News About The Greer Family

August 14, 2002: Cruising In Croatia

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Since our last news update we have traveled down the western coast of Italy, visiting Rome and Pompeii on the way. We have traveled to the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily and celebrated Jocelyn's thirteenth birthday by climbing Stromboli, an active volcano in the Aeolian chain. We then did a three-day passage from Lipari, Italy, through the Straight of Messina, around the boot of Italy, and then across the Adriatic Sea to Dubrovnik, Croatia. During the passage we set a new record for both Dragonsinger and her crew by sailing for eighteen hours non-stop during the third day of our passage.

From Dubrovnik, we have cruised the islands to the north and west until we reached Split, the largest coastal town in the south of Croatia. Along the way we met up with three American boats, Arbella, Onskan, and Willy Flippit, all of which have children. We spent days at anchor, hot in the 35C temperature, but with ten children and eight adults cooling off in the 28C Mediterranean Sea. In the last week, Kevin celebrated his eleventh birthday and David turned 45. The weekend saw us meeting up with Bill and Jean Cote on Soleil Sans Fin, another Royal Vancouver Yacht Club boat. Bill and Jean organized a pot-luck brunch on Sunday with people from four Canadian and four American boats. We even had Canadian maple syrup for our French toast. It has been a wonderful summer and we have enjoyed it to the fullest.

David's Diary

Marina di Pisa

David continues to work on his personal diary. The last entries in his diary covered up to early May when he was completing a lot of boat work in Palma, Mallorca with the help of the local yachting center. His diary has been updated to include our crossing of the Western Mediterranean Sea, the end of school, Sardinia, Croatia, our visits to Pisa and Florence in Italy, and summer time relaxing in the islands and harbours along the western side of Italy. David continues to write and update his diary and he'll have more entries with our next Web update.

Travel Pictures

Ponte Vecchio

We have added to our picture section by creating a place for travel pictures. Pictures from our visits to Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Pompeii are now available. All pictures are captioned, but there are no additional descriptions.

Itinerary

Our summer has gone as we planned it. We spent the first half of our holidays in Italy and the second half in the Adriatic. It is only a few short weeks until school starts again and once that happens we will have to slow down our travelling. For now we expect to continue heading north from Split along the coast of Croatia and if we feel there is time we will make a trip to Venice. Then it will be time to mix school with long passages back down the Adriatic. We will once again have to pass around the boot of Italy. From there we will either spend time in Sicily or make a trip to Malta, before ending up in Monastir, Tunisia by late-October.

August:	Croatia with a possible trip to Venice, Italy
September:	Adriatic Sea with a possible trip to Malta
October:	Arrive Monastir, Tunisia by the end of the month