Mia's Blogg

Mia's Book Project - "Mot en ny Horisont"

Mia's Book Project - "Mot en ny Horisont"

I am super excited to tell you about a book project i have been involved with during the fall.  

Together with 10 Swedish Sailors, we have each written a chapter in the book "Mot en Ny Horisont". All proceeds will go directly towards donation in the aftermath of Irma & Marina that hit the Caribbean earlier this fall. 

The book is currently available in Swedish and Danish, and maybe one day it will be translated into English and other languages?

Back Sailing the Grenadines

Back Sailing the Grenadines

It’s been a long time! Andy and I were first in Bequia and to the Grenadines in 2009 during our trip on Broadreach. We sailed a 50’ Beneteau with 11 teenagers, a month long sailtraining camp starting in St. Martin and finishing in Trinidad. We truly fell in love with the smaller islands in the southern Caribbean, but since then I have not been south of St. Lucia. It was about time!

Back in Antigua - First sail of the year!

Back in Antigua - First sail of the year!

Andy and I arrived back to Isbjorn and the BVI on Feb. 1st, a long day of travel from Sweden, via London and Puerto Rico. It was a long day, but probably one of the smoothest travel days I can remember and we arrived to Nanny Cay where we had the boat around 8pm. Andy cooked up a simple dinner of rice and beans and I crashed straight after. We spent a full day there, provisioning the boat and getting her ready for sailing.

Happy 10 Years of Sailing!

Happy 10 Years of Sailing!

Today is kind of a big day in my life as a ‘sailor’, although I am very far away from the sailing scene at the moment. Ten years ago, I spent some time in New Zealand with my best friend Johanna, driving our new to us backpacker car – a Nissan Bluebird – exploring the beauty of New Zealand, camping, hiking, meeting lots of fun people and truly having the time of our life.

Photos for the Atlantic crossing on Kinship

Photos for the Atlantic crossing on Kinship

I have now uploaded all the photos from the Kinship trip to the computer and there is a lot. Thank God the computer has a lot of space nowadays! As you can understand, it was very hard to pick the best ones, so I decided to just upload a lot and share the experience with you. I also decided to pick a favorite and for now it is the landfall pic to the left here, maybe not the best photo, but the moment when we spotted land was an amazing moment. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Kinship Morning Music Hour

Today is two birthdays, my younger brother Erik is becoming 20! And my little girl Anya from Boston is now 12 years old! Happy Birthday to you!

I have a new highlight for the trip. Yesterday we had Walter the Whale visiting the boat. But it started a few days before that. I was sitting in the cockpit and could see something maybe 30 m away from the boat, it looked like it was something big in one of the wave, with a slightly different color.

1 week in the Atlantic

1 week in the Atlantic
The butter is starting to melt and it is time for us to turn right. There is a saying that when you are sailing from the Canaries to the Caribbean, you head south until the butter melts and then turn right. We have had a few hazy days which I have been enjoying, very pleasant temperature. Last night I could see the stars bright and clear and understood it would be a clear day with sun. With the clear sky came the temperature, the butter started to melt and we are down at 18° 30' N, about the latitude of where we will make landfall. Time to turn right.

Turn around

As many of you already know, on the second night out, Kinship broke a shroud and we decided to turn around to Las Palmas to get i fixed.. We had a bit of a sail to get back to the island, of course the wind on the nose.

The good news is that we came in to the harbour early this (Wednesday) morning and ten minutes later had a guy come work on the boat. The shroud is now replaces and Tim is having a look at a few other things while we are here.

59NORTH Media & Sailing: The new website, the new business

59NORTH Media & Sailing: The new website, the new business

The last couple weeks have been a bit tumultuous on our website. Since June really. Back then (in Horta, in the Azores), Mia and I decided to combine our blogs into one site - Mia had her miatravel.blogspot.com site (which still exists), and I had my fathersonsailing.com site (which evolved from my own andyschell.blogspot.com site for the journal I kept since 2006). When we changed the name to andyandmia.net, we did so simply because we couldn't come up with a better name. Everyone knows us together as 'Andy & Mia' or 'Mia & Andy', so why not stick with something people recognize?

C1500 Hampton, VA

C1500 Hampton, VA

Jag och Andy har nu intagit Hampton, VA och checkat in på vårt hotellrum där vi kommer spendera de två kommande veckorna. Vi är här för att jobba för C1500, ett cruising rally med ca 45 båtar som startar här i Hampton och seglar ner till Tortola, BVI eller Green Turtle Cay i Bahamas. Jag och Andy kan tyvärr inte hoppa på en båt och segla med utan flyger ner och är på plats i Nanny Cay, Tortola när båtarna anländer.

Bermuda!

Bermuda!

Vi ar nu i Bermuda! I fredagsrunt lunch seglade vi in till St. Georges, nordvastra delen av Bermuda. De forsta dagarna fran Tortola hade vi knappt nagon vind alls och var tvungna att kora motor ganska sa lange, vilket kandes som en besvikelse. Vi tog dock vara pa det och jag och Ursula lagade en massa god mat, jag bakade brod och Ben bakade kakor.