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| Greece & Dalmatian Coast, 2009 |
We are officially slackers with regards to our blog.
Since we posted last I brought the ship south from Alameda, CA. after a good shipyard. Our Baja season on the Sea Lion went very well with better than average weather and good wildlife. The grey whales left from Magdalena Bay a bit early so we spent some time getting guests to and from San Ignacio lagoon but with good success. During our January break Michelle and I headed north to Texas and Tucson to visit with family and then retreated to Baja. During our spring vacation we made good use of the time on Cheers and journeyed north to Loreto and back to La Paz, seeing some old friends (Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer) and making some new ones along the way. The sailing was good, the anchorages were a tough call (where will it blow from tonight?) but all in all it was a great time.
In early May we buttoned up the boat after stripping all of the canvas for hurricane season. In the midst of this we managed to pack up our gear for a six month tour of the Mediterranean and the Dalmatian Coast. Hmm, I think that I forgot to mention this. Michelle and I were asked to come as a team to manage a sailing ship that Lindblad has chartered for the Greek Islands and the Dalmatian Coast. The name of the ship is the Panorama and Michelle worked on it for that last part of this same itinerary last year. Last year, things didn’t go so well so we were “guardedly optimistic” going into this.
It turned out that the management company for the ship had made some significant changes in equipment and personnel which made our lives much easier. We headed out from La Paz in May, kissing our boat (Cheers) goodbye and headed across the Atlantic. Upon arrival into Athens Michelle got busy preparing for the season and I head to Crete in order to board the ship early and check out the situation. Shortly thereafter we met in Athens, got everything together with the help of fellow staff members Sharon Grainger and Linnea Sjorberg and headed out on our first official voyage of the season. We started with a week in the Greek Islands and then we were off for the Dalmatian Coast. The Dalmatian Coast voyage began in Athens and included stops in Itea and Ithaka (Greece), Sirande and Durres (Albania), Kotor, Montenegro, Dubrovnik, Mljet, Korcula, Sibenik and Hvar (Croatia).For the voyage back to Greece reverse the order. We found great people in countries with diverse backgrounds, beautiful countryside and a ton of culture to absorb. After going up to Dubrovnik and back again it was good to see Greek waters on the horizon. We had a few more voyages in the Greek Islands and then we were off for a break. The Greek Islands itinerary usually includes stops on Dilos, Mykonos, Santorini, Milos, Follegandros, Polliegos, Sifnos and Kythnos. Granted we shift this around due to weather and dock availability but you get the idea. We had a mix of calm and windy weather but there was always sun and you can’t beat a daily dip in the Mediterranean. After three trips in the Greek Islands we packed everything up for a short break and headed to Spain, but that’s another entry. All in all things went very well for our first run on the Panorama.
Take a look at the link “where’s the Panorama” to check out the daily expedition reports from this season.
