The Next Chapter, cont- The Search Continues

During a long weekend in early October, we made arrangements with brokers to see 4 different Beneteau Center Cockpit sailboats that were listed for sale in Italy.  We had a packed agenda and had to stay on schedule.  Although we were very close to Pisa and Venice, sadly we didn’t have time to stop and visit.

We did get to make a quick stop in Pompeii, or Pompeo as it is called in Italy.  This ancient city was destroyed by an eruption from Mt. Vesuvius, the bodies of people and animals and buildings were covered in ash, preserving their position in their last moments.  This statue is one example.  Viewing this city from outside the gates, we knew this was a place we needed to return when we had more time.

On our agenda, a well-used Beneteau with a totally remodeled salon with a couch and no navigation desk or salon closet, a blue Beneteau owned by a broker who was looking to maximize his profits, a 44 foot Beneteau owned by a lonely old man, and a 42 foot Beneteau that had only been used 1 month a year, had no updates or modifications, was taken out of the water and stored 11 months a year, and had unmarked woodwork.

Having fallen in love with that first boat we saw (in last post), we really loved the 44 Beneteau owned by the older gentleman.  He spoke no English, we spoke no Italian, but as soon as we got to his boat, it was obvious he was taking us for a ride.  We had barely made it out of the marina when he gestured for Gary to take the helm and just like that, he disappeared into the galley.  We could hear him banging around. Soon he came back upstairs with a plate of freshly slice prouchetto, cheese, crackers, and wine.  He talked the whole time with us not understanding a word.  It was a beautiful day.  He walked on the back deck and threw out a couple of fishing lines.  An hour later, he reeled them in and we headed back.  The whole experience made me think this guy was recently widowed and was very lonely.  I don't really remember the tour of his boat, but I am sure we looked it over very well because this was the boat we decided to make an offer on.  My suspicions were confirmed when the broker called back to tell us that he wasn't ready to sell until he found a new boat to buy!

Our trip included some beautiful sites along the way that we would return to at a later date.

We drove a lot, stopping when we got tired. One time, we stopped in a small town a ways off the main route and got a hotel room.  Most Italians outside of Rome do not learn much English.  We've been told it has to do with their contentious history with the Brits.  Anyway, the hotel was quite empty, though it had a large garden for outdoor weddings and a fancy dining room where we enjoyed a full European-style buffet breakfast (meaning, mostly carbs!  Breads and sweets of many varieties, cheese, and thinly sliced meats. No eggs, pancakes, cereal, etc). Only one other person was in this whole dining area, but our American English caught his ear.  We learned that he and his sister, both Americans, had flown back to settle their parents estate.  It was such a small, out of the way town, he wondered how, and why we had decided to stay there for the night.  He was quite shocked that we were there.  We were equally shocked to find that the only other person in the whole dining room was also American!

When we got to the farthest southern spot, we reached the only boat we would tour that was "on the hard".  The broker here, at D'addario Yacht Sales, spoke in broken English.  She got a ladder and we climbed aboard this 2003 Beneteau Oceanic Center Cockpit clipper sailboat.  The wood shined.  The stove and oven appeared to have never been used.  The downside was that this boat would need so many things to make it into a cruising boat...new canvas for starters, solar, a solar arch, new batteries, updated electronics...the list went on.  

But, as it turned out, this was the boat for us.

Michaela, our broker, was young and new to selling boats.  She took a long time to return emails- until we learned that she took all the emails to a friend to translate them into Italian,then to help her write a reply in English.  We started using Google translate to send her emails in Italian.  The replies came much quicker.

Buying a boat in Italy wasn't exactly straight forward and easy. We got lucky in many ways. The surveyor we had hired in Trieste we learned was one of the best in Italy. He had done us such a favor on the first boat, charging us only a very small fee, that we decided to fly him down to survey this boat.  It passed with flying colors!  He also told us he was very impressed with our broker. He told us she was new and seemed to be wanting to do her best for us. He felt she was very honest and a hard-worker.  And, she did work hard for us. She gave us rides to various government buildings, translated for us, figured out how we could get the Italian documents translated into English so we could register our boat with the US Coast Guard, helped us to get copies of the VAT paid documents (European taxes paid proof), etc, etc.  

Did we save any money by buying our boat in Italy?  It's hard to say, but probably not.  

The next step was to figure out how to purchase things for the boat- but I will leave that for another post.

Here we are, celebrating being boat owners with a Leffe...

           

                   Thanks for reading! Would love to hear your questions and comments!

 

The Next Chapter - Life Aboard a 42 foot sailboat

 April 26, 2021 

In June of 2019, my job in Egypt was complete. This blog so far 

has been a testament to just how much we learned in just 3 years of living abroad. As first-time expats, everything was a learning opportunity.   We grew and changed quickly.  While living in and learning about another culture, we also learned much more about our own country and culture.  Because we lived in a commune-type situation, living with many of the same people we worked with, often even in the same building as our classroom, we grew personally and socially.  These new diverse set of friends, from all regions of the US as well as several different countries, taught us to see things from a variety of perspectives. As we were afforded many opportunities to travel, we were constantly improving our understanding of geography, history, culture, not to mention we got really good at knowing how to plan and book affordable and interesting vacations in a hurry. 

So, in June, we said our goodbyes to friends in Egypt and moved aboard S/V UPBound in Italy. S/V stands for “Sailing Vessel”.  That was just one of the thousands of things I would learn within the first few months. As newbie sailors, we had a very, very steep learning curve.  

One of our first tasks was to come up with a new name for our boat because, after all, we had no idea how to pronounce her old name “Orifiamma”.

Why has it taken me nearly 2 years to write a blog about sailing?  I am not sure.  I have come up with a lot of “excuses”, each with a grain of truth, but honestly, I am not sure.

I do know that sailing and living on a boat requires a LOT of time-consuming work.  Before we sailed, we regularly watched a few sailing videos on YouTube.  Honestly, I don’t know where these You-Tubers find the time to sail, keep their boat in good working order and presentable, film, and edit.  There is always something that needs to be worked on, and, because tools are generally stored in your main living space, the whole boat gets torn apart every few days.   It’s not like we have space for organized tool boxes- nope- everything from screwdrivers to spare parts for the engine, the toilets, the cupboards, etc is loose in boxes under the seats, and you dig for everything because invariably, what you need is closest to the bottom and back of the storage area.  So, everything takes twice as long to fix on a boat as it might in a house.   No, I am not the mechanic in the boat- but I often have to help find something or another.  So, is lack of time why I haven’t written?  Probably not. 

This part of the boat is called the salon.  The table and seating is on the left, along with the television set, and the navigation station to the right.  The engine compartment is accessed under those steps. This area is also where all the tool are stored.  If you go up the steps, you are in the cockpit, where we spend most of our time when sailing.

This is our galley area.  The stove is on a gimble so the stove stays level, even if the boats is leaning.

 

Swabbing the deck

Jobs continue on land.  The bottom needs anti-foul paint every few years to prevent barnacles from growing on the bottom.

When on land, everything has to be hand carried to the boat.

  

The original mattress needed replacing

 

Before we actually sailed, I dreamed it might be all about enjoying beautiful sunsets, swimming, watching wildlife, relaxing, reading, and exploring new places and meeting new people. Plenty of topics to write about, right?  Well, sailing DOES include all of that, maybe I will eventually write up some of those stories.

The battery on my laptop died before we set sail, so all writing is now being done on my IPad.  I switched phones before we crossed the Atlantic, so early photos are saved on a hard drive with only a few put on Facebook. Newer photos are on an Android, which makes getting them on this Ipad, then onto this blog challenging for my (lack of) techy skills.  Definitely that is a contributing factor.

Other big reasons for not writing- FEAR, VULNERABILITY, and UNCERTAINTY.  Working overseas, living an expat lifestyle, traveling by plane to exotic locations was MY dream.  This much more physically demanding, one-with-nature lifestyle of sailing the world, definitely Gary’s dream.  I was quite certain we would DIE before we got to the Caribbean. The Med was NOT an easy place to learn to sail.  The wind was generally either too much, or too little.  It swirled and changed directions quickly.  I will probably write a post about wind ( but don’t hold your breath.).  

 The other challenge in the Med was finding any sense of community.  In the Med, most people are on charter boats, with friends and family, and no interest in meeting new people.  Cassandra and Blake were with us until late June. After they left, I didn’t find another English-speaking woman until mid-August. It was a very lonely time.  I love my husband, but let’s be real- a woman needs to talk to other women.  

Early on, we didn’t know how to use our instruments, we didn’t know how to determine distances, just how fast is a “knot”, what is a nautical mile, and how far could our boat sail in an hour. There was so much uncertainty about literally everything!  We had to meet our son and his wife in Barcelona September 1.  We had planned a month in Croatia to gain us some time out of the Schengen- just how long would it take us to get there?  Were we in this way over our head?  How do you write about all of these things?  

We have been back in the USA for a year now.  It has taken me a long time to process all we have experienced and learned.  We spent last summer on land. We have been living on anchor all winter.  We are currently motor-sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, along the coast of Florida.  It is my first sail since last June.  It is a beautiful day, 12-15 knots of wind.  I can honestly say I was really looking forward to sailing today and am ready to start writing about some of our adventures, the good and bad.

If you’re reading this, leave me a comment.  I’d like to know what kinds of information you are looking for and what kinds of questions you might have. Shorter, more frequent blogs, or more photos?  A blog about the worst experience we had?  Places and people or the nitty-gritty of everyday life aboard?  Looking forward to hearing from you.

Electrical Appliances and Outlets

While looking on Amazon for Christmas gifts, I may or may not have started looking for some things I might like to buy for myself. (shameful, right?!)  One of the things I was thinking about was a new blender for the boat, like a Magic Bullet.  Then I stopped myself and was inspired to write this blog. 

 I thought this might be interesting to some.  You see, in my newly built apartment,  I can plug in things from the US as well as things from Europe and Egypt in the same outlet!  Isn't that smart?!  But, our next home is a sailboat, made in Europe. I am quite sure it does not have cool outlets like this, and for some items, like appliances, besides for the different shape of the plugs in the USA and Europe, the power needed is different.  Sometimes I forget these little details.....

By the way, I have a lot of posts in draft form.  Not sure when I will publish them.  Some have told me they enjoy my posts.  Comment below if you read.  It would be nice to know who stopped by!

Beginning of our Second Year in Egypt

October 13, 2017  Our second season of living overseas has begun and is actually well on its way!  We are almost done with the first marking period and have already taken our first trip outside of Egypt. I am obviously way behind on this blog.

What is new this year?
Well, this year my classroom is now in the elementary building rather than in the high school.  This makes a lot of sense since most of the students I see are elementary students. The classroom space became available due to the issues with the government floating the Egyptian pound on the world market making things much more expensive for the local people, and the subsequent inflation causing the school to need to increase tuition, along with some new Egyptian laws that make it illegal for our school to accept any new Egyptian students.  Because of these things, our school has about 15-25 fewer students, mostly in the elementary school - which meant they now had space to move my classroom.  I have more space and more light.  I enjoyed the high school staff, but it is nice to now get to know the elementary staff better.  Last year I struggled to find manipulatives- this year I am in the building where those things are more readily available.

Using Barton tiles to write words on board

One of my goals is to raise awareness of learning differences through-out the school

Volleyball tournament on campus

Middle School Discovery Day - Gary taught compass course.  Schutz needs better quality compasses, but the kids did pretty well anyways.

Another thing that is new is staff.  International schools often have a pretty high turnover each year.  I think that is one thing that makes international teaching both exciting and difficult.  You meet friends, live and work with them for a whole year, then a portion of them get jobs in other places and move away and you are forced to say good-bye.  However, we also realize that means we now have people we can go visit in even more places, and thanks to Facebook, it is easier to stay in touch. The exciting part is that each year you get to meet new people. This year we have 3 new staff members who live on campus - all three are experienced, long-time international teachers.  I hope to learn a lot from all of them. They all seemed to assimilate quickly and have social lives outside of campus.  This is in contrast to when Gary and I arrived, and probably all of the teachers who started with us last year because we were all new to the international teaching field.  New experiences are always exciting - and I would imagine just going to a new international school is a bit of an adrenaline rush even for experienced international teachers - but I can't imagine that there is anything like your first international teaching/living experience.  Much of last year is a blur, so I am glad I wrote down my feelings and experiences as they happened, whenever I could.  The wonder and amazement and appreciation I felt about everything for the majority of last year is something I am now struggling to hold on to. Don't get me wrong, I still feel incredibly privileged to be living this life, but this year I find I need to remind myself to continue to get as much out of this experience as I possibly can because I know there is a cost to having this incredible life experience -  I am missing out on a lot of time with family.  Which brings me to what is new #3.

Two of our friends from last year who are thankfully still here this year.  

One of our new friends.  This guy has introduced Schutz to the exciting world of Maker-spaces.
We now have Virtual Reality, 3-D printers, and robotics.  Even our elementary students are learning to code.  And, I now have classroom touch-screen Chromebooks!  

Last year I was so overwhelmed with everything that when people spoke Arabic, I only heard a string of sounds - nothing sounded like words.  Then, in December, Cassandra arrived.  Within a month she had already picked up on more words than I had in my first 4 months!  She helped me to be able to distinguish various words during the Call to Prayer and when people were talking.  I didn't recognize much of what was said, but I could at least distinguish the words I knew.  I have decided that now it is about time to start Arabic lessons.  So, starting on Sunday, I am officially going to start trying to learn Arabic with an Arabic teacher who will come to our apartment.  My vocabulary right now is only my numbers to ten and about 10 other words!  I am hoping to at least double that!

What else is new?  Well, this year I am assistant advisor to the Interact Club (High School aged Rotary students) and assistant advisor to the Middle School Model United Nations Club.  Our Interact Club has cleaned a beach in Alexandria, is raising money for blankets for people to stay warm this winter and  is raising money to put on a Christmas event for our employees and their families, among other things.  They also plan to support an orphanage, but I am not sure which orphanage they plan to support and how.  This is a student-run organization, so the kids make the decisions.  The Middle School Model United Nations club makes me wish I had known about this years ago as they study world issues, various nations, and pretend to write and debate policies.  It is very interesting.  We will be traveling with the students to Turkey for this activity where the kids will be simulating the UN with other students from all over the region.  Fortunately for us, the recent restrictions on traveling to Turkey only apply to US citizens traveling directly to Turkey from the USA.

Beach clean-up with Interact, Volleyball players, and staff families from Schutz. This young friend worked so hard! (We will miss her next year when her family moves on to another school!)

Estimated 800 pounds of garbage picked up from the beach!

Baskets made by the kids we visit at the orphanage

Kids at the orphanage are learning how to make wicker furniture

The Alexandria Rotary Club paid for this new kitchen to be built at the orphanage

Another new experience this year is to get massages at the Four Seasons.  The Four Seasons is only about 3 blocks away and has a nice spa and massages for about 50% of what you would pay in the USA.  I like this change.

We also tried out a restaurant in the Four Seasons.  We have now found a place for delicious Australian rib eye steaks.  We also ate at a place near the Greek Club with the elementary staff.  It had a great view of the city and some delicious food. Some of the people on campus have found some great bakeries with delicious chocolate cakes. By the end of last year, I did not want to see one more grain of rice, one more spaghetti sauce with olives, or any more Egyptian food -  and I was really looking forward to going back to the USA to eat a great steak, chicken noodle soup, raisins, and some good chocolate desserts.  I am happy to say that between cooking more in our apartment and finding some really good restaurants and bakeries, food might not be as much of an issue for us this year.  (Although we still have not found good raisins)  I didn't lose much weight last year because I wanted to try everything - I am not losing much weight this year because I have found too much I like to eat!  Oh well.

This is celery!  I would have never recognized it because it is so small, but our friends told us to expect it to be miniature size of what we would expect.  I made potato salad and chicken noodle soup - the celery made all the difference!

Our apartment this year is new to us, but we are not yet in our "new" apartment.  They moved us inside campus because this year we have fewer staff members and so apartments were available. Last year, the school rented from another company that had an apartment building just outside the wall.  It was cool to live in the "real Egypt" - being forced to step outside the campus each day to see every day life in the neighborhood and it even gave us empathy for those who have to live every day with internet so slow it might take an hour to watch a 30 minute Netfix show.  Even uploading pictures to this blog was a test of my patience - sometimes it would take all day.  Now, writing a blog and posting pictures is so much less frustrating!!  The other teacher who lived off campus with us said it was a "psychological break from work" just stepping outside the wall - knowing that you have a place to work and a place to live.  I understand that more this year.  Campus is really just a slice of America - if you never go outside the walls, you can almost imagine that you are living in the USA.  The internet works so much better on campus as I have stated, the grass is green, well, the fact that there IS grass is quite unique here! - the flowers are beautiful, everything is kept so clean.  While living on campus you have a ready supply of people to do things with and we feel "more-connected" to everyone. 

The building we are in this year is part of the original villa that served Missionary families on retreat, and later was used as a boarding school for missionary children.  In the 1970's, the building was converted to apartments for foreign-hire teachers.  The ceilings are at least 12 feet high, and each apartment is unique and funky.  For example, between all these rooms is a hallway that is big enough to be made into another room.

The living room and bedroom both have doors that go out onto a big covered porch area.  Therefore, these apartments do not get much light during the day.

The newly-built apartments on the 4th floor of the elementary building are nearing completion.  We are hoping we will be moved in by Christmas. There was some talk about getting us in by the end of October, but that may have been optimistic.  That being said, I believe our exact apartment might be completely done as they did haul furniture up there and used our apartment as the model for the school board.  We snuck up a few weeks ago and admired the open kitchen/living room space and the beautiful big windows.  They also used some nice wood-looking tile for the outdoor hallway between the apartments and some pretty tiles inside the apartments  The recessed lighting is very nice as well.  I don't think I got any pictures while we were up there, so you will have to wait until we actually move in.  The hardest part has been the fact that we have not yet unpacked all of our boxes at this apartment because we keep expecting to move over there soon.  Tonight we sat on the steps of the elementary building when the Call to Prayer started up.  Someone installed a speaker that is pointed right at the elementary building. They seem to blast that speaker louder than all the others.  It so loud in fact , that the sound is highly distorted. Even if we COULD understand Arabic, no one would be able to understand what is coming from those speakers.  Our Egyptian friends have told us that some mosques will purposely turn their speakers in the direction of where they know there are foreigners in order to try to convert us!  I don't know if that is true or not, but if they really wanted to convert people, I think they might have a chance at being successful if they would speak their message clearly in English and have their speaker turned to a reasonable level so as not to make the foreigners upset.  Anyhow, we now know our new apartment will be in direct line of that awful speaker.


We have submitted our intentions to stay another year, as long as the school still wants a Learning Support program and still wants me to set it up so that it can be sustainable.  Next year's head of school and his wife both have backgrounds in special education, so as long as they are willing to have me stay in my current position of coordinating the program, we will be here again next year.  If not, then Gary will move forward to find us a sailboat for the next chapter.

Speaking of which, Gary has signed up for a IYT crew and captain courses in Thailand in December.  Once certified, we will be able to rent a sailboat for our Christmas vacation and sail by ourselves!  In addition, Gary will be qualified to work on other people's ships, if he wants to do so.  We have rented a sailboat for 10 days during Christmas, and I am really looking forward to finally finding out if the sailing life will be for us.

Gary had also been asked to chaperone the elementary soccer team on their trip to Italy in November.  I think he is getting more out of this experience not working than I am while working!  Italy will be his second country that he has visited that I never have.

The Eid Break happened in September.  It was shorter this year, just 5 days.  We spent our time in Greece, mostly along the beaches of the Chalkidiki peninsula of Sithonia and a day in the city of Thessaloniki.  The beaches were nice, all with various coarseness of sand, but not much to see while snorkeling.  We took a drive through the mountains, and visited an old village.

Map of the area we stayed.  We stayed on the middle peninsula. This is the area that Odysseus is said to have recorded his travels.  We did not see any Cyclops.  I think it was FAKE NEWS! 

There is a law in Greece that the restaurants must give you your receipt FIRST and it must be kept visible on your table in case the authorities come and ask for it.  Once you leave, it is fine to throw it away!

Greece seems to sell a lot of good quality mink coats.  There were fur shops everywhere!

This is a colorful house in the old town part of Thessaloniki, behind the wall

Notice the old wall behind this beautiful tree in Thessaloniki

View of Thessaloniki from the White Tower, part of the old wall

Inside a small chapel in Greece

Mt. Athos - This peninsula is only inhabited by monks and no women may enter for any reason.  Men who are not monks may visit only with special permission.

One example of memorial buildings that can be seen all over Greece.  They are usually filled with photographs, religious Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic icons, and a lit candle.

Greece is very hilly

Nice restaurant next to the yacht harbor

This beautiful yacht came in while we were eating

Fun to admire the boats and catamarans

Enjoyed many beautiful sunsets in Greece. #Nofilter

Soon we will have a long weekend when we will get to travel to the Sinai Peninsula to enjoy snorkeling on the beautiful coral of the Red Sea and we also have plans to climb Mt. Sinai, where Moses supposedly encountered the Burning Bush.