Taking over the boat

The sailing gear ready to go. The blue bag contains boat supplies from fuses to a tea kettle.

The boat had been paid and it was time to sail it from Sweden to a new home port in Finland. It was clear from the beginning that the crew should travel from Finland to Sweden by ship, as the bags weighted more than 60 kg, which would have been unbearably expensive by airplane. Even the dragging the bags from the bus to the harbour – for free – proved to be almost unbearable.

The first crew meets at the Viking terminal in Helsinki. Experience to the left, (man)power to the right – Paula and Saga.

The Bengtskär light house (59° 43.4′ N 22° 30.1′ E)

After the dinner we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and a full moon. The ladies evaluate the taken pictures.

In the next morning, after our arrival in Stockholm, we rushed into a taxi – the one which was finally willing to take us – to the underground, from the underground to a bus to Ljusterö, an island in the Stockholm archipelago. It was important to catch the morning bus, as there were not many scheduled buses available. Finally in the afternoon we reached Åsättra, where the unlocked boat was waiting for us.

Saga’s first moments inside the boat. What might be in her mind?

Only 15 minutes later she found a place next to the spinnaker. From now on this place would be her.

While the new boat owner was still in his euphoric feelings started Paula calmly preparing the boat for sailing.

The genoa seems to work.

I knew from my previous trip that there would be a decent shopping centre on the island between the Ljusterö ferry and Åsättra marina. Therefore, we didn’t bring anything to eat with us. We had bought a couple of rosé wine bottles and a box of red wine from the ship, though. I assumed there would be a taxi at the shopping centre, but I was wrong. A 4 km one way walk would take unnecessarily long time.

Paula found, however,  in some miraculous way  a man who would drive us to the shopping centre and back. While I was doing my shopping Paula and Saga went to the pizzeria to get some pizzas for dinner. In the shop I collected speedily all kinds of things we would need on board, and we returned to the marina.

We tried to offer our friendly chauffeur a bottle of rosé for the ride, but he refused to take it. Finally, a couple of beer cans, say… accidentally fell off from my groceries into his trunk. We ate eagerly the pizzas, as we had eaten only a sweet roll and a cup of coffee from the tiny café at the marina. That was all they could offer.

The old tea kettle finally found itself a new purpose! We had bought it around 1990 in Rome, but it had been years unused, because it didn’t work on an induction stove.

At the end of the day we turned the boat’s bow against the sea and the wind. We were ready to sail in the morning.