19 July 06 - Good and bad news

You are here: Home > Sailing the boat to Denmark > Diary

The bad news first. Oluf decided to only stay with us for one single day before he decided to go again. Its quite sad and frankly quite annoying as this, on top of everything else obviously complicates things. We will now find local crew members to compensate for the loss of crew as we are getting close to the bare minimum. This is not going to affect our efforts to get the boat home. We will :) and we will do it in style ;)

The good news. Ive finally gotten the original documents after some driving around in Pireus to find a farmacy owned by the wife of the seller of the Dimitris. Unfortunately the documents werent at the accountants office today as otherwise agreed about, so my viking occupation desire rose, and I told them.. OK... then Ill sit down and wait here until they arrive. That triggered some activities including a phone conversation with the seller, which resulted in us getting the address and being able to pick up the documents. The accountants were actually trying to assist the best they could and made a reasonably understandable drivings directions paper for me.

We have also decided that we will endure the cost for food (not special medicine or drinks except for water) on the trip home for all crewmembers. Hence the cost for the crew will be minimal to participate on this trip. We have made this choise, because it wouldnt be fair that locally picked up crewmembers would get the food for free, while the ones signing up from start would have to pay. The food will not be extravagant, but knowing my wife, she will make something that tastes good.

The new walls and furniture has now been removed from the vessel to be polished and varnished at the carpenters workshop. We expect them to be reinstalled Friday or Saturday.

A new mascarating pump for the black water discharge has been installed. The previous one wasnt a mascarading type, which meant that it would not be able to cope with black water, but only grey water. Whats the difference of black and grey water? Well.. everything coming from a toilet is considered black water, while everything coming from a shower or a sink is considered grey water. Obviously there are 'chunks' of 'used food' in the black water and the purpose of a mascarading pump is to ensure those chunks are cut to small bits, so they wont clog the pipes that are of a much smaller diameter than the usual sewer pipings in a house.

Soeren (sorry for using the OE instead of the danish character.. but the Content Management System used for this web diary, dont like the danish characters very much) is still going strong, with a beach day today. Later we all (Soeren, Esmeralda, Katharina and I) went out to get some good food at a great restaurant called 'Toro Toro - Meat here'. Its a steak house with steak sizes no smaller than 300g and the largest being 650g... which is extremely big!

Very tasty and tender meat, and can easily be recommended. Prices are fair.

We plan tomorrow to drive to Marathon (a city approx. 42.5km from Athens).

Starting July 21, Esmeralda, Katharina and I will move into the boat, as the other aft cabin will be emptied and made ready for us. The boat now have running water, working 12v refridgiator, working 12v fridge, working microwave, oven and toaster/coffee machine. The toilets needs a cleanup (quite smelly right now :( ), but then they should be operable.

There are some shopping to do too (actually quite alot but we take a bit at a time when the conditions of the vessel allows for it), which includes some lifelines and paper rolls for the NavTex.

We hope for the best regarding our departure times and the workers are working very long days to try to get the stuff done. Its has been quite frustrating for us to have these delays, partly because it affects the travelplans of our crew (although we have always specified that its estimated times, which means that nothing can be guaranteed), but also partly because it obviously affects ourselfs. The cost is mounting up due to car rental, hotel, food (specially because we havnt been able to make food in the boat until now) etc. In addition we also have some important things to do when we get back, like emptying the house and preparing it for takeover by the new owners.

I hope our remaining crewmembers will bare with us and the delays endured.

Todays pictures are:

 

The blackwater septic tank.

Dining at Toro Toro 1

Dining at Toro Toro 2

Dining at Toro Toro 3