Thursday June 14 still in the bar in Bar,Persona non Grata, in Montenegro

Written by Jack van Ommen on June 14th, 2012

First a house keeping item. That picture of the girl with the enormous glasses hanging  from a window in Corfu, in my Sunday posting,  turns out to be an upside down picture and she is either the future wife of Justin Beaber/Beaver (??) or the future minister of Greek finance. I’d vote for the last, has to be an improvement.

I went back to the harbor master’s office this morning. Well, I am not welcome in Montenegro because I’m an incompetent mariner. I cannot produce a skippers’ license. This is the first country after visiting, I lost count at 50, a few other countries. They all apologized all over the place. And suggested that one of these days the Montenegro office of Tourism will realize the business they are turning away. At one time Croatia had the same regulation. The USA, Australia, Canada, France, to name a few, do not require a Skipper License. Germany has about four categories of it.  I am too old to try and find a skippers license after having been accepted as a competent mariner by the rest of the world.

The harbor master allows me to make my repairs to the wagter tank and the hull. But then I am to leave Montenegro and move to the enxt coutry, without stopping anywhere in Montenegro. I am disappointed. I really like this country. It combines the best of Romania and Bulgaria and beyond it has a relaxed atmosphere, no grafitti, no slums. gorgeous Slavic women, a language I can make small talk in, and the prices are good. With the exception of the marina. Nearly 50 euroes, $70. But they let me use an alongside berth instead of Med-moored, so that I could address the problem I discovered in Lefkas when the sun light shone rigth on the problem. A scarf joint done in 1981 by Tom Jackson in Anacortes after I had put “Fleetwood” sideways on a reef in Clallam Bay in the Memorial day Swiftsure race. If you take a good look at the picture on the home page, you wil see a lighter colored panel, that was scarfed in by Tom Jackson with Bruynzeel mahogany plywood. Apparently the scarf joint is failing on the surface. I used my grinder to remove the loose wood surface and then the orbital disc sander to smooth the loose areas to a firm connection and then used my extensive on board wooden boat builders material inventory to fill in the area with epoxy and filler. This would have been a major challenge when the boat was still clear finished.

My next chore was to address the still leaking rubber water tank. Part of the problem was a loose hose clamp bit the real problem is a a seam on the bladder. And that means a new bladder. I will try get the next visitor coming to join me from Holland to bring with them a new Vetus rubber bladder.Next chore was laundry, now that I am on a fresh water spicket. And I took a real shower. Next is a visit to the local barber.

I’ll check the weather in the morning for moving north to Croatia, if good I’ll go. Otherwise I will sand out the repair patch and repaint the surface.

I have received some realy good suggestions from my friends in Bellingham about the roots of the Croation fishermen in B’ham. Apparently they are mostly from Vis. I will make a stop there and show off my Serbo-Croatian vocabulary I learned from my late friend Roman Wydra.

the crack I discovered in Lefkas

 

 

 

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