Anchors aweigh!
If you’re reading this, it means we have untied the lines and are somewhere out at sea! Heading towards the southern horizon, I hope, and next time you will hear from us when we find land again.
Bittersweet times
A couple of days into May it was time to launch our boat, Aina. The time came sooner than we had really hoped for, as we were neck deep in boat projects. But the big crane had only been booked for one day, and the costs could be shared by several boats, so we had to be ready. We had the boat survey done, keel cooler units installed on the bottom, two layers of new antifouling applied and all the zincs replaced. Right on time!
Boat Projects Start Again – with Another Big Bang!
I have read Stephen Hawking’s Brief History of Time. I know the universe started with a Big Bang, and as soon as it’ll be done expanding it’ll shrink again, and another Big Bang will follow. The same theory seems to apply to boat projects. Last year it wreaked havoc on our little boat, and we had to sweat for days and weeks on end to get everything back together. But in the end we had a much better boat than we started with. I’m really hoping that this spring we can pull it off again – on our new boat! During the Easter holidays we finally had time, and tolerable weather – it’s a rare thing for the two to happen at the same time during the Finnish spring – to delve into the boat matters and to take a better look at our projects.
Compass Heading 180° Presents: s/y Aina
This is it! The moment you have all been waiting for! I’m sure all our readers have been anticipating this announcement as eagerly as the next sailing season! Here she is, the sailboat that will take us on our adventure. Next summer we will start our journey South – that’s 180°.
Age Is Just a Number – and So Is Boat Size!
Maybe you’ve heard the saying about the right length of boat – that it should be the wife’s age in feet. I’m the wife in this story, but I was the one who chose our boat, and I laughed at this rule and decided to ignore such stupid nonsense.
Sailing Season Begins – She Floats!
Ready for Launch! …Not!
Spring is late this year. Really, really late. Not a bud in a tree, not a green blade of grass.
Our sailboat’s spring refit is running late too. We’ve been held up by very cold weather. We’ve been dodging hale storms and taken a beating from angry northerly gusts. And today, just as we thought the worst would be behind us as it’s almost May, we’re having this great big snow storm. Everything is covered in snow – insolent, inpolite, unenvited snow!
Sailboat Projects – The Big Bang!
We’re back from the beautiful shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s officially spring – never mind the snow that stubbornly keeps falling and the freezing northerly wind that blows your hat off and makes your limbs stiff. It’s spring, and like I said in my last post, time to get our hands dirty. And dirty they are!
Sailboat Projects – DIY or Pay a Pro
I was recently talking to a person involved in research on boating and boat maintenance. We discussed the usual boat stuff that one does every spring – or otherwise on a regular basis – like bottom paint jobs and engine maintenance, but also about bigger projects like the ones we are currently planning: upgrades for sails, rigging, and the sanitation system. One of the questions I was asked was how much of it we are going to do ourselves, and what are the sort of things we would have a boatyard do for us.
Sailboat Projects – Luxuries Onboard
Sailboat Projects – Handling Sails the Easy Way
At the moment, we have three healthy arms between our crew. As I happen to be in possession of two of those arms, the duties requiring brute force naturally fall on me. So I do all the sail handling, going on deck, jumping onto the dock. Unfortunately, I missed out big time when qualities like coordination, agility and sophistication were being dealt. I fumble through these duties as well as I can, painfully aware that I’m not the smooth, well balanced, cat-like creature I’d like to be.
Sailboat Projects – Well Begun is Half Done!
Actually, in Finland the saying goes “Well planned is half done”. As our boat is currently covered in ice and snow, there isn’t much work we can begin – but we sure can plan. As it happens, I’m very good at planning. So good in fact, that I have turned it into a way of making a living – I prefer not to talk about a career, because careers are something that successful and ambitious people have, and I’m just an ordinary person who likes to make plans. I like it so much I hardly ever stop planning. Sometimes I even make plans while sleeping, which is the best way of putting that time into some use, if you ask me.
Just add water
Like a fish out of water
We had only completed the first leg of our journey, and already we found ourselves stuck in a marina because of bad weather. I know these things happen all the time when you’re cruising, but seriously – in the first port of call?!
Countdown to summer sail
For most Finns the summer is now as good as over. July is the holiday month and now kids are going back to school and adults to work. But we still have our summer holidays to look forward to, and in just a few days we’ll begin our first longer journey on our own sailboat.
The last days we have been doing boat projects and have turned some of them pretty exotic without leaving the home port. Costs have been higher than anticipated, everything has taken more time than anticipated, and some lessons have been learned the hard way. Maybe we really are sailors now, because this is what everyone keeps telling it’s all about!
Here’s our newest crew member. I’m hoping our holiday photos will turn out better from now on.