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Leaving The Med
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 47 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: November 18, 2009
November 15, 2009
Cadiz, Spain
36 31 N, 06 15 W
Leaving The Med
By Tom Morkin
Just by looking at a map of the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, you might guess that the Strait of Gibraltar that separates the two would prove to be an interesting body of water for sailors negotiating its 30-mile length. You’d be right.



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Reaching The Rock Of Gibraltar Milestone
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 68 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: November 13, 2009
November 1, 2009
La Linea, Spain
36 09 N, 005 21 W
Reaching The Rock Of Gibraltar Milestone
By Liz Tosoni
In just over two years, Feel Free and crew have sailed the wide expanse (more than 2,000 miles), of the Mediterranean, known to the Romans as Mare Nostrum (our sea), that almost tideless, salty, generally shallow sea the size of 30 Lake Superiors. The shores of the Med are populated by Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and hordes of tourists of ...... Read More

Sailing Spains Costa del Sol
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 137 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: October 15, 2009
Our sailing in Spain could easily be classified into three parts: 1) Balearic Islands 2) Costa Blanca 3) Costa del Sol. The last, the Costa del Sol (aka “Costa del Plastico”), has been put behind us. In truth, our nine days on the southernmost coast of Spain were not that bad, especially if you didn’t mind open roadsteads for anchorages, rolling from gunnel to gunnel 50 percent of the time, knowing it would cost $150 a night for a marina berth, being trapped on your boat for fear of taking your dinghy near the surf pounded shore. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Cost...... Read More

Sailing Spains Costa del High-rise
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 322 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: October 01, 2009

Frankly, we were ready to move on from the tourist-infested Balearic Islands. The town of San Antonio on Ibiza was our last stop, a good jumping-off point for the Costa Blanca on the mainland and that’s why we went there, but it wasn’t our style. The Lonely Planet says it’s the perfect destination if you’ve come in search of “booze-ups, brawls, and hangovers.” Twenty-somethings strut the streets like peacocks and sprawl on beaches wearing next to nothing, counting the hours before the clubs open and the parties begin. Loud music blares all night long. Tour...... Read More

Sailing The Spanish Isles
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 311 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: September 15, 2009

It has now been seven weeks, three islands and 12 anchorages since our arrival in the Balearic Islands of Spain and the livin’ has been pretty easy. In fact, we’ve changed our original plan of staying one month cruising these isles, to two months. This rather radical agenda change is part and parcel with our “rigid policy of infinite flexibility.”
The Balearic Islands of Mediterranean Spain – Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera – have way too many splendid anchorages surrounded by rugged cliffs of sedimentary rock often pocked by caves both above and ...... Read More

An Interlude At Menorca
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 265 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: August 15, 2009
After a two-day passage from Tunisia, we made landfall at Mahon Bay on Menorca’s east coast. This nearly landlocked bay was the scene of much bloodshed during the 18th and 19th centuries as the British, French, and Spanish fought for control of the strategically valuable piece of waterfront. We immediately appreciated what a great all-weather anchorage Mahon Bay was and recognized such secure anchorages were to be the exception for our summer cruise through the Med, so we made the best of it by staying put for two weeks. Feel Free became our condo in Menorca.
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A Pleasant Passage To Menorca
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 166 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: August 01, 2009




“Bon voyage! Come back next year!” shouted Sharif, the ebullient Marina Manager as he tossed us Feel Free’s dock lines at Tabarka, our last Tunisian port of call. Tabarka is an appealing place with probably the friendliest, most helpful people we’d encountered in all of Tunisia, with a genuine sense of hospitality, but we’d spent six days there and about six weeks in the country. It was time to move on. “Merci beaucoup, chaucran !” – Arabic for thank you – we called back as we chugged off on a c...... Read More

The Agony And Ecstasy Of The Tunisian Coast
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 295 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: July 15, 2009
Food poisoned again! It was the “cous cous poulet” in Tunis. Both Liz and I had all the symptoms (which I don’t need to describe). They struck us immediately upon our return to Feel Free from our trip to Tunis. It could’ve been worse, much worse – it could’ve hit us in the train or bus or shared taxi, or just about anywhere in this toilet-deprived country. Or we could’ve been on passage – thoughts too awful to contemplate. Throughout our 36-hour ordeal, we couldn’t stop thinking about our waiter’s comment as he delivered our rather ta...... Read More

Tripping Around Tunisia
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 286 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: July 01, 2009

Not long ago, in a log called “The Joy of the Side Trip,” I wrote that one of the many benefits of sailing to foreign destinations is traveling inland to see the sights at your leisure, “Cruising is about passage-making and landing and for so many sailors, ‘the being there’ is just as important as the ‘getting there.’” Well, here we were Tunisia, North Africa, a compact country only slightly larger than Florida, or about half the size of Italy, with a world of sights to be seen.
There was a good tour being offered that included a driver/guide...... Read More

Tales From North Africa
Contributed by Feel Free - This blog has been viewed 259 times and there are 0 comments
Posted In Cruising Log
Posted: June 15, 2009
It’s 0900 and I’m nestled under a comforter as it’s only 60 degrees Fahrenheit and the sky looks like it belongs more in western Washington than in North Africa. It’s raining common varieties of house pets and blowing 30 knots out of the northeast. It would all be grounds for complaint except that it gives Liz and me a chance to do something that gives us a strangely satisfying pleasure especially when we’re only a couple hundred miles from the Sahara desert. We’re filling our almost empty water tank with newly minted, certainly fresh, clean and rather cool r...... Read More

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