2006

Holidays and another engine break-down

2006 was a busy year. My wife Stephie and me planed to make holidays with the kids at the coast of the Baltic Sea and Rolling Stone should be our swimming and sailing hotel. Therefore the boat had to be shipped from Braunschweig heading North to Kappeln and back to Braunschweig after the holidays.

For preparation Frank and me started in the beginning of May with de-winterizing, technical check-up and cleaning of the boat. Between the 15th and the 20th of May the first part of the transit was carried out by Frank, Kai, Stefan and me. Because we „only“ managed to get to Heiligenhafen a second trip was necessary. Kai and Stefan left Rolling Stone, instead of them Matthias and Stephie joined the crew (02.-06. June). Although this passage was very short it was quite blustery…We hadn’t really left Heiligenhafen and were already „greeted“ by many capsized dinghys. (click here)

Finally in July (15.-28.07.), Stephie and me had a really great time during our holidays with Moritz and Maja – sunny and warm weather included.  Starting from our „swimming home“ in Kappeln we visited the nearby beach, sailed on the Schlei or we made some car trips to points of interests like a mais labyrinth etc., etc…(click here)

As Frank had no time to sail Rolling Stone this year we had to bring her back to Braunschweig, which was done in November – that’s alnmost winter in Northern Europe. In Kappeln Matthias joined the crew, which consisted of Rainer and me, but it was clear, that he would leave the boat in Travemünde latest. This trip was really horrible. It was very cold and in the lock of Uelzen the engine died. However, we had to bring the boat to Braunschweig somehow. Frank joined us in Uelzen, but there was no way to bring the engine back to life…So he had the idea to power the boat by an outboard motor, which he organised from a co-worker. What was missing, was a suitable support for this motor. With wood, screws, bolts and some engineering we build the motor support within hours and left the berth of Uelzen Lock with 2-3 knots boart speed….it took „some “ time, but finally we made it. (click here)