Back to Mariehamn

Well, I'm back in Mariehamn and Tor will be lifting Toytown out tomorrow.  But I encountered one last problem before I was allowed to leave.  My car, which had spent the summer in one of Tor's sheds, refused to start.  Completely flat battery and even attempting to jump start from my emergency jump start charger didn't work.  But Tor lent me a trickle charger and all was well the following morning. 

I let off all the shrouds and disconnected the electrics from the mast in the morning and Tor soon arrived to hoist the mast off the boat and store it in a shed for the winter.  Toytown was next and Tor and an even older guy (Tor is 82!) hauled Toytown out of the water onto a cradle and she was dragged (and pushed) into her shed for the winter.  I finished off winterising the boat before driving across town in search of Coony, a Swedish guy I'd met last year who was refurbishing an old wooden sailing trawler in the eastern harbour.  Coony is a real artist and the interior he is creating inside his boat is going to make my mouth water when it is finished.  But sadly Coony was nowhere to be seen and, since I appeared to have the wrong mobile number for him, we were unable to chat and catch up.

 

I caught an early ferry to Stockholm the following morning and I was soon on my way to Holland.  Here I am breaking my journey home to go in search of a Dutch barge or Dutch steel cruiser to buy.  I've decided my days of sailing single handed in stormy weather are drawing to a close and I'm now looking forward to cruising the inland waterways of Europe.  I'll still be on a boat and it will still be in the water.  That's the most important consideration!

 

So it's goodbye from Toytown and from me for now.  But keep watching this space since I'll be boring you with more accounts of my waterborne adventures once I have bought a barge or river cruiser.  It's been great chatting to you this year.