Hello All,
I only noticed this part of the forum now and that is probably proof that I did not do my homework properly
I started sailing with my parents since the day that I was 4 weeks old, in 1995 we sailed to the Lofoten,
Norway for the first time and eventhough I was only 15 years old, I
sold my soul the the Arctic. Almost 17 years later I havn't been able to get a refund so I'm still stuck in the Arctic. 5 years ago I met my wife, we shared an apartment after 3 days and were married in 10 months, how crazy can you get?
I studied naval architecture at the universities of Delft, Haarlem and
Southampton and the yacht that we are currently sailing (see picture in my profile) is a design that I made while I was only 16 years old. After finishing university, I perfected the design with my new gained knowledge and decided to be brave and started building the d#mn thing. Now, 8 years later, "Bagheera" is finished and has already seen quite a lot of
water. Her first
atlantic crossing was shortly after launching with an
interior that was litteraly bought at Ikea and was skrewd down to the floar boards. The three winters that followed were spent on building a real
interior while the summers were spent cruising, always north
Since 1995, we spent every summer in the Arctic, sometimes only 3 weeks, sometimes 5 to 6 months. In the winters of 2003, 2005 and 2007, we made some trips to
Iceland, Lofoten and
Newfoundland as well and this inspired to become a nature / Arctic guide and even more, but if I write that here it will be considered spam

so I try to hold myself.
I want to apologize for ruining your great language, I hope you for give me, in my defence,
English is my 4th language and I'm still in the proces of
learning it, please be patient with me.
I hope to learn al ot from you guys!
Erik de Jong