Niels
Niels is 27, he grew up in a tiny village between Weimar and Erfurt- to the East of Germany.
He loves welding projects, especially designing and making rocket stoves from scrap metal that we find. He is incredibly clever and patient and will work out a solution to everything. He is also a talented juggler, slack-liner, recorder player and sailor.
After his European Voulentary year at circus school in Paris, he wanted to learn a handcraft and began boat building school in Lübeck, and an apprentiship in Flensburg.
The next logical thing to do was to get a boat of course, the rustier the better, with plenty of holes to practice on.
Once his apprentiship was finished, he went sailing with friends, and at the end of summer got free tickets to a festival by performing with a circus group from his youth, the Fliegende Fische.
Rumi-Blue
I am 23, I grew up in England in Stroud- a funky little town near Bristol.
I am passionate about cooking beautiful and sustainable food. I love dumpster diving and not letting anything go to waste. I also love drawing, music, singing old folk songs, swimming and sewing- reusing old materials like bedsheets and second hand clothes.
When I finished school I worked as a Nanny and a Support Worker for adults with additional needs. I was saving up to buy a little van and go travelling.
I began spending more and more time in Germany on my dads old farm, also in the East.
One late summer day, me and my best friend made a Folk band with my dad, and his best friend. This got us free festival tickets to the Folklorum, a world music festival in an adventure playground in the woods.
This is the first photo of us, dancing at the festival to rowdy accordian waltzes in september 2021
I moved to Flensburg, North Germany, to help finish the boat, and the plan was to set sail in Autumn 2022.
On the 16th November at 9:30 am, we craned Atlanta into the Flensburger harbour after 3 long years on land. A few weeks later on our first sail, the engine would be permanently destroyed, and we would decide to stay in Kappeln until we could afford a new one.
Then, 3 weeks before finally setting sail again, our mast would break during an interesting manoeuvre (on land) and delay us further. Luckily in Kappeln we had a great little community who’s support found me a job at a sail makers, Niels one at a boat yard, and fed us baked cheese every Tuesday.
Only because of the many late discussions in the workshop, the encouragement, patience, the physical and emotional support from our friends, and endless optimism and perseverance from Niels, was any of this possible.