kateandjohnsail.boats

Back to our tour de volcanoes: as promised, we are sitting in the shadow of Mt. Etna, in Riposto, Sicily. We settled in last night under a cloudy sky, and didn’t know what to expect. There was no drama during the night, but morning dawned clear and beautiful, revealing a dramatic closeup of the crater,…

Forget about muscling up killer inclines in the Alps; my kind of bike ride includes a gently graded path and a cannolo. This morning in Syracuse, Sicily, we had a little business to do before riding, as my rear brake cable was failing and I do rely on that one a lot. We found our…

Nothing beats a downsize and a move to help refine your thinking about what makes “home.” Certainly the people are the essence of home; on our sailing journey we miss our family and communities of friends. Physical objects are less important: only a few suitcases came with us to Quintessa, and those contained mostly clothing…

When we pulled up near Mt. Vesuvius last week, we had no idea this would be the beginning of a volcano tour. We visited Pompeii, awed at the destruction of a city that happened in one day in 79 AD when the mountain next door blew up. Then we strolled through Herculaneum, which experienced the…

In our week in Sardinia, we observed that the people there are connected to the land and take pride in their agricultural traditions and practices. Food sold in stores and restaurants is specifically marketed as being from the region, and it is evident that creating goods of exceptional quality is a highly regarded societal priority.…

It’s been a hectic couple of days, and the temptation is to fixate on the tiredness and missteps, but oh my, let’s take a breath and focus on where Quintessa sits at this present moment. We have “accidentally” ended up in the heart of Naples (again, another story…). As I sit in the cockpit, the…

It’s true that getting off the dock can be the trickiest part of sailing, as you are never 100% ready. We have finally traveled, though. Our shakedown run was a 2-hour crossing to France! Bonifacio is an ancient city set high above a hidden harbor on the island of Corsica, just north of Sardinia. We…

One week back on Quintessa, and we’re still at the dock. That is not necessarily a bad thing; last time we boarded we took off like a rocket and it didn’t end well. This time we have had long days for fixing things, flushing things, rigging things, cleaning things, installing things, lubricating dry things, drying…

    Oh, my. So much drama when last we heard from Quintessa. In some quarters, “The Tale of Captain Kate and the Rescue of John’s Thumb” has reached mythic proportions: John’s arm had to be reattached, didn’t it? Well, I heard Kate navigated through 30-foot seas!  Just kidding. Let’s just say there was enough trauma…

Okay, this is when it gets real. We had anchored for two nights in a little bay right next to the Sardinian port town of Palau, near the Maddelena Archepelago, a natural reserve where we intended to spend a week sailing and exploring inlets and rocky shores. After we pulled up the anchor, I was…