Germany December 2015

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Thu 31 Dec 2015 00:00

Monday 14 December 2015

A New Blog

Gentle Readers, welcome back to my blog. I know it’s been some time since I last reported my sailing and travel doings. Actually it’s been over four years. Things got a little busy from 2011 to 2015 while Heike and I ran a training business in Berlin and I had no time for writing anything I didn’t have to. Although we had lots of travel during this time. Alas, the stories are unrecorded except in photographs. 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

According to the photos it seems like in 2011 we got to San Marino and Venice parking Graptolite up in a marina near there. Then we spent some weeks in New York and St Louis getting to grips with the new business with side trips to Cape Cod and Nantucket. This was followed by a convention in San Diego with side trips to Las Vegas and Monument Valley.

 

Taking us into 2012 we had a cruise from San Diego (again) down the Baja California coast of Mexico to Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Then through the Panama Canal to Cartagena and then north ending up at Miami Beach. 2012 saw us back in Venice then Budapest and a 4WD drive around Iceland. The annual DC convention took us to Honolulu but we spent some weeks afterwards touring most of the other Hawaiian islands. 

 

2013 took us a number of times to the UAE - Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Fujairah for both work and pleasure. Also to Oman and Qatar. Later in the year was a convention in Malaga, Spain with side trips to Granada and Gibraltar.

 

2014 saw us in Stockholm and again in Venice. The big-boat cruising this year was Buenos Aires to Montevideo then to Port Stanley in the Falkland Isles and on to Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, through the Beagle Channel, round Cape Horn to Valparaiso and Santiago. This was followed by a quick flight to Easter Island. For business we got to Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan and then to Bahrain where we did some pearl diving.

 

New Year 2015 saw us cruising the Danube through Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest (again). In the Spring we went to Marrakesh then to Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands scouting out a wedding venue. In May we were back there for the big event. We didn’t bother with a honeymoon as there was both nowhere left to go and no money to do it with.

 

Tuesday 15 December 2015 Rostock, Germany

Orange Survivor

It seems as though most big changes of direction in my life start with my wearing orange suits. Usually of the survival type - not Guantanomo style. Heike and I are based for the next week in a floating hotel in Rostock on the Baltic coast of Germany. This is a training course (Schifffahrtsschule) for firefighting and marine safety that Heike needs to be in command on cruise ships. The course is not obligatory for stowaways like me so I’m just going to the fun bits and in any case I’ve done this stuff before in former lives. Today was spent bobbing around in a freezing cold Baltic Sea learning how to survive. These suits are very comfortable to float in. Like an inside out waterbed. All is sensory deprivation as the hood makes it very difficult to hear anything. Especially important instructions barked in German. Anyway we all survived.  

 

Wednesday 16 December 2015 Rostock, Germany

Freefall to Safety

The first fun bit today was escaping the dockside by sliding down the inside of a 10m long orange tube hanging over the water. It feels a bit like being eaten and digested by a giant worm. After being squeezed out of the other end I sat down next to the other excrement in the raft below. After dark we were strapped in to a freefall lifeboat to do the same journey at 9.8m/sec/sec. If this was a ride at an amusement park it would be very popular. Unfortunately though only the driver gets to see out of the window at the water rushing up and the big splash. After a little pootle around with each of us driving the lifeboat we hoisted it back up in its cradle ready for the next class.

 

Thursday 17 December 2015 Rostock, Germany

Fischbrötchen

I spent the morning in Warnmunde tracking down a gift and flowers for the class to give to Birte the course trainer. Warnemunde was much more pleasant than I expected and not tacky at all. In the heart of the town is a branch of the Warnow river called the Alter Strom and is lined with fishing boats selling Fischbrötchen and Glühwein. I took H back there in the evening and we had a stroll on the promenade and sampled the aforesaid Fischbrötchen and Glühwein. Peering over the dunes, the beach looked excellent, as far as we could tell in the dark. Doubtless in daylight it is covered in naked sandy Ossies huddled in their Strandkorbs so December in the dark is maybe the best time for visiting. Later we went back to Rostock to stroll the Weihnachtsmarkt there.

 

Friday 18 December 2015 Rostock, Germany

Stasi Reception

In the morning I drove H and three classmates to the office downtown Rostock and then I had a gallop around getting some urgent files printed, signed, scanned and emailed. Job done, I went to have a look at an old Stasi prison for a bit of light relief. I was expecting something a bit like a museum with a ticket desk and a gift shop but there was nothing. Not even people. Nobody at all. I pushed open the creaky door and crept in then wandered in and out of some cells. Three floors of them. It was all very spooky. Then I crept out. Something I’m sure many former guests would have envied.

 

For lunch I went back to Warnemunde for another Fischbrötchen. The seagulls had anticipated this and were waiting. They swooped down as I bit into my lunch. There was a clatter of beaks followed by an ear-piercing squawk (which might have been me, come to think of it) but when the feathers had settled I was still holding on. I calmed my nerves with another Glühwein.

 

Saturday 19 December 2015 Schulzendorf, Germany

Naval Outfitting

Some more training for H in Rostock and then a quick dash to Hamburg to have her fitted out with tropical whites and dress uniform. Then back to Berlin.

 

Saturday 19 – Wednesday 23 December 2015 Schulzendorf, Germany

Selling Up & Sailing Away

We got a good price selling our training business and celebrated with some champagne left over from our wedding. Cleared up some heaps of leaves from outside the house as it was getting embarrassing.

 

Thursday 24 December 2015 Schulzendorf, Germany

A Goose for Christmas

German Christmas Day dinner was at H’s sister Micki’s together with Franz and his mother Charlotte. Fabio showed us his video from the wedding. There are some hilarious parts set to the Benny Hill theme tune. Excellent work for a kid. We need to organise a Premier for the wedding guests. Dinner was the usual Christmas goose. We all sat around the table looking at this goose like Pathology students discussing a burn victim.

 

A very emotive Christmas singalong followed with Micky on the accordion and Franz on keyboard. They are so civilized here in Germany. “Silent Night”, or “Stille Nacht” as they call it, brought to mind the Christmas Truce on the Western Front of 1914. Some things don’t change much over one hundred years. The Germans were musically much the best and the British merely distinguished themselves by joining in and drinking a lot.    

 

Friday 25 December 2015 Schulzendorf, Germany

Another Christmas Another Goose

British Christmas Day had a lazy start then a few family phone calls. Another goose the size of a Labrador is in the oven. Got to get a turkey for next year.

 

Saturday 26 December 2015 Schulzendorf, Germany

Packing

Nothing much. Packing for trip.