Category Archives: LosLocos

Waiting for the port captain

Posted on Saturday July 21st, 2012 by dafdaf

Yesterday at 4pm we stood in front of his door for the first time but he was ‘in a meeting’. At around 6pm we gave it another try but again: meeting. Today we got up extra early to maybe find him free for us. After a boat-taxiride and a 15 minute walk into the village we again found him in a meeting. Well. So we spend our time travelling back and forth in between the village and our boat. Or we roam the beach and watch the iguanas and crabs.

The island is quite different from San Cristobal. The streets are unpaved and the houses much nicer, the nature is even more meager.  The Iguanas are much smaller and the nice and bright beach is interrupted by black lava rocks. Those are the same rocks that we found in the entrance to the anchorage. It’s quite interesting to navigate in between those obstacles and I guess at night it’s quite dangerous. The anchoring is not that nice here as there is quite some swell entering and the weather is mostly misty – bad for our energy input.

Continuation of the above entry at 7:30pm: Finally in the early afternoon the port captain found some time for us and we could present our case. He told us to get going as fast as possible and repeated everything all the other people of the office already told us. Thereafter we found ourselfes in a small office where another officer took about two hours to type the protocol, make a copy of our passports, ask stupid questions while we studied a copy of the ecuatorian maritime law that lie on a table. In the end we were back at the Rancho Relaxo around 3pm and I could finally fix the engine. (Replace the fuel filter again.) So it’s working now but noone knows for how long. But for sure long enough to exit the harbour.

Tonight we’ll have the crew of the SY Red Sky Night from Australia aboard our ship and we’ll have a drink or two. They will also start towards the Marquesas in a few days and as they got a faster ship than ours, we’ll probably arrive around the same time.  Tomorrow after the breakfast we’ll be going….

Oh ! And I nearly forgot: Today we also saw Penguins !! Unfortunately we didn’t have a camera with us.

Last thing: During the voyage our satphone wll be turned on every day at 18:00 UTC for one hour.

Posted in Animals, LosLocos, Pics, Plants, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

Short stop at the Isla Isabela

Posted on Friday July 20th, 2012 by dafdaf

So today in the afternoon we landed at the Isla Isabela. When passing by the harbour, the wind died on us and we started the engine – which went out after five minutes. So we again set sails and tried to enter the port of Villamil – but it wasn’t enough wind. The Guarda Costas came to pull us into the anchorage and later came on board to ask about our problem and have a look at the engine.

So we’re now at Isla Isabela and we will later have to go to the Capitaneria to explain ourselves to the port captain. We’ll see, how long we’re allowed to stay. But usually it should be the 72 hours that are granted by maritime law. We’ll have to replace fuel filters (again) and maybe we have a chance to see the penguins or the land-iguanas….

Oh – and again we had problems updating our blog from underway. The posting I sent yesterday in the night, I had to post manually. Cheez. I hope we’ll not again run into problems with our website – we would be unable to post from underway….

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Updated route

Posted on Tuesday July 17th, 2012 by dafdaf

After one year, I updated our PLANNED route. Finally a couple of important changes are reflected. As we’re now planning to sail to New Zealand for the south-summer and instead of visiting India and east Africa we might now focus on Asia. (Because of the pirates that cover the entire Indian Ocean from India down to Madagascar !)  But don’t take our plan too seriously as we will change it again – promised !

For more details, click the image or ‘The route’ up in the menue.

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Thank you for visiting the capital of paradise !

Posted on Tuesday July 17th, 2012 by dafdaf

That’s what we can read on the sign, when walking towards the dinghy dock. And this way we took a couple of times today. With a big crate filled with grapefruit, oranges and lemons. With bags of potatoes, carrots and onions. Small packs of fresh spices, apples, tomatoes, and some other stuff – as well as two whole bunches of bananas, about 30 kg.

Well, we’re moving our house again. Somehow sad because Galapagos was really fantastic. But we already gave away our passports to get the necessary stamps and tomorrow we’ll pull the iron out of the sand and set sails.

Towards the Marquesas (yes, that destination is now clear !), across the “Big Blue”. – 3000 miles without stop. And without the possibility of a stop. But we’ve done good shopping and I’ve got two new fishhooks. Should be good.

The day after tomorrow we’ll might do another posting with pictures from the Isla Isabela (if we find internet there). Otherwise there will be our daily posts via shortwave radio as soon as we start the crossing.

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Coconuts and pets

Posted on Saturday July 14th, 2012 by dafdaf

Somehow there seems to be a relation between those two. After our last dinner together with Tamora, Papillon and Mares, the owner of the restaurant gave us a big bag of coconuts. Since then we sometimes heard a faint scratching or crawling behind the walls and in some of our lockers. Could it be possible ? Did we finally manage to establish cockroaches on board ? No. The trail of small, black excrements we found the next morning made it clear: a rodent of medium size found a new home on the Rancho Relaxo !
The kids immediately liked the idea of a new pet, named it ‘Elvis’ and wanted to build a small Lego house for the rat. But the capitana threatened to move out: “Either Elvis moves, or I do !” So it was that the skipper and the two short ones went into the village to search for a trap. It wasn’t too easy to find it, but we finally came back home with the classic model with an extra strong spring. That should work !
Back on bord, the situation got more complicated: The capitana got a terrible stomach ache and despite us having different causes in mind, in the end it was the disgust of the rat that caused her stomach cramps. In the evening we put a small piece of cheese in the trap and everyone went to bed quite excited.
Big disapointment on the next morning: The trap went off but was empty ! – No trace of Elvis. Or actually that’s not true as he ate the cheese and then feasted on a bunch of bananas that the careless crew forgot on the saloon table.

Sensitive people and rat lovers: Don’t klick the last picture !!

The day passes with a lot of music. As planned, the skipper started to learn Guitar when entering the Pacific. The kids accompany his first musical steps with melodica and E-piano. All that while in the aft, the capitana arches because of her stomache cramps.
But this night we have a different plan: As Elvis obviously enjoys a very healthy diet, we’ll put a piece of banana in the trap and place that on the saloon table. To help the crew get sleepy we finally do a movie night – it’s been a long time. At 22hrs everybody is in the bunks and fast asleep.

At around 03h in the morning, the always watchful skipper awakenes and has to pee… – As I weasel through the dark saloon I noticed the trap has moved slightly ! And in the faint moonlight I thought I could see something small and round beside the trap. Maybe Elvis isn’t all that clever and we… I turn on the light and see the rat run to the far side of the saloon table. He again managed to get the food out of the trap and he only lost ONE whisker (!) when the trap snapped ! But now he’s behaving like most Galapagos animals and shows no fear of humans. He just sits at the table and stares at me while I – without turning away my eyes, I reach behind my back to get the machete we used the evening bevore to open coconuts. I lift it above my head – one stoke ! And I put a 1cm deep cut into our saloon table – and Elvis does his last twitch. I throw our former crew member over bord and hear the capitana sigh in her sleep. Next day her stomach ache is gone.

What I find funny about this somehow morbid story: The Galapagos are some of the strictest islands when it comes to quarantine rules. It’s pretty impossible to enter these islands with an animal aboard. Even to bring fruit or vegetables is not always easy. But it is exactly here that we and the SY Mares managed to get a rat on our ships. Hmmm. Maybe we should reverse those quarantine rules to protect the sailors ?

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Again the last ones.

Posted on Friday July 13th, 2012 by dafdaf

We again managed to oversleep – the crossing of the Pacific, it seems. In the beginning there were six sailboats here at San Cristobal but now the Rancho Relaxo is the last one. A weird feeling. A big bunch of tour- and diving ships but only one sailboat. Well…

The last days were dominated by farewells. First the SY Papillon – a beautiful 57″ ketch from the states started towards the Marquesas. Next day the SY Tamora weighted anchor. Dieter and Silke made a short stopover at the Isla Isabela and now are underway to the Gambier Islands. The day before yesterday our swiss anchor – neighbor set sail. Esti, Mario and Laura also started with destination Gambiers but they might try to make a stop at the Easter islands, if the wind is favorable. Especially the last parting was very hard for our kids as they were good friends with Laura. Bruno was extremely sad when she finally got into the watertaxi and went home aboard her catamaran.

I think we’ll stay a few more days here at San Cristobal but slowly it get’s a little to cold. Funny. We’re as close to the equator as you can get but it’s cold. That’s the Humboldt current. The water temperature was 31 degrees in Panama and Costa Rica. When we reached Galapagos we had 26 degrees but that dropped to a chilling 22 degrees during the last week ! First it’s too hot, now too cold. It’s really not easy to get it right for the LosLocos. Hehehe.

Posted in Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 4 Comments

The passage through the Panama Canal – timelapse

Posted on Thursday July 12th, 2012 by dafdaf

Better late than never. I finally found the time to put together this little movie of our canal passage. We had the GoPro mounted on the wind generator and it made about 1400 pictures during our passage. Now I’ve put them together as a little movie. Enjoy:

Posted in LosLocos, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing, Video | 3 Comments

Gui’s first surf

Posted on Thursday July 12th, 2012 by dafdaf

We spent Gui’s birthday at Puerto Chino, a small isolated beach at the east side of the island. Here in the bay, the waves kept rolling in constantly and with a height of about one to one and a half meters. Should be quite perfect to start surfing or what ? Well, the interval of the waves and the time before the wave breakes was quite short but nonethless Gui tried it. She managed to catch a few waves and *nearly* got up on the board before being crushed by the wave. Unfortunately I wasn’t there with the camera when that happened. But I made a few pics for you anyway.

Posted in Learning for life, LosLocos, Pics | 4 Comments

Camping at the beach of Puerto Chino

Posted on Tuesday July 10th, 2012 by dafdaf

We’ve been planning to go camping for a long time. Usually it was me who’s against it, because our tent is actually way too big for us and I don’t like carrying around all that stuff for only one night out in the wild. But Gui wanted to go camping for her birthday, so I finally had to give in.

And it was a good decision ! The camping site was wild and lonesome – the beach of Puerto Chino is completely isolated and we had it all for ourselves. Only us, plenty of animals and the sea that smashed it’s waves onto the beach. The most beautiful music to fall asleep.

The kids had lots of fun with the white/grey sand and with the big waves that were fun to play with. We climbed the small hill nearby, searched the surroundings for animals and watched the pelicans feed their young ones.

On the way to the beach we climbed up the volcano and saw the lagoon in it’s crater and we visited the station where they care for the giant turtles. On the way back we stopped at a giant tree with a house in it’s twigs. – There is also another room down in between the roots. One has to climb down a ladder through a hole. The kids loved it ! – And we had a great weekend AND Gui could test her surf board. More pics on that in another blog post…

Posted in Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Plants, Rancho Relaxo, Travel | 1 Comment

Galapagos – animals of the first week

Posted on Monday July 9th, 2012 by dafdaf

A few animal pics we collected over the past week: A blue footed Booby, we found near the dinghy-dock in town. A deceased marine iguana, photographed at the Loberia, a beach near town. A small yellow warbler finch, various small lizards and three frigate birds fishing in the lagoon of the volcano. Of course there are also the Giant Turtles, we visited on the way to our camping site on the last weekend. The brown Pelican we saw at various beaches but only on the Puerto Chino we found them breeding with every couple of pelicans caring for two young fluffy white pelican children. The red stone crabs are found pretty everywhere as are the sea turtles. And the birds that look like vultures are actually frigate birds, watching over our tent at the beach.

I didn’t put any pics of Iguanas and Sea lions as we already had enough of them.

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Gui’s pre-birthday

Posted on Friday July 6th, 2012 by dafdaf

Yesterday we had a little pre-birthday party aboard the Rancho Relaxo. The official date is actually the 9th of July but as then most of our friends will have left, we moved the birthday a few days ahead.

So we made Pizza and had a few drinks and next day Gui was REALLY lucky and managed to organize her birthday present: A surfboard !!!

At first we thought it would be impossible since new boards are too expensive for us. But we found a used one for 90USD and of course immediately made the deal. Sunday we’ll go camping for one night to Puero Chino and then Gui will give it a first try ! Yay !!

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo | 3 Comments

Funny anchoring without engine

Posted on Wednesday July 4th, 2012 by dafdaf

Our fuel problems are not yet finished. Actually today we should have got Diesel and Gasoline… The Gasoline was dark-grey – looked as if someone used it to clean engine parts. And the Diesel ? Well, I put a few liters in an empty jerrycan and put a little fuel treatment on it. Only two hours later I could see the water, bacteria and dirt seperating from the fuel. So all the Diesel and Gasoline went back – we already got enough problems.

Thanks to the dirty Diesel it is that a few days ago we had to enter the anchorage of San Cristobal without engine. The main sail was just put away and we were about to turn portside into the harbour when the engine died. We quickly got the Genoa out and put up the main sail again, after which we came about and set a course upwind, passing the first reef and closing in on the second shoal. After passing that one, we steered hard on the wind to get to a good position in the anchorage. Passing in between the many charter boats. – Should be ok. But what’s that ? Why is that ship (at anchor !) moving forward ?!? No, now we can’t pass in front, whe have to go behind it. But will we have enough room to get to our anchor position ?

So we pass at the stern. And we hardly have enough room to pass the SY Mares. But it’s ok. We remove the Genoa, continue for a few meters, luff up and throw the anchor. It grabs ! We lower the sail and open a beer. Yay ! We made it to Galapagos – action included !

And tomorrow I’ll again have a look at our fuel filters. Probably they are again cloaked with bacteria-mud.  What can we do ? Maybe a few bottles of Grotamar82 will fall from the sky ? Otherwise, we’ll try to use the engine as little as possible and try not to depend on it. Maybe I can install a little 3-way-valve and put a small 10l tank above the engine. That should be enough for emergencies and is easier to clean – and keep clean. Let’s see, whether I can find the parts for that here on Galapagos.

Thanks, SY Mares for the pictures !

Posted in Learning for life, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

First day at San Cristobal, Galapagos

Posted on Wednesday July 4th, 2012 by dafdaf

Galapagos. Just the name of these mystic islands are connected to so many images and stories. Darwin, marine iguanas, sea lions, giant turtles… And all that (except for Darwin) we’ll see in the next days and weeks.

After our dramatic arrival in the anchorage (a blog post with pics of that will follow !) We soon were greeted by an agent and the authorities. Soon after we missed about 600USD but had clearance for staying 20 days at the island. As the whole archipelago is a national park, everything is quite restricted and one can not sail around with his own ship. On can’t even take the dingy to the beach ! But – well, there are boat taxis for 1USD per (grown up) person.

The first day we went to the beach, together with the crews of SY Tamora, SY Mares and another sailing vessel with two kids aboard. The beach was fantastic and we finally were snorkeling again – after more than two months without touching the ocean. Unfortunately on that day we had quite huge waves and thus the underwater sight was poor. No turtles for us. – Only a few sea lions in the water. And those were more interested in the fish…

But it was great anyway. Everywhere you look, you see beauty. The black, grey and red volcanic stones at the beach for example. Together with the bright green bushes it makes a fantastic background for any kind of picture. And the marine iguanas – well I could take hundreds of photos. Amazing creatures, scary looking but harmless and they are everywhere !

Just as the sea lions. They are everywhere. Everywhere in the town, on the benches, in the boats and dinghies, at the beach. Luckily our boat has no bathing platform and also a high freeboard, so the sea lions cannot enter. But all our friends already had them in the cockpit or on the foredeck. Hehehe. Today I took the sailing dinghy to town – hopefully no sealion sleeps inside, when I get back in a few minutes.

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Pics from the trip Costa Rica – Galapagos

Posted on Tuesday July 3rd, 2012 by dafdaf

Just wanted to upload a few pictures from our last trip. Not much to say as we uploaded all the missing blog posts now. Tomorrow, I’ll post first pics from Galapagos !

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Arrived in Galapagos

Posted on Monday July 2nd, 2012 by dafdaf

Today in the morning we arrived at San Cristobal, Galapagos. The engine died on us while we were navigating in between reefs at the entrance of the harbour but we managed to put anchor under sail. Everything ok.

As you can see, I also posted all the missing blog posts of the last week. Our f****** server again managed to screw with us. Really frustrating !!

Posted in Animals, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

Towards Galapagos – day 12

Posted on Saturday June 30th, 2012 by dafdaf

Another day passes… we really couldn’t care less. Time looses it’s proportions when you’re out at sea for a while. We had lovely sailing today: The wind freshened up to a steady force 5 and we put a reef in both the main sail and the genoa. The day was sunny and right now we got a bright starry night with a big near-full moon.
Of course the 12th day of this journey was all about crossing the Aequator which is a really big thing – to be on the southern part of the planet. Now after sailing for more than one year, we’re getting closer to what seems to be most of the sailor’s dream: the southern Pacific Ocean.
Tomorrow somewhere at noon or so we should arrive at San Christobal in the Archipelago de Colon (Galapagos Islands). Got about 50 more miles to cover, that’ll take not much more than one night – given the wind stays as it is. We’re still sailing close hauled of course, been doing so all 12 days. And we get accustomed to it ! Something I always thought is impossible or that only slightly masochistic people would be able to do. But – hey – compared to the rolling motion in the trades, here we got a constant angle. It’s quite steady at 20-30 degrees. Makes moving around a little difficult but at least, the pot stays where you put it.

LATITUDE: 00-17.32S, LONGITUDE: 089-08.21W, COURSE: 223T, SPEED: 4.8, WIND: S5, DISTANCE TO DEST: 46nm

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In the South Pacific

Posted on Saturday June 30th, 2012 by dafdaf

Woohoooo !!! We just crossed ‘The Line’ ! At 18:31h UTC we crossed the Aequator at the longitude of 88 degrees and 44 minutes. The countdown was a lot of fun because we told the kids that on the south side of course everything is the other way around and you’re with the feet on the ceiling an the head is downwards. Although the kids did not really believe that nonsense but nonethless prepared themselfes, lying down at the floor with the feet up in the air – just in case.
Up until now everything is quite the same. The water still turns the same way when we flush the toilet and we still walk with our feet on the floor. And it seems, tomorrow we’ll be in Galapagos. Yay !

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Nach Galapagos – Tag 11

Posted on Friday June 29th, 2012 by dafdaf

Gut geplant ist halb verloren. So geht doch der Spruch, oder ? Na auf jeden Fall haben wir heute verloren – ein kleines Privatrennen mit einer anderen Segelyacht, die wir heute im Morgengrauen an Backbord querab hatten, welche aber schon eine Stunde spater vor uns am Horizont verschwand. Tja. Dafuer haben die keine private Muschelzucht mit ! Wir schon – immer wenn uns nach Krustentieren ist, muessen wir nur schnell mal unter’n Rumpf tauchen und schon haben wir genug Eiweis fuer eine Mahlzeit beisammen. Dass uns das auf dieser Reise sicher 1-2 Tage gekostet hat, das muss man als Delikatessenliebhaber halt hinnehmen.
Mal eben ein franzoesisches Butterkeks in den Kaffe getaucht. Mmmmhhh. Also zur Planung: Diese war fuer diesen Toern echt mal gut gelungen ! Gestern hatten wir die letzte Banane, heute haben wir Avocados und Gurken aufgegessen und fuer morgen und uebermorgen gibt’s noch Tomaten, Zwiebeln, Kartoffeln und Limetten. Letztere werden dann fuer’n Anlege-Drink wichtig. An diesen denken wir immer oefter. Der Wind ist uns naemlich treu und so sehr kann uns unser Privatriff am Kiel gar nicht bremsen, dass wir nicht uebermorgen ankommen ! So sind’s zur Zeit noch 155 Meilen, bis San Christobal und der Kurs passt haarscharf. Auch hier nochmal gut geplant. Also das Aufkreuzen nach Sued und den anschliessenden Kurs, der eigentlich anfangs noch etwas zu hoch war. Aber die geniale Langzeitplanung beinhaltete einen kleinen Winddreher auf Sued bzw. Suedsuedost und dieser kam auch heute, somit fahren wir genau auf’s Ziel zu.
Ein wenig einsam sind wir hier. Haben noch kein einziges Kommentar auf unsere Blogeintraege bekommen. Und am Satphone ruft auch niemand an. Kann ich aber verstehen, ist einfach zu teuer… So. Jetzt suche ich noch ein schoenes Bildchen raus und hoffe, dass uns jemand eine Zeile schickt…

Ah, zum Bild, welches unser Webmaster hoffentlich nachtraeglich einfuegt: Wir hatten nachts Besuch an Bord. Ein ‘Red-footet Booby’ (lat.: Sula Sula) ist um 04h morgens auf der Reling am Bug gelandet und blieb dort die ganze nacht sitzen. Erst zum Fruehstueck, welches um 12h Bordzeit stattfand, hat er sich wieder hinfortgemacht. Und auch wenn wir ja gaaar nicht aberglaeubisch sind, aber ein Vogel an Bord bringt nun mal Glueck. Da freut man sich !

LATITUDE: 00-51.32N, LONGITUDE: 087-45.62W, COURSE: 227T, SPEED: 3.9, WIND: S3, DISTANCE TO DEST: 153nm

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Towards Galapagos – day 10

Posted on Thursday June 28th, 2012 by dafdaf

Slowly we start to like the Pacific. We had a little rough start when going from Panama to Costa Rica. And the first half of this trip also wasn’t pleasent, crossing the doldrums. But now that we’ve been sailing with a completely constant breeze from SSW for the third day in a row, we change our minds. The wind is not strong but steady and this means very little wave action. Two ingredients for really nice sailing. And what we hear from the SY Kira and the SY Thor, the wind is light also on the way towards the Marquesas. As the course is a different one and the wind will mostly be from the stern, this means Blister sailing for us ! I really hope, the wind will stay like that. But anyway, that’s the next trip, I’m thinking about. First we have to get to Galapagos !
No real news from aboard the Rancho Relaxo itself. Everybody now enjoys the ride. The children re-discovered the Asterix collection and listen to music all day. The big ones do pretty much the same but go to sleep earlier, since we have to compensate for the night watches. Right now it looks as if we’d reach our destination in about four days. Yay !

LATITUDE: 01-41.60N, LONGITUDE: 086-44.22W, COURSE: 257T, SPEED: 3.6, WIND: SSW3, DISTANCE TO DEST: 232nm

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Nach Galapagos – Tag 9

Posted on Wednesday June 27th, 2012 by dafdaf

Super, der Wind bleibt stabil und wir naehern uns tatsaechlich dm Ziel. Zur Zeit nur noch 303 Meilen !
Und dann hatten wir heute auch noch Fischerglueck ! Endlich war mal wieder ein lecker Mahimahi an der Leine. Mit ca. 80cm genau richtig fuer uns vier. Mit Salz, Pfeffer und Dillspitzen in Butter rausgebraten, mit Sahne aufgegossen und dann die frisch gegarten mini-Kartoffeln samt Schale rein. Unglaublich lecker !!
Gestern wurden wir auf der Pazifik.Net Funkrunde mal von Guenther etwas geruegt, weil wir so schlecht zu hoeren sind. So haben Captain und Helfer Bruno heute mal alle Kabel und Stecker, sowie den Antennentuner der Kurzwellenanlage kontrolliert. Ohne einen Fehler festzustellen allerdings. Dann muss es wohl an der Antenne liegen, was ? Todesmutig erklimmt der Skipper in voller Fahrt das Achterstag, wo auf ca. 4m Hoehe der Isolator sitzt und das Antennenkabel ans Achterstag gefuehrt wird. Oder werden soll. Denn genau diese Verbindung habe ich dann wild umherschwingend mittels etwas Fett und einer Schlauchklemme wieder hergestellt. Heute Abend um 03Z wird sich dann zeigen, ob’s wieder funkt.

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