One adventure ends, and a couple others begin

Morpheus has done right by us for yet another season here in the Med.  But, Rule #1 says “Keep Debbie Warm” and we are quickly running out of clothes that can make that happen here.  So, once again Morpheus has been prepared to be stored at EMV Marine in Badalona just a few miles North of Barcelona, Spain.  This is the same place that we left her last year and she was very well taken care of.  We are pleased to be leaving her with a very short “work list” and couldn’t be happier with the way she help up these past six months.

 

 

 

 

What’s next you ask??  Well, tomorrow I take everything that I need for the next 4-6 months and head down to Teneriffe in the Canary Islands to jump onboard our good friend Gibb Kane’s new Swan 66.  I am going to help sail her South to the Caribbean with another good friend Jim Callahan, Jim’s “significant other” Dani, and a few others.  (Unfortunately, Gibb injured his knee a few weeks ago and is recovering from surgery so he can’t join us.)  I’ve taken my SPOT tracker and made a few updates to the link on the front of our Blog so those of you that are interested can check in from time to time and follow our progress.

And Debbie?  What about Debbie?  Well, she has absolutely no interest in sailing across the Atlantic.  Even in a wonderful yacht like the Swan 66 shown above.

So, as you can see here, she has been frantically learning to knit!  I kid you not. And, is almost done knitting herself a new scarf that will help to satisfy Rule #1!

Once I leave, she is off on a planes, trains, and automobile tour of at least three European countries by land.  She first heads North to visit with Fred and Janet Laffitte.  Fred and Janet are our doppelganger or “mirror image” friends that have boys our kids ages, sail their cruising boat all over the world, and race Etchells as well.  Great people that have a home in France and Deb is heading that way after waving goodbye to me at the airport.  Then she is off to see Chris and Caroline Longstaffe in England.  Chris and Caroline live just down the street from us, but like us rarely seem to be in their own house!  They will be in England to celebrate Caroline’s Moms birthday and the timing is working out perfectly for Deb to join the celebration.  Next, she will travel to Ireland to spend some time with Emily Comfort and her husband Bret.  (Emily can be seen in the picture above teaching Deb how to knit that scarf last week!!)

Once all that is finished, Deb will fly to Puerto Rico and we’ll sort of figure things out from there.

Lots of moving pieces.  It will be interesting to see how this all works out!

Barcelona - Marina Port Vell

Just for fun I grabbed this from Google Maps.  This is the area near our marina.  We always enjoy visiting here with the Marina so close to everywhere you'd want to walk in Barcelona and the beaches as well.  If we need to go a longer distance, the Metro is only a block away.

Our Location

It had to be done…

The math is undeniable.  Next year maybe.

Full Moon Rising

This view was absolutely phenomenal tonight.  My camera was just barely up to the task.  If only my young son Patrick was here with his camera and his knowledge of what to do with it.

Sunset Last Night

Emily Comfort Visits

With her husband Bret off on some work related travel, Emily decided that visiting Morpheus in Barcelona sounded better than sitting at home by herself in Ireland.  Lucky for her, it was warmer here than at home.  Unlucky for us, she brought some of that famous Irish rainy weather with her!!
We all had a good time together over the past five days and having a visitor was a great way to remind ourselves that we should be enjoying Barcelona in addition to working hard to prepare Morpheus for her Winter without us.
Fun times!

		Barcelona with Emily VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Winter Has Arrived

The last couple of days here in Barcelona have seen plenty of wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning.  Not the ideal indian summer days that we were enjoying only a week or so ago.  We are busy putting Morpheus to sleep.  Lots to do when you plan on locking the hatches and walking away for 4-6 months!

		Barcelona, Spain VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Happy Halloween

View or comment on Jim Gregory's photo »

Cleaning the Boat

Doesn't it look pretty???

Next Stop Barcelona!

Winds are very light and fhe forecast is perfect for an easy trip from Majorca to Barcelona.
We are off!!

Is it time?

The Seville Faire

Deb appears too be distracted and too busy to post updates from Seville to the blog.   So, as a public service I will pass along her last message to me. 

"OMG!  I'm in heaven.  More cool horses in one place than I've ever seen in my life. It's amazing!

Dresses, carriages, horses.  3y/O kids side saddle on horses.  

Wow!!"

It sounds to me like we may be moving to Spain....

-Jim

Almost done putting Morpheus to bed...

We have been very quiet lately.

 Not much to report, and its hard to make cleaning, stowing, organizing, and winterizing, sound interesting.

Morpheus will be hauled on Monday.  Once all is settled, Deb and I will be heading to Seville via train to see our friends Ulf and Sara one more time before we fly home to NYC on Nov. 1st.

Things are about to change rather radically for us.  I hope we are ready for life on land...

Raise the Anchor!

Its not often that you see something like this.  I guess during the night the wind died and the boat swung entirely around dragging the anchor chain with it across the bottom until it hooked the anchor.  I was more than a bit surprised to see the anchor come up with 30 feet of chain still in the water.  Once I figured that part out, I started thinking about what would have happened if the wind came up after the change in direction.  I'm thinking that anchor probably wouldn't have been doing a very good job, and we could have been very unhappy!

10/10/10

Today is an anniversary of sorts.  Perhaps it's better to simply call it a significant day.

Three years ago today, Debbie and I were working furiously to get a hundred loose ends tied up so that we could jump onboard Morpheus, throw off our dock lines, and leave the Richmond Yacht Club and the San Francisco Bay Area behind. 

October 10th, 2010.  That was our target date to begin the adventure that continues today.

Well, we didn't get all those loose ends organized, and we ended up leaving three days later. 

But, we did leave! 

That first step was a big one.  Lot's of people talk about taking it, but never quite get there.

Three years later, I'm sure glad that we did!

Don't try this at home!!

I think we've mentioned the "Human Tower" contest during the Barcelona MERCE Festival several times, but the pictures and video that I took didn't do it justice.  Luckily, I've found a couple of videos online and if you have a couple of minutes to watch you will be amazed at what people can do.

Just for fun!

Well, if all goes well and the weather cooperates we will finally be leaving Barcelona tomorrow morning. I was going through some of our photo's and video last night and threw this together. Enjoy. Or not...

Debbie got to go to a horse show!

WooHoo!! I got to go to the CSIO International jumping finals last Sunday!!! Some of the worlds best jumpers. Fun!

Barcelone Merce Festival - One more thing...

Christopher Gregory, this is right down your alley!!

Each night during the festival last week, thousands of people would gather in the city hall plaza waiting to see "The Projection Show"!

I guess its one of the traditional events each year, and each year the people involved strive to make that years show better than the last. I have no point of reference here, but this was a pretty amazing feat of technology and animation.

There are three projectors on the roof of the building on the far side of the plaza. One for each third of the front of the building shown above.

My first thought was that showing a video on a complex building front would ruin any effects. But, those designing the show were way ahead of me. I don't know how, but they built the animation to actually take advantage of the structures (e.g. the pillars) on the building. The building actually enhanced the show.

Take a look at the video below. Deb thinks there were some serious drugs involved, I think there were some really creative and smart people behind this. Enjoy!!

You guys are going to burn!!

As Debbie and I wandered around just prior to the start of the "Parade of Fire!" during the Barcelona MERCE Festival, we started to notice people in hooded sweatshirts, wearing sunglasses (at night), and bandana's covering their faces.  Humm, interesting.  It's 80+ degrees out, these are funny outfits.

We'd read about this parade, but ultimately you need to see it to understand it.  Clearly, this event would be illegal in any other place that I've ever visited.  It's more than a bit convenient that Barcelona was basically built of stone!!

Just minutes before the start of the parade, and only a block from the kick-off float, a nice guy came up to us.  Looked at our shorts, short sleeved shirts, and asked "Do you guys understand what is about to happen here??"  We assured him that we did, and that we planned to keep a safe distance from the fireworks.  Ha!!  What's few sparklers between friends???

Then the devil's drums kicked into gear, and another equally friendly guy came up to us and was a bit more direct.  "You guys are going to burn!!!", he said.  You need to move much farther away....

It turns out they were both right, and we had no idea what we were about to see.

The parade started.  We ran for cover!!