The evening before the start of our trip, the four of us— Pirjo, Mia, Ben and I— were having dinner at the local restaurant, right next to the marina. It was a lovely place, filled with great food and happily chatting people (and even Michael Schmidt was there, the founder and previous owner of HanseYachts!).
Outside, a bit gray and cold.
A while ago Torbjörn (the dealer’s representative) left and now I’m sitting here alone in our boat. I’m drinking some champagne and eating strawberries while writing this. A moment ago I poured a bit of the champagne outside on the bow and said (quite quietly so that only the two of us could hear): “Your name is now Charlotte.”
I was standing on the walkway, next to one of the new Hanse yachts in the Greifswald marina, when I saw a man walking in my direction.
I’m getting a bit nervous. My flight for Germany is in three days and the todo list keeps getting longer, not shorter! Also, the pile of stuff I have to bring with me, that is growing as well.
In a bit over a week, we should be well on our way, sailing s/y Charlotte on her first leg from Greifswald to Rønne. This means that right now is a perfect time to start stressing about the weather.
A while back I listed all the stuff we will need in the boat to be able to sail her home. Now, we have placed most of the orders and are patiently waiting for the deliveries. (The things are shipped to two different countries with some picked up from a third!) Additionally, there are a few items we didn’t think of beforehand that have also been added to the todo list.
This week we finally ordered a life raft for our Hanse 388! The decision process took over a month (!) in calendar time (and who knows how many hours in googling time), but now it’s finally done. The obvious choices turned out to be less than obvious, though, so hopefully our little story will be of some use to other 388 owners.
Our dealer sent us dates confirmed by the commissioning yard! On the 29th of April s/y Charlotte will be launched into
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.
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.
