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It took about a week more than planned to finally finish the organising and setting up of our boat. Each item on the boat is now documented with its exact location, quantity, part name and number. The only things we didn’t document were our clothes, personal hygiene and cosmetic items — that would be just a bit over the top.
We’ve organised all of our parts, tools, and equipment on a spreadsheet.
Food and utility stores are documented since you need to know what to stock back up on — do we need more eggs? Butter? Toilet paper? Dishwashing liquid? Yes, this is a great big PITA — notice the glass of wine next to the Mac? But we will be thankful we did it – sooner than later.
The boat is still not in order, and our dog, Senna is tired of all the boring organising and tidying up.
We didn’t just organise the interior of the boat. The entire contents of the various deck lockers (sail locker, port and starboard lazarettes and the side deck locker) needed to be moved to the most logical place. For example, since the heating exhaust passes through the port lazarette, we put only “non-meltable” items there. Since the side deck locker is the most shallow, we put smaller items there, such as boat cleaning products, the filters for the water maker and other small parts.
Organising the sail locker
Organising the side deck locker
The long and thought-provoking (Do we really need this? Can we leave this with Adams Boat Care for now?) process of organising and tidying up resulted in an entire pallet box full of things! I was inspired by the book by Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. She says you need to be rigorous with your decision process and always ask “Does this spark joy?” If it doesn’t, it should go. In boating terms, the questions are: “Do we really need this?” and “Do we really have the room for this?” While we do have a few things we don’t really need (candles, a small Alvar Alto bowl that can be used for tea lights or to hold nuts or strawberries), they don’t take up much space.
This is what is staying at Adams Boat Care for the summer and then going back home with us in the fall.
At the same time we were in the process or organise and documenting, Carl Adams was getting the boat in shape to go. He contracts the rigging work to expert rigger Daniel Engström. We had to postpone rigging day twice because of high winds, but the day finally arrived — chilly, but calm and sunny.
Attaching the boom. The mast had already been put up before our arrival in Sweden.
Putting up the inner forestay with its Reckmann furler
Daniel in the air
Putting up the jib
Making sure the lines and halyards are correctly organised on the mast
Senna, our dog, found the entire rigging process really fascinating. So much so that she was completely wiped out at the end of the day.
Back in August of 2011, our plan was to buy a Najad or one of the other so-called “Orust boats” (built by yards on the island of Orust on the west coast of Sweden). Hallberg-Rassy, Malö, and Regina af Vindö were all on our short list. I knew these boats after my years as a sailboat owner in Stockholm, and they were known for being robust, classic, high-quality blue-water yachts.
The Orust Boat Show. Called “Öppna Varv” in swedish, the show takes place every August on the island of Orust.
Much to our dismay at the time, Najad went bankrupt just a week after we returned from our trip. What kind of support would there be for a brand that didn’t exist anymore? So we started looking at Hallberg-Rassy, Malö, and the other Orust boats and decided that the 45 to 54 foot size range would be a good choice for a live-aboard boat. We wanted to have enough space for permanent living and for friends and family to visit. We also had two large dogs. We couldn’t imagine having 6 people and two big dogs on a smaller boat than 45 feet.
Jacques inspecting a Hallberg-Rassy 53 at Vindö Marina on the west coast of Sweden. Little did we know in 2011 that we’d be here with our own boat in 2015.
Here’s our first “basic boat requirements list”:
Robust, classic, heavy displacement style. We are going to live and voyage on this boat, not just spend weekends and holidays on it!
Well-protected and deep centre-cockpit style, rather than the light-displacement, aft-cockpit, wide-beamed sun-bathing style boats popular in the Mediterranean.
Modified (longer) fin keel. And, if possible, shoal draft. My old boat was a long-keeler that drew just 1m60. Why shoal draft? Because in the archipelagos of Sweden and Finland, where we will spend a great deal of time, a boat that draws 2 meters or more will not be able to come into certain anchorages or use certain fairways.
Easy to handle for a couple of “a certain age”, and capable of being sailed single-handed.
Cutter rig for more/easier “options” in sail handling
Good interior layout for safety and comfort (lots of handholds, relatively narrow for boat length). We didn’t want a wide “party boat” where you’d be tossed around with nothing to hold onto during a storm.
“Homey”. We would need to feel emotionally “at home” on this boat. For us, that meant a wooden interior and a bright, fresh feeling as opposed to the austere interiors found on many modern boats, especially the French and Italian ones.
Well-equipped galley, with a good oven, microwave, refrigerator and freezer. I’d like as much drawer or basket storage space as possible. I used to always hate getting on my knees to search for things lost in the back of a lower cabinet or stored underneath the cabin sole.
A reliable engine with a reasonable amount of horsepower (at least 2 for each foot). I know, I know, it’s a sailboat. But not every day is windy. We don’t want to be forced to stay at an anchorage or marina we don’t like simply because there’s no wind. Or be “stuck” if we need to stay out of a bad weather situation.
Good sized diesel tanks to feed the engine, the generator and the heater. In the northern latitudes, such as the Lofoten coast of Norway, fuel stations may be few and far between.
Three cabin – two heads design (so that friends or family visit, they are confortable) and a useful/comfortable navagation station.
The french call it “coup de foudre” — “lightning strike”.
This is the story of how we were suddenly struck with a life-changing urge: to buy a sailboat and live on it.
So what inspired us? What was the incredible catalyst for this new turn in our lives? To answer that, we need to go back to July of 2011.
Jacques and I decided to celebrate our 50th birthdays by doing an “epic” three-week motorcycle trip from Geneva, Switzerland, were we live, all the way to Stockholm, Sweden, where I used to live.
We spent the 4th evening of our trip in a beautiful harbour near Oscarshamn, on the east coast of Sweden. The view from our hotel window was that of the glistening Baltic Sea out to Blå Jungfrun, a little island known for its oddly rounded shape, and of a small marina.
View of the yacht marina just outside Oscarshamn, Sweden
View towards Blå Jungfru island off the Swedish east coast.
Remembering my old sailboat days, I said to Jacques, “you know, when you have a boat, you don’t need to pack your bags, make hotel reservations, or buy tickets. You just buy some groceries, top up the water tanks and then cast off.” After weeks of meticulously planning our routes and reserving various hotel rooms for this trip, I was really tired of planning and reserving, something you do need to do in Europe during the summer holidays.
Staring at the marina, Jacques then said, a bit pensively “and if you don’t like your neighbours or if you get tired of when you are, you just leave!”
Evening fishing in Stockholm in front of the Swedish Cruising Club offices
During the next two weeks in Sweden, mostly in Stockholm where I lived for 12 years, we were constantly bombarded by images of boats, marinas, islands, bright blue seas and sunny skies.
Boats docked on beautiful Strandvägen in Stockholm
View from our hotel room on Lidingö island just outside Stockholm
That Sweden was having one of its driest and warmest summers on record certainly helped cultivate the little seed of an idea: living a cruising life. What a dream — being able to have our morning cup of coffee and evening cup of tea at sea, on our own boat, every day.
The nautical life in Stockholm. One of the many boats that provide transportation among the thousands of islands in the archipelago.
View of the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm
After two weeks in Stockholm, we packed up and headed to the west coast of Sweden. I had chosen a hotel on the island of Tjörn, home to a famous regatta called “Tjörn Runt” (Around Tjörn).
View from our hotel room at Björholmens marina.
Our hotel was located at a marina (of course). As we visited the ports of Lysekil, Smögen, Marstrand, Skärhamn and Ellös, the longing within us grew stronger. We were continuously bombarded with images of the nautical life: the boats, the holiday and week-end sailors coming and going, the boat barbecues, and crews just enjoying the cruising life.
The marina at Skärhamn on Tjörn Island, Sweden
The Decision
The day before we were to leave the west coast, we visited the tiny port village of Henån, were the well-known Najad yachts were built until the end of 2011. As we walked around the marina, we came upon a used Najad 511 for sale. Jacques said, “this is what we should buy!” I think he said it half-jokingly, not sure of my reaction.
The boat that started it all – at the marina in Henån, where the Najad yachts were made.
We had a look at the sale sheet posted in front of the boat and walked around the deck and sat in the cockpit. As I peered down into the salon, I said, “we could seriously live on this boat.” Jacques totally agreed.
It was the first night of the cruise with no sailing, nowind, no thunder, and no swell. We all slept like logs.
I finally had access to Swedish breakfast food after yesterday’s supermarket run. As I giddily opened the jars of Swedish herring called Varbergs Drömsill and Fjällbaka Kräftgravadsill, the others just turned away, saying “ugh, how can you eat fish at breakfast?” I replied “you should try it. If you just knew how delicious it was!”
Joakim arrived after breakfast to join us for the morning’s test sail. He brought along his wife, Emma, and presented us with two of the anchorage/marina guides called Havneguiden (Norwegian for Harbour Guide). He and Emma wrote and photographed the Swedish guides called Hamnguiden number 8 and 9. We were thrilled and hugely grateful because they are superb guidebooks loaded with high-quality overhead photos and diagrams showing where underwater rocks and shallows are located. They also show the best anchoring places and the location of facilities such as recycling and trash containers, toilets, and access to fresh water.
We sadly left Kullavik marina (it’s a delightful place and we heartily recommend it) and set off for an island with a dock to let Jacques and Joakim off so that they could take photos of Freja.
Sailing out of Kullavik with Joakim at the helm.
One of the photos taken during the “photo session”.
After the photo session, we continued to sail up past the mouth of the Göta Älv, the river that flows out of Gothenburg, through a gorgeous archipelago landscape through to Marstrand.
Sailing past the island of Kalvsund, near Gothenburg.
Marstrand is known as the Cowes or Newport of Sweden. The Volvo Ocean Race had a leg end/beginning from here during the 2008-09 race and we saw the VO 70 Telefonica Blue go aground on an underwater rock just minutes after the start.
Sailing towards Marstrand
We sailed to Marstrand using the inner fairways instead of approaching from offshore. It’s so much more interesting to sail past one little seaside village after the other. Instead of just seeing water, sky and the coast and islands in the distance, you see children and dogs playing, people having coffee on their patios, kayakers paddling, and fisherman preparing nets or arranging their lobster pots. You can even smell the coffee and cinnamon buns as you pass yet another café in a narrow passage.
Kalvholmen – fishing huts painted in the typical Swedish red, called Faluröd, with white trim.
The easiest way to sail the inner passages in an archipelago is use the paper charts (in Sweden, the Båtsportkort) together with the plotter. The paper chart gives you a quick overview of the next few miles and you can keep the electronic chart zoomed in to your immediate position so you can see the underwater rocks or shallows coming up in the next mile.
I know there are sailors who say that paper charts are obsolete these days, but using both kinds of charts means you don’t have to zoom in and out all the time on your plotter. You could have two chart plotters of course, one with a raster chart zoomed out for the overview and one with vector chart zoomed in, like we saw on a Flemming motor yacht. But I’m still quite attached to my paper charts. Even if you don’t like to use them, they’re a back-up if you lose power to your electronics.
Entering the Albrechtssunds Canal on the way to Marstrand
We had actually never been to the island of Marstrand and I don’t have a good reason why. Perhaps it’s because when you visit from land, you have to leave your car/motorcycle/the bus on the Koön (Cow Island) side of the harbour and take the ferry over. We had imagined it being a long ferry ride (it isn’t). Anyway, it’s a shame that we’d skipped it, because it’s an awesome place with a real summer/yachting vibe.
Freja moored in Marstrand
We moored just in front of the Marstrands Wärdshus, and Mark snagged the last table on the sunny deck. We ate a delicious west-coast seafood lunch and had a fantastic view of all the boat traffic through the harbour. Joakim showed me “inner way” to get to Ellös on the charts which I’d brought with me to the restaurant.
Sailing through the Jungfruhålet passage
We wanted to get to Ellös by 17.00 so we said good-bye to Joakim and cast off our lines for the last part of our journey. We passed through some very narrow fairways that seemed only just wide enough for two boats to pass each other – something that one doesn’t see very often in the world. One passage, called Jungfruhålet, has a part that seemed only wide enough for us, with our almost 5 meters of beam, to pass through. I was grateful we didn’t have a boat coming through from the other direction!
Mollösund
We continued north past the the towns of Skärhamn and Mollösund, old fishing villages that have become mostly summer house towns for people in Gothenburg.
Another view of Mollösund. The windmill is still standing.
Sailing through Kyrkesund
We arrived at the Hallberg-Rassy harbour at about 17.00 and had just enough time to “check-in” with the boatshow organisers, and get our berth, name tags and other papers for the show. Tomorrow was going to be a long day as we had to thoroughly clean the boat, inside and out, to be presentable for the 3-day show. After our more than 1,000 mile trip from Southampton, we though we deserved a glass of Champagne. Skål for Freja and her crew for making it to Ellös in time!
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