Our globetrotting readers have traveled all over this last year, sharing their adventures and travel tips from Alaskan glaciers to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro and even Pitcairn Island, of HMS Bounty fame.

This week, we’re hearing from a Saratoga couple whose boating adventures took them to an archipelago off the coast of Sicily. Read on for details, then find more travel inspiration at www.mercurynews.com/tag/wish-you-were-here/.

Wish You Were Here

ITALY: Saratoga residents Dave and Linda Scott recently explored the Aeolian Islands, an archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, aboard the Sea Cloud, a 1931 yacht owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post. “The ship was a gift from her husband, E.F. Hutton, in 1931,” Dave says. “Besides being a private yacht, it also saw action in World War II and has the distinction of being the first racially-integrated ship during wartime in the US Navy. Sea Cloud was restored in 2011 and now is part of Sea Cloud Cruises.

“Any sailing on Sea Cloud is special. The ship holds just 55 passengers, and with a crew of 70, everyone is well cared for, with Michelin-star quality cuisin, your own personal cabin steward (and) the crew venturing daily into the rigging to unfurl the sails to take everyone off to another little-visited port-of-call.”

Among those stops was the 16th-century Lipari Castle (pictured) on the Aeolian island of Lipari.

TRAVEL TIPS: “We’ve sailed on Sea Cloud many times, all with Lindblad and National Geographic. Each such ‘cultural expedition’ featured an on-board historian, photography expert and expedition leader, besides having local guides at significant ports of call.”


Join the fun! Send a photo of yourself on your latest adventures — local, domestic or international — to jburrell@bayareanewsgroup.com. Tell us where you are, who everyone is and where they’re from, and share a travel tip or two to help fellow readers go there, too.

Originally Published:

Source: www.mercurynews.com