And not that I’m connected to the Internet – I’ll use some more minutes to post pics from yesterday when I was moving aboard. Today the look is already completely different as I’ve managed to store pretty much everything.
And here two last pics from my battery-tank. Yesterday, Andreas arrived and put the cables in place. Now we’re connected with 400Ah of AGM batteries. Yay !!
I just wanted to post a couple of pics from our last visit to BEAUTIFUL Austria (two weeks ago). The pics show us hiking unfar my partent’s home in Timelkam.
Last minute Details for our farewell party:
We’ll be travelling with the Rancho Relaxo to the city center and hope to arrive at the Radialsystem at around 14h on Saturday afternoon.
The PARTY will start around 15h in the YAAM !! But as there will be a concert in the evening, we’ll relocate around 19h to the RADIALSYSTEM where our ship is and we’ll stay there and drink lots of beers. I hope you’re all coming ! You can find a detailed map here !
So – al final – the apartment is empty and cleaned. I’m sitting in my ex-garden while writing this blog post. Once again the car is completely full with things that we found during the last days. But today *is* the day, we’re moving out.
I would post some pics of the moving but that’s boring and we’ve got more important things to do at the moment. – See the next posting…
I don’t have much time to post new stories and pic these days. But the ship is pretty much ready to move in. Everything is in it’s place, water and electicity works and I managd to store all the tools and parts, paint and whatelse…
Today we’re moving our remaining stuff. Which means a couple of boxes with kitchen stuff, books, clothes that go to Austria and all the leftovers will be subject to a little ‘garden sale’ that will start NOW.
I’ll move aboard on monday evening, the family will probably follow on wednesday – they can stay another few days with our neighbours. Pics will follow…
On popular demand: Yes, our party will be on the 28th of May ! If it’s the Yaam, we still don’t know – we don’t have time to manage our farewell right now – but there WILL be a party.
In just about three weeks time we would have sold our beloved oldtimer – ‘la Machina’. But somehow I had this feeling that our 42 year old car would not go that easy. Well, yesterday when we drove back from our final visit in Austria, about half way it happened. We were just overtaking a big truck when the driver of the same made an emergency maneuver – switched lines and jumped on the brakes. So we landed in between the truck and the crash barrier. Where the left front tire was torn and the right side of the car was battered by the bumper of the truck that screeched along our car.
We found ourselves with crying kids and a wrecked car in the middle of nowhere… But the kids soon calmed themselves and the police and the tow truck soon arrived. The situation was resolved as this: In front of the truck was another truck and in front of that was an Audi Q7 that was somehow pissed off by that truck driver so he cut in front of it and slowed him down. The truck behind the Q7 was only going about 40km/h (!!) while the second truck (the one in front of us) arrived with 85km/h and had to switch lanes and jump on the brakes and that was when we got crushed…
But in the end nobody was hurt – the car is still somewhere in south Germany and we arrived in Berlin at about four in the morning – driving a new Mini Cooper. The driver of the Audi Q7 actually escaped – but the police is searching for him.
Bye, bye Machina – we had a lot of fun together. Have a good time in car-heaven – you’ve deserved it !!
Just 32 more days and still no idea, where and how we’ll say goodbye to our friends. But we’ll just use this easter monday to inspect some of the old wastelands along the river Spree. These locations have had us a lot of times – a few years back. Nowadays Kiki Blofeld, Bar25, etc. are mostly gone. Here they’re trying to build ‘lofts‘ and ‘premium class city appartments‘ for all those media companies that still thrive in Berlin Mitte.
So we mostly end up in front of barricades and wire fences but – hey ! There is one place still going: The Yaam ! And this locations seems nearly too perfect: wonderful relaxed atmosphere, african Music, playground for the kids, cocktails and drinks for the grown-ups, sandy ‘beach’ – and it’s located at the waterfront ! We ask one of the people working here and he sees no problem with our plans. Just sent an email to the one managing all the events and now we’re waiting and hoping. But the date is still set: 28th of May 2011. Mark it red in your calendar !
Huh ! Only 36 days left and time is running fast. I think that’s time for a little update on what’s happening with the preparations. But where to begin ? Too many things are going on and it’s hard to stay focused.
The appartment is rented and we’ll have to move out in about 30 days. Next week I’ll be doing my last four days in the office. It’s gonna be hard to give up what we’ve been creating over the last eight years but in the end the company is in very good hands – and – finally I’ll have time to concentrate on all the work to be done on the ship. And there is a LOT of work ! From 2. to 3. of May I’ll be working on the electrics and doing most of the cabeling of the engine and the different power supplies anew and next to follow will probably be a new head, new water pumps and hoses and integrating all the new and additional navigational aids and other electronic gadgets.
In the meantime I’m reading an immense amount of books of all kinds (medicine, food, provisioning, electronics) but also stories of sailors (Cook, John C. Voss, the Shinas family…). When there is a quiet hour I’m learning for the amateur radio exam which will be at the end of May. And every other week we’re seeing the doctor to get all our vaccinations needed for a long time trip through the tropics (Yellow fewer, Hepatitis, Typhus, Rabies…) – and Gui was loosing her wisdom teeth (yeah, all four of them !).
In the mean time we’re selling most of our remaining belongings. Other stuff, we cannot give away gets packed into boxes and is moved to my famlily in Austria. But there are many more loose ends: We still didn’t find a suitable place for our farewell party – which will be on the 28ht of May. Yes, at least the date is set ! Hehehe.
I’ll post updates as soon as some of those projects are worth more documentation. But right now there’s not enough time to document all what’s happening. But that should change soon (I hope).
Happy Easter !!
Yesterday our little princess wrote her name – all by herself – for the first time !! And this only two days before her third birthday which will be on the 21st. That definately deserves a little attention and it’s own blog post.
Here is a pic of her work:
And although I know there are too many blogs out there only posting pics of the cute kids, but I can’t resist and have to show you two more beautiful photos of our little angel.
Mmmmh. Every boat owner likes it ! Doing anti-fouling once a year. This saturday we spent scraping the old paint from last season off the hull. Niiiiiice work ! Here’s a stop motion video done with our new Go-Pro cam: (to be continued)
After five weeks alone in Berlin, yesterday night my family arrived from Argentina. Yay-woo !!!
One busy week ago, I came back from my last holiday. Three weeks in Argentina, while Gui, Bruno and Viola will stay there until the end of February. The last winter, the last holiday, the last stupid security check at airports…
Well, we had the most wonderful time in Argentina. Nice meat, saucages, cheese from the Barrilla, many hours in the pool, lots of nature and silence. Beautiful nights with a sky full of starts. During the day Campari Soda, building an Arcade Joystick for Gioco, Building little ships out of bamboo, etc.
Now that I’m back in Berlin and alone (until now), I’ll fokus on getting back into the Amateur Radio materials, reading some more books and updating this website. Some pics – the rest will be in the Gallery soon:
So what am I supposed to write about when Berlin is like frozen hell, lakes are covered with ice and the air is -18C ?
Well, we’re still doing preparations. I’m on the way of getting my Amateur Radio License and when I’m not reading sailing books, I try to improve the webpage or we’re doing journey planning. Speaking of. Here’s a temporary link to our planned route. Later on I’ll link the finished page somewhere on the top of our site here. Beware: all dates and coordinates are still subject to change and of course, everything more than one year ahead is pure speculation… And as I’ve said before: Maybe we don’t have the guts to sail through the Gulf of Biscay, we’re back in Berlin before the year ends… ;-)
Oh and btw: A happy new year to all readers !
Just wanted to post a cute pic of Viola, presenting one of her gorgeous works. ;-)
Now that our homepage on the new server is taking on it’s final form, I’m starting to upload pictures of this summer. The link to the gallery is above, but you have to register an account to access them. Sorry for that inconvenience – but I don’t want Google & Co. to store all our pics on their servers… That’s for a little feeling of privacy on the net. Hehehe.
We’ve been relocating our website to a new server. This also involved a major upgrade of the underlying hardware as well as an upgrade to WordPress 3. We switched to the new URL: rancho-relaxo.at – since our little yacht is flying the Austrian flag, that should make sense, although we’re still living in .de ;-)
What else is new ? Well, I’ve decided to switch back to english. Most of our readers actually are not native german speakers, so be happy that now you too can decipher our gibberish.
The Gallery (up above, see ‘pictures’) can now only be accessed by registered users. We will keep posting selected pictures to the blog, but the bigger portion is for friends and followers only.
Other enhancements (booklist, shiptrak, position alerts, …) are still to come, stay tuned…
Am Wochenende warn Gui und ich in Hamburg und haben ein zweitaegiges Seminar der Kreuzerabteilung besucht. Der Intensivkurs ‘Medizin auf See’ fuer angehende Fahrtensegler… Huh ! Ganz schoen dichtes Programm. Zum Glueck waren die Referenten derart unterhaltsam, kurzweilig und kompetent, dass keine Zeit fuer Ueberforderung oder gar Muedigkeit blieb. Eine tolle Sache, umfasste das Kursprogramm saemtliche ueberlicherweise auftretenden Krankheiten von Herzinfarkt ueber Schlaganfall, Schock, Gallensteibne bis zu Schnittwunden und Allergien. Die Bordapotheke wurde intensiv besprochen genauso wie ein auffrischen der beliebten Herz-Lungen Massage zur Wiederbelebung. Saeuren-/Basenhaushalt, Blutzucker, Schienen, Verbinden, Infusion und Injektion und natuerlich das Highlight: Naehen einer Wunde, praktiziert an der Schweinshaxe. Und hiervon gibt’s auch ein paar (leider recht mickrige) Bilder.
Den Kurs selbst wuerde ich eigentlich jedem Segler, ja vielleicht sogar ueberhaupt jedem empfehlen. Eine echt Tolle Sache !!
Bruno ist wie jedes Kind natuerlich begeisterter Kuenstler. Und bei der Wahl der Materialien gibt’s kaum Einschraenkungen. Fingerfarbe an Waenden, Fruchtzwerge auf der Treppe – oder eben Oelkreide auf Papier (soll auch vorkommen). Im konkreten Fall zu sehen: Speedy Gonzales. Und zwar nicht nur zu sehen, sonder auch zu erknennen ! – Sozusagen das erste Kunstwerk nicht-abstrakter Natur und offenbar der Einstieg in eine neue Kunstrichtung. Yay !
Tja, eigentlich wollte ich ja mal unsere Binnenfahrt nach Berlin etwas eingehender beleuchten, doch treibt mich eigentlich schon die naechste Etappe. Naechste Etappe ? Ja, in Berlin werden wir wohl nicht bleiben (koennen). Der Liegeplatz bei den Wannseaten 1911 ist zwar sehr nett und auch relativ zentral, aber wir benoetigen einen Platz in einer Halle, damit wir im Winter richtig schoen an der Rancho Relaxo schrauben koennen. So wie es sich bisher darstellt, sind die Liegeplaetze in Berlin unbezahlbar und die Werften ebenso. Laut Empfehlung soll die Werft ‘Malz’ im Norden von Berlin, unweit von Oranienburg ganz gut sein. Na auf jeden Fall werden dort saemtliche Boote von Polizei und Zoll, etc. gewartet. Ich werd’ am Montag mal dort nachfragen. Wenn’s wahr wird, werden wir also schon naechste Woche wieder zurueck fahren, von wo wir herkamen. Heh.
So und nun noch ein paar weitere Bilder unserer Kanalfahrt am letzten Wochenende:
Fuer alle etwas ueberraschend haben wir das Wochenende um einen Tag verlaengert und sind dafuer – TADAAAA !! – in Berlin gelandet. Die genaue Position sieht man wie immer rechts oben via Googlemaps – mit den live updates waehrend der Fahrt hat es leider nicht so gut geklappt – da hab ich was am Server verbastelt…
Eigentlich bin ich zu muede um noch viel zu schreiben, aber ich wollte das nur mal eben verkuenden.
Wir sind also von Stettin am Sonntag los und ueber Schwedt die Westoder hoch, dann den Oder-Havel Kanal nach Oderberg, wo wir im Schlick bei ca. 1.40m Wassertiefe ‘geparkt’ und uebernachtet haben. Wir haben im uebrigen ca. 1.70m Tiefgang, eher mehr. ;-) Am Montag weiter durch das sensationelle Schiffshebewerk in Niederfinow und ueber Eberswalde, Oranienbug nach Berlin, wo wir bei einem Seglerverein Unterschlupf gefunden haben und nun ein Winterlager suchen werden. Noch schnell ein paar Fotos. Spaeter schreibe ich mehr…
