15.27N 064.31W 3rd June 2011
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Fri 3 Jun 2011 12:13
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Pretty slow progress over the past 24 hours. Most
of yesterday we struggled to keep up any real momentum in winds falling to as
low as 3 knots at times. The wind picked up in the early hours of this
morning to around 10 knots and is still blowing at that speed from around 30
degrees off our stern on the port side.
Despite the lack of wind last night was stunning.
If you lay on your back at the helm station of a Lipari you can rest your legs
on the hardtop bimini and look past the masthead as you count the stars. I made
it to about a zillion last night but lost count when I had to check that we were
not going to be run over by a ship doing 20 knots! Maths has never
been a strenghth of mine though.
I have heard that our agent Gregor Tarjan has
posted information on our blog on his E-newsletter, which goes out to several
thousand of his clients. To anyone who has checked the blog through the
newsletter, welcome aboard Mojo 2!!
Being Australians there is one thing I need to
explain. You will see the occasional reference to the "Eagles" and " Dockers".
These are both teams from Western Australia that play in the Australian Football
League. It is a uniquely Australian sport where you catch and kick a rugby
shaped ball, score goals and try to physically destroy the opposition
players. That about sums it up!!
I should also at this point mention my
experiences with Gregor Tarjan of Aeroyacht Ltd.
The first time I had contact with Gregor was
via email from Australia to his base in New York. I made some enquiries over
several emails and he replied to them on the same day, if not within the hour.
Eventually he invited my wife Jane and I over to La Rochelle in France to meet
with him and take a tour of the factory. In December 2010 we met Gregor at the
Le Yachtman Hotel in La Rochelle at precisely 9.00AM as we had arranged .
We spent the best part of the day with him as he took us through the
factory where the Lipari's are built and introduced us to the co-founder of the
company Jean Francois Fountaine. Later in the day we visited the marina office
where we were able to take an extended look at a Lipari. We were going to take
one for a sail but the weather was freezing and there was little wind. Jane and
I were quite glad of this because for a couple of Aussies it was bitterly cold,
our teeth would have been chattering if they had not already been frozen
together. We of course ordered the boat and wired funds [a little nervously] to
the other side of the world as payments became due. Gregor always confirmed that
the funds had been received. Eventually the boat was finished and ready for
delivery in La Rochelle. Gregor again met us and took us through the new boat we
had purchased. In the end he was with us for 4-5 days and helped us by driving
us to the shopping centres to buy provisions, as well as the chandlery stores to
oufit the boat. On his last night with us he took us out for a memorable meal at
a fabulous local restaurant. Gregor was a terrific guy to do business with
and I would do so again in the blink of an eye. He was thoroughly
professional in everything that he did for us over several months and I now
consider him as a friend as much as an agent. This means we have
free accommodation with him anytime we are in New York.[ Relax Gregor, I am
49 years of age and am yet to visit New York, so you are pretty
safe!!!].
Jane has confirmed that our son Robert will be
flying into Aruba on the 7th June to come sailing with us. I haven't seen any
of my family now for 2 months so it will be great to have him aboard.
He will be with us until Panama and after that is going to spend some time
in Europe before heading home.
As I finish this blog we are around 340NM from
Aruba and the wind is still blowing behind us at over 10 knots.
Yeeha!!
Andrew Partington
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