Category Archives: Updates

What’s new from the crew of Gyatso

Black Sea, Publications, Updates

New Supplement to Black Sea Cruising Guide

Image: The Black Sea cover. Credit: Imray and RCCPF.The latest update to our cruising guide to the Black Sea was published in May. Supplement No 5 for the 1st Edition (2012) of The Black Sea is now available on the RCC Pilotage Foundation (RCCPF) and Imray websites.

From the RCCPF website:

Despite the security situation making the area more problematic for yachts, it remains a very interesting destination. Lisa Borre and David Read Barker have produced a comprehensive supplement giving details of the many changes that have taken place in this area since the publication of the book.

We understand from our sailing friend Zafer Türkmen in Istanbul that there will be a rally along the Turkish coast of the Black Sea this summer to Samsun, Turkey from the 3rd to the 29th of July 2017. For more information or to follow the DADD RALLI 2017, visit their Facebook page. Continue reading New Supplement to Black Sea Cruising Guide →

Logbook, Updates

The Voyage of Gyatso Comes to an End

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Gyatso being hauled out at Port Annapolis Marina on 27 May 2014, bringing an end to our extended voyage. Photo by Lisa Borre.
Gyatso being hauled out at Port Annapolis Marina on 27 May 2014, bringing an end to our extended voyage. Photo by Lisa Borre.

When hauling out Gyatso two weeks ago, the reality finally sank in: our 8 1/2 year voyage had come to an end. I was grateful and relieved that we had completed the journey safely and sad because it meant the end of long-distance cruising for us.

We’ve been busy since our last logbook update, which was about loading Gyatso on a freighter for the trip back from Europe. I wrote about our experience with “Shipping Home” in the December 2013 issue of SpinSheet magazine.

Here’s a brief update since then… Continue reading The Voyage of Gyatso Comes to an End →

Updates

Welcome!

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We just set-up this new blog platform and will start posting here soon. While we’re making this transition, all of Gyatso’s previous website pages will remain available.

Black Sea, Logbook, Russia, Updates

Russia: Gyatso crew cancels plans to visit Russian Black Sea coast after learning that foreign yachts are still not welcome

News Update

Date: 16 July 2010

We cancelled plans to visit Russia today after learning that a European-flagged yacht was denied entry to three separate Black Sea ports in Russia in early July, despite having all paperwork in order and a fluent Russian speaker onboard. We had hoped that things would change when Sochi, Russia won the bid for the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 earlier this year, but apparently this is not the case.

While planning a circumnavigation of the Black Sea, we wanted to visit all six countries bordering the sea. Having visited Russia and other former Soviet Republics several times in our work with international organizations, we are perhaps more familiar than most about entrance formalities. Although we could obtain the necessary advance tourist visa to visit Russia, we could get no assurances from officials that an American-flagged yacht would be allowed entry into Russian territorial waters. Continue reading Russia: Gyatso crew cancels plans to visit Russian Black Sea coast after learning that foreign yachts are still not welcome →

Italy (Gaeta), Logbook, Updates, Wintering-over

Visit to England in 2009

Photo: David Barker and Lisa Borre receive award from Ocean Cruising Club.
Lisa and David receiving the “Qualifier’s Mug” Award from the Ocean Cruising Club at their annual meeting in Southampton, England.

Logbook Entry

Date: 4/07/09 (Tuesday)
Location: Gaeta, Italy

Last Friday, we attended the annual general meeting of the Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) in Southampton, England, an event where we were also awarded the “Qualifier’s Mug” for the “most arduous qualifying sail as written up in the club’s Flying Fish journal.”  After joining the OCC last year, we submitted an article about our transatlantic voyage in 2007, which was published in the Flying Fish in 2008.

While in England, we took the opportunity to visit friends from s/v Bobo in Emsworth and land-loving friends Tony and Sallie of Coombe Cottage in Shepton Mallet (Somerset). We also visited London, Glastonbury, Stonehenge and Brighton before returning to Rome and Gaeta.

Here is a photo album from our visit to England: