Semlor!

Igår var det semledagen och så klart skulle det ätas semlor! Degen stod och jäste under förmiddagen och semlorna blev dessert efter lunchen. Dennis fick provsmaka en efter jobbet och Andy's kompis Dane som har gymet Garagestrenght blev också bjuden på de svenska delikatesserna!

Så himla gott med semlor!! Jag och Andy smaskade i oss varsin även idag till förmiddagsfika. Varför inte? ;)

Getting excited about VOR 2014-2015

This is making me very excited!

The next Volvo Ocean Race will be held 2014-2015 and it sounds like the last stop will be in Goteborg.  SCA is having an all female crew, will be very cool to follow their progress in training and also during the race .

Me and Andy walked in to the Helly Hansen store in Annapolis today and they will start get shirts and gear inspired for the next race. Funny enough, the back on one of the shirt had " SWE 59 North" feels like we picked the right name for our new company!

Var är supersnöstormen Nemo?

Back to Swedish again, if you would like to read my blog and don't speak or understand Swedish, Google translate do good job (most of the times... :) ).

I flera dagar har det varit stormvarningar på nyheterna och den kommande stormen är döpt till Nemo. Folk är 'terrified' och media har verkligen lyckats skapa ett drama av det hela. Jag känner lite att "Kom igen, det snöar ju varje år, vet man att snön kommer och vägarna är oplogade är det väl bara att stanna hemma, tända ljus och mysa!" Just nu, i skrivandes stund, har regnet börjat omvandlas till snöflingor så förhoppningsvis kommer vi att vakna upp med ett fint täcke snö imorgon bitti. Efter brist på vinter är jag verkligen sugen på snö och kyla, bara att hålla tummarna... :) Kanske blir pulkaåkning imorn, yeah!

Photos for the Atlantic crossing on Kinship

I have now uploaded all the photos from the Kinship trip to the computer and there is a lot. Thank God the computer has a lot of space nowadays! As you can understand, it was very hard to pick the best ones, so I decided to just upload a lot and share the experience with you. I also decided to pick a favorite and for now it is the landfall pic to the left here, maybe not the best photo, but the moment when we spotted land was an amazing moment. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Land Ho - the speed over ground is now 0!

Land Ho!!!

Today I actually have some news to tell, and a big change in the routine on Kinship. We have been swimming in the pool, been drinking rum drinks and we can now put things down on the counter without being afraid of it flying across the boat, sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

Ok, I will start a bit earlier. Yesterday (wow, was it only yesterday), around 14.20 Dennis spotted land off our port bow. But as soon as he saw it, it was gone behind a squall could. I was out in the cockpit and a few minutes later I spotted something further away, a bit more to the south. Looked like two peaks, and I had Tim up to see them before they disappeared behind another squall line. After looking at the chart I figured it must have been Nevis and St. Kitts that I saw, but without a good handbearing compass it was hard to really tell.

Kinship Morning Music Hour

29 January 2013
13.00 UTC (10.00 Kinship Boat time)
18° 16 ' N / 56° 22' W
Wind E 12-17 kt

Today is two birthdays, my younger brother Erik is becoming 20! And my little girl Anya from Boston is now 12 years old! Happy Birthday to you!

I have a new highlight for the trip. Yesterday we had Walter the Whale visiting the boat. But it started a few days before that. I was sitting in the cockpit and could see something maybe 30 m away from the boat, it looked like it was something big in one of the wave, with a slightly different color. But I didn't pay much attention to it, maybe I am starting to see things? Anyway, about 20 minutes later I saw it again, this time closer to the boat and all of a sudden it surfaced. Dennis, Tim and Andrew saw it as well and we were very excited about it. I looked at Tim and asked him if he was nervous and his comment was "I don't like big animals around my boat". I totally understand him as one of the ARC Europe boat hit a whale at night a few days out of Bermuda and had to abandon ship.

Kinship Blog - still sailing downwind!

Almost two weeks in the ocean and the moon is about a day away from being full.

Kinship is sailing along, the last few days we have experienced lighter winds. It makes it a bit tricky because we have squalls now and then and are reefing and unreefing a lot. Keeps us busy!

This morning I had the 04-07 watch. The night watches are my favorites on the boat, when it is peace and quiet and I have some time for my self. The boat is a small space for four people to live on. We all have our own bunk to sleep in and we all respect each others quiet times. But during the day, someone else is always awake, making food, reading a book either down below or in the cockpit.

Half way celebration!

22 Jan 2013 16.00 UTC
18°27 ' N / 38° 48 ' W
Wind 18-22 kt ENE

We just passed our half point. We were debating where it would be and decided that 38° 30' W would do it.

It has been downwind sailing ever since we gybed last Saturday and have been able to head pretty much due west since then. The best sail combination is to have the reacher poled out with the boom on port side, and as the wind shift a bit we just trim the sail.

In Scotland, whisky is spelled with a ‘y’

Arcturus anchored off the
Lagavulin distillery in Islay.

I love the way smells bring back memories – feelings – like no other sense. Walking into the house I grew up in when I’ve been away for a while, and the feelings that conjures. Getting on the boat after having been gone. It probably smells like diesel, but to me, it’s the smell of adventure.

1 week in the Atlantic

Photo shows Kinship's positions
and the current weather.

Time is flying and so is Kinship.

The butter is starting to melt and it is time for us to turn right. There is a saying that when you are sailing from the Canaries to the Caribbean, you head south until the butter melts and then turn right. We have had a few hazy days which I have been enjoying, very pleasant temperature. Last night I could see the stars bright and clear and understood it would be a clear day with sun. With the clear sky came the temperature, the butter started to melt and we are down at 18° 30' N, about the latitude of where we will make landfall. Time to turn right.

Downwind sailing

Jan 17 11.00 UTC
21° 00 ' N / 25° 57 ' W
Wind: E 14-18 kt

Another lovely day on Kinship!

I had the morning sunrise watch, 07-10, today but unfortunately with the haze we had today and yesterday I did not see the sun come up. It is definitely getting warmer as we are getting south and I am planning a shower this afternoon. We are having a watermaker onboard, and thanks to Tim's new installation Watt & Sea we do not have to run the engine for power, we can make water with the Watt & Sea and Duo Gen in the water!

Blog from onboard Kinship

Here comes the first blog post from Kinship. Sorry I am writing in English, but I promised I would..

09.00 UTC 14 Jan
25 degrees, 00 ' N
18 degrees, 48 ' W

Good weather and dark nights on Kinship

I woke up to an email from Mia and the crew on Kinship this morning. It's grey, cool and foggy here in Reading, but it sounds like they are having perfect weather offshore. 

Kinship Back at Sea

Mia called this morning to let me know they are back at sea. This after three days of repairs in Las Palmas. It's the second time the boat had to turn around (the first being during the ARC, when a host of deck leaks forced them back).

The shroud was fixed within ten minutes of them getting back to the dock. Then they had someone look at the new Watt & Sea hydrocharger to make sure it was working right. And yesterday they actually had the boat hauled out for the afternoon to fix a leak in the cutlass bearing strut.

Anyway, it's all back together again and they're off! Stay tuned to www.59-north.com for daily updates (or whenever they call) and position reports.

Turn around

As many of you already know, on the second night out, Kinship broke a shroud and we decided to turn around to Las Palmas to get i fixed.. We had a bit of a sail to get back to the island, of course the wind on the nose.

Kinship January 7

Here's a quick note from Mia on Kinship, after their first night at sea…

"Hi!
Having a great sail, wind 12-15 from E, we are heading SW at about 6-7 kt. Position Monday Jan7, 09.00 utc: 26 degrees 48' N / 15 degrees 43' W. Everyone is happy, got some sleep. Blue clear sky and a slightly cool breeze.

Love you. Puss

ps. remember to forward to mum and dad.
----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using OCENS's OCENS.Mail software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short."

Their position on the map is below:

Kinship is Under Way!

This is Mia on Kinship in September en route
to Las Palmas from Portugal.

I chatted with Mia and my Dad today on Skype, and they were just minutes from leaving the dock. It was just before noon here, so sometime mid-Afternoon in Las Palmas. Tim had bought the crew a membership at the little marina club there that had a swimming pool and good Internet, so I'd talked to Mia from there a few times sine they arrived on Thursday.

Their plan is to sail SSW to about 25ºN, 020ºW, angling a bit further south towards the Cape Verde islands before turning west. It's basically the traditional Trade Wind route ("sail south until the butter melts and turn right"), and it looks like they have a good forecast to start. Hopefully it will hold.

Press the Reset Button

Dancing off the cold on a New
Year's cruise on the Bay

Portions of this are going to make up my February 2013 article for Spinsheet. That's the Annapolis-based magazine that gave me my start as a published writer. I haven't written it yet.

But by the time it's published (and read - hopefully), it will be February, and some of what I'm about to write won't exactly make sense.

But now, in the present, it's only a few days after New Year's Eve. That's gotten me thinking New Year's thoughts. The standard and boring resolution-type stuff that everything is probably thinking right now, and which most people won't follow through on. But whatever.

Atlantsegling på G!

Kinship seglar ut från Tortola

I eftermiddag flyger jag och Dennis till Las Palmas förr att segla Kinship över Atlanten.

Jag har fått många frågor varför jag och Dennis åker och inte jag och Andy. Jag o Andy har nu påbörjat ett nytt jobb vilket betyder att vi har ansvar för usa-sidan av World Cruising Club. En av oss måste vara inom telefon- och internetkontakt vilket betyder att båda inte kan vara ute på öppet hav under en längre tid tillsammans. Därför jag och Dennis.

2012 - en årskrönika

2012, vilket år… Nu när året börjar lida mot sitt slut tänkte jag att det skulle sitta på sin plats med en liten årskrönika som summerar det gångna året.

Året firades in på Åland tillsammans med Johanna och Clint. Vi sprang nyårsruset, njöt av många långa bastubad, och drack bubble och skjöt raketer tillsammans med Johannas vänner.

Sex underbara år...

USA,  Juni 2007

Sex år sedan jag och Andy träffades i Nya Zealand, 28 December 2006. Jag hoppade ut genom ett flygplan och Andy knäppte bilder... Ett par dagar senare var vi runt och provade viner i Napier. En perfekt start, adrenalin, vin och bästa vänner! Många månader har vi varit ifrån varandra men det har aldrig varit en tvekan att det inte är du och jag! 

Volvo Ocean Race Sailors in the ARC (Again!)

Vaquita mid-Atlantic in 2011

Last year I wrote about how the ARC attracts professional sailors. I highlighted two in particular, Volvo Ocean Race skipper of Team Russia and two-time Olympic sailor in the Star class Andreas Hanakamp, and ocean racing legend Magnus Olsson.

Unsurprisingly, the boats that they sailed on fared particularly well in 2011 - Andreas was navigator aboard the Class 40 Vaquita, which took it's class in the racing division. Magnus sailed as crew aboard the Baltic 60 Triumph with a crew of amateurs. They won the Invitation Cruising Division, and would have won the Overall Cruising had the big boats been allowed to compete for it (they aren't).

Toga Party

Igar var det fest vid Pigeon Island och temat pa maskeraden var Toga! Andy fixade lakan fran hotellet och jag kollade upp pa internet hur man bast knyter en toga med hjalp av ett lakan. Det var betydligt enklare an jag tankt och resultat blev faktiskt ganska sa hyfsat!

Jag o Andy var tyvarr tvungna att aka till marinan redan efter en timma da en bat var pa vag in. Vi struntade i att byta om och fick manga komplimanger val i marinan. Nar baten var pa vag in kom ett par fran festen och valkomnade dem, de maste ha varit aningen forvanade att se ett gang kladda i lakan efter 21 dagar pa havet... :D

Norwegian Father & Son Duo Seize the ARC Double-handed

Here's yet another report from the ARC finish in St. Lucia that I've been working on. This one is particularly significant to me because of the subject(s). Sven and his dad Kenneth sailed all the way down from Norway together, joining the ARC in St. Lucia, and have a one-year plan to go off on this great adventure together, just the two of them.

Andreas Hanakamp on the Podcast!

Andreas & Mia in Anse la Raye Friday night.

I normally don't post about my podcast on here, but this week is particularly special for me. I met Andreas last year at the ARC in St. Lucia. He was sailing aboard the Class 40 Vaquita, and they won their racing class. His partner Nina was along as crew, and Mia and I spent some time with them in the marina, and we got a really cool vibe from them. They're just nice people, fun to be around and interesting to talk to.

Promenad till en annan strand...

Idag var det ledig dag igen.. Detta schema ar verklgien helt otroligt, vi jobbar hur mycket som helst, men anda kanns det som att vi ar lediga hela tiden. Betyder det att jag gillar det jag jobbar med kanske...? Idag var jag iaf ledig. Jag och Anna hade bara tre batar under var natt mellan 02-08. En bat kom over mallinjen vid sex men bestamde sig for att lagga ankare, de andra tva kom in lagom strax innan atta.. Eftersom jag jobbade till atta imose betyder det att vi hade 24h ledigt. Jag gick tillbaka till hotellet och at frukost och sov sedan till ungefar tolv.

Eftermiddag pa stranden

Idag jobbade jag och Anna 08-14 och vi passade pa att spendera eftermiddagen utanfor hotellet och marinan. Patrick hangde med och det blev ett par timmar pa stranden och ett langt dopp i havet, forsta simturen i havet sedan jag kom ner hit.

Det blev aven en glass och Patrick tyckte att det var dags for "beer o'clock" runt fem. Jag holl mig dock till en grapefruktjuice da jag dels skulle kora tillbaka och sedan jobba 20-02 under natten.

Local culture in Anse La Raye

The locals call it 'bay of the rays.' It's a fishing village south of Castries (St. Lucia's capital), a sleepy place on the beach, quite the opposite of the hustle and bustle of Rodney Bay marina, where the ARC has taken over for a couple of weeks. It's crazier than ever in the ARC Village at Rodney Bay marina - just this morning, five boats crossed the finish line within minutes of each other, making for some excitement on the docks as the Yellow Shirts made space for them. With over 150 boats now in port, that space is getting hard to come by. But it's all in fun.

I St. Lucia

I sondags landade jag och Andy i St. Lucia

Flygningen ner gick otroligt bra. Bade jag och Andy somnade nar planet lyfte i Philadelphia och vi vaknade inte forran vi gick ner for landning i Miami. Vi hade drygt en timme mellan planen i Miami och bestamde oss for att ga och ata frukost. Jag gillar som vanligt att vara ute i god tid men Andy ar lite lattsammare nar det galler klockan. Nar klockan var kvart i tio tyckte jag det var dags att leta pa gaten, med tanke pa att planet skulle lyfta 10.25. Andy tog det hela mycket lugnt och tyckte att jag stressade.

"Man is not a camel - he must drink."

On the Franz Josef glacier
in NZ in 2004

That's a sign I saw in a bar in New Zealand in 2004. It's also one of the very first entries in my journal from that trip, the first real length journey I've ever been on. I started reading it today on the plane ride to St. Lucia because I'm doing a 'Voice of Experience' article for SAIL and wanted to refresh my memory of that anchor debacle in Endeavor Inlet.

All it has done thus far is put a yearning in my soul to go back to that kind of travel, the kind where everything is new, everything exciting and adventurous, where there is no agenda (and no work), no thought is there to clutter the mind except that which is right in front of you. It cannot ever exist like that for me again and I know that and it's slightly depressing - but simultaneously inspiring.

Julfirande och äggattack

Idag var jag och Andy nere i Philadelphia på Svensk-amerikanska museets julfirande. Det såldes julsaker, mat, luciatåg och så klart glögg och pepparkakor. Det var verkligen jättemysigt att höra svenska röster runt sig och dricka glögg även om den alkoholfria versionen inte smakar nå vidare. Klockan tre hölls även ett luciatåg i trappan och jag var förvånad hur många som faktiskt deltog. Först kom de små tomtenissarna, sedan de lite större pepparkaksgubbarna och gummorna, stalledrängarna och sist men inte minst lucia med tärnor. Mycket fint, och ungefär som ett luciatåg av barn ska låta, lite lagom falskt och några som sjunger helt fel… :)

Ranting about safety at sea

I feel like I'm decidedly in the minority when it comes to the modern ocean sailing game. My boat is from 1966, my GPS a handheld unit from 1993, we've got paper charts onboard and no electrics whatsoever besides the LED lighting. Hank-on headsails (we carry five of them), tiller steering and a 35-gallon water tank. The engine only works to charge the batteries and get us in and out of the dock. But I feel safe aboard Arcturus.

Snart åker vi

De här tre veckorna vi hade hemma mellan Tortola och St. Lucia har snart passerat och som vanligt ställer jag mig fråga, "Vart tog all tid vägen?".

Vi har haft underbara dagar hemma hos Andys pappa sedan vi kom hem. Vi har hunnit med att göra vardagssaker som att hänga på Dane's gym, träffat vänner och jobbat i trädgården och så klart jobbat som alla andra!

Counterpointing Dr. Oz: An examination of TIME Magazine's latest article on food.

I borrowed the latest TIME magazine from my grandmother last weekend. My mom had always been a subscriber, and it's one of my favorite things to read in the morning over coffee. Especially after I've been out traveling for a while and come home to find a stack of them on the counter, untouched.

Since my mom died in April, my dad has not renewed the subscription, because he's (understandably) uncomfortable getting stuff in the mail address to her. So last week, I re-upped.

TIME is a great source of news, and a great way to get a brief gist of what's going on in the US and around the world. It's not to say that I agree with it all the time. The last issue contained a cover story by Dr. Oz, called 'Give Frozen Foods a Chance', which I posted about on Facebook earlier this week. This is my rebuttal to that story.

Papparkaksbak!

Äntligen har December kommit och jag kan få utlopp för alla mina julkänslor!

Dagen till ära hade jag bestämt mig för att baka pepparkakor, mamma var snäll och skickade över receptet och igår gjordes degen. Kan säga att det var lite väl mycket deg att baka på egen hand, tog över tre timmar att kavla ut och trycka figurerna.

59NORTH Media & Sailing: The new website, the new business

The last couple weeks have been a bit tumultuous on our website. Since June really. Back then (in Horta, in the Azores), Mia and I decided to combine our blogs into one site - Mia had her miatravel.blogspot.com site (which still exists), and I had my fathersonsailing.com site (which evolved from my own andyschell.blogspot.com site for the journal I kept since 2006). When we changed the name to andyandmia.net, we did so simply because we couldn't come up with a better name. Everyone knows us together as 'Andy & Mia' or 'Mia & Andy', so why not stick with something people recognize?

60 miles on the bike, and one felled pine tree

It's way past fall now, and my sailing days are over for a while. Mia and I got back from Tortola last Sunday after an awesome week running the Caribbean 1500 cruising rally finale. We had a blast at the prize giving ceremony, the highlight of which was when Martin, skipper of the Australian-flagged JAC,  came onstage to present the 'Best Bruise' award (quick aside: Mia had created an Excel list of prize distributions before the event. I was reading down the list preparing my speech, and came across the 'Best Bruce' prize. Excuse me? I thought. Ironically, there was indeed a Bruce in the event, one of the other guys on JAC. She meant 'bruise' of course. I'm sure I couldn't spell that word in Swedish either. We had a good laugh about this).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving till er alla som firar!

Vi är hemma hos Andys pappa och har lagat mat och bakat bröd hela morgonen. Menyn består av Green Bean Casserole, tranbärssås, bread stuffing, pumpa, valnötsbröd, sötpotatis och så klart en stor kalkon. Till efterätt blir det en pumpa cheesecake och Kaitie har gjort någon slags pumpadip. Inte helt fel, och med tanke på att vi bara är sju personer som ska äta kommer vi ha rester i veckor framöver! Inte mig emot.

BVI Half Marathon och Island Drive

Imponerad, det måste jag säga att jag är av mig och Andy som var upp klockan fyra igår morse for att springa BVI Half Marathon här på Tortola. En av deltagarna i C1500 hade redan anmält sig och vi blev inspirerade, Varför inte sa vi, och anmälde oss ett någon gång i mitten av veckan.

Igår morse vid fyra kändes det som en mycket dålig ide, vi har jobbat som tokar hela veckan och kvällen innan hade vi den stora prisutdelningen med middag, båda mycket trötta. När vi väl kom upp och liftade in till stan kändes tanken på att springa mycket bättre och ja gär nu i efterhand mycket glad att vi gjorde det!

Andy's favorite Caribbean islands

Hi guys! Thanks to all of the Caribbean 1500 crews that joined me in Peg Leg's yesterday for my seminar. I promised photos, and here they are! Brief captions for each. This is but a small selection. You really can't go wrong wherever you go, and take my advice and find out stuff for yourself. And don't forget - just like this event, it's the people you meet along the way that you'll remember the most.

I've also include some links to articles that we've posted over the past year or so that are pertinent, with more photos (some are from ARC Europe, but might interest you guys!). Some of them are in Swedish, so just click the "translate" thing on the right sidebar of the page.