She looks out of place, simply exotic. A charter yacht from the Mediterranean with all the usual hallmarks: Bimini, gangway at the stern, furling mainsail. Behind it, icebergs, polar bears and Eskimos. Two Saxons from the small town of Groitzsch have sailed their Bavaria 44 to the end of the world - through the icy Northwest Passage.
"We didn't know anything other than Bavarias because we used to charter them," explains Uwe Petraschek, 47, in the YACHT interview, "and the ship has coped really well with all the ice, a stranding and many storms." The photos documenting the adventure are spread out on the cockpit table when we visit the crew of two in Seedorf on the island of Rügen. Some show the "Perithia" in ice and snow, a few photos further on under palm trees in the tropics. An entire circumnavigation lies in their wake; it only took them two and a half years. "The journey was actually supposed to go even faster," explains Petraschek's wife Kathrin, 44, "but then there were problems with our entry into Russia."
Tales of polar bears are followed by adventure stories with pirates throughout the afternoon. The couple have a lot to tell and experience. From an eventful sailing trip and one of the last remaining adventures under sail: the Northwest Passage.
Read her story in YACHT 21/2011, now on newsstands!
