Twoflower is born

I doubt that many would say that choosing a name is easy. But we’ve never had to choose a name for something as important as our new family before. We know that whatever name we choose for our boat will extend to cover the two of us as well. And while people can choose what they introduce themselves as, our boat will have its name emblazoned across her for all the world to see.

Angie and I spent a long time discussing ideas for names. We wanted to navigate through the clichés, the dodgy jokes, the overly ambitious and the generic and come up with something that suited us and the boat. Finally, we had to second guess the names already taken in the UK Part I shipping register, in which names must be unique, but no public list of the taken names is available.

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Friends in trouble!

[German below]

Our friends Sabine, Dario, and their kids from TOP to TOP are an inspirational voyaging Swiss family travelling the world examining and communicating about the climate and inspiring and empowering students to develop their own initiatives. Their boat Pachamama was badly damaged in a storm in Iceland three days ago: Exceptional storm crashed Pachamama.

They are not able to stem the massive repair costs all by themselves and are looking for support and donations to help them fix their boat and continue their wonderful work. Join us in supporting them!

Unsere Freunde Dario, Sabine und ihre Kinder von TOP to TOP sind eine inspirierende Schweizer Familie, die segelnd um den Globus reist, und dabei Schüler in aller Welt über Klimawandel und respektvollen Umgang mit der Natur und unserem Planeten unterrichtet und zum eigenen Handeln inspiriert.

Vor drei Tagen ist ihr Schiff Pachamama bei einem schweren Sturm massiv beschädigt worden, und sie können die Reparaturkosten nicht mehr aus den eigenen Ressourcen stemmen.

Wir würden uns sehr freuen, wenn ihr sie wie wir auch etwas unterstützen und spenden könntet. Jeder Rappen zählt!

All photos copyright TOP to TOP.

Exploring the gulf of Cagliari

‘The gulf of Cagliari extends from Pula on the west, to cape Carbonara on the east side, a distance of twenty-four miles across, and about twelve in depth, with good anchorage all over it, after getting into soundings.’
William Henry Smyth, Sketch of the Present State of the Island of Sardinia

Our first week afloat on our very own boat.

Preparing

Lots of preparation, organisation, thought, willpower, dreams, and getting our priorities right lead us to this moment; most of which likely little conceived from the outside. All the work over the past three quarters of a year lead us here. We stand in front of our very own boat, we wriggle out of the backpacks’ straps, shed off the luggage we have trailed behind us on the pontoon, slip off the shoes, grab one another’s hands and step on board. ‘Lindarella’ it says boldly on her stern, and Lindarella she will remain for the time being. The registration forms are not yet through, and she bears the name of her previous owners, René and Linda.

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