I mention on my previous blog about having a wobble over expenditure of my boating or sailing activities.
I was chatting to an optician I went into at Lakki Leros Greece. He said the best two times with boating is when you buy and when you sell a boat in between it all cost lots of money.
I have taken Stella Polaris up to a boat yard at the northern end of Leros place called Partheni . The hull badly needed anti fouling as marine growth takes hold after awhile. When I got the boat out of the water into the boatyard the hull was badly encrusted with small limpet shells.
Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called “limpets” descended independently from different ancestral gastropods.
I had to scrape and sand them off which was quite difficult. Strange as I was doing this I had a friendly wasps buzzing around who must have found the residue of the substrate tasty.
When I crossed the Atlantic a few years ago the hull was full of goose barnacle growth when I arrived in Antigua. I had to get into the water with a mask & snorkel to scrape them off the hull.
Goose barnacles, also called stalked barnacles or gooseneck barnacles, are filter-feedingcrustaceans that live attached to hard surfaces of rocks and flotsam in the ocean intertidal zone.
Goose barnacles formerly made up the taxonomic order Pedunculata, but research has resulted in the classification of stalked barnacles within multiple orders of the infraclass Thoracica. Fascinating marine growth again which sticks tenaciously to the underwater line of marine boat hulls.
Getting the boat out of the water which has to be done annually is another expense with boating. Some boat owners go for copper coating substrate below hull waterline but this is quite an expensive option. But evidently it lasts 5 years so I suppose overall it can be cost effective.
The seas are a soup of life when you shine a touch down at night you can see all the different life forms that comes up from far below to feed. Hence the reason why life wants to cling to underwater objects to get a free ride.
I’m 71 and don’t have a big pension with some savings, not a lot, but my boating activities have been eating into my savings with various costings over and above my monthly income.
It’s been in the back of my mind for awhile now so I’ve decided I need to try and earn some money to increase my savings again.
My skill is in engineering and welding however I need to refresh my skills to get back into higher skilled welding. Fortunately there’s a skill shortage and especially after we left the European Union.
Welding is very much a hands on skill with hand eye coordination being critical. Obviously when you get older your vision gets weaker. However that said good glasses do make your close and distance sight much clearer and text and distant objects are much more well defined.
Welding like any skill is part manual dexterity and personal determination in mastering that skill. I call it right positive mental attitude. Solo sailing in a way is similar. Sailing can be physically and mentally challenging especially when you’re on your own. Therefore positive mental attitude is really important. What I’m saying is you gear yourself up mentally and say “I’m going to win through no matter what”.
For instance going for a job and getting knocked back or being told you don’t fit the company’s criteria. Mentally you must say to yourself I’ll get a job no matter what? Think who ever turns me down it’s their loss and not mine!
If it means going back to welding school to brush up my skills I’ll do what ever it takes to get that job!
I sat down recently to revamp my CV and uploaded it on CV Library. I had phone call and number of emails from employment agencies about welding work. Welders must do a trade tests to ascertain their competency. depending upon the work it can be fairly rigorous.
Going back to welding school for 3/4 days would be sensible to see how my skills are? As I don’t want to go for a trade test and embarrass myself!
Life is designed to challenge us but in fact it’s not life it’s people and cultures that challenges us. Some people don’t like to live outside the box when it comes to decision making.
What I’ve always found fascinating about my life is the unknown twist and turns it has taken. I could never have predicted those or planned for those twist and turns.
My original idea of sailing to Greece was that cost of living is lower and likewise mooring fees not as expensive as some other European countries .
However that said Greece has a more bureaucratic way of working this only really came to my attention on leaving the boat at Artemis Boatyard Leros Greece.
There are number of things that I wasn’t aware of prior to sailing into Greek waters they are as follows;
- cruising permit cost €25 euro per month, transit log €30 euros. I was fined by customs for not having the correct paperwork and adhering to the proper entry procedures of €337 euros. The bureaucracy involved was unbelievable and the amount of paperwork generated was ridiculous. I know there are few other countries in Europe who have this stipulation such as Croatia. Turkey has but they’re outside of European Union. Cruising permits are form of taxation in reality a way generating money from leisure sailors.
- Transit log Brits need since we left the European Union now we are classed as a third country. Strange I’d never been asked anywhere else in Europe about a transit log? It’s only for Greek waters!
- When you leave Greek waters you have to take the transit log into the police have your passport stamped and hand in your transit log.
Non of this was ever mentioned when I first arrived in Greece at my first port of Lakki. You would of thought the marina would of mentioned it? To clear properly and to obtain a transit log for Greek waters. It took me nearly two whole separate mornings to sort out the paperwork. I had to visit customs port police in 4 different locations around the island of Leros. The custom officials weren’t friendly especially the senior customs officer. Yes I realise I was at fault and it was pure ignorance on my part.
But these things can’t be done online you have physically visit the various offices to arrange the paperwork. I feel it’s form of human control. I suppose that’s why I like ocean sailing more than local port to port hopping. But the main reason for ocean sailing is actually to do with safety. Why? because you don’t see as much shipping and your clear of your biggest danger land!
One of the reasons why I like ocean sailing is there are no restrictions on where I can go because I’m in international waters. No cruising permits, no transit logs, no custom controls, no police to stamp your passport!
I psychologically rebel from man’s incessant control of humanity. Don’t borders cause conflicts? Think about the break up of India and the formation of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both countries had and still have border fighting. The fighting now with Ukraine and Russia. Fighting with Turkey and the Kurds.
Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan;
WHAT ARE ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN FIGHTING OVER?
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two former Soviet countries in the south Caucasus, have been fighting for decades over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but which until 2020 was populated and fully controlled by ethnic Armenians.
We all live on one small planet Earth and we humans like are nearest cousins the chimpanzee are very territorial we have standing armies and navies to protect our territorial waters. Woe betide anyone who crosses over those borders without the correct papers and illegal immigrates you get locked up and deported to the deepest darkest Africa.
Wasn’t that what Brexit was about in stopping the free movement of people from other European counties?
But the whole thing for me of nations and borders is human man made entity! Man for millions of years has roamed around the planet. Hunter gatherers followed the wild life like animal for food. Isn’t that why birds migrate and whales and certain fish species?
But no man has to have ownership of things land property resources. He will indiscriminately kill and destroy to gain access and control of peoples lands and resources.
Think about what’s unfolding in front of eyes but the greatest existential threat the threat to a people’s existence or survival.
Climate heating nature doesn’t care for man’s borders? If man is threaten for survival neither will he!
Back to the oceans they don’t belong to man neither should they. Hence why I feel more at home sailing oceans then I do on land with man made borders and man made control systems!
Finally the moral of the story is we humans need money to live and to maintain ourselves. But money in its self shouldn’t be are first and foremost priority in life. But sometimes unfortunately that has to take a priority over other pursuits in life like sailing !
Goddess of nature, childbirth, wildlife, the Moon, the hunt, sudden death, animals, virginity, young women, and archery
