FYI: as a reminder to myself, the next time I travel to Europe, I need to remember to get a credit card that uses a PIN instead of requiring a signature. After finally locating a gas station yesterday, it had no attendant and would only take a credit card that uses a PIN (apparently). I even tried my VISA debit card but it wouldn't take that either. Lesson learned (if I remember it).
-Greg
Friday, July 7, 2017
Homeward bound
I was woken up by my alarm at 5:30am from a really deep sleep. I had gone to sleep around midnight; this was my longest uninterrupted sleep in a month. Man that felt great! What a luxury. Best sleep ever!
I rifled through my luggage for awhile and jettisoned all non-essentials as I had researched the cost of overweight baggage ($250each). Since I had weighed by bags the prior day I knew I had to shed weight in one bag and I was still carrying a 5th bag that I knew I needed to lose since checking a 3rd bag would be $300 and I already knew my 2nd checked bag was going to cost $100. I continued to put anything small and heavy in my backpack which was already pregnant and overdue:-)
Next I had to shuttle my baggage downstairs as it was impossible to carry everything at once without breaking into an immediate sweat. Fortunately no one lugged a bag off while I was getting the remainder.
I almost left the hotel without formally checking out as I sometimes do in the US, but fortunately I took the time to stop at the front desk. Apparently that's the custom as they needed my credit card to complete the checkout process.
I got lost driving to the airport as the map I was following for the area near the airport was from prior to the airport reconstruction. I could see the control tower but couldn't find the rental car return. I even found the offsite lot where they process the rental cars but it was not for returns. Try as I might, I could not find a sign that said "rental car return" just a whole lotta signs in some foreign language. Someone was not thinking of me when they designed this place. Eventually I drove by a parking ramp and recognized the logo of the rental car company, EuropCar. Voilà! Merci beaucoup!!
I checked in my little Fiat and relieved it of its heavy burden. Fortunately there was a trolley cart nearby so I could exercise my balancing act once again.
I eventually found the correct terminal for Lufthansa and a super-helpful gate agent. We weighed my bags. 23Kg for one (the limit) and 23.5 for the other. She said it was good. Wow! I had been prepared to go through another quick weight-loss process right there on the airport floor so fortunately I was spared that exercise. Then she did a double take on my first flight and said there was insufficient room for a second carry-on. She would have to take one of my carry-ons and check it. No charge!
Things are looking up as this bag definitely wouldn't fit in any carry-on sizing gadget so I was going to have to hope along the way that no one gave me a hard time about it. Of course, my backpack won't fit in one of those either but I've never had gate personnel stop me for a backpack before.
So that just left me and my backpack to go through security. Of course there are lots of people in this serpentine line where icons show to put certain types of items the ubiquitous plastic trays. Of course almost everything in my backpack qualifies for removal. I took out my two laptops, a camera and a few other items to put up a good show of effort but the security lady that was placing the items into the scanner just frowned disapprovingly mumbled something in French then because she didn't know what else to do, out my bag through. I walked through and watched the agent review the X-ray of my bag. It was just a big blob of black. But off to the side (in a side pocket actually) was something dark and identifiable. The CO2 cartridge for my life vest. She circled it and sent my bag down an alternate conveyor for "bad bags". It did the roll of shame to the French TSA-equivalent agent where she informed me that that was "prohibited! You understand?" I put up a small argument in my defense that it was for a life jacket, it was properly marked, and that I had flown to France with it previously. Apparently my argument was falling on deaf ears as she didn't speak English. She repeated her "prohibited!" declaration so I signed her form and moved on.
On to my gate with two hours to spare.
-Greg
I rifled through my luggage for awhile and jettisoned all non-essentials as I had researched the cost of overweight baggage ($250each). Since I had weighed by bags the prior day I knew I had to shed weight in one bag and I was still carrying a 5th bag that I knew I needed to lose since checking a 3rd bag would be $300 and I already knew my 2nd checked bag was going to cost $100. I continued to put anything small and heavy in my backpack which was already pregnant and overdue:-)
Next I had to shuttle my baggage downstairs as it was impossible to carry everything at once without breaking into an immediate sweat. Fortunately no one lugged a bag off while I was getting the remainder.
I almost left the hotel without formally checking out as I sometimes do in the US, but fortunately I took the time to stop at the front desk. Apparently that's the custom as they needed my credit card to complete the checkout process.
I got lost driving to the airport as the map I was following for the area near the airport was from prior to the airport reconstruction. I could see the control tower but couldn't find the rental car return. I even found the offsite lot where they process the rental cars but it was not for returns. Try as I might, I could not find a sign that said "rental car return" just a whole lotta signs in some foreign language. Someone was not thinking of me when they designed this place. Eventually I drove by a parking ramp and recognized the logo of the rental car company, EuropCar. Voilà! Merci beaucoup!!
I checked in my little Fiat and relieved it of its heavy burden. Fortunately there was a trolley cart nearby so I could exercise my balancing act once again.
I eventually found the correct terminal for Lufthansa and a super-helpful gate agent. We weighed my bags. 23Kg for one (the limit) and 23.5 for the other. She said it was good. Wow! I had been prepared to go through another quick weight-loss process right there on the airport floor so fortunately I was spared that exercise. Then she did a double take on my first flight and said there was insufficient room for a second carry-on. She would have to take one of my carry-ons and check it. No charge!
Things are looking up as this bag definitely wouldn't fit in any carry-on sizing gadget so I was going to have to hope along the way that no one gave me a hard time about it. Of course, my backpack won't fit in one of those either but I've never had gate personnel stop me for a backpack before.
So that just left me and my backpack to go through security. Of course there are lots of people in this serpentine line where icons show to put certain types of items the ubiquitous plastic trays. Of course almost everything in my backpack qualifies for removal. I took out my two laptops, a camera and a few other items to put up a good show of effort but the security lady that was placing the items into the scanner just frowned disapprovingly mumbled something in French then because she didn't know what else to do, out my bag through. I walked through and watched the agent review the X-ray of my bag. It was just a big blob of black. But off to the side (in a side pocket actually) was something dark and identifiable. The CO2 cartridge for my life vest. She circled it and sent my bag down an alternate conveyor for "bad bags". It did the roll of shame to the French TSA-equivalent agent where she informed me that that was "prohibited! You understand?" I put up a small argument in my defense that it was for a life jacket, it was properly marked, and that I had flown to France with it previously. Apparently my argument was falling on deaf ears as she didn't speak English. She repeated her "prohibited!" declaration so I signed her form and moved on.
On to my gate with two hours to spare.
-Greg
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Solo
Well now that I've successfully made it ashore I'll spill the beans a bit on why I was closed-mouthed about single-handing the crossing. As with most litigious Americans, or should I say litigation-fearing Americans?, I was fearful that in my sleep-deprived state I would hit another small craft in the night. Obviously if I hit one of the many cargo ships or tankers, they would be none the wiser. But a small craft, say something less than 100 feet long without a steel hull, I could have caused some serious damage - and the result could have been especially dire when 50+ miles offshore. The international rules on boats/ships at sea is that an "active watch" must be maintained at all times. But I don't believe "active watch" has been tightly defined by international maritime courts. However, I do believe it's been defined to be a person, not an "electronic watch". I relied on 1) me, in a conscious state 2) me in a semi-conscious state and 3) electronic (AIS) alarms that would alert me to boats in my proximity.
#3 is problematic as not all boats have AIS. All commercial shipping has AIS now, as do most recreational bluewater boats. But it's not mandated for recreational boating. It's also not mandated for some fishing vessels and there are a lot of tiny fishing boats still in active use (news to me).
Also, as I realized in the Mediterranean recently, the idea that a commercial boat would always avoid me, while generally true, is faulty. What about the commercial boats that are drifting (not underway)? There are MANY of these in the Med. Of course the danger (to them) is only if they're small. But I definitely saw a good number of these. They would be of the assumption that the boat bearing down on them was going to change course prior to impact and they might be challenged to move at the last minute depending on what they were doing.
Now on the flip side, the likelihood of two boats colliding is probably about that same as trying to shoot a firefly with a BB gun at 30 paces. Not very likely. But... devastating results if it actually happens.
Fortunately the law of averages was on my side, but it did make for some stressful times when I was super tired in the wee hours. Especially when in high-traffic areas.
Avoiding a ship-to-ship collision is like driving a car through a busy intersection without a stoplight but in super-super slow motion. You typically know with 20+ minutes advanced warning that you are on a (near) collision course. There's lots of time to react, call the other ship on the radio, etc. so that's all good. On the other hand, since I was so much slower than most of the commercial traffic (7 knots vs 16-20), I was way better off letting them maneuver around me than vice-versa. This resulted in many, many times, waiting for them to make a course change while I desperately trying to stay awake. All the wile knowing they would squash me like a bug if they didn't take action, so don't nod off! A pretty strange circumstance in today's fast-paced world. By the way, there are still a lot of people out there single-handing. There are even quite a few sanctioned single-handed ocean races even though it's fairly well known that they aren't fully complying with regulations.
Anyway, all is well. Nobody died )that I'm aware of).
Tilley hat
A big thanks to Wes Patterson who replaced my Tilley hat after I lost my prior one on a BVI trip we were on. I was pretty crushed when we couldn't find it after circling for awhile because it had a lot of "experience", aka character. He surprised me with a brand new one a few weeks after our trip of which I was very grateful but it lacked that lived-in look. Well, I can now report that the new one has gotten a lot of experience this year. It has fallen in the drink (& been rescued) 8 times so far. Hopefully this one is a lifer!
On a related note, Antoine lost his hat overboard near Barbados. I promptly turned the boat around to rescue it even though he said not to bother because he wasn't enamored with the hat. I told him, "you don't understand, it's a matter of principle" :-)
On a related note, Antoine lost his hat overboard near Barbados. I promptly turned the boat around to rescue it even though he said not to bother because he wasn't enamored with the hat. I told him, "you don't understand, it's a matter of principle" :-)
Packed up
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
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