S/V Aphrodite

We succeeded in converting a hearty, rugged, ‘of-the-earth’ desert trip into a cushy, comfortable, luxurious experience! 
The original plan was to rent a car, drive to Douz, ‘the gateway to the Sahara’, organize an overnight camel expedition into the desert, sleep in Nomad tents, eat simple food cooked over an open fire and really experience [...]

My Tunisian hammam experience was similar to and yet completely different from my Moroccan experience.  If it weren’t for Angela’s desire to go I think I might have skipped it.  How glad I am that I did not.  The basic set-up is the same, with women and children splashing buckets of water on each other, [...]

Once again Aphrodite’s is singing with the flurry of activity.  John and Angela are with us now.  We met them in Sicily, the night before our ‘Big Blow’ experience.  They were the ones who came to our assistance after releasing our entangled anchor.  After they secured their boat they dug deep into their lazarette and [...]

We have been in Sicily for 3-4 weeks now and have only seen about half of the country. We have been dealing with winter weather patterns which are more immobilizing than we expected. Near the end of Oct. we started having a few days of terrific blows followed by 2 weeks of calm which allowed [...]

The Amalfi Coast is one of  Italy’s jewels, a dramatic, rugged, craggy mountainous region with sheer wall cliffs plunging into the sea, similar to the area around Cinque Terra. The difference being that the entire area has developed into one of Italy’s most popular tourist destination. It includes Capri, Naples, Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii, the [...]

We have just completed a 2-day whirlwind trip of Rome, a treat which I did not expect or plan for since the city of  Rome is about 30 miles inland and there aren’t any safe anchorages in which to leave Aphrodite during the day.  At the last minute we decided to go into a marina [...]

The sinfully creamy rich yellow mini custard tarts of Portugal.  Long ago young women were sent to the Catholic convents to become nuns if they angered their father or refused an arranged marriage.  The young nuns were not pious or committed to God, but were often rebels and troublemakers.  So, in order to prevent too [...]

Anchored off the Cinque Terre area south of Portofino, gave us several days of calm seas and bright blue skies and we felt comfortable and confident anchored in the unprotected area.  About 2 am of our last night, the wind shifted and started to build.  By 7 am when we could see to move we [...]