Dear Michael,           I’m wondering if your perfect cut and shave have grown out since we’ve been apart.  I miss you, and it makes me smile to think about that master barber flaming your ears in Karaköy.            From the…

We girls had an argument, and Gerty won.  She got a new gennaker, and I got a splint.  The new sail is awesome.  It’s red, white and blue.  My thumb was just blue.  The pollice schiacciato (crushed thumb) happened in…

To say I haven’t thought of you every day since I’ve been in France would be an understatement.  Your spirit was with the birds in the trees that line the river walk to Le Paz.  You were in the snowflakes…

I’ve missed writing from this spot in Gerty’s salon.  I always sit on the starboard side, facing port.  My computer rests on the world map that covers our table.  Our picture wall, with snaps of friends and family, is to…

There is a panificio in Licata, Sicily where the bakers made us feel at home the very first time we went there.  The woman behind the counter spoke just enough English, and we spoke just enough Italian to communicate our…

Let’s talk about sailing, and Greek salad.  You know it’s going to be a serious passage when the dinghy motor gets hoisted and locked away. You know it’s going to be the best Greek salad you’ve ever tasted when every…

Only because of a strong upcoming wind did Gerty dock in front of my house in Brindisi, South Italy on the 14th of October.  That's how I (Axel from Vienna) bumped into Michael and Jill. My plan was to bring…

If you cross your hands over your heart, hook your thumbs together and fan out your fingers, then you have made the emblem of Albania. I learned this from Greta (Albanian-Italian), who is the wife of Andrea (Italian), who is…

There’s water everywhere!  The streets are flooded and children are splashing into giant puddles.  The sky has swallowed up the sun in a hurry, only to burp out intermittent dark grey clouds of indigestion.  We spent the morning reprovisioning at…

Old friends are the best friends. They are comforting, and reliable. They’re like your favorite sweater; the one that when you put it on, feels like a warm hug.  But what happens when your old friends reinvent themselves; they let…

Isn't it funny how you think you're so different from your siblings, until you play a board game together?  My sister, Bonnie, took three planes and a taxi to meet up with us in Slano, Croatia, and that was just…

You know what’s lovely?  The sound of soft rain drops on Gerty’s deck.  Not a torrential lightning storm like the one we had to deal with that terrifying night, but a ballet slipper pit-pat, pit-pat, pit-pat.  The rhythm makes me…