Out Of Our League

Guest blog post by Howard:

Looking out from our apartment we have this view of the marina in Antibes. Close to us are smaller boats which get progressively larger the farther out you go. It is nice to see boats for the everyday Joe and his family, but soon the scenery changes as you will see. Note the boat for charter at Euro 4,500 per day. Ouch.






My new boat. She's about 30 meters (90 plus feet for US) and a beaut. I may have to sell her quickly as I can't afford to fill her tanks. Drat!


It is hard to show perspective here as all the longer ships are tied together Mediterranean style and since there are no small boats tied close, it is hard to show just how large these yachts really are. The level of care is immaculate. Crew members are outfitted in polo shirts with the ships name and logo, and take fabulous care of these vessels.



This is Dilbar. She is the 17th largest privately owned pleasure yacht in the world. A Russian owns this baby and named it after his mother. The beam (the width) is 52.5 feet, nearly the length of our boat, Rapture. Dilbar is 110 meters or over 330 feet long. Every inch looks spit polished and shined, ready to go at a moments notice. She has a crew of 40 and an annual operating budget of $20,000,000.00. That figure to the left is not a typo.



On the same dock with Dilbar were 15 other ships that only a few people in the universe could afford to own and Dayna and I got to walk by the stern of each of them. We were impressed with the attention to detail in their care. It was quite frankly amazing.



Perhaps the most beautiful boat was the Maltese Falcon. Each of its three masts rotate and when fully rigged have over 25,000 sq. ft. of sail. Her design is in a class of its own. It is simply different from any other sailboat we have ever seen. She is a breathtaking beauty for any type of boat.


I want to share a pretty amazing experience from this afternoon. We were standing in the courtyard of the Picasso museum looking at the scupltures. There were some boats gathered together when a beautiful rich opera began playing from the sea. Drawn to the music we turned and watched as these boats began to dance. Their circular movements and gentle weaving left Dayna and me speechless as these wonderful boats played together in the beauty of the sea and to the tempo of the music. It was an intentional water dance set to music.