kateandjohnsail.boats

Long before John and I resolved to live on a cruising sailboat, our friends Ann and Ed showed us how it is done. Windswept Dreams, a 39 foot Island Packet, was the boat of their dreams, and in 2008 we joined them for a week in the Bahamas, and a few years later a week…

Seventy-one. That is how many Hylas 49 sailing yachts were ever manufactured since they were designed by Sparkman and Stevens in 19  . Presumably most of these boats are still afloat around the world, many of them on the east coast of the Americas, since they were conceived and created especially for conditions in the…

Once again we have found ourselves in a town on the day of a national holiday, when the people take to the streets to celebrate an important historical event. October 28 is Oxi Day, when Greeks loudly and proudly remember the day in 1940 when Mussolini offered to not attack Greece so long as the…

“Kate” is what I said to the Montenegrin woman who was taking our laundry. We hadn’t had access to a laundromat in a couple of weeks and the flies were beginning to swarm around us. K-a-j-t is what she carefully wrote down. Two countries later, the same thing happened when we made a restaurant reservation.…

We just finished a wonderful week with Kate’s sister and her husband. They joined us in Athens, but for a hot minute (actually, two days) it looked like this ship was not going to sail, because *somebody* did the Athens emergency room tour and we had to treat a kidney stone. But this too did…

Quintessa has now left behind the Ionian Sea and have entered the Aegean. Like many sailors over the centuries, we knew the trip around the Peloponnese could be long and potentially dangerous. Fortunately for us, there is an alternative—the Corinthian Canal. The canal, which was completed in 1893, is literally a 4-mile long ditch that…

Long ago, in the mists of time, Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the world to find the center of the Earth, and they met over Delphi, Greece. Concluding that Delphi was the “navel of the world,” Zeus placed the Omphalos, or sacred stone, at that place. Delphi became the religious and cultural…

On VHF Channel 14: Rio Traffic: Quintessa, Quintessa, Quintessa, this is Rio Traffic, Rio Traffic, Rio Traffic. Quintessa: Rio Traffic, this is Quintessa, Quintessa, Quintessa. We had planned to call the traffic control when we were five miles from the Rion-Antirion Bridge, but they beat us to it. RT: What is your port of destination?…

SPEAK, MEMORY— Of the cunning hero,The wanderer, blown off course time and againAfter he plundered Troy’s sacred heights.Of all the cities he saw, the minds he grasped,The suffering deep in his heart at seaAs he struggled to survive and bring his men homeBut could not save them, hard as he tried—The fools—destroyed by their own…

After several nights in marinas and towns, we were thrilled to pull into a quiet bay for a peaceful night closer to nature. But this bay was not always quiet; in decades past it was a bustling Club Med. The resort did not last; now only goats enjoy the ambiance of the sea wall, the…