|
I met a
German resident here, Bernd, who came sailing here five years ago, fell in love
with a local beauty and stayed. He is the owner of a restaurant and is also the
contact person of a German ocean cruising association. He told me that the
dinghy boys are proving to be one of the biggest problems for yachties. There
are often disagreements about how much you have to pay them for "looking after"
the dinghies on the beach. Usually the price is 200 escudos, but you are often
met with the demand of 500 escudos, which Bernd refuses point blank.
"They are greedy. A local unskilled worker or fisherman doesn't earn that much
from a hard day's work. And these boys do nothing else for their money than
withhold (/refraining) from slicing them open". Bernd also said that he knew of
an incident where seven boys held back the dinghy until they were paid 1500
escudos, while acting threatening. He also tells that it is most problematic
late in the season when the yachts are few and far between. Then you have to
hire a guard to watch the boat, if you want to go ashore in the evening and at
night (time). Otherwise the same boys would break into or vandalise your boat.
I strongly recommend Kai's ferry. You pay a fee of 100 escudos per metre to be
moored here. Water taxi service is included and you don't have to rely on
guards, so it's definitely worth it. When anchored here, you can just park your
dinghy and go back and forth on the water taxi for your 100 escudos. But I lost
all my fishing tackle. I had some in my pockets, inside the cockpit plus a
fishing rod and everything, including my new hook for hauling fish over the
gunwale with. Snatched while I was moored to Kai's ferry.
After about a week Louis and Gee will be leaving for the Caribbean. I have
decided not to go there, but instead go to Tobago/Trinidad/the West Indies.
Not long after anchoring, I had company. "Hey, how are you doing?" I guess I
felt a little surprised, since it came from one of the local dinghy boys. He
came aboard and it turned out that he was in fact the boy Nilton, who went along
with Svend Billesbølle on a cruise to the Caribbean. He eventually ended up
leaving England, since it proved impossible for him to obtain a (Danish, edit)
visa. Svend meant for him to come to Denmark to get an education. And it's
really too bad that he wasn't given the opportunity. He is intelligent and
speaks pretty good English and also a little Danish.
Since then, he had been to Denmark for three months. He also crossed the
Atlantic with two other boats since then. During the winter, he is fishing with
his grandfather. During the months when pleasure boats are here, he works as a
dinghy boy. He offers help finding just what you need, brings water, diesel,
gas, etc. Jens and I spend quite a bit of time with him and often bring him
along for dinner at the small local places. Here it will only cost you a fourth
of what the bigger restaurants charge. And often you end up dining in the
kitchen, if that is what you could call it. Definitely not like back home in DK.
As usual, we then jumped in the water to clean the hull. It was nice to know
that it would be fairly clean already. And it is actually a breeze to keep the
hull clean. |