The Dream is Alive

Ibiza-Family-Sailing around the world

Foreword by Christian


My fascination with boats started when I was very young. Back then, it was still a childlike amazement when I saw large ships in the harbor. When I was about thirteen, this fascination developed into a conscious passion. I devoured books about seafaring and adventures on the high seas and was preoccupied with boats from morning to night. In the middle of puberty, I defined my lifelong dream – to sail around the world.
As with life’s dreams, they are the most significant goals you set for yourself, and the road to achieving them often proves to be long and full of challenges. That’s probably where the name comes from – life dream.
In this book, I share with you how my path to this dream unfolded and how I never lost sight of it. The book is an inspiring story about passion, perseverance, and the power of dreams, with which I would like to encourage you as a reader to pursue your dreams, no matter how big, unattainable, or crazy they may seem. A lifelong dream can give anyone incredible energy and carry them through even the most difficult times. Pursuing something with passion also means experiencing suffering. I am convinced that every goal is achievable if you stick to it. The more ambitious the goal the more willing you should be to make sacrifices, maintain discipline, and always keep your life’s dream in mind with every decision, no matter how trivial.
It is advisable to enjoy the journey itself in order not to become too dogged and frustrated on the way. Personally, a lot has happened to me along the way, and I have often had to redefine and adapt my life’s dream due to the craziest of circumstances, sometimes because of external factors, sometimes because I got in my own way. In any case, remaining flexible and never giving up is essential.

I dedicate this book to my two sons, Noah and Cosmo. It should remind them of the extraordinary years of their youth and give them the courage to pursue their own dreams in their own way, but above all, to live them.




People Directory


For a better understanding of the stories of my life, I will give a brief explanation of the following people:

Mucki Braun: I owe my life and upbringing to my wonderfully crazy mother. She has always inspired me to realize my dreams, no matter how crazy they are. She motivated me to challenge life at every moment and not be influenced by what others say or think.

Jochen Braun: My father, who, thanks to his connections, always strengthened my love for boats and made it possible for me to sail on great yachts in my youth.

Sil: My dear Sil is a remarkable woman who deeply shaped an important chapter of my life. We met when I was twenty-three, built a family, and shared twenty-one years of marriage. Together, we created a life for dreamers.

Noah: My first-born son was twelve years old at the beginning of the story in 2018.

Cosmo: My second-born son was ten years old at the beginning of the story in 2018.

Dani: My best friend from childhood. We grew up in Ibiza together, and his family moved to a Balearic island like ours. After an argument about business matters, our friendship ended about fourteen years ago.

Cristobal: My right hand in all Nassau Group matters – the Nassau Beach Club General Manager.




Ship names


NIU Tribe – Natural International Union: Our first catamaran

Paz: Our second catamaran, with which we started our ship life as a family

Contigo: Our tender that accompanied us on all Paz tours

Pazito: The more petite tender of the children




Christian

How it all began


On a boat, I often ask myself from where my endless passion for ships and the sea originated or when it started. Wildly, I can still remember some key moments very clearly. Of course, I grew up on an island with boats, but I was already a boat enthusiast before my family moved to Ibiza.
My father was undoubtedly the main driving force and an excellent boat inspiration. He was an enthusiastic boat lover and owned a boat on Lake Garda during our time in Munich. So, even as a small child, I was used to spending almost every weekend on the water. My father fondly remembers the early days of my passion for boats. He says I must have made quite a happy impression on the water, as far as a small child can tell.
Since childhood, I have had only one passion: boats. Nothing was more apparent in my young life than my desire to become a captain. No matter who asked me, the answer was always the same.
I studied the subject from morning till night. My free time was spent reading magazines and books about sailing trips and technical tricks for different boat types.
My father often tried to make my view of the captain’s profession realistic by showing me that it was not as shiny as I always imagined it to be.After all, a captain had overall responsibility for the ship and had to watch when the guests went swimming and partied on the yacht.
My father always advised me to become a boat owner one day so that I could fully enjoy boat trips. Sometimes, I can’t honestly believe I am truly a boat owner now.
My family never had much money, so this possibility seemed almost unreal as a child. But even then, my parents must have had incredible faith in my abilities, for which I am immensely grateful. I wasn’t shown the limits of life but the possibilities. From an early age, I learned to fight and work hard for my dreams to come true.
If you believe the stories told by my parents and their friends, I used to talk about boats nonstop as a child. Every free minute, I rode my bike into the harbor and searched for newly arrived ships. I was fascinated by the details of the boats, the technical tricks, and who the owners were, a habit that I still cultivate today. Every free minute – unfortunately, there aren’t many of them these days – I walk around the marina and inspect new ship equipment and designs with great interest. I then assess which details are advantageous and memorize everything to implement the information I have gathered when building my boat at a later time.
I was interested in more than just the harbors in Ibiza. No matter where my family went, my parents had to take me to the port if it was within a reasonable distance.
I remember my father and I traveling to France. A large one-hundred-and-twenty-seven-meter-long yacht named Savarona, with a Turkish flag, was moored at the quay wall. I counted fifty-three brass portholes and was convinced that the crew must have been swearing daily at how much brass they had to polish.
At that moment, I decided never to use brass portholes on my boat, because the daily cleaning would make keeping the ship clean even more difficult.


Boat trips

My parents’ pension guests were well aware of my great passion. As a result, it was not uncommon for them to invite me to a charter boat day trip.
When I could join them out on the waters, I was always happy as a lark, as the guests often had children of their own with whom I could play. Even today, people still like to tell me that compared to the other children, I was incredibly interested and eager to learn and run around on the boats. The adults were happy to answer my many technical questions with a smile.
When I was young, I dreamed of sailing around the world. Of course, even though I knew this would not be easy to achieve, I started small and enjoyed every minute on the water.
A friend of my parents, originally from Berlin, wanted to leave Ibiza and sold his house, including everything that went with it. He left his jet ski to my family, making me the happiest boy ever.
Toys for the water?Perfect!
I remember that my father was the first to try to ride the jet ski to ensure my safety. The jet ski model we were given as a gift differed from today’s models. To get around, two long bars had to be moved up and down manually while standing. To my amusement, Dad managed to stay on the jet ski for just a few seconds before falling into the water. I laughed my head off on the shore and whooped joyfully when it was my turn. Like so many sports, jet skiing suited me, and I plowed through the bay as if I had never done anything else but that.
The driving pleasure didn’t last long, because just as the theme of “boats” ran through my life, so did the curse of broken means of transportation.
Unfortunately, the jet ski was constantly broken, so we had to take it out of the water all the time. This fate is still with our family today. My children seem to spend only one day on the water with our jet ski before something breaks.


My first boat

I owned my first boat when I was about eleven years old. With my buddy, Dani, I found a ship sunken in the sand on the beach in Playa den Bossa. We were playing on the beach and discovered a tip sticking out of the sand. We thought it must be a boat and immediately started digging. It was more difficult than we thought, as the sand kept pulling the ship down. When we finally got to the point where we could see a boat shell, my father helped us and pulled the boat home on a trailer. My parents lovingly helped me get the boat ready with the means available. I was incredibly touched that they were once again behind my dream.
Together, we built planks into the boat to serve as seats and attached an old 20hp outboard motor to the stern. When I finally got the boat up and running, I drove to Formentera once before the first damage occurred. What can you do? The curse struck …


My first sailing trip

My first sailing experience was on a large sailing ship with my father, who took me on a trip from Ibiza to France. The cook on the boat was a good friend of my father’s, who asked the captain for permission.
After approval was given, we were allowed on board the thirty-two-meter sailing yacht Garuda. At the time, it was the largest that Swan ever built.

What an experience!

Unfortunately, after casting off, a storm arose behind Menorca, and the strong swell caused almost everyone on board to become seasick. I, on the other hand, didn’t mind the storm. I walked across the ship as if I didn’t notice anything about the slant. (My father likes to say that I probably looked like a Klabautermann jumping all over the boat.)
Unlike the others on board, I enjoyed experiencing the forces of nature and didn’t get seasick. At that moment, I realized that I was made to sail around the world. After this epiphany, I was encouraged to become a captain.
My most cherished memory of this trip is the first sunset at sea. With the sails fully set and the salty air playing around my nose, I watched the golden sun disappear into the water and felt a deep sense of happiness and peace. From that moment on my love for the sea was unstoppable.
The next day, another highlight was catching a fantastic tuna that bit while we were sailing. It was unique – in the middle of nature, driven by the wind, the fish was suddenly hooked.
When we arrived off the coast of France, we were told that our berth was still occupied, so we anchored near the harbor entrance, as the mistral storm was still raging.
When the harbor master informed us that our berth was free, the crew discovered that the anchor winch, needed to haul in the anchor, was broken. Everyone had to move in the chain manually, one after the other, using a lever and pure physical effort. About twenty centimeters of the ninety-meter-long anchor chain came out of the water with each pull. After the work, we all knew what we had achieved that day.
Dad and I packed our things and were taken ashore by tender. We took a cab to our hotel, where we planned to stay for the night. When we got into the car, I was surprised when the driver held the door open for me with the words, “Madame, s’il vous plaît.” My hair was down to my shoulders then, but I hadn’t been considered a woman before. Moreover, I usually felt like one of the coolest kids, as the girls seemed to be all over me. Once we arrived at the hotel, however, the game continued.
While checking in at reception, the hotel employee discreetly put my passport aside. After my father had enough of this, he explained that I was his underage son and not his mistress.
Once the inconvenience was over, we could devote ourselves to my favorite part of the day. Dad and I drove around all the marinas in the area and marveled at one yacht after another while I imagined what it would be like to work on one of the ships.

Due to the difficulties of this crossing, I decided that I didn’t want to have a monohull sailing boat myself in the future but a catamaran. The inclined position was unusual, as I had only driven on motorboats before.
However, I liked sailing, so a Dutch friend of my parents, a world champion sailor, taught me how to sail on a hobby catamaran in Playa den Bossa after we returned to Ibiza. I was thrilled to get out on the water daily and master the element with a new technique. Once, we even went out in a storm. The storm raged so much that the ports of Ibiza and Formentera were closed. However, I particularly loved the atmosphere of the big waves and the roaring spray.
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