Category Archives: Berlin

Short update

Six years have passed since the last entry…  A few things have happened since then, some of which might be told here later on … but first of all this reactivation is mostly for family and friends who wonder where and how we are. For all others who still might be reading this blog, here comes a very very short update:

Since 2014 we are landlocked again in Berlin. My wife became full time teacher and I started a company specializing in energy consulting (and we build our own ultra portable energy meters). Of course we’re still travelling a lot. Initially with an old camper van, until one time when we visited friends in Gullholmen, Sweden – the sailing fever hit us again. So sometime in 2018 we exchanged the VW van for a small Compromis 720.

Mit dem VW Bus in AlbanienIMGP9519Die Schummla (in Wiek, bei Greifswald)IMG_2782

And then … we got two new family members – first Moana (2018) and then Kilian (2021). So now we have a wonderful family with four kids (and two cats). The boat of course was a little to small so since 2020 we have a Carter 30, Bj. 1979 which we share with another family who are very good friends and neighbours.

IMG_0731IMG_4709IMG_4716IMG_6941

Or to put it short: Yes. We still are LosLocos. :-)

Posted in Berlin, Kids, LosLocos, News, Pics, Sailing, Travel | 1 Comment

Article in the YachtRevue 03/2016

So many months have passed without any news from the LosLocos.

Well, at least it isn’t only us. So far I have yet to discover sailors that keep blogging once they’re back on land. There are several reasons for this. First – there isn’t much to write about. It’s just something completely different to brag about sailing adventures and post the most gorgeous pics of idyllic islands. – To write about daily life in Berlin, work, school and all the stressful moments of this everyday life just isn’t as interesting. Second: there just isn’t time for this. Our lives are busy and demanding and to invest an hour a day to keep friends and ‘followers’ up to date just doesn’t work out. And third: the switch to the so called ‘normal’ life wasn’t exactly as easy as planned (psychologically that is). I felt quite depressed and wasn’t able to write at all. But it seems that’s changing now…

Ein bisschen Winter in Berlin - und unser neues Land-Segelschiff ;-)Unsere neue, alte Heimat - BerlinDie Kinder kommen aus Argentinien zurueckArtikel in der YachtRevue 03/2016

But fortunately there still are sailing magazines and one of those – the austrian YachtRevue was kind enough to ask for a few pages about how it was to come back after three years at sea. It wasn’t easy for me to write about this and had it been any earlier I’d probably have declined altogether. But the developments of these last weeks were promising and got me in a better and more optimistic mood and thus I complied and here ist the outcome.

I couldn’t put the full article online as that wouldn’t be fair for the publisher but maybe when the next issue is out, I’m able to update this post with the full PDF…

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, News, Pics, Sailing | 1 Comment

Berlin – Flensburg – Brisbane

Just a few days ago we were freezing our asses while sailing with friends in the Baltic Sea. Today I’m sweating in the tropics. What a trip ! What a chaotic life, what an adventure…

Frueh morgens geht's von Berlin losUnd einen Tag spaeter - frueh morgens - geht's mit der Marlin weiter...Eis am DinghyBereit zum Anlegen

I’ll start from the beginning: Last weekend it finally happened that two cruising families who know each other since ages via Email, Skype and Facebook get to meet each other in meatspace. I’m talking about the crew of the SY Ironlady or nowadays SY Marlin. Even before we began our own journey, I’ve been a keen reader of their blog and the first book they wrote about their own journey with kids: ‘Meer als ein Traum‘ was the trigger for us to go sailing. So finally we met in Flensburg to get to know each other and go on a little sailing trip with their amazing new yacht. The weekend was exhausting but totally beautiful and just as expected the kids immediately connected to each other and off they went blabbering in three different languages, running around with the dog, chasing sheep or producing chaos on bord. The big ones enjoyed the (chilly) breeze on their faces, the sea, the moving of the yacht – in one word: sailing. It was gorgeous. And hopefullly not the only meeting.

Die wunderschoene Marlin gedockt an der OchseninselGrosse Tafel, im Salion der Marlinund am Abend wieder zurueck nach FlensburgSchoene Stadt. Haetten wir evtl. auch gewaehlt, waeren wir mit dem Schiff zurueck gekommen...

Back in Berlin, I immediately prepare to leave again. This time the journey is a little longer. Destination: Brisbane, Australia. Our ship the Suvarov has been in Redcliffe for several months but the plan to sell her with the help of a broker didn’t really work out. That’s why I chose to fly around the globe to tidy her up and take it in our own hands. I’ve just got two weeks but it should be possible to find a new owner – or at least a cheaper place to leave the boat.

Morgens in Tegel bei RegenUnd Mittags in Abu DabiMit etwas kleinen AugenUm Mitternacht dann in Brisbane

After 1.5 days of air travel, Brisbane welcomes me with tropical-moist, warm air just after midnight. I take a cab to Redcliffe where our marina is located. Luckily everything worked out as planned and I find the deposited security token and our ship’s keys – I get onboard without having to climb fences or getting wet. Heh. On bord no surprises (good !!): everything is in it’s place, no bad stench, no little animals. Without searching, I find the lights in the dark. I sit down while my surroundings together with the ship’s smell remind me of past adventures and places. The soft hissing of the wind generator takes me away to lonely anchorages in the south seas… a torrent of emotions start to break down on me. Despite the exhausting journey I can’t sleep and start to search for a drink. Finally I find an old hip flask with some Whiskey in it. I grab it and sit down at the bow where I immediately catch sight of the constellation Scorpion….

am Strand in RedcliffeUnd zusammen mit unserem alten Zuhause, der Suvarov.

Eventually my eyes get tired and I fall asleep having crazy dreams. I wake up as a tropical shower pours down on deck and I run through the ship to close windows and hatches. When viewed in daylight I can see a few little specks of rust here and there but nothing essential. Actually a lot less than I imagined. One fender lost it’s air but otherwise I cannot find any defects. In the afternoon I walk through the little town to get some groceries and have a look at the nearby beach. Back on board I start the engine which comes to life on the first turn – just as if we’d been getting into harbour yesterday. I’m amazed how well the Suvarov has taken the six months without maintenance. Hopefully a potential buyer will also notice. Tomorrow – hopefully halfway recovered from the jetlag, I’ll start working…

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov, Travel | 3 Comments

Life returns

Half a year has passed since the last entry on our blog. That’s not exactly as I planned it. Rather the opposite is the case: I wanted to document our re-entry into western ‘civilisation’ just as I did with our journey. Often I asked myself why other sailors’ blogs turn quiet pretty much the same instant they arrive ashore ? Now I know the answer and it’s rather simple: There is no time.  The life on land is a busy one and sometimes quite depressing and that’s not something I want to document on the internet.

Fruehlingserwachen unter den HainbuchenDer erste bunte Farbklecks im winterlichen Grau

The question we heard the most often during these last months is: ‘And ? Have you settled in ?’ This question is asked without much thoght and unsuspecting that the answer might be a long and complicated one. Just as for the typical ‘How are you ?’: people expect a simple ‘Good/well/whatever.’ and definately not a lecture on the positive and negative sides of different lifestyles. So right now I could just write ‘Good.’ And all of you would be satisfied, wouldn’t you ?

Or do you really want to know how we are and what’s been going on these last months ? I guessed so…

The initial arrival was quite nice. Hugging old friends, knowing the surroundings and the neighborhood, meeting family and friends of our kids… All very lovely. But we also knew from other sailors’ returns that the actual arrival hits you after a few weeks and it’s not a nice one. It was just the same with us. It’s not that suddenly you realise that the journey and the free and wild life is over. It’s more subtle. The changes get you slowly.

One thing I miss the most are the intense, deep conversations we had with our sailing friends. It seems that the people on land are just too busy or too fearful to really dig in deeper. So the conversations stay on the surface and the essential parts of life mostly are kept out of focus. This is a thing that really makes me sad and it is something that one starts to accept after a while – although it really hurts.

Our kids took it the best, I would say. They really integrated themselves rather easy and fast and Viola had no problems at all to find heaps of friends and find herself to be one of the top students in her class. For Bruno it wasn’t that easy as he was rather slow when it came to reading and writing. He had done school on board in spanish and german but his new school was all english so this was a big step. But after a few months he also had settled in and is now gaining on the midfield in his class. His teachers are optimistic and tell us that by the end of the year he would be above average. Well at least that is no reason for concern anymore. Before arriving in Berlin we were quite nervous about school but it all seems to develop very well. The kids have lots of friends and frequent sleepovers and playdates and both are quite happy.

IMGP3295Und die erste Biene macht sich ans Werk

And how are the grownups ? Well we didn’t have it that easy so far. During the first weeks we had a lot to organize (appartment, insurance, school, taxes, furniture, jobs, etc.) but that was all settled quite fast. More difficult for me was the fact that during our absence the development in politics, economics and society are still in the wrong direction and even picking up speed. So rather than getting more independet from the axis of evil (the five eyes) we embrace them with TTIP and CETA and at home ‘our’ institutions ECB, European Comission and IMF do everything to make the situation worse, to play everything into the hands of a few rich people while the big part of the population in Spain, Portugal and Greece is driven into poverty and unemployment. The news regarding the global surveillance through the NSA are not publicly discussed and the rather shy comission of enquiry that the german parliament put into work was dissolved during the first hearing when a double agent was discovered on the team. Business has to continue. Business as usual with full speed towards the abyss. These developments make me rather nervous (a huge understatement) and I’m quite sceptic when I look into the future. But here comes one of the most important learnings of our journey into the picture: Even when the future looks rather grim, we still know that a different life is possible. And we HAVE lived that life for some years. That gives hope. As does the awakening of Podemos in Spain or Tsipras in Greece. Maybe all is not lost yet.

Well now I’ve disgressed completely into the political arena. But well. Politics is important and the developements right now will have a huge impact on all our future. So. What have Gui and me done during these last months ? Gui was busy with her clothes label Coquito and travelled to Argentina in January to create the new collection. On the side she works three to four days a week in a little french restaurant here in Berlin. I started to work with my old company again. Back at the computer instead of painting the deck or working on the engine. It’s not exactly better work but it pays better and that is quite important for us right now. But still it’s not what I would want to do forever. That’s why I’m currently trying to establish a new company together with a friend. We’re still quite at the beginning but it will have to do with conserving and monitoring energy, focussing on small businesses now but going towards private households in the end. This is really fun and involves a bunch of skills that I really like to work with. Mostly electronics, electricity, programming embedded and web and also installing the equipment on site which gets me away from the computer at least one day a week. But the best is that doing this work, we’ll improve the human impact on our planet just a little and that’s great.

That all means that we both ususally work six days a week while our kids are in a full-time school. We meet only shortly in the evening then everybody is really tired. During the weekends we usually work one day each so there is no time to do anything together as a family. We were prepared that re-entering the ‘normal’ life wouldn’t be easy but we really didn’t expect it to be that hard. But still: spring is in it’s starting blocks and slowly one thing fits to the next and the outlook get’s better and better.

Many friends also asked me whether I would be writing a book of our journey ? Yes. I want to. Definately ! It’s just – right now I have no time to do that. And with two jobs and a lot of chaos around us it’s quite difficult to organize my thoughts and put them on paper (or rather on hard disk). But I have tons of content, a lot of good ideas and slowly the story is developing in my head – despite all the crazyness around me. So don’t give up yet and bear with me. It’ll be worth it. Promised !

But the best thing right now is that in two weeks we’ll be sailing ! YES !! It’s not gonna be the tropics but a little trip in Flensburg with friends will really be good for us. And actually – speaking of the tropics: I will be back soon. In three weeks I’ll have to fly to Australia visit the Suvarov. We’ll have to move her to a cheaper marina and also there might be two potential new owners having a look or a testsail. So please keep your fingers crossed that we’ll sell the Suvarov. That would definately cheer me up !

Posted in Berlin, Coquito, Kids, Learning for life, LosLocos, Pics, Suvarov, Work | 1 Comment

Final landfall

Sorry for the delay but there was just too much happening these last weeks leaving no time for blog updates or other forms of communication besides what was absolutely needed…

So here we are. Back in Berlin, the city we left with the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas just a little over three years ago. We relocated six (!) times during these last weeks, moving from appartment to appartment and back and forth in between Austria and Germany. And to intensify that experience, Gui flew to Colombia to have her very first Fashion Show with Coquito, then visited Paris to have a look at the children’s clothes fair ‘Playtime‘ where hopefully Coquito will be present next year.

The models getting prepared.Little beauties in gorgeous dresses...Fashion show in tropical climate. Nice.Gui and her models.

In the meantime I was working overtime to get back into ‘the machine’, getting registered as a citizen, getting insurance, enlisting and visiting the school of our children, organizing the transport of our few belongings that we left with my parents in Austria, meeting friends, finding a job, getting essential furniture and finding out why our stuff from the boat still didn’t arrive in Germany and and…. Believe me: the life in the south seas was a lot more relaxing.

In beautiful AustriaAnd back in BerlinStreet artFirst day of school !

But compared to my last visit of Berlin where I was quite shocked by the ‘western civilisation’ – coming just from French Polynesia, this time it’s different. It probably is mostly owed to the fact that we all were very looking forward to being in Europe again, having access, money, a smart phone, running water, a fridge and shops that are around the corner instead of a one hour dinghy ride away. Despite all the stress, we all enjoy ourselves, are quite relaxed and happy with the city life.

Leaving the house early in the morning, excited and happyMy beautiful girls on the way to schoolThe welcoming of the first graders takes place in the historic cinema 'Babylon'.Every single new scholar is greeted by his teacher

Still, when I hear the wind shake the leaves I immediately search the sky for signs of bad weather, we don’t really know what to do with all the space in our appartment and all my clothes still fit into a cabinet too small to even qualify as a bedside locker. We enjoy seeing so many old friends and connecting with new people. The kids started school last week and although it’s a little tough for Bruno starting school in 3rd grade and in english, he does very well. Viola’s classes will officially start on monday and she cannot wait to finally go to a ‘real’ school. Heh.

The class 1cIn school...Playtime !Brain jogging

So on monday we’ll all leave home early in the morning… dropping the kids off at school and then I’ll be starting work in the office again. Funnily enough I also got a VERY interesting offer to deliver a yacht from Turkey to France. But I had to decline since all the other stuff going on didn’t make it seem clever to leave my family with all the chaos. But – hey – maybe again in spring ? Offers welcome !

Posted in Berlin, Coquito, Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Travel | 5 Comments

Backup the wrong way around

After straying around for a few weeks, the LosLocos finally arrived at the final destination: Berlin. And the skipper – having nothing to repair on his boat – finally is able to take care of our website. But what’s happening ? Why is my backup running that fast ? What… “not found” ?  … deleted ? How ? But, but I actually wanted to…. Well. It seems I’ve done it.

All is gone. Everything we uploaded in these last three years: thousands of photos and many videos…. all gone. That’s something not everyone could do. And definately not as fast as me. To efficiently delete these amounts of data you need a proper internet connection and the right tools ! Heh.

Flaggenparade im GartenBauzaun Discount !! Jetzt !!!

But as I’m not really new in this arena I don’t get a stroke but keep quite calm and start searching through the backups of our blog. But not ! Funny enought it’s exactly that ONE folder that somehow is not included in the nightly backup routine. Heh. So the only option that is left: To restore everything manually. Up until mid 2012 this is an easy task as I did a complete backup of the whole site when we were in Moorea. The rest I have to extract from a PDF export I once did in Brisbane. And the final posts I restore manually.

Two days later our site and all our pictures are online again. And now I’m finally starting on a long overdue update. There was quite some things happening during these last weeks, believe me !

Posted in Berlin, It's funny ! Laugh !, Learning for life, LosLocos, Net, Pics, Work | Comments Off

The Yanuca island and a difficult farewell

A few days ago I mentioned big news and I guess now it’s time to let the cat out of the bag: We’re in the last weeks of our voyage. Soon – probably sometime in July we’ll return to Berlin. Back into the concrete jungle, yes. Well. Now it’s out.

Of course some of you will try to encourage us to stay and I really appreciate it but be assured: It was not an easy decision. And somehow we wished we could continue. But the time is not the right one. We’ve been sailing three years, crossed two oceans, lost one yacht, had many adventures, met wonderful people and were able to see and live in the amazing beauty of the South Pacific. It’s a good time to stop.

Motorenderweise verlassen wir gemeinsam mit der SY Time Lord die Bucht vor LamiFlautensegeln Richtung MbenggaViola sorgt fuer gute AussichtenGui im Ausguck, um nicht versehentlich Korallenkoepfe zu beschaedigen

We also searched for ways to continue our travel or fast routes to sail back to Europe but nobody on board really wants to cross the Indian ocean and even less the Atlantic from south to north with very few and short landfalls in between. We all miss our family and friends a lot and – it has to be mentioned: Since our shipwreck we always have been very short on money which sometimes complicated things.

Bruno badet Viola, waehrend wir unterwegs sindVor AnkerStrandspassSuedsee vom Feinsten

Soon we’ll try to go back in our previous lives but not quite yet: We still have some weeks left and want to visit Tikopia in the Solomon Islands and climb the volcanoes of Vanuatu. Later we probably will end up in Australia which seems to be the best place to sell a boat in the Pacific.

And just as we made up our mind, the South sea throws this unbelievable gorgeous island called Yanuca in our way. Together with the family from the SY Time Lord we’re the only souls around. The kids wander off and disappear for hours looking for crabs on the beach and investigating a lost resort hidden by the palm trees. We snorkel in the crystal clear water, see turtles and sharks. Dolphins swim and jump in the bay and in the evening we have a wonderful camp fire on the beach. And to top it all off, we experience a rare ‘blood moon’ as we return to our boats.

But still, today in the afternoon we’ll pull the anchor out of the coral sand and sail through the night towards the western islands. We try to reach Malolo Leilei (what a name !) in the morning and probably stay there for a week to celebrate easter and Violas 6th birthday.

Posted in Berlin, Freedom, Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov, Travel | 5 Comments

Signs of life

There still seems to be a confusion about our situation right now. We’ve NOT stopped sailing. I’m in Europe for three weeks to get things organized and to visit my family and friends. End of May I’ll be back in the South Pacific and we’ll set sail towards Suvarov and Tonga.

I don’t want to write about Europe right now. I’ve started getting my thoughts on paper but it’s so crazy, the life here has so little to do with the life we live in Polynesia, it’s really hard to even find things to compare. But I’m 100% happy to be with my family again and it feels good to see all friends after two years. Speaking of: there’s someone weaiting for me, I’ve gotta go.

 

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Pics, Travel | 1 Comment

Arrived and passed out

At 20:55h local time I arrived in Berlin. At the gate, I got picked up by Stephi, Gibor and Wolfgang who immediately shipped the ramaining me to the next bar where we had some beers and shared the first stories. At 01:30am I fell into a soft, not moving bed and passed out. The mobile phone woke me up twelve hours later and now I gotta go out into the cold city and try to get my bearings. Where’s the sea ??

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Travel | 4 Comments

Finished. And off to Berlin ! Yay !

Yeee, in only three days I’ll be back from where we started. Somehow crazy. We spent two years trying to get here to the other end of the world and on Monday I’ll hop into a plane and 46 hours later I am in Berlin. But the decision to go on really short notice also meant a little work. As we’re still not finished with the boat(s) we spent the week in Tahiti. The Suvarov moored to a buoy close to the Rancho Relaxo of the Seas, we exchanged anchors and chains. Now our trusty bow anchor is back with us and the slightly older chain with the ‘Brake’ anchor is on the Rancho. Both items we might sell next week. The old Liferaft is underway to Raiatea where it will be given to it’s new owner, the wind generator now powers a french boat that’s underway towards New Caledonia. The remains of our rig went on shore where Jerry will later transform it into an arch (?) for the Pukuri.

The evenings I spent on the internet looking for spare parts and stuff we need, organizing the trip and trying to get in touch with friends. Oh I hope, somehow I could manage to see them all. So anyway, my schedule is Berlin for the first days, then to my family in Austria. The third week of May I should be back in Berlin from where I leave on the 21st towards our home in French Polynesia.

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing, Suvarov, Travel, Work | 5 Comments

Viola’s birthday – more photos

Sunday we were celebrating Viola’s fifth birthday. There were all our friends from the anchorage/beach as well as Jean Claude and his daughters, friends from school and more.

The party started right in the morning with the setting up of the slack line, some weird rope game, putting baloons in the trees and while the kids were preparing these things, the skip sneaked out and buried a treasure deep under a coconut palm.

The gang had a lot of fun, searching the park for the hidden hints towards the treasure while the grown ups tried their balance on the slack line. But there was one thing that stole away the attention from the celebration: The puppies !

Somebody left seven little puppies under a tree in the park and they all found food and love with the kids that cuddled and carried them. When we left on monday all but two of the little dogs already had found a new home.

Next day we had to leave towards Tahiti. As usual, there’s not much wind and we were running under engine. Back in Tahiti, we dismounted and sold the windgenerator, the VHF and the fridge. Finally things get moving…

Oh ! And I nearly forgot to mention: I’m gonna fly to Europe !!!! Yessss !!! The Ackerman Foundation sponsored the flight to get Gui’s label Coquito started. So I’ll be in Berlin and Austria the first three weeks of may, starting a business and getting parts for the Suvarov. And of course visiting all my friends and my family – oh, I’m so happy. It’s been two years. I really am excited about that trip. Yay !!

Posted in Animals, Berlin, Coquito, Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov | Comments Off

Garry

In these last days all talk revolves around one thing: Garry. That’s the cyclone that developed in the vincinity of Samoa and is now on the way to pass us in the west. Right now it’s a category 3 and the forecast was not at all good. Locally we should have had 6.5m of swell and wind up to 40-50 knots. But right now it seems that the storm will not be that bad and it will pass with quite some distance.

But even then I still did some preparations: The main anchor is buried deep in the sand and we have 55m of chain out. That gives us a scope of 10:1 and should be quite safe. I also put a second anchor on the bow, ready to throw overboard. And we have another one on the stern – just in case. I also removed the big sunroof and removed all the loose stuff on deck. There’s enough food and water on board to last a few weeks so I’d say we’re prepared for bad weather.

Other than that I’ve been focussing on changing flags. I’ve sent emails to the insurance and to get an official measurement-paper for the boat. That is needed to apply for the austrian flag. It’s all complicated and being on the other side of the world doesn’t make it any easier. But I guess, we have that done in a few weeks.


What else has happened. Ah, yeah, there was the thing with my bank card. It arrived with my christmas parcel a week ago. The thing is: for it to work, the card first has to be activated at an ATM of the Berliner Volksbank. Pitty that those are 20000km away. Well, the bank will send another card that doesn’t need that activation. In the meantime I’ll just try to sell some unneeded equipment for cash. Heh.

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Pics, Sailing, Suvarov | 2 Comments

Plenty of new pictures

As we’re stuck in Cuxhaven for the monent, we use the time and the expensive WLAN connection to upload all those pics from the Baltic sea. Everything from the trip through Berlin towards our farewell party to Ruegen, Flensburg and the channel is to be found in the pictures section (in the top menue). Have fun !!

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

Amateur Radio Exam passed !

So in the end it was worth it – spending a whole week inside the ship and doing nothing than to learn for the exam.

Today in the morning I successfully passed the exam ! YAY !!! Now I’m going for a beer. If you’re in Berlin, give me a call on my mobile or look for me in the EKA at Helmholtzplatz. I’ll be there from ~21h.

Posted in Amateur Radio, Berlin, Projects | 5 Comments

In Berlin: Sunday to Tuesday

Huh. Only two more days left to learn for the Amateur Radio License !!! The exam will be on monday at 09:00h in Berlin. Which means that I’ll be travelling to our ex-home-city on sunday evening.

So if someone wants to meet up with me: Call me on my mobile, I’ll be free on monday afternoon ’til late night as I’ll stay until tuesday. – And it doesn’t matter how the exam turns out: I’ll have lots of beer. Hehehehe.

Posted in Amateur Radio, Berlin, Travel | Comments Off

Our first day underway

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 !!

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Shortly before leaving

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. ;-)

Posted in Berlin, Kids, LosLocos, Pics, Rancho Relaxo | Comments Off

Pics from the party

Right now I’m sitting in the cockpit in front of the Radialsystem in the middle of Berlin. We had a wonderful weekend although of course it was very dreadful to see so many friends for the last time for many years.

And as we were busy talking to all those nice people the whole evening, we did somehow forget to shoot pictures. So PLEEEEASE, if you have some nice pictures of last night. – Please send them to us.Thank you.

And thank you all for coming and for the wonderful evening – for sure it will be unforgettable for us.

And how will it continue ? Well. First of all, we’ll sail back to the Marina Lanke and I will do some additional repairs. The start towards the Baltic sea will probably be on thursday. Yay !!!

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 3 Comments

Farewell party 5/28/2011

Last minute Details for our farewell party:

We’ll be travelling with the Rancho Relaxo to the city center and hope to arrive at the Radialsystem at around 14h on Saturday afternoon.
The PARTY will start around 15h in the YAAM !! But as there will be a concert in the evening, we’ll relocate around 19h to the RADIALSYSTEM where our ship is and we’ll stay there and drink lots of beers. I hope you’re all coming ! You can find a detailed map here !

Posted in Berlin, Kids, LosLocos, Rancho Relaxo, Sailing | 1 Comment

Last todos

So – al final – the apartment is empty and cleaned. I’m sitting in my ex-garden while writing this blog post. Once again the car is completely full with things that we found during the last days. But today *is* the day, we’re moving out.

I would post some pics of the moving but that’s boring and we’ve got more important things to do at the moment. – See the next posting…

Posted in Berlin, LosLocos, Projects | Comments Off