Sailing Life- First crew

           A thoughtful retirement gift from my Gladstone colleagues now graces the wall of UPBound.

Our daughter Cassandra and her long-time boyfriend, Blake, joined us for our Maiden Voyage.

 

Cassandra learning the ropes.

                                                             Blake as Helsman

Our crew arrived in Italy for our maiden voyage aboard S/V UP Bound.

  But, before I begin.... Did I mention the inspiration for our boat name?  If you’re not from the state of Michigan, you might not have noticed that Michigan has 2 parts- 2 peninsulas.  By definition, a peninsula is an area of land surrounded on 3 sides by water. Most people are familiar with the southern half, shaped like a mitten.  However, there is a northern half (well, perhaps third) that is surrounded by Lake Superior to the north, Lake Michigan to the south, and Lake Huron and the St. Mary’s seaway to the east and it is connected to Wisconsin on the west, and accessed from lower Michigan by the Mackinac Bridge, a suspension bridge longer and more beautiful than the Golden Gate Bridge.  Populated by miles of state and federal forests, it is an outdoorsman’s paradise.  Because it has more trees than people, this northern peninsula is often forgotten about by people in the lower peninsula as well as by people in other states,  so the people that live in this northern peninsula have formed a strong identity with the region.  The people call themselves “Yoopers” and the region is called the U.P. for “Upper Peninsula”.  Our plan was always to sail back to the U.P., with plans to arrive the summer of 2020 for Laura’s parents’ 65th wedding anniversary, her class reunion, and to give rides to family and friends.  Thus, the name “UP Bound” was born.  (We all know how 2020 turned out...more on sailing during a pandemic later)

We were finally ready to cast off.  “Ready” is relative.  As mentioned, we didn’t know how to read our chart plotter because it was entirely in a different language.  

This photo shows how our charts looked AFTER Blake managed to get it in English!

While Gary had taken sailing classes a year prior, none of the rest of us had any training, and I guess Captain Gary believes in the pedagogy of John Dewey - learn by doing.  It wasn’t until we were approaching the docks that Gary would say “Get the fenders ready”.  Really?  What are “fenders” and how do we “get them ready”?  We learned that fenders are the soft things I called “buoys” and they get attached to the “fence” (later I learned the fence was called “lifelines”) on the boat by a double half-hitch with a lock. Fortunately, I knew what a locking double half-hitch was, thanks to our decade of leading a Boy Scout troop!  At the same time, we had to get the lines (ropes) attached to the cleats in the stern (back). (Again, there is a whole technique to this that we learned AFTER we had screwed it up!) In the Mediterranean, you back into the docks. Very often no one was there to help you, so one crew member had to leap onto the dock, holding one of the lines.  This was a hard “No” from  Cassandra and me, who were quite nervous about getting on and off the boat even when it was securely tied to the dock. Luckily, Blake is quite athletic and took it all in stride. (Literally).  Once tied to stern, we then needed to use a boat hook to grab a line hanging in the water from the dock.  These are appropriately named “Slime Lines”.  These lines go towards your bow and are attached to a heavy weight on the bottom way in front of your bow. You tie these lines on each side of your bow, keeping your boat from going side to side. This type of docking is possible because most of the Mediterranean has very, very small tides.

Our boat is using the Med mooring system here in Castro, Italy. Blake valiantly leapt to the dock to tie us up. Unfortunately, our swim ladder had not been properly stowed and let loose as he jumped, nearly sending him into the water! Scary moment.

   A marina full of boats, all using the Med mooring system.  They do not have finger docks like in the US.

This metal ramp, currently lashed to our lifelines, was a necessity in the Mediterranean where the dock was often too far from the back of the boat to safely get on and off.  We would “walk the plank” off the boat.  The jerry cans in front of the lifelines carry extra fuel and water.  Most long-distance cruising boats carry jerry cans on deck. 

Pulling out of Taranto Harbor at 5:30am on June 8, 2019.  This harbor was full of ocean going vessels on mooring balls with long lines, but we couldn’t see them until we were within meters.  We had the original radar, but we didn’t know how to use it yet!  This photo also shows the original hard-bottom dingy. What you can’t see, is the duct tape that is attaching the pontoons to the bottom. We had a cheaper, fully inflatable dinghy tender in a bag below deck, incase this one failed us.

This type of learn-by-doing pedagogy is not really my cup-of-tea because it involves a lot of stress, anxiety, and may or may not have also involved loud voices. And, obviously,  docking and navigating were only some of the lessons we learned.

Washing clothes onboard is a little different than at “home”.  We were thankful for the beautiful weather!

Between these “lessons”, we had some amazing times!

Not knowing how to read distances or speed on our instruments, we decided to sail around the heel of Italy, stopping whenever we felt like it, and we’d go as far as we could in the time that we had.  The hearts mark our voyage.

We loved places where we could pull-up alongside instead of Med mooring.  We also loved all the free docking in Italy!  This was taken in Brindisi.

There are so many great stories to tell from our first 3 weeks! I think I will wait and tell them in my next blog since this one is getting a little long.

In the meantime, remember....

The Not Quite Yet Sailing Life

 

Before we begin our journey, I wanted to tell you a little more about our preparations in Italy.  As I mentioned, we had a lot to do.  The Mediterranean sun is intense, and the canvas on boats does not last long there- even when you use top-of-the-line UV resistant materials.  So, when we bought this boat, her canvas was in shreds and unusable.  Since there are several ways to enclose the cockpit, we needed to know the names of each piece of canvas in English before we could put them in Google translate to explain to our broker what we wanted. Also, when you are in foreign countries, your Google searches don’t exactly work the same as they do in the USA, nor from one country, like Egypt, to another, like Italy.  Eventually we came to understand that the hard plastic portion with the windshield is called the “dodger”.  The next portion, seen in the white material above, is called the “sprayhood”.  Some people decide that’s enough canvas.  But, to stay out of the intense sun, the next part above the rest of the cockpit is called the “bimini”.  If you want to be fully enclosed during foul weather, you need a full enclosure with “side curtains”.  The sailbag was also in rough shape. This protects the sail when not in use.  We needed cushions to sit on, too.  Michaela, our broker, found us someone who could do this work for us. An Italian tailor would custom-make our canvas!  We have never had an Italian-made suit or dress, but now our boat was going to be “fancy”, with a price tag to match! There were a lot of decisions to be made, like there are with any home remodel.  Besides for picking the colors, they needed to know if we wanted the sprayhood to have a window, should the zipper on the window be on the bottom, so you roll the window up, or on the top, so it rolls down.  Should there be windows in the side-curtains?  Could he remake our frame, using stainless steel rather than the aluminum that was on it? We met with the tailor only twice.  Michaela was there to interpret, but the technical and specific questions that needed to be answered were out of the realm of Michaela’s English skills.  We used a lot of gestures, pictures, and guessing.  To this day, we don’t know if he included the stainless costs with the original bid or not, but, to our American mind, if he was going to use all new stainless parts, our cost would go up.  Michaela pushed us hard to allow him to use stainless, so, upon reflection, I think it likely that the bid included the stainless, and we paid for it even though we declined. But, this was all lost in translation.  I also wanted large windows in our side curtains, preferably ones that could also zip open.  This idea almost seemed insulting to the tailor who did not want us to put ANY windows in the side curtains!  

Why does the picture above show white canvas when ours is blue?  The tailor used a cheaper material first to make the sprayhood and bimini, then used that as a pattern before cutting into the more expensive Sunbrella fabric.

I was in Egypt while the tailor measured, remeasured, and the canvas was being prepared.  It was during this time that I read a FB post about “the Schengen”.  “What’s that?” you may ask.  That is the VISA rules that control stays in certain EU countries.  Remember a couple of blogs back where I mentioned our “plans” for Gary to stay in Italy.  We thought if he flew to Egypt every month or so, it reset his VISA.  Well, as it turns out, it doesn’t!  An American is allowed 90 days in any 180 days to be in the Schengen zone.  So, when Gary flew to Egypt for a 3 day weekend he only gets 3 days “credit” away from the Schengen.  By mid-March, I realized he was already at 67 days and we had planned to sail in the EU all summer! He needed to earn back a lot of time, and fast!  So, we made arrangements for him to fly back to Egypt until end of May.  The canvas would have to get done without supervision from us!

Sail bag and sprayhood completed.  The tailor kept fussing with the sailbag and the boom.  We were too new to understand what was bothering him.  If you’re an experienced sailor, you have probably spotted his mistake....

Finished “just in time”. We were worried they would not finish the canvas before it was time for us to depart.  We loved the cushions and the decorative pillows they threw in.  The windows were much smaller than I had wanted.  I still wish they were larger, but Gary says they will last longer than larger windows. Idk, but I am glad they don’t zip open.

 

The tailors figuring out the side curtains.  

Another thing to mention has to do with Italian commerce.  The culture there, as well as in most of the rest of the world values a work/life balance.  They believe you should work only enough to live the life you want, not live your life in order to work. It is a much healthier mindset for people’s mental health, in my opinion.  But, when you are an American who’s used to always being in a hurry for everything, and when you’re Gary who values “efficiency” above most else, dealing with businesses there was also a source of frustration.  The boat was in Pisticci, a small, farm community with few stores.  The diesel engine mechanics, the malls, grocery stores, government offices, etc were nearly an hour away in Taranto.  Gary soon learned that all businesses and government offices close for a 3 hour lunch.  The issue was that some close from 10-1, some from 11-2, others from 12-3.  And, if an employee was getting married, or a family member passed away, or it was just a nice beach day, the business might post a sign saying “closed for the day”.  You can imagine the problems that caused getting anything done.

Gary eventually found a diesel mechanic shop that he worked with to service our life raft, order filters and things, fabricate parts, and to come aboard to do a full engine tune up since Gary no longer had time to learn what to do since he had to get out of the Schengen.  I have a great video of the diesel mechanic fabricating a part for us, but I haven’t figured out how to get it to post?  Maybe I have to upload it to YouTube, then post the link?  Does anyone else blog and know how to answer that question?

Anyhow, here’s a picture of Gary working behind the electronics panel, perhaps installing the stereo system or something else?  That’s all for today, folks. Hope you enjoyed! 

The Next Chapter, otherwise Known as The Sailing Life

 Now that we had our boat, we had to prepare
her for an ocean crossing.  Gary moved aboard shortly after purchase in November of 2018, and I joined him for a few days in January, 2019, following our Christmas back in the US.  This is what we saw out our bedroom portlight when we woke up that first morning.  In SOUTHERN Italy!  The place came to a standstill.

 

We were staying in the water at the Dadarrio Boatyard. Michaela, our broker, continued to help us navigate our way through not only life as sailboat owners, but also helped us navigate our way through the Italian culture.  She called to let us know that everything was shut down due to the snow.  We asked how often Southern Italy gets snow- she told us only once every 3-4 years.  Guess we were just lucky....or not?!

Did I mention that the boat has no heat? Fortunately, the previous owner had left a small space heater for us, and Gary had purchased a comforter for our bed, and we had brought a heavy denim quilt with us that Gary’s mom made, so we didn’t exactly freeze.

Gary got around by renting cars from Rome for 30 Euros a week.  Unfortunately, every 2 weeks, they required him to drive back to Rome and “re-rent” the car for another 2 weeks. This took 10 hours, round trip.   Eventually, we figured out he could fly into Brindisi instead of Rome, and rent the car from there for the same amount from a much nicer rental car business.  Gary tells me I should write a separate blog post about all his rental car experiences in Italy!

The plan was for Gary to spend January through June working on the boat, flying back to Egypt once a month or so to see me and “reset” his Visa.  Everything about that last sentence turned out to be naive and wrong!  More on that later.

Gary’s quite mechanical.  He once tore our house furnace apart.  I mean, completely apart.  I arrived home from work, opened the garage door, and found our garage full of tables filled with hundreds of little pieces of our furnace!  I didn’t know they had so many parts.  He put it back together and it worked better than ever.

I tell you this so you understand what a surprise it was to hear that Gary struggled to get anything done on the boat. Here he is in the engine room learning about the diesel engine, the filters, the water intakes to cool the engine, and all of the other systems that are in there that I know nothing about...

In the USA, you search websites for what you need to buy, find the place with the best price, order it, and it gets shipped to you, right?  Not the case in Italy.  Gary planned to do the ordering and installing himself.  Here is the only thing he was able to order and install himself.

Yes, the two television sets!  He bought them at a mall. But, anything boat related was impossible to find or buy online!  He was getting so frustrated.  Michaela and a guy at the boatyard kept asking him if he needed anything.  In our American minds, we figured that they would tack on a profit if we asked them to get us anything, and they would then want to install it, too.  But, Gary eventually gave up trying to order a generator, and he knew he needed that professionally installed...so, using Google translate, he got it ordered through the boatyard.  Much to our surprise, the boatyard SUBTRACTED money from the bill.  Since we weren’t EU citizens, they were able to subtract the VAT tax for us.  They also gave us additional discounts for having the work done by them. It worked out to be cheaper to have them order everything we needed than to try to buy things on our own.  Unfortunately, it took us over a month and a half of precious time before we figured this out!

We had a list of things we wanted to get done. Gary prioritized all things having to do with entertainment televisions first, then things for SCUBA diving- the generator and compressor. I prioritized practical things like solar power and a water maker and learning about the electronics for navigation.  I was still working full-time in Egypt, so in June when we pulled away from the dock for the first time, we were ready to SCUBA, but we couldn’t read our navigation charts to know where we were going!

Fortunately, we had two really smart crew members join us for our first three weeks who were better at figuring out the electronic navigation equipment.   More about our first crew in the next blog...

Is this larger font easier to read?  Do you like the larger photos, or does it slow down the loading of the blog?  When I wrote this blog, I chose the large font for the whole thing, but when I look at the blog after it is published, the font appears to be all different sizes.  I have no idea why. Does it look that way on your device?  Any feedback or advice is appreciated!