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!
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!
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