Hello from Dubrovnik! Isn’t traveling solo so exhilarating, so exciting, so liberating? Here I am in Central Europe wandering as the tide of my passion takes me like the Adriatic lapping at Croatia’s rocky shores. Ahhh…

I extended my stay in Valencia, Spain to enjoy more of the America’s Cup than I planned. What a destination! It’s like the Superbowl meets a fabulous polo championship. You never know what language will come out of people’s mouths. What an international cadre of elite sailors and spectators!

And Viva Team Alinghi who won! Everyone in Europe was rooting for them over challenger Team New Zealand / Fly Emirates as the winner gets to decide where and when the next Cup will be, and of course all the locals wanted to keep it in Europe! Now usually the winner takes the race to their country of origin, but land-locked Switzerland, though there is no rule against lake yacht racing, chose Valencia this time around and may choose it again.

I was the guest of Team BMW/Oracle, who sadly did not make it to the finals. But that didn’t mean that the champagne wasn’t flowing on the day I went out on their official catamaran to chase after the boats racing. It was the day that poor Team NZ’s spinnaker got a small puncture in it which they weren’t able to catch in time, sending the wildly billowing fire-red sail flailing in the wind like a magnificent kimono. Wow!

Now how do I know so very much? I have to give credit where it is due. The fabulous Cheryl Lincoln from San Francisco was my Diva guide. That Diva just packed up and moved to Valencia for a few months. A very accomplished racing sailor in her own right as well as a Spanish speaker, our Cheryl took me under her wing to point out the best Valencia had to offer.

Soon I found myself dining with Sail Magazine’s famed blogger, Kimball Livingston, I could not presume, and listening to him discuss sailing I absorbed every new word and term. For the lastest in-depth information, visit his blog .

I also was regaled by sailing stories from legendary America’s Cup guru and sometimes guitar player (late at night outside at Docks restaurant), Tom Ehman, BMW Oracle’s official race commentator. He does a Morning Show at BMW basecamp and comes out on the boats with guests to give a fabulous play-by-play.

Exciting new entrants into the Cup this year were Team Shosholoza from South Africa, the first from the African continent, and Team-China, also a first from the country. You have to be a big player indeed to enter this most bank-breaking of international sports.

Now I am at the fabulous Pucic Palace inside the old city walls of Dubrovnik. On Friday I’ll get on a bus to Bosnia, then to Belgrade, and finally to Bucharest and onto Transylvania on my Vampire Tour.

Lots of immortal Du-love-nik from me to you!!