Blue, blue skies..Turquoise water...A Trip aboard Breza
Click here to see the pictures from the journey this year.
Imagine for a moment yourself on board a big beautiful yacht that slowly moves through the crystal clear water while you look up at the warm sun and gaze out over the glittering water.
The temperature is perfect and a gentle breeze cools your sun tanned body.
You don't have to think of anything but relaxation and have fun while the time slowly drifts by unhurried and unconcerned.....Mmmmm!
Breza is a relatively big two-masted boat at 12 meters with 7 bunks and two bathsrooms/toilets on board.
My sister and brother-in-law who own the boat sailed three years ago with their two small children from Denmark down through the canals and rivers of Europe to The Mediterranean.
They had originally planned to sail around the World but circumstance kept them in the Mediterranean.
Now after three years they have chosen to move back home to Denmark, and Breza should in the first place be sailed from Palma, Mallorca to Marseille in France and next year further north at through the rivers to Denmark.
I'm an experienced ships mate and yachtsman so I thought that it sounded like an exciting offer to sail Breza, and it would be even more fun if I invited some of my friends and acquaintances to join me.
So for almost three weeks in September this year, that's just what I did!
How unpredictable Mother nature can be!
The first weekend on board the weather was bad, we tore our front sail and one of the 'crew' became rather sea sick.
So we sailed into a sheltered natural harbour at the west coast of Mallorca, at Port de Andratx, and stayed here for some days.
It showed us that the weather in The Mediterranean can be very changeable at this time of the year.
With safety in mind, the upredictable weather and the inexperienced crew dictated that we should stay at Mallorca, and save the 300KM sea voyage for another time!
That meant that we didn't have to sail many miles for many days.
We relaxed and had a good time and enjoyed the nature and the warmth and life on board.
The temperature was fantastic all day (around 21-28 degrees Celsius) and long after sunset it was still very warm.
Most days the sun was shining from a clear sky.
The water temperature was perfect for swimming around 24 degrees Celsius.
One day we experienced a thunderstorm with wind force up to 31 m/s for only 10 minutes.
The wind brought a hailstorm with pieces of hail so big that cars on shore were dented all along the roofs!
The icy hail lay in big piles on board and ashore.
But we were all unscathed!
We had some technical challenges during the 16 days.
For example the bottom went out of our dingy and the outboard motor didn't work very well.
Not a very good situation!
We had to get very creative when making for shore from the yacht in the small bays.
Living so close together onboard a yacht with strangers in close quarters can create some challenges that tested one or two new relationships!
Some learned from it, some didn't ..and that's OK!
All in all the trip went very well.
Apart from sailing around the beautiful bays and experiencing the wonderful beaches we were also ashore several times.
One day we rented a car and drove up along the north coast of the island.
Gorgeous nature with tall rocky coasts and a fertile landscape.
Another day we played golf at an exclusive, rather difficult golf course. www.golfdeandratx.com
I am still a novice in golf but it was great fun.
One day I had a wonderful facial massage in a beauty clinic.
Most of the time we were in the small, delightful Port Andratx on the westcoast of Mallorca.
The town is located in the bottom of a small bay surrounded by tall rugged mountains.
We were both at anchor and moored alongside.
The latter made it easier to go ashore.
In the evenings we ate at restaurants or cooked dinner on board.
I had brought my laptop and worked on my book about the Camino (click at www.mhoffmann.dk/elcamino).
It is going ahead slowly and I have gone halfway.
After that I need to do editing before it can be published.
And I meditated also every day.
The nature is fantastically beautiful here at Mallorca.
Tall rugged cliffs that drop steeply into the water.
At the top it is flat with green vegetation.
There are many lovely sandy beaches and a lot of bays to anchor at. The water is so clean that you clearly can see the sandy bottom and sea weed at 15 meters depth. When the water is still and the wind is not blowing you can see fish in beautiful colors swim around in shoals..or sometimes on their own.
Through my newsletter in July 2006 I invited all interested friends and acquaintances to join me on this trip in September this year. As you can read here we had a fantastic time.
My sister and brother in law would like to sell Breza, but if they do not succeed with that before next spring, they want it to be sailed back through the European rivers to Denmark.
It is a journey at about 1½ month and I would again like to invite my friends and colleagues with me a week at a time.
It will probably take place in May 2007.
In fact that is just before I am doing my three week repeat of the Camino journey where I also invite all interested with me www.mhoffmann.dk/elcamino.
It is not expensive to participate. The price is your own return ticket and 15 Euros every day for ship's expenses (fuel, harbour fee and so on) and then we share expenses for the food we buy.
It is important to be able to get along with new people, to have fun and enjoy the experience together.
If you are interested and would like participate I would like to ask you to write some words and tell me why you think that it is a good idea for YOU to join the crew for one week of that trip.
Well, I am Health-Coach and Flowmaster and I make a living helping people to better handle the daily challenges and adversities of life and live a more fulfilling and enjoyable life.
This might be a great opportunity to have a whole week of free coaching in a new and exciting environment. To learn something new about yourself, to find out how to get in the 'flow' of life itself, and change your life for the better when you come home!
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Send me an email at post@mhoffmann.dk and let me know when you would like to join us, for how many days and why you would like to be a member of the crew!
Click here to see the pictures from the journey this year.
Click here to get more technical details.
Contact me for further details.
