It’s been a while. Why didn’t we write? Well there is one big reason. There has just been one weekend off work until everything has been locked down by you know what. That weekend in February we tested the function of a tool, that turned out to be crucial for further boat work: We proudly present the TERCOO. Directly from hell, this disc does not smear soft coating…. It’s like a million finger nails scrape deep into the steel and take off everything(!). We tried it on the rudder and well… let’s say …. If it would not rust, we would steer the boat with a silver spoon by now. Who would have thought how nice naked steel can look like. But of course we had to protect that baby. First a layer of Owatrol and then (long time later) actual paint.
Continue reading “Episode 4 – Corona trying to screw us over – Spring 2020”Episode 3.1 – on the first day poseidon made the light
When Benno first came up with the idea to work on the boat for just one day I thought he was crazy. Because he came all the way from Innsbruck – just for that. Turns out he does not mind traveling through night and is able to sleep in busses. I could’nt do it – he can and so he came to Berlin.
You remember the strip inside the boat where we cut out the old dark wood to make space for some electrics? Well benno brought new wood and he cut it precise. I had to work that day but at aroung 6 p.m. I joined him and we worked until midnight. Here is some media coverage of that short episode.
Eipsode 3 – “free her from old copper” and finish the bilge
Lets start with the highlight as usual. A summary clip of these days (done bei Benni again)
At the beginning of any boat refit I assume one just sometimes looks away when stuff is too messy. The electrical wires were definitely one of those things. After a while of staring at THIS
Continue reading “Eipsode 3 – “free her from old copper” and finish the bilge”Along the Apennine Mountains by bike
Ok so… Hans likes to ride the bike – a lot! And as the last ten years flew by he kind of picked me up and threw me into this sport. Not mountainbiking, not race biking …. more like light-and-fast cycling with camping gear. I always liked the idea to travel self-supplied. We are talking tent, sleeping bag, camping stove and so on.
Since Hans was working in italy at the time and he knew he would not have time for a proper vacation until he finishes work and I knew I wanted to get away from rainy cold Berlin before winter, we decided to take the risk and go biking in late autumn. Everybody who thinks “yeah… italy always nice weather” … not even close! The trip took place in 2018…. though 2019 at the same time it was raining threee straight weeks all over italy. Apparently we were really lucky back then.
This was my first vacation that was planned to be three full weeks – to compensate the long arrival and departure ways – we wanted 14 full days on the bikes. I was in best spirit – my health was not so much. Luckily Hans was a little worn off after pushing the last couple of days at work as well so that we both took two resting days before we even startet. It was raining anyhow. The last rain for the next two weeks straight though (*laughing like the devil*)
We started in San Giovanni Valdarno (close to Florence) and the original plan was to zick-zag the Apennin mountains as far south as our legs would take us. No particular daily goals because we planned to cowbow-camp anyhow. Only issue with this luxus is the lack of impetus resulting from it. Additionally we are both not very good at getting up early …. though is european fall really good at setting sun early. The result: our days were kind of short.
Eipsode 2 – The Bilge
Lets start with a video! (Benjamins beautiful quick edit, in German though)
Since Benjamin and me both work jobs, we decided to get startet on the boat (for real) taking a week off. We chose the seven days before christmas. Side-Note: Never do that… very stressfull in the end.
We were told that we can not work on the hull (outside), since new paint would need night temperatures above at least 10°C. So the decision was easy. We started with the inner hull and the bilge. The bilge is the deepest part of the boat (in our case the inside of the keel) where water collects. For that role the bilge is a rather wet place in normal sailing conditions and since we are working on a 40 year old steel boat there was plenty rust to get rid of. Very dirty work.
Continue reading “Eipsode 2 – The Bilge”Eipsode 1 -Tidy the fuck up
So MOBILE (we dont know if we wanna keep the old name) was just sitting there, in the ugly fall that northern Germany is famous for. Uncovered still from the sale… so that everybody could have a good look at her. We had to do something about it, because leaves and rain were dirting our baby up pretty bad.
Having the groundskeeper of the Berlin Yacht Club as previous owner already paid out. We were allowed to use the clubs high pressure water sprayer.
Continue reading “Eipsode 1 -Tidy the fuck up”We proudly present: the boat formerly known as MOBILE
Well I probably annoyed every single person in my private life with my crazy “boat idea” for a couple of years now. So it was time to bring this thing into action. Or as Benni put it “Max, our life will never get less complicated than right now. We either get real or we will never do it” (or similar). So he started looking and came up with a pretty darn beautiful boat.
- Steel hull
- 12 Meters
- seaworthy and sitting in the dry
Wandern in Georgien (Aug 2019)
Tag 1
Die Reise beginnt. Wir machen uns auf den Weg zum Flughafen Schönefeld. Ein Flughafen der seinesgleichen sucht. Schon vor Jahren hätte er abgelöst werden sollen durch den BER. Der schaut traurig von der anderen Seite der Rollfelder herüber. Genug des Hohns …. also wie man es kennt: Lagerhallenromantik.
Zustand: Ulla aufgeregt, aber gefasst. Ich aufgeregt, weil…
ja weiß ich auch nicht. Weil es los geht. Ist wohl eher Vorfreude und keine
Aufregung.
Flug: Pünktlich, frei von Turbulenzen. In Tiflis schon Abendstimmung bei
deutlich über 30°C. Weil wir nach Osten fliegen, werden unserem Tag zwei
Stunden geraubt.
Ankunft Tiflis: Am Flughafen das übliche Drama „150 Lari, 150 Lari, normal
price, normal price“. Wie wir 14 Tag später herausfinden sollten, geht es auch
für 40. Anmerkung der Redaktion: 3 Lari = 1 Euro
Wir haben uns dann mit einer jungen Ornithologin das Taxi geteilt und noch was
am Preis rumverhandelt. Dann war es erträglich.
Die ersten Sekunden in einem neuen Land nachdem man den klimatisierten Flughafen
verlässt, immer sehr eindrucksvoll. Mich erinnert es an Palästina. Bisschen
Chaos, bisschen Schmuddel hier und dort, aber alles irgendwie in Ordnung und
alle freundlich.
Ankunft am „Hotel“. Unser Gastgeber „Gaga“ erwartet uns schon. Hochgrad sympatisch und ausgerüstet mit bestem Englisch zeigt er uns das Zimmer. Backstein – wie es sich für eine hip-aufstrebende Stadt schickt. Bad sauber, Ulla happy.
Es ist schon dunkel, wir wollen noch traditionell Khinkali essen. Also noch mal raus aus dem Hotel und nur kurz über die Straße – da ist es schon. Der Zebrastreifen überquert insg. nicht weniger als acht Spuren. Wir starren lange ungläubig auf dieses Verkehrs-Spektakel. Es wirkt lebensgefährlich. Nach einer Weile kommen andere Leute und gehen einfach drüber. Die Autos halten knapp und auch immer nur dort wo die Menschen sich gerade befinden. Ok, so funktioniert hier also ein Zebrastreifen. Augen zu und durch. Man gewöhnt sich dran …. ein bisschen gewöhnt man sich dran. Essen, ja da kommen wir noch zu. Gute Nacht. Nur 3 Bilder von diesem Tag.
Tag 2
Continue reading “Wandern in Georgien (Aug 2019)”