Finally, the big day had arrived. Since the launching in the harbor of Les Sables-d’Olonne can best be done at high tide, and furthermore the almost 10 km trip with the ship on the trailer from the shipyard to the harbor should best be done with little traffic, we started at 6 o’clock in the morning in complete darkness and autumnal rain. The tractor pulling the trailer with our Nikola passed various traffic circles with flying colors and finally let her glide gently backwards into the water. First test - it floats!

The approaching storm depression, which even forced the professional sailors of the Transat Jacques Vabre race to stop partially, had not quite reached us yet, and the people from the shipyard spent the day putting up the mast, hoisting sails, and preparing the ship to be handed over to us.

We will use the next few days to get to know all the technical systems on board, put a lot of equipment away, and finally try out the sails (and the engine) when the wind dies down.