A final season in the Baltic
Timeline posts
And here at last is our lovely boat! Ready to sail, with two wheels, and we are just waiting for the wooden bridge down river to open at 13:00. Richie, our commissioning engineer from Inspiration Marine, had flown out for four days to ensure everything went smoothly, and that (most) things got finished, and […]
read more
Our plan was to arrive at the factory in Greifswald a few days before handover, to be on hand to answer any queries, and check that everything was as expected. This turned out to be a VERY good plan indeed. We arrived late on Monday evening and set off to find our boat on […]
read more
Saturday evening, 21st April 2018, and we were packed up, trailer loaded, and off to catch the overnight ferry to Liverpool. It was a beautiful evening in Fahan, and we felt a little strange to be leaving Donegal for the entire summer. The trailer and car were so stuffed, it was almost impossible to squeeze […]
read more
Our boat is a boat! Today we took delivery of our new Dehler 38 in Griefswald. It has been shrink wrapped to protect it from the rain and snow during the Eastern German winter, and is in the yard at the factory, waiting for us to arrive in April to complete commissioning and handover. […]
read more
I have been working with hull graphics specialists Grapefruit Graphics to design the logo for Melodrama – this is the (almost) final cut (maybe), which they have cleverly superimposed on a picture of another Dehler 38. We know this boat does well out in the Whitsunday Islands, so hopefully we will too!
read more
AIS is a wonderful piece of technology which is fitted to all commercial boats, and to many non-commercial craft too. It transmits the current position of the boat, its speed and direction, and often its port of departure, destination and cargo. This can be seen by all other boats in the vicinity, which is a […]
read more
On a wet Wednesday in October, we flew to Berlin from Dublin, and took the train to Greifswald where the Hanse Dehler factory is based. Greifswald is a delightful university town with cobbled streets, cafes, students on bikes, old barges on the river, and a huge factory making boats! Once we signed a non-disclosure agreement, […]
read more
After two fun-filled and exhausting weeks, the weekend of reckoning came. We had shared our first week with Veronique, a Swiss sailor with a yacht in St Tropez, and Richard, a retired surgeon. They opted to defer their exam after a frightening incident when we were rammed on the quay by an out of control motor […]
read more
Last year, way before we decided to buy a bigger boat, we booked a sailing holiday in September in the sun. Thanks to our wonderful adventures sailing in America with Hope and Howard on board A-la-Mer, Second Wind and Timing, we have logged a huge number of sea miles, in all the varied distances and […]
read more
I know, I know, but I couldn’t imagine having a boat without a spinnaker! So we’ve ordered one from Saturn Sails. Yet again, following the tradition of the last four sails for Drama Queen, it’s my birthday present 🙂 We’ve also had to spec a pole and all the fittings, so this is the most […]
read more
We found a local Kip business that looks after the boats in the marina when owners are not there. So we asked their man Mark to drop down and check that the boat was still in the good shape that we’d left it in. He reported that the interior smelt dank, and mould was starting […]
read more
Our last ever cruise on Drama Queen was a complete contrast to the June trip. Fair winds, sun, and some great sailing all the way to Kip to deliver the boat for sale. We passed by Largs on regatta day and watched the fleet beating down the channel, then swung across to watch the […]
read more