interesting places that Turkey has to offer.

Whirling Dirvish Dances