The Christmas present was a wishboard
My dear sister Tine had a wish-board on her fridge and my wife Kirsten was inspired to give me one for christmas in 2015. I thought about my dreams and wishes for some days. As you can imagine, since my great passion is for sailing and keeping our sailboat fit, my thoughts circled intensly arround blue water ocean cruising and long distance sailing. What sailing yacht is suitable to bring us safely across oceans. The internet was therefore scrutinised and Yachtworld was searched for second hand sailing yachts and several YouTube sailing channels were visited and then followed.
SV Delos sailed around on YouTube in a Super Maramu 2000
In particular, I was captured by SV Delos which was sailing around the oceans with the brothers captain Brian and senior Brady Trautman and later with Karin Syren alias Kazza, on board after New Zealand. They sail around in a strong and well build Super Maramu 2000 from the French AMEL shipyard, located in the town of La Rochelle, next to the Bay of Biscay. Therefore, the wishboard was used somewhat unconventionally for a long plan or dream for the future. This is not how you use a wishboard was Kirsten’s remark when she saw it for the first time.
My Wishboard from 2015
Long distance and blue ocean sailing in our own boat in Mediterranean, Atlantic, Panama, Pacific, Indian Ocean, South Africa and home – with the crew being Kirsten, Mette, Lise, Steffen, friends and joining crew.
Boat wish: Amel, Super Maramu 2000, Vintage 1992-2005, price 1.6-2.2 M.kr (213.000-293.000 Euro)
The plan:
- New autopilot for our Luffe 37 (2016). ✔️
- Sail non stop for at least 24 hours in our Luffe yacht with Kirsten – Hot to do it (2016). ✔️
- Sail non stop for at least 2 days in the Luffen with Kirsten (2016). ✔ (we sailed from Vedbæk to Visby on Gotland)
- Kirsten, Jeppe and Mette, embark on a sailboat for a summer trip, perhaps in the Caribbean or from there, perhaps with an Amel (2016 or 2017). ✔️ (in 2017 we sailed with Lars Knudsen in Salvagny en AMEL Santorin)
- Jeppe, Kirsten and Lise take the coastal Yachtmaster (Kirsten also takes the ordinary sailing certificate) (in order to sail a 15 + M pleasure yacht in Denmark and Europe) (2016, 2017 or 2018). ✔️ (2017)
- Rent an Amel Super Maramu or other Amel type in the Mediterranean for 1-2 Weeks (2018).
- Sell Chili and buy an Amel Super Maramu 2000 or similar for long distance blue ocean sailing (2018 or 2019). ✔ (Our Luffe 37, Chili, was sold spring 2017)
- Jeppe takes the ocean Yachtmaster certificate (2018 or 2019). ✔️
- Summer trip in the Gulf of Bothnia (2019).
- Summer trip up along the coast of Norway (2020).
- Summer trip to Scotland sailing through the Caledonian Canal (2021). ✔️ (done in 2019)
- Sail the boat to the Mediterranean (2022).
- Sail in the Mediterranean (2022 and 2023) the boat hauled out of the water during winter.
- Sail across the Atlantic and in the Caribbean (2024 and 2025)-The boat overwinters there or in the United States.
- Sail through the Panama Canal and along the shores of America (2026 and 2027).
- Retire and sail across the Pacific Ocean with visits to Polynesia etc. (2028-2030).
- Etc.
This wishboard is now obsolete. We are already planning a long-distance cruise with departure from Vallensbæk, Denmark, on June 5, 2020 at 10.00 o’clock. (However this has now been postponed until July 3 2022, at. 9:53 am due to C19)
The dream lives
In 2016 we have a splendid summer trip to the east-Swedish archipelago, which starts with a non stop two day sailing from Vedbæk to Visby on Gotland. Chili our 30 year old Luffe 37 is sold during the spring of 2017 before our usual summer sailing vacation. So, instead we sail with Salvagny, a 46-foot AMEL Santorin Ketch (2 Masts), together with Lars Knudsen and another crew member Lars Bang. It is two instructive weeks in which we sail from Amsterdam to Brest via Gurnsey. The same summer we also sail a week in the Spanish Rias along the Atlantic coast as crew with sister Tine and brother Lars of first degree (Yachtmaster 1 ~ ocean) in Xenia (a Bianca 42) which Lars had borrowed for a month. In the month of August we looked at a “cheap” AMEL, Super Maramu 2000 in Holland – however there was rott in the anchor locker and the initial repair was very poor – so this yacht was too expensive. We also looked at one which was on sale in Roskilde Fjord (Denmark), but it had repairs on the top front part of the keel. Finally after a trip to Great Britten, we gave a bid on Rhumb Runner which had circum navigated from 2015-2017 (in 2 years only!).
Rhumb Runner-A Super Maramu 2000 is purchased
A ketch with center cockpit is purchased and sailed home from Portland Marina, located in the largest British military port from WWII off Weymouth on the English south coast. I sail with the former owner Chris Price to Dover. He teaches me a lot during this 24 hour sail – this was very good. Our daughter Lise, Torben Svava Hansen and Benny “Boomstrong”, as well as my brother-in-law Lars help sail Rhumb Runner home from Dover. It’s a quick November trip with departure Wednesday night at 23.30 and arrival Saturday at 9.00 Saturday morning in Vallensbæk. This was with only one night stop in the Kieler canal, since sailing in the canal by night without a pilot is not allowed for pleasure yachts.
The dream is captured
Now we have had a wonderfull sail to Bornholm (Denmark) and Rügen (Germany) during the summer of 2018. During the winter of 2018 and spring 2019 a lot of work was performed for example, the refrigerator was repaired – wind speed, boat speed, depth and sonar instruments were renewed, a new freshwater pump was installed, the bottom and keel were scraped, sanded and painted with 7 layers of epoxy and the standing wire rigging was replaced. After all the hard work, in the year 2019 we have had 6 weeks of summer holiday, wow. We sailed to Inverness in Scotland, through the Caledonic Canal and out to the islands of Mull, Eigg and Skye and finally return through the canal and back home to Denmark – now we have a lot of new skills.
