Well....that defines us....
THE GIANT:
Mikkel: 1.90 meter tall...Born in beautiful Roskilde, Denmark in the year 1968. Did you know it was the year
Otis Redding sung: Sitting on the dock of the bay and Steppewolf sung Born to be wild (coindidence?)
Before he could walk he could sail. As a Viking that's not so strange :-) He has been sailing ever since on a ...
A sportive guy cause he ran marathons, did a cross country Arctic |Challenge, sailed the Atlantic Ocean, sailed the famous Silverrudder and the Vasaloppet. participated in many saili regattas.
As a skipper he met a small straightforwarded woman named Heidi in 2016 (Coldplay song adventure of a lifetime...coincidence?) during a sailing trip for people with Multiple Scleroses in Turkey. They ended up being together and started dreaming about sailing the world forever. The plan was to leave in 2025.
Loves MEAT preferably a big steak and baked potatoes. Is addicted and can live on Oatmeal in de morning, afternoon and evening )so budgetproof :-).
THE MIDGET:
Heidi: 1.60 meters small...Born and raised in the centre of Amsterdam in the lowlands of the Netherlands in the year 1973. The year Stealers Wheel sung stuck in the middle with you and Marvin Gay sung:lets get it on (coincidence?).
Before she could walk she could swim. Practised diving, synchronised swimming, played waterpolo but mostly competitive swimming on a pretty advanced level. Loves travelling the world (worked multiple years as a cabin attendant for the KLM). Wants to go left when everybody turns right (some people call it a will of her own).
Hooked on sailing since she stepped on a sailboat (more to say hooked on the captain :-)
Loves sushi, paprika chips (well licking it yikes), and homemade tomato vegetable soup with meatballs. Can live on noodlesoup for the morning, afternoon and evening (so budgetproof :-)
Finds the most important things in life: humor, respect, communication and positiviness.
September Blue Warrior 40
LOA: 12.19m
Width: 3,98 m
Draft: 1,6 m
Tonnage: (?) 12.000 kg
Semi long keel with skeg hang rudder
Cutter rig (mainsail, staysail, yankee) 85 m2???
Water tanks 600 liter (2x300)
Diesel tank 180 liter
Engine: Volvo Penta D2-40 (40 HP)
3 x 180 ah consumtion batteries + start battery
2 x 100 w solar panels permanent mounted
2 x 100 w solar panels FLIN SOLAR (for mound in mast)
Wind/hydro mill
Anchors: Kobra 35 kg with 80 m 10 mm galvanized chain, Bruce 20 kg, Danforth 8 kg
Garmin chartplotter (GPSMAP 1022)
(Backups: Open CPN on Laptop, Navionics on tablets)
Garmin autopilot (Reactor 40) with linear hydrolic drive
2 x VHF radios with DRS and 2 handheld VHF radios
SSB radio (isolated backstay) with Pactor 4 modem
Raymarine radar
B&G wind, log, deepmeter
AIS receiver and trasponder
Eberspacher Hydronic S3 diesel heater (water)
Boat insulated with 19 mm Armaflex
In 2018 we started really dreaming about leaving forever in 2025...Could it be possible? That meant saving a lot, working a lot and finding the perfect bluewaterboat. We made endless notes on everything we needed to do to fullfill our dream. From upgrading and doing refits on the boat, to courses, paperwork, boatregistration etc and a budgetplan.
We made a 7 year plan and started slowly but steadily ticking off boxes. Mikkel sold his apartment in a good time and paid of the boat. He moved in with the little midget and we were living a basiclife in which the main spare time was spend on September Blue.
On a night Heidi could not sleep and started to think aboat selling her apartment. The house selling prices were sky high and she decide to wake Mikkel up with the saying that changed our plan: What if i sell my house now? A few months later we moved into our boat and started living there.
A perfect year to get to know the boat when you actually live on it. How much water do we use? How much gas? What needs improvement and what not? We've spend the year exploring the boat and eachother cause you get to know eachother even better if you live 24/7 together in a small place. The result? We got married on 23-01-2023 on the island where Mikkels parents live, Samso in Denmark.
So now we are ready to leave...a little bit earlier than expected.
Our plan? Well.....we want to sail for as long as we can and without boundaries. Sail wherever the wind takes us and without a timeframe so no hurry. We can wait for the best weatherwindows.
We go up North first... Sail across the North Sea to the west coast of Denmark. Cross the Limfefjord to Kattegat and sail around that area including Sweden. We probably stay the winter in Roskilde to do nescessary boatjobs and sit out the winter. Around March/April 2024 we will slowly sail up North, along the Norwegian coast and hopefully can make it to the Northern region, the Lofoten. After that go downwards and head for the Faroe islands and Shetland, Scotland, Ireland and make the crossing toward the Azores. From there? We will be heading to the Caribbean but....the plans are written in sand at low tide :-)
We take it day by day...we would love to see sand sail so many areas, including Canada, New York, Panama Canal, West Coast of South America, Pacific, New Zealand, Japan...well whats not to see?
OK... not the funniest part but... it's a big part of our lives and even the reason we've met.
We both received the diagnosis in 2010 (coincidence?).
Both have been taking over the years different heavy medications to stabilize our progression.
So far we doing extremely good. So good that we both even stopped our (full off side effects) medication.
Our special attention goes to Oceans of Hope Challenge were we met eachother for the first time.
Oceans of Hope is for people with MS, led by people with MS who are uniquely placed to understand the condition because they are living with it themselves.
Their aim is to offer people from all over the world the opportunity to experience sailing as a way of learning new skills and restoring the self-confidence which can be stolen by MS.
WE have experienced that in our case....Rest, vitamins, healthy food and most of all NO STRESS is benificial for our well being. 1 of the reasons to live our lives the way we are living it now.
Both Mikkel and Heidi have been sailing and skippering 5 times this challenge in Turkey, Croatia and Greece. It's there were we get grattitude, selfreflections and the awareness of being thankfull for the things you can still do. Seeing people smile again, getting their faith back and being active is the best gift you can get. More info on Oceans of Hope:
Wanna know more? Fund us, sponsor us or want to connect? Drop your message in a bottle or just leave your info right there!
