Coffee and boat offer - Day 6 – November 4^th 2010

I have now officially been on the lookout for an ocean crossing sailboat in 6 days. Some days more intense than others but today I had the great pleasure to actually get on to two boats. The first one was Pinton, a Danish sailing boat waiting for their sons to join. Walking the harbor the different gangways are usually locked and you cannot actually go to the boats. But I by coincidence caught the eyes of Dorthe standing 50 meters out on the gangway, a Dane I met together with her husband in the Scandinavian club. She dropped her ongoing cloth washing and invited for coffee immediately. So nice to sit in the cockpit of their boat feeling some waves, drinking coffee and chatting in Danish. Her husband Jesper showed me their electronic equipment and the coming weather forecasts. I really appreciated their hospitality – it was “hyggeligt” as we say in Denmark (Impossible to translate but something like cozy times 10).

Me, Dorthe and Jesper in their boat

Later I was posting more flyers and at a telephone box a guy approached me. He was on the way to Fortaleza, Brazil which is exactly what I have been hoping for. I joined him to the boat together with some Swedish girls I got acquainted with and he asked me to bring them along...
The crew was from Croatia and Slovenia. 4 guys but only the one I had been talking to spoke English. The boat was a beautiful 52.5 foot Dufour which they were sailing to Brazil in order to be chartered out. As the crossing for me not is transportation only but should be a great adventure with the right company I decided not to take this opportunity. But they did offer a beer and it was surely nice to for the second time today be seated on a boat.   

For today’s hostel news I can report that three more persons arrived and quite spectacular nobody did arrive to look for a boat! Germany was represented by a girl who was purely on relaxing vacation, Italy by a salsa loving dancing guy and a fellow from Poland who wanted to find a job in the area as cook or whatever popped up. On the attractive rooftop they several times had to answer the question if they were looking for a boat. It was quite amusing the first couple of times, cause we are just living in our own maritime world and they did not have a clue about people actually come here due to the high volume of sailing boats arriving in the port. So it created fun reactions from the new comers like: “why would I look for a boat”, “why is everybody asking if I am looking for a boat?” or giving the look up and down yourself replying “do I look like I miss a boat?” :)  

Next blog about my meeting with “my” boat Afriki!