CHARLIE'S Greek ship's document

This waterlogged document is supposed to represent CHARLIE as we travel in and out of Greek harbors and when we cross international borders. It lists all the dimensions, the name of the insurance company, the motor details, the weight, manufacturer and other details. It is in the Greek language, with minimum English words. In order to be given this document, you have to go to the office of the Coast Guard, present all your papers, including passport, and manufacturer's documents. Of course, we didn't have all the papers, but we made things up, for example, the name of the harbor master of the home mooring in Amsterdam. Now, CHARLIE has a Dutch flag, but is, in fact, permanently moored in Greece. The European Union rules allow this, but the manner in which the rules are defined and enforced is left up to individual Coast Guard officers. This is a gray area and we slide easily through the red tape. At the bottom left, you can see the 12 stamps from the Coast Guard in Kavala. This particular document was so waterlogged that we had to buy a new one when we travelled to Turkey. Paperwork is a big issue when you travel to foreign harbors, and my brother and I have written about this in the magazine LATITUDES AND ATTITUDES.

CHARLIE up on the blocks and Peter in Keramoti shipyard

In April, 2006, Peter joined us for a sail on CHARLIE to Samothraki, but the boat was still up on the land having a few holes in the hull cut out and new pieces of steel welded in. The hull is in remarkably good shape after 29 years of life in salt waters. You can see the round hole in the blue at the bow, which houses the bow thruster. You can alse see clearly the meter and a half bow sprit with the two jibs. CHARLIE was designed for Dutch waters, especially the Isselmeer(the inland fresh water sea in Holland) and the idea was that if the ship ran into trouble, it could be motored directly up on the beach and the passengers could step off the bowsprit. There has been a lot of rusting around the points where the bowsprit attaches to the body of the ship, but this is now repaired. The photo also shows the work terrain at Keramoti beach. Peter is unloading material for the summer. We didn't sail, but we had a good vacation anyway.

harbormaster in Canakkele, Turkey

This man greeted CHARLIE when we first tied up in Turkey. We were flying the "Q" flag for the health officer, but the harbormaster started shouting, "My friends, my friends, lower the flag NOW! My friends, quickly." It was a strange request, but I did lower the flag, which is completely against international law. After the boat was tied up, he told me that it was a difficult and long process to obtain the proper ships' papers, BUT, that he had a friend who was a ship's agent and "for only Euro 100., would do all the work for us." We agreed, and he organized the whole affair for us. We had to pay him for the mooring position, for the water and for the shower. He was friendly, but we definitely had the feeling that we were being charged for too many extras. As we were drinking a coffee, another sailboat entered the harbor. It was flying a Ukranian flag, and had two families on board. There were two men, three women, and a couple of kids. These people had made a great voyage from the Ukraine all the way through the Bosporus, the sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles to arrive at Canakkele. We stood there to applaud them. The harbormaster came out of his office. Other sailors looked up. Then we noticed that the boat was going rather fast. Too fast. The harbormaster began to shout and wave his arms. The people on their boats next to the empty slip began to shout. We began to shout. The people on the boat began to shout at the man behind the wheel. He didn't pay any attention. The boat entered the slip too fast and smacked into the railing of the sailboat next to it. It hit the dock so hard that the people on board were thrown around. The harbormaster was hysterical and angry. After money changed hands and a couple of bottles of wine were handed out, things calmed down, but we said to ourselves that our planned trip to the Ukraine might be a bit more risky than we thought. We never made it, because the European Union had a huge meeting in Istanbul and the Bosporus was closed for three days. Too bad I guess.

Turkish "kaiki" in Canakkele Harbor

All over Turkey and in the northern Aegen of Greece, this type of boat is typical. It is a kaiki and the first one we saw was outside of Athens before we went through the Corinth Canal. They are wooden, and very lovely. Mostly used for tourists now, they are traditionally coastal ships. Wide, deep and very roomy inside. We were invited in for tea by a skipper in Atakoy Marina in Istanbul. They are still being built and are expensive, but lovely to see on the water.

Sergei watching the fishermen on Galatay Bridge in Istanbul

We took the Asian ferry to cross the Bosporus and came upon a group of men fishing from the high walkway. What they did was load up a fishing rod with 10-15 fish hooks with NO bait. They would flip the line into the water and with a single flip, they would bring the line quickly to the land. From the hooks, there might be one or two or ten little sardines flailing around. They would quickly unhook the fish into a bucket and then, flip-flip all over again like a flash. A few seconds was all it took. The catch was walked over to some restaurant boats tied to the wall. There was a cook standing outside the boat behind a charcoal barbeque. He was quickly grilling the fish and the waiters were carrying them into the restaurant for the customers to eat. It was fascinating to see the speed of the fishermen, the speed of the cooks and the delicious smell of the fish. We ate sardines(it was not really a sardine, but we never found out the real name) with our fingers with bread and cold beer. Delicious!