Philosophy

 Sailing becomes my lifestyle for
13 weeks

As a captain I want to take care of my crew and the sailboat.
S/Y Sofia II is a Bavaria 37 11,55m long and 3,68m wide, but with a very short keel only 1,4m which allows her  to harbor really close to the rocks in the natural harbors of the archipelagos. 

 

To do this project I need at least one helping hand for each week, especially for the natural harbor maneuvers anchoring and tying up on land. 


The sailboat has autopilot, roll genoa and roll main sail. This way I can handle the sailing all on my own without needing much help. Therefore anybody can join either with much sailing experience or you are just curious to sail with me. I love teaching everything I know about sailing to anybody who is interested. Trim of the boat during sailing, navigation, weather planning, anchoring as well as knots. I will teach you everything I know, if you want.

I would like my friends, family and interested acquaintances to come along sailing and experience Sweden's beautiful nature as well as the beautiful long days during summer. Being on a boat together makes you rely and get to know each other very quickly, which I would like to happen under my command. Each of you who come along will have a tie to me and through the trip together the net across my friends and family will become bigger. 

 

For example summer 2014 Anna was the first to sign up to come along sailing for a specific week in August. My two younger sisters Lovisa, living in south of Sweden and Mia, living in Australia north of Sydney joined that same week. We ended up becoming so tight and having so much fun together, that Anna has been adopted by us older sisters to become Mia's twin sister born just one month later.

 

Compared to what I planned and did summer 2014 this sailing will be more divers and have very different parts suitable for different needs of sailing experience even including family sailing as well as longer stretches over open water like the rounding of southern Sweden. Both the east coast and northern part of the west coast have archipelagos that allow to harbor in nature.  

 

Your uniqueness and what we will experience will make each week memorable! 

Last time we had great cooks on the boat, fishermen, yoga teachers, great story tellers, adventurers, regatta sailors. We experienced saunas in nature, helicopter coming within 20 minutes to pick up my mum after braking her elbow tragically, avoiding summer storms, very seldom the anchor slipping, cows waking us up, midsommar celebration as well as kräftskiva with a lot of singing of schnapps songs, recognizing sea signs on the chart and detecting them through the binoculars, longing for a great cappuccino together, swimming naked, cheering for the German national soccer team, seeing the suns set, watching the milky way. 

How does a sailing day look like?

Most days will start with getting up around 8 o'clock and having breakfast and getting ready to sail around 10h. Depending on weather and location we will be able to sail a few hours and perhaps stop for lunch or have sandwiches during sailing and be docked latest around 17h, preferably 16h. Around 19-21h we will have dinner together either prepared on the boat or grilling on the rocks or eating out.

 

During the 2nd to 4th week in June, when going through the canals, we have to get up earlier, but only 2 need to do so to handle the maneuvers in the docs. This is because they want up to 4 boats to go together in and out of the docks as a group to make it more efficient in high season.  

Canal planning overview

What will the weekly routine be?

Each Saturday there is the possibility for a crew change. To do this each week on Friday evening we will arrive at a bigger harbor that is reachable through public transportation. The departing crew can decide to go out for dinner that last evening together or cook a nice meal together. 

 

One important thing is to clean the boat together before the new crew arrives, so Saturday morning is cleaning day!

After cleaning the boat usually it is time to say "Good bye!"

The next crew arrives and the first thing needed is to go grocery shopping for the next week. Upon return from the shop, we have the security introduction with preparation and assignment of the life vests. 

Now it is time to get situated in the boat, unpack and prepare for the next day sailing and go out for or cook dinner.