A to Z Challenge - "Z" GRAND FINALE

Z - as in:

"Zzo long, Adieu, Auf Wiedersehn, Good-Bye...."

(What? That's how every Austrian sings it; surely, you've seen ze movie!)

As I plan to catch up with all my interesting co-bloggers from the A to Z Challenge, I truly hope this is not Good-Bye, but 

"Auf Wiedersehn."

Oh, yes, there is a boat in the movie. Remember?
Maria and the children come rowing up to the landing.
Excited that their father (oh, so handsome Christopher Plummer) has returned home,
they all stand up.
The rest is soggy history.

# # # # # # # #

Be sure to tune in on May 15 --
I'll be featuring a multi-day launch, review of and insight
into a new Novel by
Author Christoph Fischer

"Time to Let Go"

(A look inside family dynamics suddenly burdened 
by a wife and mother afflicted with
Alzheimer's Disease)

A to Z Challenge - "Y"

Y is for "Yacht"
(as in Yum-Fabulous)

Lorenzo's Bucanero I

I used this Yacht to describe the one owned by a South American buyer of antiquities - all of dubious provenance. Especially the ones he acquires in Sirocco, Storm over Land and Sea.

We meet Lorenzo Dominguez again in After the Cataclysm, where he now owns the Bucanero II - the former (real) ghost ship Lyubov Orlova.

All of this luxury was wishful thinking on my part but I had fun going along for the ride through two books.

http://www.amazon.com/Inge-H.-Borg/e/B006QYQKUS

A to Z Challenge - "X"

X - as "X-Craft" (Midget Submarine - BR)

The X-Craft was a class of midget submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II, between 1943 and 1944.

The craft were approximately 51 feet (15.5 m) long, 5.5 feet (1.68 m) in diameter, and had a displacement of about 35 tons. Maximum speed was 6.5 knots (12 km/h) surface, and 5 knots (9 km/h) submerged, with depths of 300 feet (91.4 m) were possible. Initially crewed by a commander, pilot and ERA, the later addition of a specialist diver brought the final complement to four. Up to 4 tons of Amatol (high explosive) could be carried, bolted to the sides of the craft.

XE11 Tragedy

Operation of the X-Craft was hazardous at best, but on March 5, 1945, even routine testing was to prove fatal. On this day, three of the crew of XE11 were lost during a routine operation.

A test dive, to calibrate the depth gauge was to be carried out. Two crew would normally have been sufficient, but on this day, three extra crew were being carried to gain experience. Rising in 10 foot increments from a depth of 100 feet, the craft struck the keel of the Boom Defence vessel Norma, stationary and silent, just at the moment her screws began to turn. 

The craft's pressure hull was ruptured, and she sank to 210 feet. When the hatch was opened, two crew members were swept out by the escaping air and recovered on the surface. Sadly, the remaining three crew members were unable to escape. Their bodies were recovered by divers the next day, along with the craft, and laid to rest in Rothesay cemetery.

At 210 feet, the event is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the deepest unaided ascent from a sunken submarine.

In 2005, a small memorial garden was opened during events on the island, marking the 60th anniversary of VE Day. The ceremony was attended by the surviving crew member who related the story of the escape.

(Wikipedia)

A to Z Challenge - "W"

W - as in Water, Water Everywhere

Swimming Hole outside Hana, Maui

Thinking back - way back - I have always liked water. Swimming lessons at five until I resembled a little fish, spending hot summer days in the muddy river with my buddies (nobody worried), jumping off the high weir towers - you just had to be careful not to get sucked against the grates! It would have been too embarrassing to have the miller come out with his long rake to haul you out; a dripping, squealing little piglet already anticipating furious parents (millers always told on you).

Austria is dotted with beautiful lakes (some are run-offs from the glaciers), 

 Austria's larges lake - the water actually gets warm - Woerthersee with the little town of Maria Woerth.





The elegant Hotel Schloss Seefels (my grandmother insisted that it once belonged to our family - but was gambled away at the nearby famous casino!)
Bugger!

Vacations in Norfolk, GB (huge tides). Oh, I actually swam in Loch Ness; talk about freezing! In the South of France, I managed to save a little boy from drowning.
Swam in the Dnepr in Kiev on my way to Sochi (on the Black Sea).
In (then still) Leningrad, I only took a ferry across the icy Neva to visit the old Peter and Paul Fortress on the island (creepy dungeons - most are).
Bermuda, Caribbean, Tahiti - must I go on?

Only to wind up on a lake in Arkansa

(in a pantoon boat!)

A to Z Challenge - "V"

V - as in "Valiant"

I cannot let the "V" pass me by without an ode to the Valiant, a Bob Perry designed double-ended, ketch-rigged sailboat. The fact that I spent six glorious consecutive months on a Valiant-40, "has nothing to do with it." Nor does the fact that the skipper was tall and handsome, alas elegantly gray round the edges (Can I tell you another one?)

We sailed from San Diego past Magdalena Bay (famous for cavorting and courting whales), past Cedros Island, to Cabo San Lucas. From there, 300 miles due south to a Mexican Navy Base on Socorro, part of the Revillagigedo Islands. Great fishing, fabulous diving though rocks close below the surface even in the anchorage. So were plenty of sharks - blissfully, I was only told that later on.

During our only storm at sea, we night-sailed east to a then still deserted Tenecatita. 

On to impressive Manzanillo, its hillside hotel a former little summer home a tin-baron built for himself and his friends! 

North to Nuevo Vallarta, the large-scale modern yacht basin north of Puerto Vallarta.

Across to La Paz on the inside of Baja and north to Puerto Escondido where I spent three weeks anchored, alone on the boat (there were other boats to dinghy to at cocktail time).

Back around the tip of Baja to Cabo san Lucas, from where I was told to fly home like a lady. Glad I did. The "uphill bash into the wind" to San Diego took the boat three weeks.

Just like the faithful, doomed Senta, I waited on the dock when she (the boat) and he (my "Flying Dutchman) sailed in under a following breeze and a triumphant colorful spinnaker.

End of Story?
(If  you paid attention to "B" you'll remember how it turned out)

A to Z Challenge - "U"

U - as in "Uhuru"

Oh, now I've got your attention. 

"Uhuru" means Freedom, in Swahili. But why I remember the word is because of a fabulous trawler we met in La Paz, Baja California. It swung on the hook next to us in a very squirrely La Paz Bay and one always got a bit nervous if the boats would collide.

One morning, during the regular radio broadcast between the boats, Uhuru asked if anyone had a replacement high-pressure hose. You could almost hear the snickering over the airwaves. Why would any of these rather modest sailboats have a high pressure hose lying around? We never found it what happened as we soon thereafter left, sailing north into the Gulf.

Anyway, that's my story - and I am sticking to it.

A to Z Challenge - "T"

T - as in "Transom"

Do you know what a transom is, nautically speaking?
No? Well, let me enlighten you:

In naval architecture, a transom is the surface that forms the stern of a vessel. Transoms may be flat or curved and they may be vertical, raked forward, also known as a retroussé or reverse transom, angling forward (toward the bow) from the waterline to the deck, or raked aft, often simply called "raked", angling in the other direction.

The bottom tip of the transom can be approximately on the waterline, in which case the stern of the vessel is referred to as a "transom stern", or the hull can continue so that the centerline is well above the waterline before terminating in a transom, in which case it is referred to as a "counter stern" or "cutaway stern."

On smaller vessels where an outboard motor is the source of propulsion, the motor is usually mounted on the transom, and held in place either by clamps or metal bolts that go through the transom. In this arrangement, all the power of the motor is transmitted via the transom to the rest of the vessel's structure, making it a critical part of the vessel's construction.

Aren't you glad you asked?

A to Z Challenge - "S"

S = as in "SIROCCO"

Can't go sailing without wind.

Well, sometimes, it can be a little too much of a good thing... 

as it is in

SIROCCO, Storm over Land and Sea

This archaeological thriller is Book 2 of the "Legends of the Winged Scarab" series.
However, it also stands alone as a present-day novel that takes place from Boston to Cairo and Luxor, in the Red Sea (yes, sailing through a storm), to Cyprus and Crete; it is all impacted by the Arab Spring and Egypt's upcoming presidential elections (May 2012).

Prologue

Trexa! Sorokos!”

Barely, the fishermen pull their boats onto shore when the storm arrives all in a rush, malevolent and laden with Libyan Desert sand.

“Run! Sirocco!” Again, the men cry the warning against the feared wind that had spawned over the Sahara. After giving birth to its unbridled son Khamsin, the Devil Wind of the Nile, it froths the waters of the Mediterranean and mercilessly claws at the islands in its path, scything the coastal shrub into stubble.

The old women of Crete call it The Big Tongue. Innocent-looking at first, a lazy yellow haze comes drifting north. It grows larger, turning the air into choking ochre mist. Its hot breath churns the sea and drives salt spray deep into the island’s interior. As if on cue, tempers turn sour and people suddenly find fault with friend and neighbor. Fights erupt over nothing. Secretly harbored thoughts of suicide and murder attack the mind as voraciously as wild goats strip young plane trees bare. All things bad can now be blamed on the Sirocco.

It is only when the cool steady meltemia breezes blow again out of the northwest that the island breathes a sigh of relief, and much is forgiven.

* * *
Have you seen this painting?
Did you know that this Rembrandt painting I used on my cover
was stolen fin an audacious art heist?
(Another of my "premonitions"?)

The FBI is Looking for it (so is the Boston Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum)

A to Z Challenge - "R"

R - is for "Ramose"

I don't know why I had such a hard time thinking of "R" when RAMOSE, the High Priest of Ptah, was practically the driving force in my historical novel. Oh, boats....I'll come to that.

Ramose was an ancient Egyptian name, meaning "Born of Ra." A variant of the name is Ramesses; Egyptologists usually use the Ramesses variant for pharaohs and Ramose for non-royals. Many notable bearers of the name followed my Ramose who lived (in my imagination) at the beginning of the First Dynasty, 3080 BC.

The office of the High Priest of Ptah was located in Memphis (the very early Ineb-hedj - City of White Walls - in my story). It was also common for the high priest to hold the title of sem priest of Ptah. The sem priest was recognized by dressing in a panther skin.

(I just read all this in Wikipedia - whew, am I glad I somehow got that right in the book.)

Now, as to boats. With the Nile the most important artery along the Two Lands, and the priesthood successfully keeping itself separate from the royal palace, it asserted its own powerful laws with the aid of legends, threats, and mysticism (sounds familiar?). Their temple boats and supply barges spread the priestly influence up and down the Nile, while collecting generous offerings to the gods. The priests ate well.

When Ramose went through the Field of Rushes, temple sistrum dancers wailed and undulated, mainly to keep mourners alert during the lengthy burial services (something boring politicians might think about).

A to Z Challenge - "Q"

Q - As in "Quarterdeck"

The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colors were kept. This led to it being used as the main ceremonial and reception area on board, and the word is still used to refer to such an area on a ship or even in naval establishments on land. Many such facilities have areas decorated like shipboard quarterdecks.

Ceremonial use

There are ancient traditions of offering special deference to the quarterdeck. Greek, Roman, and Carthaginian warships all carried shrines which were given special respect. This continued into Christian times, and in medieval British warships, the religious shrine was set up on the quarterdeck. All hands were required to salute it by taking off their hats or caps. This led to the habit of saluting whenever one entered the quarterdeck.

Today, quarterdeck refers not to a specific deck, but to a ceremonial area designated as such by the captain. As in the days of sail, it is a place where the captain has special control and prerogatives.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Luckily, I did not use this theme for yesterday's "P" - as in Poop=Deck!

Who knows what image I might have heaved upon you.