It was another hot day, in the eighties. Since I am not an Englishman or a mad dog I stay out of the noonday heat. Reclined, in the same prone position as the mast was, on my bunk letting the 12 volt fan buss me into my siesta. It is now after 8 p.m. and I am in the park having a cool Zagorka and fried spratling fish (sprotjes).
Boyko keeps a serious album on all the visitors to the Marina here. And since this is about the only marina on a 150 plus k.m. stretch, practically all Danube sailors have made a stop here. I searched through his records to see if I might be able to claim my first s/h US sailor to do the Danube. And I believe that the answer is, yes. There have been other s/h sailors. A Kiwi, Glen Alborn, in a 20 foot boat that he purchased in England.
An American flagged 35 foot “Maria Sorg Mutineer” came down the river s/h but the skipper, Alois Peyr, was a Czech born Australian. He purchased the yacht in the USA. About the time that I arrived in the Chesapeake in 2007, he was towed in by the Coast Guard with a leak, out of fuel an a damaged mast. It took him 61 days to cross the Atlantic to Europe. According to the people here the man was a nut case.
“Island Lady” was the American boat I had heard about earlier on this trip. It was a 27 footer, registered in Florida, owned by a Polish American and crewed with another real Pole. But I have not been able to determine if it came across the Atlantic on his own or was shipped across. Apparently the two-some were another story. The marina manager never had an opportunity to meet the skipper in a sober moment.
So, here, at last, comes this nice old sober Christian Dutch American sailor to set the record straight. Today a Belgian power boat came in. They are going back to Ghent against the current, they have done the French rivers/canals to the Med and came up from the Black Sea. But his boat handling skills are about what anyone would expect if I were to fly a 747. He barged right into me. No damage done.
Can anyone figure out the language on this T shirt I spotted today? I searched on the internet if there happened to be a regatta like this in New Zealand, Santiago City ? Must have been created in the back alleys of Shanghai??
