Odds and Ends

Okay, there are a few things I need to write about, part of our current life, but not really related to each other.

First, there is the "Mario Mystery".
Wherever we go on an overnight trip, there is heavy use of channel 16 for some weird stuff. Some people seem to be so bored, they need to sing into channel 16. Mind you, it's the emergency channel over here, too. But the weirdest thing of all is the Mario Mystery! Regardless of where we are, there is this guy, who seems to want to scare you by using this dark, ominous, scary voice calling "Maaaaarioooooo", oooohhhh!!! The weird thing is, he's always where we are during an overnight crossing. How can that be???? A real mystery. Who's Mario anyway?!!!

Second, it's really interesting how some crews dock their boat. The best so far was in Palma, when the lady, the only crew member besides the skipper, was obviously instructed to "throw the line to the shore". That's what she did, literally, and ALL of it - which means it was not attached to the boat. You should have seen the face of the person catching the line! Hilarious!
The second best was today, where the boat with three or four guys seemed to have ended up in a spot instead of getting into the spot they aimed at. Again, the line was not attached to the boat, but at least the guy on the boat held tight at his end of it. On tops of that, many fenders were missing and the ones they had out where way too high. Oh, my. Really, never get your boat into a charter fleet.

Thirdly, although it's actually a pretty sad thing, but latest summer fashion for guys in Italy are.... Speedos!!! Everywhere. Can't help noticing, really, I tried....

And here some more pictures, also at random, I just missed to publish them earlier.

Buying baguettes in the Provence. Guess we got enough...

Rolf caught this tuna on an overnight trip. Woke me up at 7:30am, exactly half and
hour before my next shift started. I was not impressed, to say the least, as my last shift
had ended at 4am. Will have some tuna tataki soon.
PS: Rolf didn't dare to catch any more fish after that. But, pst, I have forgiven him.

Arrived in Roccella Ionica today. Staying here for 20EUR/night, unbelievable!!! Paid 120EUR last night.
Had 1m of pizza tonight, yes, that makes 3 feet of pizza. Pretty good stuff as per recommendation of the
Italian pilot book. And dirt cheap! 32EUR for the dinner for three, including drinks and leftovers for tomorrow!!!

Provence - Corsica - Sardinia - Ustica

We spent a few wonderful days with Karina's family in the Provence. What a little piece of paradise her parents have created! What a great time we had!

time to relax and take pictures

a wonderful evening

beautiful lavender fields

in the olive tree garden

trying lavender ice cream

Kenza, Awa, Rocio, Karina and Gonzalo

I could add tons of pictures of Rocio and Kenza to this blog, they are so sweet.
But one picture each must do... so here's Rocio

...and Kenza

After the Provence, we went back to Corsica, where we spent a few very nice days at Balistro Bay. Perfect place: water refreshing, days hot, nights cool. I went swimming every day. Also spent a wonderful day with my cousin Marco and his family who happened to spend their vacation in Corsica at the same time. Hey, Marco, need some pictures for the blog! :-)

As we now have to head for Corfu to pick up Martina and Hanna beginning of August, we had to say "so long" to the Kazaio Crew. Reunion planned for in about 4 weeks. After another overnight trip from Sardinia to Uscita, we are currently moored in this delightful little village:

Arriving after in Uscita after an overnight trip

Going for a walk in Uscita

Finding great fruit as well as tomatoes for my Gazpacho, just no cucumber...

Going towards France with Kazaio

Yep, it's that hot ;-) 

Gonzalo catches an octopus with a harpoon

Kenza and Rocio having lots of fun

Another fun dinner together
clockwise: Karina, Kenza, Rocio, Gonzalo, Rolf, Kim

Hello from France!

Wow, last post says we are going to Sardinia, so, now, how did we end up in France??!! Easy: on the way to the North of Sardinia, we started thinking: Why are we not meeting up with the crew from Kazaio, which had let us know that they were in the South of Corsica, so just around the corner. We are always having so much fun when together, so that little detour would be really worth it. Besides, we had found and bought a 5kg (!) Nutella jar for Gonzalo in Bonifacio a while ago, and it just waited to be handed over to its rightful owner.
Well, and from there we decided to just tag along and go up North along the East coast of Corsica. And then Gonzalo mentioned that he needs the Lagoon dealer to look at his boat and that that will happen in France, near Hyère to be precise. And because our wind instruments are still acting up, seems they like excessive heat about as much as I do, we again decided to tag along to have our stuff looked at, too. After all, we've had those instruments replaced two times already, still not reliable :-(.
After another eventless overnight trip from Corsica - just the way we like it! - we are now about half way between Marseille and Cannes, where we will leave the boat for three days (and the cat with lots of food, water and options to shit ;-)...), rent a car, stay in a hotel, visit Karina's parents and explore the Provence together. First time away from the not-so-new home! We are all really looking forward to exploring the area with somebody who knows their way around. Thanks, Kazaio crew, for enduring us for such a long time :-)!!!