Hi from Hellas and the ribandsea forum!

[Joseph P]

Dear fellow ribsters, on behalf of the administrative group of the ribandsea forum I send you our best greetings from the most beautiful corner of South East Europe!

Our forum is just... two months old and some 230 members (so far) enjoy their time, exchanging their ideas, experience, knowledge and, most of all, having fun among them.

Ribandsea forum is different from the other Hellenic rib fora, as there is also an active electronic "magazine" on the same name, that is www.ribandsea.com, the ribandsea forum being a part of it as a matter of fact. Unfortunatelly www.ribandsea.com is written only in Hellenic language at the moment.

As far as I am concerned, I have been to U.K. twice on board inflatable boats. In 1991 I participated in the Round of Scotland Rib Race (The Highlands and Islands Rib Race) on board a 7,4 mtrs Olympic rib, powered by a 200 h.p. inboard outboard diesel engine. We had made the whole trip from Hellas on board that rib, departing from Piraeus, the port of Athens, and arriving as far as Inverness, via the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean, the waterways of France and the North Sea. One of my crew members was my son John, who was ten years old. We sailed back to our country via the North Sea, Rotterdam, the Vaal and the Rhine rivers, and then via the river of Rhone and Port Saint Louis in Marseille, down to the west coasts of Italy, the Messina straight and the Adriatic Sea to Kefallinia island and the Korinth channel.

The second time was two years later (1993) when I participated in the same Race around Scotland on board a 5,95 mtrs Olympic, powered by a Mariner 175 h.p. outboard. I have made good friends in U.K. such as Paul Lemmer, Paul Emms, Hugo Montgomery-Swan, David George, doctor Ian Falkowski and others. I met Hugo and Paul Emms in the Round of the Azores Race in 1996, while I met doctor Ian Falkowski during the Red Sea Rib Rally two years ago (2007).

We will be here, in this part of globe, under the Hellenic blue sky, and it will be our pleasure to assist anyone of you, who will ever come over here, to have a pleasant and joyfull time.

Cheers!

Joseph Papadopoulos
Journalist - Editor www.ribandsea.com
A member of the admin. team of the Hellenic ribandsea forum

[John Kennett]

Welcome to RIBnet

Sounds like you've had some interesting adventures!

[Joseph P]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

Welcome to RIBnet

Sounds like you've had some interesting adventures!

Hi John! Thank you for the welcome!

Yes, I had some interesting adventures during the last 35 years travelling or racing on board inflatable boats! It would take me ages to describe some of them I guess...

[Giuseppe]

35 years wow !!
I'm sure we can learn a lot from your experience,if you like to share that is !

[Joseph P]

Originally Posted by Giuseppe

35 years wow !!
I'm sure we can learn a lot from your experience,if you like to share that is !

Why not Giuseppe. My only problem is the lack of time! I am very busy, at the moment, with my recently issued electronic magazine www.ribandsea.com and the forum involved. I have a lot of things to do, such as boat tests, travelling around the Aegean islands, exchanging comments and ideas with ribandsea forum members etc.

However, I promise that as and when I have some extra free time, I will share with you some of my adventures of the past. Needless to mention of course that it's a pity that Greek language is most probably double Chinese to you, otherwise you could read these adventures of mine in www.ribandsea.com

[Giuseppe]

Originally Posted by Joseph P

Why not Giuseppe. My only problem is the lack of time! I am very busy, at the moment, with my recently issued electronic magazine www.ribandsea.com and the forum involved. I have a lot of things to do, such as boat tests, travelling around the Aegean islands, exchanging comments and ideas with ribandsea forum members etc.

However, I promise that as and when I have some extra free time, I will share with you some of my adventures of the past. Needless to mention of course that it's a pity that Greek language is most probably double Chinese to you, otherwise you could read these adventures of mine in www.ribandsea.com

Please do whwnwever you have time !
By the way a friend of mine suggests that we should go to Patmos this summer.
Do you have any tips ?
Thanks and good luck with your magazine.

PS Greek are not double Chinese to me, I did some in high school ( ancient Greek) a long long time ago!

[Joseph P]

Originally Posted by Giuseppe

Please do whwnwever you have time !
By the way a friend of mine suggests that we should go to Patmos this summer.
Do you have any tips ?
Thanks and good luck with your magazine.

PS Greek are not double Chinese to me, I did some in high school ( ancient Greek) a long long time ago!

I will first make a comment on your P.S., because it's really interesting to hear that an Austrian student did ancient Greek in high school! I am very sorry to confess my friend, that Greek students do not learn ancient Greek any more!!! It's a shame...

Your friend did a very good choice with Patmos, believe me. It's not Mykonos or Rhodes though! It's a peacefull place, while one can have everything, like nightlife for example, but not the "wild edition" if you know what I mean...

Patmos is located in the middle of what we call "the East Aegean Polynesian" and your friend will have the opportunity to "discover" a group of small picturesque islands within a range of 8-10 n.miles around Patmos, especially if he has an inflatable boat with him. I will try to send you some photos. However it could take me a couple of days or three to find out where these photographs are stored in my records...

[dougcrock]

Hi Joseph
good to hear your still ribbing. Im still organising small cruises on the west coast you must come back some time. We always talk of coming back to Greece but not during Meltemi
Mike is well but not ribbing, Gordon still ribbing but not a lot
Yamas
doug crocket

[Joseph P]

Hi Dough! That was THE surprise!!!

It was good to hear that you are still organising small cruises on the west coast, and Mike and Gordon are still ribbing. A friend of mine told me the other day that "you do not quit racing when you get old. You get old when you quit racing". As for me it seems that the more I am getting old the more I am crazy with ribbing! Bear in mind that I am a happy grandfather already! I am also flying a f.i.b. and the following photos will give you the idea.







It would be nice to join you up there once more, but it's so hard to do it without a sponsor. I will go back into my records and try to find some photographs of the rib race in Scotland (1991 and 1993).

Whenever you decide to come to Greece, let me know.

[dougcrock]

hi
will try and find some photos and stuff best wishes
doug