Lured by splendid isolation, Yvonne Gordon goes back to nature and finds a pristine frontier in a remote Burmese archipelago The large white shell on the beach, tucked behind a rock, had a long pattern of double tracks leading to it. Something, perhaps a crab, had crawled into it quite recently. It seemed like the…
Yvonne Gordon finds the cool blue waters off the cayos of northern Cuba, which were favoured by Hemingway, ideal for a day of sailing after a few days of exploring the island by road I jumped into the sailing dinghy, grabbed the tiller and pointed it out to sea. As the boat took off into…
Yvonne Gordon takes a monster-hunting boat trip on Loch Ness, Scotland “We’ve had quite a few sightings of big things in the loch. About 3,500. We send away scans, but nobody knows what it is,” says Dave. We’re on the Royal Scot, an 18m passenger boat in the middle of Loch Ness in Scotland, and…
“Over there is where the starting line was. These conditions are the same today – about 10 to 15 knots of breeze and the tide is flooding under the Golden Gate Bridge.” Skipper Jonathan Buser is pointing out the start line area of last year’s America’s Cup sailing competition on San Francisco Bay, from the…
Yvonne Gordon joins a traditional Dalmatian boat to explore Croatia’s Islands ‘Ding. Ding, de-ding…’ The bells from the church tower resound all along the waterfront. They sound like real bells rather than a recording, but they are slightly out of sync, as if someone might be practising. We’ve just arrived in Trogir, near Split on…
Yvonne Gordon takes to the water in the Western Highlands, Scotland “Set your course for the lighthouse,” the skipper of the yacht tells me. The clouds are hanging low, it’s raining hard and I can just make out Lismore Lighthouse across the bay so I steer towards it. We’re sailing in Scotland’s Western Highlands, and…
Want to get far away from it all? How about staying in your own lighthouse on a rock in the Adriatic where the views are of little but the wide blue sea, writes Yvonne Gordon As the boat rounds the corner, our home for the next few days comes into view. The stone building with red…
Yvonne Gordon writes about some of the most beautiful and remote places to stay on the Adriatic coast in Croatia The land of a thousand islands, Croatia’s azure blue Adriatic waters are home to a string of island archipelagos. Some of those thousand islands are just big enough for a lighthouse. Croatia has a variety…
A superyacht charter in the South Pacific has to be the ultimate in luxury, writes Yvonne Gordon Chartering a private yacht is a great way to explore islands, coves and bays while enjoying a relaxed, exclusive environment. Luxury travel company Black Diamond Lifestyle offers a fleet of fully-crewed private yachts for charter all over the…
Gone are the blue rinse buffet grazers – life on the high seas is surprisingly liberating with a crop of new ships offering activities for young and old. Yvonne Gordon finds her sea legs on her first cruise… I’m standing under the ship that could be mistaken for a row of apartment blocks all joined together. It’s the Ruby Princess and…
Yvonne Gordon is buoyed up by a voyage on the world’s biggest fully-rigged sailing ship Looking up at the tangle of ropes and rigging swaying about like thread in the wind, I feel my knees go weak. Even as I clip on my harness, I torture myself with what-ifs. The crow’s nest, about one third of…