The Suitcase Shuffle – part 1

Sadly, it’s been a minute. Where have the last three months gone? Great question. After our jaunt to Melilla, we made it back to southern Spain and hauled out Sabática in Motril. She needed some routine hull maintenance like cleaning, antifouling paint, and new zincs on the propellers to prevent corrosion. (We cannot say enough […]

Mission Gibraltar

After a stationary winter, the earliest we’ve started sailing again has been in late April. However this year, we left our winter berth in Cartagena early. We were on a mission to reach Gibraltar before March 26th so Sabática wouldn’t be in the EU for over eighteen months. That’s the time limit before VAT (sales […]

Sitting with Uncertainty

I’m a planner. An implementer. Give me a project or a destination, and I kick into high gear. But ask me to dream up a grand vision or hand me a blank tile in Scrabble, and I freeze up. Stupid, but that’s the way it is. Conor is much stronger at the latter, which is likely […]

Christmas in Spain

Family, food, and fun. What more does one need for a great holiday? 🙂 We loved having Laura and Rory with us for two weeks each during their winter school break. Their requirements included: sunshine, warm weather (compared to the US Midwest), the ocean, interesting cities, good food, and down time. We’d like to think […]

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

For our third November in a row, we left Sabática in her winter berth (this year it’s in Cartagena, Spain) and set off to visit as many family members and friends as possible within six weeks. Each year we’ve been getting a bit more efficient, and this time we were down to only six flights, […]

What did you do today?

One of the things we absolutely love most about having Sabática is that we have been able to share the lifestyle, adventures, and amazing places with so many family and friends. It’s incredibly special when the majority of our guests would never normally experience anything like it. This can absolutely be said of my dad, […]

Spain – Plan B

As usual, we had many guests arriving and grand plans. Also per usual, the weather dictated something different. We were greatly looking forward to exploring the Balearic Islands, as were two groups of our guests. Unfortunately, with the timing and inclement weather, we ended up sticking to the coast of mainland Spain instead, not that […]

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 […]