Ribera del Duero Wine Region

We left our favorite cala Egos on Mallorca at 6:00pm for our overnight to Valencia on the mainland. It was a really calm crossing and the sliver of a new moon set bright orange into a smooth sea. We do 3 hour watches (1 of us up 3 hours and then sleep for 3 hours) on our overnights and I (willow) had the sunrise watch. And just as Brother Sun sizzled out of the water into the sky, one lone dolphin jumped out of the water to celebrate another day. What a privilege to witness the beauty...

When we arrived in the Marina of Juan Carlos in Valencia, we noticed a big ship with these words written on the side "Open Arms". It was just leaving port so we looked it up on the internet. It is a non government vessel used to pick up immigrants in the Med. Of course, their goal is to reduce the number of lives lost at sea. Sadly, thousands of immigrants lose their lives every year at sea as they try to find refuge in Europe. Amidst the controversy on immigration, it is so refreshing to see a statement of "Open Arms"...

We decided to do something a little different this summer--since the weather has been cool and rainy, we left Ecstasea on her own in the Valencia marina, rented a car and headed north. We spent the night with our dear friends, Ann and Franco Volli in their lovely home in Madrid. And since we have such a sweet and deep heart connection with them, it is always special.

The next morning we headed north into the Ribera del Duero wine region. This region has always been our favorite of the Spanish Reds and we wanted to tour the wineries and understand more of it. The Captain loves wonderful and interesting hotels, so he booked us into a 15th century monastery turned hotel. It was rich with history and they did a great job of turning the rooms into comfortable, elegant accommodations. And it was right in the heart of the wine country!

Our monastery/hotel in the distance with a vineyard in the forefront...

A closer view...

And closer yet...

And Richard in the entry door...

The monks were some of the original wine makers in the region and this is their wine cellar underneath the monastery. It is now part of the restaurant...

The inner courtyard or cloister of the monastery...

And the sacred sanctuary within the monastery...

We headed out the next morning to a winery called "Matarromera". Excellent wine and as we were tasting the owner Carlo Moro happened in and introduced himself. So we were fortunate enough to learn even more straight from him. He also encouraged us to visit his other winery called Emina just down the road. So we did and found even more excellent wine to taste and buy. They also had a museum that really educated us to the Spanish wine making ins and outs.

Tasting wine in Matarromero Winery---look at all that wine!!!

Now at Emina Winery...

And Richard imbibing at Emina. We learned that Emina means the amount of wine each monk could have a day without getting drunk. And it was about a third of a bottle of wine. We were surprised that it was that much!

After a long nap (which we are very good at, especially after so much wine), we drove into the little town nearby of Penefiel to visit the large castle on top of the hill. The castle was a fortress built in the 15th century. The tour of the castle also had a wine museum so we learned even more...

Another wine that we have liked very much comes from the winery called Protos. And Protos is right beneath the castle...

And touring Protos was really impressive as it tunnels for over a mile underground/beneath the castle with it's aging wine cellars. It was the original winery of this Ribera del Duero region.
Here are just a few pictures of the many, many barrels of wine:

         
So needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed the monastery experience and the wine region. And to prove it, we bought many great bottles of wine to bring back to Ecstasea for the summer!

Endings and Beginnings 2017-2018

We have ended our winter time in our desert home, and just now beginning our summer time here on Ecstasea, our ocean home.
And we wanted to just highlight with pictures the wonderful time in the desert with all of it's abundant wildlife right in our own backyard. It was a warm winter and we appreciated more than ever our home with all of it's natural beauty.

First and foremost, our gorgeous cardinals that grace us with their appearance all day long as we feed them:

We have many males and females which we have named "Jamie and Claire"(you must read the Highlander Series to understand). And as I, Willow swing in my hammock every morning with  my wake-up coffee, Jamie sits on the top of the lemon tree and sings to me:

And then there is the hawk who sits on the fence and scares all of the other birds away...

The Bobcat that we happened to catch on a wildlife camera below our pool area:

And then a younger bobcat walking away down our sidewalk after playing on our back patio:

Then the fox right outside our kitchen on the front patio at early dawn:

The ducks who just happened to land in the swimming pool with a big splash and then strutted around...

And the always stinky, curious javelina who like to eat our cactus...

This one came right up to Richard on the outside of the fence and got a good sniff of him--we wonder if they think we smell as bad as we think they do:

Then they sauntered away down our sidewalk till next time:

Spring was magnificent as all of our fruit trees (lemon, orange, peach, lime and grapefruit) blossomed and overwhelmed us with their fragrance. And like I said, we enjoyed and appreciated our desert home more than ever, but now....
We are back on Ecstasea adapting to life in harmony with wind and waves once again. Esea took her long winter nap in Aqua Dulce in southern Spain. She wintered well and we had solar panels installed on the bimini.
We had intended to get over our jet-lag, get our sea legs and head straight to Portugal. But strong wind and waves just were not going to allow us to head southwest for many weeks, so we surrendered and headed northeast. We spent our first full moon sailing to the island of Formentera (one of the Balearic islands). Mother Moon hid in and out of the clouds all night but still gave us so much light to sail by and as always, She was magical!!!
Then we went up to our favorite island of Ibiza for a few days to visit some of our favorite places and go to the Hippy Market.
Then on up to our other favorite island of Mallorca. The weather here (as everywhere) has been odd this spring with much cooler temperatures and much rain. So we have spent more time in port in Palma than usual. And since we love Palma and have many friends there, we have enjoyed our time here a lot.

In front of the (barely seen) Cathedral in the background...


We have finally been anchored out in Cala Egos for a few days and for the first time this summer (it's mid June) we were brave and jumped in the sea. And we were even braver as we actually stayed in and swam---but it is Soooooooo COLD!!!!!

And now we have thought of a new adventure---we are going to sail to Valencia, leave the boat, rent a car and take a road trip to northern Spain and tour the wine country!
And so...we will continue from there and let you know our favorite wines along the way....

One of our favorite restaurants in Palma called "Wineing".

2017

WOW...It's 2017 and we are not sure how it got here so fast. But here it is, and even with all of the seeming upcoming challenges in the political realm, we are hopeful that we can and will create this coming New Year to our best and highest good.
It's been an odd and unusual fall/winter time for us here in Tucson. Our wonderful bodies have required a little more care and attention than we are used to, but all is well and we are coming back stronger now in 2017. We had a quiet holiday season and are so thankful to live here in this warm desert as the rest of the country has been hit hard this winter. We did spend New Years up in beautiful Sedona, Arizona for a wonderful spiritual retreat.





We leave in 2 weeks for a few fun days in Las Vegas where we will overindulge (just a little) in good food, drink and great shows. Oh yeah, the Captain gambles a good amount but it doesn't count as overindulging, as he always wins!
We have a few trips planned to see our good friends in California. And that is a great playtime indeed.
And we have some opportunities to share our warm desert home with friends and family as they visit us here this winter.



Life is sweet here in the desert as we share our backyard with the javelina (wild boars), the red birds, the Cooper hawk, and the bobcats. We have a new young bobcat who walks right up on the patio and acts like he owns the place. And he is so beautiful that he does own it all when he visits.


Richard golfs while i swing in the hammock listening to the fountain as i pretend to be back on EcstaSea floating on the ocean.
And we go dancing several nights a week, just so we don't become couch potatoes this winter.

We've reflected on the fact that our friends and family are world-wide since we became sailors of the sea. With our travels on EcstaSea, we've met and loved so many people of varying nationalities and cultures. And we know and appreciate that our life is so much richer with this variety in our lives. So whoever and wherever you all are (and you know who you are), please know how much we love and appreciate your presence in our lives. Thank you...






Life is rich and full and ever asking for more. More love, joy, peace, ease, experience and adventure. And just more of itself--life itself always asking for more. And to that we say "Hell YES"!!!

Summer's End

Okay, I know it's been a long time coming...this last post of the season. Somehow in the busyness of putting Ecstasea up for the winter and traveling back to the States, I lost motivation and inspiration. But wanting to get it done, here goes...

After the last of fun times on Mallorca, it was time to head south to our favorite island of Ibiza. It's about an 8 hour sail and it was chilly and rainy. About 4 hours into the crossing (completely out of sight of any land), we noticed a little yellow bird in the cockpit. We were down below to stay out of the rain, but he/she was hopping about under the bimini to stay dry. Now the question we had was how did such a little bird fly at least 30 miles from land in such terrible weather???  It was not with us when we left Mallorca, but here it was now.
Well it wasn't long before it found its way down into the salon with us. We were delighted for it to take refuge with us and watched it hop from the table to countertop to all over. And then (now i think it was a she) she took a liking to my Captain and hopped right up on his head. Granted, his hair was looking like a bird's nest so she made herself right at home. And i just happened to have the camera nearby:

She stayed there for quite a while as i laughed and Richard just patiently let her be. Then to our dismay, she hopped off and flew back out to the cockpit and at some point disappeared. We don't know how she could've made it to shore, especially in this weather, but we really, really hope she did.

We did our usual fun things on Ibiza such as going to the Hippy Market for year end sales on fabulous clothes, going into Ibiza City for dinner and a little more shopping, and going to drum the sun down in Binerras Cove.

Our usual annual selfie on the sea wall in old Ibiza town:

And watching all of the old hippies on Ibiza drum the sun down in Binneara's Cove:

Looking from land as the sun sets:

And then we had our usual special  time on the little island of Espalmador. We arrived on Fall Equinox (September 21) and for us, it was definitely beginning to feel like fall. It was often overcast and much cooler so we took long walks on the beach instead of swimming. And it certainly felt like the end of the season as there were less boats around and we had it mostly to ourselves.
It's a sweet and special place for us and we played around with selfies and photo shoots---just having fun with it all:

Who says "Real Men" don't wear skirts (sarongs)???

Beautiful Yemaya off of Espalmador:

And then it really was time to cross over to the Spanish mainland and head south. Instead of going straight to Aquadulce to put Ecstasea up, we broke the trip up by stopping in Alicante first. We had never been there and wanted to explore a new port.

Overlooking the town is the 16th century castle of Santa Barbara.
Very impressive:

Lucky for us there was an elevator to the top...

We found Alicante a lovely port and town with great food and fun places to just walk and meander, taking in the ambiance of it all.
There is the famous Paseo de Explanada which is a promenade made up of red, cream, and black marble which imitates the waves of the Mediterranean.

And finally it was time to move on to Almerimar where we still had a little more work to do on Esea before she took her long winter nap in Aquadulce.
So we were back in the land of fabulous Sangria from our favorite bartender, Frank at the Stumble Inn bar. How fitting it felt to end where we began the season 5 months before.

And so we celebrated the last full moon of the season on Ecstasea here in the port of Almerimar:

It was definitely a different summer than we had envisioned at the beginning. But looking back we are thankful for all of the great work we had done on our beautiful Ecstasea to keep her sea-worthy as our wonderful ocean home. We learned patience and flexibility and the lessons of finding peace wherever you are in any circumstance. We had way more time to go within and grow in deep gratitude for all of it...realizing that what we perceive as "good or bad", is only a perception anyway. Life just "is" and it is all very, very, very good!!!!

This and That Around the Island of Mallorca

After a week of anchoring on the southeast coast of the island, we've decided to move on. Our time at Es Trenc or Rapita (as we usually call it) was filled with several long swims a day, lovely sunsets and star filled nights.
And for entertainment we had men shooting out of the water propelled by jet ski's...

Look how high he is compared to the boat behind him...

This has been all the rage for a couple of years here in the Med...

So we began our journey around the island by grabbing a mooring ball in Andratx to go to shore and see one of our favorite friends, Julia. She owns a lovely boutique called Snif and the Captain love to adorn the first mate with Julia's beautiful clothes. What's not to love about Andratx???

Continuing west we spent a couple of days in Sant Elmo. We've wanted to experience the paddle boards that everyone here has, so we rented a couple at the beach and tried them out.
The Captain is definitely much more skilled than the first mate as he actually stood on it and didn't fall off...

I was happy to stay on by just staying on my knees...

Continuing north along the west coast was a visionary delight with the wild and rugged cliffs---spectacular....

Sunset in a north coast anchorage. The pinkish colored mountains reminded us of our Tucson home where the mountains turn this color every evening at sunset....

And then our first encounter with the huge jelly fish that sometimes invade the island. Luckily we saw it before it saw us...

Look at the size of this jelly!!!!

We also began seeing a few of the little jellies with the long tentacles as we swam. Richard's been stung several times by these and has been fine after a little discomfort. We have no idea of the sting of these big suckers and don't plan to find out.

It's been a number of years since we have circumvented the entire island of Mallorca, and so this has been a sweet remembrance of sorts. The island is 62 miles long and 47 miles wide with many wonderful coves to explore. But unfortunately the eastern winds made it difficult to anchor along the east coast. So we journeyed on down to the southern coast once again to where we started in Es Trenc. After a couple of warm days anchored here, this anchorage once again spit us out with a big storm in middle of the night. We waited it out till daylight and hi-tailed it out of there as several boats ended up on the beach with the high winds.

So yes, here we are again in Palma, safe in port. But at least we had several weeks out and about the island of Mallorca.

Another fun happening was seeing the many big super yachts around the island. When we see them we go on the computer and look them up to get the stats, etc.
Here is a picture of Kismet in an anchorage on the south coast. It charters out for 1.2 million Euros a week...

This is Rising Sun--the boat that President Obama and Michelle vacationed on in Tahiti in early spring. Oprah, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Springsteen were also aboard. Now it is here on Mallorca...

And coming back into Palma we saw this boat---the oddest sailboat ever. It was built and owned by a Russian billionaire. It's value is 400 million...

And walking around Palma we saw this odd occurrence---a man cleaning the stop lights. Tell me, has anyone ever seen anyone cleaning the stop lights in America before---has anyone ever seen anyone cleaning stop lights anywhere???????

Okay, enough of this and that. We're happy sailors whenever and wherever we may roam (sail)...

Palma...never leaving

We had a special friend named Ray (and we still do in spirit). We met him in the Med 6 or 7 years ago and saw him again in the Caribbean. And Ray and his lovely wife, Fran, even came and stayed with us a few days in Tucson. Ray has influenced us greatly with his loving and generous spirit and we remember his words often. Ray had a saying when he found a beautiful cove or favorite port and that was: he would state the name of the place and say "_______....never leaving"!

Well we channel Ray lately as we say, "Palma.... never leaving"!
Now we love Palma and it's a good thing that we do, as it seems we can't seem to stay away from it.
Every time we leave to go anchor out for unlimited days of summer fun, Ecstasea says "uh-uh, I don't think so"... She wants more loving attention and so we go back into Palma for more work and repairs.
So we come in to fix something and then head out to anchor and explore quiet, beautiful coves and beaches. And sure enough, Esea misses Palma and back in we go again. So really, it's our wonderful boat home that loves Palma and says "Palma....never leaving"!!!

And with all that said, it has given us the opportunity to connect more with all of our friends here in Palma. We've been out to dinner with some of them and went to a rooftop dinner party a few weeks ago.

And if it's not Esea taking us back into port it's the crazy, funky weather this year. All of Europe and Spain has had a massive heat wave. It was 103 degrees in Mallorca, which is unheard of. We've even slept several nights out in the cockpit or on the foredeck just to catch a breeze. And there have been more big mistral winds and thunderstorms too.

Now when we do make it out of port we usually go to one of our favorite anchorages called Rapita on the south east coast of Mallorca. We were here for the last full moon which was a partial eclipse that we were able to see. And of course, pictures just can't do Her (Mother Moon) justice...

We have wanted to re-explore the east and north coasts of Mallorca as it has been about 7 years since we were there. But it just isn't happening yet as the wind and waves keep us on the south coast. But the south coast is great for swimming and snorkeling so what's not to love?
Soooo, we've actually been anchored out now for over a week and Esea is getting loving attention from us but not needing it in the way of repairs. YEA!!!

There's another saying that we quote often and it goes like this:
"If you want to make the Goddess laugh, make a plan".
So we have made the Goddess laugh hilariously all summer and now we are laughing right along with her. All of our plans have been futile and hopefully we are learning patience and flexibility in our life.
Ecstasea has gently and not so gently rocked and rolled us this summer and given us the opportunity to "Roll in the deep" as Adele sings. Rolling deep within--exploring and finding ever more deeply our true nature independent of circumstances. Taking that ever expanding journey within is so much more important to us than all of the outer journeys we could possibly take. So having this time and opportunity was not what we had planned, but has turned out to be perfect.

So here we are without a plan, easefully resting in the perfection of it,  and maybe going no where at all...

"______________ (wherever)... never leaving!!!