Last week the hole in the Pachamama closed! The last aluminum panel was welded on, thanks to our welders Hordur, Skuli, Adam, and Johann. – Thank you very much!

It was a mistake to keep the kitchen in the boat. It was a nightmare for the welders, a nightmare to clean, to put insulation and plumbing.

Sabine, Mirjam with the kids spent days to get steal screws, bolts, tools out of the bilge behind the kitchen that would cause corrosion in the future.

Jürg Zahnd was with us for almost 3 weeks and did an amazing job. – Thank you very much!

Even Hans Bärtsch from the newspaper “Sarganserläner” came for a visit together with Romy and our friend and fisherman Sverrir. Hans gave us two books from Jules Verne as a gift, which we will read to our kids. He just published his article about our situation last Tuesday in the “Saganserländer” newspaper. Read here and here.

Our Grandmother “Ottavia” visited us for the first time on the expedition and guarded Mia and Vital, cleaned and cooked, so that Sabine could also work full power.

We kept working long after shipyard workers went home and often came back to work after dinner. Our children actively helped a lot learning new skills in removing rust from devices that were flooded by seawater, cut insulation mats, etc … We worked on Ascent, Pentecost and on all weekends and this weekend again…

On June 5, we had to move from the Old House, our temporary home, as it is being converted into a residential building. We tried to find a new home. Unfortunately without success. Throughout Akureyri there is no apartment for our extended family to rent. The feeling to be shipwrecked and homeless again was too much for us and we were in tears.

 

Luckily a generous family gave us a temporary shelter and we could laugh again: We are now in the basement of the family until the weekend, but next week their parents come.

We have decided to make the most of the misery: We go camping and clean-up the beaches cycling there! Like this, we hope to get our energy back and do something meaningful.

In Akureyri, we can not be, because we have nothing to live in and during the school holidays there are so many tourists willing to pay any price for a hotel room.

The hardest part for us was that we were left in faith, that we could definitely be back on Pachamama in March, then it was promised that the repairs would be completed in April and then certainly at the end of May … so we could never plan – only hope. After 7 months we need a break to go back to our core mission to explore, inspire and clean up, – but also to have time to reflect what will be the next step and what we do best to overcome this challenge… We expect sailing again end of June!

Thanks of family and friends we hade despite the hard work and worries many beautiful times last month: Alegras’s 7th birthday; the visit of grandmother “Ottavia”; the women’s run of Akureyri, where Noe and Alegra became 1st; last ski tour of the season with Stefan & Astis family; invitation of Arngrimur and visit of Meret; Andri who become 1st in a swimming contest in Akreness, where Salina even got selected for the national championship; our friends Jürg, Erlingur, Kevan, Hordur and Roland helping us out…

… and only two shocking moments: Once Mia disappeared. She sneaked out and went jogging by herself. Thanks to the police of Akureyri we found her. – In a Yudo turnament, Andri was hurt and had to be transported by ambulance 1.5 hours to the hospital in Akureyri. The CT showed that luckily nothing was broken and he was out of pain after a week.

Please help that we overcome our challenge with a donation, here.