Funny now, absolutely infuriating at 5am on a Thursday morning. We left the house with quartz precision to catch the plane, and missed a tram by 29 seconds going past the front door. So after a brisk walk to the closest station, we caught the train, got off at Treptower park to catch the S9 to the airport and we were on our way. It was a bit of a nailbiter time-wise, and then some stations started going by that I hadn’t seen before… A quick look at the overhead map revealed our train had changed course for some reason, and panic ensued. I will spare the details, but we missed the plan to England by 15 minutes.

What happens when you miss an Easyjet flight? Well, you have to buy another ticket, and you can’t get a refund. The problem was, even with a new flight, our plans were dashed due to the chain of events that needed to happen, in order for us to be at the boatyard in time to get the keys and open Constellation up before closing time. So, it was thinking time - Do we go, pay for the additional plane and bus tickets, as well as miss the boatyard? After much thought and talking to the Easyjet ‘helpdesk’, we decided to forgoe the entire journey. As it turns out, we could get a refund on the taxes incurred on the flights, which meant around 45% of the total cost… Sincere apologies to Tudor who we had intended to meet at the Duke of York.

So, no diesel repairs, no stanchion hunting, and no cup’o’soups with hot water boiled from tea candles. What a disaster.

I will try and make it down there once I’ve recouped some funds from somewhere, hopefully at the end of the month, or in May. Special thanks to Gerard for sending through some much needed funds!

nick.

Every month I receive an invoice for the hard standing on Constellation. Last year it was impossible to pay, and this year it hasn’t been too easy to do either. So the bills kept piling up, and finally a bill came today, that came in an envelope with RED letters on it, instead of BLUE letters. I knew right away what it was going to be about.

So, what can I say, I owe them quite a few pounds… I hope to have at least 500 pounds of it sorted out when I fly over on the 29th of March, but the rest will have to wait. It’s all kind of amusing, considering I’m supposed to be launching in July.

Oh, did I say amusing? I didn’t mean it.

Thankfully my financial woes may be over though, having received this gracious letter today:

Dear Sir,

With regards,My names are Mr.Mohamed .P.Conteh.The managing director of ALUMED INTERNATIONAL.

I will like you to know if you have used fishing boat for sale and how much is the unit price.

I look forward to establishing a long term business relationship with your
company.

Regards,

Mohamed.P.Conteh.
Managing Director,Alumed International.
Freetown, Sierra Leone.

So it got me thinking. If I get this diesel running, maybe Constellation could be sold as a fishing boat? We could ditch that pesky sail business, or maybe modify it into a crane. Heck, now that we’re being creative, why not keep the boat and do the fishing myself? What else am I going to do on those lonely nights across the Atlantic?

So, I’ve been writing more sponsorship letters and working a lot… Good things are happening though, maybe not regarding finances yet (you’re crossing your fingers for me too, right?) but things are slowly moving forward.

I am going to endeavour to update this blog a bit more, I’ve been pretty bad lately.

nick.

P.S The unit price is ONE BILLION U.S DOLLARS in Kruger Rands, Mr.Mohamed .P.Conteh (or anyone else who is wondering how much my boat is worth)

nick.

After the excitement of sailing around Gibraltar the other week, life has taken a dive into the realm of utter boredom. I have this really great project at the end of the tunnel (the trip…), but everything else before it, is simply poo. Sometimes I wish I had restructured my ambitions into a 3 year escapade, instead of a moving half way around the world, trying and learn a new language, buying a boat I can’t sail, learning how to sail and then attempting a half-circumnavigation.

All within 12 months.

I know, you’re all saying to yourself ‘errrr, duh’… However I made the commitment, and I’m not going to stop steaming forward. I have an extreme case of tunnel vision.

Ok, my public whinge is over for the minute, sorry. Immediate change of tone ahead:

Johannes Erdmann who is continuing his shoot to stardom, through book writing, speaking and being the nice guy that he is, has offered to help move Constellation to Kiel. What is my rationale for moving the boat? It’s twofold. One reason is cost - Everything is expensive in the UK, I hate to say it… I’m already in debt up to my proverbial eyeballs with the boatyard for hard standing, and once Constellation is in the water, costs double or triple. Parts, paint, marina fees and everything else related to kitting out the boat is going to be cheaper for me in Germany. I sincerely apologise to my UK contingency. I still love you, and none of this would have happened without the British. It’s just logistics…

The trip to Germany will also be an extremely valuable opportunity for me to pick up more experience, with someone who knows a great deal aboard my own boat. It’s roughly a five day sail, which will be a fascinating voyage in itself along the coastline.

So my immediate goal is to have the boat setup to minimum standards for the July trip to Kiel. This means servicing the engine and liferaft, having the rigging inspected and putting her in the water (the list is longer than that, but I won’t bore you). Ooooh, how I pray she floats.

nick.

Thanks to the insanely great Trafalgar Sailing School, my hopes to do the Day Skipper in February have come a whole month early, quite by suprise. Defying all rationality finance-wise to get down there and do this thing, I’m flying out in 13 hours to M?ɬ°laga, Spain, taking a bus to La L?ɬ?nea de la Concepci?ɬ?n and walking to Gibraltar. Imagine this as a straight line.

No time for idle chit-chat though, time to get organised!

nick.

If I’m not mistaken, Aron Meder (whom I mentioned earlier) has made it across the Atlantic! I look forward to hearing about how he fared - His website is here and his logs appear to be getting updated here.

Henrik and Nina of BIKA fame took some time out to write me a ‘best wishes’ email, which was very kind. In their words “…We left Norway in our Co26 BIKA May 2005, and love our boat, this lifestyle and way of travelling.” I can’t wait to reciprocate their feelings! Thanks team BIKA!

In news related to my small project, I finally got around to putting some proper effort into getting together a task list for myself and the boat. It’s still being worked on, but you get the gist. I have received a few quotes for my new mainsail, and all I can say is: They aren’t cheap! Fabric-wise I have been looking at the German made Contender High Aspect sailcloth… It’s all a mystery to me.

nick.

(Help: If anyone from the UK knows what I need to do with this ‘bill of sale‘ could they contact me. Apparently I need to send it off? I also need to work out how to get an SSR number… Thanks!)

Well, 2006… What a year. I moved to a foreign language speaking country, visited Holland, Denmark, England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway and bought a boat. I attribute this to 99% luck and 1% perseverance; how lucky I am to be so fortunate. I know a lot of people have had ‘questionable’ 06’s, so I think ‘07 is the year destined to be a playing out of the hard work done in the year prior. We can only hope.

I succesfully travelled back with the mainsail, strapped to my backpack so it became considered ‘one item of luggage’. The check-in girl looked at it suspiciously, but waved the ‘pack’ through since it was under the weight limit. As we speak I’m emailing broken German back and forth to a Polish sailmaker just over the border, attempting to work out what I need as well as the costs involved. My existing sail I believe looks quite good - As everyone knows, I’m no expert on these things, but a little common-sense reasoning leads me to believe it’s in good condition.

In other news I have put a few ads around the site, in addition to my search attempts… I hope this doesn’t put people off. I’m just selling out for a buck, no doubt about it. I hardly spin wads of cash on it, but a few dollars here and there might just buy me a wind speed instrument over the course of this blog. You never know…

Fingers crossed for 2007.

nick.