My previous blog was written on April 23rd one week before my departure, from my Atlantic Home Port in Cape Charles, to Amsterdam.
From the day I arrived back on the boat, the weather has been sunny warm days and cool nights, but the rain has returned and I am locked in the cabin with long underwear and my wool watch cap. It is hard to imagine the difference with my 1st Home Port in the Pacific Northwest where a record breaking heatwave with 100 plus Fahrenheit (38 Centigrade) has hit for already one week.
But tomorrow’s forecast will bring the summer back here.
On May 7th I lost my friend Annemarie Fakkeldij. I wrote about our first meeting, on Opening Day of the boating season in April last year at my Yacht Club, on my blog of June 17th 2024.
The second time I ran into her at my parish church. She had the debilitating handicap of Aphasia but managed yet to be a dear friend. I had dinner with her the day before she passed away. During her career with KLM she had travelled extensively and had collected an impressive art collection. In the six month of my winter absence her wings had become weaker. She wanted to be with the Lord and spread her wings again.
This picture was taken on May 26th last year at the Urbanus Church near Amsterdam. This was on the first Sunday that the Diocese had arranged to close my parish to consolidate several of the area churches. But so far, so good, we have managed to stay rooted. Jolly Nguyen, in this picture, and her husband are parish friends. She sang the Ave Maria of Caccini at the 150th anniversary of the Urbanus Church on May 25th .
Last Sunday we were treated to a Spirited Pentecostal mass with one of the church’s choirs, where I used to sing in the tenor section. This was the first time that the choir was directed from the organ bench. A multitasked musician. After the dis-mis-sal he played a short organ virtuosa that made the walls tremble and the applause burst out. Veni Sanctus Spiritu. This is a one minute video of parts of the Kyrie and Gloria of the Missa Brevis by Gounod.https://www.facebook.com/jackvanommen/videos/724641079955096
Even if I had been able to practice with the choir I would not have been able to sing. I even have trouble speaking. On the 28th of May I had two broken off teeth pulled and one next to it, standing but with hidden defects, just like in the next paragraph. So a temporary bridge has been anchored on the one good tooth to make me look better, but it was a brutal slaughter and very painful because of an infection in one of the stumps. The tongue has gone through several different colors. Every movement of the tongue is painful. Last Wednesday I went to a specialist who prescribed antibiotics and that seems to be helping. When I was quoted a price to fill the gap, the first tooth had left, I gagged and decided to keep a stiff lower lip.
Now, I can only imagine what I spent on the temporary alone, until the bill comes in. Let’s keep my heirs ignorant for a while longer.
But it might get me off my lazy ass and get this boat sold and sail with #4 to Turkey or Vietnam. Just like I did in 2010. When I left Fleetwood # 1 here in Amsterdam and spent January through March touring Indo China. I had a molder crowned in Saigon in January and when I was in Nhatrang in March I went to an Emergency Room to drain an abscess under the crown and take antibiotics. When I got back to Amsterdam, in May, I had the crown removed and a temporary filling put in. I got the blessings of the dentist to have the permanent crown put in in Turkey, which was done in October 2011. I remember when I got the bill in Marmaris, I thought it was for the initial visit, if I recollect it correctly it was around $300.00 but it turned out to be for the entire process. And it was done well. So, that’s the molder that was worked on in three different countries.
Just before I left here to return home for Thanksgiving, I discovered another boat problem. I noticed a screw that was loose in the foot of the pulpit. It turned out to be another rot spot. I kept it covered under the tarpaulin for the winter and got to work on it. The picture show again the deception of the seller. Again his trade mark red-brown epoxy stuffed against the rot. This is an essential structural part of the bow and the beam dad lost it’s integrity with the ends being rotted out. He knew this. The pulpit had been removed for a repair, badly done, to rot close to the headstay. I used the leftover as a pattern to make the new lamination. I am doing this in two parts to make it easier to bend. You see the first part in place, my job yesterday. Tomorrow with better weather the rest will be laminated to it.
The lawyer will have the papers served in the next days for a court hearing. Wish me luck, please.
As soon as I wrap up my current project I expect to do my first sailing, the sails are bent on. I need to add some photos and video of her moving. Response to the ads have been disappointing. It is a buyers’ market and my exposing the discoveries here is not helping either. But I truly believe that I will have relaced all the structural issues. And I am not planning to sell her in desperation. I can afford the moorage here at the YC membership rate and may end up sailing her the European summers and # IV in the Caribbean in the winter.
Now here is an opportunity to lease the boat and see Holland from the water and sail coastal, drop the mast and cruise through France. Only for good friends and boat qualified. See the pictures in my ad on this page bottom r/h column
At least for a year or two and then appraise my options. So, the Beat Goes On………….