As I am about to start a new chapter in my life with new challenges  My boat, Aquarella is now for sale! About the Monsun: Designer Olle Enderlein Hull length:    9.36 m / 30' 9" Length water line:   7.50 m / 24'  8" Beam:   2.87 m / 9' 5" Draft:    1.40 m / 4' 7" Displacement :   4 200 kg / 9 250 lbs Keel weight:    1 900 kg / 4 200 lbs Sail area with jib:    39 m² / 430 sq ft Engine:   Yanmar: inboard diesel installed january 2000 kW / HP  17 / 28. Double diesel filters. Diesel tank    12 ..read more

While Aquarella plodded along on autopilot I went forward to prepare the anchor. (Screen shot from the video I filmed.) My GoPro camera screwed onto a Cullman clamp with a Manfrotto 492 micro ball head. I attached this to both ends of the spinnaker hallyard to pull up the mast (and down again) for aerial footage. To steady it I  pulled it tight under the spreader. My ipad could be used as monitor and remote control. I spent a lot of time this summer experimenting both with my drone and GoPro action-camera to get some aerial shots and videos. Some of the video footage wi ..read more

Not the usual view of the Mediterranean sea from my boat but the view of a beautiful Swedish lake from a campervan. In case anyone is wondering what I’m up to in these Corona times I thought it was time for an update. I had planned on returning to the boat with my partner in February. Aquarella is standing on dry land at the Basimakopolou shipyard in Kilada Greece where I know she is safe, which is a consolation. However when all the borders closed I knew it would be impossible to get back for quite some time. As my partner and I are in the risk group ( we are both 74) it is especiall ..read more

I was asked by Jackie Perry from Sistership magazine to participate in this podcast about facing fear at sea. It is the first time I've tried this but I think it turned out well. Thanks to Jackie for editing out all my bloopers and coughs Listen here:  podcast about facing your fear ..read more

Ormos Vidhi is not far from the mooring buoy I hire in Poros, just an hour’s sail. I had wanted to go there for quite a while but the wind was too strong. There were two reasons for waiting for less wind. The first reason was that I wanted to send my drone up over the bay  and my Mavic Pro drone is quite sensitive to a strong wind. The second reason was that I also had to be able to pick up my mooring buoy when I came back and that is not easy to do alone in any sort of wind. The weather forecast looked good so I set off in the morning in no wind at all so I motor-sailed over to the bay ..read more

This year I arrived back to the boat in Kilada over a month later than usual. My brother in law Uffe came with me to help get Aquarella ship shape and ready for launching. He could only be here for three days so it was a matter of working effectively all the daylight hours. The day before launching I tried to raise the anchor chain that had been lying under the boat on a pallet all winter. The remote control to the windlass responded when I pressed “down” but not “Up”. I tried my usual solution with contact spray, cleaning the plug and using fine sand paper to remove any corrosion. Nothing ..read more

Olivia diving after a clothes peg. Screenshot from the video by Philip Elberling. My son Philip, daughter in law Henriette and granddaughter Olivia came to visit me on Aquarella last week. I had been contemplating about possible destinations to sail to and decided on a few places nearby that I had seen for the first time last year. The first short voyage was to the bay of Mandraki on the island of Hydra. Aquarella looking very tiny between the other boats in Mandraki With my experience from last year I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. But with planning, only a little wind ..read more

Through time my paintings have won several prizes and awards but for the first time in my life my writing has also received recognition. Firstly I was given an honorable mention in a writing contest organized by the international Sistership Magazine based in Australia. The contest was eligible for women only and the theme was Facing your fears. Not only was it a writing contest but Sistership also published a book called Facing Fear Head On. The book consists of an anthology of short stories about fear written by 46 women on the water, from all over the world. I felt it a great privilege th ..read more

This post is more arty than boaty but I hope sailing enthusiasts might also like to see it. I know I have promised this several times but here it is, actually finished at last! This is the video I have been working on for months. Now called Sailing Through Watercolours the 71 minute film closely follows my work as I paint four different watercolours. Three of the paintings were done in the heat of the summer on board my boat in Greece and one in the middle of winter on a frozen beach in Sweden. This is my fourth film produced for Pulsar Productions in Australia. They source the best ..read more

Sailing towards a new destination (scene from the video) From the video "Sailing on Single Handed #5" screenshot from the video footage So here it is, finally.  I have edited a new video with scenes from this summer's short sailing expeditions and some footage of the work I did during the hours, days and weeks of painting watercolours on board my boat Aquarella.  This is all boiled down to a 4 minute video on YouTube but much of the remaining work involved is now edited and will shortly be released as a 70 minute art educational video on DVD and VOD. The ..read more