This is a web site of three intrepid adventurers going about ‘planning’ and ‘enjoying’ a sailing trip by yacht from the Solent to Gothenburg in 2010.

 The trip was conceived in the Autumn of 2009 by Paul, Colin and Martin to take a 21year old Sadler 29 bilge keeler to Scandinavia.

 Through the winter plans were laid and plans were discarded and a slow realisation that quite a lot of work had to be undertaken to make the crew and the boat ready for the trip.

 What follows is really meant to be about the trip itself and I hope to be able to load up logs, pictures and descriptions of the 2 week journey.  I say hope, because I’m writing this in the comfort of my arm chair dreaming! One of the reasons for this travelog is to put down in writing what we expect to happen and then compare it to what really happened.

 A little background about the crew:

All of a reasonable age – post 50!

 Paul – working full time

Colin – recently retired

Martin – working full time

Andrew – working full time

David – working full time

 To begin with, none of us had formal practical sailing qualifications, although all of us has many years cruising and racing experience between us and some of us have the shorebased Yachtmaster.

The trip is split into three legs:

 First leg – Lymington to Ijmuiden in Holland

Second leg – Ijmuiden to Kiel in Germany

Third leg – Kiel to Gothenburg in Sweden

 Paul, Colin and Martin are to go the whole way and be on board all the time with Andrew starting with us for the first leg to Ijmuiden.  David is planning to join us at Kiel and be with us all the way to Gothenburg (so long as there are no weather delays!).  As to be expected, VST (valuable sailing time) is not easy to get hold of when work is in the way…

 Martin needed an ICC (International Certificate of Competence) qualification as a minimum requirement for navigating foreign shores so I looked at the options.  It soon became apparent that the ICC itself was adequate, but I also need other qualifications, notably the CEVNI for inshore water navigation.  One thing lead to another and the conclusion was that this would be a good opportunity to go for the Coastal Skipper ticket. When I mentioned this to Paul and Colin they said they would be interested in qualifying too.

 To cut a long number of hours spent in preparation (first aid courses needed to be booked) – we are taking our exam in May – one month before departure onboard Giocoso.  As part of the preparation the boat’s fittings / equipment needed to be reviewed and this drew up yet another list of things that the boat needed to be checked/purchased. 

As time was always going to be a constraint, we needed to plan how the trip should be constructed and leave options in case the weather is not going to be favourable.