INFO

INFORMATION

This is Your trip.

All the crew does all kinds of chores; steering, navigating, cooking, and cleaning and so forth. Mareld will be your home for a week or longer. We truly want you to feel at home. Sharing sailing experience brings people close, we would like you to make friends sharing this experience of a lifetime. One and each is expected to take care of themselves living onboard. But in addition, we take care of each other - and we will all enjoy the voyage. This is not a luxury cruise, there are no servants.

We work in in three watch teams when we have a full crew of eight. We are on watch 3 hours and of watch six hours during nighttime sailing. During daytime two people are on mother watch preparing the meals and cleaning. During daytime anyone can grab the helm and steer. We are always at least two people on the deck, one steering and one navigating and on lookout. At the of end each leg we clean the boat from top to toe before the next crew arrives.

How to book, booking conditions

We are curious about you. You need to be at least 18 years of age and be able to swim 200 meters. You need a valid passport (6 months left after completing the sailing trip) or European ID card. You send us information about you and your health and which leg/s you want to participate in. If it is easier for you, we have some questions below that you can answer in your email. We will reply with a confirmation email, more questions, and an agreement form. When we have received your booking fee and your agreement form your crew space is booked. Our crew selection is based on first come-first served.

This is what we would like to know about you in your application email.

Your full name (as in your passport) and nickname, citizenship, gender, and a photo

Which leg(s) do you want to participate in

Contact info: address, email, mobile phone

How much sailing experience you have.

Fitness level and any illnesses, height, and weight. Covid 19 vaccination.

Anything else that would be good for us to know and tell us a bit of how you are as a person.

The questions in the agreement form that you will fill in when you receive the confirmation email are passport details, health form, emergency contact, food preferences, allergies etc. On any offshore passage, it's of utmost importance that the skipper knows exactly what each crew members medical issues are, however minor. Understandably, some people can get uncomfortable sharing some of this private information. This is important.

Of course, your medical information remains confidential and will not, under any circumstances, be shared with the crew. We keep this on file onboard the boat in the portable medical kit, and once the passage is complete, you'll receive it back or we'll destroy it. In the case of a real emergency, it can quite literally save your life.

Welcome mail.

In case we are out on the high seas at that time, we will send you the final invoice and information email much earlier. This email will give you info of arrival to the boat, any details of the start & finish ports, passport reminder, pack list and how much the food cost will be on your leg/s

Cancellation policy

In case you send a written cancelation 60 days before, we will refund Your booking fee. If You cancel Your participation between 60 – 30 days prior, we will refund 50% of the booking fee. Later than 30 days before, no refund will be paid. There are no refunds if you decide to 'jump ship' during any stopover.

Sharing the costs: we are doing this this trip private, not as a company

Cost for the boat/living quarters We share all the costs, so even the cost for the boat. A boat in this size costs up to 20 000 €/year including both operating costs, maintenance and necessary repairs and upgrades. We have calculated that that 45€ is a reasonable nonprofit price for a night on a boat this size and standard. It is a lot less than a night at a hotel. The boat cost is to be paid in advance for the whole leg you want to participate in when booking your spot on the boat. In the boat cost is also included a lot of safety equipment such as newly serviced lifejackets, lifelines, Ebirb, double navigationssystems, new liferaft and a lot more. And besides that, a safe, competent, and an educational captain.

Food cost Vi estimate the food cost to 20€/day. The food cost is to be paid before aboarding the ship. In this way no one needs pay groceries for the whole crew. Everybody buys their own alcohol and soft drinks. We go grocery shopping together in the beginning of each leg, but non fridge items and toilet paper and so forth I will stock up at home. Food cost includes even cooking gas, consumables for kitchen and toilet.

Diesel and harbor fees we sum up and share the cost between us at the end of each leg.

Not included in the price

Travel to and from the boat. Insurance, excursions, snacks and anything you want to buy in the shops on the way, alcohol, restaurants, personal sailing gear. You can rent wetgear ( sailing jacket and trousers) from us 25€/w.

What You can expect

We do our best to make everyone feel at home, secure and comfortable onboard Mareld. Our mission is to share the love of sailing with others. Safety comes first, we do not want to take any unnecessary risks. When you come onboard, we will spend half a day going over the safety routines and practices we put in place. You will have an unforgettable experience in good company. Our goal is to for everyone to grow as a sailor. There are no stupid questions, we are always humble to answer all your questions. We do monitor all the crew and their wellbeing and take it in to consideration when giving orders. We strive to get everyone included in all aspects of running the boat.

What we expect from you, safety

All onboard need to be fully vaccinated for Covid 19

We all benefit of good spirits and good teamwork. If anything is bothering, you just bring it up and we will deal with it straight away. We expect you to want to lift both your own and others spirit. All the crew participate in all the chores onboard. We expect you to follow any given orders or standing orders. In case you are not feeling well for any reason, we expect you to tell us.

We expect our crew to follow our safety rules such as: wearing life jackets and being clipped onto the boat all the time, by default. Paying attention below decks, where you're more likely to get hurt, understanding where all thru-hulls and fire extinguishers are down below, etc. We expect you to ask us anything that makes you uncertain while sailing, even if we are asleep.

We expect all take care of the boat and take care of each other. We always keep the boat ship – shape, no stuff lying around. There is a policy of no: smoking, drinking alcohol during passage or drugs. Most important: never do anything that you think might put yourself or others in danger.

What to pack, suggestion

"Cold season" (May, June, September)

Oilskins (sailing jacket, trousers) you can rent from us for 25€/week 2 jumpers/fleece, 2 pairs of trousers (avoid jeans, they don't dry),2 t shirts of mid layers, windproof layer, underwear, 2 pairs of warm socks, thermals, nightclothes, soft sole non-marking trainers or casual clothes for going ashore, towel, sunhat or a baseball cap ( and a string to tie on), fleece/woolen hat, waterproof/sailing gloves, toiletries and personal medication, sheet, earplugs, sunglasses and a cord, head torch with red night time option, suncream, water bottle, seasickness pills or patches, insurance documentation, passport, phone/camera, charger, cash/credit card, waterproof pouch for your belongings going ashore or your mobile phone.

Coming onboard/leaving the boat

We will expect you to arrive at noon, not earlier or later the day of arrival. Please see to that you have eaten lunch so we can get straight to work with safety and getting to know the boat and the sailing ahead. We will let you know in the welcome email the name of the port where we will be when you arrive to Mareld. You will receive more details on where to find Mareld or where we will pick you up with dinghy the day before your arrival through a text message.

Please keep your return ticket flexible since the weather may delay our arrival. When we arrive on schedule, we expect you to leave the boat as agreed. Note that we always clean the boat from stem to stern, above decks and below arriving to a changing port before leaving the boat.

We ask you to respect the agreed times of arrival and departure so that the captain/first mate get their well-deserved brake.

Onboard Mareld, sailing, food

You will be assigned a cabin with a double bed that you share with a roommate or a bunkbed. You will not have that much privacy and need to be comfortable sharing a double bed with a stranger. We do see to that it is a person of same gender. We are living in very close quarters in challenging conditions. At sea under certain conditions, we may rotate where people sleep or even use the cough in the saloon. We all need to show tolerance towards each other – none of us is perfect. We use the shower for wet gear and wellies when needed.

We strive so that everyone gets equal time steering, navigating, sail work, kitchen, and cleaning duties. It is each and everyone's responsibility to see to that one gets to do all those things as evenly as possible. Each cabin has got storage room for your clothes and other gear. Please see to that Your gear is in your cabin stowed away nice and neatly.

We strive to eat proper food on Mareld, made as much from natural, whole ingredients as possible. We do have experience of all kinds of allergies and dietary choices. We try to plan the meals to satisfy each and all, but it is not possible to make individual meals for everyone. We do ask not to eat or drink at the nav station or in your cabin.

There is hot water onboard if we have used the engine, charged the batteries with the generator of if we have electricity ashore. We do have a limited amount of water in the tank, so we try to keep showers to a minimum and bathe in the sea instead, when possible. There is also a shower at the stern outdoors.

We do a check up on a daily basis: plan and expectations for the day, recap of the day and watch scheme for the night, weather permitting. The person on-watch will be responsible to wake up the next watch 15-minutes before they are on. You can boil some hot water for tea of coffee for them. 'On-call' watch is whoever is up next – so if the on-watch needs help, call them first, unless it's an 'all-hands' situation. In that case everyone is needed on deck.

We do take weather into consideration when making final decisions of the route. But once out there we get what we get. It may be sometimes heavy weather with rain, it gets wet, uncomfortable and maybe even scary. Above that we might experience seasickness, sleep deprivation and on the open sea there is often constant motion. Almost certain will the weather cause delays to our plans. The passage itinerary can be subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control even for other reasons than weather or sea conditions.

All participants are signed on as crew, not as passengers.

How to prepare yourself

Offshore sailing is tough around the clock work. Everything we do is demanding since the boat is constantly moving: brushing your teeth, going to the toilet, putting on your clothes, everything becomes a challenge. Those days we might skip meals and eat what ever is easiest to grab. To wake up in the middle of the night to be on watch tor three hours makes you tired even during the day until you get used to it. So, the best is to be as fit as possible and well rested. Exercise, eat and sleep well before the trip.