Back on board again

Whangarei, 5 March 2009

Hi again!

 

We spent Christmas and the New Year with my family in Germany and have been back on the boat since 17 February.  Surprisingly the cold in Germany didn't really bother us and spending time with old friends was as good as always.  But my, how much everything has changed!  The Germany in my mind doesn't really exist any more.  It is very clearly something of the distant past.  While my musician- and hippie-friends live their life pretty much as always, the same can't be said of everyone.  Our area always had high unemployment, but this time almost everyone of my old acquaintances in the village where I grew up is unemployed.  As most of them are around 50 years of age, it doesn't look as if they will find steady jobs in the future.  Pretty scary.  Prices are very high and the regulations, taxes, social costs and so on are absolutely stifling. 

 

We had thought of maybe returning to my home country after our sailing life is over, but now we are pretty sure that this option is not for us.  It makes a lot more sense to aim for Vietnam, China, Taiwan or some such.  So, again, we come to the same conclusion... 

 

Aurora Ulani picked up German at such an amazing speed, that she truly is trilingual now.  Now we "just" have to keep it that way.  She built a snowman, went sled-riding and had snowball-fights.  She enjoyed the company of her cousins tremendously.  We are no longer worried that she might have trouble with "socialization".  It simply isn't an issue for her - as for almost all boat-kids. 

 

It was with mixed feelings that we boarded the Emirates flight to Auckland.  On the one hand I have truly become a stranger in my home country and on the other hand there is so much to repair on board that sometimes I feel close to giving up this life of "permanent vacation"  (Ha!  Ha!) ... 

 

Having all the repairs done in Whangarei is out of the question, as the cost structure here is ludicrous.  As a result many companies here did not survive the current unpleasantness and have had to declare bankruptcy.  Selling the boat is not really an option either, as the world financial crisis has not left too much money in the pockets of potential buyers.  It truly is a buyers' market for boats here.  I know of four boats in this small yard alone which are for sale.  This only leaves us with one real option - and that is to forge on. 

 

Repair essentials, take the boat to Asia and have it fixed properly there.  If we can't sell it there either, we might move on to celebrate my 50th birthday in Madagascar (hopefully things have calmed down there by then).  But in general we are looking forward to opening up another language school in Asia and to start earning money again.  We don't want to wait too long, so that we won't have enough starting capital or where setting up a company might be too difficult for other reasons. 

 

A friend helped me a lot, so that the sail-drives are OK again and our current project is the replacement of bearings and seals for the wind-generator.  I set up the radio modem successfully, so that we will have eMail on the high seas.  Right now we can't do too much, as the second storm in a week is making work outside impossible.  I have cut off our anchor, so that I can have it and the chain re-galvanized. 
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Posted By The Captain to The Voyage of the DHARMA BUM III at 3/20/2009 04:59:00 PM