This classic wooden sailing yacht
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Further information concerning charter cruising in France, Spain, and Italy may be obtained by clicking
on the gray links immediately above. Thank You. In 1878 John Brown Herreshoff, a blind boat
builder from Bristol, Rhode Island, went into partnership with his younger brother, Nathanael Green
Herreshoff, a naval architect and steam engineer. The partnership was an immediate and lasting
success. The same love of competition and technological innovation that had made the two almost
unbeatable when as boys they raced sailboats together on Narragansett Bay so brought them fame as
builders of some of the world's fastest racing and cruising yachts. Between 1893 and 1914 the
Herreshoffs designed and built seven of the most powerful racing sloops the world had known, five
selected to defend the America's Cup. All five were victorious. The company also launched hundreds
of custom-designed yachts and a number of one-design classes. Among the one-designs was a group of
thirteen New York 40's (with a waterline length of 40 ft) including Vixen II now charter
cruising in the western Mediterranean. You may be searching for such a yacht. You are almost certainly
searching for a charter yacht cruising France, Spain, or Italy or you would not have been directed to
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this web page. Unless, of course, you
are searching for a vixen, a foxy lady, a physically attractive woman. In that event, read on. The
Mediterranean is the crossroads of history. The Mediterranean has seen empires come and go, and the
people living here have watched the empires' sea captains make history. Among earlier sea captains of
note was Hannibal of Carthage. That's right. The guy with the elephants was a sea captain (that's him
to the left). What else could you expect from a descendant of seafaring Phoenicians growing up on the
shores of the Mediterranean. Following the Punic Wars with Rome and a spell as a politician, Hannibal
signed on with Antiochus III of Syria then holding court at Ephesus in modern Turkey and became
commander of the Seleucid Navy, famously engaging his former and enduring enemy Rome in a 190 BC
battle in Turkey's Gulf of Antalya. There he ushered in a new kind of naval contest by employing a
one-design class of seven-banked galleys. Later in service to the King of Bithynia (NW Anatolia),
Hannibal finished his naval career with a series of victories over the fleets of Pergamum, a Roman
satrapy in Asia Minor. What does this have to do with vixens, you ask. Read on. This web page deals
with a foxy lady of the sea, a classic yacht sailing France, Spain, and Italy, cruising the Tyrrhenian
coast of the latter country and among its Pontine Islands, cruising between Ischia and Capri to the
Aeolian Islands above Sicily. Cruising by way of the Gulf of Gaeta where in 1535 Kheir-ed-Din
Barbarossa put in for rest and relaxation. The offspring of a Greek Orthodox mother and a formerly
Orthodox father living on Lesbos, this corsair about to become Lord High Admiral of the Ottoman Navy
despised Latin Christians. Make that, he despised Latin Christians with the exception of Italian
vixens. While in Gaeta he is reported to have "loaded his ships with wives and maidens." It
is also reported that while his ships and their cargo rested at Gaeta he attempted to kidnap Giulia
Gonzaga then resident in the town of Fondi a few miles up the coast. Descended from one of Italy's
more prestigious families, celebrated by painters and poets, a lady of royal blood, Giulia Gonzaga
was said to be the most beautiful woman in Italy. Barbarossa failed in his attempt only because this
fair maiden escaped bare on a barebacked stallion in the middle of the night. Undaunted, two years
later he kidnapped from the Aegean island of Paros the high-born Cecilia Venier-Baffo, offspring of
two distinguished Venetian families. Made a slave in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, she came to the
attention of the future Sultan Selim II and bore him a son, the future Sultan Murat III. Not finished,
Kheir-ed-Din in 1543 kidnapped yet another Italian beauty. Eighteen year-old Flavia Gaetani (depicted
at lower-right) was the daughter of the governor of Reggio Calabria and an accomplished musician. One
or the other, beauty or accomplishment, proved captivating. They soon wed. And following the wedding
they honeymooned along the southern coasts of Italy. Honeymoon, 
anniversary, or otherwise, you might like to charter a sailing yacht
to cruise Italy's coasts. Like the scenic Amalfi coast. From celebrated Positano to celebrated Sorrento.
You might like to sail further south to Poseidonia and its three Doric temples dedicated to Zeus's
vixen-ish wife Hera and to Athena, and even further south to a natural whirlpool the work of Scylla and
Charybdis, those two monsters barely avoided by Odysseus returning from Troy. And by Cleopatra who passed
this way in 46 BC en route to Rome to appear before the Roman Senate. And by Octavian who passed this
same way in 31 BC with a large fleet of galleys seeking Cleopatra and her friend Antony. And finding them
at Actium. Yes, come aboard Vixen II, a proper charter yacht offering a holiday merging past and present.
Come aboard a charter yacht with an experienced crew able to show you Cleopatra's route from Messina to
Ostia, able to show you Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa's many tracks from Reggio Calabria to Palma de Mallorca.
And able to discuss the few men in Cleopatra's life and the large number of women in Barbarossa's. Come
charter cruise the western Mediterranean aboard Vixen II. While you holiday at the crossroads of history.
While you island hop from Sicily to Sardinia to Corsica to Minorca to Formentera as did innumerable
corsairs sailing in the wake of Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa, sailing aboard custom built lateen-rigged
galleys and galliots and later aboard square-rigged frigates. Come charter Vixen II for the ultimate
sailing holiday. Come charter Vixen II in Palma de Mallorca. Are you searching for Mallorca or Majorca
in the Balearics? Well, it is approximately 115 air miles and 45 minutes east of Barcelona. In Palma and
elsewhere we can put you aboard a crewed charter yacht for the holiday of a lifetime. We can put you
aboard a classic charter yacht and show you the tracks of history up and down and across
the western Mediterranean. Vixen II, a superb staysail schooner available for charter cruising in
France, Spain, and Italy. Contact Blue Cruise Yacht Charters today at