It’s the old saying, “Be careful what you ask for, because you might get it.” For years, Steve had always wanted to take a boat sailing around the world. And when Jan first heard of the idea, it sounded like a great adventure. We realized it was more then just buying a boat to go sailing in. It was getting the transportation that would support an adventurous life style. We just always had a bit of a problem with the logistics: how to afford a boat, what kind to buy, how to get the time to do it. Finally, after researching boats that were ocean going vessels and kept their resale value, we put money down on a Hallberg Rassy 36 (HR 36). This boat is manufactured on the west coast of Sweden by a well known builder. Because the HR boats are so much in demand, there is a 2 year backlog. So this gave us a 2 year window to figure out all of the “how to” questions. Well, that seemed a good long time – at the time.
It’s amazing how fast two years slips by. Now the final payment was due and we had to figure out what equipment was needed on board, what to bring and what to buy there, and just where we would sail to. We decided to make the maiden voyage a tour of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Northern Germany and then along the North Sea, down through the English Channel to France where we would go up the River Seine and park the boat for the winter in Paris. We figured that the first year we would spend our time learning the systems on the boat and brush up on our sailing skills. Those plans turned out to be a little ambitious, but we did cover a lot of ground and saw some truly spectacular scenery.
Final preparation for our adventure started months before the actual cast-off date of May 8th, the date set to take delivery of our boat. About 6 months prior to delivery, the due date for deciding which options we wanted the builder to install came up. This was our first realization that the initial two year waiting period was coming to an end, and much faster than we were ready for. After much reading of books, magazines, talking with brokers, craftspeople and others, we settled on a list of items for the builder.
Our next challenge was just all of the mundane items needed for living; pots, pans, bedding, pizza slicer, etc., etc., etc. We knew that we could buy all of this in Sweden, but we also knew that it would be a challenge to buy it in an unfamiliar language at the same time we were trying to “learn” the boat. So we decided to purchase as much as we could and have it shipped. That way, it would be ready and waiting for us and it would be one less thing we would have to worry about. This little shipment turned out to weigh over 400 lbs, was packed into 4 huge boxes and shrink wrapped on a pallet.