2016
Thanks to the kipper.ee forum I discovered the availability of the Estonian schooner Hoppet.
Before, "any aunt from the street" only got to see schooner fleetingly and if she was lucky enough to do an hour trip on the bay.
But now I got the opportunity to sail in European waters. And I guess I didn't miss that opportunity anymore.
It became a friendship for a long time.
In a tweet that Hoppet ended up in the South during the "Meeting the Odyssey" theater project in 2015.
Meeting the Odyssey is a social and artistic collaborative project sailing from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea. Each summer from 2014 to 2016, artists and organizers from different European countries will travel together, giving workshops and performing theater pieces.
Getting there was related to a small "mishap / adventure".
Namely, that day was the beginning of summer time, flying into the other time zone, and when I landed in Valletta, I no longer had a clue as to the correct time.
Take the bus fast and ...
of course, I found a stop on the transfer when the bus was rushing through it. There was nothing broken in itself, plan B was to drive to the bus end stop that was in the city center and then walk a few blocks to the water taxi.
The bus came to a stop, everything as in the picture - circle and fountain - just seemed a bit smaller than it should be, but ... the church also looked away (never take a church as a landmark in catholic country, there are too many there).
According to legend, when I got to the harbour, there were water taxis and other ships, except that ... the wrong port. The bus had come to another or old end and I was at Valetta-3City harbour. What was I needed was a Sliema ferriy - a bag in the hand and a ring on the city. The access to the Valetta-Sliema ferry is "hooked" - you have to turn to the right street, otherwise you will look at the top promenade - you will see the craft, you will not be able to access it. I discovered that right place some day after I came from Sliema to Valetta. The first day, the local guided me to an unconventional road, through the narrow passage between the walls of the houses and the driveway. When I finally arrived .... let's just say that I was eagerly awaited and only changed clothes when Hoppet headed for the port of Syracuse, Sicily.
And that's how it began.
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