Feb 23rd 2001, Monastir

Enjoying a break

Summer is still more than 4 months away, spring is not about to start for yet another month. Winter is still raging around in Europe. Holland has had a winter with plenty of opportunity for skating on canals (natural ice) And yet, today Marit developed a sunburn……………

So, I guess we are in the better part of the world. Okay, we do admit that it is hard work along the way. The last weeks we have spend every day and minute working on the boat. Most of it is yearly maintenance, varnishing and sanding. Some works are once-in-a-lifetime-jobs, so I do hope. But it is a fact that Sylphe has kept us busy.

There are (again) to-do lists on the computer and we keep track, through a spreadsheet on the computer, of how many times certain items have been sanded and painted. Some parts have already received their 6th (and final) coating, others are still to be sanded down. To keep track we made this neat little spreadsheet, and it is quite impressive. I will not attach it………..

S.I.S (sail-in-style) is being renamed and now stands for: Sanding-In-Suffering……. Both Marit and I have completely sanded off the tips of our fingers, right down do the bare flesh. It is quite painful. But beauty comes with a little pain, is the saying. Even typing on the computer is painful. The morning routine now consists of first treating our fingers with wonderskin (thanks to Nynke and Jim) and than wrapping white tape around them, to protect them from further damage. We look quite ridiculous, but what is new.

This whole process of sanding and painting has become part of the normal life here in the Marina. Since we are docked in the center of the marina, right in front of all the terraces and tourist-shops, our sanding and varnishwork (which is done on the quay for all the small and loose items) is being commented on…….by everyone. Not only the fellow boatowners, but even the simplest tourist (ignorant of boat-maintenance) is stopping, making some nice (but completely unwanted) comments and than continues. Only to come back after five minutes (the marina is a dead-end, so they have to pass by again) and than some more comments are being thrown in our direction. In the beginning this was still okay. They come in all kind of languages; fench, swiss, german, belgium, dutch and even frysian…..

What is worse, there are people who really want to be seen as interested,…… by touching things. The just varnished things, of course……….. After a few days we gave up. Now we simply groan, moan and make other funny noises, as soon as one of them walks up……we chase them away. We tend not to understand any of the languages they try upon us…… It works…… a little.

What is more, some comments are not funny anymore (after you have heard them 67 times). What do you think of: "When you are finished here, could you continue at my place?". Or: "How much do you get paid?" Or: "How much do these painting-frames cost?" (These are our windows, you are talking about, you moron…….)

We slowly loose our patience, but than again, our days on the quay are almost finished as most loose items are done. And once again our compliments to the Monastir Marina, as nowhere else would we be allowed to do all of our work right in the middle of the marina, sanding, grinding, drilling, cutting, etc, etc.

After this I will spend some two weeks in the mast. Sanding and varnishing that bastard. While Marit will hoist me up, or lowers me down, one meter, to do the next part, in between her work of redoing the doghouse. I will be politely asking for a cigarette to be send up, or a beer, because if not, I will spend some very cold and lonely evenings up there……….

So, weather is getting better every day, although our last visitors (Margot en Rob) only had wind and rain and even hail. It cleared up the day they left. Our next visitors are scheduled for tomorrow, I will bet you it rains tomorrow. As from now on we will have continuous visitors till the end of March, which is okay with us, as long as we are allowed to continue working on Sylphe and the visitors make their way to the desert on their own. It would not be much use, taking us along anyway, as we have not been there ourselves, so we are not much of a guide. So, Pieter, Brigitte, Ruud, Marjan, Marjon, Jane, Andre, Fiona, Pieter, Rob, Anca, Mom, be prepared……..

The first winter-spending-boats already have left Monastir for a very long season in the Med. Orion has left, and so have our Australian friends (Ralph and Leslie). However, we will catch up with them later in Greece, as they will be spending the whole summer there. Looking forward to it, and Ralph, thanks for those many, many lessons on electrics. Thanks to your patience and skills, I even was able to help another neighbor with his electrical problems.

And ORION………. We will catch up with her later in the season as well. We will meet again in Cannes or St. Tropez. So, that visit of ours, to see the rest of the interior of Orion will have to wait. We were invited after all.

Meanwhile, summer bookings are coming along quite nicely. Nautique (a dutch sailing magazine) published some info on SIS and that will give us again more to do. Can't wait to get under way again, but first some more sanding and varnishing…….. And a stop in Malta for the installation of the autopilot and the new antifouling.

Love roland