Sunday May 20th Poros

Written by Jack van Ommen on May 20th, 2012

I moved from the anchorage to the quay, Med-moored, with an anchor from the bow and a dock line from the starboard and port side stern to the quay. Now it is just keeping my fingers crossed that I do not get my anchor pulled by my neighbors or a vessel crossing my anchor line too close to shore. I saw a few Greek flagged sailboats do just that, earlier today. They are miostly bare boat charterers who have very little sailing experience. I prefer being anchored out but I had to either blow up the rubber duck or come to the quay.

Two hours ago I met Hans and Minnie from Hoorn, Holland on s/v “Water Music”.  Very nice couple  in their early sixties. We had a beer together. They know Cees Jongens, a mutual sailor friend from Hoorn.

I was supposed to meet this evening with Rohan and Frouke. They stopped by my boat on anchorage Friday evening. He is from Melbourne and Froukje is from Rohstock, Germany. They sailed here and liked it so well that they made their home here. But by the time I got back from chatting with the Hoorners they must have given up on me. Yesterday they brought me a bag full of oranges from their garden.

I have been working again on the Huysmans story. Most of it is written in the Passé indéfini. Thank God I still remember my conjugations. I bet many a younger French man/woman does not know what “on me fit passer”, “qui eurent lieu”, etc. means. And what I have discovered is that translating from French into English is actually easier than from Dutch. French, I find , is much closer to English. A lot of words are nearly identical and the sentence structure is closer to each other. Maybe I have a new carreer ahead of me….

Today Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States. I am excited! I truly believe that this is one of the most promising events in this centenial. I pray that the world will listen to his message. That the more than 60 years of Communist oppression of the Chinese people will end and that freedom of expression, government and religion will become a reality.  Then it is just a matter of time that Vietnam and Laos will follow suit.

I expect to pull up stakes tomorrow or Tuesday and stop at Aigina and then head for the island near Athens where I shall collect my running back stay replacement.

I had an outstanding dinner. Fresh squid stir fry. There is hardly a restauarant that can cook this as well as I can. I sautee the squid for about 3 to 5 minutes in my wok in garlic and olive oil. Remove it and then add it to the stir fried vegetables in the last 5 minutes of their cycle.

 

 

 

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