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Welcome to our sailing blog! We are Thomas and Petra, a Swedish couple that have just finished a sailing trip back and forth to the Caribbean. We will try to share as much information as we can about the things we wanted to know about when starting to plan our cruise.
What kind of boat?
Our boat, Anne-Mon, is a long-keeled ketch of model OC35 (Ocean Cruiser 35). She was built 1965 and is a pretty robust, heavy boat. She was a very stable boat and made us feel safe and comfortable during our journey, even in strong winds and big waves. Generally speaking a long-keeled boat is more stable in bad weather, holds the course easier, but the drawback is that it is a bit slower and also harder to navigate in tight marinas. We had a bow-thruster that will help with that. It is also ketch-rigged, with a shorter main mast than most boats of this size, but she sailed very well with only main sail and headsail. By the end of the trip we almost never used the mizzen.
Interior-wise she feels pretty big. We really like that you can spend time in the galley and still be able to have a really good overview of the outside, compared to a lot sailboat where the windows are pretty high up.
We bought an old boat, with some need for big renovation jobs. More info about our boat can be found The Boat.
Why go sailing?
We started talking about going on a sailing adventure pretty early on after we met. Not sure of how we got into it, but we both started studying after high school and wanted to travel and agreed that going by sailboat would be really cool. We bought a book about cruising, started following some sailors on Instagram, blogs and YouTube, graduated from university and started saving up money and finally bought our sailboat. More about us can be found under The Crew.
Where did we sail?
We sailed from Stockholm, Sweden to the Caribbean and back as our first sailing adventure. We sailed for little less than a year. We sailed along the coast of Europe down to Spain/Portugal and from there to the Canary Island. We stopped at Cape Verde islands before the did the Atlantic Crossing towards the Caribbean. We spent four months in the Caribbean, and then started the sail back to Europe. We sailed to the Azores and UK before we got back to Sweden again. More details about our sailing route can be found under Our route. On this page we have all the stops we did on the way, with dates and small comment.
What did it cost to renovate the sailboat before the trip?
Short answer is; more than estimated 😉 We made an estimation when we bought the boat and everything we have logged everything we have bought related to the renovation. Our main realization is that all the small thing under the “Other” posts grow really big, and they are really hard to estimate. Our tip so far if planning a sailboat renovation; make a good estimation of the things you want to renovate and then double it.
Our renovation costs could of course also have been less. We have done a lot of work on the interior for example, which cost a lot but not necessary. The things we do we try to so well so that it will last a while.
More details of our sailboat renovation, with costs and information about what we have done, can be found under Preparation costs.
(If you want to read a Swedish version, here’s the link to that: Förberedelsekostnader för Långfärdssegling)
What kind equipment did we have?
This is also a biggie cost-wise. Marine equipment is expensive. We tried to find as much as we could second-hand, and if that is not possible we try to buy things when there is a sale.
More about the equipment we have bought can be found under Equipment.
(If you want to read a Swedish version, here’s the link to that: Utrustning för Långfärdssegling)
What kind of paperwork is needed?
Under Paperwork we have gathered all the paperwork we had for ourselves and our boat. Our biggest challenge related to paperwork so far has been insurance for such an old boat as ours is, more about that HERE.
(If you want to read a Swedish version, here’s the link to that: Dokument och papper för långfärdssegling
What does it cost to go sailing?
We had a close watch on all our expenses during the year, and have shared them under Cost for sailing.
(If you want to read a Swedish version, here’s the link to that: Kostnad för långfärdssegling)
Categories & tags
Our sailing blog can be navigated by using the categories or tags. The different categories and the tag cloud can be found by navigating back to the Home page, scroll down and look at the right-hand side menu (or if you are on a mobile device, scroll down to the bottom).
Blog posts before departure
Links to all blog posts about our renovation before departure can be found by clicking on the link HERE.
Blog posts after departure
Links to all blog posts about our sailing trip can be found by clicking on the link HERE.
Hope you’ll enjoy our sailing blog! 🙂
Other websites about cruising: