Some crossings change everything.

Passage & Periplus leads sailing voyages through the seas that shape our future — approaching the ancient world not as tourists, but as travelers who have left the shore.

Discover the Voyage
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Byzantine mosaic of Paul preaching in Macedonia
Paul's arrival in Macedonia — the crossing into Europe, Acts 16
Why it has to be the water
"At sea, you have left the solid for the liquid, the mobile, the space between — that is the space where new things become possible — for Paul and for us."

Most travel moves you between places. A sailing voyage moves you between states. The sea is not a backdrop for the experience — it is the medium. Sustained suspension in the liquid world, day after day, creates conditions for change that land-based travel simply cannot replicate.

The connection between a sea passage and the rite of passage, the crossing, the transit from one world to another — these are ancient human experiences, and they are intrinsic to the act of sailing. Passage & Periplus is built on this premise: that when you approach the ancient world from the sea, something opens that would otherwise remain closed.

The gulet under full sail on the Aegean
View from the bow underway, Aegean islands ahead
A tradition continues
Sailing Acts
2005–2024
Eastern Mediterranean

Carrying on a generation of work

For nearly two decades, Sailing Acts has led voyages through the Eastern Mediterranean — bringing scholars, seekers, and travelers to the waters where the ancient world was shaped. Trip by trip, a community formed around the conviction that approaching these places from the sea is a different and richer experience than approaching them from land.

Passage & Periplus continues the work of Linford and Janet with new guides and the same guiding premise: that St. Paul, John the Apostle, Onesimus, and even Homer and Pythagoras are not merely historical figures to be studied, but presences to be encountered — and that the sea is the most faithful way to encounter them.

Linford and Janet at the helm, Sailing Acts 2004
Aram with Linford and Janet, Sailing Acts 2004
What we offer

Four things that make P&P different.

01
The Water as Teacher
The sea is not a backdrop. It is the medium of the experience. You sleep on it, eat on it, wake to it, and move through it for hours. Sustained contact with the liquid world has a way of loosening what has become rigid.
02
Ancient Encounter, Not Tourism
Homer's waters. Paul's routes. Pythagoras's island. We approach these places the way they were always approached — from the sea. This changes what you see, and what you feel when you arrive.
03
Voyage & Reflection
Every day has movement and stillness, discovery and meaning-making. You bring your own questions. The structure of the voyage — the periplus, the account — helps you live inside the answers.
04
Life on Board
A small boat slows everything down without emptying it. The shared deck and the rhythms of the sailing day build a kind of intimacy and community that weeks on land rarely achieve.
A day at sea, and ashore

The pace of life changes on a boat.

Before most of the group wakes, the captain assesses weather and sets the next leg. Coffee appears on deck as the anchor comes up. The morning is for sailing — two to five hours, usually, on open water or through the islands. The pace of a boat gives you time to think, or not to think, or simply to watch.

You anchor in a bay. The dinghy takes you ashore. You explore: ruins, old churches, a hillside path with a view that has not changed since the Aegean was new. You swim. You wander. Late afternoon brings you back to the boat.

Before dinner — and dinner is late, and beautiful, and served on deck in an anchorage that may be one of the most beautiful places on earth — there is a time for a short lecture or a group discussion. That's as academic as we get. A reading from Homer or from Paul. A question to sit with.

Then the meal. Then, if you want it, something quieter still: a time for the voice of the group — what did you discover? What did you feel? What questions are settling deeper? We might read a passage from Acts or another nautical adventure, and sing a song together on deck as night settles around us.

Dinner on deck at anchorage, dusk
Cabin interior on the gulet
Dolphin in the Aegean

Sample schedule — varies from day to day

5–6 amCaptain underway
7–8 amBreakfast on deck
9 am–12 pmSailing — open water passage (times vary each day)
NoonAnchor, dinghy ashore
1–4 pmExplore: ruins, churches, hikes
3–5 pmSwim, kayak, return to boat
6 pmPre-dinner lecture & reflection
7–9 pmDinner at anchorage, on deck
After dinnerOptional reflection & conversation
Where the ancient world lives

The waters we sail.

Passage & Periplus sails the waters between Greece and Turkey — the heart of the ancient world, where philosophy, literature, and faith were shaped. These are not ruins; they are living landscapes and seascapes, filled with the liveliest cast of characters imaginable. Our first voyage traces the coast of Asia Minor in May 2027. A dedicated Greece voyage — Samos, Patmos, and the islands — is taking shape behind it.

Harbor at sunset, Chios
Ephesus
Paul's church. Mary's last home. One of the great cities of the ancient world
The Aegean
The waters of the Iliad — Homer's sea, still recognizable, still alive
Patara
An ancient Lycian port where Paul changed ships — Acts 21
Samos
Pythagoras's island — held for a coming Greece voyage, not May 2027
Patmos
Where John wrote the Apocalypse — also part of the future Greece voyage
The May 2027 Voyage →
The Pauline Coast, Ephesus to Attalia — see the full route and itinerary
Who makes this journey

Passage & Periplus is a platform for many characters.

The Learner
In transition
A career shift, a loss, a question that will not resolve in the ordinary course of life. You sense you are between worlds, and you need an experience that meets you there — not one that distracts from it.
The Learner
The biblical Mediterranean
Christians, scholars, the devout and the questioning. The Aegean saturates the New Testament. Being here changes what you read. Paul's letters describe towns you can see from the deck.
The Classicist
The ancient world, alive
Lovers of Homer, the pre-Socratics, Greek myth and philosophy. The difference between studying Pythagoras and standing on Samos is the difference between a map and a place.
The Leader
Between worlds
Those who live with the sensation of being in a passage — navigating change in an organization, a season of life, a culture in transition. The structure of a sailing voyage has a way of making unexpected sense of one's situation.
Our first voyage
Gulet at anchor along the Lycian coast

The Pauline Coast

Ephesus → Attalia · 11 days · May 2027

Our first voyage opens with the shock of Ephesus, runs six nights downwind along the Lycian coast, and ends in Antalya — at Attalia, Paul's departure point — framed as a sending. Asia Minor and the sea in equal measure.

Explore the voyage
Your guide

Aram DiGennaro

I first sailed these waters in 2004, a seminary student aboard Sailing Acts. They spoke something to me that has taken over 20 years to answer.

In between: a family, a Master of Divinity, an MBA, and 11 years in Nairobi as a missionary, builder, and entrepreneur. The work was good. But the water waited.

Now, Passage & Periplus is my answer — and an invitation for others to come along.

Aram DiGennaro at the helm aboard Sailing Acts, Aegean Sea, 2004
Aboard Sailing Acts · Aegean Sea · 2004
Aram DiGennaro sailing at sunset, 2025

The next voyage is forming.

Our May 2027 voyage along the Pauline Coast — Ephesus to Attalia — is now taking shape. See the full route and itinerary, ask questions, or reserve your place.

Explore the May 2027 Voyage

No commitment required. We'll be in touch with details as the voyage takes shape.