Blog

Christine

Most Frightening Experience

During a harrowing 45-minutes, we desperately dodged 4 random tornadic waterspouts

Christine

And That's a Wrap - Again. Again.

Final thoughts (for the 3rd time!) from Dale, Christine, and Megan as we conclude another fantastic year of sailing experiences aboard...

cesimonson

Puglia, Italy Bucket List Photos

Photo highlights from my bucket list region in Italy...

Christine

2024 From the Guest Book

Here's a post with words directly from our Helios guests. It is presented in reverse chronological order and will get updated...

Christine

Greek Islands Photo Tour

UPDATED! Added 3 unique islands.

Kari Simonson

Behind the Scenes on Helios

Dale's sister, Kari, provides a perspective on some of what we do behind the scenes.

Dale

Sailing Trivia

We’ve learned a lot of interesting little facts during our short sailing career, some useful to our sailing, and some just curious...

Christine

Never Seen That Before

An unexpected guest on board, MAY DAY call and other unique sightings.

Dale

Captain's Log

2024 Sailing Log Helios carried us safely another 2,200+ miles this season - our third year of sailing her. We spent over 4 months...

Christine

Turkish Delights, Mezzes and Spices

Check out the colorful array of mouthwatering Turkish sweets, appetizers and spices.

Megan

Places of Interest

Here are a few especially memorable places that we have visited so far both in 2021/22, and more recently during this summer of sailing...

Dale

Rigging 101

Running-rigging is the collection of lines actively used to sail a boat. The basic lines are similar on most any boat, with any...

Dale

I Learned About Sailing from That...

Spend enough years sailing, or around sailors, and you'll come across all kinds of lessons: some painfully earned yourself, and some...

Megan

Montenegro: Highlights + Lowlights

Although we were not originally planning on visiting Montenegro, we are all very glad that we did (for the most part). We sailed into the...

Dale

Helios Re-Launch

We are back aboard Helios and at sea again!! We re-launched her on June 1, 2023. After a 10-month hiatus with Helios "on the hard" in a...

Megan

Are We There Yet?

The day that we stamped out of Italy, we were told by the coast guard to "leave immediately, and don't stop until you are out of the...

Christine

Doing the "Schengen Shuffle"

Montenegro, our surprise destination, is lovely! We planned out an extremely detailed itinerary spanning 6 months in the Mediterranean,...

Dale

And That's a Wrap!!!

Final thoughts from Dale, Christine and Megan on our year-long sailing adventure... Helios was hauled out of the water on July 30 in...

Dale

Italian Gelato Competition

When in Rome, do as the Roman's do - indulge in gelato. Given our insatiable love of ice cream, and the fact that the average Italian...

Siri Anderson

Atlantic Crossing #2 (observations at sea)

Our observant crew member Siri Anderson captured in words some of the unique characteristics of life on the open ocean... No bugs, zippo...