My Hey Joe Cruise

After a perfectly miserable winter eating egg-burgers in Mayport, Florida we make a quick shape-up tour of the Caribbean and then across the pond to the Med. Gibraltar, Sicily, France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey. Home port is in Naples. Aircraft carriers are too big for smaller harbors.

After nearly failing high school French due to a lack of interest guess where we go...Marseilles, France. A cathedral or two, a tour of the Chateau d'If and I am watching Dr. No in French of  course! Discovered that  the extremely talented "Bond girls" didn't really have to say anything to get their point across! An absinthe, a pernod and back to the ship. Something seems to be a little shaky...Pernod!

Cannes, looking for Bardot! But, somehow I did find a bar and a couple of English types with a car...Morris! Juan des Pins, St. Tropez and the beach, now I have to go back aboard the sinkin' Sara! Oh well, there are other places to go.

Athens, rather Piraeus (port) and I get shore patrol. Assigned to the"red light district". Everyone knew where to go the second night! The city tour includes the Acropolis. Fascinating entry to old ruins. Simply too young to appreciate this, maybe next time. 

Mt Etna is spewing smoke and ash as we round the bend to Sicily. Most of our at sea time is spent practicing various drills...abandon ship, man your stations, etc. Sometimes we'll go up to the flight deck and watch take-offs or landings. I want to underscore the word "or" in the previous sentence...you can NOT do both at the same time. One pilot tried and the resulting fireball accounted for 8 birds being tossed overboard, many injuries and two fatalities. It is dangerous up there.

Barcelona was my favorite stop on the entire cruise and I cannot remember why. The walk up the Ramblas was a joy. The Picasso Museum a surprise and the Ferris wheel on the cliff totally avoided. Years later I visited again and still loved it. The third visit with Grace was still a joy. July, heat and smog a bit of a bummer, but, Gaudi rules!

"Hey Joe...", every sailor in every Navy knows exactly what those words imply...a commodity being merchandised! All perfect, unblemished and pristine! Yep! Do I here something about the "tooth fairy"? Those words are about the first and last that you'll hear in Naples, or to be fair any port. Since we were in and out of Naples six times some of the young faces became familiar. A couple of guys even knew their names. That never seemed to affect the pitch, rare, pure, unsullied each one and every visit...remarkable!

Naples as a hub is really pretty good. Amalfi, Capri, Ischia, Pompeii, Vesuvius and tours everywhere. I saw cameos being carved by artists that were probably legally blind. Ischia harbor an ,inactive volcano where the Cleopatra barge sat without Liz of course. The funicular would take you to the top of Mt Vesuvius and it was steaming a little too. Pompeii was a great stop, it was summer and hot, but seeing the streets with the ancient chariot ruts was something no one my age could anticipate. I've returned, with Grace, the fascination didn't change. We watched Vesuvio from our hotel balcony in Sorrento. Safer and infinitely easier.

When I finally returned to Naples we had just finished seeing Pompeii and were going aboard a ship. Another tour, but this cruise wasn't all guys and there was a full liquor cabinet in each bar....but, always a but, now you had to Pay!

You just can't enjoy some things as a kid! Grace was smart enough to make me return, another mitzvah!