The Crew – Thomas & Petra

We are a Swedish couple with the dream to sail around the world. We bought our sailboat Anne-Mon in August 2018 as a renovation project (read more about our sailboat HERE). We are working as much as we can to get the boat (and ourselves) ready to sail around the world and on this blog we will share all our work. But this page is not about the boat, it is about us and what we have done before starting this project! 🙂

We met at university were we both studied Vehicle engineering at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm. We started talking about sailing around the world early on. When we both had graduated we could start saving money and buy our sailboat to make the dream to sail around the world come true.

Before starting to renovate Anne-Mon we have done a lot of work on the ship, which we also used a lot to explore Stockholm archipelago with.

Thomas

Name: Thomas

Born: May 22 1991

Occupation: Electronic engineer

Interests: Boats, Electronics, Mechanics

I grew up in a suburb area outside of Stockholm. During my early years I played a lot of soccer and I spent a lot of time in the archipelago of Stockholm with my family and friends. My interest for different kind of vehicles started at an early age. I bought my first boat, a sailboat, together with a friend when we were 15 years old. It was a Monark 700.

After finishing high school I started to study Vehicle Engineering at KTH in 2010. In 2011 I bought another boat with another friend. It was an old fishing boat, which was in quite bad shape when we bought it. We renovated the boat and the engine to get it in a good condition. The fishing boat were used frequently during the summer months in the Stockholm archipelago, together with some friends. Most of the time to the sauna on the island Ostholmen or to the village of Sandhamn.

In 2015, when I was almost finished with my university studies I bought the ship. A 22-meter long ship made of steel and a background as a military vessel. The ship needed some renovation as well, to become a comfortable ship to spend some time on. One major job we did was to change a big part of the keel since it was rusty.

At university I got a degree in Vehicle Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechatronics. After finishing university I started working as an electronic engineer.

Why do you want to sail around the world?

I want to explore new places and take on the challenges a trip like this entails.

What are your strengths?

My strengths for this trip lays in my engineering interest and my knowledge about engines, electronics and mechanics. This way we will, hopefully, be able to do almost all the work ourselves.

10 quick questions

Spring or Autumn

Wind or Water

Comedy or Thriller

Beer or Wine

Morning or Evening

Beach with cliffs or Beach with sand

Sunbathing or Swimming

Chocolate or Vanilla

City or Countryside

Pizza or Hamburger

Petra

Name: Petra

Born: August 2 1992

Occupation: Embedded Software Engineer

Interests: Geography, weather, food, yoga, books

I was born in the west coast of Sweden, close to Gothenburg, but moved to the southern part of Sweden, Skåne, when I was eight years old. In Skåne we lived on a farm with my parents and my little sister, and we had a lot of horses. My passion in life was my horses and my sister and I started early to compete in show jumping. Since we had a lot of horses it meant a lot of work taking care of them and training them, which was what we did most of our spare time after school. One of my horses was called Anne-Mon, and she is the namesake for our boat.

In 2011, after finishing high school, I moved to Stockholm to start studying Vehicle Engineering at KTH in Stockholm. During my university years I arranged a lot of parties and other fun activities. The years went by fast and in 2017 I graduated with a degree in Vehicle Engineering and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics. The same year I started working as a Software developer in Embedded Systems, which is my current occupation.

I didn’t have very much experience of boats before Thomas bought Aline. After that I have learned a lot but still have a lot to learn about sailing.

Why do you want to sail around the world?

I want to travel to places you might not normally visit, and you have the freedom to choose where to go without leaving “home”. I am also fascinated by the idea of being in the ocean and not see land for some time. It will probably be quite a challenge, but it must be wonderful to watch the sunrise/sunset in the middle of an ocean.

What are your strengths?

Positive and adaptive, interest in weather and geography.

10 quick questions

Spring or Autumn

Wind or Water

Comedy or Thriller

Beer or Wine

Morning or Evening

Beach with cliffs or Beach with sand

Sunbathing or Swimming

Chocolate or Vanilla

City or Countryside

Pizza or Hamburger

Hope you’ll enjoy our blog and follow or dream to sail around the world!