Monthly Archives: Sunday June 5th, 2011

First test sail

Posted on Sunday June 5th, 2011 by dafdaf

I didn’t mention that this weekend we had visitors: Our good friends Markus and Hille arrived with their kids Sol and Ida. And since they arrived yesterday and couldn’t do otherwise but support us with our work – today we HAD to go for a little trip.

After putting the sails in the morning, we started towards the Stettiner Haff in a light breeze that allowed for a very RELAXing crusing speed of 2-3 knots. That’s not much to go forward but quite enough to throw ropes into the water and have a lot of fun swimming around the ship and doing stupid stuff.

And that’s what we did: going there and back again jumping into the water every couple of minutes to bear up against that crazy heat we had the last days. But now I have to quit writing – the mosquitos are eating me alive !! We have to get into saltwater tomorrow !

Posted in LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 2 Comments

Putting the mast

Posted on Saturday June 4th, 2011 by dafdaf

Wooohoooooo !!!!!!!!

After half a year of driving around and owning a motor vessel we finally did the upgrade to a sailing ship again ! :-)

We had lots of work because before puting the mast, we first had to install new cables for a LED toploght and the LunaWLAN antenna. We also put a new remote compass to the mast and finally around 8pm we were ready to put it. Here some pics:

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Arrived in Stettin

Posted on Friday June 3rd, 2011 by dafdaf

Our second day on the ship and still everything at it’s best. We’ve got the best weather we could hope for and a really nice trip towards Stettin. About 20km before arriving we were running out of fuel and had to park the Rancho Relaxo ‘on the side strip’ where we refilled from a jerrycan. Five minutes later we were running again. Phew !

Tomorrow will be the day when we transform the Rancho Relaxo from motorvessel to sailing ship. But before we can put the mast, we have to pull new cables and mount the LunaWLAN antenna on the top. I’ll post pictures from our hopefully successful work.

Ah – and did I mention ? No, I forgot: Viola brought a little present from her last days at the kindergarden: She’s got chickenpox ! Hmmm. We should probably put the Q-flag once we’re sailing. ;-)

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Our first day underway

Posted on Thursday June 2nd, 2011 by dafdaf

After so much time preparing and planning – today we finally cut the lines and left Berlin !!
After so much chaos in the last days we really had the most wonderful start into our adventure. With us is our friend Wolfgang who helped us soooo much in the last weeks that without him, we probably would still be in Berlin for another few weeks.
So we left the Marina Lanke at 06:35h in the morning and had breakfast somewhere between Spandau Lock and Lehnitz Lock.

The day was wonderful with the most beautiful weather and a fast travel without much waiting at the locks. Another sight was of course the ‘Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow’ which lifts ships travelling from Berlin to the Baltic sea about 36 meters !

We arrived in Marina Oderberg at 19:50h and finished our first day with argentinian steak and a Septima Malbec 2009. Perfect !!

Posted in Berlin, Freedom, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | Comments Off

Shortly before leaving

Posted on Wednesday June 1st, 2011 by dafdaf

If everything works out ok, tomorrow early in the morning we’ll be underway towards the Baltic sea.

You probably thought so, but the last days we were quite busy. I had to fix a couple of last minute problems with the ship and Gui is still in the city working on her next Coquito collection. But tomorrow morning we’ll leave. Keep an eye on the little map to the right as I *just* fixed the position reporting system !

As I still don’t have any pictures from our party, I’ll post some work-pics: Viola and Bruno while filling our cereals into water bottles. That’s it for today. Tomorrow, we’ll start when the sun rises. ;-)