Some among you who have joined hands with me on FB (https://www.facebook.com/emmakayonline) will know that I spent last week down in the Athens suburb of Palio Faliro, the reason being that Son-No.-1 has moved there.
What practically no-one knows though is that I had the delightful and enlightening experience of coming face to face with the future, or should I perhaps state more correctly, a rather futuristic Close Encounter of the Third Kind on water!
It all began rather harmlessly…
A long and tiring 600+km journey down and the physical work involved coupled with my no longer being a spring-chicken called for “time to take a break” as son-dear calls it, and so it was decided for me that we would all go to the Flisvos Marina in Faliro. I posted on my fb wall some pics of the marina, and more accurately of what “pleasure boats” lay moored there, but withheld on purpose what I would call my most impressive experience of that afternoon. An encounter that was worthy of a blog post…!
I like to believe that I am an environmentally conscious person, by far not perfect, but most definitely striving to do my best, being aware of the precarious state our Blue Planet Earth finds itself in. We’re all guilty, some more guilty than others, for the current state of affairs here. I also firmly believe that we all have a collective duty to change things; we don’t own our planet, irrespective of the pieces of paper that may confirm us as being the owner of a plot of land or real estate. In my book I’d say that we should rather be called “care-takers” and as such carry the heavy burden of looking after what is a precious environment that should enable man to live a life in health and relative happiness for all future generations. I’m deeply saddened by the fact that man appears to be doing his utmost to destroy the very environment he needs to survive…
And so it was with sheer delight and most certainly with a high dose of wonder, that I found myself being rather puzzled when we came across a vessel which I had never even heard of, let alone seen. A vessel that somehow would fit better in a sci-fi setting than being tied up in a marina, right before my eyes.
The SolarWave…
Berthed alongside the quay of the marina, she lay in the shimmering waters of the harbour, and my first impression was something akin “Huh? That’s a weird boat,”(Heike, forgive me for calling her a “boat”… I realise she deserves much better!) “let’s take a closer look.”
What practically no-one knows though is that I had the delightful and enlightening experience of coming face to face with the future, or should I perhaps state more correctly, a rather futuristic Close Encounter of the Third Kind on water!
It all began rather harmlessly…
A long and tiring 600+km journey down and the physical work involved coupled with my no longer being a spring-chicken called for “time to take a break” as son-dear calls it, and so it was decided for me that we would all go to the Flisvos Marina in Faliro. I posted on my fb wall some pics of the marina, and more accurately of what “pleasure boats” lay moored there, but withheld on purpose what I would call my most impressive experience of that afternoon. An encounter that was worthy of a blog post…!
I like to believe that I am an environmentally conscious person, by far not perfect, but most definitely striving to do my best, being aware of the precarious state our Blue Planet Earth finds itself in. We’re all guilty, some more guilty than others, for the current state of affairs here. I also firmly believe that we all have a collective duty to change things; we don’t own our planet, irrespective of the pieces of paper that may confirm us as being the owner of a plot of land or real estate. In my book I’d say that we should rather be called “care-takers” and as such carry the heavy burden of looking after what is a precious environment that should enable man to live a life in health and relative happiness for all future generations. I’m deeply saddened by the fact that man appears to be doing his utmost to destroy the very environment he needs to survive…
And so it was with sheer delight and most certainly with a high dose of wonder, that I found myself being rather puzzled when we came across a vessel which I had never even heard of, let alone seen. A vessel that somehow would fit better in a sci-fi setting than being tied up in a marina, right before my eyes.
The SolarWave…
Berthed alongside the quay of the marina, she lay in the shimmering waters of the harbour, and my first impression was something akin “Huh? That’s a weird boat,”(Heike, forgive me for calling her a “boat”… I realise she deserves much better!) “let’s take a closer look.”
meet the SolarWave, Flisvos Marina, Faliro-GR (4June2011)
I’m an inquisitive person by nature, to the point that my curiosity regularly embarrasses members of my family, which doesn’t really bother me, to tell you the truth, and I decided to take a closer look. I could see a gent sitting on the rear deck, obviously doing some paperwork or so, a lady in a bright orange top who was cleaning the deck and a young dog, happily jumping on and off board… I’d never seen a vessel like this before and started to take photographs. The entire top part was covered in solar panels and upon closer inspection I detected a side panel that explained the finer details of the SolarWave. I was rather impressed, to tell you the truth, and when at some point I saw the Lady-of-the-Yacht (sounds better than Lady of the Manor, no…?) disembark and walk away with her dog toward the far end of the marina, I made up my mind to approach her upon her return. And I did exactly that… I simply stopped her and told her that if I didn’t speak to her now, I’d probably miss an opportunity of a lifetime and would regret it afterwards… She laughed and we sat down together on the high steps of the pier and started to chat. Heike, the Lady-of-the-Yacht then explained to me that their catamaran had been their home now for the best part of a year and that it was their intention to travel the world with it. She and her partner Michael had come up with the idea of building a totally self-sufficient and green vessel after having spent some time in the Caribbean on a previous journey and different yacht, several years back, where they felt that something should be done about their producing all those terrible diesel fumes and causing so much pollution. Their dream came true through sheer hard work and vision, and the result is here for all to see: Meet the SolarWave…
.. A totally self-sufficient Green Catamaran! (foto emmakay)
As it says on a side panel on the vessel, the SolarWave is the first and only yacht to be COMPLETELY (and this is the most important word here) self-sufficient in its energy production (solar-panels and wind energy) to run the ENTIRE vessel. It is really what you could call a totally GREEN yacht, and this includes an on-board desalination facility to make its own fresh water from sea water! All onboard cook, wash, clean – in short, do everything a normal household does, all with totally free energy! Makes you wonder really why we can’t all do more to promote the alternative forms of energy that Mother Nature provides us with… I am just thinking about the super-yachts that I saw in the same marina where the SolarWave lay berthed, some of which burn over 1000 litres of diesel fuel per day… It’s in no way my intention to attack anyone, but learning things like this, makes me wonder what we are doing on and more to the point "to" our planet… :-(
having a laugh with Heike on the pier, Flisvos Marina
I hereby invite you to take a closer look at SolarWave and check out their FB page https://www.facebook.com/pages/SolarWave-Solarkatamaran-ohne-Brennstoffe-um-die-Welt/ as well as their site http://www.solarwave.at/autark-um-die-welt-2.html.
I count myself fortunate to have been able to see the first fully Green Catamaran with my own eyes and bump into Heike and have a little chat with her. I take my hat off to her and Michael for setting all the wheels in motion to make their dream come true. They both deserve my full respect. And perhaps, who knows, we might see each other again aboard their dream vessel one day and join them on an excursion into our beautiful Greek waters…
Needless to say that meeting and talking to Heike, and seeing their SolarWave made my day!
I count myself fortunate to have been able to see the first fully Green Catamaran with my own eyes and bump into Heike and have a little chat with her. I take my hat off to her and Michael for setting all the wheels in motion to make their dream come true. They both deserve my full respect. And perhaps, who knows, we might see each other again aboard their dream vessel one day and join them on an excursion into our beautiful Greek waters…
Needless to say that meeting and talking to Heike, and seeing their SolarWave made my day!
As a bonus, I’m also including a YouTube clip made on board the vessel of the SolarWave negotiating the narrow Corinth Canal, just the day after I had met up with Heike!
Hope you enjoyed all that... I certainly did!
As always,
with sunny smiles,
Emm :))
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