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Sailing...
Since I was a kid I have always been fascinated by the sea. Born in Nykøbing on the small island Falster in the southern part of Denmark I have never had more than a few hundred meters to the sea.
During my diving carrier I have had the most fantastic adventures at sea and I can not count the number of times where we have been sailing towards a sunset on flat water in a beautiful evening. But one thing is to speed by 30-35 knots in a RIB with the water splashing to all sides. Another thing is the peace and joy of a sailboat cutting through the water with only the sound of the wind in the sails and the relaxing lapping of the water against the hull.
Unfortunately it should take me 35 years until I finally decided to grapple with sailing a sailboat. I joined a practical sailing course in the local yacht club and started out in a Nordic Folkboat which is a popular 26 feet sailboat originally constructed in 1942 as a wooden racing boat and later converted to a glassfiber model.
 During a couple of years a couple of friends and I raced every Tuesday evening in the strait of Guldborgsund.
Unfortunately we were only 2 Folkboats in the race and Palle who sailed the other Folkboat together with his daughter and a friend was a much better sailor and won 90% of all races. But it was good fun and we enjoyed the time at sea and the beautifull evenings
In 2010 I decided to get my own boat. I had been dreaming about it for many years and with Malmö as my home and only 800 meters down to the Malmö harboar Limhamn it was now time to live out my dream. After having spent months reading every available article about boats and searching the internet for boats for sale I finally found what I was looking for.
It was a 29 feet Hanse which was lying in the harbour of Cuxhaven in Germany. I wrote to the owner and was invited to come and see it a few weekends later. Together with my oldest daugther Emma and my diving buddy Michael we drove to Cuxhaven on a sunny Saturday.
The boat looked good, was well maintained and was at a price that I could afford. Unfortunate there was no wind that day so it was a bit difficult to see what she could do. But it was the boat that I had dreamed about and after a few e-mails forth and back we agreed on price and conditions. Her name was Charisma which appealed to me since that was what she had - charisma.
Time was however running and with autumn passing it was becoming crucial to get the boat home as soon as possible. Again dive-buddy Michael was helpfull. Together with his girlfriend we drove once again down to Cuxhaven to pick up the boat and sail it back home. Sven who owned the boat had kindly offered to let us stay the night at his house and we had a good evening with him and his family talking about sailing.
Early next morning we went down to the Cuxhaven harboar, packed our gear and had a final instruction in the use of the different instruments and the engine. Since Cuxhaven is located at the entrance of the Elben river with its heavy tides there can be a couple of meters difference in sealevel and the current can be up to 4 knots. Not the best conditions for a small sailboat with an engine only producing 5-6 knots of speed.
So the first part of the trip towards the entrance of the Kiel Canal north east of Cuxhaven had to be timed perfectly - which it was. Once into the locks everything became quiet and piecefull and for the next 24 hours we had a very nice trip through the Kiel canal on our way to Kiel and the Baltic Sea.
 The Kiel canal is 100 kilometers long and was build in 1895 and was extended to its current size in 1914 to allow the passage of large battleships with a length of up to 235 meters and width of up to 32 meters to pass. In average 450 kilometers is saved by the commercial ships by going through the Kiel canal instead of going north of Denmark.
Around 45.000 ships pass through the canal every day of which at least half are large cargo ships and it is therefore an interesting experience to take the tour in a small 29 feet sailboat. Sailboats are only allowed to go by engine in order to be able to give way for the larger ships in the canal.
After leaving the protected waters of the Kiel fjord we entered the Baltic Sea. A 10 hours trip from Kiel in Germany to Rødby in Denmark was ahead and with the wind increasing we were a bit ancious. During my 10 years of diving I thought that I had been through all the worst examples of rough sea but sailing a small sailboat in 1,5 meter waves coming from the side is something completely different from sailing a RIB with more than 100 HP on the back.
At most time we went at a speed of 8-10 knots but passed 13 knots during peeks. That is a good speed for a 29 feet sailboat ! The benefit was of course that we was ahead of our schedule but it was a very tired crew that went to sleep in the piecefull harbour of Rødby that night.
The rest of the journey went well. We had almost flat sea and no wind while going up through the strait of Guldborgsund and it was with a good feeling in the stomach that we entered the harbour of Nykøbing Falster. Charisma had certainly lived up to the expectations and seemed to be a good investment.
Early 2011 I sailed her to my new berth in Limhamn just south of Malmö. From there I had a lot of nice trips up and down of the strait of Øresund between Sweden and Denmark and during 2 weeks of the summer 2011 my 3 girls and I spent our holiday sailing from Malmö to a couple of nice places and ending in Halmstad on the Swedish westcoast where we met with some friends.
Halmstad summer of 2011
With the move to Hong Kong it will probably take a while before I can take Charisma out on long journeys again but she will still be there when I return and new adventures will come.
In my photo gallery you will find more pictures of Charisma and her crew.
Epilogue:
Charisma was sold in late May 2012. With my plans for staying in Hong Kong for a couple of years to come I realised that she would have to stay on land for that period. Having a nice sailboat just standing there is almost unbearable - she should be in the water, sailing. So when an offer came in I did not consider twice. She is now in good hands, sailing the waters of Stenungssund - north of Gothenburg in Sweden.
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