We are Gisela and Walter from Heidelberg. Here we met in 1986. Two years later we sailed together for the first time: BR-Schein course in former Yugoslavia. Sailing hasn't let us go since then. On the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea we sailed many miles on chartered boats and lured some of our friends on the water. For several years we also explored the waters around Heidelberg on our own sailing dinghy "Mood Indigo". The dream of long distance sailing was always present. With the ARC 1999 we sailed across the Atlantic. After that, at the latest, it was clear: When we retired, we wanted to sail on our own keel. We are doing that now - with our dream ship Aglaya.
Walter Wuerfel
I was born in Hagen/ Westphalia in 1952, grew up and went to school in Koblenz on the Rhine and in Stuttgart. I studied in Tübingen and Heidelberg. I was active in the field of vocational training, for a long time in Frankfurt, the last few years in Berlin as the managing director of the Federal Association of Vocational Training Institutions (Bildungsverband e.V.), in short BBB, a professional and employers' association.
At the age of four, I sat in a sailing boat for the first time - on the Steinhuder Meer near Hanover. In my youth I sailed a lot of dinghies. After an excursion into windsurfing, much later, I came to sailing on yachts.
I make a lot of music, play guitar, jazz, bossa nova, swing ... in a Bossa Nova Trio and in a Swing Quartet. For some time now I have also been singing jazz - two guitars and what goes with them are also on the Aglaya.
Gisela Wuerfel
I was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1955 and grew up with three younger brothers in the countryside of the Westerwald. I knew nothing about sailing then. To study I went to beautiful Heidelberg. For many years of my professional life I worked in the educational and social sector in the promotion of young disadvantaged people, most recently as deputy manager of the Federal Association of Protestant Youth Social Work in Stuttgart and Berlin.
I love movement, nature and I like to be outside. Sailing and life on board are the most beautiful things I can imagine.
