One day we'll be old, baby...

Julia Engelmann was the name of the young psychology student who caused a sensation with her poetry slam at the 2013th Bielefeld Lecture Hall Slam in 5. Her video has since been viewed more than 14 million times on Campus TV. Julia Engelmann's poetry has touched and inspired me, too. So much depth and truth resonates in her lines.

…and think of all the stories we could have told

Our life wasn't a waiting room. On the contrary, we undertook and achieved a great deal. We traveled the world and were always open to new things. On the other hand, it was also very focused on work, fulfilling our duties, and creating value. My car, my house, my boat – as was common in our generation.

Over the decades, we've accumulated a lot of things that we probably considered necessary or desirable at some point. Today, with some perspective, it's more like ballast that makes life tough.

We wanted to free ourselves from this baggage. Free to refocus on what matters. Free to explore the world and write the stories we'd love to remember.

We want to live our dreams and not dream our lives and wait for some moment in the future when everything will fit.

Long before we bought our boat and cast off in Rhodes, we had already thought about how we wanted to spend the rest of our lives. A lot of inspiration and thought went into Petra's Diary, which we have published here uncensored.

Sailing around the world means getting out of your comfort zone, facing the unknown, taking risks, being humble in the face of the forces of nature, spending a lot of time in beautiful places, but also accepting hard work and sacrifices.

We are looking forward to it.

(Bernd)