Atlantic Bound! | BITE
Two thousand miles from Bari to Lisbon, from the head of the Adriatic to the ocean: a route that retraces in reverse the road Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans took to enter the Mediterranean. We leave in September, once the southern sea has settled and the summer winds begin to ease, and reach the Portuguese coast at the end of October. The voyage reads in four movements. The first is Italian: the heel of Salento at Santa Maria di Leuca, the Magna Graecia of Crotone, then the Strait of Messina — three kilometres of water between Scylla and Charybdis, to be crossed with the tide tables in hand. The second is insular: the Aeolian Islands, Palermo and Trapani, the crossing to Sardinia, and the last Italian anchorage at Porto Pino before two hundred miles of open water to the Balearics. The third movement is Spanish. Menorca and the longest natural harbour in the Mediterranean, Mallorca and its yards, Ibiza and its Posidonia meadows, then the Iberian coast down to Gibraltar: the Pillars of Hercules, the edge of the world to the ancients and, to anyone sailing, the real gateway to the Atlantic. From there everything changes — three-metre tides, ocean swell, a different way of living aboard. The fourth movement is Atlantic: Cádiz, the oldest city in western Europe; the run up the Guadalquivir to Seville, eighty kilometres of river to moor in the heart of Andalusia; then the Algarve, the Ria Formosa and the cliffs of Albufeira. We round Cape St Vincent, the southwestern corner of Europe, where the Atlantic swell arrives with nothing left in front of it, and head north in open ocean to the mouth of the Tagus. The last miles are river, into Lisbon. Twenty-one landfalls, twenty-three centuries of Mediterranean history, and a single heading: west.
Related articles
- Spritz is changing seas. And perhaps this is where the real journey begins.
Spritz is setting sail for Portugal, marking the beginning of a new chapter for BITE Project. A real sailing relocation across the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic, open to anyone who wants to experience life aboard, learn by doing, or simply discover whether living on a sailboat is the life they’ve been dreaming about.
- Welcome aboard Spritz: what it’s like to live on a 32 feet sailboat
Step aboard Spritz, our 1975 sailboat: ten metres that serve as our home, office and travel companion. Here’s what it’s really like to live, work and sail aboard her.
- The route on the map isn't the route
How the Bari to Lisbon itinerary came together: the thinking that happened before the chart came out, the changes of mind along the way, and why that line will keep moving.
- The first leg is not a warm-up
Bari–Santa Maria di Leuca: why the first day of sailing already means a full night at sea, and why we're stopping two nights at Leuca before we even need to.
- Safety Starts with the Crew: CRM, Leadership and Communication
A crew is not born a team: it becomes one when everyone's skills and information become available to the group. Second article in our boat safety series: CRM, BRM, leadership and closed-loop communication.
- How to Make Better Decisions at Sea
Faced with a problem, the risk is also fixating on one detail and losing sight of the bigger picture. Third article in our boat safety series: situational awareness, fixation error and the PIOSEE model.
- Why Accidents Rarely Start with an Emergency
The emergency is often the last link in a chain of threats and errors recognisable in advance. Fourth article in our boat safety series: Threat and Error Management, explained through a concrete case.
- Communicating When It Really Matters
Communicating isn't just calling for help from outside the boat: it's first about understanding and sharing what's happening inside it. Fifth and final article in our boat safety series: NITS, briefings, debriefs and closing the circle.
- The crew before the captain
Spritz's return to the water after her yard work was set for September 8th, but we weren't the first to get there. First of three articles on the real start of the voyage to Lisbon: a fever, two German lads who arrived on schedule, and a boat entrusted to a crew before it even had a captain aboard.
- Sails alone
Diego comes aboard with only a few hours' notice, we sail out chased by lightning from a storm, and when the engine dies a few miles from Roccella Jonica, only the sails are left to bring us in.
Other voyages
- First Time Sailors
Our first time sailing a boat: OUR boat, Spritz. From Volos, Greece to Bari, Italy.
- Our second attempt sailing
Back to Greece: this time all by ourself
- Super duper New Years trip
- The Beginning
Our first round with Duodji
- Federica's Farmland
First trip to Federica's Farmland
- Rivers and Lakes Trip
Our first trip out of the region, where we visited small villages along the Venetian rivers and Lake Garda