Article in the Norwegian magazine "Vi over 60"

The Norwegian magazine "Vi over 60" (Us over 60's) has just published an article about me entitled "Seilte fra sorgen" (Sailed away from sorrow), written by the journalist Karin Mogård. She tells the readers at first about how the interview took place amongst stacks of paintings in the middle of my preparations for the annual open studio event.

She then went on to write about my background and my difficult period as newly widowed and how important I felt it was to look forward instead of backwards and to plan and take on new challenges for the future.

The article also mentions this blog and how writing it has been a kind of therapy for me after the trauma of losing my husband. Karin also visited me on my boat in Greece this summer so she could describe how my life on board the boat is and some of the experiences I have had. I am glad she also tells about how I now try to inspire others by traveling around holding talks and lectures about my life as a 70 year old, widowed and solo-sailing artist. 

(When I was asked to hold my first talk in front of a large audience I didn't think it was anything special and I was terribly embarrassed. Now I'm getting requests all the time so it apparently is something worth doing.) I have a new purpose in life!

Talk show

Talking to Ceclia Nebel at the talk show Late Night Helsingborg

On the 1. Dec. I was invited to be one of the guests in a talk show " Late night HBG" arranged by the swedish newspaper HD-Sydsvenskan.
The interview (unfortunately only in Swedish for the time being) can be seen here:  talkshow on YouTube
The show, which was broadcasted live, was hosted by Cecilia Nebel who interviewed me about my escapades as a solosailing artist. The other participants were the voluntary refugee helpers Valon Cakolli and Marie Osberg, the film director and author Osmond Karim and the 3 x world record holder in precision shooting Christina Bengtsson. So I was in really very interesting company and it was quite an experience. Despite my nervousness at first the host Cecilia made me relax and I then enjoyed it tremendously.

4 months of sailing and painting in a 5 minute video

This video entitled "Sommer of a solo sailing artist in Greece" I made during the course of four months. The whole summer I sailed, stayed at anchor in sheltered bays, painted and filmed sequences for a new DVD about watercolour painting.


 ( For HD quality or if the video shown on the left doesn't start try this link instead)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJB_6dSZZuI













Because I wanted to share some of these very special moments and experiences with others I continually filmed what I was doing. For this I rigged up four different cameras on the boat or ashore. Firstly my Canon 5Dlll either with a 100-400mm zoom or a 17-40mm lens. Shown here with also a Hahnel mk 100 microphone with a windshield of synthetic fur to eliminate wind noise.

For detailed work a Sony pocket camera DSC RX100 with zeiss lens came in handy.

Then I used a Gopro mounted on a Phantom DJ 2 drone for areal footage

and not to forget the iphone which has quite a good camera.  Here mounted on a selfie stick


















To keep the cameras steady in different situations I used a Gorilla tripod, a mini tripod, the selfie stick and several different clamps combined and attached to anything on board.

                                                      

Every painting I made took a lot of extra time because the different cameras had to be rigged securely to whatever they were attached to, at the right distance and angle and put on self timer, shooting over and over again.

Back to Kilada

On my way with "George" the autopilot steering. Spetses island in the background.

The lighthouse on the island of Dokus

After 4 wonderful months of sailing, anchoring, filming, photographing, painting and meeting fantastic people it was time to go home. I gradually made my way back to the Basimakopolou boatyard in Kilada where Aquarella is kept safely ashore for the winter.  The two day trip was mostly motorsailing into a light headwind. OK, I must admit, I chose the weather and waited until the forecast predicted light winds. Being alone onboard and a coward, I didn't want to fight with the elements all the way but just have a relaxing trip. However there were some great hours of real sailing when I could stop the engine and enjoy the sound of the sea. Here are some glimpses from the voyage back.

I ran into a pod of dolphins on the way 

The island of Hydra

I was keeping out of the way of this Hydrofoil doing 33 knots compared with my 4.

This is how I keep track on my ipad of the commercial traffic which use AIS.   It's a cheap app called Boat Beacon which updates about every minute. I can click on the boat name to see details such as speed, type of boat etc. Unfortunately they can't see me because I don't have a transmitter but I should show up on the radar or old fashioned line of sight .  I  just make sure to keep out of their way.

Unprovocated attack by malicious seaweed!

In the Greek summer the afternoon temperature often rises to over 30c. The great advantage of being at a swinging mooring or at anchor is that you can take a swim any time to cool down. With all the fenders hanging over the side I always have something to grab hold of in case of cramp or if the boat suddenly swings away in a gust of wind.

Yesterday as I swam around the bow of the boat for the 2nd time I accidentally bumped into the mooring line with my legs. There was no danger of being entangled as it was only a single, thick length of rope. I kicked myself away but at the same time noticed a burning sensation on my thighs. The pain quickly got worse so I swam to the bathing ladder and got out of the water. I thought I might have been stung by a jelly fish which could have been caught on the mooring line but I didn't see one. Even though I showered in fresh water and applied Calamine lotion to the reddening rash, nothing helped. The pain was excruciating! 

I quickly got myself down into the dinghy and went ashore to a Cafe where there are friends I could ask for help if the situation got worse. By that time I had difficulty walking because of the pain in my legs. When Dimitri, the proprietor of Cafe Fresco, saw me and understood the situation he dropped everything, let the customers look after themselves and took his quadbike to the nearest pharmacy for help. He came back with a cortisone cream and very strong pain killers. (Where else in the world but Greece would you find help like that?)

Apparently it was a special sort of seaweed called Lyngbya I was stung by and although the pain can be almost unbearable it is not deadly dangerous.

Gradually the pain subsided and after about 9 hours it disappeared.

Fouled anchor

The wreck with Aquarella anchored in the bay 

Today I motorsailed a few miles across to the western end of Limenos Poghonos where there is an old shipwreck I thought would be a good subject to paint. The weather was calm and I anchored about a hundred meters from the wreck. Taking the dinghy over to get a closer look I photographed the picturesque wreck from different angles. After a swim, lunch, a rest and another swim the wind started getting up so I decided it was time to leave. The other boats that were anchored here had already left. Although I like the peace and quiet of a secluded place I felt rather insecure. If anything happened I would be quite alone and left to my own resources.
Something did happen.
While taking the 30 meters of chain up I heard a scraping noise and noticed the windlass was using more effort than usual. I thought at first it was the gusts of wind causing the trouble. The windlass then moaned and jolted to a full stop as the anchor broke the surface. A thick rusty cable was hooked onto it.
Fortunately I had a so called trip hook on board which I bought last year thinking it might come in handy. 

The trip hook

This would be the first time I would put it to use. With a line from both ends the idea is to attach each end to the boat, then sink the hook down under the chain or whatever you've fished up. When I did that I pulled it up as tight as I could and then let my anchor down a little so it was freed. Then it was only a matter of using the other trip line to unhook the hook.
Wow, it worked ! I was afraid I would have to wait until tomorrow to get help from other boats.
My next problem was getting back to my mooring buoy and picking it up in the gusty wind. I thought I would try a few times and if I didn't succeed in stopping 6 tons of boat without pulling my arms off, I would go to a nearby anchorage and stay there the night or until the wind died down. On arrival I went up in the wind and got so near the buoy I couldn't see it anymore in front of the bow. With the engine in neutral I dashed forward grabbing the boathook on the way. Leaning over as far as I could get, I managed to reach the the buoy's lines, hook them up on deck and thread my mooring lines through the buoys ropes before the boat started shying away in the next gust.

My "buoy" consists of a canister and a fender with lines attach to a thick rope.
The rope goes down to a chain on the sea bed, connected to two oil drums filled with cement.

My most successful manoeuvre and nobody saw it!
I can't even brag about my  achievement of picking up a buoy (pronounced boy in british english) without people thinking I'm promiscuous...  

how not to park a boat

My watercolour Red Boat painted from the cockpit

I have stayed at the mooring I hired in the middle of the Poros channel in order to work on some paintings and produce a new video about watercolour. 

I was fascinated by a red wooden boat moored quite close to me. Especially before dawn and after sunset the small boat had a warm glow in contrast to the cooler colours of the sea. Before I managed to finish the painting though someone came and moved the boat away so I had to take my dinghy over to it to check the final details. 

The channel at Poros is deep enough for cruise ships to pass on the northeast side but shallows quickly up to various depths or next to nothing on the south side. The moorings here are laid in the no-mans-land along the middle. Nearly every day a yacht runs aground trying to take a short cut across. The local taxi boat owners earn a good amount of tax free money pulling boats off the mud. 

After the little red boat was moved from the nearby shallow mooring a taxiboat came along heading for it with an empty yacht on tow. Needless to say the keelboat stuck in the mud but the taxiboat  increased its revs,  churning the mud up and forcing the yacht to heel over. When it couldn't get any further the two men tied the yacht to the mooring and disappeared. The yacht was standing still knee deep in the mud,without moving, whereas yachts on the nearby moorings, including mine, were swinging in the changing wind. This meant that if the wind increased in strength there most certainly would have been a collision. 

I thought the whole manoeuvre seemed strange so I googled the danish yacht name and home port to get hold of the owners. In the end I got contact with them and they rang to the taxiboat owner. It turned out that they had hired a mooring in deep water, left the boat to be looked after by him and went home to Denmark for a few weeks. The day after they left and without their knowledge the boat was then moved to shallow water in order to hire the deep water mooring out once more.

After the phone call the yacht was forcefully dragged through the mud again and returned to the original safe mooring. 

Now I suppose I am commonly known here as the stupid bitch who ruins a good greek business.

The taxi-boatmans assistent loosening the tow-ropes,
you can see the mud in the water

The taxiboat trying to drag the yacht off the mud bank again