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OUR IMPROMPTU - OUR SAILING ADVENTURE |
Below we are counting your visits of our site. Come often. We love to know that you are "accompanying" us on this part of our journey. We are counting as of February 10, 2007 only |
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Dear Family and Friends: Many of you have followed us on our sailing trip from Milford, Connecticut, to Europe in 2005 via this website. You also followed us throughout our travels on Impromptu throughout Europe, all the way to La Rochelle, France, where we left her to be transported, as initially planned, to Martinique. Well, a lot of things have changed throughout the months since we left Impromptu in La Rochelle, including so many delays of the Dockwise ship, Super Servant 3, that we meanwhile agreed with the company to take Impromptu off the SS3 in Port Everglades and sail her home this spring (2007), on a somewhat different route. We also have agreed with Dockwise that they will ship Impromptu from Newport, Rhode Island, to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, this November. We took Impromptu off the SS3 in Ft. Lauderdale last February, sailed in the Bahamas for about 2 months and then slowly made our way back "home". We were torn in our decision to take Impromptu South for the winter, not least because of Juergen's mom's health situation. She was way past 100 years, started having ever increasing issues causing Juergen's sister, Luise, great trauma. In the end, we decided to go - and it seems it was the right decision. Juergen's mom passed away, finally being releaved of her agony of living, her pain. While we are all very sad to have lost her, we are glad that she will not suffer any more. With this in mind, our decision seemed acceptable... It is November 9th, and we loaded Impromptu onto the SS3, the same ship that Impromptu was transported on from LaRochelle to Port Everglades. This time, she will be shipped to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, where we will pick her up - hopefully - on November 18th. It was a cold but beautiful early morning when we left our dock at Newport Hotel and Marina at 0645 to get to the SS3 by 0700. There were a number of motor boats cruising around the SS3, we were the only sailboat initially. Then, the boat we had seen in Fairhaven just a few days ago, "Little Vigilant", came into view. We were advised to be among the last of our group to load. It was cold, beautiful, and it was fun watching boats making their way onto the SS3 - slowly, not to create too much of a wake and not to hurt any divers. We later on noticed that there really were none yet - but still, it was imperative that everyone moved slowly. By about 0900 we were not only securely tied up on the SS3, we already shut down all our systems, got dressed for "land", took our bag - we only had one, since the others had been taken to the car which we had picked up from Milford the day before. In the process, I lost a shoe which Juergen retrieved promptly with the help of our boat hook. Was I glad not to have lost it entirely. We delivered our original boat documentation, exchanged some courtesies and went to wait for the launch. By 0940, we were not only on land, but back at our car and drove off towards New York. We took lots of pictures, Juergen even took a little video of the Super Servant 3 and the activities thereon before we were whisked away by the launch. See for yourself... (at least the still pictures - you will have to wait a little longer for the video). Now, most of you know that Juergen is a fast driver. We made it in just about 3 hours despite the Friday early midday traffic. I was happy as there was a lot of mail to check and other things to take care of, including changing our flights from November 13 to the 15th (any later flight which we would have preferred would, however, caused our bankruptcy). We also could not get rooms in the hotel we had booked initially. So, we booked in their sister property - less attractive but still with ocean views - at a significantly lower cost - to absorb whatever additional fares and fees we had to pay for changing our flights. In the end, a decent deal as we are not too interested in beach time at this moment. Enjoy, Gitti and Juergen Latest Update: June 5, 2008 This is our last update. Our trip is completed. We are back home, with Impromptu safely docked in Milford, CT. We still need to go back, pick up some of our belongings, clean her so we can use her on weekends and shorter trips in the future. Some repairs will need to be made. Nothing too major or serious. In the end, it all worked out ok. We had a wonderful time, anxious and uncomfortable moments - for me largely due to my sea sickness - for Juergen for concern of a technical nature, or weather, etc. We are both glad to be home, but we are sad at the same time. We met so many wonderful people who enriched our lives with a lasting effect. We will stay in touch with some of them, remember others fondly but move on. This trip has affected our relationship with each other but also with our family and friends, even with some of our new friends. We are grateful for that as well. We know we can totally rely upon each other, and we will always try to compromise where necessary to keep both of us happy. Thanks for your friendship, for accompanying us on our journey, for staying in touch, writing to us, emailing and occasionally calling. We loved every minute thereof. THANKS!!! |
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