yet another sailing trip 🙂
Idea
Here I would like to give an overview of the whole project. From the idea until the end of the trip to Mediterranean in Almerimar.
At first, the idea was to buy a very cheap but very capable and seaworthy sailboat, Albin Vega.
We were planning to buy it for the price, not more than $10k. It is possible to find Albin Vega at blocket.se for 1000-10000Eur depending on the state. Then we planned to invest 10K-15K for upgrades. The idea was to sail down to the Mediterranean in approx. 3 month and to sell the boat very cheap for someone.
After discussing a little we agreed to buy a bit more expensive, but much comfortable boat for this trip. We had some options. But our favourite was Rasmus 35, which we bought lately.
Timeline
End of August 2017: discussing the idea with Alex of buying a boat.
End September 2017: going by car from Russia to Sweden to buy the boat. 3 weeks of a very nice ride with wild camping in tents, sailing on Masura Lakes in Poland and choosing a boat. After all, we have our Rasmus 35 left in Sandö Hamn near Gothenborg.
November 2017: Another trip to Sweden for 2 weeks to find a new marina for winter storage and to prepare her for wintering.
Winter 2017-2018: (not living aboard) We tried to buy everything we would need further online from Moscow: Radar, Liferaft, EPIRB (finally we have bought PLB), etc…
April 2018: (life aboard) the whole month were preparation, upgrades and small repairs. We also went on a small trip around Orust island for one week to test everything and to visit an incredibly beautiful sailing location. See: Sweden
May 2018: (life aboard) Trip to Denmark, then Kiel channel, Wadden Zee and Holland.
June 2018: (life aboard) English channel leg. Came to Saint-Malo to repair the engine. The head gasket was broken. It took us almost a month to deal with the problem.
July – August 2018: (life aboard) Bay of Biscay, Galicia We have left the boat in Viveiro.
October 2018: (life aboard) Came to the boat again to move her for wintering to A Coruna or Vigo. But because of bad weather, we could only get to A Coruña. It is an amazing city in Galicia.
April-May 2019: (life aboard) Sailing Rias Baixas and relocating Happy Rasmus to Vigo to make some repairs and to wait for better weather to continue sailing farther north. The boat is left until July.
July 2019: (life aboard) Sailing along Portugal.
August 2019: (life aboard) Sailing Portugal – Gibraltar-Almerimar.