The south of France has been hit by one Mistral after another this year and we have been dodging the worst of the bad weather whilst cruising up and down the Cote d’Azur. Dream also visited Santa Margherita, where Vix and I got married, it was a little overcast (see above) but it was lovely to be there again.

Dream recently spent a day or two anchored off Cap Ferrat (see left) where there are some of the most expensive properties in the world.

Vix popped back to the UK for a quick visit but is now back in Antibes and looking forward to starting her new yacht management job in Monaco at the end of the month.

Whilst travelling a fair bit, as you can see from the title of this post, it’s been hard to find a few minutes to take some photos and get them posted here.

After Cavtat Dream headed around the southern tip of Italy and up to Naples on the west coast. We had a few days there so I had the chance to pop home for a very quick visit (about 36 hours, so sorry for not catching up with everyone), before flying down to France to see Vix who is living in Antibes.

Back on Dream we then cruised our way up to the Cote d’Azur and picked up guests in Monaco for a ten day trip. As I write this we are in San Remo, Italy tied up next to Mirabella V (above), the worlds largest sloop. That mast is 90m / 292ft high!

Dream’s first charter of the summer went very well and we were lucky enough to have a day off to enjoy Cavtat, a little town right at the southern end of Croatia, where we did a little wakeboarding and enjoyed the beautiful weather. In another few days we’ll be heading back towards the western Med.

Cavtat is only a few miles from Dubrovnik which has an amazing old fortified port. We were there at the same time as six cruise ships so there were thousands of tourists making it a little crowded to say the least.

In the busy few days leading up to the start of the summer season, I was lucky enough to have the chance to take a boat trip around the canals of Venice.

As Vix and I found out last year it really is an amazing city.

There is a lot of restoration work being done at the moment, and many of the ‘Palazzo’ need considerable TLC to get them back to the way were in Venice’s glory days, but with a new flood prevention barrier being built at the entrance to the lagoon hopefully Venice’s future is safe despite worries over global warming.

We pulled into Venice yesterday after four days sailing from Barcelona.

Despite nasty weather for the last day the trip went well, and it is a great feeling to have completed my first stint as Captain without any problems.

As we were lucky enough to have a day or two off in Barcelona, I took advantage of a local company called Barcelona Mountain Bike which take guided mountain bike tours of the hills and mountains surrounding the city.

Jamil, who also works on Dream, came along and we had a great three hour ride. BCN Mountain bikes rent bikes if you do not have your own and I would really recommend giving them a call if you are in Barcelona with a few hours to spare.

Our time in Venice turned out to be a wonderful few days. We were able to tour the canals by boat, and ate at some wonderful restaurants. Unfortunately we had to head off all too soon to pick up another charter in Syracuse, Sicily.

After that charter we have been cruising the Amalfi coast and Sardinia with guests, though Vix and I were lucky enough to get to fly to Zurich with the owner of Dream in his private jet which was an amazing experience. At the moment we are in Corsica with one charter left this season. Everyone is looking forward to a day or two off as it has been a busy summer (the last day off we had was in June), and then we'll be heading across the Atlantic to the Bahamas and Florida.

After a week of cruising through the Croatian Islands we are now in Venice. Croatia was beautiful, far too much to see in a weeks whistle-stop tour, so hopefully we'll be back sometime in the future to spend more time there.

Venice is a beautiful city, somewhat overrun by tourists, to quote thingstodo-venice.com"La Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, captivating city of canals and palaces - or merely a floating rip-off merchant bursting with tourists…If you get caught up in the never-ending flow of visitors tramping the narrow main thoroughfares it can be the epitome of hell…." but the small canals and back streets hide many beautiful squares and the history of this ancient city make it a place that we have always wanted to visit.

We are meant to get a half day to look around after our guests leave on tuesday so I imagine we will be taking a gondola ride, and maybe having a few Bellini's at Harry's bar, 

I'll let you know how it goes later in the week.

After leaving Kotor we have headed north into Croatia and the ancient port of Dubrovnik.

Sorry for the lack of news over the last month or so. We have been very busy chartering and cruising in the western Med. For the last few days we have been in the Montenegran town of Kotor. The scenery here is stunning, mountains rising straight out of the sea. Kotor is located at the end of the southern most fjord in Europe. After here we are heading north through Croatia to Venice.

We spent yesterday at a resort on the coast and then, in the evening, climbed to the Castle of St John which sits on a crag overlooking Kotor. The way up to the castle was a long winding set of steps but the view from the top was more than worth it.

The fjord is lined with peaks up to 1700 metres high and despite te cloudy weather we have had, Kotor is one of the most striking places we have visited for sometime.