Today, 25/11, OctoPus “ship dog” has her first birthday. One could probably be sceptic to having a dog of the breed Danish Swedish Farm dog as a ships dog. Made in Norway, at a farm almost as far inland in Norway as possible. However, she has adapted to the boating life remarkably well. She had her first month on land, but looking back on the year that has passed, we have to say that she has travelled and experienced more than many one year old..
Her first sailing trip, already only a half year old, was one that many have on their bucket list for the life; Crossing the Bay of Biscay. Before she came to the bay itself she took the plane from Denmark to the Algarve coast south in Portugal, sailed north along the Iberic coast of the Atlantic and then jumping in to the bay, the first half of it in quite heavy conditions. She was sailing a Hallberg Rassy 64 as far north towards Scandinavia as possible during the Easter and came to Brest. Cottee was seasick once, but isn’t that normal, first time in 3-4 m of heavy Atlantic sea? Otherwise she was happy, running into the toilet (showers) when she had to go to the toilet, eating well and playing all the time she was awake. From Brest she took the TGV to Paris, hanging around there for a day before flying back home to Denmark.
She has also been flying to Trondheim, taken train to Copenhagen and in Portugal. Ferries between Norway and Denmark as well as over to Finland because her owners wanted to sail the Europeans in Snipe over there. She is used to the long trips by car as well, the trip to St. Moritz in September proved that.
As her owners had race sailing plans in July that she could not attend, she spent her summer vacation sailing along the Southern coast of Norway with Karl Otto`s parents and their dog Kasper. Rumors says she behaved, so maybe that will be repeated next year?
In the normal days, she guards her boat, but needs some limitations as she would probably like to guard the whole harbor if she got the chance. She is social with all other dogs and likes to run for exercise. She has had busy days in the last months as one of her (after her own opinion) most important tasks is to gather all the leaf that has fallen off the trees, and behaves very impolite, flying around in all different directions. She has of course also got to know some of the nearby islands in the area we are in South in Denmark and North of Germany.
This far, Cottee is a happy dog onboard the CATamaran OctoPus and we celebrate with one extra dried chicken filet today!!
