Our dealer sent us dates confirmed by the commissioning yard! On the 29th of April s/y Charlotte will be launched into
The Name!
After a lot of back and forth with our dealer, we’re still not sure when exactly our handover in Greifswald will be. We had planned to go there beforehand with Charlotte and have a naming ceremony. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen either.
Some Day In May
Maiden Voyage is the name of a jazz tune by (the legendary) Herbie Hancock. I used to play it a lot in my previous life as an aspiring jazz pianist, but little did I know that one day I would actually embark on a maiden voyage for real, on our own boat. It’s wild. We have speakers in the cockpit, by the way (!), so if the rest of the crew approves, Herbie might come along for a while as well.
Only a Few Hundred Things Left Until Our Hanse 388 Is Ready
The weather in Greifswald is looking good! I just checked the forecast and temperatures don’t seem to drop below freezing anymore.
This means that a bunch of yachts, their owners (along with extended families and friends), yacht dealers and yard workers are all digging in and preparing for that mad dash in spring, when within a few weeks all the boats have to be woken up from their winter rest, commissioned, and finally handed over to their future adventures and adventurers.
Finding a Marina for our Hanse Yacht
Things are looking good! Charlotte is back from her first sailing experience not only alive, but maybe even a bit hungry for more. And in a few months a (probably nice and smiling) guy from our Swedish dealer will hand over the keys to our lovely boat, and then we’ll sail it from Germany to Finland. A small problem, though: we don’t have anywhere to park it once we get here!
Review of Navtours Exumas
If you want to sail to the Exuma islands in the Bahamas, there aren’t very many chartering companies offering bareboat charters to do so. In fact we could find only two: Moorings operating on the north side of New Providence, on Paradise Island, and Navtours (member of Dream Yacht Charter) located on the southeast side of the island, operating out of Palm Cay Marina. We chose the latter, and this is a post about our experiences.
Day 6: Sailing Back to Nassau
We thought we had anchored in the perfect location to get a peaceful night, but boy were we wrong! The boat bounced all over the place and we ended up having the most restless night of the whole trip. Ok, part of the restlessness was probably due to everything nearing its end, but still, it wasn’t a very good night! We got up slightly more tired than we were used to, and started preparing ourselves and the boat for the last leg of our trip: sailing back to Nassau.
Day 5: Sailing Back North to Ship Channel Cay
Wind in the hair and smiles on our faces we set sails again, heading back north toward our final destination before returning to Nassau: Ship Channel Cay.
Day 4: The Sandbar
In the Bahamas the difference between high and low tide is about a meter of water. There are plenty of shallow places with sandy bottoms, and when the tide goes out, a few of these are exposed as “popup beaches” in the middle of the sea. They seem like absolutely magical places, so we set out to look for one!
Day 3: Sailing, Rowing and a Wonderful Encounter
Adjusting to the Bahamian time zone (Finland is +7 hours) was quite funny. When it got dark (after about six o’clock) we got tired and went to sleep. When the sun rose again, about twelve hours later, we got up. I never get this much sleep at home, so it was actually quite refreshing!