We are going from Singapore to Turkey this month – not a safe leg, because of the piracy threat and the monsoon season off the western coast of India, and so we have had to take precautions. We have taken Oceans of Hope apart and left her in a thousand pieces to fit her in the cargo hold of a MAERSK cargo ship.

We have lived and sailed on here for quite some time now, and I have come to know the boat better than you would imagine. Every noise, every smell and every move out of order you can sense, when you are working so intensely on a boat, where you carry the responsibility of those onboard. So taking the yacht apart has been easier said than done. The physical work required is extensive and the idea of pulling apart the boat that we live on is not exactly nice. We have sailed with her from Copenhagen over so many oceans to get to here, and now we are taking everything apart. To protect her though!

And so, preparing the boat for a transport is something different than preparing her for a sail – which we have done so many times. This kind of disassembly we have only done once before, when we brought S/Y Pakea Bizkaia from Bilbao, Spain to Denmark to refit her and later name her S/Y Oceans of Hope. She has come a long way since, and it feels like forever since we prepared her last time. All the way to Singapore more than halfway around the world! Next stop Turkey, where we will put Oceans of Hope back together, the way she is supposed to be, and sail her west to Barcelona. Looking back, it is only 14 months since we were doing just this in Copenhagen. We were assembling the yacht to go west!

But to get to Turkey, Oceans of Hope is being transported on a cargo ship, and for the first time since we first brought the boat to Denmark, she will be completely out of my hands. Another skipper will carry the responsibility, and though for a skipper it’s never easy to let go of his duty, I trust that she will arrive in Turkey in good shape. Except of course the fact that she will be missing both mast, boom and sails.

Reassembling Oceans of Hope will be a good opportunity to go through the entire boat once more. Because even though we have practically taken everything apart and put it back together once or twice over the last year, a full checkup on your vessel is comforting as the skipper. And being the second time I am putting her back together, knowing the boat even better than last time, it should work out good.

And then we will complete our circumnavigation by taking the S/Y Oceans of Hope to Barcelona. See you there!

Also, goodbye to Bertram the best bosun in the entire universe.