The Sailingtheweb guide for the

Transcription

1 The Sailingtheweb guide for the V O Y A G E R Culture Voyages Islands Projects 1

2 The SailingTheWeb Guide for the Voyager Welcome to the SailingTheWeb guide for the Oceans. Our interactive project aims to provide the curious travellers with the basic facts necessary to explore the blue planet. The Sea s most powerful spell is romance, that romance which, in the course of time, has gathered round the ships and the men who sailed upon it the strange coasts and Northwest Passage Galapagos Ocracoke their discoveries, the storms and the hardships, the fighting and the trading, and all the strange things that happened and still do happen to those who venture upon it. No matter if you just leave the harbour for a day or you cross an ocean, at sea we are different, wiser and generally better men. In this volume: - The Ocean - Art and sailing; - The 5 most amazing Islands of the World Balearics Atlantic Ocean Sicily Greece - The golden rules to find the perfect crew - Places: the Aeolian Islands - Projects: crossing the Atlantic Ocean - Yachts: Weatherbird - Lights: Ocrakoke light station - Anchorages:the best coves in Patagonia - Wildlife: humpback whales - The Seven Wonders: Balearics - Parting shot: Vietnam Vietnam Every single one of the different shades of fascination inviting us to sail the Oceans are born in our inner sense of Romanticism, that ancestral need to feel the emotions and feelings coming from that endless expanse of undrinkable water. So let s forget the technical paraphernalia we use to cheat an ocean that is after all totally indifferent to us, but rather concentrate on this inner, abstract and poetical side of our selves. That is why the question What does it mean to cross an ocean has no sense. Because each of us has a different answer. It s the silent wonder you feel when you look at an atlas that invites you to cast off. You think of the ocean and the ideas, the music and the poetry waiting for you. Common sense provides many reasons to stop, but these are worth nothing. You know not the name of what is pushing you afar. It s just something that grows until you leave. Traveling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you - or unmaking you I do not remember why I dreamt the ocean, but I remember the emotions I was feeling. Those were the days when you just think about making love and sailing. That is making love with the World. I called the Naval League to get some clues about how to cross an Ocean. They told me to start anew and take sailing courses. Makes sense. But hat about those numberless crazy dreames who crossed an ocean with me many years later, with no clue about what they were doing? Is it better to know tacking or to know dreaming? Only your eyes fixed on the horizn while at the helm can know the answer. Your personal answer. So never ask an expert when you start dreaming. Buy a book, be it an Admiralty pilot or a tale by Patrick O Brien. Open the pilot charts of your dreams and follow those thin lines, those sensual curves between continents created by the whims of winds and currents. Then draw your own line choosing your only two points: the port where your heart will discover himself in the Ocean, and the other you have to reach safe and sound to crown your dream. THE OCEAN Patagonia South Georgia

3 SAILING IN ART Mauro Trucano for Sailingtheweb Alas, they do indeed exist: tell tales, dials, digital arrows, analogic indicators and even mechanical wind finders. Any sailor wondering where the wind comes from on a boat built after the cold war ended would look like a cook unable to mix butter and flour. And see? After three simple lines the beauty, the passion and the poetry of sailing vanished from the painting. Would you listen to a symphony just looking at the digital graph from the synth? If this was sailing I d rather stay on the couch and watch the AC on TV. Digital sailing, no salt and no love. Even eyes I would consider overestimated. Yes, because you really sail only at night. Because a sailboat is passion, vice and scandal. It s not a lovely woman with silky skin to caress in the sunset light. It s a dense intercourse, dirty and violent. It s sweat, saliva, sperm. Eyes are useless. Shut them and dive into the dark. Other senses will magically explode! Sea and smell? You surely knew the smell of the sea. What about sex and shellfish? Taste even The gorgeous power of a scallop in your mouth But now we are talking about something even subtler. The sound of the sea? Well, that s easy. Water along the keel is peace. Wind in the shrouds is terror. Strength in the sheets is power. Its a baroque symphony of romantic insistence, every movement similar to the other, but with infinite variations. But no. Here we are talking about touch. Not your hands on the tiller. The stars are your hair, your locks, your sensitive and invisible body hair covering every corner, every fold of your body, face, hands and earlobes. Don t picture the wind in your face. Sailboats do better alone when close-hauled and wind-bound. But imagine your delicate runs down the wind, when a small error will loose your bow towards the wind or worse will shatter your main. Do you really believe a dial will help you now? Feel the air flowing from your neck towards your face, choosing an ear instead of the other. Play with it, let it guide your arms on the helm when a turbulence hit the wrong ear, or when too much flow hit your cheek. Now the wave comes along and the airflow moves first towards your nose, then back when the wave is gone. You slowly realize that your hands must do less and less, that touch is playing with your body and your boat.you are making love to the sea. Now you have it. A night at the helm in the middle of the ocean is a symphony of sensations running between invincibility and terror, an orgasm with the woman we love in the constant fear it would be the last. ART IN SAILING A night at the helm in the middle of the ocean is a symphony of sensations running between invincibility and terror, an orgasm with the woman we love in the constant fear it would be the last.

4 Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together. -Thomas Fleming Day There is nothing so distressing as running ashore, unless there is also doubt as to which continent the shore belongs. STS Lecky She breathes sturdy eager confidence, a living embodiment of the truth that the sea is for sailing, that strenuousness is the immortal path and sloth the way of death! HW Tilman Nothing goes to windward like a BOEING 747 Tracy Ross Never test the depth of the water with both feet. Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit. I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2. -Earnest K. Gann Money can t buy you happiness. But it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black. -Nathanael G. Herreshoff Sailing is a good sport. You don t have to beat up the other guy like you do in boxing and football; you just try to outsmart him, and then you go out and have a beer with him -John Kolius Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar. South Georgia I seemed to vow to myself that some day I would go to the region of ice and snow and go on and on till I came to one of the poles of the earth, the end of the axis upon which this great round ball turns. Ernest Shackleton THE MOST AMAZING ISLANDS

5 THE MOST AMAZING ISLANDS Staten Island - Argentina Yes, it s farayay. Yes it s an off-limits military reserve. Yes it s the least sailor-friendly island around the Atlantic. So what? At least you do not have to fight against the ice floes. How to get there? Well, this is a virtual magazine. You either go with your own boat, or you dream of it with us... Stromboli - Italy Sail at night under the Stromboli volcano, where hell meets paradise, with a bottle of Chardonnay and a dish of swordfish rolls. The Sicilian dreadful logistics, the bottomless anchorages, the missing harbours and the lack of water will disappear in the face of the powerful, bewitching magic of the Aeolian islands. But it must be like that, beauty, pure and distilled beauty is hard to achieve and must be deserved. It s like the Sea,this perfect archipelago: magical, pure and indifferent of human ways Isla Genovesa - Ecuador Imagine frigate birds, hammerhead sharks, friendly seals, curious penguins and ancient turtles. ut them into the crater of an ancient volcano. Make a small opening in this crater so that you can sail in with your boat. Is that enough? Kastellorizo - Greece From the Oscar winning movie Mediterraneo, set in this perfect island: Life isn t enough. One life isn t enough for me. There aren t enough days. Too many things to do, too many ideas. Every sunset upsets me because another day has gone by THE MOST AMAZING ISLANDS

6 CREW Lots of waves rolled in the oceans since the days of Tilman s famous ad Hands (men) wanted for long voyage at sea. No pay, no prospects, not much pleasure appeared on The Times. Still, crew-hunting is an activity worth of serious consideration, for the fruit it brings might make the difference between a pleasant passage and a floating hell. Why a crew? The question barely deserves an answer, as far as I am concerned. Single-handed passages, although certainly thrilling and self-gratifying, tend to put a little too much strain on that famous definition of sailing pleasure out of terror, shifting the balance unpleasantly towards the latter. Safety, too, has its weight, not to mention sleep. Let s say that a face is generally preferable to a mirror. And, last but not least, crew tend to default less easily than autopilots. Moreover, the latter cannot reef, clean dishes, follow the wind and eventually alter course under a single spoken command. Someone objected that this is what wives are made for, but the category of cruising wives might soon become extinct if we compared them with autohelms. They should therefore be treated with respect because porn, although often handy and less prone to mutiny, cannot be depended upon in most of nautical uses. So, if we check out single-handling for safety and boredom, and family handling for the sake of a decent long-term relationship, we come to a point where crew might come handy. Crew can be professional, volunteer and paying. For obvious reasons we will focus to the two latter categories, which will be treated as one depending the difference simply on the amount of time, urgency of need and popularity of the chosen passage. Now, before the sacred list of requisites, there are pre-requisites that must be necessarily fulfilled. The candidate must have: a certain amount of money; plenty of time; a ridiculously light burden of social responsibilities. It comes to the eye that present-day nine-tofive, socially entangled city dwellers hardly respect all these conditions. The passing of time has also decreed the victory of bourgeoisie over nobility, so that the number of Bertie Woosters and Robert Byrons around decreased dramatically. To state it simply, crew must be single, jobless, dreamer, mostly homeless. One might come to the conclusion that the perfect candidate, while on land, lives under bridges and carries around its possessions in supermarket carts. This, fortunately, is not the case. A new social category has recently been born and is growing in number and from its varied population endless crew can be eventually fished from, like trout from a mountain lake. The subject in question is the modern backpacker, an end-of-the century upgraded and enriched version of the tramp. Most of them comply with the three magic pre-requisites and are usually young, kinda strong, well motivated, adaptable and with low expectations in term of comfort. Members of this new sub-specie are bred in western countries such as Canada, Germany, England, or Australia. They grow mainly in middle-class environment, attend with a certain success most levels of higher educations, feed on scarcely classified food, try to breed in strange places such as crowded hostel rooms, mate frequently, travel with their beloved belongings in astonishingly heavy packs that are strapped behind the members of both genders. While moving, and this happens very often, they crowd and spend a considerable amount of time (a currency they despise) in filthy stations, considering airports an upper class territory where adventure seldom occurs. They might invest 72 hours on hellish busses to save 25 dollars, and this actually and certainly classifies them among the cheapest labour on the planet. Although some of them have degrees in economics, the fact that the food consumed in the journey shift the pocket balance towards the two hours flight apparently goes unnoticed. They spend a considerable amount of time reading Lonely Planet books telling them where to go, thus barring them the way to personal achievement. These books, rarely cheap, are supposed to speed up the process of knowledge of a foreign territory. Strangely enough, they work like airplanes but are not equally despised. Other characteristics of the sub-species are: massive liking for the cheapest alcohol on the planet; follow-the-crowd syndrome masked by an off-the-beaten-path mania and justified on the basis of a empty wallet virus (but actually due to mating reasons ); relaxed set of ethics; low-profile cleanliness. One does not need binoculars to spot backpackers, and their hunting is generally prohibited with the exceptions of some areas of Botswana, Japan, Antarctica and almost all Swiss cantons. They clearly show the necessary pre-requisites, but the item must be used in limited quantities and under the strictest surveillance. Tricks and wise ness have to be called upon most frequently and the management will require the Captain s constant attention. Still, drawbacks notwithstanding, green crew from this category is almost always preferable to experienced, sea-going hands because, taken with the correct precautions, the former can easily be moulded into a nice work by shrewd and experienced hands. Backpackers can be hardly burdened with too much discipline, and the glorious days of sail where lashes and gaols were the order of the day are, alas, too distant in the past; this makes it clear enough that compromise is often necessary and the backpacker must be handled with care. Freedom is, after all, what we are all after, and this is the key to crew handling. CREW

7 CREW Too much discipline, and the glorious days of sail where lashes and gaols were the order of the day are, alas, too distant in the past; this makes it clear enough that compromise is often necessary and the backpacker must be handled with care. Freedom is, after all, what we are all after, and this is the key to crew handling. First of all, keep well in mind that most problems come with crew ashore. When unlashed, the backpacker has no potential limits, especially after many days at sea. Literally anything can happen and a certain amount of problems must be expected. These usually come in the shape of women and bottles, but this, after all, is just the natural continuation of a millenary tradition. Sex and getting wasted (generally at the same time): this is what ports are for. Cadeau s crew have been reported, among the others: sleeping stoned in enclosed premises or building under construction; starting dreary fights with native males all too keen in stating their territoriality (in this case one might expect Interpol complications, loose pregnant women, or both); being chased by the harbour patrol, the latter following a track of floating empty beer cans encircling the perimeter of John Wayne s house; using police cars for private purposes (taxi or harbour shuttle); disappearing for days (up to four) for the sudden appearance of madly in love fiancées flying in from other continents; dancing (again stoned) strange Irish balls; harassing, with mixed success, other people s girlfriends; loosing dinghies and forgetting the position of the vessel in harbour; using limos to cross large cities without the money to pay for the service; alerting girlfriends with optimistic ETAs (thus creating alarm in the subject, alarm usually transferred to the local coast guard station); forgetting things such as persons, passports, girlfriends, family, children, wives, credit cards, debts, stocks, binoculars. Up to now, not a single drop of alcohol have been spilled, thus making up for the rest; accumulating astronomical bills in cheap bars (record stands at 123 dollars in cheap drinks of two bucks each); having sex on docks, beaches, toilets, sordid motel rooms, wharves, family houses The list must be considered a sample and other facts, unknown to the Captain, might also have occurred. To contain this problem, RULE 1 states: limit and choose carefully your ports of call, keeping well in mind that only isolated anchorages can be considered secure, and this only if no other vessel is in sight. The importance for a serious yachtsman of arriving into harbour unnoticed and shipshape cannot be overstressed. A backpacker, encaged for a long passage, might render this difficult to achieve, mainly by rendering himself/herself, too conspicuous while mooring and afterwards, or by criminally forgetting duties such as cleaning the vessel, dressing properly and so on. If a boat arrives not clean, it is unlikely that it will become so afterwards, being the crew generally bar-bound once the boat touches the dock. This is particularly distressing for a Captain who, so often burdened by the weight of papers and responsibility, has to remain aboard much longer; if the inside of his beloved vessel is a tangle of bags, clothes, packs and shoes, the galley dirty and the heads filthy, the pleasure of reaching harbour is greatly diminished. This must be avoided at all costs: RULE 2: enforce strictly the clean before mooring rule and the silence rule when mooring. Orders, in this case, might not be enough, but sometimes papers and immigrations might come to help. Impound passports, forbid landing until papers are cleared, lie without shame about strict harbour or country procedures until a shipshape condition is achieved. Blackmail any crew with a dubious visa position and make a good use of any ignorance crew might have in these matters. And keep them ignorant. Rule 2 must be enforced by all means, including the use of weapons. No serious port captain will ever blame you. Life aboard deserves several considerations. First of all, when not attracted by spectacular down-wind surfing, crew tend to grow lazy if left free to linger. Autopilots are to blame indeed. Laziness means moodyness and a horizontal position is likely to become prevalent. RULE 3: always keep watches going, at the helm and steering. Boycott your autopilot if necessary. The strategy always pays in the long term. Continues Why to go: Sail at night under the Stromboli volcano, where hell meets paradise, with a bottle of chardonnay and a dish of swordfish rolls When to go: March through October Suggested tour: Tropea - Stromboli - Panarea - Salina - Filicudi Mileage (approx) : Cruise length: 1 or 2 weeks Difficulty : medium SICILY - AEOLIAN Weather: warm

8 SICILY - AEOLIANS The Sicilian dreadful logistics, the bottomless anchorages, the missing harbours and the lack of water will disappear in the face of the powerful, bewitching magic of the Aeolian islands. But it must be like that, beauty, pure and distilled beauty is hard to achieve and must be deserved. It s like the Sea,this perfect archipelago: magical, pure and indifferent of human ways. Then you can enjoy amazing cocktails at the Barbablù restaurant, share Ingrid Bergman s feelings when she fell in love, here and then, on the set of Rossellini s masterpiece Stromboli, the Land of God, or again stroll along the paths where Philippe Noiret played Pablo Neruda in the movie Il Postino - The Mailman. But it s not over yet: spectacular capers, amazingly deep blue waters and fishermen who has not sold their soul for an ocean trawler. And while in most cosy Mediterranean villages you find crappy painters who idolized the local alleys, here it was the other way round, and they built their houses out of dreams. Again about heaven and hell, sailing in these waters is hellish in the central weeks of august, and paradise for the other 48 weeks of the year. Weather and anchorages: the British pilot would state that anchorage around these islands must be prompted by necessity and without any hope of tranquillity. Luckily enough, in summer there are only two dangers: westerlies (easy to forecast, and channel 68 is kind of reliable) and thunderstorms: one moment you are sipping Martinis on a terrace with a delightful lady in a warm august night, then before you reach the olive it might be blowing 40 knots and your boat is having fun twisting the chains of the two anchors you let go because you never know. Thunderstorms are not always predicted but easy to spot on the horizon. In westerlies, the best anchorages are Salina E side S of harbour and Panarea Milazzese (best overall anchorage to combine holding ground, landscape and shelter). Stromboli provided some shallower patches in the NE corner, and if one is really desperate it s also possible to let go s of the dock and lay out a line ashore. It is surprisingly very calm, but you might wake up in the morning and discover that you are on the beach with a jump. In Stromboli both NW and SW tend to come more from W. In thunderstorm you might just have to switch side of any island for a couple of hours. Lipari is never a good anchorage for the endless ferry traffic. Vulcano E side is nearly bottomless, while the western harbour, a very good anchorage, is unfortunately ugly. Filicudi nice in good weather. Forget Alicudi altogether. Nice small anchorages if you can get into, some bays on the W side of vulcano and Lipari. Watch for foul anchor in rocks in Ginostra, Cala Nave and Basiluzzo. Day anchorages for swimming, not to be missed: Panarea: Basiluzzo-NE corner, Lisca Bianca, and Cala Nave (NW corner of Panarea). Filicudi: rocks W of the island and cave. Salina: Pollara (W side, where they filmed The Mailman. W sides of Vulcano and Lipari. Breezes: thermals from NE in calm days between 1 and 5. Good for sailing. Dangers: apart from the rocks, easy to spot but not at night, SE of Panarea and W of Filicudi, none whatsoever. You just need a long anchor chain, and possibly a delta-cqr Galley: the prudent cook shops on the mainland, like at Milazzo for example, where there is a local fish market that can bring tears to sensitive eyes. Some tuna and swordfish they chop up deserve a calendar, like the prawns, mussels, clams and basically all you can hope to keep fresh aboard. There are also several supermarkets and wine stores. Butchers are plenty. Very good the one in Salina and in Lipari. Do not miss Messina rolls (Involtini messinesi), a kebab of breaded rolled slices of chicken, cheese and ham, with numberless variations. Other fishmongers in Lipari and Salina. Other products you cannot leave port without are local capers, pachino tomatoes, olives and Tropea onions. You won t have shortage of surprises when you sit down at the table in this area. The locals like their suppers long and substantial, and you might experience a slight sensation of overfilling. When you eat around here, you understand the full value of a siesta and stop wondering why the locals close their businesses between 12 and 4 Wine: Sicilian wines are worth serious research. Planeta produces our favourites, but there are many excellent brands. Salina has its own wine, with two companies producing probably a little too much if compared to the surface of the vineyards. But these miracles tend to happen nowadays, don t they? Natural beauty, seascapes and landscapes The seven islands forming the archipelago are all volcanic, with Salina boasting two twin cones reaching 3,000 feet. Stromboli, itself over 3,000 feet, is very active and Vulcano mildly so. The 5-hour return night hike on top of Stromboli is something you ll never forget. The landscape is one of strong contrasts, black sands, small but very high islets with vertical walls and crystal clear waters, red lava forming small coves and deep caves, pillars of frozen rock jumping out of the sea. Each island has its own features and peculiarities, but all of them can embrace the voyager with that magic spell that made this area our favourite in the world, hands down. Local insight Life on the islands of the archipelago is very peculiar out of the busy months of July and August. The local population is somewhat odd, to say the least... You might meet local fishermen that could star as Robinson Crusoe, Australian expats with an artistic touch for gardening, restless travellers who got charmed and cannot leave again, German wine producers who forgot their homeland altogether, Dolce & Gabbana, I mean themselves in person, the Princess of Belgium, Sicilian butchers with Swiss butcheries, a refined gay set, fishmongers with a Pavarotti talent, the Italian President and a very rude, but still powerful for his firm hold on the Ginostra transport monopoly, donkey man. Just get lost in the alleys and by sunset you ll be sipping with the locals. Restaurants: Ginostra (puntazzo), Stromboli (Barbablu), Panarea (Pina) Before the Little Ice Age, Norwegian Vikings sailed as far north and west as Ellesmere Island, Skraeling Island and Ruin Island for hunting expeditions and trading with the Inuit groups who already inhabited the region.[11] Between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, colonial powers from Europe dispatched explorers in an attempt to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of Asia, as in 1493 to defuse trade disputes, Pope Alexander VI split the discovered world in two between Spain and Portugal; thus France, the Netherlands, and England were left without a sea route to Asia, either via Africa or South America,[12] unless their ships defied the ban and explored such waters regardless (they did, and the ban became unenforceable). England called the hypothetical northern route the Northwest Passage. The desire to establish such a route motivated much of the European exploration of both coasts of North America. When it became apparent that there was no route through the heart of the continent, attention turned to the possibility of a passage through northern waters. This was driven in some part by scientific naiveté, namely an early belief that seawater was incapable of freezing (as late as the mid-18th century, Captain James Cook had reported, for example, that Antarctic icebergs had yielded fresh water, seemingly confirming the hypothesis), and that a route close to the North Pole must therefore exist.[12] The belief that a route lay to the far north persisted for several centuries and led to numerous expeditions into the Arctic, including the attempt by Sir John Franklin in In 1906, Roald Amundsen first successfully completed a path from Greenland to Alaska in the sloop Gjøa.[13] Since that date, several fortified ships have made the journey. THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

9 PROJECTS AND DREAMS Atlantic Sailing Routes A transatlantic crossing is the dream of every sailor. But this chart shows that the possibilities are endless. You can follow the all-year round route between te Canaries and the Caribbean, or the Cabo Verde to Brazil. If you like the roaring forties, there are 3 main routes between South america and Cape Town sailing by the fabled Tristan de Cunha. On the other side, if you are on the west side of the Ocean and you must sail back to Europe, then things are slightly more difficult because you need to get in the roaring forties anyway. That gives you a good excuse to sail by the Azores and stop for a beer at Peter s bar in Horta. The North Atlantic is a strange beast and it looks like you can sail both ways. Still, you need to sail closer to the Azores on the way from Manhattan to Chelsea, while closer to Iceland between Chelsea and Manhattan ;). Strangely enough, there are no routes willing to sail you towards Nigeria. By who would like to sail there anyway? Contact us for more details WEATHERBIRD Lenght: 32m80 (100 ) Beam : 6m56 (20 ) Draft: 3m93 (12 ) Built: 1931 Shipyard: Chantiers Navals de Normandie Guests: 8 Crew: 5 Engine: Mercedes 200 Hp cruising speed 9 knots Fuel consumption: 30 l/h including generators Fuel capacity litres Generator: 2 (380W, 220W) water capacity: litres watermaker: 80 lt/h Gerald and Sara Murphy were the first owners of the Weatherbird built for them by the Normandy Shipyard in Him from Boston, she from Concinnati they were in the 20s and 30s of the icons of artistic and literary life of the time, friends of Fitzgerald they were the inspirations of the protagonists of Tender Is the Night and for Picasso they were protagonist in several of his works..... The French Riviera was invented by the Americans. In the twenties of the twentieth century, before Cole Porter, an ingenious musician and then Gerald and Sara Murphy, billionaires with a passion for the arts and artists, made what some later called Revolution Summer Gifted artist Gerald Murphy and his elegant wife, Sara, were icons of the most enchanting period of our time; handsome, talented, and wealthy expatriate Americans, they were at the very center of the literary scene in Paris in the 1920s. YACHTS

10 YACHTS In Everybody Was So Young--one of the best reviewed books of Amanda Vaill brilliantly portrays both the times in which the Murphys lived and the fascinating friends who flocked around them. Whether summering with Picasso on the French Riviera or watching bullfights with Hemingway in Pamplona, Gerald and Sara inspired kindred creative spirits like Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Nicole and Dick Diver in Tender is the Night were modeled after the Murphys). Their story is both glittering and tragic, and in this sweeping and richly anecdotal portrait of a marriage and an era, Amanda Vaill has brought them to life as never before Léger s 1934 watercolours Portrait of Gerald Murphy and Portrait of Sara Murphy There were gymnastics and yoga, lots of dancing, of course, and cruises on the Murphys schooner, the Weatherbird. LIGHTS OCRACOKE LIGHT STATION, SOUTH CAROLINA - USA Ocracoke Light was built in Hyde County, on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina in 1823 by Massachusetts builder Noah Porter. The lighthouse stands 75 feet (23 m) tall. Its diameter narrows from 25 feet (8 m) at the base to 12 feet (3.7 m) at its peak. In 1864, Confederate troops dismantled the fourth-order Fresnel Lens, but Union forces later restored it. Ocracoke Light is the oldest operating light station in North Carolina. The lighthouse was automated in During the summer months when there is a U.S. National Park Ranger on duty, visitors may access the base of the lighthouse. Access to the top of the lighthouse is not allowed due to the simple steel spiral staircase being safe only for maintenance activity. However, this is not the original staircase; the original staircase was a wooden step spiral built into the inside of the exterior wall. This was removed during the 1950 s due to excessive rotting to the boards and a lacking necessity for a substantial staircase because of the automation of the light. The wooden stairs were removed and the holes in the all-brick lighthouse were cemented closed. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as Ocracoke Light Station.

11 GOURMET Gourmet cruises The team and the crews of SailingTheWeb share a nearly romantic weakness for the gastronomical heritage rooted in the many maritime communities scattered around the Mediterranean and the Far East. The simple subject of fish soup can be enough to start a philosophical and linguistical discussion where the variety of names matches the richness of the various ingredients. Bouillabaisse in Marseille, Caciucco in Leghorn, Caldereta in Mahon, Gregada in Losinj, Moqueca in Parati... Nothing like food and its rainbow of flavours can offer a more complete and deep insight into the heritage and the culture of a region. And the poetry of the ingredients vary from a port to the next, while the perfumes of the wine match these heights of variety. A private cruise is the ultimate way to enjoy this route among flavours. Joining one of our vessels means: - a private chef at your service to combine your tastes with the local gourmet traditions; - a continuously evolving view of the rainbow of flavours of the region; - a private guide to the best restaurants and taverns of the Mediterranean; - an endless wine chart with on-board delivery to let you enjoy your favourite wines; - a perfect vacation in the absolute privacy of the most beautiful coves and havens of the World. For those willing to prepare a spectacular dinner here is one of our recipes Mussels Cadeau Open the mussels on a low fire and keep the upper part of the water. Detach a shell from each mussel. Keep them very lightly cooked. For the sauce: reduce a couple of glasses of dry white wine with a couple of shallots finely chopped. Thicken with roux blanc (butter and flour). Regulate to your taste the thickness of the sauce with the water of the mussels Add the mussel and stir well while cooking. Serve and enjoy the sauce with bread... THE 3 BEST COVES IN PATAGONIA Caleta Brecknock By far our favorite anchorage on Planet Earth. Very few vessels stop here along the rarely sailed route between Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. The island in the background is the place there an entire continent, South america, turns East. Out there is wilder, windier and nastier. so full of rocks that Slocum called it The Milky Way

12 Caleta Notch The mountains in the back are the south side of Magellan Strait. This cove is very well sheltered but most of all does not have high mountains around so the danger of williwaws is relative. You eant to know what a williwaw is? Well, imagine to be inserted by mistake in a wind tunnel where the wind is rushing at knots. Thare you have it. Only, the wind tunnel must be vertical, because a williwaw literally falls from the sky, hits the water, then spread about... Caleta Hornos You might imagine Patagonia as an endless, windbeaten and straight coastline. And you d guess right. But in the central part of the area, between Puerto Camarones and Comodoro Rivadavia, lies a small peninsula with this splendid cove in the middle. Dolphins and penguins play just ouside and guanacos roam along the plain. There are no steep hills to create williwaws and it looks like being anchored in a swimming pool. You might just complain if you like company. The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from metres (39 52 ft) and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms (79,000 lb). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. An acrobatic animal known for breaching and slapping the water with its tail and pectorals, it is popular with whale watchers off Australia, New Zealand, South America, Canada, and the United States. Males produce a complex song lasting 10 to 20 minutes, which they repeat for hours at a time. Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 25,000 kilometres (16,000 mi) each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer, in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter, humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble net feeding technique. Like other large whales, the humpback was and is a target for the whaling industry. Once hunted to the brink of extinction, its population fell by an estimated 90% before a moratorium was introduced in While stocks have since partially recovered, entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and noise pollution continue to impact the 80,000 humpbacks worldwide. WILDLIFE

13 COVE Isla del Colom - Menorca The Seven Wonders of the BALEARICS CAPE Formentor. Georges Sand fell in love here, and you ll probably feel as romantic. One of the greatest capes in the Mediterranean RESTAURANT Bardia, Palma. We gave up on expensive trendy cafes and bars, and just ended up going here for every meal. The portions were large, the prawns amazing. HARBOUR Port Mahon. Perfectly sheltered, wonderfully fascinating, deeply historical. There are only three ports in the Mediterranean: Mahon, July and August - Lord Nelson VOYAGE Sail the north coast of Mallorca between Formentor and Dragonera ISLAND Isla Conellera - Ibiza VILLAGE Dejà, Mallorca

14 Halong Bay - Vietnam GOODBYE SHOT