Just a few weeks before our first child Jessica was born, we bought our first Hallberg Rassy, an HR 29 that we named “Datsy” (with home port Ystad = Datsy spelt backwards). Both Jessica and Jonathan started their sailing careers on Datsy only a few weeks old. The children grew fast and when they were five respectively three years old, we bought our second Hallberg Rassy, an HR 31 that we named “Regina”. The two extra feet and a modern design gave considerably more space for our family.
Leon still claims that he did the hard work staying at home taking care of the house and children all by himself for 17 days...
Together with Jessica and Jonathan we made our first experiences with tidal waters year 2002. This was in the Netherlands, where we were fortunate enough to borrow our previous boat “Datsy” from her new owners, who in the meantime also had become very god friends.
2003 we took delivery of our new HR 40 and soon the final preparations for our sabbatical cruise started. We gained sailing experience on Regina and very soon all learnt to love her. We read loads of books, took part in different courses like “medicine aboard” and “survival at sea”, created endless “to do lists” and made a shake down cruise to the island Utsira on the west coast of Norway 2004.
Finally, after having handed over our company and sold our house, we set sail from Ystad on a rainy day in June 2005. 14 months later we returned, filled with wonderful memories of the best experience of our life and enriched with many cruising friends from all over the world, with who we still are in contact many years later.
You can read the full story of our sabbatical cruise year on Regina 2005 and Regina 2006.
