Monday, August 9, 2010

New Crew has arrived: Jen and Theo and a new problem comes too

Island of Vulcano, Sicily---Today two friends of Shirish arrived by ferry via flights from Washington, DC. Jen and Theo (tay-o) will be crewing for the next 10 days as we make our way to Sardinia, Spain soon.

Both writers, Jen for CNN (my all-time favorite station and I'm having a hard time not acting like a groupie to a rock star) and Theo for a business news publication. Both have important resumes. Both are wonderfully down to earth and excited to be aboard, even if it means living like you are six people camping in a small VW bus for the next week plus.

One problem. The luggage that contains my new computer (see blog entry "leaving Greece Humble" where I fell off the dinghy and my computer is BARELY hanging on) and all of Shirish's boat parts for various important fixes IS MISSING. Berlin Air says it made it to Berlin, now it's somewhere in Sicily. Poor Theo is exasperated with the system of airline lost luggage departments and their automated phone systems.

"We inform you (Italian accent) that someone in customs loved the computer and you will never see it again, do not try to retaliate, remember Sicily IS the Mafia"...end message, I imagine in the scenarios we discuss.

Unfortunately, my self-adopted brother, Scott S. and my sister Ruth are the ones who rallied for me last minute while I was out of contact making the passage from Greece to Sicily. Scott researched and ordered the computer in Daytona, shipped it to Kansas City where my sister prepped and loaded it then quickly shipped it to CNN in DC to meet up with Jen. The extra suitcase cost Jen and Theo the overage charge on top of it all! Now we wait.

But there is a southwest wind coming in a few days perfect to get us to Spain.

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