This is my home for the next eight to nine months. It is still hard to believe, even though I have arrived so many times before and I have left an equal number of times

The difference now is: I am here to stay. And luckily, this time my partner, Gijs, has given me more than one shelf for my own stuff. I have a grand total of one drawer and three shelves. It is a dizzying amount of space to have on a Swan 65.

Our yacht, King’s Legend, has a history. Some 40 ago she was build by Nautor’s Swan, ordered by Nick Ratcliff
 and specially designed for the Whitbread around the World Race.

Today we have a
great opportunity to sail this beautiful boat round the world once
again.

She must be most well travelled of all the Swan 65s. We have owned King’s Legend
 for 16 years and have sailed her in the Med and Carribean, so we thought it high time to change our scenery and try our luck in Thailand.

The long journey gives us a few months to
enjoy sailing with her, and sail together, just the two of us.

 We have been keeping up a blog since we left Las Palmas, Gran Canaria last November.

This is not a Facebook-style blog with happy stories. This is our story, 
our journey, not only across the sea, but also spiritually.

Sailing can be a challenge, for numerous reasons. You are not only
 fighting the elements, but battling with repairs but sometimes even with yourself. So if you are interested in these stories, the rational, actual, realistic,
 philosophical or mental ones, do follow our blog.

Me, I am slowly adjusting to this life. It is nice to be able to prepare for days instead of preparing in a hurry with crash planning.

Femke Lobach

Staying in St Maarten meant I could get easy internet access. I was Skyping on a daily basis for the my so-called last chats. As a woman I miss these intense conversations and random chats the most.  Men tend to always talk about things to do, ‘relevant’ subjects such as sailing, repairs and new repair ideas, rigs, engines and whatnot.

Our first leg has taken us to Curaçao, four days of sailing. It was good for me to get used to being on the water again, with irregular sleeping hours and have time to settle in physically and grow over the inevitable seasickness of the first days.

I’ll keep you posted.

Femke Lobach