Special Guest Blog by Captain Jacob
June 3, 2010
Jaap's adventures on Lake Como:
Now that we finally finished the restauration of Casa3dici, we can start using it in the way it was ment to be: as a shelter (the spanish call this Parador and created a chain of lovely hotels in the most beautifull places all around Spain) to be used when escaping from work and other less thrilling business in and around the place we live.
To enlargen our possibilities to "live" the lake we thought it a good idea to get ourselves a little boat, a RIO 500 40HP outboard, which can carry easily 5 persons. We are probably the only Dutch that have no boating experience at all, so it was also some kind of adventure. The boat is harboured at Mostes boating, just right down below Sormazzana, so one can get there in 5 minutes by foot.
Mostes is a company that builds luxury yaughts and....offshore racing monsters. We are speaking about 1000HP Lamborghini engines that generate speeds around 200km/h on the water. The Lake Region gives of permits for just 4 hours a year because of the tremendous noise produced. One mile up north is the Molinari dock: same stile but exclusively using Ferrari engines. Lovely tales about professional hatred, similar to the old stories about Ferrari and Lamborghini ( who were originally tractor builders, making racing vehicles for fun, did you know that?) circle in the air.
Our first trip with the RIO (no water licence needed) was lovely: since Stefano told me in winter it had a 70 ltr fuel tank that guarantees more than one day of autonomy we confidently took off.
We navigated up to Bellagio, which is spectaculour seen from the water, and then bended down in the direction of Lecco. Lunch on the boat in a quiet place (just let it flow!) and off to Bellano. In hte meantime the boys had taken over the ship. Officially you have to be sixteen years old but our son of ten can handle it without problems. Crossing the lake back to Bellagio we started hear strange sounds, but holding back just a bit the speed everything continued to go smooth. Just to be sure I asked Vincent to check the level of the fuel: "no problem, I still see liquid floating in the tank". Just when I started saying to the rest of the crew that I didn't hope to fall still the engine stopped. A quick look around showed us that we chose the worst place to drift helplessly around: just in the middle of the in- and outgoing route of the ferries, 100 m out of the coast. We didn't make friends among the professional captains for sure! You know the chamber orchestra only for horns by captain Hook? It must sound more or less like what we heard.
A friendly co-boater teared us off to quieter waters and so safed us from being abissed by those pirats. Phone call to Mostes: laughing orchestra! He kindly brought us a jerrycan with fuel, that after dearing acrobacy by Vincent, jumping from our little to his very much higher boat, jiggling on the waves, was poured in the tank. "Have a nice day, bye ,bye". We just crossed the lake again when the phone went: Stefano: "no matter where you are, PUT OFF the engine NOW. I gave you the wrong type of fuel." Shouting orchestra! His dad came over with a very speedy speedboat to bring the oil to mix with the gasoline. After this very hot, panoramic and musically inspired tour we turned back to harbour, where we immediately made us explain where to refurnish fuel next time we go out.
If someone reading this gets inspiration to go for a boat trip: it is for hire, just let us know. I will inform Mostes you are coming and let him check if there is sufficient fuel in the tank. Posted by Jakob
Now that we finally finished the restauration of Casa3dici, we can start using it in the way it was ment to be: as a shelter (the spanish call this Parador and created a chain of lovely hotels in the most beautifull places all around Spain) to be used when escaping from work and other less thrilling business in and around the place we live.
To enlargen our possibilities to "live" the lake we thought it a good idea to get ourselves a little boat, a RIO 500 40HP outboard, which can carry easily 5 persons. We are probably the only Dutch that have no boating experience at all, so it was also some kind of adventure. The boat is harboured at Mostes boating, just right down below Sormazzana, so one can get there in 5 minutes by foot.
Mostes is a company that builds luxury yaughts and....offshore racing monsters. We are speaking about 1000HP Lamborghini engines that generate speeds around 200km/h on the water. The Lake Region gives of permits for just 4 hours a year because of the tremendous noise produced. One mile up north is the Molinari dock: same stile but exclusively using Ferrari engines. Lovely tales about professional hatred, similar to the old stories about Ferrari and Lamborghini ( who were originally tractor builders, making racing vehicles for fun, did you know that?) circle in the air.
Our first trip with the RIO (no water licence needed) was lovely: since Stefano told me in winter it had a 70 ltr fuel tank that guarantees more than one day of autonomy we confidently took off.
We navigated up to Bellagio, which is spectaculour seen from the water, and then bended down in the direction of Lecco. Lunch on the boat in a quiet place (just let it flow!) and off to Bellano. In hte meantime the boys had taken over the ship. Officially you have to be sixteen years old but our son of ten can handle it without problems. Crossing the lake back to Bellagio we started hear strange sounds, but holding back just a bit the speed everything continued to go smooth. Just to be sure I asked Vincent to check the level of the fuel: "no problem, I still see liquid floating in the tank". Just when I started saying to the rest of the crew that I didn't hope to fall still the engine stopped. A quick look around showed us that we chose the worst place to drift helplessly around: just in the middle of the in- and outgoing route of the ferries, 100 m out of the coast. We didn't make friends among the professional captains for sure! You know the chamber orchestra only for horns by captain Hook? It must sound more or less like what we heard.
A friendly co-boater teared us off to quieter waters and so safed us from being abissed by those pirats. Phone call to Mostes: laughing orchestra! He kindly brought us a jerrycan with fuel, that after dearing acrobacy by Vincent, jumping from our little to his very much higher boat, jiggling on the waves, was poured in the tank. "Have a nice day, bye ,bye". We just crossed the lake again when the phone went: Stefano: "no matter where you are, PUT OFF the engine NOW. I gave you the wrong type of fuel." Shouting orchestra! His dad came over with a very speedy speedboat to bring the oil to mix with the gasoline. After this very hot, panoramic and musically inspired tour we turned back to harbour, where we immediately made us explain where to refurnish fuel next time we go out.
If someone reading this gets inspiration to go for a boat trip: it is for hire, just let us know. I will inform Mostes you are coming and let him check if there is sufficient fuel in the tank. Posted by Jakob
Posted by Cees Van. Posted In : Hints and Suggestions
My wife and I co-own casa3dici with the Zwaan family living in Italy.
