Trip

As mentioned before, I wanted to sail to
Istanbul. The thought slowly expanded and I decided
that it would be interesting to venture further if
I can get there until the 1st of July.

This explains the Black Sea loop. On most of the legs I'll have some company from friends and family.

We'll start in Slovenia, from there we will be daysailing the coast of Croatia down towards Albania. All with frequent stops in Croatias beautiful Islands and it's magnificient old cities such as Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik.

Even though I'm not really an earlybird, we will rise early and sail during the days. Partly to avoid the full summer heat at noon - isn't it nicer to spend these hours with snorkling, hiking or reading (?) -
partly to avoid risky overnight sails.

Having withnessed and I might almost say, survived, the mother of all thunderstorms one night last summer, I'm not so keen to repeat that experience. If it would have to happen anyway, I'd still prefer this to happen in daylight.
At night you have a hard time to see weather built up before the first gusts or lightnings enlighten the situation.

Pending on the political situation I will stop by in Albania before reaching Greece. In this country I'm keen to see so exciting places as Athens, the Meteora cloisters, old Olympia (the site of the games!) and the Olymp (The highest mountain in Greece and throne of the gods!!).

Greece means also encountering the strong summer winds, the Meltemi. But I hope that they pose no major problems. The timeplan calls to reach the Turkish coast well ahead of the onset of the peak of the Meltemi season.

When reaching Turkey, Uzo will be replaced by Raki and we will sail up the coast towards old Troja and the famous Dardanellas which seperate Europe and Asia.

From there we will feel the excitement of approaching a big city which unites Christians and Muslims, Europe and Asia and the Mediteranean and Black Sea peacefully in its walls.

I S T A N B U L! Topkapi and Bazars, Turkish baths (Wow, what will it be nice to have a hot bath to wash that salt away!)

Decisiontime! Black Sea, yes or no? We'll see. The temptation is to see some remoter places after all the tourist places. From Crimea over Odessa to the swamped lowlands of the Danube Delta are a lot of places waiting to be conquered.

The second half of the trip will entail sailing from the Dardanellas to Alexandria and inspecting the famous Mount Athos before Thessaloniki and the Olymp Adventure are waiting.

Well seasoned we will once more pass the channel of Corinth before braving in late autumn the Adriatic while sailing towrds Venice, pearl of the Adriatic. 

When you go to the chart which shows the current position, you will notice that there are hotspots linking to pictures and stories which tell a bit about how these hopes were turned in reality.