Dear Friends,
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The year 2013 brought great changes with it. Last Christmas we were on the hard at Powerboats in Trinidad, where we celebrated Christmas, Aurora Ulani's 9th birthday and New Years Eve. Just a few days later we were back in the water, checked out the Carnival and the beginning of spring brought us north to Bequia Race Week and many friends. When that was over, we sailed on to Martinique to visit our old friends Karl & Libu on ROSINANTE. With other friends we parted ways or had to leave them behind. The latter because of a horrendous speedboat accident near Hog Island (Grenada) and the former because the call of the arctic proved irresistible. So we don't know when we will see Max and Sandy on VOLO and Doug and Jill on COMPAÑERA again in the near future.
I have known Karl & Libu since 1989 in Kourou (French Guyana) and we met them again in Trinidad before our circumnavigation. It was marvelous to visit them again! As usual, the food was excellent, the conversation as well and everything else was perfect, too. As my father turned 80 on 15 May, we left our boat in Karl & Libu's care and flew to participate in the festivities. That is very easy from Martinique, as it is officially part of Europe and Gloria would not have any visa hassles that way.
The principal of the elementary school in the village where I grew up was very agreeable and allowed our daughter to test the varying age groups and grades while we were there. That all went very well and we decided to let her join the 4th grade on 5 August. The countdown was on. It wasn't only the school, but selling the boat also suddenly became a real option. While we were in Germany Günter and his son had a look at our boat several times and they liked what they saw. Soon Günter and Yvette from about 1 1/2 hours by car away visited us in our home in Oeversee and from then on everything was a joint project.
Back in Martinique we were working on the boat as usual and subsequently sailed it back to Trinidad. Max & Sandy on VOLO were still there and Max made me a *big* birthday present by fixing the saildrive. Thank you, Max! Günter & Yvette stayed on board with us for a week and we came to an agreement. That meant no more Scotland Bay, howler monkeys and jungle. We had decidedly mixed feelings when we had to say good bye to eight years (or 25 years if you count the previous two DHARMA BUMs) of yachtie-life. Unfortunately we also had to say good bye to our 600 novels as the expenses for freight were truly astronomical. One freight forwarder sent us a quote of almost US$ 1,500 for transporting a box (50 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm, 40 kg) of old books from Port of Spain to Hamburg! I was not pleased at all.
Back in Germany we started the paperwork in earnest. I often think it was invented there. When you have lived 31 years abroad, there is quite a bit you have to do. On the other hand, it is no way near as bad as some people may want you to believe. We got registered again, went to the government agency about work (required) and saw about health insurance. All this went without a hitch, which was a very good thing as fate had prepared a little curveball for me. I had agreed with Günter & Yvette that I would take over the online part of their business and try to expand it into eBay.de and especially Amazon.de. That was the first time I noticed that not all in Germany was as I had expected it. Especially the tax office seemed to be staffed with incompetents. Applications were left on the desk, others weren't keyed in, some things arrived again and again while some forms simply got lost. It was truly catastrophic! It took three months until had my tax number and by then it was too late for Christmas shopping, which is by far the most important time of the year for this business. I got pretty upset, let me tell you.
The real surprise was something else, though. Back in 1992 I lost my hearing in my right ear. Then, in 2009 I almost fell flat on my face after 38 days at sea when we arrived in Darwin. There and in Bali it was so bad that I stumbled around as if I were completely drunk. The feeling of imbalance persisted and I could not look back when riding a bicycle or stand on one leg. This brought me to our family doctor, an ear-nose-throat specialist and finally to the MRI. The magnetic resonance imaging very clearly showed a 1.4 inch brain tumor in the back part of my brain, where things are especially tight. I did not like what I saw and immediately went back to our family doctor. Apparently he didn't either, because he phoned the neurosurgery right away and sent me there. The neurosurgeon in charge did another test on the spot and went to talk to the boss, not without telling me that he was not sure whether I could go back home again that day.
Fortunately I could, as we were to be awarded the Circumnavigators Prize by the German organization Trans-Ocean, which is somewhat similar to the Seven Seas Cruising Association in the States. This all happened in Cuxhaven on 23 November. The prize was a heavy cube of crystal glass, which had a laser created globe and a yacht in the middle, while two sides had DHARMA BUM III 2013 and Trans-Ocean edged into it. Now it has an honorary place in our house.
On 2 December I got into hospital and on the day after I was operated on by the boss Chefarzt Professor Dr.med.Wolfgang Börm and Stationsarzt Bernhard Feldt. I was supposed to wake up early that afternoon, but in the evening I found myself in intensive care where I spent the night. Although my head resembled that of Dr. Frankenstein's monster, the operation had gone well. The headaches which started after a couple of days were truly terrible. Think of a really bad hangover which goes on and on and on and on. Right now I am back home and I continue to take strong pain killers. I will be able to celebrate Christmas and Aurora Ulani's 10th birthday here. On 3 January I will go into a special clinic for three weeks, as my face is still partially paralyzed and my right eye can't really focus. So far, so good.
Gloria has pretty much finished the first daft of her Chinese book about our circumnavigation, while I am still dealing with various German publishers. I'd much rather have a contract in my pocket before I face the daunting task of a full-length book. No matter what, the next few years will be interesting, as our financial future remains written amongst the stars. One thing goes without saying: Life on land is MUCH more expensive than life on a boat and the phrase we don't have enough money to sail around the world is simply a bad excuse.
We hope that you will realize your dreams, that you have excellent Christmas holidays and wish you a roaring New Years Eve party!
Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani Jacobsen - Quellenweg 2, 24988 Oeversee, Germany
