Last spring (2018) what seems to be ages ago, I had plans for the summer and everything came different and I ended up buying a tiny wooden boat:
I am the owner of the Caveman Lodge in Zanzibar and the Lodge turns out to run much better than expected. We are booked quite well and the management keeps it well maintained. I am on my way to passive income. Of course it is not passiv but asynchronous as I had put in enormous amounts of work before and keep getting paid even when I am not present.
My plan is to do some maintenance in the spring and spend my summer crossing the Alps by foot. I did that before in 2016 during a transalpine competition, but want to do on my own this time. I plan to document the journey and take friends or coaching clients for some sections of the tour. Other than the first time, I want to cross the Alps from West to East, starting and ending my trip at the Mediterranean Sea.
crime shows up
During my visit in Zanzibar in April it happens. My business partner decides to bribe and call the cops and pretends not to know me and accuses me to have stolen the key to ‚his lodge‘. Well, I have copies of the founding papers and police lets me go, but the case has to be settled at court. Next thing I learn is that neither lawyers nor judges go by the law in Zanzibar and can/will be bribed as well.
My plan of creating passiv income and the flexibility to travel the world, only onboarding a few interesting coaching clients is falling apart.
Everything seems to be lost and I doubt myself. I struggle because I put so much work and time in the project. I feel betrayed.
At the same time I lose the last remaining contact to Sufian, my son.
For quite some time I am struggling on my next step. I am paralyzed by frustration.
Then I focus on the future. What happened, happened. Imagine, you wake up in my shoes one morning not knowing about my past. What would you do? I ask myself…
I‘ll take off and sail the world.
BUT, I don’t have a boat
So, let’s find one.
I hear about a tiny wooden boat that is known to be seaworthy. It is affordable, cheap to maintain, possible to sail singlehanded and I start my research.
During a podcast episode with my friends of Sailing Uma, (episode 145) I commit publicly to buy a nordic folkboat, restore it and sail it as far as it will take me.
From that moment on I focus on this project and finally at the beginning of August 2018 I end up buying a tiny wooden boat, a Swedish build nordic folkboat from 1961 in Northern Germany.
Now it is mine and the challenge just starts here.