In Germany we own an apartment that is used as a holiday let. It has a south facing terrace but the guests were complaining that it lacked a decent sun shade and something to block the nosy views of passers by. We are sailors so the obvious solution was a sun sail (sails, coffee, WD40, wine & gaffer tape are mostly the solution).
The world is so crazy that it is cheaper to fly to Germany, install a sail and fly home than employ some one to do it for you. So – Artemis safely on a buoy, ferry from Lombok to Bali, fly to Taiwan, fly to Munich and get a lift (thank you Daniel) to the apartment. Only two or three days.
We had ordered a sail from Italy so we assembled it, discovered it didn’t agree with any of their drawings, spoke to the company on the phone, obtained their agreement that their drawings were wrong, planned everything based on the reality and started to dig four holes through the earth and plastic building rubbish. Luckily we tricked our sons in to digging one hole so there were only three left for us. And just as luckily the weather was dry and hot – I even got a sunburned nose!
Together with a builder, we filled the holes back up with 500 kg of concrete and left it alone for ten days to set.
Ten days in Allgäu. Guests round for breakfast, brunches, lunches, coffees and dinners. Out visiting friends. Lots of cooking. Cycling, walking and (for Heidi) riding. And a little bit of work to pay for all the fun. We even found time to write our will, get a new ID-card, sign a contract with a new client for Neill and a work contract for Heidi (starting 2026) and send off our tax returns – like I said, non-stop fun.
By the time the concrete was hard the temperature was back down to zero degrees Centigrade and there was snow on the ground which slowed things down enough to extend our departure by a week. With the poles screwed in to the ground and the sail rolled out, we managed two days of intensive testing with a terrace full of neighbors and then the same terrace filled with family. It all seemed to work as planned so we packed the spares for the boat and then it was Munich (thank you Michael) -Taiwan-Bali-Lombok and back home in time for the sunset drink.
In total we spent just over four weeks in Allgäu, four great weeks with friends and family. It was a fantastic holiday from the hard sailing life.
Yes, you had a bit of bad luck with the weather. Felt like we had more snow in the time you were here than the hole winter, lol.
Lovely seeing you both.
Keep safe, and see you in 2 years.