Back to planning and preparing

It has been quiet for months now on this blog. The reason has been I moved out, left my husband and now I am divorced since beginning of this month. This very sad process has taken most of my energy and time, but now that is behind me and I can take up planning and preparing for my dream again.

In May, months ago, I found out, at a regatta here in Switzerland, that one of the fellas, Florian, spent 6 weeks sailing with his girlfriend in Sweden during the summer 2003. Hearing of my plan he offered to lend me all his sailing charts and books even if they are dated. Over summer we tried to meet up during a regatta again, but it just did not happen. So we ended up making a date for my visit in Zürich to get oriented and pick up all the stuff.

This date was set for Thursday this week and Kathrin my good friend, who knows Florian well, got wind of my planned visit and joined. So we ended up two “girls” at Florian’s dining table with his wife, 3 year old son and 4 months old daughter in the background, eating pizza and having wine chatting about their Sweden sailing experience.

Most tips I noted down in my little black notebook and after a great evening I carried home all this stuff on the picture. It was so heavy to carry, even if I only had to walk from one train to the other platform and then to the bus and from the bus stop home another 500 meters. I had to set my load down about every 100-150 meters to rest.

I am so happy to have all this stuff to look through and start planning and dreaming.

Turned down the VEGA, so sad

Well my excitement Sunday evening came to an abrupt halt. I had to face the facts, that even if the boat was great and I wanted to fly to Sweden to buy it, the circumstances are completely against that. The timing is completely wrong, I do not need a boat now, earliest next summer, perhaps even later would be better. I do not have any holiday left to fly to Stockholm, I spent it on sailing 2 weeks and visiting my sister for 3 weeks in Australia this year. I am currently separating from my husband and that actually absorbs all my concentration, energy and organizational skills, so starting something else at this moment is just foolish.


I turned down the offer Thursday evening with a very sad heart.


Cool is that I contacted another blogger, Merle (http://merleibach.blogspot.com/) that with her 5 months trip around the Baltic see last year, really inspired me. She answered me promptly and now we have email exchange, which is awesome.

Vega 27-Albin Marine

Thomas went to see the sailboat today that is offered for sale in Stockholm. Everything was good with the boat, a lot of special extras and nice solutions appearantly.
Meanwhile I have surfed and read up on the boat and so far I really love what I have read. So now I have to decide, if I want the boat and if so I should fly up there and have a look at it myself before purchasing it.
So the next steps are talking to the owner/seller and then book my ticket to Stockholm to go and see the boat myself.
WOW this is becoming real really fast!

Promising sailboat offer in Stockholm

I couple of days ago surfing for sailboat offers I found this ad:

http://www.apolloduck.se/display.phtml?aid=192973

The owner answered my mail yesterday and the boat has heater, cooker, refrigerator, toilet and a lot of other stuff I found out by calling the owner just now. Thomas one of my boat knowledgably relatives will arrange to have a look at the boat for me soon. He is such a helper! This is so exciting! If all looks well I will have to book a flight to go and look at the boat myself before I by it.

Wow, perhaps I am soon a boat owner again and this time not just a dinghy.

This other link gives a good overview of the sails, construction and layout:

http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=549

Seagull pictures from Sunday

So here are the pictures I took seeing Seagull again after a couple of years. They are only from the outside, because climbing up into the boat was so complicated that I left the camera in the scooter. 
I sailed her about 4 years ago on the Lake Neuchatel on a sunny summer day.

I have been thinking about this boat now the last days and even if the size is great for handling and Dänu would offer it to me basically for free, I have my doubts if this is the right boat.

It would need some work to be in a condition I would like to spend many months on, additionally it does not have power, nor a fridge or a big water tank. Certainly no GPS or other cool navigation gear, since that all needs power…

I have surfed a bit for used sailboats in Sweden and actually found sailboats about the same size but with a lot more amenities installed even if the boats were about the same age. I think I have to tell Dänu this is not the way to go. Shucks!

I was kind of looking forward working on the boat and planning everything together with him. Let’s see how I can involve him anyway, he has such a big knowledge on things that I would like to learn from.

Visited Seagull-Sunbeam 22-S today

Today I met my dear friend Dänu who owns a red Sunbeam 22-S named Seagull, a 6,70m small sailboat built 1973 and restored by him a couple of years ago. We thought this could be the boat that I take to Sweden to sail with.
So today I checked it out with Dänu, the boat on the trailer behind a barn. The bottom of the boat which was restored and the inside still look great but the cockpit and stuff was extremely dirty from standing there for over 2 years. We agreed to clean it off one of the following weekends to have a better assessment of what needs to be done and if this boat is really the answer to fulfill both of our sailing dreams in Sweden.
We discussed if the boat needs to be relocated soon, since the barn with property it stands next to has switched owner and a there could be a letter of notice soon.
What are the options: driving the boat up to south of Sweden this autumn or await the notice and have the boat closer to get it fixed up here in Switzerland before transporting to Sweden? Is this even the correct boat? How does a transport work? How much work does the boat still need? Is it worth the effort?
Questions and more questions arising, we decided to clean the boat and then decide on the next steps. I will post some pictures of the boat soon, tonight it is too late.
But here a link: http://www.sunbeam22segeln.de/live/Verkaufsprospekt_fuer_die_Sunbeam_S22.AxCMS?ActiveID=1212

Good night!

First planning in Stockholm weekend July 9/10. 2011

First research on seacharts and books in Stockholm. Bought an overview seachart of the whole area between Stockholm and St. Petersburg :-)