Every time I go to the boat and I stay for more than one day, I stay with my good friends Jelena & Andrej who live in Poreč which is about 20 minutes away by car. I always feel very welcome there… and why wouldn’t I? Great company, good food and wine, nice house…
This time, Anrej & Jelena were s kind to leave me the keys of the house because they went to Italy for the weekend. They also did some shopping there… and when I went to bed on Sunday night, there was a surprise waiting for me…
There was a paper bag from Zara on the bed. I knew that what was inside had nothing o do with that, so I had to have a look.
First thing I saw was a note that said: ‘For HIR 3. Long and happy sailing! Fair winds!!! Jelena & Andrej’
I can’t describe how nice it is to have a support like that. They give me a place to stay, prepare dinner, we drink good wines, borrow tools, even buy me presents… and bring a cold beer to the boat when I need it!
I was taking the water out of the bilges and disassembling the wooden elements in the interior, so I can take them out. After a while, Maja came inside and said: ‘This looks even worse now!’ It was really demotivating to hear that, although it was probably true. I wanted to work inside the boat because it’s really hard to bread, but Maja insisted that she also wanted to go in and when she decides something… well, let’s just say that there is no stopping her… She simply doesn’t understand the word ‘No’.
Maja slowly started to clean the galley, so I had no choice, but to let her do it… I tried to pull her out every now and then to get some air, but she just ignored me and kept on working. After a while, when I looked inside, I was amazed. She did an incredible job cleaning. The galley actually looked GOOD! I still can’t believe it. I know that it’s far from over. We will have to sand all of the wood in the interior and varnish it again, but this really gave me hope 🙂
When I finally convinced Maja to finish the job inside (it was time to go home already), she started to clean the deck and the cockpit. Again, she did it with care..
Now I’m sure that if you want to do something properly, in the end… You will always need a woman’s touch… 🙂
Last weekend I drove down to Vrsar with my friends to see the boat. She looked in even worse condition than I remember from last time, so it was time to get to work!
Last weekend I drove down to Vrsar with my friends to see the boat. We went there on Friday afternoon after work and stayed with my friends (Andrej & Jelena) who live in Poreč. We had a great dinner, spent the night and on Saturday morning Andrej, Tomislav, Maja and me drove to Vrsar.
She looked in even worse condition than I remember from last time, so it was time to get to work! First, we took down the genoa that was in really bad shape, we removed all sheets, halyards and lines from the deck and started cleaning with a high-pressure cleaner which worked great. Andrej volunteered to do it. As soon as he started, he fell in love with the machine and he didn’t let anyone near it. Tomislav and Maja were fighting to try it. They got their turn after only two hours when Andrej got tired.
We took one short coffee break in the bar nearby and one for lunch. We went to the supermarket, bought bread, cheese, mortadella, mayonnaise and beer (of course). We made sandwiches and drank geek on the waterfront and had a great time:)… but soon it was time to get back to work.
I was the only one who dared to start working inside the boat. I had to put the mask and rubber gloves for protection and only then I could enter inside the ‘boat of horror’. First I used a professional vacuum cleaner to take the water out (probably 300+ liters), then we took out everything we could from the interior and the guys started to clean them, while I was removing the mold inside. Working inside was really hard, so every so often, I had to get out of there and take a break.
We worked all day long and wanted to continue on Sunday, but the weather forecast was really bad – gale force southerly wind and lots of rain, so we knew we had to do as much as we possibly could. On the outside she looks much better now, it’s still a mess inside (maybe a little bit better than it was before, though) and we took parts of the wooden interior back to Zagreb, so I can work also at home now.
In the evening we went for a pizza and beer and then back to Andrej and Jelena where we talked, had a few grappas and went to bed. It rained during the night and the wind increased, so we treated ourselves with a long sleep, coffee and breakfast. Jelena’s mom invited us all for a big Sunday family lunch which was great. We had a great meal and really enjoyed the company.
That was unfortunately all the time we had this time, so we headed back to Zagreb to start planning the next steps…
First thing I saw was a note that said: ‘For HIR 3. Long and happy sailing! Fair winds!!! Jelena & Andrej’
I can’t describe how nice it is to have a support like that. They give me a place to stay, prepare dinner, we drink good wines, borrow tools, even buy me presents… and bring a cold beer to the boat when I need it!
Voilier 'HIR 3' 