Length (in Feet)
Year

World Cruising: Fjaka – latest self-help buzzword or are the Croatians on to something?

A holiday often is defined by the experiences we make in unique and beautiful settings. But what about that indulgently lazy contentment of doing nothing that turns a holiday into a vacation? Croatia has taken their sentiment of Fjaka to heart.

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Mediterranean Shakedown: A Summer Cruise in Spain

This summer my husband, Paul, and I bought our fourth offshore cruising boat, a new Southerly 480 built by Discovery Yachts in the UK.

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The world’s largest regatta – and you’ve probably never heard of it

This month, Spirit of Portopiccolo, steered by Furio Benussi, with Alberto Bolzan at the mainsail, and tacticians Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi, won the 50th edition of Barcolana, the largest regatta in the world held in Trieste, Italy

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Canary Islands – Staging Area for Atlantic Crossings Through the Ages

I don’t know what I expected the first time we made landfall in the Canary Islands but I have to admit that after sailing from the lush mid-Atlantic island of Madeira, I was seriously surprised when the barren desert-like landscapes of the Canary Islands came into view.

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My Big Fat Greek Charter

We did breakfast yesterday in the Greek port of Piraeus, just outside Athens:strong coffee, crisp bacon, fresh bread, and omelets spiked with Feta Cheese.      

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Royal Fever on the River Thames

After much speculation Prince Harry finally popped the question to American actress and longtime Toronto resident Meghan Markle and people are EXCITED.      

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Bareboating 101: Part Two – Azores

We had been out on the ocean for 17 days, just the two of us, keeping watch around the clock. One of us was always asleep while the other kept a sharp…

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Dipping Into Dalmatia

The sun rises over green hump-backed hills, backbone of an island called Prvic in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia, in the region of Dalmatia. We’ve docked overnight in one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world. The hills look across a blushing expanse of water riffled by winds whose names we discovered yesterday morning at the chart briefing that began our Sunsail charter flotilla near a village called Primosten.   

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Cruising up the Thames River with Le Boat

By Greg NicollIt was great to get back on Le Boat this past summer, this time on the historic Thames River. Our vessel was the Royal Mystique, a 43 footer with everything we needed for a week’s cruise in style.John Burns, an English politician and noted London historian from the late 19th century coined the phrase “The Thames is a liquid history.”

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The Crinan and Caledonian – Canals of Scotland

Paul and I seem to love the extremes of cruising – long ocean passages where our skills and stamina are tested followed by lots of gunkholing where we poke along exploring creeks, rivers, cuts and canals to gain insight into the heartland of our destination. Boating began for both of us on the Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario and after setting sail for foreign ports in 1989 we have travelled through numerous canals including the Erie Canal and Intracoastal Waterway of the USA, the Corinth Canal in Greece,

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Brittany Coast of France

Completing the Tour of the Six Celtic Nations. Sheryl and Paul Shard continue their sailing adventures with an autumn cruise of the Brittany coast of France aboard their Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II. It was a chilly and challenging summer aboard our Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II, exploring the beautiful west coast of Norway as far as 61°N and also the Celtic nations of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Wales and Scotland including the Shetland and Orkney Isles.

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Northern Scotland: Voyage to Orkney and Shetland Isles

Paul and Sheryl Shard continue their adventures cruising in Scotland aboard their Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II. The Muckle Flugga light at 60º 51’N 0º53’W marks the most northern point of the United Kingdom. Our quest to reach it aboard our Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II, took us through some of the United Kingdom’s most remote and charming island groups, the Orkney and Shetland Isles. These island groups lie off the north coast of the Scottish mainland; although both are territories of Scotland, the people seem to identify more strongly with their Nordic roots.

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Sailing the Fjords of Norway

Norway and its fjords have always held an appeal for Paul and me not just for the extreme natural beauty but because Norway’s fjords helped shape one of the greatest group of seafarers in history, the Vikings, whose history fascinates us. The opportunity to take our own boat to Norway and sail in the fjords on the west coast after visiting Scotland last summer was irresistible. We had to go. Fjords are basically long narrow inlets from the sea. They make land travel difficult since they deeply penetrate the coast making them hard to get around; in Norway most fjords have enormously tall cliff sides, often many hundred of metres high, so they are hard to cross.

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Discovering Ireland Aboard Distant Shores II

Paul and I both have roots in the British Isles so this past summer we decided to spend a season sailing from England to Ireland and Scotland to visit the homeland of our grandparents and catch up with relatives still living there. And since Scotland is not that far from Norway – a 25-hour passage across the North Sea – we worked that in to our itinerary too. This story begins with our return to England last spring and Leg One of the 2011 cruise – the voyage from England to Ireland along the coast of the Celtic and Irish Seas.

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Voyage to the Baltic Sea

Paul and I had always wanted to sail to the countries of Scandinavia so, following a successful shake-down cruise to the Channel Islands and along the south coast of England last spring, we pointed the bows of our new Southerly 49 variable-draft sailboat, Distant Shores II, towards the Baltic Sea. Our 3,200 nm summer voyage to the Baltic would take us from Chichester Harbour in England across the North Sea with stops in Holland and Germany then through the Kiel Canal into the Baltic Sea to explore Denmark and Sweden, then back to England to the Northshore Shipyard in Chichester Habour where Southerly yachts are built.

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Malta – A Golden Destination

The Mediterranean island nation of Malta is a golden destination for sailors and when you arrive at Grand Harbour at the fortified city of Valletta you realize why. This perfect natural harbour, one of several on the island, has offered shelter to seafarers since ancient times. Add to this Malta’s strategic location in the center of the Mediterranean, 90 km. south of Sicily and 290 km. from the northern coast of Africa, and it’s easy to understand why Malta has been conquered and ruled by nearly every major power that has shaped the history of this part of the world from the Stone-Age and Bronze-Age peoples, to Romans and Phoenicians, Arabs, Normans and Carthaginians, Castilians, French and British.

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Cruising Through History – Belgium’s Canals and Rivers

“Who wants to go first?” I do, so up I step up to the controls of our 34 ft. Le Boat cabin cruiser. A few minutes earlier, my two friends and I had been eyeing the cruiser eagerly and a touch anxiously from the safety of dry land. It’s our new home for the next week. In the interests of full disclosure, I’m not a boater. Not from lack of interest, just lack of opportunity.

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Chichester Harbour, England

Commissioning a new boat can be exciting, enlightening, challenging, sometimes frightening, often frustrating, but mostly a delightful experience. At least that’s how it’s been for Paul and me for the last few weeks as we go through the process with our new Southerly 49 sailboat, Distant Shores II, the latest variable-draft cruising boat built by Northshore Yachts in England. We took delivery of our new baby in mid-March at the Northshore Shipyard which is located on beautiful Chichester Harbour on the south coast of England.

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Two-Footitis

Two-footitis – the need to move up to a boat 2-feet longer than the one you have – is an ailment that hits most sailors at one time or another as their passion for the sport grows, new challenges are sought, the crew expands or, let’s be really honest here, the desire for bigger and better toys hits hard.

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Transatlantic Crossing – From England to Antigua

It had been a fast 2-day passage south from the Portuguese island of Madeira to the sun-baked Canary Islands of Spain, our jumping-off point for a transatlantic passage to the Caribbean. We’d had great sailing with wind all the way – and from the right direction – until the last few hours of our approach to Gran Canaria on December 13th when the wind headed us. But our new Southerly 42 sailboat, Distant Shores, charged effortlessly into the building seas under power of our small self-tacking jib and reefed mainsail.

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Maiden Voyage, Distant Shores

Every sailor knows it’s bad luck to begin a voyage on a Friday. Why? We’ve never really been able to satisfactorily pin that down. Like most superstitions the origin is a bit murky. Some say it has religious roots relating to Jesus’ death on the cross on Good Friday. Others say it relates to Friday the 13th and that historically bad things often happen on a Friday. Regardless of the reason, it’s a superstition that the brotherhood of sailors, whether racing or cruising, pays heed to.

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Croatia is Calling

Having spent most of my holidays in the Caribbean over the past two decades of holidays, the Adriatic was a distant destination ‘to do someday’. I knew basically nothing about the Adriatic and what it had to offer but the lure was apparent. We – Mango Yacht Charters – decided a to expand our business and add the Mediterranean to our repertoire of destinations.    

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Baltic Odyssey

“Did you sail all the way … from Canada?” My husband, David, and I were asked that question dozens of times as we circumnavigated the Baltic Sea during the summer of 2005. As people strolled by to see our port of origin, they’d spy the maple-leaf ensign and immediately strike up a conversation. Canada is popular in the Baltic; being Canadian is a first-class calling card.

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Galley Guys on the Malty Seas of Scotland

It started with an Internet search on malts and ended with an invitation that was too good to be true for any decent Galley Guy not to accept: fly to Scotland, drive peacefully through the Scottish countryside and come to rest at the end of a single-lane road on the Isle of Skye (along side the Cuillin mountain range in the Village of Carbost beside Loch Harport) only to witness a flotilla of eighty yachts which we were joining. This, and we were right in front of the Talisker Distillery which we would tour the following day.

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Sailing on Turkey’s Turquoise Seas

The term “turquoise seas” is an expression I equate with idyllic cruising so when my mate, Paul, proposed a cruise along the Turquoise Coast I just knew it was going to be a great experience. The Turquoise Coast is located on the southern shore of Turkey (Turquia in Spanish, Türkiye in Turkish) that embraces the Mediterranean Sea for nearly 1600 km or 994 miles.  

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