We are Ralf (*1961) and Cosima (*1962) from Germany. We will be married for 25 years in July and we have three grown up boys. Our youngest son Paul (*1997) just finished school and will join us in Tenerife for the Odyssey.
We absolutely love sailing and spent almost every holiday on various boats. When the kids were younger we sailed the Baltic Sea and later in the Netherlands, France and Great Britain.
Our boat is a Hallberg Rassy 38 (#177), designed by Olle Enderlein and built in 1984. She was called TRITON when we bought her in 1999 and we kept the name.
Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea and is usually represented as a merman. Like his father Poseidon, the god of the sea, he carries a trident. His special attribute is a twisted conch shell, on which he blows like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves.
We added a hardtop and made two major refits in 1999/2000 and again in 2009/2010. Now we are preparing for a 14-month sabbatical with a wind pilot, solar panels and a second forestay.
Even if we have some sailing experience we never made such a long trip and so we decided to join the Odyssey to meet some likeminded people in a small and non-competitive group and benefit from the expertise and experience of the Cornell Sailing Team.
We plan to leave the Netherlands (Workum) in July – perhaps we will meet some other participants on our way to Tenerife!
Our blog (in German): Coratriton
Pic of the day (starting July 2017) on Instagram: www.instagram.com/coratriton/
Pic of the day (starting July 2017) on Instagram: www.instagram.com/coratriton/