Source: Dan Aranda
And just when you thought I wouldn’t post another boating post, you. were. wrong! But trust me with this one, its pretty spectacular. How’s that for some conjunction craziness? I’ve never been a firm believer in you can’t start a sentence with a conjunction so there’s 2 examples for you, haha.
Source: Dan Aranda
So I met W & M in Belgium at Tomorrowland. What I haven’t explained that well just yet is the craziness and the reach of the people I work with here in Naples. When you are stationed on a ship, more specifically a small boy, there’s only about 25 officers on board with a crew of 330, which drastically limits the people can you can hang out with.
Here on shore duty in Naples, there’s about 300 officers (guestimate) but regardless that’s a shit ton of people you can hang out with. A good group of us are single and we don’t have loans and things so we pretty much can gallivant around Europe to our hearts desires. What easier way to make that a reality then facebook? All someone does is create an event, names the place, invites 100 people, and gets an idea for who all is interested.
Then, after a few days, if there are enough people interested, we make it a reality. I have done my fair share of travel planning and helped many people out when it comes down to it, but I haven’t started my own facebook event yet. That’s where W & M come in. 2 beautiful, amazing, people, whom I’ve had the privilege to come across since arriving in Italy.
The most ridiculous part of this, is that they are the trip planners for most things and I always get an invite, which is awesome, Thanks guys! So in the past 4 weeks, they have had 4 consecutive events in which I have so far attended 2 and that will probably be my limit. haha.
One of which was to go boating to Capri and the Amalfi Coast. How could I refuse? Since I normally am the event planner (you can ask Megan, we are the planners for pretty much anything we want to do or that’s happening for friends and what now) it has been nice to jump on a trip and all you have to do is show up. For this particular trip, that’s exactly what I ended up doing. Thank the lord for that!
The night before a girl that I knew from Norfolk was passing through on her way to France for the next 2 years! She was getting her in briefing as she’ll be working directly with the French Navy and there won’t be many other Americans where she’s at. She’s an amazing woman, and so smart. After Norfolk she went to Bahrain and is now headed to France, think about that for a minute. I couldn’t say no to a dinner with her and some old friends, so we took her out, wined her and dined her, made promise to visit each other and to meet up other places in the world, and then we went back to C’s house where I slept for a few hours and headed back to my place to get ready for boating.
I was pretty hungover so the things that got packed for a day of boating and an overnight in Positono were some what silly but hey, what can you do? At least I remembered the G&T. I normally don’t leave home without it.
Source: Dan Aranda
2 other friends met at my house and we were on the road for the 40 minute drive to Sorrento, down to the port, where the boat was located. Here’s what you need to know about renting boats… because even a cave man can do it, as long its a small boat, Rhib (with inflatable sides), and under certain parameters. This boat was a much bigger and faster one, fitting up to 15 people, which requires someone to have a license to drive it.
Source: Dan Aranda
Half of us are or were SWO’s at some point in our lives, so we can all drive a boat, but its a requirement to have the license for bigger boats because they don’t want you to do something stupid out there and get people killed. That’s where W & M come in. Last year they spent 10 days sailing and boating around the Greek islands pulling here and there and everywhere to their hearts content, and at the end of the 10 days they came out with none other than a licenses to drive big boats.
Which is why on Saturday morning, 13 of us total, showed up at the marina in Sorrento to take a big fast boat out on the town. Our first stop in the boat would be Positono.
Let me explain the Amalfi Coast to you since it is a little confusing until you see it geographically. This area is pretty much a peninsula that juts out from Naples and is filled with windy, curvy, one lane roads. Once you drive onto the peninsula, you’ll be heading down the right side of it and you’ll come upon Sorrento, heading about a half hour further you’ll hit Positono (Most famous for the “Path of the Gods”) and as you come around the tip of the peninsula to the left side you’ll come upon the Amalfi coast in all its splendor. I have not yet seen or been to the Amalfi Coast, but hope to write about it soon enough.
When we started out our day we realized pretty quickly that the water wasn’t going to cooperate and the waves were pretty choppy, which is why we drove the boat down to Positono, anchored out for a bit, and made the executive decision just to head back towards Capri and not go all the way down to the Amalfi Coast. A huge bummer, but at our slow pace with the rough seas it would have been a very looong day trying to make it there and back.
As we sped over to Capri we decided to stop at both the Green and the Blue Grotto, the Blue Grotto being the more spectacular of the 2. The green Grotto is pretty much just an open cave that you can swim through and wasn’t very green in my opinion. However, the Blue Grotto is spectacular. There is small opening in the rock face to admit very small boats during low tide and/or swim into during high tide, but beneath that is a huge opening under the water which allows light to shine inside creating the deep blue effect you can see.
Source: Dan Aranda
A little too much exposure, D didn’t realize what setting was set on his camera when we took this but since its the best group picture I had I figured I would share anyway.
The Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra) is overrun by tourists and boats during the day transiting inside and out of the small opening so it is pretty much impossible to swim inside while they are giving tours unless chance being run over. As the tide rises around 5pm, it becomes impossible for the boat tours to make it inside because the water gets so high, the waves nearly cover the entrance, which is why we decided to swim in!
Source: Dan Aranda
Swimming towards the Green Grotto. Not the best picture of the cave opening but it is just to the left.
For the Blue Grotto, I opted to just dive down pretty far and not risk hitting the sides or top of the rock on a wave in and it was so worth it. The inside of the Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra) is spectacular! A beautiful site to see. I’m not sure if I would go on a boat tour, but swimming inside is very worth it. We swam around for awhile and I even went further into the back of the cave, into the darkness, until I freaked myself out. I always do that.
The cave you see just ahead, is the entrance to the Blue Grotto, although it gets smaller and smaller until the entrance barely fits a person as you are swimming inside.
Source: Dan Aranda
The big opening you see under the water is how the light comes inside, that reflects to give the very blue effect.
Source: Dan Aranda
That’s me! Upside down and on the right.
Once everyone got back on the boat we decided it was time to head inside because we wanted to relax a little bit before going out that night. Once we got back to the harbor we ended up spending the night in Sorrento at the Blue Village which is a campground area and actually pretty enjoyable and cool. We had our own little cabin and there were 7 of us that ended up staying.
After getting ready for the evening we drove Cammy with all 7 people over to Positono where we decided to party the evening away at a place right down on the beach called Music on the Rocks. W & M knew exactly how to do it so we went upstairs to the restaurant for dinner and while there, they give you wristbands for the club downstairs so all you have to do is walk down the steps once you are finished with dinner and you are in… kinda like V.I.P.s. haha.
Work it girl!
We didn’t have to wait in line and we didn’t have to pay a cover charge, and the food was pretty good!
They even had a pirate theme!
The club was already decorated for halloween downstairs, which I always dig a Halloween theme, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves dancing the night away amongst some very snotty people. It was the great end to the evening!
Then as the night continued on, we decided to head back to our little cabin for some shut eye.
Positono is gorgeous at night, this picture doesn’t do a whole lot of justice.
The next morning we woke up relatively early to head back to Naples, at which point I relaxed the rest of the day, I mean look at me.
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