Winter 2007
Well, It’s January here in Taranto. We’ve been doing yoga, doing boat projects, preparing for Burns Night *and otherwise keeping ourselves entertained. Forecast is for strong SE winds for the next three days which will bring a swell into the harbour. The marina manager Massimo (short for Massimilliamo) came around to check that our mast was not aligned precisely with that of the next boat in case we and they rocked in opposing directions. We have added a line to the quay to improve our stability. From Mar Grande to the marina all shore is hard sided which allows no dampening of the swells.
We have put plastic sheeting over the boom, which, combined with the canvas piece that covers the bow of the boat back to the mast, and the cockpit room, covers most of the deck. It is covered with coal dust as is the deck which will need major cleaning come spring. Speaking of spring, just priced bottom paint for this vessel. We used a Turkish, toxic, paint for the last season with mixed results. Back to VC Offshore which we liked. Prices for our bottom, two coats, ranged from 1,133 Euro to 575 Euro. We got the best price from a small local chandlery nearby. Piero, an admiralty attorney, just had his 49 foot Beneteau taken out of the water for a bottom job. The marina’s crane could not handle the weight so he contracted for another crane. Cost to haul out 1,800 Euro. His bottom resembled ours after we’d been in the water for 18 months. The reason; he used an ablative paint, but scrubbed it. Pretty ugly, but about 2 hours or so with a power washer and he can repaint.
Check out www.dakare.com. Dan and Karen are owners and operators of a Tayana 54 and are wintering with us in Taranto. Dan came out of the dot com era and is a talent. Between he and Greg, also an ex dot comer, they got the wifi squared away so we can really use it. Sara even used Skype to talk to her sister and son on Sunday. Using Skype may add a year to our finances. For those who do not know, Skype is one of the systems that lets people speak to each other using headsets and computers. In contrast to phone services, it is free. In our case the local computer system administrator put copious filter on the system and reserved the balance of the bandwidth for the marina office. Until the filters were removed, We really never appreciated the need for quick and efficient communications until this year. As the world goes more toward the Internet we need it for reservations home, making appointment, researching suppliers, researching marinas for next winter and a variety of other tasks.
Speaking of other tasks, we have begun to formulate our cruising plans for next year. So far it looks like we will go to Brindisi to haul and do the bottom, cross the Ionian to Kirkira (Corfu) for a bit as we missed it on our way across. We will then recross the Ionian and tour down the coast of Sicily to the south. From there we will head to Malta, Lampadusa and finally Monastir, Tunisia. We go to Tunisia for two reasons. Reason 1, to get the boat out of the EU so we can restart the 18 month clock. (Boats in the EU who have not paid the VAT tax, which ranges from 15% to 19%, may remain for no more than 18 months. If they are in the EU for over that period, they are liable for the tax.) Reason 2, we have lost touch with a dear friend and his family. Slah Garaya was a great help to us while we were in Tunisia and he and his family became good friends. After Tunisia we will head to Pantaleria and then up the west side of Sicily and go around the north side to the Aeolian Islands where we intend to spend a bit of time. From there we will head up the coast of Italy, Ischia and Capri included, to our eventual winter quarters around Genoa. Of course all this is subject to change at moment’s notice.
Our “fleet” is presently negotiating winter quarters in that area. Stay tuned.
*Inquries as to “Burns Night” are welcomed