Although we only spent a few days in Turkey we got to see some beautiful spots (and some of the hottest weather we’ve had in a while). Starting our trip in Gocek we visited Marmaris and Bodrum before heading to Santorini in Greece.

Our trip through Greece was also only a few days long but we saw the islands of Mykonos, Spetsai, Hydra and Poros before dropping off our guests in Athens. I then got the chance to drive Dream through the Corinth Canal (see photo) and we headed north again towards Croatia.

This photo of Bonifacio was taken by Jamil who is the deckhand on Dream. We spent a night in Bonifacio during a trip around Corsica at the end of July, before we headed east for the three day passage to Turkey.

Dream will be cruising the SW coast of Turkey and the Greek islands for a week or two before heading back to Croatia and the Adriatic.

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.

The last few weeks have included a lot of travelling. Firstly from St Maarten up to Bermuda, which took about three days. Then from Bermuda we crossed the Atlantic to Gibraltar, stopped to refuel and made our way up to Barcelona where we’ll be for a week or so. This was the first crossing I’ve done as Captain so it’s good to have made it over smoothly.

Vix has now left Dream and is in the south of France where we are planning to base ourselves for the next year or two.

Last week was spent anchored off St Barths for the St Barths Bucket sailing race. We were there with guests from a sailing yacht that was competing so some of the crew got to race with them and the whole week was quite relaxed.

This week we are back in St Maarten catching up on a few maintenance jobs before we begin to head for Europe.

I’ve been enjoying the chance to ride some of the hills here on St Maarten on my mountain bike, though puncture proof tires are an essential as the trails on the island seems to consist solely of thorn bushes and cactus.