People always ask why a Hallberg-Rassy 42E. The honest answer is that Calle and I didn’t know enough about boats to have a favourite. What we did know, sitting at a kitchen table in Helsingborg with a bottle of wine and a handshake we couldn’t take back, was that whatever boat we chose had to survive us as much as the ocean.

A Hallberg-Rassy has a reputation among sailors as a boat built for exactly that: heavy displacement, a solid hull, a cockpit designed to keep you dry and alive in weather you never wanted to meet. We weren’t looking for speed. We were looking for something forgiving enough to carry two amateurs across three oceans and bring them home again.

We didn’t rush it. Buying the right boat, fitting her out, and actually learning to sail properly took the better part of five years — evenings and weekends spent reading manuals, taking courses, and slowly turning two people who barely knew port from starboard into a crew we trusted with our lives. Looking back, that patience was the real preparation, more than any single piece of equipment on board.

In June 2002 we finally cast off from Helsingborg. Calle was on board, the boat was as ready as she was ever going to be, and neither of us really knew what the next three years would hold. That send-off — family on the dock, more nerves than either of us admitted to — is where the story in Brave or Stupid really begins.

If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to go from never having sailed to crossing oceans, the full story — storms, breakdowns, the good days too — is in the book. I’ll be sharing more of these behind-the-scenes moments here on the blog as we go.