23.-25.5. 2008 - sailing around Sandefjord
My friends from Czech and Slovak Republic took couple of short trips around Sandefjord Fjord. On saturday we sailed as far as Færder fyr, the waves were quite big providing us with enough adventure :-)
9.-11.5. 2008 - sweden trip
Jana, her kids, brother and me took RedMan for first sail trip. The destination was Strömstad, the wind was fine with nearly no waves on the sea..
easter 2008 - waking up to new sail year
Peter helped me with bringing RedMan to life again. We took down winter cover, changed diesel and oil filters and cleaned the deck as well as RedMans body. He feels happy now and is ready for his first trip this year.
5. 11. 2007 - Winter sleep
Me and former owner of the boat set RedMan to winter sleep.
18.8.-19.8. 2007 - Sweden
My friends Peter and Zbyna from CZ and Brano from SK came over to visit me. I thought I we could take a trip to Svenner lighthouse but since the wind was SW we decided to cross over to Sweden. The waves were not so bad and we did 8 knots in average, ideal speed. The trip to Strömstad took us about 4.5h. In the city we docked at the main marina. It was by far not so full as last time I've been here and we did not have a problem to find a place. A quick city tour followed, we ruined the shops stocks of alcohol :-)
On our way back we had a lot of fun sending a "bottle post". Ideas like> "May day, we have been sailing for 2 hours and are nearly out of beer" or "Help! Where is Sandefjord? We have been sailing for four days and can not find it. Our position is: Somewhere on the see between Strömstad and Sandefjord" were just genial. Am not sure what ended up in the bottle, but it was written in Czech so guess the local who finds the post will be slightly surprised.
Half way home the wind turned and basically died out. We rolled down sails and decided to fish on the calm sea instead, we got some "pir" which is to be very tasteful.
29.7.-5.8. 2007 - Sweden/Denmark
Am back from a fantastic trip to Swedish west coast and northern Denmark. We sailed over 120 nautical miles and had favorable winds all the way. The swedish coast is just incredible and reminded me of the one in Croatia, just the color of rocks is different. We also went through several small narrow canals, this time without going on the ground :-) But we saw couple of other "lucky" boats getting into troubles. One catamaran turned over, a sailboat went in full speed on a rock and we have heard three rescue actions on VHF. Added a bit of adventure to what was perfect adventure for us already.
The sail to Denmark was fine most of the trip, we sailed in full moon through a calm water, around 5.30 in the morning we got winds over 15m/s and quite nice waves (over 5m). I learned later on that we did not choose the best wind to sail in, SW wind is the worse and if you take into account both shallow sea (about 15m), and strong currents caused by meeting Skagerrak and Katekat seas, you can imagine why we used secure lines. The heavy tanker traffic near Denmark coast did not make it much easier. Even though the arrival was a bit stressful it was without any major problems. We called at Skagen port, the northernmost port in Denmark. Weather was not so warm and good as we had in Sweden, but the local culture, small shops with everything from hundreds of cheese to hundreds of teas made it up. As well as small fast food shops with fresh fish dishes did. And of course a life music form a nearby restaurant. What more to with for than to sit on the deck, drink good Czech beer and enjoy music. One of the days I hired a bike and cycled to nearby sand dunes, Råbjerg Mile, which move some 18m every year. The sand was white and even though it was not really sahara I saw in Morocco, it was nice to walk bare foot in.
21. 7. 2007 - Sweden, Strömstad, St. Edholmen
First longer trip is over. I was away for about a week, sailing with a friend down to Sweden. We stayed two days in marina close to Strömstad and took off for a small island St. Edholmen. On the way there was a narrow passage with only couple of meters from each side. Some places, the depth sounder showed just 2.70m, right above the depth of the Red Man's keel. But the journey itself was nice, the troubles came after we left the narrow passage. For a second I did not pay enough attention to the GPS and when I checked it again, I saw we sail towards shallow water. I tried to navigate port and avoid the collision but it was too late, I just heard the keel going into sand. I put full throttle back, but there was no way we would get out. Fortunately the wind/sea conditions were not rough and there were helpful boats out in the fjord who helped us. We took the rope from the mast on other boat and when the boat dragged it, Red Man was leaned to side, getting away from the sand. I took a dive after we safely anchored at St. Edholmen - there was not one scratch on the keel, lucky Red Man survived without any damage. Well, would one be a sailman without even trying to get on the bottom? Apart from this small adventure, everything went as planned, the journey down to Sweden took about six hours and we enjoyed every minute of the trip.
13. 7. 2007 - a dope
A big day today, friday the 13th my second child, a boy, called Red Man was born, well actually doped. The plan is to get the boat on sea in three days and set off sailing for south, first one week, then two or three more weeks.
12. 7. 2007 - final touch
Am done with most of the work on the boat on shore. I rubbed, polished and waxed the sides (one side took me about 4-5 hours), painted the stripes and fixed the bottom of the hull so it looks like new. I've been here every day till 23.30, lots to do but it feels great to see the difference from before and now.
5. 7. 2007 - boat goes up on land
I took out the boat on shore today. The shells growing on the bottom of the hull were just incredible, couple of weeks more and I'd not have to buy mussels from a shop, would be enough just to dive under the boat and get some from the hull. I used high pressure water on the whole of the hull and its all clean now, "just" to paint it.
10. 6. 2007 - interior changes
After removing old unusable equipment from the interior, I sanded and lacquered the floor plus some walls in the front.
17. 5. 2007 - work, work, work
even though this is a national day, I am spending most of the time on the boat, fixing the teak deck. The old filling in between the gaps went so I've sandpapered the whole teak and filled in new sikaflex, a hell of a job but its done. Now I have to wait for about one month before I can do anything with it, takes so long time to get properly dry...