Gibraltar, a tiny British Overseas Territory nestled at the southern tip of Spain, is renowned for its stunning landscapes and rich cultural heritage. Amidst its many natural wonders, one site stands out, captivating visitors with its breathtaking beauty and intriguing history, St. Michael's Cave.
Read MoreBefore we left Sweden, I was given the opportunity to use Raymarine charts. I have been wanting to do a write up on the Raymarine Charts for a while but I also wanted to use the charts for a good amount of time before writing up any review. Currently I have been using the charts for the last 6 months and for those that are impatient to know how I feel about the charts,
Read More# Filling propane tanks!
Propane is the what we use to do all of our cooking. A worry that I had was how we were going to fill the tanks while in different countries was a worry of mine. I have read online from blogs and forums was that many people had filled Swedish propane bottles in Portugal and Spain. Looking at when these blogs and posts in the forums were written, I was a little hesitant to think that filling the tanks would be a simple task.
Read MoreWhen we were in A Coruna Spain, a captain of another boat ask me which direction we were headed, North or South. I told him South and he said that was the wrong way with a slight chuckle. He stated that he had engine trouble and would be stuck in A Coruna for at least another week getting it fixed. He proceeded to tell me that he had a crew member that was running low on money and needed to get home. He was hopping that we could take her with us.
Read MoreWithin the last month, all projects and maintenance work has come together. We hauled out and spent 11 days on the hard. We did everything. We polished, painted, demasted the mast, installed a new water maker and a satellite telephone. We were originally planning to leave this weekend, the 29th of June but the sailing gods seemed to have other planes for us.
Read MoreThe job list we had
Replace anchor chain (G70 anchor chain is what we bought)
New anchor (Rocna 25 kg)
Replace the running rigging
Replace the radar
Install new plotter
Rewiring inside the distribution panel
Buy new dingy
Buy new outboard motor for dingy (none available due to covid)
Make new sun cover/bimini for the cockpit
In the last year not much really happened as you can see by the plethora of posts that were made. But this year is shaping up to be a busy year for us. As the weather is starting to turn for the better and with spring and summer just around the corner, more and more items are getting put on our **"To Do"** list. Not only do we have the general maintenance to perform to get the boat ready for the sailing season, but as we get closer to a departure date,\(Summer 2022 or Jan. 2023\) more items are making it on to our list.
There are a lot of things that we want to check/fix/replace before we actually leave. We are hoping that this will give us a year or two of sailing before any of the big ticket items need fixing and or replacing.
Read MoreWe have been planning this haul out for quite some time. We knew we wanted to check on some things and plus there were some things that we needed to fix according to the survey that we had done when we bought the boat. We originally wanting to haul out in the middle of April but then decided that we would do it the first weekend in May, which we then pushed back to the 17th. All in hopes of having a week without rain. After talking with the boat yard (Yacht Care Öresund), they told us that they were very busy and that they would not be able to do any of the work we wanted done. This was fine since we wanted to do the work ourselves anyways. But since I needed to change the cutlass bearing and change a thru-hull, having professional help on such tough jobs is always a plus. They did however tell us that they would be able to guide us and give us advice on some things. We were glad to hear this and starting preping for the haul out. This meant buying the tools and supplies we would need to tackle the list of jobs we want to finish.
Read MoreThe time finally came when all the upgrades to the boat were completed and we were to move our new home from Henån to Helsingborg. We asked a good friend of ours, Henrik, if he would like to come along for the trip and he jumped at the chance.
Read MoreFinally the day has come. Tomorrow 18-11-03, we are traveling to Henån to take delivery of our sailboat Viking Goddess. It has been a long time coming. We bought her in the end of June. Had a breif week and some odd days with her before handing her off to the Malö boat yard for upgrades. Some of the upgrades that we had done to her are:
Read MoreAfter getting the invitation to crew on the Naja 440 that was tied up in the berth next to us, we were pumped to do this and couldn't wait to get going. The original plan was for us to leave on Friday or Saturday but it all was all dependent on when the owner (refered to as D, here on out) would finish all the work he wanted to get done. As with all things in sailing, everything takes at least twice as long as you think it will take.
Read MoreVacation finally arrived and our first weekend we were busy gathering and packing up things we would need for our first week on the boat. We biked to biked to Ikea for small things we would need. We vacuumed packed all of our clothes and bedding. This gave us more room in our travel bags to pack more things
Read MoreThe last few weeks have been very hectic, exciting and a little scary for us, all at the same time. This all started back in May 2018.
I had made two appointments for us to look at two different Hallberg Rassy boats for the the 25th of May. I also had a test sail of the new Najad 395 AC scheduled the 26th. We were going to make a weekend of it since all the boats were about 4 hours
Read More2017 was the year of the glacier when it came to selling our apartment. Things moved at a glacial pace. We hired the first realtor in March 2017. For the first couple of showings, Anna and I were excited and thought the apartment would sell relatively quickly. But excitement turned to frustration and negativity. With every showing, we would leave the apartment stating "Why bother, no one is going to come". After the showing, we would talk with the realtor and she would give us the following excuses:
She used the first excuse within the first two weeks of the first showing of the apartment. As far as the price goes, we set it 50K sek under what she and 4 other realtors said the apartment was worth. We felt that if we were being unreasonable with the price, part of her job was to tell us. But she didn't and then blamed us for wanting to much. Needless to say, we fired here and got another realtor.
We liked the second realtor and she was working hard to sell our apartment. She got people to the showings, but the ones that seemed interested came up with some crazy excuses as to why they didn't want to buy.
Based on these type of responses, it was hard to figure out why the apartment was not selling. That was the hardest part I think. If we got some concrete feedback, then we could of changed things to get the place sold. Even though we liked the 2nd realtor and felt she was doing all she could, we felt like maybe we needed a new realtor. A set of fresh eyes and attitude.
So in the middle of December 2017, we hired our 3rd realtor. As they say, 3rd time is a charm and it certainly was. We sold our apartment 2 days after our first showing, January 2018. We did not get as much as we would of liked, but hey, it was sold. :)
Then we had to find an apartment to live in and only had about 2 months to find one. The thing is, it is about a 2.5 year wait to find an apartment in Malmö. Anna started to scour all the apartment listings, Facebook groups and talking with friends, in hopes of finding a 2nd hand apartment we could rent. There were a few questionable characters out there wanting us to rent their apartment but their requests made us question if everything was on the up and up. When we started to ask more questions, we found out that some of them did not have the apartment association permission to be renting the apartment 2nd hand. This could be a big problem if the association found out. We would be kicked out along with the original renter. In the end Anna found a good apartment not to far from where we were living.
During the search for the new apartment, we started to sell everything that we could and pack up what we wanted to keep.
For the last two months, our apartment was in total chaos and disarray. We wound up selling most of our furniture and other things that we had. When we moved, it took Anna and I only 4 hrs to move everything we had. That included a trip to the dump and eating. So it shows just how much we sold and got rid of before our move. The sad thing is, we still need to get rid of a lot more things before we move onto a sailboat. But we have some time to go through our things again to get rid of what we do not need.
How the apartment looked after the move
The last weekend of August the boat yard at Ellös Sweden comes alive for 3 days with Scandinavia's largest sail boat show (According to the website :) ). Anna and I were there last year and were introduced to Najad and fell in love with their boats. At the event last year, Öppet Varv August 2016, we were introduced to the Najad 395cc. This is a new design for Najad and at that time it was mostly in the design phase. At that time there were no pictures or any real information available. The info we received was mostly generalities. Like, the new boat is like this boat over here but a little bigger in the aft cabin, or you will have more room here and this has changed, etc. During the year, we have been in regular contact with Najad. Getting updates on options for the 395cc, receiving renderings and just a few months ago, the official brochure. Najad also informed us that they had more info about the new 395cc so Anna and I could not wait to get up there to talk to them more about the new boat.
Öppet Varv opened on a Friday and since we have to both work, that is until we win the lottery, we decided that we would leave early Saturday morning and then stay the night. This way we could get two full days, Saturday and Sunday, checking out the boats and vendors.
It is about a 4hr drive from Malmö to Ellös, so at zero dark 30 we stated the drive up to Ellös. It is mostly freeway but the last part is on a two lane winding road that can get pretty congested due to everyone going to the boat show. We made good time up to Gothenburg and once we got through Gothenburg and on the North side, are stomachs started telling us it was time for some breakfast. Good old Mickey D's to the rescue. For some reason, it seems like Gothenburg has a McDonald's on every corner so we had no problem in finding one.
Since it had been ages since I had a proper McDonald's breakfast, I was jonesing for a bacon egg cheese biscuit. But since they do not have them here in Sweden, I got the next best thing, Sausage egg McMuffin. Breakfast of Champions.
We arrived at the boat yard a little after 10:00 and to our surprise, there were not many people there. The weather was overcast, windy with a good chance of rain, so basically a typical Swedish summer day.
As we came in, they had one vendor that looked like it was having a going out of business sale. Clothes hanging on make shift rails and in piles on the tables they set up. In order to find something you had to fight your way in, dig through piles of clothes hoping to find something that would fit you. Since we would rather not have to fight to the death in order to find some clothes, we keep on walking by. We had more important things on our mind, the Najad boats.
Once you past some vendors, there it was, the Najad customer tent.
We headed straight there since it was not that crowded. We meet up with Frida, the Najad PR rep and talked to her for a while. It is always good to see friends that you have not seen in a while. After talking with her we went onto the 410 and talked to some Najad salesmen regarding the 395cc. Since there was hardly anyone on the boat at that time, we could really look at the boat. Lift up the deck hatches, look into the bilge and engine room, look behind electrical panels, really give it the once over. The craftsmanship is impeccable. Just have a look at the wiring.
After spending a few hours talking with Najad and looking at the boats they had on show, we wandered around looking at the other boats. Even though we pretty much have decided on getting a Najad, we like to look at other boats just to see what they have and compare. Sometimes you see something that is on another boat and say to yourself, "That is really smart how they did this" or "That is really cool, and I want it".
Around early afternoon, the sun decided to show itself and Anna received a call from her big sister. Anna's sister and her husband were also at the boat show. We meet up with them and spent some time catching up. At the boat show, Hallberg Rassy allow you to take a tour of their workshop so you can see how some things are made. We all decided to go on this tour. It gave us a chance to hang out and look at some of the boats that were being built. Especially the 64' boat they build. It is a monster.
Once done with the tour, it was getting close to closing time for the day. So we headed over to the local pub to get some dinner. After eating a very expensive hamburger and fries,(not worth the price) we drove to our hotel. It was in a town about 10km away. The rooms are standard but they do have a nice courtyard.
Unfortunately, there was a family next door to us that had a kid that would not stop screaming. At least that is what Anna told me. I slept all night but Anna said the kid was crying all night and needless to say, Anna was a little tired come the morning.
We seen some older Najad boats online and have liked what we saw and most of them were up in Henån, just the next town over from Ellös. We thought it could be cool to go and have a look at them. Well to our surprise, they were at the boat show. We got to go on them, look them over real good and ask question about them. What a difference in seeing them in person vs seeing the pics on the net. One boat we were really interested in seeing was on the hard at the Najad office. We had an appointment at 09:00 to see the boat so we had to get up at 07:30. Besides the kid screaming all night, this was the other reason Anna was tired. The condition of the boat was great but there were some things we were not quite happy with. We will have to see if we come back to this one or not.
Once we were finished with looking at the boat, we drove back to the boat show. Since we seen the boats the day before, we went to all the venders booths. We took our time and talked with the venders and looked at what they had to offer. We had a really good talk with UK sails, the ones that supply the sails for Najad. Got to talk about the type of sailing we are going to do and what type of sail setup would be good for us. It was very informative. Once we place our order for the boat, we plan on going on a tour of the sail loft to see how everything is done.
With Anna not getting much sleep the night before and us having a long drive home, we bailed out of there around 15:00. The drive home was pretty uneventful except the for the one or two crazy drivers that you always encounter out on the road.
Status update:
We have sold our car and are trying to sell our apartment now. Hopefully we can sell it in the next month or two. Once we get the apartment sold, we can start some serious negotiations with Najad and put an order in for our boat.
On 17-05-05, we visited Najad in Henån Sweden to talk with them about the different options we can get on the boat. We arrived at 10:00 and it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and at that time in the morning is was already 18º C. After about an hour of talking with them, going through an exciting excel sheet of options, we got to have some real fun. We got have a look around at the boats they were working on both in and out of the water. In the factory, we got to climbed aboard some of the boats under construction. Here are a few pics
After we had a look around the factory, we drove down to the marina where they had some nice boats in the water. By this time it was about 20º C and no wind.
We went aboard a 570 CC to just have a look around.It was outrageous. Carbon fiber mast, refrigerator for wine, in boom furling and even a beer tap.
After that we decided to have an ice cream and discuss the options and what we saw. Can't wait until we get our boat!
Just a about 6 weeks ago, we decided to start get serious about getting our boat. We got ourselves a relator and thought that we would have our apartment sold within a week or two. We were all excited and felt overwhelmed at the same time. Excited about selling the apartment but at the same time, overwhelmed about how much work we are going to have selling everything and down sizing. The first showing went ok but no one made an offer on the apartment. Then came the 2nd, 3rd and 4th showing with no results. By the 4th showing, Anna and I were both so blasé about the whole apartment selling process. Having to keep the apartment styled and staged in a certain way all the time is a pain in the ass. I don't want you to think that Anna and I live like hoarders or anything like that, but it is nice to be able come home a leave things where they are and take care of them later.
Since we were not getting the attention we wanted for our apartment, we have now took it off the market. It is still for sale but it has been taken off hemnet. (A Swedish site where houses and apartments are listed.) For some reason, everyone thinks if the apartment has been on hemnet for more than a week, there is something wrong with it and they tend to stay away. So for now, we are going to wait util the end of May and try listting the apartment again.
It may seem like a lot of emotion for just selling an apartment but it is more than just selling an apartment. Selling our apartment is like kick starting our dream. It marks the official start of us getting our boat. So until it is sold, it feels like we are just in libo and this in itself is a bit of stress. We want to get going now and since it is taking longer to sell the apartment, it is a bit frustrating. Wait for others to do something, like buying our apartment :), is not one of our strong suits.
We have not even bought our boat or settled on the final details of the boat and our emotional state has been on a roller coaster. Real high at the start of each showing, real low when we did not get an offer, back to high for next showing and then low again. Then wanting to purchase our boat but having to wait due to the apartment. So our emotional state has been all over the spectrum these past weeks. I wonder what type of basket cases we are going to be once we sign the papers for the boat :)
After a week of interviewing realtors, 5 of them to be exact, we finally decided on and signed the contract with our new realtor. Starting last Tuesday, 17-03-07, I had interviews lined up for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday. The first two interviews were ok since most of the info they presented was new, but then it became old. All the realtors presented pretty much the same info as all the others. The only real thing that stood out was the pricing.
Basically they all stated their steps as
So when we got to the third realtor presenting the same info, we could pretty much walk them through the process :)
We told each realtor that we would be making our decision today 17-03-15 and they all said ok and would call back to see what our decision was and if they could answer any questions we might have. The second realtor that we interviewed, her name is Silva, contacted us on Friday 17-03-10 and then again on Monday 17-03-13. Two other realtors called me back today as the other two have not tried to get in touch with me. Since Silva, contacted us twice, she seemed to be hungry for our business. This drive was one of the reasons why we chose her. Plus she instilled confidence in us that she could do a good job in selling apartment.
Silva has already set up an appointment for a stylist to come to our apartment to tell us what we need to change to make the pictures look good. So it will be interesting to see what they say. Everyone thinks they have good taste so we will see how bad ours is :)
We awoke at 08:00 to a cold overcast morning here in Sweden but the forecast for Dusseldorf Germany was for a few degrees colder but sunny. The train ride to Kastrup was uneventful and the same with out flight. Since our flight was the 12:15 flight, the plane was less than half full. So we had plenty of room. Even if we did not have much room, the flight was only an hour, but it is always nice to have that extra sit next to you empty :) Once we landed, we headed straight for the taxis. Since we were only staying one night, we had only a carryon. This makes traveling so much easier. One can get in and out really quick. We grabbed a cab to our hotel. Lindner Hotel Airport. It was still before 15:00 and our room was not ready, so we dropped off our carry on and hopped in a cab to Messe Dusseldorf where Boat 2017 was being held.
Upon arriving we checked in our jackets and proceeded to go into the exhibition area. We knew that it was big but once we entered, then the enormity of the exhibition hit us. They had 17 halls setup with sailboats, motorboats, equipment and products for all boats. They had a shuttle bus that took you from exhibition hall to exhibition hall. It was that big
We were a little hungry so we stopped at one of the restaurants and had som schnitzel. Then we were off to were they had the sailboats. We found were Najad exhibit was and signed up for the last time they had, 17:30. With a few hours to kill, we went around to look at all the other sailboats.
We looked at Hanse, Jeanneau, Beneteau, Hallberg Rassy and many others. But none of them grabbed us like a Najad does. We like the price of some of the others, but it is Najad that we have fell for. You can see some video of some of the boats here Boat_2017 video
17:30 came and we meet up with Jörgen, CEO of Najad, and he showed us the Najad 450 CC that was on display. We got to talk with him more about the boat that we have our eye on. The Najad 395 CC. We got to see some more renderings and talk more about the progress of the 395 CC. They are building the first ones now and they should be ready by the end of the year. Anna and I are excited to see on up close.
We spent over an hour with Jörgen and since the exhibition closed at 18:00, we hurried to get our jackets. Grabbed a cab back to the hotel, checked in, ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and then crashed. We both were so tired from all the walking we did.
The next day we decided to look at more of the products and the other fun stuff they had there. In the trendsport hall, they had a wave pool where they were having a surf/paddle board competition. The announcer was screaming something in German so we did not understand what he was saying but it was still fun to watch them carve up the water.
After seeing what we wanted to see, it was getting close to leaving. So we decided to end the visit with some cocktails before we left to fly back home. We got Anna her Piña Colada and I had sex on the beach. (Oh Yea!) :P
It was a really good trip and we are looking forward to going back next year.
Tomorrow 17-01-21, Anna and I will be flying down to Dusseldorf Germany to attend Boot 2017. We got information from Jörgen (CEO of Najad) that Najad will have their new design bureau – FARR Yacht Design – along with their Interior styling team – Ken Freivokh there at Boot 2017. Plus they will have the Najad 450 CC on display. Even though this boat is a little bigger than what we are looking for, it is always nice to what they put into the boats. It gives us a good idea of how our boat will look like :)
After hearing about what Najad is bringing to Boot 2017, plus reading up on everything else that is going to be there, we decided that this was defiantly worth going to.
We will land in Dusseldorf around 12:15, then straight to the hotel to check in and then to Boot2017. So we will have about 5 hrs on Sat and then about 6 hrs on Sun before we need to fly back home. Hopefully it will be enough time to see everything we want to see.
We have a gopro now so we will try to make a video worth watching once we get back.
We are Anna and Clyde, a couple currently living in Sweden. We have a goal to sell everything and live on a sailboat. We have just started this journey and hope you will follow along.
