Gone sailin'

Crossing the Bay of Biscay

2011-07-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

Three days.

Summery: grey grey grey

Raining cats and dogs...

Then a dog house is good to have...

...eating a hot dog

But now we´re here! In camaret, France, enjoying an icecream in the sun while the laundry of wet, salt soaked clothes is spinning next door

Against the wind and the celebration of Carmen

2011-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

She must have been a hell of a popular lady!, Hampus says. He´s refering to Carmen, the madonna of Camarinas, the village where we now are. The fiesta and celebration of Carmen is going on its third day and there´s still one more day of to go. Every morning at 9.30 the shooting anf firecracking begins, and then continues through out the day. Yesterday it was the day of the Boat procession.

Lugnet före stormen...

In action..

All the boats of the village going out at the same time, fishing vessels, motor yachts, sailingboats, jetskies - every floating vessel possible and the faster it goes the better. Decorated with juniper, flowers, banners and flags. Lying at the hammerhead this was a rocky experience!

The spanish way of "manana, manana" seems to apply to everyday life. The procession was supposed to be at 10 am, but since no one obviously considered the 3 meter tide here, they all were aground so it had to be posponed until 1 am. It´s a charming way of life when your not in a hurry. The celebrations this day was ended by spectacular Fireworks. Most amazing one we´ve ever seen. Even beautiful fireworks on the surface of the sea.

Today Ingeborg needs a good scrubbing, she´s full of dust and ashes. But hey, since the celebration isn´t over yet we best not bother with this, my guess is that this isn´t over by far. Oddly enough all the other guestboats in the marina has chosen to leave. Still one more day of partying until 5 am...

Since Sines we´ve been fighting the prevailing northerlies of the coast of Portugal and Spain. Hard work! That means motoring in light winds, trying to make it as far up the coast as possible when possible. Luckily we´ve ended up in nice places with nice people.

Sines. The marina´s just to the left. The village´s up on the hil

We spent midsummer in Sines, but calculating it all wrong, we consumed the herring we saved for this special occation a week earlier. But we still managed to preserve some swedish traditions and invited the other swedish boat there over for a real swedish midsummer strawberry cake.

In all of Sines there´s not a single internetcafé. This we learnt the hard way. After two days of asking around we ended up in the tourist office lending their computer.

Penich

After some motoring: Peniche! A kind of cute town. I just have to quote the dutch couple (in their 60s) of "Mama Concha". They are just about to finish their circumnavigation: "We feel so fresh. Like we can do anything!" What a great experience they had.

Peniche is a huge fishing harbour. This meant that life became a little bit harder in the way that we had store away everything aboard like we were out at sea, beacause of the wash the fishing vessels caused speeding by.


Amazing view sailing - flower pots in the windows!!

After some more motoring: Baiona! Here we met up with friends we met last summer in Scotland, the dutch catamaran Miss Poes and the norwegian Idun.. What a coindicence we all should end up in northern Spain at the same time. A week of vaccation with great company and good food. Yes, how lucky we are to just be able to write that - vaccation from the vaccation!

And we finally got to sail a catamaran! Everytime I´m aboard Miss Poes I´ve been flabbergasted about everything they keep on top of shelves, tables and not to mention flowerpots while sailing.

Next weather window

2011-06-21T13:35:00.001-07:00

Four-five days to Cascais. That was the plan. But what plan goes according to plan? Ours almost never, so maybe I should have seen it coming?

Out at sea I cope well the first two days, the next two I do based on pure will. And there it is, four-five days is my pain limit. After that I become a vegetable in a fixed lying position being of no use of all. All this because of my bad back. Five days to Cascais, sure, that´ll ok, that´ll be endurable.

Now after a week at sea we´re finally at the portugeese mainland, couldn´t even make it to Cascais and ended up in Sines, 50nm south of the destination. Being lucky doing even so, in worst times the compass pointed towards Morocco. It was a long crossing, longer just knowing that it took so long cause we´re going so slow. Starting out with little wind from N and NE tacking and the last part we had 20 knots from N with steep crossings seas banging into the hull.

Have some one else pondered on the thought that maybe all these crazy sailors doing all these crazy things out at sea maybe aren´t that crazy after all? The mind plays tricks on you. Especially if you´re worn out or might be beyond boredom. Days at sea, heaven and ocean melting together, no sight or notion of land. Maybe I would be the one abandoning the boat in calm in the middle of the Atlantic thinking the dinghy might be faster? No blog I read really writes about this subject, are all sailors really sane and just the crazy ones really crazy? Now being acquainted with a few I do emphasize on the question mark. And the noise onboard. All the time it´s noise, a constant flow of sounds. The waves banging against the hull, the rigging, the wind, the ocean, the moving of the interior. The brain eventually starts to make patterns and logic of all this. Hampus tend to hear radio talk shows and I sometimes odd voices. Sometimes he tunes in the weirdest of shows but at least it´s a conversation starter... Haven´t come around to ask a circum navigator. Does that ever stop? Would be interesting to know. But for now, I´m really happy I don´t have to find out for myself.

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Porto Santo making us poor

2011-06-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

It´s always nice being on the road again, so to speak. And even nicer arriving somewhere new. This time Porto Santo. Cute little town, golden beach, turquise water could be worth staying for some time. If you don´t mean "worth" as in "good price" or "good value for your money"...

We came late at night, close to midnight. No one in the marina so took a berth at the pontoon. Next morning we got to know the price, that night had cost us 56 euros! So not being an alternative staying, we anchored in the big harbour basin (used to be moorings but now being serviced so there were none). For this they charged us 21 euros/night and we had the pleasure of swinging round the anchor all day and night due to the gusts coming downhills from the mountains.

On the bright side we met the swedish boat Wildrose and sometimes there was hot water in the showers. Next to us on the anchorage was a german boat, Quiniutoq and we had a great day together hiking the fairytale vulcano that later turned out not to be one.

The thing is, going north as we try to, we kind of got stuck in Porto Santo. We waited and waited (growing older) and together with Wildrose who´s also heading north we planned to get away as soon as a weather window appeared. Eventually the window came and and the window went but without us. No winds for a couple of days gave the opperunity to motor north. Wildrose left and we stayed behind, the reason being that without a working autopilot four days of hand steering didn´t seem that appealing. But hey, at that moment Porto Santo didn´t either any longer. We took the next possible window.

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Madeira

2011-06-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Madeira is the main Island in the small archipelago cosisting of Madeira, porto Santo, Ihlas Selvagens and Ihlas Desertas about 500 nautical miles off the Portuguese coast. The capital is Funchal and around 260.000 people live on the entire island. The climate is sub tropical, it's green and colorful with a lot of flowers.

The passage from Graciosa was boring and annoying. Motoring and hand steering in a rolly swell for the first 36 hours, putting the sails up and taking them down again 4 times a day. The last 24 hours we could sail. Just as the sun came up, so did the wind and we engaged the windvane and fell asleep in the sun.

We could smell Madeira long before we could see the island itself. The visibility was poor and the island wasn't visible until we were 4M from it. If we hadn't had the GPS I would have had serious doubt about our position.

It was great seing real trees and flowers again. Funchal is a beatuiful city. We rented a car for a day together with Dan on "She of Feock" and drove up into the mountains. It's really spectacular. Forests, flowers, fog, waterfalls, you name it. We took a walk between the two highest peaks. It's like a scene from Sound of Music.

We stayed almost three weeks in Funchal, waiting for winds to go to Portugal. Eventually we gave up and sailed to the little Island of Porto Santo, 42M from Funchal. That's where we are now, still waiting to go to Potugal. It's the wrong way of going really. The right way would be to go to the Azores and from there to England, don't want to do that though.

Right now we miss Funchal. The weather was great and there was lots to do although the marina was expensive. Porto Santo is very nice but it's cold, grey and raining.

The Sirocco

2011-05-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

We wake up in the middle of the night. From dead calm sea (when we went to bed) it´s now blowing like hell! The air is hot and it feels as rain, but that´s just the water blown up from the sea. The wind howls. The boat´s pulling the lines. We add a few lines for safety and meet our neighbour that´s also up and about. It´s about 2.30 am. Although the wind it´s a beautiful night and impossible to go back to sleep. A lot of people have left their boat here and flown back home for the summer so we all take a walk to check the other boats. Afterwards we go back to Ingeborg and make panncakes and about 5 am we all say goodnight go back to bed.

It´s one of those magic nights. A memory.

Read more about the Sirocco here. It´s a wind of many names, in the Canarys is called la Calina. It derives from the Sahara desert and explains why it´s so varm and dusty outside today and the fog over the mountains yesterday.

Today we´re leaving for Madeira. A bit tired, but still. /Lotta

Isla Graciosa

2011-05-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Our favourite playground...

new favourite activity: climbing vulcanos.

the anchorage at playa Fransesca

admiring the view - Bart too...?!

bath tub in the rocky parts of the island

rocky formations or formations that rock?

collecting sea salt

sand sand sand, no roads on the island, no electricity in the marina, just sand sand sand and tranquility

and maybe a flower or too

today´s challenge

Lanzarote in the silhoutte

me gusta!

Hiking with Bart and Dan

Acceleration zones

2011-04-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

At last! It felt like vaccation being away from Las Palmas! We went south, planning a few stops there before going to Gomera and Hierro.

Fist stop was Pascito Blanco. A sleepy wealthy neighbourhood with a lot of "hibernated" germans. The most common way of transportation is the golf car (the course just a couple of minutes away) and the most popular activity´s walking the dog. We took the bus to Maspalomas, the famous/infamous playa. It´s a small piece of the Sahara desert, blown here by the wind. The dunes was so hot you got burnt standing barefoot. And of course the roumors was true, it´s a gay paradise. But how they manage without getting burnt I don´t know. Peek a bu!

Next up, Puerto Mogán. This was almost a spa experience since they got HOT water in the showers. Of course you have to pay for it! For us, 50 ft with the bowsprit, we payed 30€ and then water end electricity on top of that. We anchored at first, had a suspicious about it being expensive but after a couple of hours of the roly poly we gave up and sought shelter in the marina. It´s a really touristy place but in a small scale. No huge hotels and just two story buildings. The marina´s safe and lively and there´s a beach nearby.

Off to Teneriffe! Finally leaving the island. But then, in the middle if the acceleration zone the winch broke. It might have been 35 knots and the waves was breaking. Nothing else to do than to turn back so we´d could use the other winch! We got a tip that Arguinguin was an ok anchorage. Repaired the winch, went in to see the village and in the meantime deciding a new destination. In the afternoon we saw a rescue helicopter going out. The next morning a boat was towed into the marina by a rescueboat, the mast broken but Hampus regognized the boat from Las Palmas. (When we got back in Las Palmas we got to know it was Mark who we´d met before.) He´d been out the same day in the same accelaration zone. Got dismasted, trying to engine and got a rope in the propeller. Since they couldn´t establish a working radio contact and get the right coordinates a helicopter was sent out and he and his dog had to abondon the ship and get rescued by air. Now his adventure´s taking another course, selling his boat at a bargain price (Best price ever, he probably spent the same amount just on the windvane) and flying to Australia.

New plan. We figured since we had to turn back north in a week so maybe it´s just stupid and a waste of time to have to go back and forth through the acceleration zones. The new plan was to go back Las Palmas, fix the genua sail that got a few rips in UV-cover in the acceleration zone and then continue to Graciosa which got the best angle to Madeira. The acceracion zone back here took forever. We had to tack and eventually we gave up and engined close to the coast. The trip that took us 5 hours the other dirrection now took us over 12 hours!

Still we had a few days of "summer vaccation". Swimming, lying on the sun deck with sea turtles paddling around us and Las Palmas fainted to a bleak memory...

This very moment it´s very alive though and we ´re waiting for the next oppertunity to get the hell out of here!

Leaving Las Palmas

2011-04-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

At last!

We stayed here about three weeks and eventually it became pretty boring. Not the people and the parties but the feeling of being locked in. It´s a huge marina, rather unpersonal and every pontoon has it´s own gate with seperate keys. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the harbour office. So you better find yourself a nice pontoon with great neighbours just as we did. The other way is of course to use the dinghy to visit friends, going to the marina office and minimarket. Don´t think we used the dinghy on the whole trip as much as we´ve done inside this marina.

The marina is cheap, here´s wifi and water and electicity is included. It´s a good place if you need chandlerys or repairs done. Theres a great beach on the other side of town and Vegueta, the old town, is really cosy. Think we just overstayed our welcome.

Las Palmas is together with Santa Cruz (in Tenerife) the capital of the Canary Islands. Its the biggest city with a population of about 400.000 inhabitants. When we came here it was carnival and great fun! I´ve never seen so many dragqueens in one spot. They all looked magnificent, with hats, hairdoes and of course HIGH heels. In the street I suddenly, in all the fuss and commotion, found myself a drink holder to one darling while he/she bettered his/hers make up. Everyone dressed up, old and young. They say after Rio, Las palmas is most famous for the carnival.

Fuerte Ventura

2011-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

The island is the second biggest of the Canary islands. It´s got the longest beaches of all, and I guess this, combined with the tradewinds and atlantic waves, is the reason why it´s a Mecka for surfers. Windsurfers, wavesurfers and kitesurfers and yes, a one or two sailors too. Wish I had known this when I was younger: THIS is where all the tanned, cool dudes hang out! We took surfing lesson but realised it´s easier to look like a surfer than to actually be one.

Especially Corralejo in the north has a nice goove, it´s a small town but got everything you need (not a chandlery though but a dozen hardware stores. You can even get the 3 kilo camping gaz here). Here´s tourists, but mainly surfers so it´s got a different feel to it compared to the other "touristy places". There is 3-4 guest berths, but the staff is friendly and will do it´s best to find you a space. Actually there´s really a whole guest pontoon but it´s mostly filled up by live-aboards that enjoy the layed back beachlife here. Wouldn´t recommend entering when there´s swell from north east. Oh, and when the Fred Olsen ferry is in, you got wifi for an hour or so if you got a good antenna.

My sister and her daughter came visiting here and we had a great time. They´re both half mermaids so it was good to have company when swimming for once! There are golden beaches running from the city centre and the whole way going south. "Vamos a la playa"!

We spent one night at anchor at Lobos, the little island right outside Corralejo. It was a roly night but the island was well worth a visit. Once it was a lot of seals out here. The natives used to call them seawolves and in spanish wolf is "lobos" and that´s how the island got its name.

Gran Tarajal has a more spanish feel to it. Not that great beaches but more a genuine spanish town. Since Agadir we´ve gotten allergic to search in the marinas so we just stayed one night and then went on to Morro Jable.

Morro Jable might as well have been a german village. German menues, german tourists but still a nice "german" resort. The marina is ok and we saw rays in the basin that must have been 2 meters between the wings! The beach was good fun, big waves rolling in to play in. It´s a long sandy beach and it gets mory touristy the further you go from the marina and the sunbathers gets nuder...

Creeping around the Canaries

2011-03-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

We've become lazy. We we're actually going to leave Corralejo today but we felt stressed about getting the boat ready and went for brunch instead. Tomorrow is the day though! We're going to anchor at the Island of Los Lobos over the night and then continue to Gran Tarajal, Morro Jable and Las Palmas and as usual we've made new friends that we'll have part from. A part of cruising...

The time in Corralejo has been nice, the marina is cheap, we're paying little over €10 a night and there is bothe electricity and water. It's a touristic place but it's still a functioning city with everything you might need as a resident; supermarkets, hardware stores etc.

We're running low on money and we'll have to be back in Sweden by the end of June, or make more along the way. Still working on that bit. We, or I, will take on extra crew from the Azores to the UK (1300M), two spots are available (wink, wink), early may probably. That's about it for now...

/Hampus

We are sorry for the long silence...

2011-01-18T03:55:00.000-08:00

Part of it is because we've been lazy. Part is because we find ourselves in a marina in Isla Graciosa north of Lanzarote (Canaries) without electricity. That means that we are limited in the use of SSB and laptops. Also, I (Hampus) spent the first 8 days in bed with cough and a temperature that was pushing 40, it might have been pneumonia. I just finished the antibiotics today and now I'm alright again.

Without internet access I don't even remember our last post on the blog so I'm not really sure where to pick up...

We spent almost two months in Morocco. First in Mohammedia then one night in Essouira. That stop wasn't planned but we ran into strong head winds on our way to Agadir so we turned around and ran like little rabbits into the relative safety of Essouria. I say relative because the harbor was littered with fishing vessels of all sizes. Fortunately only the small ones kept bumping into us all night. Apart from that and that the entire harbor smells of rotten fish, Essouira is a very nice place. It was a haven for hippies during the 60's and 70's and Jimi Hendrix owned a house there. You can still see and hear the influences when you walk the streets. At night people, mostly young locals gather in the small shops to play music. In other parts of Morocco there are a lot of traditional instruments, in Essouira there's a great mix of traditional and modern instruments and the same goes for the music. This produces something that is a mix of 60's music and african rythms and it sounds very, very good.

After Essouira we finally made it to Agadir. Agadir was destroyed by an earthquake in the 60's and was rebuilt as a modern city with tourism in mind. Hence it's not very moroccan and not very interesting. The Marina is located in a very modern and expensive tourist area, the staff is friendly but the marina itself is subject to swell and surging. It's very uncomfortable and we had two lines snap off due to the constant surge. Others were not as lucky and lost more lines. Some had their cleats and toe rails ripped off their boats. This is by no means extreme weather. For the most part there was no wind and flat calm. The swell that came in from the atlantic was around 3-4.5 metres.

Morocco is a great place to visit. Marinas are fairly cheap while the ports are very expensive. Agadir, which is a full service marina with WiFi and everything charged us 130 euros a week while Essouira that offers neither electricity nor water or toilets charged us 24 euros a night. Fruits and vegetables are cheap. A kg of oranges is 4 dirhams (40 euro cents) and the same for a glass of fresh orange juice on the street. You can have a dinner out for 30 Dh (3 euros) if you look around a bit. A petit taxi will charge you around 2 euros for a 7 km trip but in some places, like Agadir and Marrakech you have to watch out or the drivers will try to trick you. There were never any problems in Mohammedia. We also payed a visit to Marrakech and Casablanca by train from Mohammedia. We stayed at a hotel in Marrakech. It was probably a high class place in the 50's. Now, not so much. At least we didn't wake up from cockraoches running across our faces. It doesn't mean they didn't, they just didn't wake us up. We didn't spend more than 30 euros for a double room though.

After Agadir we crossed 200M to Isla Graciosa. A little sandy, calm and quiet island just off the north tip of Lanzarote. At first we were sent away by the guards in the marina because we hadn't made a reservation beforehand. Slightly pissed off we left and we called Jabadao, a boat that left Agadir a couple of hours before us, on the VHF to let him know that we weren't allowed in and were continuing to Lanzarote. He said that he had problems with his engine so we offered him a tow into Graciosa. Apparently, towing a boat is a good reason to be allowed in the marina and we could stay. The next day we saw the harbor master, who has nothing to do with the guards, and he sorted us out with the permit and everything. We've been here ever since, watching boats being turned away. Some just moor up and refuse to leave. That also appears to be a valid reason to stay. If you can only stay long enough to talk to the harbor master you're safe. We would recommend that you get a permission before going here to save you some trouble though. The island is nice and it's the cheapest marina in the Canaries, we pay 8.50 euros a night.

That's about it for now. Pictures from here and morocco will come later when we have a real internet connection and electricity. There is a hamburger bar here that offers free WiFi and electricity, but you have to unplug the freezer for that and we couldn't have the melted ice cream on our consciences.

/Hampus, Isla Graciosa, Canaries

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Why we´re not in the Canaries...

2010-12-11T00:46:00.000-08:00

...and not in a rush getting there.

Maybe you noticed it along the blog posts? We have had trouble making our budget work out. Amongst other things we didn´t expect coming we had to buy a complete new rig just before leaving Sweden. Then it continued with a new mizzen, our genoa thore and had to be repaired as with the heater (cold in Scotland so we really needed it there) and the list continued/s. Another thing we didn´t calculate on was having a 50ft yacht - that we actually do have if you count the bowsprit! - at home we´re only 41.

So this is why we we´re still not in the Canaries and in no rush getting there, we decided to stay put in the Canaries for the winter. We could of course continue to the Caribbean and hope for the best, but that involves the risk of having to sell Ingeborg and that´s a risk we decided not worth taking. So we hang around the Canaries, probably we have time to cruise them all... A bit dissapointed yes, but the idea is now alrigh with us. You could do a lot worse, couldn´t you...? We keep close to europe and in spring when we run out of money we can easily be back in a month or so.

And right now we´re enjoying the coolest country so far - Marocco! (Whistling)

Lunch stop

2010-11-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

At Berlenga Island

Captain Hadley, our irish harbour master in Nazaré told us not to stay over night here at the island. He also said that you shouldn´t approch the island along side cause of the strong current that runs in the sound. In the crusing guide we read that they strongly advise that one crew member should stay aboard and that the island was well worth a visit. It was! A picture explains more than a thousand words... Enjoy! WE DID!

Horror night

2010-11-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Lexios, the marina outside Porto, last thursday, four days ago. Since then gales have come and gone, the wind´s yesterday were abround 40 knots and waves around 8-10 meters.

When we came, the staff put us on alongside the outer pontoon just by the entrance to the marina. There was a severe gale approaching and we saw a lot of people putting out extra lines and using the big, old rusty moorings on the stone wall and about everything else they could find like flagpoles and lightposts up on the stone pier to secure their moorings. So we followed their brilliant example, just in case, with about ten ropes out which of two in the stone wall. The wind, SW, increased in the evening making Ingeborg doing the Rolly-Polly and pulling hard on the moorings even though we had bungies. Do I need to write that we didn´t get any sleep? Horror night. A hard slam made Hampus run on deck. The cleat from the pontoon hung in the water with the moorings. Luckily we were still tied to the stonewall but our cleat on the toe rail had taken some loads it wasn't designed for and was ripped off (screws bent 90 degrees, ripped out of the laminate and wood and one side of the cleat ripped in two) together with a piece of the rail. No big deal though. It's an easy fix and it could have been worse.

After much nagging at the marina staff they let us move into the marina and stay at a finger where we should have been put in the first place. They somehow got into their heads that Ingeborg is bigger than she is although she's far from the biggest boat here. Again, we put out mooring lines that made Ingeborg look like the spider in a web and we waited for the next gale. It came with 45-50 knots from the W and later NW. We did a lot better inside the marina and W and NW are better than SW here. Spent a nice day in Porto where we tried some Port....
More pictures below..

/Hampus & Lotta

The bridge...

...over to all the wine cellars. In the distance to the left E. G. you can read Sandeman.

...where every alley leads to a wine cellar. Free tastings at Croft!

Carried back...

Statue of Henry the navigator. The portuguese people have always been skilled sailors. We learnt that during the years they were occupied by Spain they kept their colonies, for example Brasil, a secret...

Tredje gången gillt! (Third time`s a charm)

2010-10-28T02:10:00.000-07:00

At anchor in Islas Cies.

We´re down in the boat relaxing and listening to an audio book when a horn´s honking closely. Took a moment to realise it was at us! The spanish coastguard with their craft of 140 feet is just next to us making signals they want to board us. Not an easy thing with a big "tanker" and Ingeborg who now looks like a skiff but they managed without Ingeborg getting harmed and the paperwork was carried out.

The photo was taken by S/Y Oliva how watched safely from shore

The same evening we noticed a flashing light outside the boat. The spanish coastguard once again, now with a smaller craft. They had their attention elsewhere, to the boat next to us, and it struck us then that we earlier forgot to put the anchor lantern up. Easily fixed. Then they came to us pointing to the top of the main mast and we could understand the word lantern in all the spanish. We have ours hanging from the boom, so we pointed to that, looking as law abiding as we could. Some more spanish and it seamed to be ok and they we´re off.
Next day we saw them coming from far out and by then we knew it was us they were after. A third time, the spanish coastguard with a third boat and a third crew. Again we could understand the world lantern. They came aboard and we handed them the copy of the paper from the first coastguards visit saying they were here yesterday. They were apperently a bit confused but since the paperwork was in order, no latern mentioned, they left.
Tredje gången gillt - third time´s no charm.

/Lotta When writing this we´re in Portugal, "no longer on the run".
More picures from Islas Cies below:

Company of dolphins. Islas Cies in the background

We had a gang of 20 or so following us, jumping in at the bow and playing around trying to get me wet when standing on the bowsprit. Our lure got caught in a fishnet and we stopped and tried to resue it, then they all gathered in the stern. It really looked as though they we were trying to push us, getting us moving again!


The islands looked like a sad dragon lying down in the ocean

The lighthouse

View from the lighthouse

We could see both Vigo and Bayonna in the distance.

A friend on the road

The end of the world...

2010-10-22T05:44:00.000-07:00

..as they knew it.

Cap Finisterre, the westernmost head of Spain bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Last night we walked up and almost saw the sunset behind the clouds. Nothing but the ocean, majestic. Closest continent to the west will be America, maybe New York. Once this was the end of the world. Before the maps, gps, plotters. What a world to explore...

The bay and harbor here in Finisterre are crowded with fishing vessels of all shapes. We anchored in the bay surrounded of sandy beaches. When we woke up in the morning there were small motorboats everywhere around Ingeborg, but no one on board. Floats lying around here and there in the water and suddenly we saw fins. Aha, divers! Snorkeling around with milk cartoons on their back. Petter (S/Y Olivia) drove out in the dinghy to ask what they were doing and he got a handful of razor clams in return. "Tienes mucho". So of course Hampus and Petter had to try, in one hour they managed to get two! And the handful he got from the diver was probably from one dive... Hampus referred to them as "the fast bastards". They live in small holes in the sandy bottom and dig themselves deeper when danger´s approaching, fast as hell! Razor clam is a delicatessen cause they´re so hard to catch. Go figure!

The stop before was Corme, but coming in the evening and the town looking rather dull we didn´t even bother to inflate the dinghy and left the next morning. Right now we´re heading for the Islas Cies but heard just a minute ago on the vhf that there might be gale warning for tomorrow so we probably go to Bayonne anchoring outside the marina instead. After Bayonna we´ll make a try for the islands again and then it´s probably Portugal. If you know an anchorage in Portugal well worth visiting, please tell us.

/Lotta. And yes, the two promised degrees was correct. Heard there will be two more around the next bend. Yeah, summer!

La Coruna

2010-10-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

After 102 hours we finally reached La Coruna! When heading into the bay the VHF crackeld "Ingeborg, Ingeborg". It was the swedish yacht Olivia who´d seen us on the tracking SPOT, welcoming us to La Coruna. (The SPOT is a relly cool gadget!) There were a bunch of swedish and scandinavian yachts here (crossing the bay of Biscay from Brest)and in the evening we all went out for tapas.

La Coruna seems to be a nice town. Great architecture and a beach close to the city centre. Not that we´ve seen a lot of it yet, a lot of boat maintenance, laundry and hanging out with other sailors have been on the agenda. Altough we seen a lot of it by foot, walking to what must be every chandlery in town. The marina is nice and friendly, and best of all, it´s off season so the marina fee isn´t that bad. To us the season here wasn´t that "off", when we came the sun was shining and it was like a swedish summers day. For the fist time in five days we could actually wear something else than our flotation suits! And underneath that I´d been wearing four layers of clothes.

So here we´ve finally caught up with the weather. From now on we hope to have summer all year round! Today it´s a bit cloudy so we better leve tomorrow...

/Lotta

Monday, Bay of Biscay

2010-10-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sunlight, NE winds of between 25 and 30 knots 2-3 meter waves. Reefed mizzen, reefed genoa and we're trotting along doing 6 knots. We are enjoying ourselves playing the new game called "fishing boat slalom". You start by finding the one spot in the ocean with most fishing boats, we have 13 in our immediate vicinity going around in circles. Then you try to navigate your way through the bunch while calling them on the VHF without luck. Either they don't speak english, or they just don't bother with sailors. Packs of dolphins are hanging around either as spectators or to investigate our towing generator, which they seem to find very interesting. We are now running with the wind and waves due south with 259M to go to La Coruna, we've done 330M in 54 hours, an avarage speed of 6 knots, not too bad. It's calm enough for hot chicken and I'm no longer sea sick. Oh Joy!!

/Hampus, Langt pokkerivold

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How to kill a morning...

2010-10-10T03:31:00.000-07:00

..in the middle of no where, something like 50.38,10700 N 007.18.74600 W. The genoa hallyard broke and down came the sail. It´s not a very pleasant sail today either, bumpy and messy. Standing at the bow sprit it´s a merry-go-round. If you´re sea sick like Hampus it´s hard even standing as far out as the main mast. But we managed to use the hallyard for the jib and get the sail back up in the boat and back in the role. Now I´m inside changing all my wet clothes after "going round with the merry". So this is our first 24 hours at sea. Still doing about 6.5 knots with genoa and mizzen.

Yesterday, before we left, I found my bikini top hanging in the saloon. How come it´s hanging here?, I asked confused. Then I looked at Hampus who smiled and got he message. It´s for motivation! I´m looking at it right now with a smile on my face.

/Lotta

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Towards Spain

2010-10-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

We´re off! We´ve finally thrown the moorings and set sail towards Spain. It´s a bumpy ride on the sea today, uncomfortable waves, but otherwise Ingeborgs doing fine. We started with all sails doing 8,5 knots SOG but the wind increased so now it´s genoa and mizzen doing 9-10 SOG. Right now we´re north east of Wexford. Think it will be less wind in the night and hopefully the waves will be more settled when we´re south of Ireland.

To make life more interestingt we made bets on the ETA. The winner gets a dinner and you´re free to bring someone ;)

/Lotta, on a mission towards the sun
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Waiting for that window...

2010-10-07T08:22:00.001-07:00

We're waiting in Arklow for a weather window. It looks like it's coming. We're just hoping it won't close before it's opened. Right now there's a nasty low over the Atlantic, W of the Bay of Biscay which is giving us some strong S-SE winds. When it passes, either tomorrow or on saturday, we're expecting easterlies which will be perfect for crossing to Spain if they only last long enough.We need five days as we have a distance of some 580M. That far ahead the predictions are a bit uncertain, but at least they look good now.

People back home are asking us why we don't make any progress. We are. We might not be putting a lot of distance under the keel but we are keeping up foreign relations and building relationships. We've met so many great people and made new friends. To us, that's half the pleasure. Sailing off season means that marina fees (very few anchorages here) are reasonable and people are more accessible and eager to chat for a while. The other cruisers we meet, few as they may be, are all in the same boat, so if nothing else there's a common point of interest there.

However, autumn is here. The weather is still quite warm and we hear that this has been one of the mildest autumns in Ireland for years but the trees are starting to turn brown or red and the nights are crisp and clear. Yesterday they played White Christmas at the internet café and in the stores you can buy christmas decorations and marvel over the christmas offers! In october, come on! We do long for warmer weather, tapas and cheap red wine. That means it's time for us to get our asses out of the wagon, cross the bloody bay and start bumming around another country and leave the Irish to their christmas decorations.

/Hampus, in Arklow, hiding from Santa.

Ode to the kindness of strangers

2010-09-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

So we´re set to go, thanks to a lovely bunch of people. We met two gentlemen in Port Ellen, Scotland, and met again in Glenarm, Northern Ireland, where we also had the pleasure of meeting their lovely wives. Our sail had just torn, making our budget a bit strained and they offered us a mooring in Strangford lough. A lovely offer we took up on and as if that wasn´t enough, the one couple´s been kind enough to drive us around to a sail maker and a chandlery in the area and the other couple invited us to their home for dinner (and laundry). Thank god for the kindness of strangers! Strangers that become friends we hope to meet again.

/Lotta and Hampus

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?

2010-09-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are following us on the spot and may wonder: yes, we did turn around and went back to Bangor Marina. A winch broke and a thingamajig holding the jib broke. Not our lucky day. On the "bright side of life" we met our friends Gunn and Ola on Norwegian s/y Idun again and the Dutch couple Jef and Marin on the catamaran Miss Poe and had a great evening. From the lovely Gunn and Ola we got a present - a book about celestial navigation. Since everything else is failing you..., they said. It´s so nice being in the presence of good friends. Thank you.

/Lotta and Hampus

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You win some and loose some...

2010-09-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

We finally left Port Ellen, Scotland, and made the crossing over the North Channel to Glenarm, Northern Ireland. It was a gusty sail with temporary winds that made Ingeborg´s bow and front go under water a lot. You know what? The fore peak wasn´t saoked! Not even the slightest bit wet. Luckily we managed to seal the leak.

But as I keep whistling I must tell you that our heater just died. Not nice, Herr Eberspächer is a dear friend to us, here´s humid and it seems to rain at least once a day. I guess you win some and loose some... And talking about loosing, today on the way to Bangor (in Belfast loch) we lost a hatch cover. Over all it was a nice sail, sunny with up to 38 knots of wind (19 m/s) and the tide adding about two knots to our speed.

/Lotta, on the mission to find retailer of Eberspächer in Bangor. If anyone knows where the closest one in Ireland is, please let us know. Haven´t got internet access here.

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Always look on the bright side...

2010-09-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

On the way here the genoa shred. Not good, not good at all. Our budget seems to disappear in a faster speed than we´re able to sail - alarming! But on the good side, and you shouldn´t forget about that one;), better here than on the way crossing the Biscay! When we after a bumpy sail in rain and wind and moody about the and just longing for a cup of tea in front of the hissing eberspächer, we climb down only to find that there´s been a rather big leak in the fore peak and everything´s soaking wet. So one day of sailing equals at least three day´s of work; find the leak, dismount the front hatch, replace it, seal, sanding, varnish, do laundry, cleaning.
Well, I try to think of the song "always look on the bright side of life" and whistle along.

We´re in Port Ellen on the little island of Islay. It´s a good place to be "harbored" in, with the most decent harbor fee we´ve come across here, 14 pounds. No facilities but a friendly pub around the corner. There´s eight distilleries on the island. Yesterday Hampus and friend from Norwegian Idun went to Laphroige´s, which is situated just a walking distance from the harbor. The weather´s keeping us here at least one more day and hey!, whistle along, "always look..." we couldn´t go anyway until

Thanks all of you who´s been e-mailing us, it´s good to know that someone actually IS reading what you write. And anyone who IS reading, please DO feel free to comment. It´s good fun hearing from you all!

/Lotta, a bit cheered up by the fact that someone wrote to us about their boat, one just like ours, and said it´s been on a circumnavigation and over the Atlantic twice, this must mean that Ingeborg´s not sinking yet although she´s seems to be falling apart. Darn, I forgot, but now I whistle as I continue to write...

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Dum dum dum dum... (like in the Jaws!)

2010-09-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

We´ve ordered a life raft from Ardfern Chandlery and have now anchored in a lagoon just outside the Ardfern bay, waiting for it to get there. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow or the day after. We left Oban yesterday, a nice place with really friendly people. The same day we left we got invited for a drink at Thomas 60ft yacht, we´d rather be there but here!

On the way here Hampus said: Shark! My respone was: Shark! Funnier in swedish where shark means Hello (at least it does in Skåne: Haj!). But it really was one! A rather big one, approximately 2-3 m. Didn´t really know they liked these cold waters.

A lot of you other cruisers have already crossed the Bay of Biscay now. I guess that we´d ought to by now too. We had a long talk about that a forth night ago. We really should hurry before bad weather, but then we would have had to go straight there and just rush by all these lovely cool places. It didn´t really feel any good for either of us. It felt quite the opposite. This is why we, especially I, like to sail, to see new places, meet new friends. Another fact is that I don´t manage to sail on an everyday basis due to my bad back. I kind of dread the Bay of Biscay for that reason. (But hey, that´s another day!) So we decided to do this at our own pace. Don´t know where (and when) it will take us.

If anyone feel up to going with us, crossing the Bay of Biscay, just let us know. We chose the four person raft so there´s plenty of room...

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Scotland!

2010-08-17T11:35:00.000-07:00

In Scotland, making our way west to the Caledonian canal. The scenery here is dramatic, green hills and barren rocks steeping into a roaring sea. The same sea we crossed nearly a week ago, the same sea we experienced roaring a bit.

We left Mandal at five pm, the first hours we motored in calm and the last hours we had 30 knots and big waves of 3 meters. We arrived in Peterhead at midnight on the second day and it was nice to have solid ground under our feet again. At once we got to know the hospitality of the scotish people, we got invited to the anual BBQ in the marina. The second day we got offered a ride twice, just by asking for dicections. This is the land of "kindness of a stranger".

I think I have a crush on Scotland and I feel a bit sad knowing we hurry past it. Think I could stay here for the hole year... Scotland makes you feel melancholic but at the same time free att heart.

On the North Sea passage dolphins came to keep us company, they made severel appearances and kept our mood up in the bad weather. We also had a bird visitor aboard for a little while. Gannets dove into the water from 30 metres above, puffins sailing by. Bioluminescence glowing in the night. Now we´re in Lossiemouth. On the way here we saw a seal, not diving when we passed but curiously stretched his neck. The wildlife here is magnificent.

And of course we had to eat lobsters, even though we´re on a buget. Buying them directly from the fisherman (via recomendations from our harbour master Bertie in Whitehills) we could almost afford them! Cooking them onboard, they made a great feast.

My mum and her friend Lena came with us from Norway. When we told them what an expensive country Norway was, they came loaded with food on the train and boat from Sweden! Maybe that´s the mummy gene? Anyway, they´re two tuff women crossing the North Sea and we were glad to have them aboard!

/Lotta

Norway

2010-08-01T04:51:00.000-07:00

What a great place! But expensive. Food is free though if you have fishing gear. Mackerel is caught while sailing and even tied to the dock in the marinas you can drop the hook over the side and pick up fish. The other day we had fresh cod for dinner. Crabs are plentiful too. You catch them at night just at the edge of the archipelago where they come up to eat.

We try to spend as much time as possible on anchor but as the weather is a bit unstable it's not always easy. The archipelago is very deep, even close to land so finding good holding ground and enough room to swing by anchor is difficult. Two nights ago we anchored out in a "hole" formed by a few islands called Valöya. Deep as usual we had to anchor close to land without enough room to swing if the wind shifted. No problem, we dropped the anchor from the bow at 7 metres depth and backed up until we were 15 metres from land, we then pulled a couple of lines ashore to hold the stern. The winds were light and came from west which meant that we had the side towards the wind. Again, no problem, the wind was supposed to pick up and we were expecting a force 6-7 during the night but from SW-S where we had the mountain behind us to give us shelter. Now, the problem was that the wind did pick up but stayed westerly, not good. We didn't have enough room to swing around so we could only hope that the anchor and stern lines would hold. During the night the winds peaked at around 30-35 knots and we didn't get much sleep. The stern lines and anchor chain were like violin strings, but we hadn't needed to worry. The truth is that the boat didn't move an inch. Good anchor and/or good holding ground. I'll put a video under "Pics and Vids of Valöya before the winds picked up.

We're now in Grimstad, just a few M W of Valöya, getting ready to leave. Heading west again, winds against us, again. Lots of westerlies along this coast. We'll see what the sea has to offer for dinner today!

/Fishing vessel Ingeborg

2010-07-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Skagen, Denmark

Leaving for Norway in the morning. Good thing, we need to live cheaper. One day´s harbour fee (270 Dkr) eats up our budget for one day here. Impossible equation. In Norway we hope to find anchorages (at no cost) and plenty of fish in the sea. Maybe even have a milking cow on foredeck, and we´ll be self sufficient.

Yesterday we threw in the fishing tackle when we started to feel hungry and after 15 minutes there was mackerel on the menu!

It´s been long days of sailing lately. Tomorrow no exception, it´s about 80 nm the shortest distance. And no winds to mention on the weather forecast. We better fuel up otherwise we could be drifting for days changing curtesy flag a million times before we reach land.

Here we come Norway, the land where pizza and a beer cost €15 and where newly caught fish and shellfish is for free!

The adventures awaits! But still...

2010-07-18T12:41:00.000-07:00

We´ve thrown the moorings and the adventure awaits! But still, somehow, it feels like a holiday cruise. The farwells on the dock were not prolonged goodbays - I knew I would see my family again. My sister and her daughter are coming with us for the first week, my mother´s coming up to Helsingborg to see us, my dad probably as well and my grandmother´s living here. (Later my sister will come to the Canarie Islands or the Carribean and my mum will also sail with us, maybe in Scotland?) My farwells has not yet begun and I guess thats why. Hampus may have a differt view since I don´t think he´s family will come along so he won´t see them for a while - at least for a year and a few months. I know he´ll miss them.

The first night we anhored outside the island of Ven. We had a nice cruise getting there but in a slow pace. Kicki, a friend and her son Teo also came with us so with two small children we took it easy in the beginning with mizzen and genoa and later when they felt more at ease we hoist the main sail.

In the night, with gusty winds and backwash waves, we lost our swimmingladder (a detachable one). No more anchoring or swimming until we replace it... Sad to say. From now on it´s harbours and with nearby swimming facilities!

Second day we sailed to Råå, in the outskirts of Hesingborg, to meet with the welder. He´s says we should be off by wednesday. Just outside the pier harbour the engine commited suicide or more correctly took a nap. After a bleed of air and a change of dieselfilter he woke up again and we could yet again take down the sails.

So for a few days we´ll be landlubbers but we need´nt be idle, we´ve got plenty to do...

...for example cleaning the dieseltanks!

/Lotta, with a really truly incredibly sweet boyfriend smelling of diesel

Just for fun

2010-07-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just for the fun of it...

Yes, she is. And therefore she ought to be stamped as is customary.

How many cranelorries does it take to lift Ingeborg?

If you guessed two, you´re right! One big and one a little bit less big. They needed the weights from both vehicles. She a steady lady of fifteens tons, our lassie.

Strange, when we´ve been on land, tilting three degrees, I´ve felt a bit seasick. You´re not supposed to tilt without rocking. Now we´re back in water I keep forgetting and when we´re rocking I feel even more seasick and it feels like we´re falling. I hope I haven´t transformed into a landlubber...

/Lotta, trying to become acclimatized to beeing back in water after two weeks on dry land

Varnishing is fun! Really...

2010-06-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

We're on the hard in Limhamn, Ingeborg looks like a 16th century leprosy colony . Been here for a week now. I'm a time optimist, I thought we would have had her anti fouled and back in the water in three or four days. There's still no anti fouling on... The new rig is ordered and will be here tomorrow. The welder who's going to repair the fitting for the dolphin striker and move the bow roller will be done on thursday, so I guess she'll be back in the water thursday afternoon. The new thru hulls are fitted and so's the new log transducer.

We're leaving one thru hull clean and unpainted to use as a counter poise for the SSB. I've been working for a couple of days on repairing the two spreaders for the main mast. One was rotten at the base and the other one had a previous repair that wasn't up to standard. I wanted to make two completely new spreaders but when I got home with the new wood and had a closer look at it I saw that most of it wasn't good enough. At least we managed to extract enough wood to make two repairs. The scarfs are finnished and tomorrow I'll buy some epoxy that hasn't gone past it's "best before" date and glue them together. The spreaders for the mizzen are getting a new coat too. They won't be completely varnished by the time we step the masts again so my little rigg monkey will have to take another trip up the masts.

Lotta spent the past three days sanding and varnishing wood (still a lot left) and changing the tesxt on the home-board from "Berlin" to "Sweden". She put the first coat of varnish on today and it looks really, really good.

My little artist at work

We're about a week behind "schedule". Not that it matters though. I have quit my job now so with a little luck, or the absence of bad luck, a lot of things will be done. The last spare parts for the engine are on order and will be here on the 7th so I guess we'll leave on the 7th or 8th if the weather permits. Still to much to be done to really feel the excitement or have time to think about it.

/Hampus

It was nice to meet you, Båtsman!

2010-06-14T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a new visitor on Ingeborg. A furry one, a cat named Båtsman.

He´d followed his family from S/Y Mary unseen and suddenly he was about to climb in through one of Ingeborg´s portholes. When they leave to go sailing round the world in seven weeks he will not go with them. Båtsman is a metaphore for much in life right know. There´s a lot of goodbye´s and hello´s. You take farwell of friends and family and you say hello to new aquintences you otherwise wouldn´t have met. It was nice to meet you Båtsman! And needless to say that goes for the rest of the crew of S/Y Mary too.

That same day we also took farewell of Kaj, leaving our marina for his trip round the world aboard Amelit. I wish you a great adventure!

/Lotta, "touchy feely" after a lot of goodbye´s and after a last night out with my colleagues.

Don't get mad, get even! But with whom?

2010-06-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

Right now things don't really go our way. Four weeks ago our dinghy was stolen from the boat. Someone has actually been aboard Ingeborg and stolen little Ingeborg. Last weekend we had someone break in to the car. We had lots of stuff in there, not visible but that didn't stop them. I know, stupid to keep things in the car, but with the move from the apartment to the boat we needed a place to store things that were in transit. The car was that place. We lost a camera tripod, an old laptop that wasn't worth anything but had lots of stuff on it and was supposed to be used for sailmai, so it needs to be replaced. They also took a very nice electrical guitar. I mean who would do such a thing? Stealing someones guitar is like stealing their girlfriend! With all the stuff lost, the dinghy and the smashed window we lost around $2000.

I was hopping mad when we found our smashed car and spent all that day thinking about what I would have done to the little bastards if I'd caught them. Breaking their knee caps with a baseball bat was the high on the "list of punishments". Then Lotta told me about Karma and that Karma would make sure that they get what they deserve. I'm now confident that Karma will bust their knee caps.

We also redid our calculations and came to the conclusion that we'll leave with $8000 less than we need. Oh joy! We'll need to come up with a way to make $650 a month. I guess starvation is a great motivator. Suggestions are welcome. No one said it would be easy, right?

/Hampus, deciding which kidney to sell first.

This is why it´s so hard.

2010-06-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

The flat´s sold and we´re now living onboard Ingeborg. It´s been a horrible few days when I´ve asked myself if I´ve made the right decision to sell the flat, just to remind myself it doesnt matter anymore because the flat´s sold and there´s no going back.

This is why it so hard. Every morning I wake up, I go to the window and I see this. Every afternoon I come home and I see this. The ocean, the sky. For me, to be blessed to live like this, it´s freedom.

Now I hope I can find a different kind of freedom. The ocean and the sky are still there as long as we´re sailing...

Lotta

Just a test

2010-05-05T13:05:00.001-07:00

E-mail update test.

Trying to update over e-mail for future use with SSB. Real new post
and nice news coming real soon to a computer near you!

/Hampus

Flippers or a worldradio? Special price for you my friend!

2010-04-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think "what the heck am I doing?!", but as often I think "can´t wait". So I guess I can´t wait to do what the heck I´m going to do...

We´ve set the date for departure to the beginning of july, but as we already changed it a dozen times and the to do list Hampus wrote in reality is as twice as long I´m not so sure. I hope we know when we´ve done the least of the most we´ve got to do. That will be good for our buget too, somehow it´s not as good as we thought it was. (On bad days we ask ourselves if it´s even possible.) Tomorrow there´s a marin yardsale at the sailingclub and we hope to raise some money to spend on other marinestuff. So if you e.g. need an oven, a vhf, flippers or a worldradio, see you there!

On the wishlist there´s, among other things, a Rutland 913 windcharger (to be mounted in the mizzen mast) and something to supplement it with, a tow generator perhaps, there´s no room for solar power. We´ll see, it´s expensive and I dare guess we´re not going to find it at the yardsale.

It´s about now I realise why most people start planning for a trip like this more than six months before departure. But hey, we´re not like most people, whatever that means...

With two months until departure,
Lotta

Another short update

2010-04-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

We spent all night yesterday trying to finish the new (modified) instrument panel. We got rid of the old perkins engine panel and mounted the very nice looking VDO-instruments directly in a varnished teak board. We also made a great and I mean GREAT bargain on two Raymarine ST60 instruments, one speed log and one echo sounder. They are also mounted in the teak board. We moved the plotter from the instrument panel to the wheel piedestal and moved the compass from the piedestal to the instrument panel (you don't have to push any buttons on the compass).

Someone asked me a few months ago, how the refit was coming along. I thought "what refit? We're just fixing a few small things". Well, I guess it turned out to be a refit after all. This far we've, in no particular order

Repaired the main mast
Installed a plotter, new VHF, NAVTEX, newish autopilot
Rewired large portion of the electrical system
Changed calorifier
Installed a new propane stove with oven
Cleaned, cleaned and cleaned
Installed a holding tank for the forward head
Done minor repairs on the engine
And a few smaller things

What's still left is:

Having a new mizzen sewed
Changing all of the standing rigging
Finnishing the instrument panel and actually installing the transducers for the new instruments
Repair the bow sprit that we (I) dented in Germany a year ago
Repair the dinghy
Redo the entire propane installation
Antifoull
Change water tap in galley
Change thru hulls
Change winches and fit new cleats on the main mast
Modify the bowroller to fit the new anchor
Stop 1000 water leaks around portholes, deck hatches and sheet travellers
Make sure the cabin sole can't go airborne
Build shelves in the wardrobe
Adjust the oven installation
Service the engine
Clean the diesel tanks
Varnish, varnish and varnish
Make storm hatches for the "panoramic" windows in the aft cabin
Install the windvane
Prepare for an SSB installation. The SSB is high on our wish list now, if only we can afford it
Have all the paper work ready
Have our shots for yellow fever and what not

And we're supposed to sail by early June... Obviously, some of the things can and will be done along the way, we'll just have to focus on the most important things. If EVERYTHING has to be done prior to departure, we'll never leave.

/Hampus & Lotta, in the middle of EVERYTHING

My life this far.

2010-03-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1979. I'm now 31 years old, weighing 15.000 kg with a 50 ft LOA. The taiwanese craftsmen who built me did a good job over all but cut a few corners where no one would notice. When I was finished I was put on a freighter together with 5 of my sisters and after two days we were shipped out. I had no idea where I was going or who had bought me. The older boats at the shipyard had talked about far away oceans, some beautiful, some terrible and fraightening but all beautiful in their own way. They also talked about their owners, some would take very good care of thier boats, some would neglect them completely. What would my owner be like? Would I be a wreck in 10 years? What oceans would I get to see? I was scared and excited all at the same time.

The freighter who carried us in her belly told us strange tales about salty water, white beaches, colorful corall with thousands of fish, fierce storms and wonderful creatures called dolphins who would come to play and sing. Oh, how I longed to see those things!

After 28 days I woke up and the freigheter was silent, her engines shut off. In the morning I was off loaded and put in a cradle, people around me talked in a language I didn't understand and the weather was cold, I felt so alone. I was put behind a large building, I couldn't see the ocean but I knew it was there, I could hear the large ships coming and going at night. I sat in my cradle for almost a month, then one day a truck came and put me on it's trailer. After several hours I was put in a new cradle next to a dozen other boats, I could now see the marina that would be my home for the next 10 years. From the other boats I learned that I was in Germany.

The next day I met my owner for the first time and all my worries went away. He was an older man with white hair and a gentle face. I could see on his face when he laid eyes on me how thrilled he was, there was a big smile on his face as he ran his hand along my hull. He told me he would take me to the Caribbean and maybe even around the world. What joy! The next nine years we spent cruising the Baltic, just him, his wife and me. These were exciting times, with East Germany and the Soviet Union just around the corner. We needed papers, a thousand stamps and a permission just to leave the territorial waters.

In 1988 my owner left his company to his son and he told me that it was time for us to sail away. We spent almost a year to prepare, my owner was with me almost daily. Then one day he didn't show up, the days went by, then the weeks. One day he showed up with a young couple in their thirties. What was going on? They all climbed on board and I could hear them talk. My owner told them about our trip and about his company and about his son. His son was ruining the company that my owner spent a lifetime building. He would have to go back and I was to be sold. I was heartbroken!

The young couple loved me and they bought me right away. The day they came to take me away I could see the pain in my owner's eyes as we left. I was moved to a small and very beautiful marina, the Naturhafen Krummin. My new owners treated me with love and affection and took very good care of me. The new marina was beautiful, especially in springtime when the sun broke out over what could have been a mirror and the morning mist came creeping from the yellow reed. In 1989 the Iron Curtain fell and it got easier to visit other countries. We continued to cruise the Baltic for almost twenty years. I got to see the children and grand children of my owners grow up and I got to take them sailing. The last few years I was mostly kept in my marina and was used as a summer house. My owners still took good care of me and kept me varnished and good looking. Since they didn't sail me much though, they let my main mast rot and my standing rig was in poor condition. I still hadn't left the Baltic.

One early spring day in 2009 I had a deja vu. My owners came with a young couple in their early thirties. This time I knew what was about to happen. The couple had a long look and they talked to my owners for a long time. They then went away and I didn't hear anything for a week. Then my owners came and made me ready for the water, the young couple had bought me, they were swedish and seemed nice, the boy was called Hampus and the girl Lotta, funny names I had never heard before. I had visited Sweden many times and I loved the country although I found some of the native boats a bit unfriendly.

One day in early April my new owners came and my old owners handed over my keys and papers to them. Hampus and Lotta stayed with me the entire weekend before they went away again, they talked a lot about their plans and I realised that I would be sailing again. I could hardly wait! I was left alone until the beginning of may when they came with two friends and sailed me to Sweden. Hampus got help from the same friend who helped sail me home and they spent a month repairing my main mast, it's now as good as new. We spent the summer cruising the coasts of Denmark, Germany and Holland and I got to taste the North Sea for the first time, it was very exciting and I wanted more. With subtle hints I pursuaded Hampus and Lotta to take me further. They are now preparing to go to the Caribbean! I will finally get to see those white beaches and play with dolphins! They are getting me a new mizzen sail and they bought me a new shining wind vane. I'm getting a new standing rig and a million other gadgets. It's like being born again after more than thirty years. I'm so happy and I can't wait to set sail together with my two new friends!

/Ingeborg

No longer unbearably cold! And thoughts on economy.

2010-03-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

I think that spring might be here! We've been able to work on Ingeborg this weekend. We ripped out the old autopilot anno 1979 and installed a "new" one. I bet it's no older than 15 years! It's an Autohelm 6000 and we got it for free! We hooked it up to the old Robertson hydraulic pump and it worked. Of course, I got the cables wrong, there were two ways of connecting them and Murphy, as usual, couldn't mind his own business. I wasn't sure wich side was wich on the pump so now it steers to port when it should go to starboard, but it's an easy fix. The reason we changed pilots is that the old Robertson had a broken compass and since we got this one for free it was clearly cheaper than buying a new compass. Comparing the two, the Robertson is a Rolls Royce and the Autohelm is a Volvo, but a newer Volvo. We're also making a new instrument board and with half the stuff ripped out of the old one and all the tools lying around down below Ingeborg looks like a war zone.

We've had no luck in selling the apartment. We'll give it a few more weeks then we'll try to sub let it. I hope the the entire project doesn't fall with the apartment... I'm a bit worried.

We also have to order a new mizzen and it won't be delivered until the end of June and we had hoped to be away by the beginning of that month. Doesn't matter though, there's no rush, we're just eager.

With all the things we hadn't forseen, but should have, costs are piling up. There's the mizzen, the new standing rig and a bunch of other things. We had hoped to leave with at least 200.000 SEK ($27.000) on the bank account and live off it for at least 18 months. I actually don't know how we're going to reach that amount but we'll go with what we've got and see how far we get. Maybe working along the way is an option? I work with marine electronics and navigation equipment so it might not be impossible... Any advice, short of selling organs on e-bay, on how to put an extra $ in the wallet while sailing is apreciated.

/Hampus

A new adventure

2010-03-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

So this is us, after a rough sailing in a hailstorm (40 knots) but ending in a beautiful dark grey sky with magic beams of sun.

I´m not a sailor at heart, like Hampus. I´m more of a traveller, a vagabond who happens to go by salingboat, happy to reach the next port. It´s not that I don´t like sailing, I do, it´s just that I prefer to visit new places, make new acquaintances and explore the culture of a foreign town, country or continent. And now I´m somehow on my way to the Caribbean - sailing?! But after all, I do like seeing new places and people and I do like sailing. But things change, and maybe by the time we reach our destination I´ll become more of a sailor and less of a traveller?

As I embark on Ingeborg and on this journey I also bring a lot of fears with me. Most of them concern my bad back. Since a carcrash, 18 years ago I've got a bad back and I´ve gone through a arthrodesis and just about a year ago I got hit from behind and got a whiplash. It scares me to be this fragile if it ever would come down to "man against nature" and the fact that I´m in a lot more pain out at sea. The good side of it is of course that there´s no cars on the sea...

So this is me. Looking forward to a new big adventure in my life and to be a part of Hampus' lifelong dream, but a little uneasy because of the fact that I sometimes feel like I´m in the shape of someone twice my age.

The photo summarizes a lot of my feelings about sailing, it can be beautiful, breathtaking or scary - but it´s always nice to make landfall and have gained a new experience. It´s freedom.

Lotta

Where to draw the line?

2010-03-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

Well, where do you draw the line? How much stuff do you buy and how many spares do you bring? Every little thing we buy will shorten our potential time away. It's easy to focus on all the things that you need, instead of trying to focus on how little you need. Do we really need all the things that we think we need now? Isn't it better to leave with less than you think you need and buy it along the way if you find that you miss it? A lot of the stuff that is on the wish/need/want list are things that I've done well without for many years and 1000's of miles. I think I'll post the list here some time...

And regarding spare parts. What really sucks about them is that you always need the one thing that you didn't get. So why get any at all?

We just get scared looking at the sum at the bottom of our list. Of course the boat has to be in a sound condition. But apart from that what do we actually need, to sailg away? I guess that's a question to you readers. All 7 of you :)

/Me in my most optimistic and cheerful mood

Just a short update of present plans.

2010-03-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

In december we suddenly decided to leave. The date is set to... well some time between may and july this year. Only a few months left and there's so much to do. Ingeborg needs new standing rigging, new thru hulls, new anti fouling, something to sort out our charging needs, we need to mount the windvane, install the "new" used and completely free autopilot and a thousand other little things. On top of that we also need to pack up our regular lifes.

When all is done we just hope that there'll be enough money left to buy ketchup for the rice and beans to keep our teeth from falling out.

But boy are we looking forward to it!

Yeah, the destination. We don't have one really. Or we do, but we won't tell you just in case we end up somewhere else. A clue though; I've heard that they are really big on pina coladas and coconuts...

/Hampus

Not dead...

2010-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

I know you think this blog is dead. It isn't I promise. For reasons I can't go into here we just need to wait a little while longer before giving you more news, be patient...

/Hampus

Home...

2009-11-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

So, we're home and I've been lazy enough. Time for this post. It's been so long now so I probably won't remember the details... Also, I seem to have lost all the pictures from enkhuizen and onwards so this will be a text only post. Will try to keep it brief so you don't get bored with me :)

We sailed from Enkhuizen to Amsterdam. We left Ijsselmeer and went through the locks just outside Enkhuizen to enter Markermeer. It was quite windy, around 26 knots. Since the depth of the lake, is no ore than 3 meters (10ft) the seas become quite choppy with a high frequency. It was a long day and we arrived in Amsterdam at night, just before dark. Strangely enough Amsterdam has quite few marinas, at least if you want to stay near the centre. We choose Sixhaven, a marina on the opposite side of the city center. Prices seemed quite high at first, compared to the rest of Holland, but for €25 everything was included, water, electricity, internet, showers and even soap for your laundry.

Since we were separated from the city center by the channel, we had to go by ferry to get there. This was not a problem though. The ferries were only five minutes from the marina, they departed every five minutes and were free. Five minutes after the ferry departed you stepped of at the Amserdam Central station. Seven minutes walk from there and you are right smack in the middle of Amsterdam. I've been to Amsterdam quite a few times before with the old job and I have to say that of all the cities I've visited, Amsterdam is my favourite. It's a very international city, you hear more english than dutch in the streets and it's got this special atmosphere that is hard to describe. It's also very liberal with the Red Light District, which is actually a beautiful part of the city to just walk through, and all the little coffee shops. The smell of weed is like a lid over the entire city. There's also a very long shopping street which is "great" if someone in the crew likes to go shopping (not naming names but pointing fingers). Someone bought, among other things, a very nice leather jacket.

We stayed in Amsterdam for almost a week. When we finally left it was quite windy again. If we had known just how windy, we would have waited. It didn't seem to bad at first and we were quite sheltered as we went up the Nordhollandkanaal towards Alkmaar. About half way to Alkmaar we had to pass a small lake and the landscape was almost completely flat and open. The first part of the lake we motored against the wind doing around 2 knots with full power. As we turned starboard we had the wind from port and the landscape opened up even more. We heeled over 10-15 degrees under the rig only, no sails up. I estimate that the gusts hit 50 knots and the air was full of water!

It felt good to finally creep back into a shelterd channel and the final part up to Alkmaar was pretty calm. Alkmaar is a very nice and coasy little town but still has enough shops for you to buy pretty much anything you might need. They also have a cheese market where you can buy local cheese, some up to 400 years old! I bet they'll hav a very special odor!

From Alkmaar we went on to Den Helder. Not much to say about that, the place was a dump, a real disappointment. We're usually not easily scared but it was frightening walking around in Den Helder after dark.

In Den Helder we invented a new way of going through a lock. We decided to go on the "outside" from Den Helder and thus had to go through the lock. There was aboat in front of us as we entered the lock and instead of just tying up just inside the gates we continued to moor just behind the onther boat, which was stupid as there was no need to be so tight. Anyway, the other boat went for the åprt side of the lock, but ran into problems and had to go for our side. We had to move and as the lock master started filling water we only had one line tied up. The water got hold of the boat and we ended up sideways in the lock. It was OK though, Ingeborg is 15 meters LOA and the lock must have been at least 15.01 metres wide. No harm done!

From here we went on to Vlieland, which is one of the West Frisian islands. A very nice island bur expensive. As bad weather was approaching we descided to go back into the channels and thus once again sailed to Lawersoog. We arrived at night and rushed in with the tide doing 9 knots over ground.

We went through the lock the next morning and Lotta made pancakes. As I was eating pancakes and generally enjoying myself at the helm I suddenly noticed that we were slowing down. We had hit a mudbank IN the fairway and had to be pulled out by the duych rescue society. For free though. Excellent service! We continued to Groningen where we met a very nice dutch couple who we spent the night with. We stayed in Groningen for two days as it was a very nice place, full of students. We aslo had to find a new filter holder for one of the fuel filters and hve the mizzen repaired, we shred it on our way to Vlieland.

From Groningen we went on to Delfzijl where we stayed over night by the locks, waiting for morning. We had one incident on the way. I was switching fue tanks and got the valves confused. In other words, I closed the tnk we were using before I opened the other one and the engine, ofcaurse died... I rushed upstairs and we got fenders and lines out. Fortunately the shore of the channel wasn't rocky but clad in wood and quite low. Lotta steered closer and I jumped ashore just to find out that there was nothing to tie our lines to, only small rocks. As I stood there holding the line a riverbarge passed by and sucked Ingeborg out. I was flat on my back on the rocky shore trying to hold her back. As I too was about to get sucked into the channel, the stream changed direction and Ingeborg came back. We scarfed the lines and managed to tie them up to a couple of trees on the other side of a bike track. 30 minutes of work, bleeding the engine and we were on our way again.

From Delfijl we motored down the river Ems, with Holland on our port side and Germany on our starboard side to Borkum, a german island. The marina, Port Henry was a dump with pontoons full of holes, no light at night and although the chart said it was supposed to be 1.9 metres deep, it was only 0.5 metres at low tide. We lay safely in the mud though. The marina is about 7 kilometres from the town on the island but there are buses. The town is really nice and that was lucky since we gad to spend four days on Borkum with an easterly gale howling through the rig. We used to go into town and we sat at a hotel by the beachwalk and watch the waves getting thrown 15 metres into the air as they hit the reef outside of the island. We'd had occasional problems with the engine during the previous week. Sometimes we couldn't get more than 1500 RPM. As we were about to leave Borkum, the engine wouldn't start at all. It tured out that the stop lever on the engine had got stuck. Nothing serious, I jsut poked it back with a screwdriver. It turned out though that the lever can get stuck BETWEEN open and closed and this was the cause of our problems with not reaching full power.

We left Borkum and sailed the 100 miles to Cuxhaven. Two incidents. Just before dawn we had an override of the sheet on one of the winches. Since we had the genua sheeted hard we couldn't release preassure from the sail by going into the wind and we had to cut the sheet. I was tired and just cut the sheet by the winch which was kind of dumb. I should of course have cut it close to the sail... The othe incident was with the engine. Just before dawn we had started the engine to motor up the Elbe. Suddenly the engine died and we found ourself drifting between ships going in and out. 15 minutes later the engine was bled and ran again. I never knew why it stopped but it would take several days before I trusted it again. I hate motoring!

From Cuxhacen we went into the Kiel canal again and stayed over night in Brunnsbüttel. From there we went to Rendsburg where Lotta´s mother with boyfriend came aboard. The next day we went on to Kiel where we spent a nice night out. The next day we sailed on and shred our mizzen again. It's just so old and thin like toilet paper. Luckily it was shred below the first reef and we could still use it reefed. It was quite windy and choppy. We sailed to Heiligenhafen, where we stayed for three days due to bad weather. It was nice hving company, almost like vacation.

From Heilgenhafen we had a great sail up to Hesnaes in Denmark. We were on a broad reach under full sails and for a couple of hours we averaged 7.5 knots! From Hesnaes we had a nice sail under a grey sky to Skanör in Sweden where my parents came with dinner. The next day we sailed the last 18 miles back to Malmö, home and work.

Its been two great months, I mean really good! The boat has been shaken down and we've got a few things to fix, but generally she works really good. We also found out that we get along really well confined to 12x3.6 metres for two months. We never once got homesick, missed the TV or missed work. In fact, it actually felt a bit sad coming home again and we immediately wanted to get back out there again. Plans are forming though but more about that in the next post...

/Hampus, back in the so called real world.

Oh, the bells, the bells!

2009-08-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

Meeting in the canal.

We're in Enkhuizen in Holland. Been here for three nights now, and there will be a fourth. A southwesterly force 7 is howling through the rig, even though we are birthed in the middle of the town center with lots of shelter. We are sailing on a lake, but force 7 is still a lot. Tomorrow we'll have W force 5, which will be excellent for the 26M sail to Amsterdam, where I suspect we'll stay for at least 4 days. The plan after that is to go through the North sea canal to Ijmuiden and then around the Dutch north sea coast on our way home. We still want to visit the West and East Frisian islands which we skipped on our way here.

Every town in Holland with the least bit of self respect has bells, church bells, but not the kind that goes DING DONG DING DONG. They all go klingkedidonk klang diiiiiiing etc.
They all play tunes. We've noticed it in every dutch town we stopped in, Dokkum, Harlingen, Medemblik and now Enkhuizen. Enkhuizen is the "worst", the day we got here they played for an hour straight without interruption. They have at least three towers within a mile that all play a tune every 15 minutes. Apart from the fact that we wake up to Greensleves at 3 am each morning, we still havn't found a system for when they play what. I guess it's a complicated system.

They are not only crazy about bells, they are also quite fanatic about old boats. Usually they live aboard them and they are kept in mint condition. This old steamer had a nice sound in it's whistle!

The trip to enkhuizen has been somewhat eventful. We set out from Cuxhafen in Germany at midnight to go with the tide and reach or destination in the evening, the following day. The destination was Lauwersoog in Holland some 90M west. There was absolutetly no wind whatsoever as we left the harbour and the night was clear and without a moon, so the Milky Way was incredibly bright. On our way out the Elbe river we stayed just outside the fairway, but apparantly not far enough as the german "Wassershutzpolizei" pulled us over and told us to move further away. They were very polite and friendly though. Just as we reached the Elbe estuary at around 3 am, winds picked up from S and increased to force 4-5 and we set sail. Cuxhafen had been crowded with dutch boats waiting for better weather before going home and as dawn broke I could count almost 30 sails around the horizon, but I know there were more under it. Ingeborg is by no means a fast boat, but comfortable. With force 4-5 we sailed almost upright, doing 6-6.5 knots and almost everyone past us. The only boat that we managed to put behind us was a Tayana 42, HA! At 3 pm the wind died and we motored the rest of the way. At 7.05 pm we reached Lauwerssog, 5 minutes too late for getting into the channels through the lock. It didn't matter though, as we got company from two dutch couples on the boats "Calypso" and "La Touche". Very nice people and we were to keep in touch until we reached Harlingen, where we went separate ways. The next morning we went through the lock and started our "sail" by motoring on the channels, the standing mast route through the dutch inland waterways. We went to Dokkum, a small and very charming town. Just before Dokkum we had to turn around, waiting for a bridge to open and in the narrow channel (a little bit wider than the length of Ingeborg) we got stuck in the mud and had to wait for a friendly motor boat to pull us out. We spent the night in Dokkum, as a heavy thunderstorm passed overhead. The next day we set out for Harlingen, which is on the Waddenzee, outside the channels but inside the westfrisian islands. In Leuwarden, between Dokkum and Harlingen, just as we were to pass under a bridge, the motor died and we were left drifting on the channel in strong winds. It would have been worse if it had happend after the bridge and if it was closed, but it would have been better if it had happened in the middle of the channel as we could have just put her in the mud. Now we drifted towards a rather nasty quay with large mooring poles for river barges. We were lucky though hit one of the poles amidships but managed to get a few fenders in between first. We could then jump ashore and after some hard work pulling lines to trees she was safely moored and we as well as Ingeborg were unharmed. We also got company from Calypso and La Touche. When they saw that we were in trouble they asked the bridgkeeper to keep the bridge open so they could turn back for us. It felt really good not being alone! 30 minutes work had the motor running again, air in the system and when we changed diesel filters in Harlingen we got the explanation. A nut blinding the unused intake (there are 2 intakes on each filter, but only one is used) on one of the filters had come loose and the filter was sucking air.

I have no idea why the Italians are so proud of their leaning tower. In Holland every building leans and they all lean in different directions. Most hoses arte very old. A house built in the 19th or even 18th century is considered to be "new". It's not rare to see houses from early 17th century, or even 16th century. As the boats, the hoses are kept in mint condition and are preserved very well. It really isn't hard to imagine what it must have looked like here a couple of centuries ago.

Harlingen is a nice town on the coast, inside the islands on the Waddensee. The Waddensee is shallow and always changing so you need the very latest charts and navigational warnings. During low tide a lot of the Waddensee is dry and even the fairway is only 1-2 feet deep, so you need to cross during high tide. Harlingen is not tide free and there are no pontoons, so you need to use long lines. It was a really nice place though. We stayed two nights before crossing the Waddensee to the locks at Kornwerderzand before entering into Ijsselmeer. We then sailed to Medemblik, a very, very nice and charming town on the western side of Ijsselmeer. Ijsselmeer is by the way a lake, a man made lake with a dam separating it from Waddenzee in the northern end and another dam separating it from another manmade lake in the south. From there we sailed on to Enkhuizen, another charming but rather big city.

We've been here for 3 nights now, working a bit on the boat. We installed a new holding tank among other things. We've also been listening to Joshua Slocums "Sailing alone around the world" on CD and taken turns reading "Slumdog millionaire" by Vikas Swarup out loud to eachother. Really nice! Tomorrow, hopefully, Amsterdam is waiting!

We've got to get out of this place...

2009-08-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

We've been here for... almost five days now. In Cuxhafen that is. Unless the water is crystal clear with dolphins jumping across the bow and barebreasted mermaids serve you breakfast every morning, five days is too long!

We sailed from Spodsbjerg in Denmark to Holtenau in Kiel. Holtenau is a nice little harbour in a calm area with buatiful old houses, and it's just next to the Kiel canal locks. We had absolutely no wind on the way over and the 60M we're done by engine. We arrived in the middle of a thunder squall and rushed below like drowned kittens.

The next day we went through the locks, it was uneventful and over before we knew it started, a bit of an anticlimax. We continued on to Rendsburg, a nice little town about 1/3 of the way through the Kiel canal. Again, motoring, as sailing is prohibited in the canal. In Rendsburg we found Ingeborg's sad looking sister.
She's aparently been laying there for ten years and looks like she's in a bad shape, although not beyond rescue, yet.

The next day we continued to Brunsbüttel, which is in the other end, the Elbe, or North sea end of the canal. On our way there we broke the traffic regulations of the canal! There meeting places or "exchange areas" as the germans call them, along the way, with signals indicating if it's OK to enter and leave, or to only enter but not leave etc. As we aproached one of them, there was a red flshing light, which means danger, enter but don't leave. We had two large sailing boats in front of us, a large german river barge and a german SAR boat and they all ignored the signal. We thought; when in germany, do as the germans. We would soon get the explanation to the signal though. On the other side of the meeting place there was a large railway bridge. Just as we went under the bridge, five police helicopters crossed the canal at low altitude and disappeared behind the forest on our right side. A few minutes later they appeared again, behind us and lined up over the channel. They then sped up and all of them flew under the bridge before disappearing around a bend in the canal... After all this excitement, the rest of the day was wonderfully boring. We didn't have high hopes for Brunsbüttel, but it was a pleasent surprise and quite coasy. We spent two days there, waiting for better weather, before leaving for Cuxhafen, a trip of 17M. Finally, the weather improved enough and we continued with the tide out the river Elbe, again by engine in headwind of force 5. With the wind against us and the tide, creating choppy seas, we were almost dead in the water at times but still did between five and eight knots over ground. We arrived in Cuxhafen just before lunch. That was thursday last week and we've been here since then. We've had westerly winds of between force 5 and 6 and during the weekend it peaked at force 9. Not good for us, as we are heading west. We're waiting here together with a whole bunch of dutch sailors on their way home. Tonight though, we'll leave. The winds have dropped and during the afternoon today they'll veer to south or southeast. Perfect! We'll leave tonight for Norderney, one of the westmost of the East Frisian Islands. Distance from here, around 70M The reason we'll leave tonight is that the appraoch is difficult in darkness, so we'll have to arrive during day. We also have the tide to consider. I guess the first part will be by engine again, as they have thretened with very light winds during the early night. Winds will pick up after midnight though, so it looks like it'll be a lovely night of sailing.

And now, a few words about Cuxhafen. It's not a bad place really. It's an old resort with lovely old hoses and nice beaches that keep disappearing and coming back as the tide changes. The town is quite big and it's divided into two parts. The center is quite modern with lots of shops and you can find everything you need. The older parts, the resort and beachfront are lined with beatiful old and large houses, small hotels and restaurants. There seems to be a lot of tourists here, but most are germans. There is no information in english anywhere! It's expensive here though. They charge you €2.80 to enter the beach. €20 per night in the marina and then nothing's included, you pay extra for electricity, water, showers etc. The only thing that's reasonably cheap is restaurants. Prices are about 10-30% cheaper than home, and you get served twice as much food. The day before yesterday we visited the yacht club's own restaurant and had a fishplate for two. It was a mountain of food and we could barely finnish half of it. We got a doggy bag and had lunch for the next day. This made our extravagant dinner quite cheap after all.

There are two main marinas here, the SVC (Sergler Vereinung Cuxhafen) which we're in. It's just a marina, all services but quite boring. Very sheltered though. Then there's Cuxhafen city marina, almost in the center and it looks really coasy. Max length over all for entering is 20 metres and you have to pass under a bridge that opens between 6.00 and 21.00. Both marinas have pontoons so you don't have to worry about the tide during your stay.

A typical Cuxhafen house with one of the churces in the background.

/Hampus, aboard S/Y Ingeborg in Cuxhafen, Germany. Waiting anxiously to leave.

2009-08-08T01:50:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in bed drinking tea and eating cookies. We're off! It's friday today and we've been on our way since monday. Last week was a bitch, we finnished the mast, installed a new calorifier, a new VHF, packed, shopped, stepped the mast, bought a million little things that we needed for the boat and came out a lot poorer. I don't think I was in bed before 1 am any night last week. And we're just going for a two month trip, Imagine if we were going to be away for five years!

Anyway, we're on our way now. What a relief! We left Malmö five days ago in nice winds but with a grey sky and rain threatening to break out any minute. Lotta's family came along for the short trip to Falsterbokanalen, the place where I first started to sail dinghies. With just an hour to go the sky opened up and we moored alongside the pontoon looking like drowned cats. We stayed there the entire tuesday. We had to buy a new winch for the genoa halyard and mount it on the mast. That night we had dinner with my parents who live nearby. Falsterbokanalen is a man made channel and it saves you around 13M if you're going south, or north. At 1100 on wednsday, as the bridge opened, we passed through and we were on our way! The 33M sail to Klintholm on Mön in Denmark took 9 hours in very light winds but beautiful sunny weather with a sea that looked like mercury. We motored the last 15M. Klintholm was expensive, 34€ for one night and then we spent another 250€ on 200 liter diesel and the "hafenmeister" (harbourmaster) only spoke german!

The captain!

At thursday we were off again, this time through Smålandsfarvandet to the small island of Femö, also in Denmark. Again, hardly any wind and it took all day to sail the 30M. The small marina was full and we anchored just 100 metres off the beach, together with 13 other boats. The night was very calm and we took the dinghy ashore and went for a walk. Friday (today), we set sail for Spodsbjerg on Langeland (long land), another danish island. It probably got it's name from it's shape, the danes are predictable. A lot cheaper than Klintholm and plenty of room. The sail today was in force 4-5 winds and we made good speed under mizzen and genoa on a broad reach. We got a head current as we aproached Langeland and the seas we're quite choppy. I cut my hand, knocked my head on the main boom and we spilled sauce from the lunch stew all over the cockpit. On top of this, some (probably the previous owner) had removed the vent hose to one of the diesel tanks from the deck vent and we had filled the cabinet where we keep all our drinking glasses with diesel. We didn't notice this until I handed Lotta a glass mixed with lemonade and diesel. She had an extra mouth full before noticing that something was wrong. She still tastes like diesel when I kiss her... All the glasses are in a bucket of water in the cockpit and it seems like they'll be odor free. The locker is worse off though, but that's a project for tomorrow.

Oh yeah! Tjis is how the mast turned out, varnished and ready. More details later.

2009-07-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

We motored down to Limhamn a week and a half ago (sunday) to unstep the mast. It was kind of exciting as we have never done it on this boat before. One single bolt gave us trouble for two hours before we beat it, litterally. Apart from that all went well and the mast came down in slow and controlled manner. We put it on the dock over night and motored back to Malmö.
The rot is clearly visible here.

A truck was supposed to pick it up on monday, but it broke down. I think Murphy hates sailors! We were able to arrange transportation through friends though, after scrapping the idea of transporting the 15 meter mast on the roof of our 3 meter Lada (that's a car, although Lotta only gives it credit for being a really nice tractor).
This is a very sophisticated transportation device.

This is a slightly less sophisticated transportation device. We thought it might be easier to handle sharp turns if we put the barrow under the base of the mast but it was too heavy and we had to put it under the spreaders where it balanced better. Then it was "easy" to push it into the barn where the surgery will take place.

Working with chisels and a wooden club I remove the rotten material. It's very easy as it's so wet you can squeeze water from it. The VHF cable visible in the center of the mast is run in a plastic pipe which was broken, so all the water coming along he cable just ended up inside the mast instead of on the outside.

A pile of rotten wood. It's so wet it wouldn't even make a decent fire.

Here's the good wood... Still working with chisels I cut the scarf. Normally it would be 12 times the thickness of the wood, which is rwo inches. However, we found that the mast is pretty much made solid from the base and two meters up, so there will be plenty of good wood for the epoxy to work it's magic on. This scarf is only five times the thickness of the wood. The mast is built from spruce, which is pretty much impossible to come by over here, so we're scarfing in pieces of siberian larch. There will be a slight difference in color, but the larch is a lot more resistant to rot than spruce.

Working with 20th century tools now, I sanded the scarf. It's now completely even and smooth as a babies butt. I used a coarse paper to give the epoxy a slightly larger surface. When this was done I gor ambitios and started sanding the entire mast. I figured I might as well do it now... I've got about 1/3 of the mast sanded down and I've still got to make three more scarfs, glue them together, sand the remaining 2/3 and put at least five coats of varnish on the mast before the start of august. That's aside from all the other projects we have...

Oh! We also had the time to install the new gimblled cooker with oven. It's a wonder of stainless steel and glass. Now Lotta can cook in rough weather! Nest I will give her a gimballed zink so she can do the dishes too...

More pictures will follow as the work progresses.

/Hampus

Preparation

2009-06-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

The kerosene lamps on the forward bulkhead are burning with a coasy yellow light and the shadows are dancing around the saloon as the northerly gale that howls through the rig makes Ingeborg rock back and forth. Lotta is asleep in the aft cabin, she's working tomorrow, I'm not. Well, I'll be working on Ingeborg. We're only going to be away for 9 weeks, but there's so much to be done. I wonder what it would be like if we were going away for a couple of years? I hope I'll find out some day... This whole mini cruise is partly a way of getting away from work and the daily routines of living a "normal" life. It's also test to see if Lotta finds the cruising lifestyle appealing or not. If she does, then who knows where we'll end up eventually? For now, we are still at our marina in Malmö, Sweden and we won't set off until august. This weekend we're unstepping the main mast. Ingeborg has wooden masts and there's rot around the base of the forward mast. We had a hard time finding a shipyard that could fix it for us and it turned out to be quite expensive, so we'll do it ourselves. We'll cut off around 2 metres of the mast and replace it with fresh wood. It'll probably take little more than a week as the epoxy needs 48 hors before I dare turn the mast over. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Beleive me, we've considered everything from just shortening the mast to turning it upside down... Maybe we should just move the mizzen forward and be done with it! Who needs two masts anyway?

I guess you'll be seing the progress, or lack thereof, in this blog. If I keep udating it and you keep reading it that is...

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be changing the instrument panel in the cockpit and remove some old instruments. I'll also clean up among all the cables. If I still have some time left I'll install the "new" autopilot. It'll be nice! We'll have a slightly used 15 year old pilot instead of a heavily used 30 year old pilot. Couldn't get any better! I'm worried about everything that needs to be done before we leave. Not so much because of the time it takes but because of the $$ it'll cost. We're hard pressed to make the budget anyway and we absolutely need a new propane stove. The one that's mounted now has no gimbals and no way of fixing the pots. We really don't want spaghetti and tomato sauce all over the galley and ourselves! We also need at least one new holding tank. Then ofcaurse, there's the "I want I want I want I want!!!" list which is pretty much never ending... It would feel a lot better if someone would buy our old boat, a 31 ft double ender. An excellent blue water pocket cruiser. Any takers!?

Ingeborg is a 1979 Transworld 41. She's probably derived from the original William Garden design and was built in Taiwan. The Transworld is a center cockpit version of the CT 41, Formosa 41, Island trader 41 etc. Ingeborg is 41 feet long (almost 50 feet with bow sprit and davits) and she weighs around 14.5 tons. She has a full keel and a ketch rig. These boats are often referred to as "Leaky teaky" and "Taiwan turkey". Mostly by really evil people who never sat their foot aboard one in their lifes, but sometimes also by their owners. Keeping this in mind, on this blog we are the only ones allowed to call Ingebord a "Leaky teaky" or "Taiwan turkey" and you should take care to remember that!

We bought Ingeborg in Germany in april and sailed her the 140 or so miles home in early may. I'm not really sure how we came to buy her, we were'nt really looking for another boat. I'll try to sort it out though... I guess we talked about long term cruising and Lotta mentioned that in the future, if we were to go do some serious cruising, she'd want a bigger boat. It should have at least two separate cabins so she could either get away from me, or lock me in (she didn't say which one) when she got tired of my company. Eger as I am to go cruising, I sat down in front of the computer and started scanning the internet. I wanted to show Lotta what kind of baots you could get for very little money if you turned your eyes towards west and the USA. As it turned out though, the brittish pound had taken a pounding (pun intended) and was very weak compared to the swedish crown, so there was a whole world of cheap... ish boats just around the corner. As we turned our eyes towards the brittish market, we found a few interesting ones but none fell to Lotta's liking, not until I stumbled upon a Formosa Sea Tiger in the med. It was cheap and required a lot of work but was sold before we had a chance to look at it. Anyway, after this Lotta was sold on the Formosa/CT/whatever and I think I might have been too. There were none for sale in Sweden and I didn't even know if they existed here. I talked about it with a friend at work and it turned out that not only had he sailed one, but it was (still is) owned by his friend and for sale. A CT 41 and only an hour drive from home! We went looking at it as soon as possible but Lotta wasn't too fond of the interior layout. A week earlier I had been in touch with a german selling a CT 41 center cockpit. At almost €80.000 it was way over our bugdget, but I e-mailed him for more pictures, which I got. She was just gorgeous and seemed to be in excellent condition, but the price tag was out of our reach. For two days I didn't respond to the e-mail and then I got another one. If we bought the boat before the end of march, we could have her for €55.000, which was just within our limits. I guess it might have been meant to be? Anyway, to make a long story short, she was just as beautiful as she semmed to be and here I am in the saloon of Ingeborg, typing away. Not only am I typing, I'm blogging! Something I thought was way too mainstream and that I once promised myself never to do... That's the definition of "lack of character"...

A few more pictures:

I guess we'll see where this blog, and we, end up in the future, but for now we'll try to keep it updated. First with the progress of work, then with the fun stuff :)

/Hampus aboard S/Y Ingeborg, Malmö