Graptolite - Sail Drive to Italy
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 23 Mar 2011 20:24
Son Tom was over for Half-Term with us in Berlin. We had a Sunday brunch and
a bit of archery at an outdoor training place on a lake southwest of Berlin.
We also did the big TV Tower in Alexanderplatz and a good few cool
restaurants around the town which I've forgotten the names of.
Last week I put the car on the Autozug at Berlin-Wannsee and went down to
Munich overnight then drove over the snowy Brenner Pass into Austria then
Italy and on down to Rimini. I was carrying "new" sails that have lived for
years in Mike and Jacqui's garage in Surrey and our basement in Berlin. This
has been the first time that the boat has been within driving distance since
2007 and all the stuff too big for airline hand-luggage has finally made the
connection.
Last weekend we had three regional sales managers from Heiki's office over
for a bit of "skipper training" before a bigger event for 60-odd people on
the Baltic that Heiki is organizing. Erik from Denmark and Stephan and
Martin from Germany were good company and can all now tie bowlines. We
sailed north to the fishing port of Cesenatico for an overnight stay.
Leonardo da Vinci designed the canal port apparently and there is a nice
floating museum of old Adriatic fishing boats. Returning to Rimini was a bit
rough and there was a grand finale nail-biting surf into the harbour. It was
sunny though and everyone was pink of face and fairly happy, I think.
Yesterday, Monday, I drove Heiki to Milan to get a flight back to do some
work in Germany. We stopped off on the way for a quick climb over the
castles and scenery of San Marino. I drove back here to Rimini this
afternoon. We've got a big trip coming up in April and I have to clean the
boat.
M