Sweden Sailing - Day 11

​Where is Royce? Click to Sail Along ⛵

Back in my bunk.  This seems to be my happy place on the boat.  It’s 13:42 on Monday afternoon, and we are motoring through the Kiel canal in Northern Germany.  I just ran out of songs to play on the guitar that Emma provided - of course, there was general consensus that I should be done or the ear bleeds would be incurable.  Prior to butchering every Tom Petty song I know, I enjoyed a warm shower on the deck.  The cool, salty German air under a stormy sky makes for an invigorating outdoor shower - I’m sure the passing barges enjoyed the show of hairy dudes cleaning themselves in succession.  Emma disappeared during all of this and understandably.  After a show of pasty white Neanderthals, followed by a tone-deaf rendition of acoustic sailing music, accentuated by the pungent smell of burning diesel, we’ll be lucky to reach the North Sea with any of our senses intact.  And so, I’ve gone down below to hide in my shame. 

I’ve realized that our crew has been together now for nearly a week and I’ve yet to introduce them.  We’ll be making our way through the canal until nightfall (60 miles total), so I’ve plenty of time to describe the characters that make up this motley crew. 

Captain Andy - ​Andy is responsible for all of this.  He hails from Pennsylvania, and it was just revealed yesterday that he graduated from Penn State.  My triggered excitement to talk Big Ten and commiserate over constant beatings by the Buckeyes was immediately squelched when he announced his indifference to football.  Awkward silence ensued before I was composed enough to ask a follow up question.  He’s about my age, married to Mia, a Swedish-born gal he met in New Zealand some years ago and has one son, Axel, just over a year old.  Andy is a well-known blue water sailor, podcaster and owner of 59 North Sailing, an outfit of two sailboats that he uses to take paying guests (like me) offshore for several days or weeks at a time.  He is organizing a round-the-world trip in 2 years, broken into 4 legs.  He’s already let me know that I have a spot on leg one if I want it - set sail from northern France on the English Channel and sail around Europe to the south and west, following the coast of Africa until we round the Cape of Good Hope and make landfall on the eastern side of the cape.  6 weeks of nonstop sailing.  I’ll have to sell that one to my team, my wife, and my own sensibility, but this gives you a little insight into how big Andy thinks with regard to sailing adventures.  He’s very balanced in leadership, direct and impatient where he needs to be (for safety) and totally chill and talkative in general.  It’s no surprise to me that his trips are always full, and that he assembled a crew I like.  Culture comes from the top - good lesson for any organization. 

First Mate, Emma - Emma is in her mid-20’s and has been working with Andy for nearly a year.  She is from the East coast but lives in Boulder, CO, when she is not living aboard Ice Bear.  She rounds out the corners of Andy’s leadership and is extremely sweet but is as feisty and tough as the other sailors.  Her knowledge of the boat, approachable experience, and eagerness to help and teach is indispensable for all of us.  If Andy is the visionary coach, Emma is the assistant, deeply concerned for the players while making sure we work as a team to meet the demands of the mission, and have fun doing so.  Having a woman on board also keeps everyone on their best behavior, which has or will save us from our own ape-like tendencies in the end.  She’ll have an open invitation to visit Tara and I and the girls back in Denver. 

John - John is UK born but lives in Toronto with his wife.  He is on the verge of retirement, and is contemplating owning a boat or doing more sailing in this next phase of life.  He is the easiest going, friendly, dad-like person on board.  That said, he has this twinkle in his eye that reveals a hidden little boy ready for adventure and harmless trouble.  My favorite story of the trip involved his first week of a gap year after college when he was swindled by his UK train companion, leaving him penniless on a nude beach in the south of France.  “The best thing that could have happened to me”, he announced with the wisdom of another 40 years, and the nostalgia for whatever he wont reveal about that first weekend in Marseille. 

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​​Jim - Jim is another pre-retirement sailor.  Unlike John, Jim is very quiet.  He hails from Southern California, and sails his small boat out of Marina Del Rey.  He’s also married, but is unapologetically so quiet that if you don’t think to ask him a question, you may not hear from him all day, or week.  But, he is quick with a smile, and I think he is just absorbing all of the newness and excitement of what we are doing.  From the brief discussions we’ve had, I get the sense he is loving every minute, and if his wife will let him get a word in back home, she’ll learn about his adventures on the high seas.  My father can certainly relate. 

Florian - A little younger than me, Florian is a French born architect practicing his craft in Stockholm.  He is the first legitimate Frenchman I have spent any considerable time around, and he grows on you like the wild mushrooms of his native countryside.  He has a permanent scowl on his face like he is contemplating an architectural flaw, interrupted by a smirk that lets you know he is well aware of the humor in the situation.  Florian was one of two last-minute stow-aways that filled an open birth 24 hours before we departed Sweden.  We met his Spanish girlfriend, Maria, who also practices architecture and will be joining him on their future endeavors to live in Spain after taking an 8-month break from life on their sailboat in the Mediterranean.  I have the hardest time understanding what the hell he is saying, and yet, can’t get enough.  We learned that he needs to leave tonight so he can help move his sailboat back in Sweden before the season ends.  We’ll all be sad to see him go. 

Nadim - Just 40, Nadim is our well-bred crew-mate, born in Canada, raised in Egypt by his English mother and Sudanese father, Columbia undergrad and Harvard MBA.  He is a partner at Blackstone in London, doing private equity across Europe.  He and his wife have a sailboat in the South of England, an hour’s train ride from the city, where he visits every weekend in the summer.  It’s clear that he works all the time, and this respite from the office is well deserved and much needed.  Being that I am low bred, and barely squeaked by my collegiate years at Wisconsin, I find it more difficult to connect, but he is definitely a huge addition to the crew, is very nice, and has extended an invite to us all to sail Kestrel, should we make it back to England ahead of schedule.  He’s declared that he will hide out until his office expects him back - I could get on board with playing hooky in an English pub until work and duty calls. 

Jackson - This other stow away is the renaissance man of the group.  Fluent in German, Jackson lives on a sailboat he purchased a couple months back in the Chesapeake Bay (he had zero experience sailing prior to purchase), is a budding guitar player, and eager to try everything (had his first egg on board last week) - all before the age of 30.  I told him he’s like a little golden retriever.  He walks around the boat, tail wagging, eager to do or learn anything, is the first to engage any stranger we’ve met on shore, and will happily wander off, returning some time later with dirt on his paws and a grin in his jowls, stick in his mouth.  “I should go pick up my guitar in Austria, while I’m here” he said offhand, when asked whether he has his instrument on his new boat.  Oh, he was deported from that country last year for an expired Visa, and prematurely ended the masters program he was pursuing.  “I was tired of the material, anyways” he said with mild indifference.  This kid is going to break some hearts along the way and have no clue it happened.   

Alejandro - This brings me to my old buddy from Costa Rica.  I met this 60 year-old (going on 25) on my first blue water passage a few years ago.  We shared an apartment in Bermuda for a few days, mid-passage, and solidified our friendship.  Though by day he manages all of Latin America’s personnel for Amazon, by night you can find this spicy little Latin wooing some unsuspecting 40-year old coed, looking for a companion to join him on the adventuring he hopes to do in retirement.  At times I feel like his voice of reason, though I get my dose of well-deserved sagacious advice too.  We were responsible for setting the tone of the relationships onboard at the outset, and irresponsible thereafter.  I’m unapologetically insisting that he build the larger, newer boat he is contemplating, reminding him that I am the Jewish one in the relationship and he shouldn’t be so tight with his well-earned money.  He brushes me off, highlighting that I’m failing my duty as a financial planning fiduciary.  And so we both find humor and kill time on each watch exchanging jabs and shitty advice.  As mentioned earlier in the blog, I love this guy. 

So, there is our crew.  Had you sought to assemble a more diverse, talented, interesting, and caring team you would have failed miserably.  Andy is too humble to take credit, so we’ll just chalk this one up to Neptune for blessing our vessel with a bunch of knuckleheads who enjoy one another’s company.