This is our story

While on our epic 50th birthday motorcycle road trip from Geneva, Switzerland (where we live) to Stockholm, Sweden, a strange thing happened.  We got seduced back into the sailing life!

How did that happen? By spending time in one of the most fabulous and little-known sailing areas of the world, Sweden.

It all started as soon as we reached east coast of Sweden. Our entire three-week stay can be described as a collage of maritime images — boats, islands, marinas and harbours. We started to long for the nautical life, a life we had left many years ago.

To backtrack, we were both sailors in our younger days.  Jacques grew up sailing. His father had a small boat, a Surprise, on lake Geneva (Switzerland). At 18, he bought a Tornado (catamaran) which he kept on Lake Geneva and throughout his 20’s chartered boats in the Mediterranean.

Kathy started sailing at 16, first on a Sunfish, then on to lasers, flying juniors, Hobie Cats and 420s.  It was always just for fun, never for racing.  She didn’t start sailing keelboats until she moved to Sweden. She began by sailing a 26-foot IF, and then moved on to a 36-foot Sveakryssare. Every spring, summer and autumn weekend as well as summer holiday was devoted to sailing.

In late 1994, Kathy was sent from Stockholm to Geneva on assignment. A year later, she met Jacques, who had recently moved from sailboats to race cars, thereby taking a “leave of absence” from sailing.  They did spend their two-week honeymoon sailing in Sweden, and a couple of years later chartered a boat in the BVIs, but their former lives, in which they spent almost every spare minute on boats, was over.

Until 2011.

For the full series of posts about how they got their cruising attitude back, click here.

Jacques:

Loves: Helming (who needs an autopilot?), our dog Mika, dogs in general, gourmet restaurants, the Swiss Alps, travelling, our sailboat Freja.

Is grateful for, among other things: the fact that Kathy knows Sweden and speaks Swedish, making it easier to keep our boat in Scandinavia; our beautiful, affectionate dog, Senna; the fact that he and Kathy have the same interests in life.

Favorite expression:  “quelle pomme à ressorts”

Favorite Podcasts: Temps Présent, TTC, 120 Secondes

Kathy:

Loves:  Travelling and exploring, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen, photography, books, great restaurants that serve real food,  animals (especially dogs and horses), the Swiss and Austrian Alps, the cruising life in the Nordic countries, our Tesla.

Is grateful for: so many things — for example: the fact that she and Jacques share many of the same interests and dreams, being able to live in the mountains during the winter and cruise during the summer, having stumbled upon the Discovery Yachts website, which led to their beautiful boat, having the ver best dog in the world, Mika.

Favorite expression:  “Thank you, universe!”

Favorite podcasts:  Hardcore History, Språket i P1, Freakonomics Radio, P3 Dokumentär, the TED Radio Hour, Hidden Brain,TED radio hour.

Mika

Mika is our beautiful young Beauceron, born on September 24, 2017.  She is full of joy and fun and loves all other animals and people (wouldn’t make a great guard dog)!  She learns fast, and she’s become the perfect boat dog.  Mika’s never gotten seasick and sleeps during the entire voyage.  She has no problem taking care of “her business” on the foredeck.  Last but not least (for our boat neighbbors in anchorages and marinas), she’s not much of a barker.

Beaucerons (pronounced Bo-sir-ron) also known as “Bouviers de Beauce”, come originally from France and were used as herding and protection dogs for flocks of sheep / herds of cows and goats.