Summer 2019: 3 weeks on T-Fish and a bumpy transfer back to the Italian mainland

Fertilia - Asinara - Castelsardo - Santa Teresa Gallura - Isola Maddalena - Costa Smeralda - Golfo Aranci - Olbia and transfer from Olbia to Porto Riva di Traiano (Italian mainland) the new home port of T-Fish. The new home port is about 1 hour by car from our home and besides occasional sailing trips to neighboring islands, T-Fish will undergo further upgrades/changes there preparing her for longer sailing trips in my retirement.

Bonifacio

If you never have been in Bonifacio (Corsica), it is a 'must-go'. Definitely one of the most beautiful mediterranean towns I have seen. The picturesque upper town is located on the top of steep limestone cliffs with a spectacular view on the Strait of Bonifacio, the channels which connects the western Mediterranean Sea with the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Approaching Bonifacio from Sea is breathtaking. The narrow entrance to the natural port between steep cliffs is only visible shortly before the entrance, giving the skipper the illusion to crash the boat against the cliffs until the entrance becomes visible. A challenge, in particular in rough sea conditions.

Bonifacio

T-Fish in Bonifacio

Simon, a colleague and friend, original from the UK but living in California for many years now, contacted Charly and me towards the end of 2018, letting us know that a good opportunity to sail together will come up in spring 2019 after a conference in Milano which we also planned to attend. In fact, spending a sailing vacation together was planned for quite some time, basically since he had to skip the trip on Tehlikeli down the Baja California from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas ( San Diego to Cabo San Lucas ) because of other commitments. This time it worked out and we enjoyed a fantastic sailing week with strong wind conditions from Fertilia via Asinara Island (where we had to stay 2 days at anchor in a sheltered bay because of storm-like wind conditions) to Bonifacio and back to Fertilia.

Major Overhaul

The sailing season 2019 started with a major boat overhaul. In fact it started already during the shakedown cruise in 2018, when I realized that the depth indicator only showed depth down to about 10m.

Major overhaul ongoing

When checking the transducer, I found that the plastic threaded bolt fixing the transducer head with a washer and plastic bolt in a hull-through hole, had a crack. It looked like that the transducer head was mainly fixed by the remaining sika clue in the hull-through hole. Therefore, this required an urgent repair avoiding that the transducer head may come loose and water may enter the boat.

the new depth, speed transducer

When looking for a new depth transducer, I decided to change the whole system which allows me to network the different boat sensors. I finally opted for the Raymarine i70s system pack with a new speed, depth and water temperature transducer, a new wind transducer, a color multifunction display and cables and terminators for installing a SeaTalkNG / NMEA2000 network. I further installed a ShipModul MiniPlex 3 Multiplexer in order to connect older NMEA devices (e.g. such as the VHF radio to read GPS data). The multiplexer was further connected to a wireless router which allows to stream over WiFi all network data to different devices (smartphone, tablets, computers). The multifunction display (Raymarine i70s) was installed in the cockpit. A single instrument now substitutes all old VDO instruments. If needed the system easily can be expanded in the future e.g. with a compatible autopilot (the current one has no NMEA outputs).

the refilled and closed old hull-through hole of the old transducer and the new hole for the new transducer

At the same time, I finally decided to change all hull-through fittings and sea cocks. A major work which was done by professionals. In fact the old fittings still looked OK but as some sea cocks needed replacement, I decided to do all in one go in particular considering that the hull-through fittings are still the original ones and are some 30 years old.

new hull-through fittings

A very special Thanks goes to Rainer, a sailing friend which I met in Fertilia. Rainer worked several decades in different shipyards and basically knows everything about boats. He continuously helped me by providing expert opinions, borrowing professional tools and providing me a hand here and there when needed. He also installed the wind transducer and a new AIS antenna at the mast top. I really enjoyed his company and in particular our after-work-beers and some really nice evenings. Keep in touch, Rainer! 
 

Ode to Joy

The more difficult the times the more important it is that people show solidarity and stand together even in distance.  Music unites.

The world was overwhelmed by the Italian flashmob or balcony concert which unites neighboring families in Italy now every evening.

This now was copied in Germany after the coronavirus lockdown. What makes me in particular happy is that the European Union's anthem Ode to Joy was selected. A united Europe is now more needed than ever standing close together in solidarity with our partners and trying to find common solutions out of the crisis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B861wmQ8li8

Leaving Brussels for good!

My daughter with her boyfriend in Cape Town and happy that they got an earlier flight back to Germany today. Unfortunately we had to cancel our vacation with them in South Africa due to the global coronavirus crisis.

We are still in Italy - in home quarantine for almost 2 weeks now and we are desperately hoping that the numbers will go down soon.

What a tragedy! For sure the world will be another one when global immunity has been reached or a vaccination against the virus has been found. Such a major break offers chances but also bears a lot of  threats for making the world a better or worse one . I hope that global solidarity will win over national isolation and that international federations of states will show strong leadership in forming our future social fabric.

The country-wide lockdown allows me to catch-up with the blog which I basically neglected since the shakedown cruise at the beginning of the 2018 sailing season. One of the main reasons was that there was no further sailing in 2018 as we were extremely busy preparing our move back from Brussels to Italy. This time, it was not just a simple removal (whereas no removal is simple) but a major downgrading at the same time as our kids are now out of the house for their studies. Thus, we moved from a 5 bedroom villa with a large cellar and garage, into a 2 bed-room apartment. We were extremely busy sorting, packing, selling and depositing household goods for a period of almost three months. Finally we sold/deposited about 1/3 of the household, put another 1/3 into a long-term storage in Germany and moved with about 1/3 of our household into our new home in Italy.

We are extremely happy with the apartment and the small garden attached to it which we found as our new home. It has a spectacular view to Rome and the Sea, is only 10 min by car to work, and has restaurants and shopping possibilities in walking distance. The next step was to bring T-Fish back from Sardinia to Italy main land, closer to our new home, allowing us to use her during week-ends.