AWELINA OF SWEDEN

Awelina of Sweden is a Rustler 42, hull number 11. She is 42’ LOA and is cutter rigged. She has been owned by James since new and is based at Mylor, near Falmouth, UK, although we also have a mooring in Plockton on NW Scotland. We have migrated annually between SW England and W Scotland for some years, apart from a brief visit to the Azores and it’s time to go further afield: Faeroes, Norway, Spitzbergen, even Newfoundland, Labrador and Baffin all call.

Awelina of Sweden was a Viking princess, born about AD 970 to Gyrid, second wife of the Danish king Harald Bluetooth. She was, however, slightly dubious and married off quietly to an obscure branch of the family residing in Normandy. Her progeny thus arrived in England via the Norman Conquest, where they did rather well.

SVALBARD 2012

We plan to set off towards the end of June for a month in the arctic. Permission from the Sysselmann has been sought and granted, Search & Rescue Insurance arranged, Polar Bear awareness course arranged, Firearms Licence obtained, Sabbaticals from work granted, survival suits bought (and tested by jumping into the river Cam one night in January while it was full of ice floes and there was snow on the ground – brrr!), charts purchased from Kelvin Hughes etc etc. Nonetheless the ‘To Do’ list seems to grow rather than shrink each day.