Our old students often keep in touch and let us know what they're up to. We recently received the following email from one of our old students, Wayne Toohill, who has NZOM STCW95. It just goes to show just where you can go and what you can achieve with our qualifications.
"Hi everybody!
"Sorry, long time no hear from me for most of you. Here is just a babble about the start of this seasons adventures, after a lot of organising and getting the new boat crewed up and running.
"I gotta say, she really is a beautiful thing and have managed to put together a cracker of a crew: John, my 1st Mate/chef, Shannon the cleanaholic stewardess, Clint the cheeky wee Aussie engineer/deckhand and Aussie-born Sarah who is our 2nd stewardess/masseuse.
June 6 2007 somewhere south of Capo Santa Maria di Leuca
"So anyway, we finally set sail (traditionally speaking - but we just don't need to go that slow anymore, not when you've got 5400 hp at hand and can evaporate 1000 litres of diesel per hour) on the 3rd.
"Antibes to Elba was the first leg, just good to get that 4 hour stretch of water out of the way on a fine day as it can get quite rough. I did this same trip down the coast of Italy last year, but with the owners on board. This time round this is a crew cruise because we don’t have to pick the owners up until we get to Turkey. Bloody great! Specially on someone else’s multi million dollar boat. I have allowed 9 days to get there, allowing a few days grace for bad weather hold ups and if that doesn’t happen we can take some time out here and there for ourselves to enjoy - which is what really happened.
"Next stage was the 7 hour run down to Naples, stopping of at a cute little island Ventotine for a quick swim and lunch. Naples is pretty amazing in the fact that it lives under Mt. Vesuvius, the same one that destroyed Pompei way back when. I had promised a certain very good lady friend of mine, who lives in Italy, to try this restaurant in Naples who claims to have “the best pizza in the world”. Old was an understatement - they have been making the world’s finest pizza since 1780 as it turned out! And I tell you - practice does make perfect. Gastronomically outstanding!
"Awesome weather the next day, flat sea and not a cloud in the sky! After blasting along the waves at 33 knots (economic cruising speed) for the four hours since we left Naples, we slowed down and got close to the lava slopes, the Sciara del Fuoco (flow of fire) of the Island of Stromboli to have a look at the awesome beauty of this conical island volcano.
"The ride through the Straits of Messina was scenic, flat and fast. It can get very hectic through there sometimes and to make things easier and safer for shipping they operate a Traffic Separation Scheme. Not marked by physical buoys and beacons but is marked clearly in Magenta on the charts. One lane North, one lane South. The main rule is: stay the hell away from the big ships and if you want to cross one, look both ways and cross at a right angle to ensure you get across asap!
"Apart from the big boys, there are ferries crossing constantly between Sicily and the mainland, and fishing boats everywhere, from dozens of nutshell sized small timers to the famous and most incredible (and incredibly unstable looking) swordfish boats.
"The swordfish migrate through the strait twice a year and are in no hurry to get to wherever it is they are going. If you’re up high enough, they’re easy to spot. The traditional wee swordfish boats were nice wooden things that had some sort of large stool nailed to the middle seat. A ladder was added and the stool nailed to the top of the ladder! Originally, the boats only had oars, perfect for sneaking up on poor swordy and harpooning his ass. A hundred years on and now the boats are 40 ft long and have a 60 ft stool which the skipper can drive from top! These structures are all held together and up and out by an artful array of wire rigging that looks like it could pick up BBC Broadcast news.
"So that night was spent in Porto Riposto Del Etna, a very old and run down port town nestled under Mt Etna, the third and most massive of the three volcanos passed on this route. The locals believe they are safe with “The Friendly Giant” as long as she is always letting of some steam.
"Anyway, we took on another 6,000 litres of fuel there and had a good nights sleep. I went for a walk in the morning and brought some of the supremely yummy Italian beefsteak tomatoes, some buffalo mozzarella and some fresh rucola (rocket salad). Those ingredients, together with a little virgin olive oil and parmesan regano cheese, is nothing short of divine!
"After just leaving port the next morning, we noticed quite a vibration though the boat and feared we had picked up a ground tackle line – a common problem with that all that hp, it sucks ups a lot of stuff! At full revs it is supposed to push enough water out the back to fill up an Olympic pool in less than two minutes! So we pulled her back to a stop and shut her down and I jumped in with mask and snorkel. You have to dive under then look up into the intake tunnels which are about 80 or 90cm diameter (no grates) with the shaft through the middle and a six blade stainless impellor. Initially, and frighteningly, it looked like one of the blades on the port impellor was bent? But it was still too hard to make out and is just out of reach without getting myself stuck up there. So I got a broom handle and after lots of poking and jiggling around in there I came out with a mangled plastic bucket with a steel handle! There was a big Hurrah! and off we went again.
"Once again another beautiful day – the weather was as forecast, westerly, and since our heading is east and slightly north we have a nice 15 knot breeze up the bum. Perfect as we pass under Capo Santa Maria di Leuca (that stiletto heel of Italy). ETA Corfu, approx 2 ½ hours.
June 16 Bodrum, Turkey
"Great to be back in Corfu again, familiar faces, rum cocktails by the pool bar, shopping and Gyros! We hired scooters for the two days there, bloody laugh. We had to work though too - we developed a leak in one of the exhaust pipes inside the engine room, which was making a real mess. The pipe is about 400mm diameter and galvanised. It turned out to be too big of a job and we had no time to pull the whole thing out, so we got some magic epoxy heat proof putty and bunged that in there, followed by a patch of fire proof insulation and finally wrapped it up with strips we cut from John’s galley fire blanket. So it is like a huge band aid but it works really well and is still holding!
"We headed southwards to Kefalonia which is where that book and later, movie, ‘Captain Correlli’s Mandolin’ was set, and to little port of Sami. Beautiful little town in a beautiful bay. As soon as we got there I decided we should get the tender out and we all went water skiing. Flat calm evening and the whole bay to ourselves.
"The ride through the Gulf of Patras was wonderful, if not a little too windy. The new bridge at Patras is an engineering marvel to behold and the 6km cut through the canal was just cool! And quite comical with the canal controller on the other end of the VHF talking in monosyllables and telling us to wait for an hour.. then “No, no, go - go now, must go! Slow! Slow through gate. OK, go fast now! Faster, catch with other boats!”
"I would’ve thought we’d be creeping through there at 4 knots like the pilot book said, but we were doing 12 for most of it! A bit freaky driving with those steep cliffs either side. Everyone was on the foredeck for the spectacle, except me of course, but I had the sunroof open.
"It was really windy all the way across the Aegean Sea so we had a bit of a bumpy ride. We chose a little known island named Amorgos for a stop off on the way to Rhodes. It is where a lot of the filming was done for one of my all time favourite movies “The Big Blue”. Cute little port and town and we ate cuttlefish for dinner at a local (maybe too local?) joint - that was interesting. And we hired scooters there too, just the best way to see an island and have a laugh.
"So here we are, and Turkey is great! Bodrum is a beautiful town, with a large marina which has this amazing and huge old castle at the entrance and all big old Turkish “Gulliks” (traditional sailing boats) parked stern to the boardwalk. It’s so green and clean, not so much as a cigarette butt on the ground, and the people are really nice and helpful. We have an agent here who looks after us and gets us through all the paperwork required for customs and immigration and finds the things we need like engineering bits, fuel, and special provisions.
"He also shows us around a bit. He took us out for dinner and drinks the other night, some pretty wild nightlife around here. This rockin nightclub was off the planet.. Mostly open to the outside with pillars surrounding the dance floor and stage but overlooking the harbour. We were VIP guests and got a choice table above the dance floor. We all had a fantastic night. The one thing about Turkey is the beautiful but almost haunting sound of the morning and evening (and a few times during the day) wailing of the prayers amplified out from the mosques - that really makes you feel a long, long way from home.
"So the last few days we’ve been getting this sexy machine all spruced up, stocked up and gassed up. Well I better get some sleep then.
"So take care and big ups.
"Wayno"