june/july, 2004

hi folks --

formentera in the ballerics is my favorite place in the med (so far). it
has a whole parallel road system called green roads that are for walking or
bikes or scooters.  we have one bike and rented a scooter one day and two
bikes another time.  the scooter held two and the bike the third so we were
set transportation wise.  i brought a hunk of boat rope and we towed the biker
up the hills so the transportation was almost even.  but the coveted spot was
the scooter driver.  we took turns.

our first day in formentera, after anchoring ok, we went into the port town,
sabina, in the dinghy to explore.  we saw another person in a dinghy and so
went over to him to ask where to tie up the dinghy.  he said he never tied
up, just cruised around.  he was naked and tanned all over.  the girls tried
not to stare, not to giggle, to sneak an occasional peek, and appear interested
in the questions i was asking.  the guide book had warned that formentera was
a clothing optional type of island and we certainly found that true.  the
beaches were full of nude folks, walking the beach with the girls was
interesting.  they would try to look at the faces of all the young men who
walked by and not their crotches and the guys would try to look totally
non-chalant but be embarrased by the natural outcome of a nudie guy staring
at a bikini clad girl and have to rush into the water for a quick cool down
swim.  it was pretty funny.

formentera has a crafts fair every sunday and wednesday.  we all went on 
sunday, hitch-hiking out there.  met sebastian who became friends with the
girls and taught them to wind surf the next week.  the crafts fair looked
like just the place for the girls to try to hawk their hand made log books.
they intended to sell them to boaty folks but are too shy to go up and ask
someone if they want to buy a pricy (20 euros for the little ones and 35
for the big ones), but nice book.  so far i am their biggest customer, buying
a book for the guy who gave me spare sails and one for the family who gave
me a free mooring for 2 weeks, etc.  they went back to the fair on wednesday
and set up a little home-made-books stand.  sold one really little book that
they had to make the next day for the buyer.  and later that week, we went
into the marina for showers, laundry, water, feul, etc. and they sold another
to a british sailor. two books in 4 months, cant support their cruising
habit very well at that rate.

we found an italian icecream place on formentera and went there every day
even though it was a half hour bike ride.  they had just opened up and we
were their best customers.  my favorite kind was hazelnut, yumm.

my anchoring woes continue.  bought a brand new shiny plow anchor, 22 kg.
so bigger (and better i thought) than my 35 lb delta or bruce, but still
not a spade, the kind i really want when i get my windlass fixed so it 
can pull it up instead of me.  22kg is my limit and the spade i want is
30. 66 lbs plus chain just doesnt work for a 60ish old lady like me.  anyway,
we anchored just fine next to some fishing pots, almost a mini fish farm.
the fisherman asked us to move a bit because we were kind of close.  so
we did and since it was a big open bay we went nearer town where there
were more sandy spots to aim at.  trouble was that they werent sand but
sand-looking-rock and the anchor wouldnt set.  it would set when i backed
down on it, but then unset with the first big wave from the ferry boats.
we were visibly getting closer and closer to shore even though i was sure
that my new anchor didnt dare drag.  finally a diver who was re-setting a
mooring told us what was totally obvious, we too close to shore, probably
our anchor was on the sneaky rock and dragging.  we asked where to anchor
and he said he would show us.  he ended up giving us a mooring that was
right next to where we were in the first place.  we stayed on the mooring
for another week, enjoying the island and making friends (the girls mostly)
with wind surfing instructors, italian waiters, and other sailors.

anchoring is free (usually) and marinas are expensive because it is high
season, so we are doing more anchoring.  just when i was getting pretty
good at this med mooring gig.

we were still on formentera when my birthday rolled around, big 64 for me,
my last power of two.  the girls went crazy with a super dinner on the boat,
starting with champagne, then yummy fish and beet salad and fresh pesto
pasta with carrot cake with candles to finish it off.  both girls gave me
iou's for birthday presents: susha for a hand knit hat-like cover for the
compass and libby is going to make me an enlargement of one of the super
pictures she has taken of the boat.  for years i have given iou's for
presents - now it comes back to me.

we went to another anchorage on a tiny private island called espalmador.
in the middle of the island there are hot mud baths we had been told about
by our formentera friends.  the girls got totally covered with stinky, grey-
brown mud; it caked on as it dried and soon it was a run to the beach to
wash it all off.  took quite a while to get clean and even longer (days) to
get rid of the smell.  but they said their skin liked it.

from espalmador we sailed overnight to mallorca, skipping ibiza, the party
island.  we had seen boatloads of ibiza tourists come to formentera for
the day on fast ferries and decided we could skip it.  there was no wind so
we motored the whole way.  not fun.  but we arrived at a little anchorage
about 5 miles from palma, the big city on mallorca.  our little anchorage
was very nice and had about 5 boats during the week and at night, but during
the day on saturday and sunday there were about 100 extra boats full of locals
who were out for the day to picnic, swim, and play in the water.  the girls
chatted it up with the lifeguard and when a dinghy got loose and was smashing
the rocks he swam it out to our boat asking it we knew whose it was and giving
it to us if no one claimed it.  it was way nicer than ours, heavier but we
were already planning how to use halyards to pull it up when its rightful owners
showed up and accused us of stealing it.  we said no, that the lifeguard had
saved it on the rocks and that they should thank him.  they claimed that the
knot they tied could never come undone and werent very thankful to get it back
unharmed.

there was a boat washed up on the rocks in our anchorage and we happened to
be there just as the owner, a finish guy who was an excellent chef, had hired
a crane to lift it back in the water, we got to see the whole thing and even
share in the bbq party afterwards.  the boat had been washed up on the rocks
during an unpredicted major storm at the end of october last year. it was
anchored with a 55 lb bruce, the anchor held, but the windlass and cleat that
it was attached to on the boat ripped out.  major waves were breaking into
the anchorage and were too much for the windlass.  the finish guy, juha, had
been living on the boat for 8 months listing to port as though on a permanent
starboard tack.

while at this anchorage, we took a train across the island to a neat town
called soller.  the train was one of the old ones with wooden cars that
swayed back and forth as it went.  soller is a arts+crafty town with lots
of the work done by handicapped people.  very nice museum of local crafts
there.  and an icecream factory with 47 flavors.  yumm.

our next visitors were two teenage boys fresh out of high school -- ben and 
his friend ian.  when we asked them what their favorite thing in europe was,
they said the 18 year old drinking age.  bit of a generation gap there, they
swam at least 17 times a day, went ashore regularly to smoke (wouldnt let
them smoke on the boat), slept a lot and occasionally were a bit shy on
common sense. but we had fun and i think they did too.

we sailed with them to the island of cabrera which is a national park and
very pretty.  nice hiking, neat ruins (pre roman), a museum and a tightly
controlled visitor policy.  we were only allowed to stay 2 nights and
in july and august boats are limited to one night.  on one hike we saw
a falcon.  they used to make the cardinals robes (catholic church) on the
island because there are berries for making the purple dye.  there are 30
species that only live on cabrera, mostly small bugs.

from cabrera we sailed to andrax to a free mooring to leave the boat for
a week and go to zurich.  the mooring area of andrax is very crowded so
i sent the girls off in the dinghy to find the mooring (marked by a surf
board) and lead us in so i didnt have to search around in a tight place
with the big boat.  they found it, i managed to park there and we were
snuggly tucked in to a very well protected harbor.  getting the 5 of us,
(me, my two nieces, two teenagers with full packs) ashore with my little
dinghy was challenging.  the boys had run into something with it and 
broken the shear pin in the propellor so the engine didnt work.  the
dinghy holds 4 people max, so we clearly needed 2 trips.  we got the
baggage ashore in our dinghy and then got a ride for the people.

the boys continued their 2 month europe tour; we headed for zurich where
i gave a talk about DNS and microsofts sins in that regard. my host, fritz,
told the audience (abut 60 people) via email that i liked dark chocolate
with hazelnuts.  they hid a big cardboard box behind a plant and as people
came into the talk, they deposited their chocolate admission ticket in the
box.  at the end of the talk, fritz gave me the box of chocolate, somewhere
between 10 and 20 kilograms.  i ate so much that afternoon that i almost
overdosed on chocolate (if thats possible).  the whole second shelf (of 2)
in my fridge is still full of chocolate. a lifetime supply, thanks fritz.

switzerland was total sticker shock, after coming from portugal and spain
where things are pretty cheap and using wimpy US dollars for currency. but
the infrastructure is awesome, trains, busses run all the time, are ontime,
are efficient, just like it ought to be.

we went to a special restaurant in zurich called blinde ku, which i think
means blind cow, a childrens game like blind mans bluff.  the menu has
3 choices: meat, fish, or vegie.  its run by the blind and you are served
in total darkness.  you have to do everything by feel.  its hard to tell if
you actually filled your fork and when its filled, did you get a big bite,
or no bite. you dont know what to do with your eyes, open them, close them,
some of each.  hard to tell if you cleaned your plate or have some left.
quite an experience, anyone visiting zurich should try it out.  reservations
for dinner require a few months notice but for lunch only a few days.  the
food was excellent.  it was 2 days later that i noticed a giant spill of 
brown gravy (i got the meat) down the front of my shirt.

while in zurich, we also went to see the harry potter 3 movie. in english
with german subtitles.  the new dumbledore seemed marginal, but otherwise
it was fun.  in spain all the movies are dubbed with spanish so all we have
seen is some old charlie chaplin ones with live music, a movie in english
was definitely a treat.  speaking of movies, tobi oetiker, author of mrtg
and rrdtool is at ETH in zurich in fritzes group and has a zillion dvds
that he gets from folks who like and use his software.  so we borrowed
a bunch of movies from tobi's lending library to play back on the boat
with my laptop.  that was weeks ago now and we havent played a single movie.

also while in zurich a care package arrived from bob hein who visited the
boat back in may.  while on the boat he noticed things i didnt have and
made a list.  top of the list was a blackberry.  its a little hand held
cell phone device that does email and web using the cell network.  you 
type with your thumbs on a keyboard better than cell phone keys, but not
quite a 10 finger device.  its wonderful to have email anytime i want it,
to not have to go to internet cafes, and we discovered today that it does
sms text messaging too.  also in the care package was a little hp photo
printer, a soldering gun that will actually heat the wires up enough to
solder them, our favorite biscotti, LED bulbs for my electrical panel
switch indicators, and bunches of other goodies.  thanks bob.

while in zurich we all gained a kilo or two with all the cheese, yogert,
chocolate, etc.  i worked on a new version of my sysadmin book and the
girls were tourists.  good fun.  our tickets home to the boat were before
the care package was to arrive, and before i was finished with my chapters,
so i stayed on a few more days and the girls went back to the boat alone.

day after they got back i got a call, they wanted to sail the boat by 
themselves back to palma and the same anchorage.  i was a meanie and 
said no.  they had sailed as captain for the day before, but never did
everything and on their days as captain were just as likely to snooze
in the cockpit or read their books as glance around and see if we were
on course and not about to hit anything.  they had never sailed as
as though they were in charge and i wasnt there.  when i did get back,
we pretended i wasnt there.  i tried hard not to interfere, but did a few
times: getting off the mooring, when the sails were flogging in light
wind, and anchoring at the other end. anchoring was crazy, it was sunday
afternoon, there were 100 weekend boats anchored in a little bay that
could hold 10 safely, it was blowing, not hard, but definitely blowing,
what a mess.  we ended up tying up to another boat till the daytime crowd
pulled up anchor and went home. the girls found it was hard to do everything.

off to sardinia next.

hugs to all.  need crew to help sail the boat out of the med in the fall
if anyone is interested.  would like to be thru gibraltar by septemberish
or maybe early october.

-evi