Jim Gregory
Morpheus was designed by Carl Schumacher, built by Davie Norris Boatbuilders in New Zealand and launched in 2002. She spent her first 18 months cruising the South Pacific before reaching her home port of San Francisco. Since that time, Morpheus has been raced and cruised extensively. This blog will document her ongoing adventures.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Three Days in Rome
Three day in Rome are barely enough to say that you began to see all that you'd want to. But, there are only so many lines that I will stand in, and despite the fact that the things we did see made those lines worthwhile, we were ready to get back to the boat!
*PS. Yes, I see the typo in the slideshow, but at this point its just going to have to stay where it is!
*PS. Yes, I see the typo in the slideshow, but at this point its just going to have to stay where it is!
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Gulf of Naples
It's been a pretty slow week for us here onboard Morpheus.
The weather turned bad right after our return from Rome. Grey rainy skies and lots of thunder and lightning. The seasons are changing for sure.
Not motivated to explore in that weather, we left the marina in Pozzuoli, motored aprox 1,000 yards and dropped the anchor in the lee of the marinas nice big breakwater! And there we stayed for two and a half days. Lots of time for all the small projects we had been putting off, plus a few movies, etc.
Yesterday, the skies cleared as Summer like weather returned. We took off with the goal of circumnavigating the islands of Ishia and Procida. It was a great day and ultimately we anchored off a small town on the island of Procida for the night.
Now midday on the 27th, and we are heading back to Capri. Another beautiful day and the crowds of Summer are long gone.
All is well!
Jim Gregory
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Saint Peters
To me though it seemed a bit over the top. I felt like I was in the most impressive museum ever, but it didn't really affect me like I expected it to.
When I walk into st. Patrick's in NYC, that is a religious shot of adrenaline that brings back all of my early church going feelings. Surprisingly St. Peter's didn't do that. But....wow, what a place it was to visit. Like no other....
Jim
Friday, September 19, 2014
Frustrated in Rome!
Unbelievable. Tours here are booked full two months in advance!! Who plans like that?
I didn't even know I'd be in Rome two days ago!!
Looks like basic self guided and audio tours for us this time around....
Jim Gregory
Jim Gregory
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Visitors!!
Gibb and Tory Kane have been with us onboard Morpheus for the past week. Gibb and I have sailed together on our boats (mostly his) during what is quickly approaching the past 30 years!! We’ve really enjoyed their visit and have had little opportunity to update the blog as a result.
Now I have 30 minutes until I am supposed to leave this marina near Naples, Italy. For now, I’m just going to try to throw up a bunch of pictures. You will get the basic idea.
We met in Sardinia at Marina Portisco which is just a short distance (but a world away) from Puerto Cervo.
While using our Marina as home base, we checked out the Rolex Swan Cup which just happened to be taking place during their visit. We visited Porto Cervo (rumored to be the most expensive marina on earth!), and stopped by the racing area as well.
We also drover to Sarvinia’s Porto Pollo which is a world famous kiteboarding and windsurfing location. I can see why people love the place, but unfortunately on the day that we visited it was blowing 30+ and I decided to stick to lunch and stay off the water.
After a few days, it was time to head to mainland Italy. Our target was the area known as the Amalfi Coast. Gibb and I sailed the boat overnight while Deb and Tory flew ahead of us and had fun touring and sleeping on real beds!! They visited Pompeii and I’ll have pictures of that to show later. Our trip across was fantastic. We sailed all night on a beam reach in 10-15 knots of wind, and then motored the rest of the way in a flat calm. No damage, no stress equals perfect!! We all ended up meeting after a 26 hours separation on the island of Ishia just off Naples.
After a night in the main harbor town of Ishia (nice but not a place I’d return to), we headed off to Capri. Our initial destination was the famous Grotto Azzura, which is a huge natural cavern carved out of the cliffs by the sea. The Grotto has a tiny opening to enter through, but a huge opening below that starts about 10’ below the waterline and that opening lets in an amazing amount of light. The place is crazy cool, check out the link above. We spent time moored off the Grotto, visited the local restaurant on the cliffs above, and then moved over to anchor for the night off the main harbor of Capri. We snuck back very early in the morning to swim into the Grotto and had it all to ourselves.
Yesterday was our last full day together, so we motored for an hour from Capri over to the town of Sorrento. We anchored the boat off the local harbor, took the dinghy in to shore and had a very long and very good lunch before getting back on the boat and traveling another hour or so to the the Marina de Stabia.
Gibb and Tory took off the morning at 5am and are on their way home across the Atlantic now.
We look forward to their return…
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