Exciting Day. We headed over to Germany, to Griesfwald, to see our new boat. We were picking her up from the factory, not the usual thing but we wanted to have a look around the Baltic and wouldn’t make it back into this area again, so why not. She wouldn’t be completely ready but we could look her over and get a better idea of what we needed.

There were also a few things we wanted to drop off, so we borrowed my Brother-in-laws 25 year old mini, Humpty, and set off on the 3000 mile return trip. She was amazing, no air conditioning and we did have to fix the indicator with a Q tip. Apart from that she didn’t miss a beat, passed through 5 countries in 5 hours. (England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany). We made it safe and sound.

**First Viewing- No Mast as yet!!**
Our initial viewing of the boat was not quite what we had imagined as she still had no mast, steering wheel and everything was still in boxes and plastic. Nevertheless she was beautiful, and MUCH bigger than we had visualised. The people who were supposed to meet us didn’t turn up so we just let ourselves onboard and had a look around. We also met the neighbours a New Zealand couple who had just picked up their boat and were heading off. Swapped a few stories and advice on what to and not to buy.

Did what we could and headed back to the UK.

Move on a week and we were back on a plane heading to Griesfwald again, this time it was the real thing we weren’t leaving without Quirky.

Booked into a hotel and started the preparation. The boat was supposedly finished but there still seemed to be numerous comings and goings and things not done, almost done and probably should have been done. A very frustrating few days for Chris. Then there was the handover, which didn’t really go as expected. It consisted of people trying to explain in German how all these technical things worked. I have also decided that the word ‘maybe’ must mean something different in German. It was used to answer every question and many decisions, good and bad, were made on the basis of “Maybe”. Needless to say we didn’t have much idea how anything worked or indeed if it did.

Steffen took us for a sea trial in which we discovered that the main sail didn’t furl in or out, apparently not a minor problem but one to add to the mountain of things to do.

The shopping also started in earnest. First on the list a coffee machine. This was my no discussion item and we ended up buying a similar one to the one at home which I later found out is too big, too heavy and totally impractical for a sailing yacht. But it does make great coffee. This was set up in the hotel room to ensure it worked and also to alleviate the pain of paying $8 for a coffee. She was christened “Clarissa” the 3rd member of the crew.

Then on to Ikea and 2 trolleys later we left laden with sheets, doona’s, pillows, chopping boards, and a whole lot of domestic stuff.

We then visited the Chandlery, Chris’s favourite shop in the world outside of Bunnings. He was beside himself surrounded by numerous types of ropes, shackles and fenders, again left here with trolley loads of stuff. Needless to say we made several return trips to this store. As its often said when asked what does one need at the chandlery, “ Don’t know till I get there!!”

Last stop was the supermarket. The boat needed to be stocked with essentials and provisions for our forth coming trip to Norway. Hard to know what to buy really, especially when it is all in German. We had 1 freezer and 3 fridges to fill. One of the fridges was to house the grog as well as a very large space under the floorboards. Yes ,there are lots of sneaky hiding places for storage on a boat. In fact , advice would be, make a map so you can remember where you placed everything as it can be a long and arduous task locating the spare tonic when you are in desperate need of a gin.

Whilst all this activity was happening our fold up bikes arrived. This had been a big decision as we had really liked the Brompton bikes but they were very expensive so we went with some that were about 1/5 of the price. When I saw the spot in the front locker that they were to be stored, underneath the fenders, decided it was a good decision as they would be lucky to last the summer. Once they were put together we gave them a go and cycled down the canal for dinner. Really lovely spot on the outskirts of Griesfwald where we sat by the water and made plans for the days ahead.

Make it stand out

**… it cant be that difficult!!**

Did what we could and headed back to the UK.

Move on a week and we were back on a plane heading to Griesfwald again, this time it was the real thing we weren’t leaving without Quirky.

Booked into a hotel and started the preparation. The boat was supposedly finished but there still seemed to be numerous comings and goings and things not done, almost done and probably should have been done. A very frustrating few days for Chris. Then there was the handover, which didn’t really go as expected. It consisted of people trying to explain in German how all these technical things worked. I have also decided that the word ‘maybe’ must mean something different in German. It was used to answer every question and many decisions, good and bad, were made on the basis of “Maybe”. Needless to say we didn’t have much idea how anything worked or indeed if it did.

Steffen took us for a sea trial in which we discovered that the main sail didn’t furl in or out, apparently not a minor problem but one to add to the mountain of things to do.

Preparations

So the Adventure begins

The Beginning…