This is Josefine reporting from West Istanbul Marina. I am the new Bosun taking over Bertram’s responsibilities onboard Oceans of Hope. As you can read from my bio I am an experienced sailor. That said, my very first meeting with Oceans of Hope for sure offered me some pretty extraordinary experiences.

Unloading Oceans of Hope from the Maersk ship and launching her into the water was a nerve wrecking challenge. After a lot of waiting around for the paperwork to be done we were finally granted permission to enter the busy port area late Tuesday afternoon. With containers, trucks and workers buzzing all around, walking up the gangway of the container ship made me feel really small - and extremely excited.

Since she was wrapped up and loaded onto the container ship in Singapore Oceans of Hope has been travelling more than 6.600 nautical miles standing all stripped and vulnerable on the deck of the Maersk container ship. It goes without saying that we were relieved to find her in good shape. Personally, I was thrilled to be able to inspect my ‘new’ home.

Within a couple of hours (and with a little help from a HUGE crane) our 50 tons vessel was smoothly unloaded and lifted straight into the water. We held our breaths as the helpful crew of operators and workers did their magic, and soon we were able to sail off into the Mediterranean. The ‘maiden trip’ was rather short though. At the moment, we are in dock in the adjacent marina preparing everything for the mounting of the mast later today (Thursday).