Fwd: Germany and the on-going Turkish tribulations

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Donald <tiare.taporo3@gmail.com>
Date: 9 June 2018 at 20:03
Subject: Germany and the on-going Turkish tribulations
To: Alex Donald <adonald@abdonaldltd.co.nz>

Hi to all,

You will have gathered from our previous blog that we have been having serious problems in our relationship with the Hakan Yatcilik Boatyard in Fethiye. Things have not improved but in the meantime we felt personally threatened and we were also mentally and physically exhausted with trying to nail jelly to the wall! If we'd stayed, not only would we have incurred more and more cost, but we would have joined the lunatics we were trying to reason and deal with.

So we packed 37 kgs of personal stuff from our nautical home of the last 9 years and said a tearful goodbye. We flew out of Dalaman (Fethiye) to Istanbul and then on to Frankfurt in Germany on June 4th. with Pegasus Airlines. However, we have a few irons in the fire as regards a possible sale of the boat. We've reduced the price massively as anyone buying her would have a bit to deal with to get her in the water. We had a price indicated by a U.K. classic yacht broker (Barney Sandeman) for a quick sale around GBP60,000 (NZD115,000), but we consider that to be too high to get things moving quickly. So, we have indicated to our Turkish broker who is a good guy that we'd accept around 50% of that figure - possibly even less if a quick sale was in the offing.

In the meantime emails have been flying back and forth and we've laid a formal complaint with the Turkish Chamber of Shipping. At long last we seem to be achieving some results. The madman we have been trying to deal with who is also the owner of the boatyard, needs some extreme pressure to be brought to bear. At least all that TT3 needs now (apart from some minor details) is to be anti-fouled and re-launched. The rudder is re-installed. We can only keep our fingers crossed that it has been done properly and that a sale and re-launch can be accomplished without either or both of us returning to Turkey. If you go to the website (www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com) you will see our emails firstly to the Chamber of Shipping and also to the port agent who acted for us when we arrived ex Sevenstar.

And Jean's intuition is usually accurate and she feels strongly that we will be at risk if we return. On top of that there are concerns about the recently announced Turkish presidential elections. It has been said that if the incumbent loses (and that's entirely possible) he won't go quietly and that could be enough to provoke severe civil unrest at best and straight out civil war at worst. We don't want to be part of that. The government is desperately trying to bolster the value of the currency by increasing interest rates which are approaching 20%! And largely it's not working because the currency remains depressed.    

Anyway, we arrived at Frankfurt am Main early afternoon on the 4th. physically and emotionally absolutely drained. Not good to be like this at the ages of 71. We were greatly delayed before we could collect our 37 kgs of luggage because it appeared that there had been some sort of baggage handling breakdown - not at all what one would expect in efficient Germany!! We had 2 bags because the Pegasus website neglected to mention that 32 kgs was the limit for any one item. So, we had to purchase another smaller bag at Dalaman for TRY100 and we re-packed around 9 kgs into it so that we were legal. We eventually recovered the baggage from the carousel at Frankfurt and proceeded to the train station - klug bahnhoff! That process took a while but we eventually purchased our tickets and waited for the train to Wurzburg which was late! What is happening to Germany? We were going to change trains at Wurzburg to go on to Werneck but because of the delays we were going to miss the connection. So we waited a short time at Wurzburg Station where Josie and Reinhard collected us. We had managed to ring them on Skype from the train which has wifi  Wonderful train - so smooth and quiet. Pleasant rural scenery and we ordered a beer and a glass of wine. 12 Euros which wasn't exactly cheap but then there was a complication because we had changed our Turkish Lira (which we had been going to give to the boatyard) into Euros at the airport and we'd been given 2 x 500 Euro notes! Too big to handle on the train so we offered our credit card! That day the card system had broken down as well so all we could do was offer the coins we had (4.50 Euros) and they wrote off the other 7.5 Euros!! 

Such a pity that our state of mind was not completely attuned to the joyous occasion of Jean seeing Josie again after the Hong Kong years 20 years ago. But nonetheless it was great to see them and be driven to their house in Werneck. It is a typical German house for these parts - 2 stories plus an attic and a cellar below ground. The garden is lovely and full of roses which are Josie's pride and joy. Since coming originally from the Philippines, we suppose that they are partially still a novelty in the sense that they don't grow there in the tropics. One day last week we spent all morning in the garden deadheading the roses which had got a bit out of hand! Still plenty of blooms though.

Another day Reinhard took us to a regular re-union that he has with fellow retired teachers (he is a retired school principal). This involved lunch at Schloss Konigsburg which was wonderful. Jean had Bratwurst sausages with Sauerkraut and yours truly roasted pork (schwein) with great veges and potato croquettes (kroketten). All with Bier Alkohol Frei! It was a fairly steep climb up to the schloss but another member of the party offered a lift in her car which was gratefully accepted due to the knees! And down again afterwards. Then in the historic town where there are various buildings - churches and other public buildings - which date from as early as the 13th. century. We had a coffee in a coffee house and a cake so the day was complete.

By then we were starting to feel that we were regaining some sort of normality after the craziness of Fethiye!

Josie and Reinhart have been absolutely great and just what we needed after the nonsense in Fethiye. They have even given up their bedroom and moved into the spare bedroom over and above our loud protestations! The house is so peaceful and quiet, being in a country town in the middle of a large agricultural area. reminiscent of the Franklin district of south Auckland but much more orderly and dare we say it, more picturesque. Much of the building is post war as the area for the most part was not affected directly by war damage, except for ball bearing factories in Schweinfurt and also the various villages have expanded much since the 1940's.

We have been having some fascinating discussions with Reinhard about the war and recent history generally. He had an uncle Hermann who was captured late in the war in Norway and then sent as a prisoner of war to France where he took part in building a hydro dam just near Marseilles. This was known as the Barrage de Castillon which is still there today. They weren't released until 1948 - 3 years after the war ended. Possibly it was illegal to keep POW's after a state of war ended, but it seems that no-one worried much about those finer points. Of course there was also a degree of revenge involved. Anyway, 2 years ago they all went on a pilgrimage there with Hermann and re-visited places he was familiar with. Last night German TV was showing footage of the Nazi times including the 1936 Olympics where the black American, Jesse Owens, won 4 gold metals for the USA including in the long jump in which he defeated the German Luz Long. Hitler was so enraged by the success of a black American and in particular by defeating Long, that he later sent Long to the Russian front where he was killed. A severe blow for Nazi white supremacy. 

Another day we visited Hassburg a little to the east and had a walk around this very picturesque town.

Reinhard is great and a mine of historic information. His English is also excellent so we have had very insightful discussions about the war, the Nazis and what happened generally. We are very fortunate to be here and to be treated as well as we have been. Josie is a good cook and always cooks far too much so we certainly are not lacking for anything. Went to the local supermarket this morning (09/06) and bought quite a bit but only 94 Euros (NZD159). This included a comprehensive visit to the butchery and 3 bottles of wine the day before. Far cheaper than NZ which must be one of the dearest countries in the world in which to buy food.

But for now it's a waiting game. Our options appear to be: 

1) Both fly to Medellin

2) Jean goes to Medellin and Jim back to Turkey, or

3) both go back to Turkey

Hopefully we'll be in a position to make a decision early this coming week. But if we did get a buyer we might need to go back to assist in getting the old girl back in the water or maybe the broker can organize that. She cannot stay out of the water indefinitely in 40C heat so we would need to re-launch her regardless of the buyer situation. Then the question arises as to where she is berthed. This of course costs money and, as our apartment in Medellin remains let for the meantime, we would incur rent ourselves in Medellin plus berthage fees. And rent in Medellin is expensive. So, it's a conundrum - so many ifs and buts.

We so heartily wish we had never left Asia. Certainly nothing like this even came close to being envisaged. We seem to have landed into something resembling quicksand.

Watch this space.

Cheers and lots of love from us in Werneck, Germany.................

Jim and Jean