Category: Sailing season 2022

On October 25th Isabell was lifted out of the water and set on land. The Fall of 2022 has been very mild. After some basic cleaning and building the cover support structure across the deck, the boat is prepared for installation work inside. The plan is to install the new Webasto Evo 40 diesel heater in the stern locker space. Also installed a new Pioneer radio with bluetooth connections, which was an easy job. Just removed the old Pioneer and pushed in the new one in it’s place. The heater is a bit more demanding. To celebrate the end of sailing season the skipper is enjoying a beer at the harbor (of Leiden).
Skipper started looking at the ways to travel on down south. One particularly interesting route is through the rivers and canals of Netherlands, Belgium and France to the Med. But the past summers it has been so dry in France that the canals are almost dry. Even now, late Fall, they are short of water. A wish for more rainfall during the winter and spring then is in great demand. Another option is to sail to the UK (now outside the EU and Schengen) and then down through the Straight of Gibraltar. The canals seem more attractive, if there is enough water in them. Only time will tell! Anyhow, my retirement in February 2023 will lead to exiting changes in my life. First there is a lot of work to do on Isabell’s interior. I am ready for it!

What happened to the summer of 2022 and this sailing blogg? The summer started slow, with a month of repairs on the bow of Isabell. But, after it was done just before midsummer (end of June), things just happened one after the next. But so far, 2022 has been a great summer. Not counted in miles sailed, but mostly in the lovely mix of events that happened. Visiting foreign friends, exploring the Swedish past and present, visit at museums and great restaurants, mostly enjoying tropical temperatures, enjoying a wedding and long hiking paths, and nothing that went wrong with Isabell. Now, as the summer is coming to an end, days are getting shorter… Time to start planning for more adventures. The investment in the power Lofrans windlass has been excellent as an improvement on Isabell. So nice to just push buttons and set the anchor from the cockpit or lift it in strong winds, during heavy weather. So far the summer of 2022 has been great, and as usual, summer is always too short in Sweden.

It is almost time for the annual launch. Looking forward to it! The windlass is installed and working… Fun! Lots of other small things are done. At the moment it is time to start filling Isabell with food, water, and other stuff neccessary for living aboard. A couple of runs back and forth between Nacka and Rasta are on my schedule. The weather has cooperated and that means that even the varnished surfaces have received some new paint. It has been nice to have the Fridays off from work to be able to fix with things at Rastaholm. Nice and peaceful there during weekdays.

And it is finally time to start prepping Isabell for another boating season. Easter weekend is usually the time to take off the winter shelter and start fixing things on board. The weather so far has been winter-like. During the past few weeks I have been working inside the boat with the heater on and the hatches closed. Brrr. Last Friday a stormy westerly wind broke up the thick ice cover on the lake. Now at least it feels like Spring. The work I have been doing inside included re-wiring the leads between shore-power, solar panel regulator, engine regulator (Sterling) and the house and starter batteries. Now it is almost all updated to Skyllermarks standard. It was necessary for the addition of wiring to the new Lofrans electrical windlass. I have installed the windlass and the wiring that goes with it. It includes 25 mm2 tinned-copper wiring from the starter battery to the windlass regulator box. Regular wiring to and from the two foot switches on the deck, a manual switch for up-down operation of the windlass in the cockpit, a main breaker (135 A) inside the cabin, and an on/off switch on the control panel with a 5A fuse. I have also removed the cover from the anchor chain locker and it is being made into two equal halves in the workshop at home. This weekend I will remove the deck-cover, feed in the new chain, connect the anchor, clean out the water tank, and do some other small stuff. Along with all that, will try to socialize some and eat some Easter treats. Yeah! Happy Easter!