About Me

My photo
Alaska, United States
I am owned by Pauline and Mark Blasky. My hull was built at the Duncan Marine Yard in Taiwan and launched in Dec of 1980. It is a William Garden design based on the Pixie Design and called by Duncan Marine a Freedom 45. They are the fourth owners and have owned me the longest. They have done extensive refitting to me including replacing my entire deck structure and rig. My masts are roughly 10% taller than original and now are made of aluminium as opposed to the original wood ones, which, though pretty, were always problematic. You can read more about me under "MORE ABOUT SARI TIMUR"

March 31, 2013

Turning 55

Wow it has finally happened I have reached old age.  Last week was my birthday.  And it was number 55.  That is the age I can collect my CPF.  Of course that was a small enough amount we have decided to leave it  in place.  But the plus side here in Guam is I can go to the front of all the queues, which came in handy when I went to the DMV to register the car.  The actual birthday was fun we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and they put on a cake for us.  After great food and a few margaritas we then ended up in the local brew pub for the Saturday night band.  Turned out to be an alright night.




                                                          The Cake




The Old Man

Our New Ride

We got the settlement check from the insurance company for our truck and we bought this. Our new 'old' ride is a 2002 Nissan Xterra. We hope we will be happy with it like we were with our truck.

March 25, 2013

We're Staying ....

..., but only for another year.

It is now coming to the end of March.   Mark is still happy with his job as captain of Alii Nui, the charter cat and  Pauline is still happy with her admin job.  The bank account is healthy again.

So, Guam, we are here to stay for another year!  Now, let's keep our fingers crossed that the "T" word will stay away while we're here.

March 14, 2013

Live Another Day


On February 20, 2013 Mark had the afternoon off.  So he took the truck and ran errands.  In the evening, he picked Pauline from work.  We were looking forward to getting home to the boat, where a couple of nice steaks were waiting to be eaten.

As we were driving in the middle lane going southbound, a blue Toyota sedan came screaming across the road, right in front of us.  Mark immediately applied the brakes but it was too late to stop and we crashed into the side of the other vehicle.  As usual, the airbags deployed but the speed at which the other vehicle was going caused both vehicles to the side of the road and we crashed again, into a huge tree.  By then the airbags had deflated.  Having never been in accidents where the airbags deployed, we smelled smoke and saw smoke.  First thing Pauline did was asked if Mark was ok.  He said "Yes, but I think the car is on fire".  So we both got out of the truck, real quickly.

We saw that the other vehicle had also crashed into a tree.  The miracle is that there is a house between the two trees.  What is also a miracle is that all four of the occupants in the vehicles got out alive.

The police arrived, together with the fire trucks and ambulances.  Even the tow trucks were there.  Mark had filled up 5 jerry jugs full of water and tied them to the back of the truck and these broke loose and crashed into and smashed the storage box in the back and fell onto the road.

The ambulance transported us to the hospital, where we had x-rays, blood tests and pee test to determine if we had broken bones, internal injuries, etc.  About 5 hours later, we received the good news that we didn't break anything and sent home.

The driver of the other vehicle is a 16-year old, pregnant girl with no license or permit to drive and the car was a rental.  It was alleged that she was having an argument with her boyfriend while driving and going at 55 mph.  She crossed the northbound lane, plus the 'suicide' lane and the left lane of the southbound lane, right across our path.  If we did not hit her vehicle, she would have driven right across 7 lanes of traffic and crashed into the house.  I don't think she would have thanked us for saving her life plus that of her unborn child.  She didn't even say sorry for causing the accident.

We are waiting for the police reports and insurance reports but we believe the truck is totaled.  We are planning on leaving Guam in a year's time and are a little upset about losing the truck.  We would now have to look for another truck.  Our trusty, rusty old truck was very reliable and took care of our needs to ferry water jugs and diesel and petrol jugs.  We also paid a really good, cheap price for it and it would be difficult finding another cheap and good conditioned truck.

We are badly bruised up and in pain, and we complain about it but we are very thankful that we are alive and not seriously hurt.  Through this accident, we also came to experience the kindness of the people of Guam.  The EMTs were reassuring and gentle, even if they had to put a neck brace on Pauline and strapped her onto a backboard and gurney, despite her protest.  One of the witnesses stayed till we left in the ambulance.  Pauline’s boss, Tim drove to the hospital to see us.  Our friend John also came down to the hospital and offered help.  Kerry was at the scene almost immediately and helped us take some of our stuff out of the truck.  Chris drove her car to the hospital and left it there for us to use.  The next day, when we returned Chris’s car to her, she invited us to their place for dinner (just so we didn’t have to deal with cooking).  Everyone was so concerned about us and we really felt the love.

Some photos of the truck and the car we hit.  We are still amazed that none of us were badly hurt or dead.  In her dreams, Pauline had wanted to buy a mini cooper but she has now changed her mind.  Now she is looking at armored vehicles!!


 

Accident Update

Well after 22 days we finally got the police report and man is the girl who caused the accident in trouble.  She has 4 citations just on this accident.  Plus her story is not consistent with ours or the external witnesses.  Plus it looks like she may have pulled a runner as the rental car company and insurance company is having difficulty finding her.  Anyway we should be settled with the physical damage sometime next week and our medical stuff shortly after.