Today started rainy but it stopped shortly after breakfast. We left the old shipping village Skärhamn around noon after a short walk and a couple of hour’s video conference for Hakan.

We were able to sail most of the narrow channels with the wind from SW.

By then, the clouds were gone and we had a rather slow but pleasant sail through the small town of Marstrand with its nice old houses. In part, we followed the same route we followed four years ago heading for the Med.

We found a free buoy at Hogo after only 11 nm and decided to spend the night there. The Swedish cruising association (SXK) have put out a lot of these around the coast and they are free to use for one night if you are a member with a registered boat. All you have to do is to fly the boy-flag that comes with the mail every spring, this year it is yellow.

’Tomorrow is, as always, another day. According to the forecast, the winds will be more favourable and there will be no rain so, we expect to cover a lot more miles. Click on “VAR ÄR VI” on the top menue and follow one of the links to see our position “live”.

At ten today, we left our home port. Our plan is to sail to and in the Baltic this summer. A head of us lies close to 1 200 nautical miles of Swedish coastline. Time will tell how fare we will go, knowing that the sail back is just as long.

Having had the first shot of Corona vaccine, and the next to come in early June, we are hopeful to be able to sail also in Finland in July.

Hakan started today with a friend on board for a daytrip. A very un-photogenic sail as the rain was pouring down most of the day. We stayed relatively dry and warm under our helmsman’s awning and managed to put in some sailing but with very weak winds the engine had to do most of the work today. Now Eva is on-board for a long weekend.

Sorry for keeping quiet for so long.

We are finally back in the water after a long winter and very cold spring on the hard. A number of electrical heaters and a large 20 kW diesel heater helped us create the necessary temperatures to allow us to finish the epoxy work on the bottom in time for launching April 24^th.

We could finally, on the last day of April, leave for a first shakedown cruise over the weekend. We sailed around the island of Orust. A nice, and mostly sunny, trip in freezing temperatures.

We filled the fuel tank and put up all the sails. This year, we have a brand new mainsail. It looked nice on the first try but, we really never got to test it in anything but light winds.

We have been working hard to finalise some works and repairs and to carry everything back on board again ever since Sally went in the water. We can now see the light in the tunnel. So, if the weather is not to miserable (it has been raining cats and dogs the last week…) we will leave for the first leg of this summer’s adventure on Tuesday. Will try to keep you updated on progess…

Let’s all hope for a good year 2021. But first, let us tell you a little bit about our year 2020. It started off with a very nice “winter” in Cartagena with beautiful weather. We had walks and excursions in the area with friends and a trip to Madrid before skiing in Italy in February.

The nasty bug started to make itself known as we were getting Sally ready for our sailing season. The plan was to start sailing in early March and to make it home to Sweden by middle of September. We were looking forward to Madeira and possibly the Azores as well as visiting London and some of our old favourites along the way home.

And, we took off as planned and sailed for two days before lock down in Spain made us spend six weeks instead of 2 days in Aguadulce. Six long weeks when we had to stay on the boat, we were only allowed to leave the boat one at a time to buy food or medicine. Thankfully, we had stocked up with red wine before we left Cartagena.

It became clear to us already after a few weeks that the best option would be to sail home. A new plan to sail more or less directly home developed. We took on provisions to last us for five weeks and as much fuel as we could carry. Leaving also required permission from Guardia Civil that the marina arranged for us.

We had two ports available for stopover when we left Aguadulce April 24^th; A Coruna and Brest. Some instrument problems made us turn around at Trafalgar and go to La Linea for repairs. We left, after refuelling in Gibraltar, on April 30^th heading for Muros that had confirmed while we were in La Linea.

Spare parts awaited us in Muros and while we waited for a weather window, the restrictions were gradually lifted so we could hike in the mountains. We left Muros May 12^th and had cold but moderate easterly winds across the Bay of Biscay. We finally, after a dozen E-mails, obtained the last permissions to sail in France and enter Cherbourg the night before our arrival May 21^st.

We had a quick “overnighter” up the channel and arrived in Vlissingen May 25^th. Holland turned out to be quite welcoming so we were able to spend two near normal weeks on the Standenmast Route up to Lauwersoog. Another “overnighter” took us to the Kiel Canal and new but, slightly different corona restriction.

Denmark was completely closed to us (as Portugal and Belgium had been) so we sailed directly from Kiel to Sweden bypassing with sadness some Danish favourites. We arrive in Varberg, Sweden June 15^th. What a relief to be home and finally, in a country where we could move freely – and fully understand the language. We then continued north from there, stopping by friends and family, and arrived in our home port Ljungskile June 22^nd.

We spent July preparing for a life ashore. We did some renovation work on our house but decided to leave most of it to the professionals. We tried to sort out everything that was in storage but, could not move much back to the house before renovation was finished. We also spent a lot of time with friends and family.

We went sailing when the painters started work in early August and had a lovely time on the Swedish west coast for a little more than two weeks. We sailed very leisurely short distances between friends and favourite places. So nice to be back in protected waters with an abundance of anchorages – and the sun was shining!

We were home again just in time to take a last farewell of Hakans father who passed away at the age of 94.

The house awaited us with shining new paint and nice wallpapers and so started many days of carrying furniture and boxes to unpack. Then, we had to clear out the rest of our storage to temporary spaces while a water leak was repaired. We spent the better part of a month carrying, unpacking, sorting, repacking and carrying again.

There was finally time, in mid-September, for a last sail. Eva had by then started part time work so for this shorter trip Hakan sailed singlehanded part of the way. We had a lovely week-end together with “indian summer” weather.

The storage had been repaired when Hakan came back so, a new session with sorting and carrying and then emptying the boat started. We lifted Sally the first week-end in October and she was empty, cleaned, covered and ready for the winter a week after that.

Hakans right shoulder has been giving him problems since last summer. This accelerated during the sail in August so he finally gave in and visited the hospital. An operation was necessary to sort it out and was arranged for 15^th October. This should allow for the expected six month recovery period to be over just in time for getting Sally ready for the next season.

Having the arm in a lock for six weeks and after that, so far, with restriction on use, gave the term “single handed” a new meaning. Recovery and physiotherapy are progressing normally. But, it has been a really boring time with increasingly strict Corona restrictions, grey, wet and generally miserable weather and not being able to do much with one arm only. Now thing are looking a bit better with the start of vaccination and Hakan have been able to use his arm in a more normal way lately- although very carefully.

We had a lovely Christmas with three of our four children visiting with their children. Eight adults and six grandchildren might have stretched the recommended maximum for private gatherings but, so far no problems.

We are now looking forward to 2021. Hopefully, vaccine combined with springtime will eventually allow more freedom of movement including sailing in foreign waters. We are planning to sail in the Baltic next summer and hope to be able to visit with our sailing fiends along its coasts. More on our planes as they shape up in the spring.

We wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Eva & Hakan

This year has been a very different year with and the world is not what we are used to any more. We are well and at home in Sweden in our little house by the sea.

Sally is now on the hard across the bay from us, resting after our 12 000 nm Mediterranean adventure.

We will try and summarise the year shortly. Look for the next post. The plan is to write in English from now on. Why not register for updates, form at bottom of this page.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas

Eva & Hakan

För tredje gången är nu Sally på SXK Medelhasseglarnas tidning Odyssés förstasida. I tidning finns vår artikel om hemseglingen i Corona tider.

Se också vår Artikel om livet i karantän i Aguadulce.

Vi börjar nu komma i ordning här hemma. Vår lägenhet är renoverad och vi har flyttat in. Även om mycket annat nu pockar på så hoppas vi att det ska bli lite tid att se tillbaka på vår fantastiska segling.

I dag har vi redigerat inledning och lagt upp all vår senaste information under menyvalet ”Länder och Hamnar”. Framför allt Holland har kompletterats efter vår segling där på försommaren.

Efter tre år och två månader är vi hemma igen. Vi har besökt 12 länder och seglat ca 12 000 sjömil. Den 20 april 2017 lämnade vi servicebryggan vid segelklubben i regn och ruskväder (klicka här), i går var vi tillbaka igen.

En fantastisk resa som tagit oss till m platser som vi inte ens viste fanns innan vi gav oss i väg. Vi har också fått många nya vänner och bekanta. Vi vet att många följt vår hemsegling. Det har varit roligt och uppmuntrande att läsa alla kommentarer i mejl, sociala medier och på bloggen.

I går seglade vi in i viken vid fyratiden i ett lätt regn. Vi möttes vid segelklubbens brygga av familj och vänner som tog emot med champagne, blommor och presenter.

Nu ska vi fixa till vårt bostadsrättshus som varit uthyrt och behöver lite renovering. Sedan kommer flytten från ett liv på båt till ett liv i land. Det är också mycket annat som behöver ordnas efter tre år. Och mycket släkt och vänner att träffa. Vi låter semesterseglarna få juli i Bohuslän och planerar själva att segla i augusti igen.

I dag har vi passerat Nidingen och sedan alla de välkända landmärkena utandför Onsalahalvön och in mot Långedrag. Underbart att segla i riktig skärgård, det har vi längtat efter. Nu slår vi av på tempot och tar det lugnt några dagar över Midsommar.

Söndag 21/6 seglar vi in till segelklubben i Ljungskile. Vi räknar med att vara där vid fyratiden. Anders och Anders ordnar någon form av mottagande. Alla (friska) som har tid och lust är välkomna, det skulle vara jätteroligt om många ville komma. Vi kommer att ligga där under eftermiddagen och kvällen, kom när ni kan. Vi har vin och öl från sydligare länder och A&A fixar fika.