Art for Art's sake.

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Fri 22 May 2009 05:31
Wed 20th May
Bit of a nothing day really with quite a strong wind blowing all day so we
got various things done on board and spent a bit of time sorting things out
on the internet and in town.
In the early evening the wind got up strongly again and about the time it
was gusting 35 knots here in the marina (we had white horses inside the
marina!) we saw two yachts outside the main harbour heading in for refuge,
one (Danish) struggling upwind into the rough seas and the second (Greek
registered) running downwind. They both converged on the harbour entrance
and the Greek one headed straight into the marina where a number of us
emerged into the now driving rain and spray, to take their lines.
Just before this, one of the big ferries had to leave and it was impressive
watching it pass through the harbour entrance and turn into the storm,
fighting to make the turn against the walls of white topped waves and spume.

We decided at this point that our bimini was not going to survive these
winds and so planned to get it down in the next lull. As it happens this
turned out well, but certainly was an exercise best not attempted in such
conditions! We then put up our 'winter' cover/tent and had a very peaceful
night.

Thursday 21st May
Most of us (we all seem to use different forecasting services) agree that
this should be the final full day of this blow and so we chose to get a taxi
and visit the Teriade Museum which houses an impressive collection of 'Grand
Livres' and the original artist's proofs for the lithographs that appeared
in the books. These include substantial amounts of works by Picasso,
Matisse, Chagall, Miro, Giacometti, Henri Laurens (Sarah most impressed by
the last two) and Le Corbusier (yes, he was an artist as well as architect).
But we have to admit that the guide did indicate rather more in the
collectible paintings direction than lithographs....!

In the afternoon Sarah set about planning for the next few weeks cruising in
Turkey whilst I started the modification (with at least two phone calls to
'the Robert Forsdike' helpline in Ipswich, thank you Robert) to our engine
room ventilation system, which entails putting the fan system onto a
thermostat basis rather than just the ignition switch arrangement supplied.
(Swedes don't get to deal with these sorts of temperatures too often!)

Wind got up further in the evening again, which is pretty much the opposite
of what is supposed to happen out here but hopefully this is the end of it
all for a while!