|
28th of March Back in the slow internet world of Turkey. In Fethiye I dont have
a network access and must use an old modem. It took me 2 hours
to upload the last update. It might take some time until I can
upload pictures again. Nina and the kids arrived safely in Berlin. I am now alone on
AMBERELLA. It is really quite different, no noise and children
toys on the floor. I have to get used to the change. I unpacket
all tools and made a mess of the salon. In the last two days I tried to fix a problem with my alternator.
Something with the connections was wrong. It would not regulate
the load. It blew 3 times the diodes of the alternator and I had
to solder them back. Finally I found a solution. I changed the
batterie selector and use now a switch which does not diconnect
the load of batterie A before it swicthes to B. This way the diodes
should be safe. Tommorow I fix a second problem with the starter
motor. There is a short in the relais. It draws a lot of power
over the switch circuit (dont know the right english term for
that). While I am on it I will take the whole starter motor out
and check it properly. 26th of March A few impressions from our last sail. Bye bye Rhodes. 23th of March The flight home for Nina and the kids is booked. We found a very
cheap offer flying to Berlin from Dalaman, Turkey. Finally Nina
passport has arrived with Selina babies details in the document.
Nastasja and Selinas grandparents are waiting eagerly to see them.
We were making AMBERELLA ready to sail to Fethiye. After our little
sailing desaster last year on the same leg coming to Rhodes, I
wanted to make sure that the sail is pleasant for the kids and
Nina. We used a calm weather period between two fronts (depressions).
Days before I was checking the weather on the Internet, downloaded
satelite images and made decisions when it was best to go. Monday
would have been perfect, it was blowing a steady 4-5 north westerly,
but AMBERELLA was not ready then. So we went Tuesday. Picking up the anker after 5 month of mooring in the marina was
not easy. The anchor was fouled by three! other chains from motor
boats. My strong anchor windlass was pulling everything out of
that ground. It took Nina and me about 1 hour to untangle the
mess. It was a pleasant sail, but we had only 0-2 winds, sometimes maximum
3. But we made the 45 sm in 14 hours, arriving in Fethiye bay
as the moon lid the night Today is Nina's birthday. We will celebrate with our turkish friends
Yardan and Gonca, and her daughter Siwa. When the family is back in Germany I will make AMBERELLA ready
for the summer. I hope I will manage to finish all jobs, plus
the ones that are for maintenance. I am sure I will be busy enough
and forget about taking a holiday. 17th of March Beside the officials, the local Greeks are really nice. We were
invited to a children birthday party. It was for me and Nina like
watching TV. A whole Greek family, old and young together. Nastasja
had a lot of fun playing with the many Greek children. 13th of March Istead of sailing the island we sailed to Turkey, Marmaris and
went shopping. I found 3 birthday presents for Nina and me and
as well a lot of food was bought. After the 3 hours stay in Marmaris
we sailed back to Rhodes. It was about 3 degrees warmer in Turkey
than on the island Rhodes. 12th of March Carneval in Rhodes. Thausends of people party in the old town.
We went to the main square in the old town and enjoyed the view
from the top of a terrasse restaurant. Nastasja was dressed as
princess, as well as her friend Sarah from the SY Arrow. I had with Georg a strange experience with the Greek harbour officials.
Georg and me sail a boat under German flag and we were told to
buy a transit log for Greece. This is a strange rule, this Greece
belongs to the EU and we are not in transit. But when we complained
about this, we were told that we would get the custom officials
searching our boats and we had to pay for this more than for the
transit log. An English sailor friend on the other hand was not told to fill
in the transit log, even when he said that his last port of call
was in Turkey, a non EU country. We concluded that the Greeks
make they rules as they please, because last summer I had not
to fill in any paper Yesterday we told the port authority that we would leave the harbour
for a little sail around the island and if it was nessessary to
check out. Yes it was. Georg filled in a crew list and gave this
paper to the harbour master. He told him it was not a right paper,
( he said toilet paper) gave him a blank sheet in order to fill
it 3 times. When Georg finished, another guy in uniform came and
said this crew list was wrong as well and gave a form to fill
3 times again. Me and Georg spent about 1 1/2 hours in the office
of the harbour master. The officer on duty ask about 6 time which
flag we have and made remarks about "Adolf Hitler". We ask him
if he was born before 1945, He denied, and we said, "the same
for us". After we left really angry the office, we talked to the
coast guard on duty and said that it is really strange to fill
in 6 formulars to sail around an island. He answered " If you
don't like my country, you can leave". Our conclusion. Greek officials
don't like Germans, especially the younger ones. Beside paid work on other boats I found some time finishing the
mast feet on my boat and as well removed the bowl of AMBERELLA.
The anchor chain rolls over a pertinax roll and its broken. 10th of March Still Problems with my website. I now create the page on Simpletext,
a Macintosh text editor and send them as email to my brother,
who puts them on the server. George and me had some days of hard working. I guess I have never
worked this fast on my own boat AMBERELLA. The steel boat shines
in new glossy paint. The wodden boat, a second workin project,
is sanded and almost ready to be painted. I must admit it is more
fun to work on wood than on steel. I don't know why. The situation for AMBERELLA has not changed though. We have the
perfect home situation now. The husband goes to work and has no
time for the own home/boat and the wife starts to complain. Me
and Nina had some good discussions lately about AMBERELLA This a couple of days, we are linked on the Trans-Ocean Website, an organisation for sailors which I joined last year. 3rd of March For one week we had a visitor. Corinne an old friend of Nina stayed
with us, and during some nice days of this week, the kids and
the women explored the south of the island. I have not been there
yet, but Ninas says it is much more beautiful. I work still on that steel boat and try to get some time for our
own projects too. I want to be able to sail again in 2 weeks.
Nina wants to fly with the kids to Germany, in order to visit
my parents. I would like to move the boat to Turkey, because another
3 weeks in Rhodes marina is just not in the budget. I could keep
on working in Fethiye, visit some old friends. Maybe Nina's sister
will join us for a sail in Fethiye bays and later we plan to move
westward, visiting Krete in June. But getting all this into our
time schedule is difficult. more entries in February2000,
check the |
