Sailing Plan

Okay here is the sailing plan for the rest of the season!
7 may-hamburg for the Harbour Festival
11-16 May in Wismar, Germany doing day sails
23-29 May in WarrenPoint, Ireland for day sails
29 May- 1 June Dublin for a Harbour Festival
10 June Douglas, Isle of Man
20- 28 June Kiel Germany for KIEL WEEK!
3-5 July Wilhelmshaven, Germany
10-17 July Bremerhaven-Helgoland, Germany and back
18-26 July Wismar, Germany
1-7 Aug COWES WEEK!
13-16 Aug Belfast
17-21 Crossing from Belfast to Delfzijl Netherlands
22-24 Aug Delfzijl Netherlands.
I hope if you are in the Area of any of those you will let me know I would love to meet up, maybe bring you sailing. Any dates with a lot of time inbetween are becasue it takes a while to get from one place to another.

STCW and Easter

Sorry for not posting more but I have been very busy. Lets start with the biggest thing first shall we? I am now a certified watch leader for commercial vessels. It only took a four day class filled with fire fighting and gumby suits. The first day included a 30 minute lecture then practical use of fire extingusishers and fire bloankets on real fire. CO2 and Powder extinguishers I know them all. We had to cover a burining body with a fire blanket and the class at that point almost became one less. A unfavorable wind blew the fire right in one ladies face. Only in the Netherlands would they give you a pep talk then expect you to put out real fires. That afternoon it was finding victims in smoke filled rooms with our own oxygen and face maskes. Nothing like getting done with lunch and suiting up to enter smoke so thick you could not see your hand if it was on the eye holes of you mask. The class just kept getting better and better. Next day survival suits in a dutch community center pool complete with life raft. 14 people in full dry suits swimming linked in a strait line with life jackets on probably look really funny. But we had the last laugh, I found out a water slide is great fun in a survival suit. The same lady as before with the fire almost drown, she got stuck under the raft. In the Netherlands two near death experiences only mean one thing, Lets go set off some flares. I tried to get a pool going on her flare saftey but found no takers. The class was good and I passed and that is all that matters. Easter came around very fast. To my unpleasent suprise the Albert Hein had no food colouring so my ship mates did not get a Easter egg hunt. I think they were secretly happy, cause with three masts and a 300 ton boat they would still be searching. I got up and went to find a service at a church and did pretty well. Dutch easter services are classically dutch. I could not help but laugh when a young boy messed up one of the readings, it made me a little homesick. Other than that my time here has been uneventful. We work hard everyday from 8-6 painting and sanding and generally getting the boat ready, some time this week I am told we are to load 200 kegs of beer onboard. Time for bed, love you. Safe and Sound.