EPILOGUE
"I must go down to the Seas again, - to the lonely Sea and the Sky"
Ivan Olsen in a typical position at the wheel of his beautiful old ship - -
"Nordboen" had several more years of introducing sailing ship enthusiasts to the wonderful maritime culture of Denmark, but Ivan Olsen had plans of a much bigger ship, - preferably a three master with steel hull -, but later he considered a completely different design, - a catamaran -, that speed wise could outperform any traditional ship, and furthermore the low draft of a catamaran would give it access to many interesting places where a traditional designed ship could never go.
Consequently "Nordboen" was sold, and unfortunately she joined the far too big fleet of traditional ships, that ended up in a foreign country, thereby again depriving Denmark of an important piece of its old culture and maritime heritage - - -
Today "Nordboen" carries the flag of the Åland islands, and still operates as a charter schooner between the islands, - not around Denmark -, but way up in the northern part of the Baltic sea, and it looks as if she is taken very good care of - - -
She still carries her old name, - "Nordboen" -, and the biggest change seems to be her colour - - -
She is not the "white swan" anymore,- but painted in the more traditional colour black.
And Ivan Olsen and his new project?
I am truly sad to say, that he suddenly died in 1998, - still young -, only a few years older than myself! A good friend, - a great fellow sailor and adventurous diver and explorer of the sea -, had gone - - -
And with him died his dream of finishing a new "white swan", - to race across the endless oceans under a limitless sky - -
I am sitting back with tons of memories from the wonderful trips we had together,- both at sea and ashore -, and in a corner of my garden I have a "secret", that daily reminds me of Ivan and his beautiful ship - -
It is the old spare anchor from "Nordboen" - - - What great stories that anchor could tell, - if only it could speak - - -
A memory - -
"Nordboen's" old spare anchor in my garden in Middelfart.