Next term: 14 January 2010

Yesterday, 26 November 2009 we had the next term in de Romanian court in the case Grethe Witting. The court established a new term on the 14Th of January 2010. We cannot attend the sessions because this type of cases is dealt with just administratively for the moment and no parties are heared in the case at this moment.

In the meantime Grethe Witting is still 7 meters down under. My counterpart wants to lift the ship but for that they decided to built a metal frame. WIth the drawings of the ship they now want to built it. My advise to do it the Dutch way and use wood and poles to support the ship was not listened too and therefore future of the ship is for the moment the hands of Romanian specialists and my ex-financial partner.

It is sad to see her masts coming out of the water while the entire ship is now down for more than 7 weeks. One thing is sure, she will need a total refit and a lot of work needs to be done to make her sail again.

BlogCatalog

Grethe Witting Sank in the harbor of Mangalia

Very upset, frustrated and also angry I finally report about the tragedy around the Grethe Witting, the beautiful Lowestoft Lugger that we sailed from Rostock(Germany) to Mangalia (Romania). Many people wrote me emails after several reporters published the pictures of the sunken Grethe Witting on the net. As I am still involved in lawsuits it is not possible to provide all information at this moment. How did it come? Well that is the $1.000.000 question.

When we arrived in Romania we planned to set up traditional sailing charter on the Black Sea. For financial assistance with the purchase of the ship I interested a dutch private investor that provided a loan for 5 years. Immediately after arrival we ran already into big problems due to a difference in opinion regarding how to run a ship (..):  Me with my 5 years experience on board of charter vessels and  my training at the Enkhuyzer Zeevaart School  and my investors of whom I doubt that he ever sailed before. It was clear that there only can be one skipper on board, so it went…. My Dutch investor started a legal procedure to get possession of the ship without informing me and since we are in Romania, the court simply honors the request without hearing the counterpart, me. As a result the ship was confiscated in November 2008 and by an auction organized in June 2009 sold to the investor. I was ordered to leave the ship and the ship officially came in the hands of my investor, the new owner according to Romanian law. On the 1st of October 2009 the Grethe Witting  sank. Some suggest that it could have been because of the age, but we know better; if you do not know how to take care of a ship she will eventually can sink.

Grethe Witting, you brought us from Holland over the dangerous Biscay, along the African coast to Malta, led us through the Greek Archipel and finally delivered us safe in Romania. Now you are there, 7 meters below sea level waiting to be saved…. for sure this was not necessary.

We are now in court where I contest the decision of the Romanian court. That is the short version.

How will it be solved? That is probably a $2.000.000 question as they entire interior as well as all installations are destroyed.

To be continued….

Successful Comenius Project in Bacau, Romania

Bacau was the first city in a sequence of 5 for the Comenius project: my school life; your school life. Organized by Roxana Tampu, yes my lovely girlfriend, this first visit was a success for both the local participants as well as the visitors from Germany, Poland, Portugal and Wales. Teachers visit together with children with special needs other schools in the EU. In this way teachers can exchange information and discuss how each country provides means and solutions for children with special needs. For the children themselves it is a unique chance to visit another country.

During one week the group joined classes at the special school in Bacau while there were several visits and activities. On Tuesday the group visited Betania, the institute managed by Andre Muit.

The closing event took place in the club of Olive Garden. The restaurant prepared a lovely buffet with many kinds of traditional Romanian food. Both children, visitors and teachers danced until midnight.

Click here to see the pictures.

Groningen rounds Europe

European Odyssee

Groningen – Mangalia

10 sailors

100 years old wooden ship

Grethe Witting

See Katharina her full report here

Artist Painter Gerriet Postma Died at the age of 76

 

 

 

GRONINGEN - Artist painter Gerriet Postma died last Friday the 27th of February 2009, after being ill for a long time. The artist painter had international audience with his expressionistic style.He was living at the Noorderhaven where I also had our ship the ‘Havornen’ moored and while walking along the harbor I looked into his workshop many times.Together with Kars Thaden, Gerriet Postma formed for me the artistic landscpae of one of the last strongholds  of free life in the Netherlands. Gerriet choose to live on shore while others, like Jan Veldhuis and Riny Bus as well as my ex-wife Gabriele van Emmerik, choose to live on board of a ship and practice there the art or arts, each with their own style and environment.   Auction House Records. Composition Freedom Gerriet schuwde niet om ambitieuze projecten aan te pakken zoals: Gerriet Postma Klipper Anna   Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee More works of Gerriet Postma Online:    More links: http://www.gerrietpostma.nl/ http://www.kunstaandenoorderhaven.nl/deelnemers/GerrietPostma/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerriet_Postma

Organizing Ratelband Seminars In Romania

Much of my time now goes to organizing the visit of Emile Ratelband to Romania. The ship ‘Grethe Witting‘ is prepared for the winter, all sails down and packed. So focus on the winter activities. I joined my friend Dan Aiacoboae – yes it not so easy to spell  his last name but just let come out and you will see it has a sound – in business with hqMedia, a PR company based in Bacau, Romania. 

But I was writing about Emile Ratelband, the NLP motivator; coach and entert(r)ainer; the Tsjakkaa man. We now prepare his visits to Romania. For this I will go to Holland for a preperatory meeting. We choose Groningen as that is not only my home town but also Emile seems to have there some links. So if you see us walking through Groningen together you know why: Emile Ratelband goes Romania!

We plan the first try-out seminar in Bucharest on 22nd of January 2009 in Hilton, Athenee Palace, Bucharest. This will be the introduction of the Ratelband NLP approach to Romania and the Romanians. Well, to be honest, we need some Tjsakkaa here, and this goes back for me many years. I remember walking with Mihai Negroiu, his cousin and friends through the city of Oradea in 1994. We talked about Romania and what the future will bring. They were all quite passive, so at a certain moment I said to the group, TSJAKKAA, emphasizing on the fact that they have the future and just need to say to themselves I CAN DO IT. Next time i came back my friends were saying tsjakkaa but the energy was still missing. So I wanna make up, taking Emile Ratelband to Romania and let my friends say again ‘TSJAKKAA’ but now properly coached by a professional, the master in NLP. Only just  now Romania is open to such initiatives we believe as NLP just started to enter on the Romania market.

So if you wanna join the first seminar ever of Emile Ratelband in Romania, call me: +40 730 419 300 or reserve your seat: ratelband @ hqmedia.ro

 

You can write  me too: markus.vrieling @ gmail.com

Frumuseţe clasică

A fost unul dintre personajele verii, prezent aproape la toate evenimentele nautice importante, ancorat fie în Mangalia, fie în Eforie. Grethe Witting era de fiecare dată bucuria copiilor, dar şi a celor mari, ale căror nostalgii mergeau, la vederea vechii nave englezeşti, înapoi către farmecul unui film precum Toate pânzele sus. Povestea navei ne-a fost împărtăşită chiar de către căpitanul ei din acest moment, Markus Vrieling, marinar împătimit, încă de la vîrsta de 11 ani, când învăţa să navigeze, legat la ochi, pentru a simţi cât mai bine direcţia vântului.

citeste mai multe in Yacht Expert noiembrie 2008

(c) Yacht Expert

Autism in Romania

Roxana Tampu is Psychopedagog in Bacau, Romania and treats children with Autism (or ASD). This is not an easy task and it requires a lot of patience if you work with an autistic child. Parents that discover that their child is autistic will see that from that moment on their life will be never the same anymore. On the website of Roxana you can see some video’s that are published on You Tube by parents. You realize what it means to be a parent of an autistic child when you look at the video that the father of Quinn made.

Parents in Romania with an autistic child have an extra problem: they have to work with authorities that are  not even aware of the seriousness of the problem. Look what Carmen Gherca wrote:

Autistic children invisible for the Romanian Authorities (in Romanian)

Carmen is the mother of an Autistic child and also  presedint of Asociatiei Nationale pentru Copii si Adulti cu Autism din Romania (ANCAAR).

Exact numbers of autistic children in Romania cannot be given as there are no statistics about it. The ratio of children with Autism is known as 1 out of 166. This is an average statistic number world wide. It is believed that the number in Romania might be even higher.

One of the problems in Romania is the moment when autism is first diagnosed with a child; “So, for example, many children have learning disabilities, they are not diagnosed until the children get to school, can we identify those children even earlier, even for infancy because they have memory problems?” says Prof. Nelson in an interview about the Romanian situation when he visited Romania in 2006.

Roxana is one of the few therapists in Bacau.  She treats children on a daily basis. Some only in the weekend, some everyday. Although specialists say that an autistic child needs daily hours of teaching, for many parents and their child this is simply not possible in Romania and what Roxana does for the parents and children is for them the best they can do.

My friend Andre Muit runs the Bacau based institute Betania, an institute for autistic children. His institute provides a day care for autistic children. This centre has over a hundred children every day that receive a proper teaching. However, the capacity is limited and not every autistic child in Bacau has the luck to go there. First of all the parents need to see the necessity, secondly the child cannot stay in Betania for all the school years as well as the fact that there is a limited capacity. For a city like Bacau it  means that there must be at least 1100 children with a serious ASD of which Betania treats only around 200. The rest of the children and their parents depend on people like Roxana.

See her blog and read more about Autism, Roxana and her work: http://terapieautism.blogspot.com/

 

Organizations for autism in Romania:

Autism Romania – Association of Parents of Children with Autism
Postal address: OP9 CP95 Bucharest 
Romania
Phone: 40 21 424 7388
Fax: 40 21 230 3614
Email: contact@autismromania.ro or president@autismromani.ro 
Website: http://www.autismromania.ro  

Asociatia Romana pentru Copli Autisti (ARCA)
Romania
Phone: 40-31-4493-4711

New Blog: Emile Ratelband in Romania

A couple of weeks ago I discussed with NLP specialist and motivator Emile Ratelband to organize in Romania Seminars with the theme ‘Tsjakkaa’ . Emile is one of the most successful NLP partitioners in The Netherlands and Germany and even has his own TV shows. But not limited to the West Of Europe, he also frequently has seminars in China, Turkey, USA, India and Dubai to mention some of the countries he recently visited.

But Now Romania

The time is there to motivate company teams in Romania with the famous Tsjakkaa yel. I think we have to translate Tsjakkaa into Chakaa! because the word Tsjakkaa couses serious fonetic confusions I learned here in Romania, so the working title for the moment will be Chakaa!

We work on the translation on two of his bestsellers: ‘Tsjakkaa’ and ‘De Vuurloper’

You can find all about Emile Ratelband in Romania

http://nlpromania.wordpress.com

Soon we will provide this blog in a Romanian translation.