Writing one webpage for the whole summer trip does not do it justice. Each of the places we visited really deserves their own attention. Fantastic scenery, world-class historical sights and crystal clear and warm water. Anyway, this is a brief highlight of our trip.

This is the routing we have had since we got the boat last August

Following wintering Atlas in Port Ginesta, we hauled out for cleaning, antifouling, propeller & hull polishing, and changed anode in Port Premia close to Barcelona, then it was time to head out for our summer adventure.

We left Barcelona on May 22nd. It was rather bumpy and cold overnight crossing to Menorca with Slava helping us. A lot of ginger was chewed on that crossing! As we were on a bit of a schedule to get to Italy for a wedding in Italy, we only spent 3 nights in Menorca leaving the Balearics for later. Øyvin joined us in Mahon and we set out for the crossing to Corsica, arriving in Bonifacio after 250 nautical miles over 40 hours. This was one of our favorite anchorages from last year. It is a superb natural harbor with an interesting medieval town sitting high above limestone cliffs, making up the coastline.

From there we crossed over to the Maddalena Archipelago on the north-east coast of Sardina, reminding us of Norway’s fjords and islands. We took a short trip in to Porto Cervo, a serious harbor for the rich and famous with plenty of very fast and large sailboats then continued to Olbia where Gerd joined us. Our last night in Sardinia was in Porto Taverna overlooking Isola Tavolara, a very uniquely shaped island. From there we had another overnight crossing, 24-hours, to the Italian island of Ponza. It was a relaxing trip where we fished, caught a delicious Dorado, and even stopped for a swim. Following an overnight in Ponza we anchored on rocks at the small island of Ventotene which was one of the top 3 interesting places we discovered.  

Back in the day Emperor Augustus built a huge summer palace with terraces and thermal baths, where in 2 BC, he banished his daughter Julia to keep her under control. Not much is left of the palace now. Since there was no natural port a 180m x 80m port was carved out to support Emperor Augustus’ summer residence. Amazingly the port is still in very good shape and maintains a depth of 3 m. Atlas would fit, but I would not try to enter or exit with any wind or waves as the entry is only about 10-12m wide. It is off the beaten path, but highly recommended.

After a short stop on Ischia, we motored down to Capri. The mayhem of tourist boats and high traffic all around the island was off putting. There are some interesting sites, but certainly not as special as its jet-set image. We picked up a mooring-ball at the far west of Amalfi coast in Nerano for an overnight stay and continued to cruise along the Amalfi coast. The Amalfi coast is picturesque with the pastel colored villages nestled on the cliffs. We have to return to explore the cities from land one day. We then put the boat in Agropoli Marina for 6 days for Pompei visit and the wedding.

Pompei was on the agenda and afterwards Øyvin and Gerd left us and we spent 2 nights in Paestrum in a small hotel for the wedding. We will be forever grateful to Gerd and Øyvin for sharing their wealth of knowledge helping us gain confidence in sailing and handling the boat. 

THE WEDDING: What a party!!. Radwa and Scott had invited about 60 family and friends, of which many with a Dresser/Western/Baker Atlas connection - what a reunion! The setting was near the Ancient Greek city of Paestum with 3 well preserved 5-6th century BC temples. The wedding party was held at the 14th Century manor house (now hotel Domus Laeta for 28 people) in Giongano. With the bagpiper playing off the balcony, old and new friends, excellent food and wine, dancing, and stunning views, it was an excellent wedding gathering. It took us a day to recover before we continued down the coast.

In Atle’s opinion this is moderately interesting until you come to Tropea. In Lynne’s opinion we discovered little gems along the way with superb geology and blue water caves at Palinuro, the town of Maratea with its 44 churches and a large statue of Christ the redeemer, the 19thC Piedigrotta church carved in a cave, and many more experiences. Tropea indeed was a surprise, we anchored in crystal clear water in front of the old town perched on top of a dramatic cliff.

Continuing our journey, there was hardly any wind which meant we motored along the coast. It all got more interesting after crossing to the Aeolean (aka Lipari) Islands. These Islands are between 30 km and 80 km off the north coast of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Vulcano is located closest to the Sicilian coast. Lipari and Salina follow to the north, Filicudi and Alicudi to the west, and Panarea and Stromboli to the northeast. We visited Stromboli and Alicudi on the first trip making our way to Sicily’s main island.

Palermo had a great vibe with its varied architecture, large 12thC cathedral, palaces, palazzos and markets. James joined us here for a comprehensive 2 week Aeolian Island tour. All were interesting islands with donkeys used for hauling luggage on Alicudi, the pinnacle and caves on Filicudi, wineries and caper farming on Salina, mud-baths and Sulphur gas coming out of the ground on Vulcano Island, and the fashionable spot for celebrities on Panarea. The active volcano on Stromboli was more active on our second trip with eruptions every 5-7 minutes. With the dingy we headed out to the North-West side of the island to see the eruptions at dusk; a remarkable sight.

Cruising along the north coast of Sicily took us to fascinating towns, the highlight being Cefalu with its Cathedral, beaches and medieval baths. Prior to James’ departure we put the boat in the marina in Termini Imerese and rented a car to drive across the island to see the Roman/Greek ancient city of Agrigento. It was founded in 6th century BC and has a selection of Greek temples and Roman ruins. It was interesting to see that both here and in Paestum the Greek temples are standing in relatively good condition while the Roman buildings built 400 or more years later are pretty much a pile of rocks. After James’s departure we went out to Favignana Island off the west coast of Sicily. This is part of a national park in the Aegadian Islands. The island has been ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and since 1637 belongs to Italy. There are remains of open pit limestone quarries all over the island and one of them has been turned in to a private botanical garden. The botanical garden of “dell’impossibile” is worth a visit. The island also had a major blue-fin Tuna industry. It is OK to skip the tuna museum if you go there, but do rent bikes and cycle around the island. By this time it was mid-July and it was getting busy and very hot, so we put the boat in the marina in Termini Imerese until the end of August and did some other travel these 6-7 weeks.

Part II
We returned to the boat on August 28th and readied it for the second part of the summer. Derrick joined us on 30th and we departed Termini Imerese August 31st. Espen and Bianca joined us in Cefalu and Sara in Tindari completing the crew. The plan was to cross to Greece immediately, but due to Daniel (hurricane) the wind was far from favorable for crossing, so we returned to the Aeolian Islands visiting Vulcano and Lipari. A strong northerly wind had us hide in a small bay on the south side of Vulcano Island for 2 days since most anchorages are north or east facing. We noticed the first night that there was some dust in the air and woke up in the morning to find the boat covered with black volcanic dust that had been blowing from the island. All hands on deck and we washed down the boat. We had another night in the bay on the north-west side of the island. Luckily the wind was in the right direction and only occasionally did we get a whiff of Sulphur from the crater. From there we went through the Mesina Strait to Reggio Calabria famous for the Riace Bronzes in the Archiological museum, discovered underwater in 1972. These Greek warriors cast in 460-450 BC are in amazingly good condition. From there we went down to Naxos/Taormina and met up with Barbara and Uli on their catamaran Jolie and their guests. They were coming from Greece heading towards La Grande Motte to get their boat ready for an Atlantic crossing in November.

We went up to Taormina town for some sightseeing, with the ruins of a Greco-Roman theatre. The second season of HBO’s series White Lotus was filed there, and also Cefalu, causing an increase in the popularity of the town. Sara and Bianca departed from here to return to university and work while we set off for Greece the following morning. This was a 270 nautical miles / 41 hour crossing to Kefalonia. We had relatively favorable winds and could sail most of the way at a good speed of 8+ knots. We rented bikes and visited two wineries near Lixouri. We spent the next days visiting  Fiskardo and Sami on Kefalonia as well as Keri and  Zakynthos town on  Zakynthos with a stopover in “Shipwreck beach” on the west side of Zakinthos. In  Zakynthos town we officially checked in to Greece with all the hassles involved. As a non-EU vessel it is required to pay a tourist cruising tax and carry a trip-log with crew/passenger list at all times while in Greece. Furthermore we had a crew-change, both Derrick and Espen departed then Anastasia and Alexey arrived where we spent the week cruising around  Zakynthos and Kefalonia includig settig a new speed record for the boat at 14.5 knots. We found a real gem of a bay on the north of  Zakynthos called Agios (Saint) Nicolaos with nice clear water and good tavernas. Costa’s Mooring ball was free with the expectation of having meals in his family run taverna which was no hardship at all. We rented a small speedboat to do some sightseeing up the coast and even saw a large monk seal. Alexey and Anastasis departed then Sophi and her friends Anna and Ella joined us for 5 days. The weather changed with stronger winds which had us switch mooring plans. We visited Ithaca in addition to Kefalonia and Zakinthos.

A week without guests had Lynne and Atle heading back north to Ithaca Island then the islands of Lefkada, Meganisi, Preveza on the mainland, Antipaxos Island ending up on Paxos Island. We hiked/walked to some sights. Therea re 2 Paxos Islands. Paxos and AntiPaxos. Antipaxos is pretty much uninhabited. Our next crew Alina and Slava joined us and we moored in Gaios, the main town on Paxos, where we moored right in town with a 6 meter commute to dinner from the back of the boat. It is a nice town with some interesting places to visit. See picture of the arch on the left. Lakka on the northern tip of Paxos is also a quiet and lovely place to visit. At this point we seriously started noticing that it was coming to the end of the tourist season with several restaurants closed for the winter. I do not understand why as the weather was still very good with water temperature of 26-27 degrees C and still a relatively good number of sailboats in the bay. From there we went north to Corfu and spent 3 nights on anchor. Our first night was spent in the south near salt marshes and 2 nights in the main town overlooking the old fortress. Corfu town is a UNESCO heritage site and was not damaged in the 1953 earthquake like most of Kefalonia,  Zakynthos and Ithaca. The Venetian charm remains although very touristy with 4 cruise ships in town at the time. We checked out of Greece and Schengen/EU and were planning on spending a few days on the last of the Greek islands before heading to Montenegro, but looking at the weather forecast we decided to go straight through to Montenegro bypassing Albania.

We had headwind most of the first day, tacking between Italy and Albania watching to not come closer to Albania than 12 nautical miles, which I think is the territorial waters. It probably would not have been a problem, but we erred on the side of caution staying 12 nautical miles off the coast. We arrived in Porto Montenegro after 31 hours and went through the check-in with Immigration, customs and port-police before they would let us put the boat in our berth for the winter.

We stayed 6 days in Montenegro renting a car 3 days visiting local sights. Highly recommend traveling to Montenegro. Porto Montenegro is super luxurious reminding us of Dubai, but outside of the marina there are some real gems to visit like Kotor, Perast, Budva, Sveti Stefan, Virpazar and Skadar Lake on the border with Albania.
We departed Montenegro Sunday October 22nd after about 400 nautical miles behind us from the time we left Barcelona in May. Overall, it was a VERY successful summer with the boat functioning well, encountering only minor problems. We gained a lot of confidence in ourselves and the boat throughout the summer and already are looking forward to exploring more of Greece next year.

Best regards,

Lynne and Atle

PS. Keep up to date with Atlas adventues by following Atlas sailing on instagram @sailing_atlas51