CHANGES
This month's Changes features Escapade's know-before-you-go report on cruising the Med; the truth about sailing in southern Mexico from Cinderella, and Where Are They Now? — a look at where some of the boats and folks featured in 2018 Changes are now; followed by Cruise Notes
Greece's Kioni Harbor. 'Escapade' often anchored out — both for comfort and to avoid exorbitant marina fees often charged for multihulls.
Euro makes operating in many different monetary systems much easier. More importantly: Google! With Google Maps, you can find almost anyplace you are looking for. And with Google Translate (and the advent of the photo phone), you can actually make yourself understood as to where you want to go or what obscure piece of equipment you need for your boat. But the single best event to make your sailing and living-aboard life more enjoyable is the 2017 outlawing of roaming charges. Now instead of clearing into a new country and immediately beelining it to your local Vodafone dealer searching for a new SIM card in a new language, your Italian/French/Spanish/etc. phone works automatically in your new EU country — and you are instantly online! Online is where you go to find what you need, what you want to see — and what you want to avoid. We get all of our weather information online. We can check out museum hours and restaurant reviews and learn more history than we can ever remember. We can find marine supplies and technicians who can solve our boat problems. Sometimes we even change course when we find a particular person or business that can help us keep this floating home working properly. And, of course, we are privy to the myriad opinions and often useful information of the bloggers and vloggers looking for followers for their travel stories. And don't worry about ever getting out of range or 'going dark' in certain places. In the Mediterranean, you are rarely more than a day's sail away from the next port, and — in our experience — you are rarely if ever out of Internet range, even many miles from the coast. Where to go? Where are the best places in the Med? Again, that runs to individual tastes. I was fortunate to run around the south of France and the Balearic Islands in the '70s and '80s, so a visit to St. Tropez today is totally off my radar. To say it has changed since the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Mick Jagger were often spotted around town would be a massive understatement. But if you have never been there, the old town is still charming and the ESCAPADE
ESCAPADE
Escapade — Catana 52 Greg Dorland and Debbie Macrorie Four Years In the Med Squaw Valley Is four years in the Med enough for you? Enough for me? As the old saw goes, that depends on what your tastes run to. For Debbie and me, there's no doubt — we love Europe and the majority of the Mediterranean cruising experience. The Med does take some getting used Debbie and Greg's 'local knowl- to. For exedge' will help Med-bound ample, unboats. less you're looking to be a hero to the sailing purist crowd, don't go there with the (hopeless) idea of sailing everywhere. You'll do a lot of motoring. In fact, check all dogmas at the door because the sailing experience in the Mediterranean will alternatively please you and drive you crazy — often on the same day. Let's start with some basics: This is not the United States of Europe. Despite the advent of the EU, these are all separate countries with different cultures and experiences. That said, a few things have come to pass that make traveling through Europe and the Mediterranean easier and more pleasurable than when I first explored Europe 40 years ago: The
Above: Sara Bigontina, "our Italian friend and language professore," whips up her famous spaghetti carbonara. Except for special occasions, most meals were enjoyed onboard. Below: one of those special occasions at the beautiful old Greek town of Monemvasias.
Plage de Tahiti is still the place to be seen . . . just try to go in the shoulder season (late spring or early fall). (Please note: It's easy to forget that the Med is in close proximity to a major part of the world's wealthy population, and it's overrun in July and August. If you think Ft. Lauderdale and Newport, R.I., have beautiful yachts and hordes of people, look forward to a quantum leap in numbers and style in the Med, particularly in the yachting centers of Palma de Mallorca and Porto Cervo.) One has to look carefully to find liveaboard cruisers among the plethora of European-owned boats used by families on weekends and holidays, as well as the vast charter fleets. In Croatia alone, there are reputed to be 2,000 bareboats for charter, plus countless gulets (traditional Turkish sailboats) for rent. We found a number of primarily English-speaking cruisers hailing from South Africa to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States scattered
