Wednesday May 23rd Aegina

Written by Jack van Ommen on May 23rd, 2012

It is Thursday morning in the meantime. I had a rough night sleeping because by about 6 p.m. the whole harbor was packed like a can of sardines. I became squeezed between a 41 foot from cadiz and a Swedish 44 footer. The surge in the harbor made for a lot of rocking and squeezing between our fenders. The surge has now calmed down and a couple boats are now leaving. I plan go up to the the ancient temple of Aphaia (5/600 B.C.). It is known as one of the best preserved Greek Temples. I  am still waiting to hear from Zea Marina if my new running back stay has arrived there.

Just when I was casting off Rohan, the Australian and Frauke from Rohstock came to say good bye. Frauke does translations from English into German and she is going to read my English manuscript of “The Mastmakers’ Daughters”. I hope this can be accomplished because I feel that this will be appreciated by German readers since it plays at both sides of the Dutch-German border.

It was an outstanding sail from Poros, for the first half hour, with full main and light 150% head sail over a flat sea with about 10 knots of wind. Ideal. But then the wind came up fast and I ended up motor sailing the rest of the short trip to this island with two reefs in the main hard into the wind. I find little here of photographic interest, compared to Hydra and even Poros. But I was intrigued by the bright reflection through the doors of the one church here. Etched brass with the Archangel Michael and the Virgin Mary. I assume that the name of the church is “Annunciation”.

There was a steady stream of tourists passing by and stopping to ask questions, usually it starts with: “Did you sail this boat from the US?” Most come for the day from Athens which is a 20 minute fast ferry ride away. There was a large group of men and women, most in their early thirties, from Amway Latin America with a few Gringos. They were here on a conference. There was also a young man and lady from the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. here on another conference. Chisto a Cypriot-American, Elma a Bosnian-American. We are all doing our part to get Greece back on its feet… But the last Americans I met on Wednesday are outdoing all of us to remove the Greek debt. The Nelsons from Tacoma stopped by and were intrigued by the Gig Harbor hailing port on my transom. They then invited me aboard the “Iraklis L”  http://www.valefyachts.com/yachts/iraklisl/ A gorgeous 124 foot twin masted (Douglas Fir spars) Iroko planked, Mahogany interior. Daily rate 750 Euro ($1,000), where they and 5 more couples were the guest of a Seattle friend. Nelson had attended Stadium High School where I happen to have three of my grandchildren attend, as we write. A lot of places, events and names passed our revue.

And of course I had to tell them the story of Melina, the young lady who found her father on my blog after a 41 year search. Because it also plays in Tacoma. Her husband works for Frank Russel company one of the largest employers (till they moved to Seattle, in Tacoma and her father ran the bar at the Spar tavern in the seventies, in Tacoma. Melina lived in Tacoma for a few years, now in London, after I had left in 2005. By the way, for those who have been following this amazing story. Melina and her husband and sons met her father in Istanbul, last week and she now knows that she is his oldest child, with three half sisters in Nicosia, two half brothers in London and one in Swishtov, Bulgaria. Plus the two step brothers she has after her mom’s remarriage.

 

 

 

 

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