Imagine waking up in your boat at the harbor a hot day in July. Get dressed, read a book as you drink your morning coffee. Eventually you go to the beach and jump in for a morning swim before you and the rest of your family cast the lines while your best friends stands waving you off on the dock. Then you hoist your brand new sails in a perfect tuned rig, and some of your friends follows you out the fjord. You may not return before over a year has passed. This was the day today. Crazy!
But it has not been easy to go. The last year has been intense; We have neglected friends and children, we might not have performed our best at work and the tension has been constant.
Then we have taken teardripping goodbyes to friends and acquaintances, just to meet them at the local shop a couple of days later.
“Are these people ever going to leave ..?”
Oh, you amazing men …
This is the starting frase of a beautiful and funny song called “Att angöra en brygga”, by the Swedish singer Monica Zätterlund. It is about “the strong and solid men who knows all about boats and water”. Listen to it on YouTube
The last weeks before our departure we were almost desperate. We’ve been working all year to fix, learn, buy, connect, screw and plan. Christian in particular has worked as a hero to get all in place; he has done everything from dismantling and reassembling the ships toilet, complete the skipper’s exam, get a radar and install AIS. Nevertheless, we had too many unaccomplished tasks and uncertainties to be able to leave on the 1th of July as we had decided.
But then the heroes arrive! The professional guys. Paul in the local marina (Kavringen), Mehmet from UK Sails, Tobias at JS Mekaniske. And they just deliver.
They help, they hoist, they order extra parts and picks them up, they repair and check, hammers and screws. They never turn you down. And then they conclude, confidently: “This will do the job!” And when they say that, I know it will do, because they have experience. They have been doing this for a long time. They never give up and always finds a solution. They just fix it!
When we now finally sail out, it is thanks to all these nice and kind, committed, well-meaning, strong, hard-barren, solid, amazing men! The men who knows all about boats and water.