Hello.  Adam here.  Time to write my first update!  It has been quite the whirlwind… getting our house organized, our cars sold, and our stuff packed up for the trip, but we made it.  We’re now in Ellös (Sweden), having spent the last two days with our friend / salesperson / project manager Jonas from Hallberg-Rassy going through Saltair in detail.  Jonas (and the entire HR team) have been incredibly responsive and awesome to work with throughout the entire process and we can’t compliment them enough.  And the boat that they built for us is beautiful.  Even after having seen the boat multiple times throughout the build process, we still find ourselves surprised by small, thoughtful design features throughout. 

Let me take a step back for a moment and provide my perspective on our adventure, or more appropriately, adventures, as this is really a three-part story.  The first part is our summer in northern Europe, during which we get to know Saltair while we leisurely make our way from the west coast of Sweden through Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and France, before setting offshore for the 1100 nautical mile trip to the Canary Islands. Part Two puts us in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (the “ARC”) this coming November.  We will gather with around 170 other boats in Las Palmas for 10 days of seminars and social events before setting off as a group for the 15 - 20 day sail across the Atlantic, ending in St. Lucia in the Caribbean in early December.  

Parts One and Two serve as the build up to Part Three, which is the real adventure.   Assuming that Parts One and Two go well, we’ll then join around 30 other boats in the World ARC, a rally starting in January ‘24 that takes the group through the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and then back across the Atlantic to complete a circumnavigation in 16 months, with lots of time for leisurely stops in interesting places along the way.  We each are excited about different parts of the journey, but some of the places we’re most looking forward to include the Panama Canal, the Galapagos Islands, some of the more remote Pacific atolls, Australia, Cape Town (and an African safari!) and Brazil.  

Tomorrow will be our first day owning Saltair and we’ll move onboard in the morning.  We are super excited, but also a bit apprehensive as it is by far the nicest (and most complicated) boat that we’ve owned.  We plan to spend the next 3 - 4 weeks getting to know her and getting her stocked and organized.  For this, we will remain in and around Ellös on the west coast of Sweden.  There is a good shopping district 40 minutes away and we’ll plan to make trips there to purchase the tools, housewares and consumables that we’ll need.  During this period, we’ll likely take a week to cruise north to Oslo, about 110 miles away, both to clear out of the EU customs area and to enjoy our first mini-voyage. 

Guillemette, Seth and I will each have a lot to learn and many adjustments to make as we transition to our new life aboard, but the rapid pace of change and associated steep learning curve is what attracts us to this adventure.  I’m sure that our blogging philosophy will evolve as we go, but we hope to keep our friends and family updated on some regular cadence.  Please let us know how we’re doing by adding comments.

Until the next time...

Adam

Some shots from the last few days:

Family selfie, with the new family member!

Small boy, large bed! Very wide angle lens (lots of distortion)

First seating around the Saltair poker table!

Seth getting a lesson from Jonas in the emergency genoa furling protocol.

And two very proud parents watching!

Unboxing some of the dozens of packages received from amazon.se.