Interesting Sea Creatures Indeed
Dolphins!!!
Whoops! Everyone Is Naked Here!
Update!
One Month At Sea: A Picture Post
We made it an entire month afloat! Although I have to admit, this first month feels almost like a cheater month if I am honest. The first week we were in Nowe Warpno getting the boat ready to sail.
And then the week after we did cast off – but not for lands unknown! In fact, up until this week everywhere we have sailed has been our old stomping grounds! First to Ruegen and from there to the tip of Denmark before we headed back to our old sailing club in Borgstedt. So it was a nice and easy way to start the trip. Or at least mostly. The weather was not our friend on this trip!
Nasty nasty wind that had me shrieking with fear in the canals and cursing the very idea of sailing. And then we would anchor for the night and I would calm down and all would be right with the world again.
Even our ability to explode our stuff everywhere feels familiar!
So it looks like we will make it past Amsterdam. I am still not promising past Portugal though!
I promise more updates when we have consistent Internet. Even at a cafe where wifi is advertised my nerves screech at the slow almost dial up nature of the entire thing! Until then I do post regular pics on my Instagram account as well as the Facebook page!
The electrical outboard engine experiment – welcome Torqeedo Traveler 1003 C
And it is done: We just spent an insane amount of money on our new outboard engine: 2.028,75 EUR to be exact. To put it in perspective: Normally such an engine costs between 600 and 700 EUR.
So why did we do it? Is it at least pretty? Nope – it looks like if a German engineer tried to play designer => not very pretty:
So why then? It’s an electrical engine. Which is in some regards is even inferior to the traditional gasoline powered engines for 650 EUR:
- ~ 3x more expensive to buy
- Takes hours to recharge (instead of a few minutes to refill a fuel tank)
- It has somewhat limited capacity due to the state of the art of the current battery technology
But it also comes with upsides which made us choose it in the end:
- Starting is SUPER easy. Just turn the handle and off it goes. No pulling a string, fiddling around with the choke, swearing that it doesn’t start. This means Sherrie can handle it without problems. Happy Admiral => happy Captain
- No explosive gasoline on board
- Maintenance free (after 5 years the sealing at the propeller needs to be checked)
- Pretty environmental friendly (no leaking of gasoline, no fumes, etc.)
And talking about costs, lets take a closer look on the costs over the lifetime:
| Cost | Suzuki DF 2.5 | Torqeedo Travel 1003 CS |
|---|---|---|
| Initial costs | 650 EUR | 2000 EUR |
| Maintenance / year | 150 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Gas / year (0.5h / day operation) | 365×0.5h x 0.8l/h x 1,40 EUR/l = 204 EUR | 0 EUR |
| Yearly costs | 354 EUR | 0 EUR |
We assume here that we will use the outboard engine for 30 min per day in average and that we don’t pay for the electricity but will recharge the battery from excess solar power which we have already.
This makes for the following break even calculation:
| Year | Suzuki DF 2.5 | Torqeedo Travel 1003 CS | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 650 EUR | 2000 EUR | -1350 EUR |
| 1 | 1004 EUR | 2000 EUR | -996 |
| 2 | 1519 EUR | 2000 EUR | -481 |
| 3 | 2034 EUR | 2000 EUR | + 43 |
So after 3 years we should be in the positive. Let’s see if this will work out, we will keep you posted. But truth be told: it doesn’t actually matter. As long as Sherrie can handle the engine (which she couldn’t the old one) she is happy – and so is the rest of the family 😀
The Beginning Of The End
Our time in Berlin is coming to an end! Patrick has finally convinced me that putting our babies in a boat and sailing with them on the ocean is, in fact, a wonderful idea. I am willing to accept it might be a wonderful idea. At the very least sailing around Denmark, the past two summers have been great fun. Falkor is a boat I trust. And when the father of your children tells you that after 12 years together he still wants nothing more than to run away with you, or at the very least sail away with you, your resistance melts and you pack up your babies and go.
Or something like that. ;P
And so Patrick is no longer at GoEuro, and we are ready to sail away come the end of March! Supposing our boat is no longer frozen in the ice that is!
It did require some convincing, and if you are interested in that journey, then get your free e-book here! I have promised that we sail as far as Portugal and then we can reassess if we continue. But I have gone from a reluctant sailor to an excited one. The past 4.5 years here in Berlin have been all kinds of crazy as Patrick and I left behind our motorcycle adventures for parenthood and start-up life. Now we are ready to start a new adventure. And if we can’t go with our babies on our bikes we will go with our boat!
The emptying of the apartment is in full swing, we have given notice to our landlords, and from here on out it is just a matter of how much we can fit on the boat before we sail away!