Delivery Day of Olive: 2nd of July 2013

Today Olive will be delivered. Together with our captain we'll prepare the boat for the long journey.
Galip will join us from Gothenburg and help us to do some shopping with his car as we no longer have a car.
At 10 o'clock we meet on the boat. Jonas starts with the introduction of the boat and explains everything.
Then he started with the assembly of the Genoa which was relatively easier  and it rolled nicely on the furling then we inserted the main sail into the Selden  furling mast. The sails nicely rolled into the mast. Then we had a long introduction to the systems of the boat. At first it looked complicated and it seemed too much information in such a short time. However; with the captain and three crew we all picked up important points  collectively and we learned a lot. The boat looked fantastic and in mint condition. We had two bottles of  Champagne to celebrate, one from Galip and one from Hallberg Rassy. We opened one of the bottles and toasted for the safe and happy lifetime of Olive with happy people sailing safely in it.

After the lecture we had lunch all together at our hotel which was temporarily our home during the last week.
After one more day at the hotel we will be moving to Olive, our new home for the next 40 days.
First sailing experience with Jonas was very impressive. Olive can be handled with one crew from cockpit after gaining some experience. Its quiet fast and your immediate feeling is the security of the boat. Jonas showed us the operation of the Gori propeller and how to shift to overdrive gear to save fuel. Detailed specs of the Hallberg-Rassy 40 can be found in the web site www.hallberg-rassy.com.

After sailing for two hours we moored back in the Hallberg-Rassy Marina and I had to visit the spare parts office run by Mellie who is a very nice lady sharing her experience to help to choose the essential spares for the boat.

We ended the evening with a nice dinner with the crew and Galip. After dinner we said good-bye to Galip as he was going home next afteroon.

Captain Paul, Jonas, Temel and Galip

Inspecting the Champagne !!

Captain Arrives 1st of July

It will be an interesting day today. Our Captain from PYD (Professional Yacth Deliveries) a UK based company is arriving. I will meet him at a small airport, in the northwest of Gothenburg and drive him back to Ellös.

Later on I will take Saadet to Landvetter Airport. She will be flying home to take care of our grandchildren and the company. Saadet's cousin Murat who will be our second crew member is arriving too. Galip, the HR Agent,will also come for the delivery of the boat.

We woke up early today and after breakfast I drove to Saeve Airport. As planned, the plane from UK arrived at 9:50 and our captain came out with a smiling face. Paul Lawton is relatively young man and he is a very friendly person. He is a well educated Captain with double major in Zoology and Oceanography from Swansea University. He has excellent qualifications as Yachtmaster Ocean and RYA Yachtmaster Instructor. We will be learning lots of practical things from him during this trip.

Galip was quiet right with his recommendation of having a Captain from PYD. During this period the General Manager of PYD, Mark Matthews was very helpful. He arranged the yacht's insurance and  the delivery of  life raft, tender and the outboard engine to HR Shipyard on time. Another good news was the arrival of MMSI Number for the EPIRB System. This system in case of an emergency automatically sends messages to a center through a satellite system giving exact position of the EPIRB device and initiate a rescue operation. Additionally we have a radar too, indicating the exact position of stationary and moving obstacles along the route of Olive.

With the captain I came back to hotel around 11:30 and left him with Frederico. Then I took Saadet to the airport and left my rented car. We met Galip and Murat and said goodbye to Saadet. I will be away from home for almost 40 days. While I was meeting the captain Saadet and Frederico went to see Olive.It was Saadets first encounter with Olive. Here you see Saadet happily sitting with Jonas in the cockpit of Olive below:

Galip took us back to Ellös, with the captain we visited Olive and Paul had a quick look at the boat. His first impressions were quiet positive. We ended the day with a nice dinner all together in the hotel's restaurant. Everybody  were tired and looking forward to an exiting next day and we went to sleep.

Sunday at Ellös; 30th June 2013

Its Sunday, and a beautiful sunny day . We woke up quiet late catching breakfast at the very last moment. After breakfast we went for a short walk towards the marina to visit Olive and walked to the end of the Hallberg Rassy Marina. Frederico took a panoramic view from the end of the pier, we will be travelling towards this horizon to an adventure in couple of days...

We were invited to lunch by a close friend from Sweden. He is Professor Tor Khilman from Chalmers University a nice friend of mine from International Institute of Noise Control Engineers community. He is a veteran sailor with 65 years of immense experience in the rough north sea and Scandinavian coast line.
Tor came around 13:00 and he took us to a golf club nearby Ellös. We had a very nice lunch with Saadet, Frederico and Tor in a nice restaurant surrounded by the green golf fields. Time passes so quickly when you are with good friends. Tor told us stories of his past sailing experience and about his travels up towards the remote isolated lands near the north pole. After dinner we came back to hotel and took a nice rest for couple of hours. Later in the afternoon we did some shopping at the food store nearby our village and had a light dinner in a Pizzeria Shop.It was surprising to find out that the owner  was from Mersin, Turkey. We enjoyed the  friendly welcome of being from Turkey in this remote coastal village in Sweden at this little Pizzeria shop. The day ended quietly and we went to bed early getting ready for a busy next  day.