Page 273 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2023 DISCOVERING TURKEY

Sailing the Tyrrhenian Sea

AdventureontheStarClippertallship

Story & Photography by Brian Clark

n my decades as a writer and photogra-
pher, I’ve been lucky to knock around
I much of Europe and even live abroad a
couple of times. But I was clueless when it
came to the Tuscan archipelago in the Tyrrhe-
nian Sea off the west coast of Italy.
Until this summer, that is, when my girl-
friend and I sailed to the islands of Elba,
(where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled the
first time), Corsica (where he was born) and
Sardinia (where a young Lt. Napoleon was
part of a failed invasion) on our way to St.
Tropez and our ultimate destination of Cannes
on the French Riviera.
Our mode of transport and home for a week
was the Star Clipper, a majestic, four-masted
barquentine tall ship that is 366 feet long, has
213-foot-tall masts and boasts 16 sails. Un-
like the huge cruise lines that can host thou-
sands travelers, our comparatively intimate
ship only had a capacity of 180 passengers.

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