The yacht that Peter Georgievich bought was handed over to the shipyard at Trade-in, and its old owner was preparing to receive his new Shipman 63. Peter approached the issue very thoroughly and studied everything better than me. I was still intoxicated with everything that was going on in my life, and he was going to his goal and preparing the yacht without my participation.

After finishing all my chores and appointments at home, I received two salaries in advance and cash for my yacht expenses. I wasn't sure what was in store for me, and I was both curious and scared. At 25, I was worried about coping with oceans and storms, being able to maintain a yacht and be a twenty-five-year-old captain. But what worried me the most was that when I went into this life, I would definitely not start a family and would not be able to maintain any long-distance relationship, and that's what we would come back to later.

In the spring of 2010, I reached Monfalcone, where the Shipman shipyard was located on the river leading to the Adriatic Sea. I was met by a Hungarian guy named Balint and gave me a tour of the shipyard. While we were walking around production and going from office to office, I was asked 10 times how old I was. I was embarrassed at first, but then I realized I was just ahead of my time and they had never seen a hired skipper my age before. It should be noted that at 25 they still didn't sell me alcohol and cigarettes without a note from my mom.

The last and only shipyard I saw was Varyag CJSC in Petrozavodsk, where everything smelled of sawdust and craftsmen out of the party. And Shipman is in Italy, where it's sterile, every door is magnetically locked, and the dining room is better than any restaurant I've been to before.

Everyone was very surprised when they found out that I didn't stay anywhere and would be living on a yacht on slipways, and they carefully asked me to close the tanks. It was already dark, so I put my things in my aft cabin and sat down at the navigator's table, turned on the radio and everything was like Rudy and Marty in Knocking Heaven. In the navigator's desk, there was a 250 milliliter glass flask with a strong drink. I sat under the red light, listening to Italian radio, drinking my emotions with a Dharma gift. And once again I couldn't believe everything that was going on.

The Shipman 50 was the very first and smallest yacht in their range of comfortable carbon yachts. After I was used to First 40.7, it was just a huge ship that I had to live on indefinitely and go around the world as the youngest captain of the time.

• LOA: 14.99 m

• Beam: 4.49 m

• Draft: 2.95 m

• Balast: 4300 kg

• Displacement: 9500 kg

• Main Sail: 69 m²

• Jib: 61 m²

• Spinnaker: 211 m²

• Diesel: 335 l

• Water: 400 l

• Engine: Volvo Penta 55 hp

‍