Mike & Merrie are heading for the Med....

[Cathy Monaghan]

Here's our last communication with fellow CDSOA members Mike & Merrie aboard Adagio.

Subject: Countdown for crossing the Atlantic!

April 29, 2009

Dear Friends,

We're in Antigua, provisioning and preparing Adagio for crossing the Atlantic ("the pond", as sailors like to say). More about this below....

We wrote last from Iles des Saintes, at the beginning of March. We had a lovely stay there. We'd hoped that the general strikes on Guadeloupe would end before we had to head further north. but that didn't happen. So we sailed to Pointe au Pitre on Guadeloupe but yellow-flagged it for the night (the yellow flag is a "quarantine" flag, which mariners are required to fly upon arrival in a new country prior to clearing in) and early the next morning we sailed through Riviere Salee on our way to Antigua. The "river" is actually a salt-water channel dividing the two main islands of Guadeloupe.

We stayed in Antigua a few days, then headed to Nevis for a brief visit and on to St. Martin where we spent several weeks provisioning for the big crossing (prices are very good on St. Martin) and having our autopilot repaired. The autopilot hadn't been able to maintain a course for most of the winter and it turned out that it needed a new computer and fluxgate compass (both under warranty, we're happy to say).

Although much of March was a working month, we had some fun times too. We've posted photographs and narrative on our website: visit http://www.sv-adagio.org and click on Our Travels, then the photo labelled Winter 2008-2009: Caribbean again, and then March 2009: Iles des Saintes to St. Martin.

In preparation for our next passage, Mike has installed an AIS transponder (we previously had only a receiver). This will send a signal to other ships giving our name, location, speed, and so on. It's a great safety feature; sailboats can be hard to pick up on radar and we want to make sure that other ships (who carry at least an AIS receiver) know where we are so they don't run into us!

Our friend Bevan Crighton flies in tomorrow to join us for the Atlantic passage. We know several other boats who are doing the crossing from Antigua and on Sunday evening we'll all head to Shirley Heights for their famous barbeque and jump-up.

We plan to leave the next morning (May 4), weather permitting. We'll sail to the Azores, where Bevan's wife Barbara will join us for a few weeks. Then we and Bevan will sail on to Gibraltar.

We've constructed a web page with links to ship tracking software that you can use to watch our progress across the Atlantic. We've been sending position reports since March 3, so you'll see some activity already. Visit http://www.sv-adagio.org and click on Our Travels, then the photo labelled Summer 2009: To the Med!

As you can probably guess, we're pretty excited about heading to the Azores and the Med. We're glad to hear that Spring has finally arrived up north, and we hope that the year is turning
out to be a good one for you.

We'll write again a week or two after our final landfall, sometime in June.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

The following note is from Merrie:

June 12, 2009

Dear Friends,

This is a a quick note: we're about to leave the Azores. We plan to make landfall at
Vilamoura on the Atlantic coast of Portugal; weather permitting, the passage should
take 6-7 days. Then we'll wait for a good weather window to head into the Med.

We had a very good crossing from Antigua to the Azores, and we've enjoyed our time
exploring these islands. We hadn't had time to update the website; we'll do that after we
complete the Atlantic crossing. In the meantime, you can track us as before:

> www.sv-adagio.org
> Our Travels
> Summer 2009: To the Med!

Hope all is well,
Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Mike]

We arrived at Lagos, Portugal, last Friday. Spending a few days doing repairs and then we'll work our way along the coast to Gibraltar and into the Med.

Webmaster hasn't had time to update the website, but we should have pages posted soon about our passages and the time we spent in the Azores.

[Warren Kaplan]

Outstanding!!!!! I loved Portugal when I was there. Of course I was land bound then. Enjoy your visit to the Med!! Wish I was along!!

[barfwinkle]

Mike & Merrie

I was trilled to learn of your land fall on Sunday (I learned on sunday). Great news.

Fair Winds

[Mike]

Merrie and I want to thank everyone for their good wishes. We made landfall in Lagos, Portugal after an exciting sail from the Azores. There will be more on that and our Atlantic passage when Merrie updates our website (coming very soon). The usual Email will go out when the update is complete.

In the meantime we have moved on from Lagos to Faro and now Vila Real de Santo Antonio at the mouth of the Guadiana River all in Portugal.

A happy summer and good sailing to all our friends in the states and elsewhere.

Mike & Merrie
s/v Adagio

[Mike]

The webmaster has finally updated our website to include our Atlantic crossing and 3 weeks in the Azores. Feel welcome to check it out!

[Cathy Monaghan]

Here's a note from Mike & Merrie:

----- Original Message -----
From: Merrie Bergmann
Sent: Monday, July 13, 2009 12:11 PM
Subject: Adagio's in Gibraltar!



July 13, 2009

Dear Friends,

Yes, we're in Gibraltar -- the entrance to the Med. We made it!

We had a good passage across the Atlantic, 17 days from Antigua to the Azores in May and 7 days
from the Azores to Lagos, Portugal in June. Naturally we had some rough weather, but we also had
some very fine days. A few days after we set out, Mike and I commented to each other that it felt like
"just another passage" -- seems we're getting to be old hands at this, but much of the credit goes to
our crew member Bev Crighton. Bev is a terrific sailor, skilled at inspecting the boat and helping fix
what's wrong, and now a good friend.

You can read about our passage by going to www.sv-adagio.org,
clicking on Our Travels,
then Summer 2009: To the Med!,
then Atlantic Crossing.

If you followed our progress with one of the ship trackers you can continue to follow us. We've
added links to the ship trackers at the bottom of our home page, for easy access, and we'll try
to submit position reports whenever we move.

Bev's wife Barb joined us for two weeks in the Azores. We visited four of the islands: Faial (where
we made landfall), Graciosa, Terceira, and Sao Miguel. Unfortunately, we spent the first
week of Barb's visit in one place, Horta, repairing failed equipment and sail and rigging damage
that occurred during our passage from Antigua. The good news was that we loved Horta.

The Azores are beautiful, both the countryside and the towns, and the people we met were warm
and welcoming. The islands haven't been discovered by major tourist franchises, which certainly
adds to their charm. VIsit our website -- as above but click on May/June: The Azores after
To the Med! -- for pictures and a narrative about our tour.

We made landfall in Lagos on June 19, and Bev flew home two days later. Mike and I stayed in
Lagos another week, waiting for more repairs but also enjoying the city. Since then we've day-sailed
from port to port along Portugal and the Atlantic coast of Spain, and finally through the
Strait of Gibraltar last week. That passage, by the way, was a piece of cake, with the wind behind us
and no seas to speak of. We'll put photos and narrative about Portugal, Spain, and Gibraltar on our
website sometime in the next few weeks. Needless to say, we're very excited to be here!

We hope that mid-summer finds you well, and we'll be in touch again as we head into the Med.
We'd love to hear from you, too.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

Here's the latest from Mike & Merrie.

=========================

Dear Friends,

Hola from Moraira, Spain! We've been waiting for a package to arrive here and when it does, we'll sail to the Balearic Islands.

Since making landfall in Portugal, our time has been spent about evenly between sailing/touring and repairs/waiting-for-shipments-from-the-US. Actually, whenever we say "sailing" you should substitute "probably motoring or motorsailing". One thing we've seen firsthand is how different Mediterranian sailing is from Caribbean sailing. In the Caribbean there are constant tradewinds, while here there is usually too little wind for proper sailing -- and when the wind does pick up, it tends to be too strong and on-the-nose for comfortable sailing! Cruising is also different here, at least along the Spanish coast, with most people spending time in marinas rather than at anchor (which we prefer). This is understandable; there are very few protected anchorages, and many of these now have large areas cordoned off for swimming -- in effect, eliminating the anchorage. Another reason for ducking into marinas is to rinse off after it rains -- it's only rained once since we arrived in Portugal, but when it did it made a mess on the boat. The rain washes all of the dirt and sand that was in the air right onto the decks and sails and into the rigging.

But we can live with that! We've seen some wonderful places already. After Lagos we sailed up the Rio Guadiana between Portugal and Spain to visit two lovely small, but very old, towns. The next highlight was Cadiz, on the Atlantic coast of Spain, believed to be the oldest standing city in Europe.

We were thrilled when we sailed through the of Gibraltar, and enjoyed visiting the Rock. The biggest treat after entering the Med has been Cartagena, where we toured several excavations including a Roman ampitheater.

Visit our website for pictures and a narrative about our travels from Lagos, Portugal to Cartagena:

http://www.sv-adagio.org
then click on Our Travels,
then Summer 2009: To the Med,
then June - August 2009: Lagos, Portugal to Cartagena, Spain.

We're starting to make plans for the winter and are awaiting confirmation of a marina berth in Sardinia. But for the next few weeks, anyway, it's gazpacho, sangria, and paella.

We hear that the summer in the Northeast US has been wet, wet, and wet, and we hope that the remaining few weeks are better. To our friends elsewhere: we hope that your weather has been better all along.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

I just received this note from Merrie. They're in Sardinia!

===================

----- Original Message -----
From: Merrie Bergmann
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2009 11:25 AM
Subject: Adagio's in Sardinia for the winter



October 26, 2009

Dear Friends,

Buongiorno! It's a beautiful fall morning in Cagliari, Sardinia, where we have a berth for the winter.

It's been a couple of months since we last wrote -- from Spain -- and we've had some wonderful adventures. We visited Valencia, a lovely city, before leaving the Spanish coast, and then we sailed to the Balearic Islands. We loved them (although we didn't go ashore in Ibiza)! We'd heard of Mallorca, of course, but didn't really know what to expect -- it is a gorgeous, sometimes breathtaking, island, from the city of Palma to the small villages along the northwestern coast. We knew nothing about Menorca and discovered an archaeological paradise with incredible structures from the Bronze Age.

And now Sardinia -- wow! We've only toured the northern part of the island, but we have the winter to continue our exploration.

You can read about our travels since August on our website:

www.sv-adagio.org
click on: Our Travels
then on: Summer 2009: To the Med!
and finally on: Mar Menor, Spain to Mallorca or Menorca to Sardinia (that is, we've added two pages this time)

This has been an incredible journey so far, but we are glad to take some time off to get the boat ready for the winter -- and then to fly back to the US on Nov. 4. We'll be spending the holidays with our family and friends, along with doing a number of stateside chores before we return to Sardinia in early January. We'll stay here in Cagliari for the rest of the winter. The marina is quite nice, with a good liveaboard community. And of course we'll rent a car once in a while to see the rest of the island.

Our current plan is to get underway again sometime around April. We'll probably head north to Corsica and France at that point, but who knows? We are so fortunate to be retired and to have all the time we want to explore the Med.

We won't be updating the website again until we're ready to get underway. In the meantime, we wish all of you a good holiday season and new year. As always, we'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

I just received the following note from Merrie via e-mail:

================================

----- Original Message -----
From: Merrie Bergmann
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2010 9:23 AM
Subject: Leaving Sardinia soon...



March 27, 2010

Dear Friends,

Buongiorno! We hope that you had a good winter holiday season and that Spring has come your way.

We're getting ready to leave Sardinia this coming week. We had a great winter here, after flying back to the US for the last two months of 2009 -- where we visited friends and relatives and bought a lot of things that we needed for the boat.

Cagliari is a neat city, and we've enjoyed spending time with new friends in the small liveaboard community at St. Elmo's Marina. We've travelled out of town several times -- to see prehistoric and ancient historic sites, to attend Carnival events, and to visit a lovely plateau withwild horses. Sardinia is a wonderful island -- with landscapes from pastoral to mountain ranges(and of course beautiful shorelines), archaeological treasures dating back as far as the bronze age, a variety of cultural traditions and celebrations, and very friendly people.

We also made a whirlwind overnight trip to Rome -- magnificent!

Please visit our website to read more about our winter in Cagliari (and our Rome excursion):
www.sv-adagio.org
Click on Our Travels, then Winter 2009-2010: Sardinia .

We've done quite a bit of boatwork as well -- lots of small repairs, some larger ones (likereplacing the windlass motor), and some conversions for European power (e.g. the water heater). Adagio is looking pretty good right now -- except for her bottom, which needs to be cleaned and painted.

So when we leave Sardinia we're going to sail to Tunisia to have that work done. Tunisia?! Yes -- Mike checked around and the quote from Tunisia was much better than anything we could find in Sardinia or Italy. We won't stay long, since we plan at some point to spend an entire winter in Tunisia. Mid-April we'll head back north, up to Corsica and France... we'll keep you updated.

And, as always, we'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

I just received the following note from Merrie via email:

=======================================

----- Original Message -----
From: Merrie Bergmann
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 11:09 AM
Subject: Adagio's in France

June 2, 2010

Dear Friends,

Bonjour!

We're in Beaulieu sur Mer, on the French Riviera, and enjoying ourselves very much. We arrived inFrance on May 11 and stopped in Beaulieu last week to have an electrician fix our kaput genset, but we've just been informed that there are no NextGen distributers in France. So we'll spend a few more days in this area -- to visit Monaco and a couple other small French towns -- and then move on to the Italian Riviera.

We plan to leave the boat on the hard in July, while we visit friends inland, and we should be able to have the genset repaired at that time (Italy, which is where we'll leave the boat, *does* have NextGen distributors). The only real inconvenience in the meantime is that we can't run our watermaker, so we'll duck into a marina whenever the tanks are empty.

But hey! We're having fun!

Since we left Cagliari at the end of March, we've seen quite a lot. First we sailed to Tunisia, to have Adagio hauled for a bottom-painting. The prices were so much better than in Italy that it was worth the trip -- and we were also able to fill our tanks with relatively inexpensive diesel. We spent a couple of weeks in Tunisia, during which we made several new friends and were able to tour a bit. We hope to return to Tunisia for more sight-seeing sometime before we leave the Med.

After Tunisia we sailed back north to the Maddalena Islands, a nature reserve lying between Corsica and Sardinia. Gorgeous! From there it was a short hop to Corsica, which we also loved. Like Sardinia, Corsica is a spectacularly beautiful island. We also enjoyed the French supermarkets for a change!

You can see photos and read about our travels from Tunisia to Corsica on our website:

http://www.sv-adagio.org
click on Our Travels
and then on April-May 2010: The Jasmine Trail

We haven't yet written up our travels along the French coast -- that'll be our next installment after we leave France.

We're celebrating two anniversaries this week: we left our land life and moved aboard Adagio three years ago, and we completed our Atlantic crossing one year ago. Amazing how much our lives have changed and have been enriched in these few years -- we are very fortunate to be doing all of this!

We hope that you are enjoying milder weather as we move into summer and we look forward to hearing from some of you.

Best wishes, as always,
Merrie and Mike

[Cathy Monaghan]

I received the following note from Merrie via email on July 1st:

=======================================

----- Original Message -----
From: Merrie Bergmann
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 8:28 AM
Subject: Adagio's back in Italy



July 1, 2010
Dear Friends,

Buongiorno -- we've been back in Italy for three weeks after spending a month along the Mediterranean coast of France. What a wonderful time we've had! We landed in Cassis after we left Corsica, worked our way east visiting Cannes, Nice, and several medieval walled villages in France, and toured Monaco before crossing over to Italy. Here we've visited the Cinque Terre, the Gulf of Poets, and Elba briefly.

We're getting ready to put Adagio on the hard for a month or so while we head inland and northward to visit relatives and friends. This is the best time to do this as it is getting very hot in the Med right now. Adagio will be in a boatyard in Carrara, north of where we currently are in Elba, and when we reboard the plan is to visit more of the Tuscany coast as we head back down.

Please visit our website for photos and narrative of our passages from Cassis, France to Carrara, Italy (we'll write about Elba in the next installment):

http://www.sv-adagio.org
click on Our Travels
then Summer 2010: Our Second Med Summer
then May - June 2010: Cassis, France to Carrara, Italy.

We wish all of our American friends a happy 4th of July, and of course our international friends can celebrate it as well! We hope that you are well and that your summer is turning out to be as enjoyable as ours.

Best wishes,
Merrie and Mike