Now let’s go straight to where and when it all started: April 2015, I meet this french guy at a party and he’s super cool, had just gotten this job at the Holmen Yachvaerft in Langoya, Asker and he’s super happy about it, and they need more people, so I might just come in right! I was coming from a few dry months with work, so I really needed a push up to my bank account savings, plus I love boats since... Forever, so I was just going for this opportunity!
Lucky chance, they call me back and I’m in for an interview, they like me and I start right off, cleaning boats like there was no tomorrow, and polishing them at all altitudes, and leaning down till laying right on the ground to paint the keel like there was no shame... Not really extremely exciting, but varied, outdoors, physical, could spend a chat with the boys and the schedule was pretty... Scandinavian!
So there I am now, rocking back and forth at 6:00 am on a bus full of students and other people working around the outskirts of Oslo, with Thomas, the french guy, and Nicolai, a danish guy, crazy connoisseur of Tom Waits, former boat builder in Copenhagen, sailor, later art director in an ad firm, then to Norway with his sweet wife to care for his their growing young family and so there with us on the bus. Thomas instead was working hard on odd jobs, in between rawdy partying, to save money and go to film school in Denmark where he is when I’m writing! Well done Thomas! We go to work, try and deal with our hardcore Norwegian fellowship and have a good time as well.
When the first rays of spring sun started to shine through the planks of the houses, I was walking around looking at boats in a casual 5 minutes break when I spot the boat depicted in my previous post... Amadea: beautiful, but looking terrible. My favourite kind of thing! She was stuck at the very end of the rail where boats where sitting in their cradles under the shelter of very big, high roofs, sitting there for years, a thick, dark layer of dust covering her deck and hull, with varnish peeling off everywhere and a very yellow tint... She hadn’t been cared for at all in years. I could hear her crying, and couldn’t resist! So I asked around and the same day I was inside her with Bjorn, the owner, and one of the boatbuilders at the yard, a very nice guy.
The rest has briefly been told previously: I buy the boat, at the end of May move into it while on land, and after work at Holmen Yacht Vaerft I was working on it and later, when my engagement with them ended, I started just working on the boat. In the picture you see the crane for moving boats in and out of the water, towering the harbour. It’s a very big steel structure, and it stood quite still even when strong winds were blowing.