Good Bye to the Med for now

This is a painting we had made of EcstaSea sailing away from Alghero, Sardinia in 2013 when we were leaving the Mediterranean for the Caribbean. We felt that we were "done" in the Med at that time. As we strolled along the beach we saw a young artist painting this scene of Alghero with Capo Cacciao in the background. So we asked him to paint EcstaSea sailing away and he did! We have it hanging in our Tucson home on our blue wall.

Well, little did we know at that time that we would be back so soon. But after a 2 day sail, here we are back in Alghero. And here is a picture of Capo Cacciao for real in the background:

We wintered EcstaSea in Alghero for 5 winters and are happy to do so once again. It is one of our favorite old walled cities on one of our favorite islands in the Med.

So she is out of the water, safe on the hard, and we are flying back to Tucson for the winter.
Be good Esea and we will see you next May....

Back Home Again in the Med

So yes, we did enjoy the Caribbean but... we missed the Mediterranean. So here we are again and it feels like home. In fact, we are starting right back where we started 8 years ago in Palma, Mallorca. We hired a great delivery Skipper, Dan Vallopi, and he and crew sailed EcstaSea over from Charleston.  Richard says "nothing goes to weather like a 747" and not needing to do another Atlantic crossing, we were happy to fly over and meet them here in Palma.

Here is a picture of Captain Dan and of course, my One and Only Captain... Richard.

This 16th century cathedral on the waterfront greets you as you sail in to Palma...

It's been great fun to reconnect with all of our favorite places and people from 2 years ago. So of course we are eating, drinking and being "merry" as we celebrate our return. Friends that we thought we would never see again are surprised to see us, and hopefully as happy to see us as we are to see them.
We settled in and anchored out on the southeast coast of Mallorca for the full moon and lunar eclipse on  September 27th. We were up all night "moon gazing" and can only say that She was magical and mysterious as always. And the eclipse was truly surreal and  "otherworldly"!!!

We have had a number of projects on EcstaSea after her ocean crossing, but have taken time to get away and anchor out in  some of our favorite coves. And we took a wonderful trip to the other Balearic Island of Ibiza.

The old walled city of Ibiza...

On the north side of Ibiza there is Binneris Beach and we always take some time there. Right in the middle of the bay is this great big rock that everyone calls the "Buddha" rock.

The bay looks out to the west and on Sunday evenings all of the old hippies (of which we are proud to be a part of) gather to drum the sun down with great reverence and enthusiasm.

Here are just a few of the drummers before sunset...

And from shore as we are celebrating another sunset, here is a picture of EcstaSea and the Buddha rock....

We also enjoy the Hippy markets and the year end bargains on the coolest clothes. After a week of playing on Ibiza we came back Mallorca  to finish our boat projects and get ready to sail to Sardinia. We will leave EcstaSea there for the winter as we used to, and fly back to our Tucson home for the winter. The last few years we have been completely and utterly confused as to what time of year it was. We never quite settled into the winters on the boat and the summers on land in Tucson. So our 6 week jaunt here in the Med has been to re-adjust our seasons and be back in the desert in the winter and on EcstaSea in the summer. And this feels more normal and natural to us.

We know that we are always showing beautiful sunsets as it is our favorite time of day. Twilight  for us so mystical as it is neither day or night. But surprise...(and it was for us) this picture is of a sunrise!!!
Now my Captain says "we don't do anything that we are proud of before 10:00am" and that is generally true. So i am not sure how and why we were up for this wondrous moment, but we were and wanted to share it with you...

It has been an easeful transition time here and for this we are most grateful.
We are truly blessed and know it, so we say "Thank You" to the All that Is. And we are happy to be home again in the Mediterranean.