The Mooring lines are dropped

I barely dare looking up. A crowd of people are standing up on the pier, colleagues, family and friends, ready to send us off on our, at the same time, fantastic and frightening adventure.

But it happens this very moment, so I focus on dropping the mooring lines and steer the boat away from the pier, which is quite difficult due to the heavy wind. Then I look up. What an amazing view. Waving, shouting and blowing horns, all with the goal of sending us off in the best maner. Emotionally this is right up the alley when I saw June walking towards me in the church almost 26 years ago, or when I saw Freja, Nanna and Laura for the very first time, knowing that a great responsibility and many fantastic adventures was ahead of me – not to speak of the feeling that I was not completely in control and ready. There is no doubt, that we will remember this moment forever. Luckily, Nanna and Freja sail with us on this first leg, so we can say “See you soon” quietly and alone.

The weeks up to our departure has shown us how rich we are – and I’m not talking financially (and if we are, then ask us again when we are back home). A few of the preparations did not go as planned, but then a big team showed up several days to help. But also borrowing us an apartment, help moving Freja, store some of our things, selling our car, etc. We are lucky – Thanks to all!

We have talked a lot about what many says about cruising the world: Making the decision is the hardest. For us it wasn’t too hard to make the decision. However, handling the consequences of the decision has been the hardest part, especially sailing off without Freja and Nanna.

The weather for the first leg is really bad – a lot of wind against us. Our first test as circumnavigators is the Bay of Køge. We now belong to the group saying “We will circumnavigate the world, but the Bay of Køge is too big a challenge”, so our first stop becomes Dragør. Quite disappointing, but as another sailor said: “You are not on the run”. A good thing was, that we could then finish installation of the windlass while waiting for better weather. A task can be removed from the TODO-list.

Now a bit more than a week after our departure we have reached Cuxhaven through the “Nord Ostsee Kanal”. The first week was rough. Mostly because of the heavy winds and cold weather, luckily this is better now. We were under a lot of pressure to get everything ready for departure, so we ended up bringing more project with us than planned. Something I needed some time to accept. We know from when we sailed Carpe Diem home from Spain, that we can manage without the extra water tank, water maker, etc. on the part of the journey that brings us to the Canary Islands. We have plenty of time on the Canary Islands to prepare the rest, and will make some of it on our way through Europe. We might just as well get used to fixing things on the boat continuously.

Especially the “Nord Ostsee Kanal” from Kielt to Brunsbüttel was nice. This was probably where we started realizing that this was not just a weekend tour. And where we finally felt rested after many very long days up to our departure. The following days we will visit the Frisian Islands, where tide is an important factor. We were 2 boats leaving Lynetten that day. FantaSea, which is a little further than us, is sending back exciting information from these islands, so we are looking forward to experiencing them.