Mission Impossible?

We left Sardinia on a mission. We had three and a half weeks and around 700 nautical miles(!) to cover before we were due to collect our next guests in Barcelona. This trek would see us traversing the coastline of the Italian and French Rivieras and crossing the wild Gulf of Leon. We chose to […]

Irish Family and Circumnavigation

Well, we did it. Around 450 nautical miles. Five (leisurely) fabulous weeks. We 100% circumnavigated our first island and then some. We couldn’t get enough of Sardinia. To help us finish our cruise around Sardinia, we were joined by Conor’s brother (Darragh), our sister-in-law (Cathy), and our two Irish nephews (Cormac and Luke). Cormac was […]

Sardinian Cities

We visited three of the five largest cities in Sardinia, which altogether range in size from around 42,000 people to 147,000 people. I’ve already written about Olbia (the fourth largest city), which is a more modern town and a popular base for tourists wanting to explore the popular Costa Smeralda in the northeast. The largest […]

Our Favorite Place in Italy

At this point, we’ve traveled fairly extensively through Italy. As an elderly Italian man once said to us, though, you could live ten lifetimes and still not see all that Italy has to offer. He’s probably right. Vacationers flock to Italy for good reason – the food, the natural beauty, the history, the culture, the […]

Texans in Sardinia

We were looking forward to collecting my brother (Lonny), sister-in-law (Nicole), nephew (Ben), and cousin (Jon). Ben had never been aboard Sabática before, but everyone else was a repeat customer. 🙂 Of course, we had grand plans – We’d collect them from the northeastern city of Olbia, spend time in the beautiful and popular Maddalena […]

The Strait of Bonifacio

We had one week to go before we were due to collect our next crew in Sardinia. The main obstacle in our way was the Strait of Bonifacio, a narrow body of water (11 km / 6.8 miles wide) that divides the French island of Corsica and the Italian island of Sardinia and separates the […]

The Corsica Challenge

Corsica is a beautiful island. I think it is now Conor’s favorite place to anchor with its long sandy beaches and bays that allow for excellent holding. Of course, these sandy beaches also make for the clearest water you can imagine and great swimming. Green and dramatic mountains add to the landscape, and lovely quaint […]

Corsica and Great Friends

Upon leaving Pisa, we pointed our sails towards the large French island of Corsica. Our hope was to meet up with a couple of Conor’s Irish college buddies and their wives as they were already in Corsica. Ed and Heike were on their own boat, and Trevor and Sally Ann were vacationing on Corsica but […]

Another Side of Tuscany

When someone mentions Tuscany, who doesn’t think of Florence? Well, we have now visited the road (or seas, as the case may be) less traveled and can recommend several new spots worth visiting! Our next goal was to reach Rome (technically, Fiumicino) to collect Laura’s second round of friends from Cleveland. From the island of […]

McGann Juniors Join Us

We get very excited when Laura and Rory join us on our travels. 🙂 This summer they were able to come together for three weeks, unlike last summer when their schedules did not align. It was Laura’s turn to invite friends along, and we enjoyed getting to know them all. Rory was fresh off a […]