Via Claudia Augusta biking: Tirol (Austria) and Südtirol (Italy)

Michelle biking towards Italy and the Reschen Pass

Day 4: A short bike ride (15 km) from Füssen to reach Reutte (Tirol, Austria), where we put our bikes on a trailer and were shuttled over the Fern Pass to Fernstein Castle, where we started our ride (mostly downhil) to Imst.

 

Our hotel in Imst (Hotel Neuner)

It rained heavily at night in Imst, but again, we were lucky... the sun came out the next day.

Day 5: A 1.5 hour bike ride to Landeck where we again shuttled over the steep uphill section of the Austrian side of the Reschen Pass to Nauders. We still had 150m of gentle biking into Italy over the pass (which is wide and relatively flat at its actual high point) to out inn in St. Valentin auf der Haide.

Again, a night of heavy rain that cleared up by the next morning.

Day 6:  Another beautiful sunny day and a LOT of downhill riding. And a long ride... about 75 km to Merano. Many villages, many castles... and many bike riders.

Looking back towards St Valentin and the Haidersee

Glurns

Day 7: Leaving the relatively big city of Merano, we had an easy ride gently downhill to near Bolzano. From there, the bike route surprised us with a twisty 150m climb. Through narrow tunnels with too many other bikers. (Especially the racing types, none which you hear coming up from behind you... noone uses their voice or bell to warn you. We found them to be obnoxious, and had our private terms for them... sometimes said out loud as they passed by too close abd too fast.). Ended up in the nice little village of Auer, as it turns out, our last night in German-speaking Südtirol.

 

Michelle exiting tunnel on bike rout up to St. Michael (a very busy route!)

 

the racing types...

Via Claudia Augusta Biking: Augsburg to Füssen

First day to Landsberg am Lech: mostly flat, countryside biking. No traffic. Tired by the end (we weren't used to being on bikes for 4 hours).

 

 

Alcohol-free Dunkel-Weisen: Excellent!

Augsburg Cathrdral (Dom): Oldest stained glass windows...

Augsburg 

Entry to alt stadt (old town) of Landsberg am Lach

Landsberg festival

We got lucky with the rain. Heavy rain overnight in Landsberg, sunny by morning. Day 2: A very nice bike ride to Schöngau.

St. Michael's Basilica: 1220 AD. (Altenstadt)

Day 3: An even better day of biking, from Schöngau to Füssen.

Beautiful biking between Schöngau and Füssen. Alps in the distance

One of many (!) Via Claudia Augusta information boards along the way

Just before Füssen, the bike trail became very busy. Füssen itself was very (!) busy, including North American tourists (lots of Americans... not seenelsewhere on this bike tour).

 

We arrived Füssen early enough, so David insisted Michelle see Neuschwanstein Castle. BIG mistake. An overcrowded zoo. (He visited last in 1979... it wasn't crowed back then.) We squeezed into an overcrowded overheated bus like sardines (not helped by the USA tour group who jumped the long line, urged by their leader to do so), ran to take a photo from the overcrowded Marienbrucke and then ran back through the approaching new crowds to the bus. Michelle was clear: Never do that to me again!

 

Neuschwanstein Castle (NOT worth dealing with the crowds!)

 

Cow symphony...

 

Along the bike route...

Bicycling the Via Claudia Augusta: Augsburg to Verona

 

Via Claudia Augusta

Back to Europe (finally!).

First, 10-day inn-to-inn cycling trip along the Via Claudia Augusta, from Augsburg (Germany) through the alps to Verona, Italy. A self-guided but organized trip. (Inntours provides luggage transport, hotel bookings AND transport over two passes in the Alps.)

 After the bike trip, we head to Greece for two weeks. 

Summer 2026: 6 weeks on Pelagia

 

A trip similar to Summer 2025. We started late due to new engine installation, so we didn't go above Cape Caution. Total of about 600 nm.

Quite a bit of rain in the Broughtons, but enough sun to keep us happy. It was great to be in cooler (15-23 degrees C) temps and no wildfire smoke.

Managed to get about 60 nm of sailing.

New engine was great. However, we had a very strange issue where we found the bolts on the coupling between the propeller shaft and transmission all loose (indeed,3 were off!). This despite David having checked their tightness 50-hrs earlier (running time). We have our suspicions as to how this came about.

Funny episode was kayaking into Booker Lagoon on a spring tide... and getting stuck inside before the current allowed us to paddle back out to our boat (2 hours later). A real newbie mistake (it could have been worse, we could have been stuck for 4-5 hours). We were able to laugh about it.

Waiting out the tide in Booker Lagoon....

 

As usual, we had an excellent sail back down Johnstone Strait -- NW winds 27-25 kt made it easy and reasonably fast. 

Only one new-to-us anchorage this summer (Percy Anchorage, near Nanaimo). 

After a week relaxing in the Desolation Sound area, we had a sail to Pender Harbour (where we stayed 3 nights at the VRC outstation), then another sail across to Percy Anchorage. We briefly detoured to Clam Bay in the Gulf Islands to meet up with Wayne and Lee on SV Chanter. We had one last good sail across Georgia Strait, completing our Summer trip at our VRC berth.

   

To the Broughtons and Cape Caution (almost)

Bit gloomy in Beware Passage

We did an (unusual for us) dinner time transit north through the Yaculta rapids. Easy transit with few other vessels and no gin palaces roaring though (a welcome change). But not arriving to anchorage (Bickley Bay) til 9'ish pm a pain. Then we had an easy, albeit motor, trip up Johnstone Strait  A few days in the Broughtons the several in Sointula and 1 night provisioning in Port McNeill.

Yesterday, we decided to setup for going around Cape Caution, motoring 6 hrs to just SE of Caution at Miles Inlet (a favourite).

This morning (Saturday), conditions were perfect for going up and around Cape Caution. BUT the weather forecast above Caution for the next 5+ days had 20-30 (!) knot winds every day (plus rain, etc). It sounded depressing. Given our late leaving for this Summer's cruise, we decided to turn back.

Maybe next year....

Right now, we are heading towards Wells Passage, calm seas, little wind. 

See many sea otters along the way.

Rain and some winds are forecast here too (but not so bad... no "30 knots" in forecast... yet).

(We spent the following 3 nights in Napier Bay, with no winds. Lots of rain. Bears. And some walking.) 
 

Sun comes out for kayaking (Mimkwamlis village site)

Summer 2026: Vancouver to Bargain Bay (Pender Harbour)

This Summer, our "live" location (maybe 1/2 day behind) can be found here:       https://track.myzoleo.com/livelocation?se1aV0V8QD  

Finally! We got away for our Summer 2026 cruising... with our new engine! 

A little late (we usually leave in mid June). We "plan" on being out 6 weeks, at least getting up to the Broughtons.

Today, we left late (due to low tide), but made it up to Bargain Bay. Even managed an easy sail (SE winds) for about half of it. 

(On the way, we looked into Secret Cove to possibly anchor for the night, but locals had placed buoys -- not real "mooring" buoys -- and crab pots, making it uninviting to anchor. This is a problem throughout B.C.'s south coast. So we continued on to Bargain Bay, which was lovely.)