Patrik

 Wonderful beach.

I should also write about me and I will try to keep it long…

Diana has done her profile and is waiting for mine.

Anyhow, the problem is how to start… hmmmm. Is it about who I am or about what I have done in my life or maybe both?

I start from the beginning anyway, and lets see where it ends.

I’m born in a place called St: Johann, Sweden on January 20^th 1967… The St: Johann thing is quite a strange one because that’s just a Church in a town named Malmö and what I know I’m not born or have lived in the church (St: Johann is written in my passport, though).

I lived the first half a year of my life in Malmö. During this time my parents build a house in a little village named Teckomatorp, which is 40 km north of Malmö and in the southern part of Sweden. In this village I lived during my school years (primary and secondary school). When it comes to my youth, I believe I was quite an easy kid to rise for my parents and did like most kids, a lot of bad but fun things, nothing criminal though. I played football as everyone else and after a while I started with cycling and was quite good at it. The cycling part as a hobby lasted, until I was 16 years old and started secondary school. As teenager some other interests came in mind, which sounded more fun than training everyday.

I went to secondary school in Helsingborg and studied to be able to work as a member of an engine crew onboard cargo ships. After the school 1985 I started working onboard a ferry and later onboard cargo ships as engine-room apprentice, later I went up in positions and became motorman and repairman.

After a further few years I thought…. why not study a little more to become a ships engineer onboard ships. At least you do not need to do all the dirty work all day long. So I applied at the University and the Marine Engineer Academy in Gothenburg and they took me in. Here I studied for three years, I must say not really fun but what do you not do for a better paid and a more interesting job…

When finished studying in 1992 I went out sailing the Seven Seas again. First I had to do this as an electrical apprentice for 6 month. Which was needed to be able to take out my marine engineer license.

It was quite a funny time even though it was like going back in life a little; on the other hand, if you are waiting for something good, it is most often worth waiting for.

After this 6 month I started working as an engineer and to my surprise, the type of work had changed quite a bit: There were less people onboard, which meant I had to get my hands dirty again, all the same. The only good outcome was that I did earn more money for it.

In the summer of 2000 I was invited to an interview at ABB who had an open position as a supervisor/service engineer within a department that was producing and installing exhaust-gas cleaning equipment onboard ships. I accepted this job cause I felt for some changes in my life.

During my work at ABB I met my future wife Diana during a visit to one of our suppliers in Switzerland. It really was a destined meeting I think cause she worked in the hotel bar of the hotel I stayed in. I usually did not visit that bar. I rather went out to town to find a better one (a cool pub). But one evening the weather was really bad with heavy rains and I thought why not check that hotel bar out.

There she was doing everything in her power to get me ?… even invited me for a beer ?… OK if you would ask her, she would most probably say something different…. but what a heck, it’s my story now isn’t it?

On April 2002, Diana moved to Sweden. She also got a job and our life was quite good.

Now and then I still had to travel to Switzerland to visit our supplier and every time I was there. They asked if it was not time, for my girlfriend and me to move to Switzerland. They would have a job for me if I wanted to have one (what they actually thought was that my Swiss girlfriend must be homesick, therefore, surely wants to move back to Switzerland, take me along and this way they would get their new employee).

For me that sounded just great, the only problem was that Diana was not interested in moving back to her home country. She had started to love Sweden too much. It took a few years to convince her and in the end she gave up and said yes. So in 2006 we moved.

When in Switzerland, we got married after a few years, still are happily today and have a cat called Odin.

I continued working for the same company until 2011. When that company closed down its marine department which I was working in. My colleague at this department and I decided to leave and go on with the marine business. So why not starting our own business we thought. And so we did.

Our idea with an own company was that we should develop, produce and sell exhaust-gas cleaning equipment for marine installations. But in the end we ended up more with power plants than ships.

Here I am today, still with our own little company. Being your own boss is a great thing of course, but has also its difficulties.

Lately, I have been thinking of what my life’s dream would be…. And suddenly Diana and I came up with an idea. After looking at a new house that we were interested in. The owners wanted to sell their house because they would rather travel around the world in a caravan , …

Why not try the same, we thought – but not in a caravan. Start saving more money, sell the house (or win in the lottery) and buy a sailing catamaran. Live aboard a ship, just sail away and start enjoying life together instead.

 Chill out with a beer.

Here we are, at the beginning of our dream. Started to learn and read as much as possible about a life aboard a sailing boat. Day skipper education will be needed, plus much, much more…