Roswitha and Walter are originally from Köln, Germany, and are sailing aboard Aloma, their 46′ aluminum Solent rigged sloop. Both avid cyclists, they are rare among cruising sailors in that they carry two full-sized road bikes onboard. We talked with them aboard Aloma over a delicious traditional German meal of sausages, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes – click play for a taste of the conversation
You can learn more about Aloma’s travels on their blog.
How did you decide to sail to Chile?
Walter: So when we started in Germany, or in the Netherlands actually, for us it was clear that we would visit the Falklands. For us, the logical way to the Pacific was around the south. From reading, it was quite clear that going south to the Falklands was also logical.
Roswitha: Before we decided to start sailing, we said we want to go to Patagonia and not to the Caribbean.
Walter: When we are old, we can go to the Caribbean and the Panama Canal. (Laughing…)
Roswitha: Because it’s not an easy passage, we’ll do it now instead of doing it 10 years from now.
Walter and Roswitha aboard Aloma the evening of our interview
Tell us about your boat.
Walter: Aloma is a very special design as you can see – it’s a multi-chine design. And it’s a bilge keel boat, with a special kind of bilge keels. They’re really asymmetric keels looking like the wings of an airplane. The designer is Kurt Reinke. You will find a lot of boats in the south by this designer. There are a lot of people from Germany, and also Switzerland and Austria, that have made circumnavigations with this design of boat. We didn’t really know that when we bought the boat – we were looking for an Ovni when we saw the advertisement. I made a little bit of research, and we learned that it’s a strong boat and the size we were looking for. It was in Spain, so we went there to look at the boat and decided to buy it.
It’s an aluminum boat, 44’ is the hull length and 46’ overall. The beam is 3.7m (12.2′) and the draft, due to the bilge keels, is only 1.35m (~4.5′). That’s the construction draft, but now we probably have 20cm (~6″) more. She was built in 2005, and we bought the boat in 2007.
Aloma’s bilge keel design means that she can stand on the sea bottom when the tide goes out.
Photo courtesy of Aloma
How did you come up with the boat’s name?
Roswitha: The name was Walter’s idea. My mother actually left us some money that helped us to buy the boat – we wouldn’t have been able to do it so soon without that. The night we decided to buy the boat, Walter thought, probably the whole night, about the name. He waited until I opened my eyes and then told me “I have the name!” (Laughing…) It’s “Al” for aluminum, and “oma”, which is the German word for grandmother – Aloma. So now my mother travels with us.
Walter: She’s right, I was really waiting for her to wake up! (Laughing…)
What did you do for work before you left on this trip?
Roswitha: I did an apprenticeship as a banker, and then I studied economic business. Then I started to work at a big bank in the internal audit department. I was there for 30 years. I started at KKB Bank, and then it was bought by Citigroup. We were Citibank in Germany and everything was real American. We had seminars like “Playing to Win” – they tried to put the American culture into a German bank, and it was not very successful. Then there was the economic crisis in 2008 and we were sold to a French bank – it was a better fit. I traveled a lot for work – in the beginning by car and then by train. When I started, I was the first woman in the department; for the first three years, I was the only woman with 35 men.
Walter: I also did an apprenticeship, but in mechanics. Then I started as a mechanical engineer, and later I worked for a research institute in Germany – we always describe it as the German NASA. I worked there for six years in materials research and made a Ph. D. After this, I worked for three years for Ford in the advanced engine group. Then I started to work for a university, and for the last 20 years I worked at University of Köln working in applied sciences, teaching.
Touring by road bike whenever possible
Photos courtesy of Aloma
When did idea of trip start?
Roswitha: Our first sailing boat, we bought it very late. At the beginning, we did a lot of camping, touring by small inflatable boat, and diving. Then we thought it would be nice to have a boat where we could sleep onboard. So after one vacation we returned home and started to look at sailing boats. We bought a 22’ boat with a raising top, and we changed from camping to sailing. As we started to get a little older, we began to talk about what we wanted to do once we stopped working. It was sure for us that we never would like to sit in the garden and just have barbecues.
Walter: Waiting for the death! (Laughing…)
Roswitha: And then in 2007 we bought this boat and we started to make plans.
Walter: It wasn’t clear that I’d be able to stop working so early. There was a special program at my university, so I was able to stop working five years earlier than planned. We were really lucky.
What did your family and friends think when you told them you were going to go on this trip?
Roswitha: It was different – some say “Great”, and others say “We never could do it – we couldn’t live that close to our spouse for so long”. Our son was 26 when we left, and some people asked if he would be OK without us. In the last years we learned that there are some friends that have separated from us, and others we never thought they would be interested but they follow us closely. Some of the ones who are not interested are experienced sailors – it’s very strange, and sometimes I think they have problems because we have much less experience than them but have still managed to do it.
Walter: A lot of people have similar dreams, but they are afraid to actually do it. So when you do it, there’s a little bit of envy because they see you living their dream.
Falkland Islands
Photos courtesy of Aloma
What do you miss from living on land?
Roswitha: I don’t miss not living in a house – we don’t miss it. At the moment, we think we would never buy a house again. I don’t want to have something big. When we sold our house, we gave a lot of our things to other people and we still have too many things with us. It’s a good feeling to live with less – with fewer things, without TV.
But what I do miss – I miss our son; I would like to see him and I think he also misses us. I also miss meeting friends. I have friends that I’ve known since I was 8 years old, and we meet 8 times a year and eat together, and it’s always very nice. Or to cycle with a friend, those are the things that I miss.
Walter: For me, it’s a little bit different. When I talk with our son or with friends via Whatsapp, for me it’s almost the same as when I would talk to them face-face. So I’m not missing that so much. But I’m missing sports – I did a lot of sports in Germany with my friends. We had a mountain bike group; we had a road bike group, I went out on the bike at least three times a week. On a sailing boat, it’s very difficult to do a lot of sports. I try always when we arrive somewhere – like in the Canary Islands and in Uruguay I did a little bit of biking. But in Brazil, no – it’s not a good idea; you start with a bike, but you come home without a bike. It’s a little bit dangerous, I think.
I’m also not in as good condition as I was. My road bike group in Germany, when I come back to ride with them, they are already sharpening their knives…
What has been your favorite place along the way so far?
Roswitha: The Falklands were really a highlight for us. It’s worth it to go because not a lot of private boats go. There are some professional boats but not many private boats. So it’s a good feeling to arrive there. And really friendly people, and the nature is great. There are a lot of penguins, and there are no tourists – you are alone there.
Walter: After this we went to Puerto Hoppner on Isla de Los Estados (Staten Island). Amazing, really. The scenery there is more beautiful than anything we’ve seen.
There’s a small entrance to the inner bay, and you can only pass at slack water. When we arrived, slack water would also have been very shallow, so we decided to go in one and a half hour before slack. It was full throttle against the current with only one meter on either side to the rocks. I would not do it again.
Isla de Estados (Staten Island), Argentina
Photos courtesy of Aloma
It’s not common to see full size bikes onboard a cruising boat; why did you bring them?
Walter: For me, it was a must. I knew that I cannot do a lot with a bike, but without it I wouldn’t start the trip – it would be a no go for me. I had a knee injury, so I stopped running 5 years ago. But in the past I did triathlons, Iron Man distance five times, I did dozens of marathons. But I had a knee injury from a snowboard accident 5 years ago, so the only thing that’s possible now is biking. It sounds crazy to have bikes onboard, but for me it’s very important.
