For 3 months last autumn we shared a rental car with a Swiss guy and a German couple. It worked well for 3 boats to share the car because none of us need a car full time, although a car is absolutely necessary when berthed at this isolated marina. I guess strictly speaking a rental car is not mandatory because buses are available to Famagusta at 0600 and 0700 with returns at 1100, 1300 and 1500.......a 2-hour bus ride in each direction with nowhere to place your purchases except in your lap. And some people have walked or biked to the nearest village. We don't bike and there is no way Bill will walk there. For us, a rental car is required. When we returned last week we could not arrange a new rental car because the Swiss guy was still away on a home visit. He returned this weekend and hopefully we will be able to arrange another rental car in the next day or so.
And our first excursion will be a drive down to Nicosia (Lefkosa) to the south (Greek) side of Cyprus......where we can purchase some real bacon. Not the British style bacon that is really thinly sliced ham of some sort. That is not bacon to us. We want real bacon....American style smoked "streaky" bacon as the Europeans call it. It is worth driving all the way to the other side of Cyprus in order to buy the right product.
Hope we get that car soon. We also need hot chocolate for these cold mornings. Another product only available on the south side.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Back to our real home -- aboard S/V BeBe
The trip back to Cyprus was totally uneventful. Houston to Heathrow via Continental/United and Heathrow to Larnaka via Aegean Airlines. We had a row of 3 seats to ourselves on both flights and could stretch out for comfort. Due to strong headwinds across Europe we arrived a half-hour or so late. There was plenty of snow in England and LOTS of snow all across Europe visible from the plane. While America has enjoyed an abnormally warm winter, Europe has suffered under heavy snow and abnormally cold temps. Fellow yachties Jim and Elaine kindly met us at the Larnaka airport and transported us and our 240 lbs of luggage to the marina. Jim and Elaine have a home in Southern Cyprus and berth their catamaran in Karpaz Gate Marina. We are very grateful to them for going out of their way to transport us back to the marina. It made for a late night for them and they were very gracious to help us with this transportation.
The next evening a group of 7 of us enjoyed dinner at the marina restaurant. As always, the food was superb and beautifully presented. Then we all gathered on M/V Dora Mac for apple pie dessert. Randal has perfected baking apple pies. BTW, thanks very much to Randal for looking after BeBe during our absence. His sharp eye and attendance to our chafing dock lines kept BeBe safe during the high winds that have inundated Cyprus during the past 2 months.
The following evening we joined Ruth and Randal aboard M/V Dora Mac for a delicious dinner of bon fillet. This was the best meat we have eaten since arriving in the Med! Bill and I had never heard of a bon fillet. It is what we know as a beef tenderloin. Randal had sliced the bon fillet into steaks and he cooked those steaks to perfection. Now we know what to ask for at the local butcher shop in the village. This is not a cut of meat that will be found in the supermarkets.
On Friday evening we again joined Ruth and Randal for the regular weekly Fish & Chips at the local Dek's restaurant. Dek's is owned and operated by some British folks and they do know how to prepare 'proper' fish and chips. I always opt for the fish accompanied by salad and garden peas rather than the chips (french fries). I think my dinner pictured on the right looks more appetizing than Ruth's.
Ruth opted for the fish and 'mushy pease' that are usually served with traditional British fish and chips. Yeah, I know it should be 'mashed peas' but for some reason the Brits call this mushy pease. The taste is not objectionable, only the appearance. It tastes like solidified split pea soup.
Ruth has been taking Turkish lessons which are offered at Dek's one morning each week. We should also try learning a few words of Turkish but that is not likely to happen. I am too old to clutter my mind with a language that I will never use once we leave the western Med area. Better to save my limited brain cells for Spanish......a language that would better serve me to know more about once we are back in the Caribbean or in Texas. The folks at Dek's also do guided walks one morning each week. Ruth and Randal have participated in several of these walks and recommend the activity highly. Maybe........maybe......when we don't feel so lazy.
The mini-market here at the marina is supposed to open next week. The on-site gym also recently opened. And the Customs and Immigration offices are ready to begin operation as soon as the authorities arrive to staff the offices. That means boats will be able to clear in and out here at the marina rather than having to go to Girne when arriving or departing. It will be great to be able to clear out directly from this marina when it is time to sail to Turkey later this spring.
Turkey changed visa regulations effective 1 February. No longer can visitors stay 90-days in Turkey; ferry over to one of the Greek islands for a day; then return to Turkey and start another 90-day tourist visa period. Turkey has changed laws to emulate the EU states. (I now refuse to consider Italy, Spain, France, Greece, etc. to be separate countries. These are now simply states. That is how the EU refers to these previously individual countries: states.) Like in the EU that Turkey wants to join, visitors can now stay only 90 days within Turkey; then must leave for 90 days. This is very sad news to yachties who have enjoyed Turkey for years and to those of us who had planned to winter in Turkey next year. In order to avoid the 90-in/90-out new ruling, one must obtain a residency visa in Turkey.
There are a number of requirements for a residency visa; the most important of which is that one must have a contract for one year with a marina. We are not thrilled to committing to a single marina location for a whole year because we want to cruise the coast of Turkey and see the country, not sit in a marina the entire time. We would be paying for a marina we most likely would not use even half the time. I have been shopping marinas via emails. We do not need to make a decision just yet but it is best to gain as much information as possible. Karpaz Gate also is offering a limited time 50% discount on berths for next winter, so returning here is also an attractive possibility. And returning to Northern Cyprus would get us out of the new Turkish 90-in/90-out rule for next winter....assuming that TRNC does not also effect this new visa rule. Right now we can re-set our TRNC visa by simply driving to Southern Cyprus for the day and returning across the Green Line and obtaining a new 90-day visa in Northern Cyprus. If TRNC changes their visa rules to the same as Turkey, that will create horrendous problems for yachties berthing in Northern Cyprus. Others are considering wintering next year in Israel, but that is not an option for us as we have no intention of going to Israel. And we are not yet ready to move father west to Tunisia. We contemplated renting a beach cabin in Crystal Beach and returning to Texas for next winter, but after checking out rental rates we have scratched out that possibility as too expensive. For now, our choices are either commit to a marina in Turkey for one year and obtain a residency visa OR return to Karpaz Gate Marina in Northern Cyprus next winter.
For the past 6 years whenever someone asks us what our biggest challenge or difficulty is while cruising round the world, we always answer "adhering to immigration and customs regulations." Here in the Med, that is proving to be most definitely the case. The restrictive tourist visa rules are ruining what should be a great place to cruise. And the situation only gets more difficult as we sail farther westward in the Med.
One of the things we bought while in Houston is a Western Digital Live Hub. Bill has been ripping our DVDs into avi files and copying onto the WD terrabyte hub drive. I think we are going to like this very much. It will be nice not to have to keep all the hundreds of DVDs taking up storage space on the boat. Bob Bradford also gave us 80 gigs of music that we have also loaded on the WD drive. We are enjoying that a lot! Last year we had bought small Bose speakers and the music sounds pretty darn good. This year we also brought back a set of Altec-Lansing speakers which I dearly love. The Altec-Lansing speakers are very tiny and sound far better than the small Bose speakers. Unfortunately, the Altec-Lansing speakers will not work correctly with our DVD player. Work great with the TV or the computer, but sound like crap when played with the DVD. Bill wanted to throw them away or give them away, but I am holding firm on keeping these speakers. Sure as sh*t, if we get rid of these speakers then the DVD player will fail and the replacement DVD player would work with the speakers. Besides, if he rips all our DVDs and copies them to the WD drive, then we can use the Altec-Lansing speakers and have killer sound both with movies and music. We are going to really, really like this WD hub drive.
The next evening a group of 7 of us enjoyed dinner at the marina restaurant. As always, the food was superb and beautifully presented. Then we all gathered on M/V Dora Mac for apple pie dessert. Randal has perfected baking apple pies. BTW, thanks very much to Randal for looking after BeBe during our absence. His sharp eye and attendance to our chafing dock lines kept BeBe safe during the high winds that have inundated Cyprus during the past 2 months.
The following evening we joined Ruth and Randal aboard M/V Dora Mac for a delicious dinner of bon fillet. This was the best meat we have eaten since arriving in the Med! Bill and I had never heard of a bon fillet. It is what we know as a beef tenderloin. Randal had sliced the bon fillet into steaks and he cooked those steaks to perfection. Now we know what to ask for at the local butcher shop in the village. This is not a cut of meat that will be found in the supermarkets.
On Friday evening we again joined Ruth and Randal for the regular weekly Fish & Chips at the local Dek's restaurant. Dek's is owned and operated by some British folks and they do know how to prepare 'proper' fish and chips. I always opt for the fish accompanied by salad and garden peas rather than the chips (french fries). I think my dinner pictured on the right looks more appetizing than Ruth's.  |
| Fish and mushy pease |
Ruth opted for the fish and 'mushy pease' that are usually served with traditional British fish and chips. Yeah, I know it should be 'mashed peas' but for some reason the Brits call this mushy pease. The taste is not objectionable, only the appearance. It tastes like solidified split pea soup.
Ruth has been taking Turkish lessons which are offered at Dek's one morning each week. We should also try learning a few words of Turkish but that is not likely to happen. I am too old to clutter my mind with a language that I will never use once we leave the western Med area. Better to save my limited brain cells for Spanish......a language that would better serve me to know more about once we are back in the Caribbean or in Texas. The folks at Dek's also do guided walks one morning each week. Ruth and Randal have participated in several of these walks and recommend the activity highly. Maybe........maybe......when we don't feel so lazy.
The mini-market here at the marina is supposed to open next week. The on-site gym also recently opened. And the Customs and Immigration offices are ready to begin operation as soon as the authorities arrive to staff the offices. That means boats will be able to clear in and out here at the marina rather than having to go to Girne when arriving or departing. It will be great to be able to clear out directly from this marina when it is time to sail to Turkey later this spring.
Turkey changed visa regulations effective 1 February. No longer can visitors stay 90-days in Turkey; ferry over to one of the Greek islands for a day; then return to Turkey and start another 90-day tourist visa period. Turkey has changed laws to emulate the EU states. (I now refuse to consider Italy, Spain, France, Greece, etc. to be separate countries. These are now simply states. That is how the EU refers to these previously individual countries: states.) Like in the EU that Turkey wants to join, visitors can now stay only 90 days within Turkey; then must leave for 90 days. This is very sad news to yachties who have enjoyed Turkey for years and to those of us who had planned to winter in Turkey next year. In order to avoid the 90-in/90-out new ruling, one must obtain a residency visa in Turkey.
There are a number of requirements for a residency visa; the most important of which is that one must have a contract for one year with a marina. We are not thrilled to committing to a single marina location for a whole year because we want to cruise the coast of Turkey and see the country, not sit in a marina the entire time. We would be paying for a marina we most likely would not use even half the time. I have been shopping marinas via emails. We do not need to make a decision just yet but it is best to gain as much information as possible. Karpaz Gate also is offering a limited time 50% discount on berths for next winter, so returning here is also an attractive possibility. And returning to Northern Cyprus would get us out of the new Turkish 90-in/90-out rule for next winter....assuming that TRNC does not also effect this new visa rule. Right now we can re-set our TRNC visa by simply driving to Southern Cyprus for the day and returning across the Green Line and obtaining a new 90-day visa in Northern Cyprus. If TRNC changes their visa rules to the same as Turkey, that will create horrendous problems for yachties berthing in Northern Cyprus. Others are considering wintering next year in Israel, but that is not an option for us as we have no intention of going to Israel. And we are not yet ready to move father west to Tunisia. We contemplated renting a beach cabin in Crystal Beach and returning to Texas for next winter, but after checking out rental rates we have scratched out that possibility as too expensive. For now, our choices are either commit to a marina in Turkey for one year and obtain a residency visa OR return to Karpaz Gate Marina in Northern Cyprus next winter.
For the past 6 years whenever someone asks us what our biggest challenge or difficulty is while cruising round the world, we always answer "adhering to immigration and customs regulations." Here in the Med, that is proving to be most definitely the case. The restrictive tourist visa rules are ruining what should be a great place to cruise. And the situation only gets more difficult as we sail farther westward in the Med.
One of the things we bought while in Houston is a Western Digital Live Hub. Bill has been ripping our DVDs into avi files and copying onto the WD terrabyte hub drive. I think we are going to like this very much. It will be nice not to have to keep all the hundreds of DVDs taking up storage space on the boat. Bob Bradford also gave us 80 gigs of music that we have also loaded on the WD drive. We are enjoying that a lot! Last year we had bought small Bose speakers and the music sounds pretty darn good. This year we also brought back a set of Altec-Lansing speakers which I dearly love. The Altec-Lansing speakers are very tiny and sound far better than the small Bose speakers. Unfortunately, the Altec-Lansing speakers will not work correctly with our DVD player. Work great with the TV or the computer, but sound like crap when played with the DVD. Bill wanted to throw them away or give them away, but I am holding firm on keeping these speakers. Sure as sh*t, if we get rid of these speakers then the DVD player will fail and the replacement DVD player would work with the speakers. Besides, if he rips all our DVDs and copies them to the WD drive, then we can use the Altec-Lansing speakers and have killer sound both with movies and music. We are going to really, really like this WD hub drive.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
This visit is almost at an end
Waiting for the biopsy results was not a pleasant experience, especially since it took so danged long. We knew on 5 December that Bill likely had a health problem. The labs were repeated......same results. Drugs administered for 10 days. Labs repeated......almost same results. Biopsy scheduled -- required 2 weeks to get into the scheduling queue. Biopsy performed. Then had to wait 3 full weeks for official results to be provided. That was the difficult part. Online research revealed that the biopsy results should have been available in 1 week or less; yet we had to wait 3 weeks to meet with the doctor and learn the specifics. And Americans think we have the best health care. HAH!
I'm sure the family members on whom we have relied for places to stay and vehicles to drive for the past 2 months are more than ready to see the last of us for awhile. Our thanks to Bill's brother, John, for the use of his townhome and cars. Even more thanks to our elder son, Trey, and daughter-in-law, Kristina, for allowing us to hang out at their home so often and for such long periods of time, displacing grandson Zachary from his bedroom to sleep on the sofa for weeks on end. And thanks to Trey for loaning us his truck; we are sure he didn't really want to drive his old hot rod Mustang for the commute to work all those days. Our younger son and his family lucked out because we didn't stay will them as often; their daily lives are much too busy to be bothered with us; but we managed to see them several times for a night or so and spent one weekend babysitting while the parents enjoyed a weekend in the California wine country.
 |
| Embroidery machine |
 |
| Barbara & Judy in embroidery room. The wet mark is sizing to remove the hoop imprint. |
 |
| Smiling Pete |
 |
| Buffalo |
 |
| native Texas Longhorn steer |
We also passed 2 ranches that are breeding the almost extinct Texas longhorn cattle. Didn't stop to snap photos of the longhorns, but they were impressive. You have to respect the breed of animal that was able to survive desolate topography and weather conditions. Since we didn't take our own photo, here is an image taken from the Y.O. Ranch photo album on Facebook.
One weekend we visited Bill's youngest brother and his family in College Station. We didn't have much of an opportunity to visit with them at Christmas......simply because it is impossible to really visit when there are 22 people talking at once. We wanted to catch up with them and this weekend was the perfect opportunity. Bryan/College Station has really grown!! It looked like just about anything one might want could be found in Bryan/College Station today. What a great area to live. The student population at Texas A&M University must help keep prices low. For example, matinee movies still are only $3.50 to $3.75 rather than the $6 to $7 that we have been paying in Houston. And it is only an hour or 2 to Houston, depending on your in-town destination. Maybe we should retire there.
 |
| Galveston old homes |
 |
| East of Crystal Beach. Very close to the water now! |
This photo shows TX Hwy 87 headed west towards Galveston, just west of the intersection of the highway from Winnie. Wonder how long this section of Hwy 87 will remain usable. The sea is awfully close and the efforts to keep it at bay appear minimal.
 |
| Very old horse still pumping oil |
 |
| Oil field horse |
Folks from other places might consider these eyesores and blights upon the landscape. Not us. This is home. The beach is supposed to have oil field horses slowing moving up and down.
 |
| Driving onto one of the ferries |
 |
| Driving on top of Galveston Seawall |
Enjoyed driving the Galveston seawall and out down off the seawall onto West Beach. Those big homes now built out on the low-lying west end of the island look like big mistakes. Why anyone would spend that much money to build such large fancy homes in such a low place makes no sense.
A hurricane will clean those all away one day. And then insurance rates will skyrocket again for every homeowner in Texas.
We had driven the Crystal Beach/Bolivar beach road about 3 months after Hurricane Ike and the devastation of that area was surreal. Block upon block of homes wiped away by the storm. And the sea moved inland about 3 blocks in most places. We had no doubts that the area would be rebuilt; just no idea how long it would take before people would brave the elements again.
 |
| Bolivar light house |
It has always been in the back of our minds that we would buy a small place on the beach for final retirement after we eventually tire of boat life. Now we are kicking ourselves that we did not stop on our last drive through the area and inquire about buying some property. Right after the hurricane the average lot near Crystal Beach was selling for $10,000. Today those lots are selling for $35,000+. Now, as saying goes, we are a day late and a dollar short.
The Bolivar lighthouse still stands. Bolivar Lighthouse Wonder how many hurricanes and storms this old lighthouse has withstood.
 |
| Return of the pelicans |
One day we watched the implosion of an old building in the Houston Medical Center. We knew it was scheduled to be imploded that day but had no idea of the scheduled time. Driving through the area we noticed a lot of people standing around and decided to stop and join them. Five minutes later a series of 10 or so very loud booms vibrated the air and a huge dust cloud rose. Lucky for us, the wind took the dust cloud away in the opposite direction.... along with all those nasty things one would not want to breathe. We took a series of photos using an iPhone. Unfortunately, regardless of how I edit or save these photos, they appear sideways when uploaded to this blog. So, no photos.
Tonight we are meeting up with fellow Amel owners, Jan and Craig. They own an Amel 54 named S/V Lone Star. Lone Star recently sailed crossed the Atlantic and they are now cruising in the Caribbean; but due to a death in the family they are now home in the Houston area for a short time. We last saw Jan and Craig in Marmaris last April. Looking forward to hearing all their stories of cruising westward through the Med this past summer. If you look on the left-hand side of this blog you will see a link to the blog site for Lone Star Times. In case anyone else wants to follow their adventures.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Thoughts ending 2011
2011 was quite a year! It is hard to believe that one year ago tonight we sat in the cockpit in Patong at Phuket and watched the fantastic fireworks display. And those thousands upon thousands of lighted Chinese lanterns floating skyward all night were unforgettable. A cherished memory.
Little did we know that night that about a week later we would be caught in a circulating tropical storm in the Bay of Bengal, with the eye repeatedly changing directions unpredictably. Unlike circulating tropical storms with which we are familiar, in the Bay of Bengal storms move with no predictable pattern. The storm seemed to jump around all willy-nilly. We broke out of the storm 3 times and were sucked back in each time. 29 people were killed on the island of Sri Lanka and more than a million people lost their homes during this storm. One fellow sailor abandoned his boat less than 20 miles from us during one of the worst days of the storm. Luckily, he and his crew were safely picked up by a commercial freighter, but the sailboat was lost. Our 1100 NM passage from Phuket to Sri Lanka took 1608 NM, as I remember. Hope we never go through anything like that again! The experience proved to us that S/V BeBe is stronger than her owners.
While docked in Sri Lanka we met the Danish owners and crew of S/V ING. The family of 5 and their 2 crew members were later captured by Somali pirates a short distance before they would have entered the eastern end of the IRTC. A 3 million dollar ransom was later paid and all 7 were released after 7 months of the horror of captivity. We also met the owners and crew of S/V QUEST in Sri Lanka.
After another rough sail from Sri Lanka to Cochin, India, Bill updated our records of pirate attacks for the previous 90 days and we immediately saw there was no way we were going to continue through the Arabian Sea. Pirate attacks had increased 13 times higher than the same 90-day period the previous year. In 2011 the pirates inundated the entire northern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. We decided to transport BeBe on the deck of a container ship. Bill asked the owner of S/V QUEST if they also were interested in transporting, but Scott said it was his lifelong dream to sail a complete circumnavigation. We did not press the matter.....as with everything involving sailors, it is always the captain's decision where and when and how to go. Two weeks later, all 4 persons aboard QUEST had been captured by Somali pirates and murdered. We will always regret not showing Scott our updated chart reflecting how severe the pirate activity had become during the previous month. Maybe he would have continued to sail; but maybe he would have considered transporting his yacht to the Med instead. No one can know now.
We are forever grateful to Randal on M/V DORA MAC for forwarding us the contact information for Mike Heffer, the agent for SevenStar Shipping. Bill worked with Mike and located 13 other sailboats that also wanted to transport. Thanks to Michael on S/V B'SHERET for helping in the rate negotiations. Four boats sailed from Cochin down to Male, Maldives to join the other boats awaiting transport. The final number of yachts participating in this transport shipment totaled 18. And all arrived safely in Marmaris, Turkey in late April.
We enjoyed a couple of months in Turkey, then 3 months cruising the Greek Isles, joined by 2 of our grandchildren. Our youngest son and his family joined us for 3 weeks. Then we sailed from Crete to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where we are docked for the winter in the new Karpaz Gate Marina.
In early December we returned to Houston for the Christmas holidays and for Bill to do his annual physicals. One lab test had questionable results, requiring a biopsy for which the results will not be available until late January; thus delaying our return to Cyprus by at least a month. We are spreading our time in Houston between Bill's brother's townhome and our sons' homes. We figure 2 weeks at each home is enough to intrude upon the lives of others. Lucky us that we have so many relatives and friends living in Houston and that they all have extra vehicles to lend us. Saves us the cost of hotels and rental cars.
The highlight of this visit for Bill was an impromptu reunion of several high school classmates. Bill attended a Catholic high school and was in a relatively small class. Eighteen people met for dinner at a Cajun seafood restaurant in Beaumont.....some driving in from Austin, Dallas and even as far as Baton Rouge. After dinner several of us gathered at a local pub for several more hours of visiting. Bill thoroughly enjoyed visiting with his old friends and wished there had been more time.
Christmas Day was celebrated at our older son's home and most of the family attended. Dinner for 22 people requires days of cooking. It was wonderful to see everyone. Just wish we had more time to visit with each person. The day passed too quickly.
As always, Christmas is mainly for the children. Wrapping papers and ribbons and bows were strewn throughout Trey's house. It was a lot of fun.
On New Year's Eve we visited our good friends Donna and Bruce at their country home. Donna is a fabulous cook and the meals and pies were delicious. We enjoyed a very quiet evening and watched the movie "The Help." Four adults in the room and 3 of them had been reared by black maids in the South. They could relate to this movie. Bill did not like the part where 1 maid said they didn't get any Social Security. Bill's father always paid Social Security for their maid, Clara. He wanted to make certain that Clara would have retirement income during her old age. It was nice that a few of the maids in the movie told positive stories about their employers. Not all employers of housekeepers of the time were like the white women in that movie.
Fireworks at midnight and then we were quick to bed. We are too old for late night celebrations. It was really nice visiting with Donna and Bruce and we hope to see them again before we fly back to the boat. They gave us a lovely gift......a framed stained glass mounting of nautical flags spelling out our boat name -- BeBe. We like this so much that we are having flag graphics produced to put on the mizzen boom and also on the stern of BeBe. Below is a graphic of our boat name spelled in semaphore by nautical flags. I cannot include an image of the framed stained glass that Donna and Bruce gave us. It is already packed away with lots of other items we are accumulating for the trip back to the boat next month.
Little did we know that night that about a week later we would be caught in a circulating tropical storm in the Bay of Bengal, with the eye repeatedly changing directions unpredictably. Unlike circulating tropical storms with which we are familiar, in the Bay of Bengal storms move with no predictable pattern. The storm seemed to jump around all willy-nilly. We broke out of the storm 3 times and were sucked back in each time. 29 people were killed on the island of Sri Lanka and more than a million people lost their homes during this storm. One fellow sailor abandoned his boat less than 20 miles from us during one of the worst days of the storm. Luckily, he and his crew were safely picked up by a commercial freighter, but the sailboat was lost. Our 1100 NM passage from Phuket to Sri Lanka took 1608 NM, as I remember. Hope we never go through anything like that again! The experience proved to us that S/V BeBe is stronger than her owners.
While docked in Sri Lanka we met the Danish owners and crew of S/V ING. The family of 5 and their 2 crew members were later captured by Somali pirates a short distance before they would have entered the eastern end of the IRTC. A 3 million dollar ransom was later paid and all 7 were released after 7 months of the horror of captivity. We also met the owners and crew of S/V QUEST in Sri Lanka.
After another rough sail from Sri Lanka to Cochin, India, Bill updated our records of pirate attacks for the previous 90 days and we immediately saw there was no way we were going to continue through the Arabian Sea. Pirate attacks had increased 13 times higher than the same 90-day period the previous year. In 2011 the pirates inundated the entire northern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. We decided to transport BeBe on the deck of a container ship. Bill asked the owner of S/V QUEST if they also were interested in transporting, but Scott said it was his lifelong dream to sail a complete circumnavigation. We did not press the matter.....as with everything involving sailors, it is always the captain's decision where and when and how to go. Two weeks later, all 4 persons aboard QUEST had been captured by Somali pirates and murdered. We will always regret not showing Scott our updated chart reflecting how severe the pirate activity had become during the previous month. Maybe he would have continued to sail; but maybe he would have considered transporting his yacht to the Med instead. No one can know now.
We are forever grateful to Randal on M/V DORA MAC for forwarding us the contact information for Mike Heffer, the agent for SevenStar Shipping. Bill worked with Mike and located 13 other sailboats that also wanted to transport. Thanks to Michael on S/V B'SHERET for helping in the rate negotiations. Four boats sailed from Cochin down to Male, Maldives to join the other boats awaiting transport. The final number of yachts participating in this transport shipment totaled 18. And all arrived safely in Marmaris, Turkey in late April.
We enjoyed a couple of months in Turkey, then 3 months cruising the Greek Isles, joined by 2 of our grandchildren. Our youngest son and his family joined us for 3 weeks. Then we sailed from Crete to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where we are docked for the winter in the new Karpaz Gate Marina.
In early December we returned to Houston for the Christmas holidays and for Bill to do his annual physicals. One lab test had questionable results, requiring a biopsy for which the results will not be available until late January; thus delaying our return to Cyprus by at least a month. We are spreading our time in Houston between Bill's brother's townhome and our sons' homes. We figure 2 weeks at each home is enough to intrude upon the lives of others. Lucky us that we have so many relatives and friends living in Houston and that they all have extra vehicles to lend us. Saves us the cost of hotels and rental cars.
 |
| Old school friend Tim Mulally |
The highlight of this visit for Bill was an impromptu reunion of several high school classmates. Bill attended a Catholic high school and was in a relatively small class. Eighteen people met for dinner at a Cajun seafood restaurant in Beaumont.....some driving in from Austin, Dallas and even as far as Baton Rouge. After dinner several of us gathered at a local pub for several more hours of visiting. Bill thoroughly enjoyed visiting with his old friends and wished there had been more time.
 |
| Christmas 2011 |
Christmas Day was celebrated at our older son's home and most of the family attended. Dinner for 22 people requires days of cooking. It was wonderful to see everyone. Just wish we had more time to visit with each person. The day passed too quickly.
 |
| Christmas 2011 |
As always, Christmas is mainly for the children. Wrapping papers and ribbons and bows were strewn throughout Trey's house. It was a lot of fun.
 |
| Grandson Damien |
 |
| Damien loves trains |
On New Year's Eve we visited our good friends Donna and Bruce at their country home. Donna is a fabulous cook and the meals and pies were delicious. We enjoyed a very quiet evening and watched the movie "The Help." Four adults in the room and 3 of them had been reared by black maids in the South. They could relate to this movie. Bill did not like the part where 1 maid said they didn't get any Social Security. Bill's father always paid Social Security for their maid, Clara. He wanted to make certain that Clara would have retirement income during her old age. It was nice that a few of the maids in the movie told positive stories about their employers. Not all employers of housekeepers of the time were like the white women in that movie.
Fireworks at midnight and then we were quick to bed. We are too old for late night celebrations. It was really nice visiting with Donna and Bruce and we hope to see them again before we fly back to the boat. They gave us a lovely gift......a framed stained glass mounting of nautical flags spelling out our boat name -- BeBe. We like this so much that we are having flag graphics produced to put on the mizzen boom and also on the stern of BeBe. Below is a graphic of our boat name spelled in semaphore by nautical flags. I cannot include an image of the framed stained glass that Donna and Bruce gave us. It is already packed away with lots of other items we are accumulating for the trip back to the boat next month.
 |
| BeBe in semaphore -- spelled out in nautical flags |
 |
| BeBe spelled out in nautical flags with the use of "Repeater" Flags |
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Remember these?
 |
| New Singer can be operated manually |
These are not the heavy solid metal machines of yesteryears. The foot pedals are wrought iron, but the machine heads are plastic. The wooden cabinets are not solid wood, of course.
Wonder if these machines will last 80-plus years like the old sturdily built Singers our grandmothers used.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)