What cruising is about

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Wed 23 Jan 2013 23:56
Cruising is about fixing your boat in exotic places.
End of story.
 
Still in Bequia, now we have lot's of power on board, great! We  will start the watermaker now.
We get all power from solar cells and wind generator (occasionally we have to run the gen to get 220V and to charge the 12V Battery)
New batteries made wonders!
 
Right now I'm running cables, lot's of cables in the boat, that means opening up floors, ceilings, walls and run cables behind them.
Mounting a short wave radio is an entire infrastructure of it's own. Antenna on the backstay that runs to the top of the mast, then through deck and then groundings applied to the bottom of the boat and the guard rail. Then you have an antenna tuner at the aft with five cables and closer to the navigation table we have the big tuner with just as many cables. Finally there is the display with handset, speaker etc.
And they keep writing in boating magazines that a short wave radio is easier to install then what the rumour says. Believe the rumor.
On top of that you realize you need parts and the dinghy still goes full throttle ashore....
 
Ellinor is having school with Erika all morning til almost lunch. When they have a break they can swim around the boat, that is different.
 
Andreas is developing a great skill drawing. He makes great designs and is very good at seeing things and get it down on paper.
 
The weather is windy, occasionally very windy, temperatures around 27 during the day and 25 at night (Celsius), sunny but we do get some showers every day.
 
 
Advide to those that are planning on sailing away in the future.
What boat should you choose?
To make it simple let's look at the Swedish fleet here now. The Swedish fleet is BIG over here in Admirality Bay/Bequia
"Treviljor" is a boat built in Sundsvall by three guys to go on a world cruising trip many many years ago (20 something)
She is "home made" and was bought in Las Palmas when the owners split up due to different problems
Corinne is a 45 foot "home built" boat from Västerås with a couple that sailed around the world and decided to do it again.
Littorina is a steel boat "Ansö" from Helsingborg, all rebuilt by the owners that sail with two children on board
TuaTua is probably a Laurin around 30 feet that has sailed around the world before and does it again with new owners
Kaminante is a 50 foot boat in Steel (40 ton) that I do not know the model, she is sailed by a family of four
Cu@C is a Bavaria with a family of four
Solvind is an Arcona sailed by father and daughter
Loupan is sailed by a couple and is an Arcona as well
Maribelle is an Hallberg Rassy 43 sailed by a family of four
Can't remember the name of a Swan 47 that is sailed by a family of four and was competing in the ARC with special crew
And us sailing a Hallberg Rassy 45
 
As you can see there is no "Volvo" here you can rely on. The saying goes that: you can sail with what you have...
Here in the bay a super yacht can be at anchor next to an english wooden boat from 1910 something that looks like she almost made it.
 
There is even a french couple that sailed a Dragonfly 920 over the Atlantic, ( I asked them how it was and they said they will NEVER do it again).
 
Catamarans are getting plenty even though my feeling ist that most in the bay here are on charter.
 
That was it about the boats, and if I would give you an advice? Buy an old Hallberg Rassy if you cannot afford a new one.
But that's us!