Long time no see…
After six month of writing nothing and even thinking about nothing… here I am – back again. I am in Munich these days and try to sort out my new life, which is surprisingly working out very well. After splitting up with Sandra – my beloved ex-wife-to-be, we both had to re-arrange ourselves.
Anyhow, I will start with Barcelona in December. Quite a nice week, where I met Stefan, my sailing friend. He took us (my friend Stefanie and me) to quite a couple of cool places, we celebrated New Years Eve together and went to some fantastic restaurants. My friend Chri with his wife Magda and son Marco came to visit Barcelona as well, just 2 days before we left. Magda used to live in Barcelona and Chri did as well for a couple of months.
Well, this sums it up pretty well. Everything else was more like the usual touristy program. Here are a couple of pics.
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Ahhh, test sailing a dufour 385
I’ll be back on a boat tomorrow. yeahh. Tomorrow morning, very early, I will be driving down to the Italian “Med”-coast, somewhere south of Genova to test sail a dufour 385. The plan for next year actually is, to buy a boat. I am not quite sure, which direction I want to go (boat wise). I want to do a little bit of charter with the boat and of course sail for my own pleasure. I thought of of the above boat, a feeling 39, a beneteau cyclades 39.3, beneteau 40, sun odysee 39 and even a bavaria 39 cruiser. I can’t afford anything more ocean going, so the hallbergs of the world are out of reach at the moment. Apparently this dealership also has a used delphia 40. They are supposed to be very solid, but to be ownest… I think they look very “plastic”. Any comment, experiences on this subject are highly welcome. All the best, Kosta
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Tags: dufour, Italy, Med, sailing
back home in Italy
Just a brief wrap up of what happened over the weekend. After the storm settled on Saturday morning, our examiner Dave, Tony and Dave from the school, tried to speak to the Marina Officials to let us out in order to do our exams. There was one snapped slime line in our part of the Marina, which “disabled” us to get out. Finally after 4 hours of discussions (Dave went through the port authority eventually), we could go out. The swell was amazing, the water was covered with plastic bags, wood, canisters, chairs and all sorts of parts that you can think of. The La Linea breakwater was washed away half (the one that separates the landing strip from the anchorage), in the distance we could see a sailboat on the rocks, in Algeciras a boat was stranded in the middle of the channel into the marina, further south was a tanker aground, and of course the new ship wreck off Europa Point. We tried our best to find some wind, but didn’t succeed really. We did a couple of manouvres, anchored – basic stuff and decided to wait for the day to come to proceed with the exams.
Sunday was much better. The swell was almost gone and the sun was shining. No real wind though. We managed three man over board, anchoring and a bit of sailing to a mooring buoy. Back in marina we did some berthing, got some fuel, went out again, wind came, which shortly enabled us to show Dave, that we are capable of putting in a reef. Well, all in all it went well and by 1500 he told us we would have passed.
I wished we could have shown him a bit more. I think the special circumstances were the reason for giving us an easy exam. Well, whatsoever, we have made it and we are now proud yachtmasters. In the end such an exam is really about to show confidence and excellence in skippering a boat. I think, that is what an examiner wants to see. We all did that….
I will have a decent internet line by next week again and will write more and post a couple of pics as well. I also have a plan for a little next adventure, which might come up just around x-mas. Stay tuned.
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Tags: gibraltar storm, sailing, yachtmaster exam
It started yesterday in the early morning. Wind was up to 30 something kts in no time. It slowly increased over the whole day, but we had no problems at all to keep the boats together. Queens Way Marina in Gib showed a totally different picture in the early evening hours. Cleats came off the concrete docks, ships banged into each other, in walls and quite a big swell came in.
By 0100 in the morning it started to become really crazy. Our boat was rocking and heeling as if we would be out at sea. The wind hammered into the rig and the hull and was just scary to sit down there. Well, actually we couldn’t anyway because other boats went into trouble. Headsails unfurled itself in no time on three different boats, while the wind was gusting up to 60 kts. Some guy told me that is windspeed indicator even showed a max of over 70 kts.
Slimelines were ripped out of the bottom of the marina and we had to bring long lines across to another concrete pier. In the meantime everybody in the Marina was up to save boats, bring out more lines and try to get hold of ripped sails. Even mainsails came out of their bags.
Now you might want to say – bad seamanship – but most boats were tied up as you would expect it in a storm. The wind simply had such a power, you just couldn’t do anything about it.
We already secured our boat with many lines yesterday. However the close proximity to the other boats next to us was scary as every boat was healing more or less. At some point for 3 hours or so, our stanchions were constantly below the towrail of the boat to our left. Just cm’s and we would have been caught in there.
Well, we made it (without sleep) but we secured the boat. Nothing damaged except for some fenders we have to write off the books.
Exams will be on Sunday now. With no wind predicted. How crazy is that?
Ohh, before I forget. Another tanker went aground off Europa point. 31 people seem to be still on board. So, after The Flame (the wreck is almost gone), there is some new work for the next couple of month.
You all have fun and I will post some pictures of the chaos here next week.
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Tags: gibraltar, sailing, sails ripped, storm, Yachtmaster
30 kts expected for exam
That is not really what we wanted. Currently there is a big system north west of us bringing along up to 30 knots of wind with rain by Friday noon and that will last until Saturday noon/afternoon. We had almost no wind wind during the last couple of days and there is definitely no wind expected for the next three days.
I think we are all feeling pretty comfortable with 30 knots … but for an exam this is really not what you want. Especially on our Bavaria 36, which sails more sideways than forward.
Well, today we are doing a little course on First Aid and Social Responsibility, which is part of the STCW 95, a “package” of courses that you need if you ever intend to work on one of the superyachts. Except for fire fighting this is the last bit that is missing.
Until Friday we all have to prepare a passage plan. I have to plan a trip to Cadiz in SW winds with fc 4-5. This isn’t really a challenge as I almost know the waypoints, tides and streams by heart. We’ve been approaching Cadiz by night and day in most conditions. Tarifa is a bit tricky, but not in sw winds as the wind is backing on this side of the straits, so it should stay around fc 5 in this area.
This afternoon we are doing more sailing practice…
All the best, Kosta
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Photos Yachtmaster Prep
Here we go. The latest photos from my prep week. All pics taken, while at anchor just off a beach at Punta Canera at the edge of Gib Bay. Will, Ed, Michael and our instructor Sean.
Have a great day. Kosta
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Tags: anchoring, gibraltar, sailing, Yachtmaster
Boat damaged…
Yesterday was a pretty cool sailing day again. Will had to do his last blind navigation, we all did some practice on sailing on to a buoy, which was spot on for all of us and after that we anchored off for some real good lunch, Will prepared for us. Around 1400 we headed straight back into the Marina for some more sailing alongside several walls…
Everything worked out fine, when one of our mates did not get the boat turned before that huge wall next to the fuel dock and we crashed into that wall almost head on. Sean jumped to the bow to fender us off with his feet … which resulted in a swollen foot. The whole pulpit has been bent and pushed sideways and upwards.
It isn’t really too bad but very very very unfortunate in this situation. If that would have happened to me, I would probably not be able to do the exams. Well, who knows. Sean was handling the whole situation great and our mate was doing another “sail-on” straight away and it worked out great.
We went back to our berth in the Marina and started to fix the whole thing. Its not looking perfect and there is a lot of work left for today, but its ok.
We also know which examiner we will have next week and the choice is really more than perfect. We are all quite confident to pass the exam. I am off today and tomorrow. The others are doing there helmsmen course on the power boat. I will stick my nose in books and try to catch up with theory. I simply can’t remember all the sound signals in combination with the flags. Also, I have to do the whole weather stuff again. Early afternoon I am invited from a couple to join them for a cup of tea on their boat. I am really looking forward to it.
Thats it so far. I will see, if I can post some pictures today or tomorrow. All the best, Kosta
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Tags: exam, gibraltar, sailing, Yachtmaster
Engine died…
Third day of prep. Sun was shining. Almost no wind – 3 bft. We skipped leaving the berth in the morning and everybody on the boat did a safety brief. I did everything that could possibly happen on deck. In detail… man over board equipment, flares, helicopter rescueing, life raft and all the other bits and pieces. I am pretty amazed, that everything worked out (despite my lack of the English language).
Around noon we left our berth and Sean (our instructor) simulated an engine failure (as yesterday). Being future yachtmaster, we handled the situation with “bravour”. No problems. Later on we simulated navigation without GPS and Ed had to take us to a certain spot across the bay with – again simulated – restricted areas. Will took us further out the bay next to Algeciras into an anchorage, where we had a late lunch.
It was my turn to bring us on the other side of the bay to a place next to Europa Point, which marks the tip of the Gib Rock. After 5 minutes under engine, the whole boat started to shake and it was obvious that we had some serious engine problems. Grey smoke came out of the exhaust and almost no cooling water anymore. The bad news? No wind, close to land and in the middle of the Ferry lane (the fast ferrys that come in and out from Gib to Morocco). Ed and Sean dived down into the engine compartment, opened up the impeller plate, replaced it… nothing. In the meantime Michael, Will and myself tried to keep the boat moving. Lucky us that we had the tide pushing us with one knot, so we had some steerage. To cut a long story short. We skipped my navigation part and headed for Marina Bay (our Marina) instead. Several attempts and 3 hours later, lots of oil and cooling liquids, spare parts and parts of the engine that we took off and put back on, enabled us to go the last 1 mile under engine back home. In the meantime Will and I went quite creative and both of us where sitting on the side deck paddling the boat along with oars that you usually use with the dinghy. At least that gave us 0,3 knots on top of the 0,8 knots of tidal stream.
Well, this is the boat we are going to have the exams on. The engine is still not fixed really. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.
All the best, Kosta
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Tags: exam, gibraltar, sailing, Yachtmaster
First day of prep with rain
Sunday 2300 I finally walked from the airport to Gibraltar Marina Bay. Our flight was 5 ours late. Actually I arrived by bus because our flight got diverted to Malaga. There we had to wait for a bus that would take us the 100 something kilometers to Gib. Reason for that? Heavy thunderstorms in and around Gibraltar. It was freezing cold. My mates on the boat left me some excellent curry and soon after I fell sound asleep.
Monday morning saw me on a Bavaria 36 and by 1000 we left the berth for practice in the bay. Sailing excercises, tacking through the La Linea anchorage, man over board, gusts up to 33 knots and loads of rain almost all day long. During the afternoon till 7 pm we did berthing practice, which was quite successfull as the wind died down to almost nothing – well, not the rain.
Exams will be next Thursday and Friday. Another 9- 10 days left for practicing. Today the weather situation looks a bit better. Still dark, rain-carrying clouds but also blue spots and a nice breeze around 4- 5 bft is expected.
Filed under: Yachtmaster | 2 Comments
Tags: exam, gibraltar, sailing, Yachtmaster
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