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The internet connection at the Marina SUCKS! so no pictures However
We’re OFF!
It was nice to be leaving late in the day. We had all day to get ready to check on things to double check the lists… It gave us a good night sleep, we had all day to worry about stuff so there was no sense loosing a night’s sleep. On the other hand we were ready to go so waiting around all day when we had everything all done was almost painful. We had everything done. The only thing that caused any hitch at all was getting our boarding passes. I tried to get our Air Berlin boarding passes and I didn’t seem to have any of the numbers they were looking for there were about 5 codes on the E-ticket that seemed to fit the window they wanted but after trying three of them none seemed to get me anywhere. After wasting a half hour to try to get tickets I realized the airport is about 5 minutes away so it was time to drive over and let them do the work.
Fredericton is NOT a busy airport. We walked directly up to the counter and gave the guy the eticket and asked if we could check-in. No problem we got all checked in and he gave us two boarding passes. None for the Air Berlin. When we asked about it Air Berlin was not in their system and he had no record of the flight and he couldn’t help us. Back to the house.
The fifth try at anything that looked like a flight ticket code cracked the case. We had our boarding passes on Air Berlin. Great! IT would have been nice if I had have tried all the codes before going to the airport but we have what we need.
We spent a few more hours waiting for the Paul to come get us. Paul our next door neighbour was going to take us to the airport.
We did a few more walks around the house looking for things to do, with little luck. Bonnie started weeding the garden. I caught up on a bit of reading.
Earlier in the day the ship carrying Odelia had stopped dead in the water in the middle of a shipping lane and coasted south at less than 0.5 of a knot for 6 hours. NOT what I needed to be watching, I didn’t want to bother either Bonnie or Rick with this news. Fortunately they are underway again just 500 NM from Tivat at their cruising speed of 15 knots. They will not arrive in Tivat until after we arrive. So we will be able to help Rick and Tsipy unload Odelia.
It is full tourist season in Tivat and Rick and Tsipy were not able to extend their reservation at the current hotel (or get us a reservation). Fortunately the manager was able to get us a place at another hotel. We get to share a room until Odelia is afloat and ready for passengers. Great for us.
We are sitting at the Fredericton Airport watching the rain. Tivat’s weather http://www.wunderground.com/weather-forecast/M4/Tivat.html says the next week in Tivat is Low 30s sunny and clear for the next 7 days. Can’t wait!
We left Fredericton on time and that was a concern as both the Halifax and Toronto flights were delayed arriving. We only had an hour and eight minute connection in Montreal to catch the Lufthansa flight. We were really concerned when we landed and they dropped us at the little building out in the middle of the tarmac. We had to work our way through that building go underground to the moving sidewalks and then up into the main terminal. From there we had to go the full length of Montreal airport to get to gate 61 where the Lufthansa flight was boarding. It wasn’t really the full length of the Montreal airport there is a gate 62 that was on the other side of the glass wall.
We got to gate 61 and the seating area was pretty much full, and after sitting around all day and looking forward to sitting on a plane all night. Standing for a few minutes didn’t seem like a bad idea. We looked at our tickets and we were row 46 D and E. A plane that big, they board by row numbers and we had to be one of the first ones on, there can’t be many more than 46 rows. As a matter of fact there were 46 rows, “Back of the bus!” thanks Mr. Fredericton ticket agent. My fault I should have done the boarding passes at the house. Lesson learned.
Day 2
The Seven Stars Yacht Transport people told us we were the first ones off the Speilgelgraht and we should be a the Marina office at 7am. We were picked up and taken across a ferry and down to the customs dock. The Customs people did not want us in their compound so we went across the street for a coffee while the broker figured out what was going on. After a while the Load Masteress (the person in charge of the unloading of the ship, happened to be a woman, we teased that at least she wasn’t the load dominatrix and she smile “No, that’s my evening occupation!” She might have been teased about that before!
We were tucked between the superstructure of the ship and the large bunks supporting other ships. The bunks were about 12 feet up. We were able to board by ladder and check things out. Things appeared to be all in good shape. We got off and they started lifting the boat. Odelia had to be the trickiest boat to unload as it was in such tight quarters. They moved her out without a hitch and when she was level to the deck of the cargo ship ( about 30 feet above the water) Rick and I boarded by stepping from the rail of the cargo ship onto the toe rail of Odelia and climbed up over the handrail and we were on board. Looking down was not a good option, as we were about 30 feet above the water with no net, and no harness.
Once we were down they continued to drop the straps and work them forward (pulling us back) once the straps were clear we started the engines and moved off slowly. The engines worked fine but the generator refused to start. Once we were tied to the customs wharf we waited for the customs officials. While we were waiting we tried to diagnose the generator problem, something was disconnected, once we had that dc beaker on the generator started without an issue. So far the only problem is with the boarding ladder used off the stern to make it to the dock. The second extension isn’t extending. So it is about a foot short of the dock at the moment. Not a big problem. Rick and I will play tomorrow to see if we can diagnose the problem.
After we finally got the customs people to come on board. Normally the boats have a pretty easy passage today every boat was to go to the customs dock to be boarded and inspected. Five police and customs guys came on board. I think three of them did nothing but babysit me.
Once we were cleared by customs and we went to the Porto Montenagro marina. Beautiful place. The boat was pretty dirty from the trip so once we were tied up we started washing. We changed into T-shirts and swim suits and washed the boat. Every so often I would take the hose and stick it under my T-shirt and soak myself top and bottom including my hat. IT is VERY HOT here. Mid 30s at least.
We went out to supper and did a grocery run.
The internet connection at the Marina SUCKS! so no pictures However
We’re OFF!
It was nice to be leaving late in the day. We had all day to get ready to check on things to double check the lists… It gave us a good night sleep, we had all day to worry about stuff so there was no sense loosing a night’s sleep. On the other hand we were ready to go so waiting around all day when we had everything all done was almost painful. We had everything done. The only thing that caused any hitch at all was getting our boarding passes. I tried to get our Air Berlin boarding passes and I didn’t seem to have any of the numbers they were looking for there were about 5 codes on the E-ticket that seemed to fit the window they wanted but after trying three of them none seemed to get me anywhere. After wasting a half hour to try to get tickets I realized the airport is about 5 minutes away so it was time to drive over and let them do the work.
Fredericton is NOT a busy airport. We walked directly up to the counter and gave the guy the eticket and asked if we could check-in. No problem we got all checked in and he gave us two boarding passes. None for the Air Berlin. When we asked about it Air Berlin was not in their system and he had no record of the flight and he couldn’t help us. Back to the house.
The fifth try at anything that looked like a flight ticket code cracked the case. We had our boarding passes on Air Berlin. Great! IT would have been nice if I had have tried all the codes before going to the airport but we have what we need.
We spent a few more hours waiting for the Paul to come get us. Paul our next door neighbour was going to take us to the airport.
We did a few more walks around the house looking for things to do, with little luck. Bonnie started weeding the garden. I caught up on a bit of reading.
Earlier in the day the ship carrying Odelia had stopped dead in the water in the middle of a shipping lane and coasted south at less than 0.5 of a knot for 6 hours. NOT what I needed to be watching, I didn’t want to bother either Bonnie or Rick with this news. Fortunately they are underway again just 500 NM from Tivat at their cruising speed of 15 knots. They will not arrive in Tivat until after we arrive. So we will be able to help Rick and Tsipy unload Odelia.
It is full tourist season in Tivat and Rick and Tsipy were not able to extend their reservation at the current hotel (or get us a reservation). Fortunately the manager was able to get us a place at another hotel. We get to share a room until Odelia is afloat and ready for passengers. Great for us.
We are sitting at the Fredericton Airport watching the rain. Tivat’s weather http://www.wunderground.com/weather-forecast/M4/Tivat.html says the next week in Tivat is Low 30s sunny and clear for the next 7 days. Can’t wait!
We left Fredericton on time and that was a concern as both the Halifax and Toronto flights were delayed arriving. We only had an hour and eight minute connection in Montreal to catch the Lufthansa flight. We were really concerned when we landed and they dropped us at the little building out in the middle of the tarmac. We had to work our way through that building go underground to the moving sidewalks and then up into the main terminal. From there we had to go the full length of Montreal airport to get to gate 61 where the Lufthansa flight was boarding. It wasn’t really the full length of the Montreal airport there is a gate 62 that was on the other side of the glass wall.
We got to gate 61 and the seating area was pretty much full, and after sitting around all day and looking forward to sitting on a plane all night. Standing for a few minutes didn’t seem like a bad idea. We looked at our tickets and we were row 46 D and E. A plane that big, they board by row numbers and we had to be one of the first ones on, there can’t be many more than 46 rows. As a matter of fact there were 46 rows, “Back of the bus!” thanks Mr. Fredericton ticket agent. My fault I should have done the boarding passes at the house. Lesson learned.
Day 2
The Seven Stars Yacht Transport people told us we were the first ones off the Speilgelgraht and we should be a the Marina office at 7am. We were picked up and taken across a ferry and down to the customs dock. The Customs people did not want us in their compound so we went across the street for a coffee while the broker figured out what was going on. After a while the Load Masteress (the person in charge of the unloading of the ship, happened to be a woman, we teased that at least she wasn’t the load dominatrix and she smile “No, that’s my evening occupation!” She might have been teased about that before!
We were tucked between the superstructure of the ship and the large bunks supporting other ships. The bunks were about 12 feet up. We were able to board by ladder and check things out. Things appeared to be all in good shape. We got off and they started lifting the boat. Odelia had to be the trickiest boat to unload as it was in such tight quarters. They moved her out without a hitch and when she was level to the deck of the cargo ship ( about 30 feet above the water) Rick and I boarded by stepping from the rail of the cargo ship onto the toe rail of Odelia and climbed up over the handrail and we were on board. Looking down was not a good option, as we were about 30 feet above the water with no net, and no harness.
Once we were down they continued to drop the straps and work them forward (pulling us back) once the straps were clear we started the engines and moved off slowly. The engines worked fine but the generator refused to start. Once we were tied to the customs wharf we waited for the customs officials. While we were waiting we tried to diagnose the generator problem, something was disconnected, once we had that dc beaker on the generator started without an issue. So far the only problem is with the boarding ladder used off the stern to make it to the dock. The second extension isn’t extending. So it is about a foot short of the dock at the moment. Not a big problem. Rick and I will play tomorrow to see if we can diagnose the problem.
After we finally got the customs people to come on board. Normally the boats have a pretty easy passage today every boat was to go to the customs dock to be boarded and inspected. Five police and customs guys came on board. I think three of them did nothing but babysit me.
Once we were cleared by customs and we went to the Porto Montenagro marina. Beautiful place. The boat was pretty dirty from the trip so once we were tied up we started washing. We changed into T-shirts and swim suits and washed the boat. Every so often I would take the hose and stick it under my T-shirt and soak myself top and bottom including my hat. IT is VERY HOT here. Mid 30s at least.
We went out to supper and did a grocery run.