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.