For various reasons (covid, among others), we weren’t able to formally celebrate De Gæ Nok’s launch last year. Now’s the time! On 2 May, sailor friends, family, and the one-legged seagull Victor gathered on the jetty in Juelsminde for the ceremony, which was made special by signal flags, champagne, and plenty of sunshine. Bedste had polished one of my grandad’s old regatta prizes for the occasion. We filled the cup with sea water, and she poured it over the stern as she conducted the baptism with these words:
Sailor memories are special. Peder and I baptised our first boat, a wooden pirate dinghy, on 9 May 1948 in Aabenraa. All the other boats that were baptised around this time were given music- and dance-themed names, but ever since he was a boy, Peder had said that his boat was going to be called, De Gæ Nok (‘everything will be OK’), his motto. Peder had learned to sail from his dad, who led the junior sailors in Aabenraa, just as Peder did in Horsens. We’ve had a rich sailing life together with lots of fantastic experiences. We passed on the joy of sailing to our children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. When Flemming first started sailing with us back in the day, he soaked up impressions, learned everything so quickly, and luckily came to love sailing as much as the rest of us. It is with great joy that I baptise Bettina and Flemming’s new boat. It would have brought Peder so much joy to experience it. On this boat, you just open a tap, and bam! there’s boiling water. This isn’t exactly how it worked back in the day. I’d boil Peder’s glass insulin needles using a portable gas stove on the jetty. Our boats slowly got bigger over the years, but they never got this big and luxurious. But it was damn romantic and fun. I hereby give you the name, De Gæ Nok. May you experience lots of wind in your sails and give the family lots of wonderful hours onboard. I hope to be able to join!
And then we sang a local sailor song and had smørrebrød for lunch.
De Gæ Nok 