We are back...

Hello to all of you!
We have decided after many years of not sailing, that we will try go sailing with kids this time.
After almost seven years of having Snowbird on land it´s time to start slow with some swedish water. We have heaps of things to do on her but we hope that we can have her in water in a few weeks( or maybe in 12 months, we don´t know yet). She is not in the best of shapes but we will give her some TLC and maybe we can take her out this summer for some fun.
When you have two wild kids and not many babysitters around we have to split us up so someone can work on the boat and get her ready. Since Martin is the electrician on the boat and maybe the most accurate of us:), I will take care of the kids while he is gone.
But this Sunday my mum was up and we could have a day together on the boat, like good old days! 🙋

I was looking back on the old posts and this one will probably be the greyest because of the rainy weather and not Bahamian water;)

Our vacation in Grenada!

Under these two weeks we have tried to upgrade Snowbird. From the beginning we noticed that the teak had really been worn by the sun, rain and the wind. But the interior was almost in the same condition as we left it. We had really tried to conservate the boat before we left the last time, so it really paid off.  We clean the whole boat inside and out for 4 days and we were really happy that everything looked so good. 

We stayed at La Sagresse hotel for 5 nights and then we moved over to Snowbird. It really felt good to be onboard again although we didn´t have the rocking feeling( on land):) 

During the days, we worked really hard to get the teak in better shape,re-did the chart table, sewed new curtains, checked the engine, resealed the cockpit lockers, installed a new 5 Watt solar panel, removed old wax and put more restoring wax on, clean the engine/engineroom, clean the chain and put restoring spray on etc.

Sagresse beach, view from our hotel room

La Sagresse resort under the palms

Under these 14 days we just didn´t have time to do anything more except getting Snowbird in the good shape as we left her. One day we took a trip into St George(the capital). In Grenada they have small busses that you can take that only cost you 3 EC( 5 US)( 6 SEK). In this minibus we were 17 people squeezed in, but it really is fun to get that experience:). They play loud Socca music( Greanda music) and no air-condition except that the windows were down. Getting into St George , there are a lot of people. Because it was one of our first days , we were really pale so a lot of selling men/ guides were really excited to see us:)

One of the side streets of St George

The market

In town we bought some food in the local store and then we head back to the marina. The bus driver 

were so nice so he drove us all the way in to the marina, which no one seemed to mind of the passengers., island time!!!!

When we did our cleaning of the boat, we noticed that we had a lot of Sunbrella fabric left after our last sewing for sail covers etc. Sunbrella is a great material for boats and we really needed a cover to protect the teak and chart table.  The marina is a great help if you don´t have a good sewing machine so they did some measurement on the boat and after a few days we had a great tarp to cover from sun and wind.

The New Suncover

Sometimes you can really feel that you have been working really hard and getting real dirty, this was a everyday feeling for us:) so then it was great to have the facilities that the marina offers, with showers, toilettes and washing machines. The marina also have a fruit lady that comes every thursday to sell many different types of fruit and juices that you haven´t seen before.  So it was great to buy some after running out of some fruits.

Cleaning the hull

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing!

Using the head gun to remove old Cetoil.

New Cetoil on.

Damaged from the sun and wind 

Nice and clean

New dashboard 

Cetoil the bow and cleaning the chain

New white curtains( 14 curtains)

A short lunch by the beach!

"Someone" needed a rag to clean the engine room and cut a piece from one of the towels. 

Things that could come in handy onboard

As we are cleaning our boat, we realize how many things that you keep holding on too. But don't  misjudge when you making your quick decisions...

Party Hats
A few of those bind together and you an make a stormanchor


Santa candle light
Stranded on a desert island this can come in handy for sending Morse code.


Party blow whistle
Use those to as a emergency whistle.


Christmas Jinglebingle
Not just pretty to look at. Imagine you can´t find your life jacket in a critical situation. Rapp this around you a couple of turns and it might save your life floating shore on a desert island as a pretty X-mas package.


Santas sock
Imagine your ship wrecked, no passport,money or food, what to do? Just hang up the santa sock and go to sleep and hope it´s the 24/25th of December.

Back in old tracks!!!

HELLO GRENADA!!!

Hello all followers! This time we will try to write in english so many more of you can get an idé of what we are doing:) Hope you get the picture of what we are trying to say!!

On the 27 of April we left Sweden to head to Grenada. Snowbird was calling for us!

Since we haven´t seen her for almost two years we were happy that we finally had time to go. 

Our first stop was London, were we met up with Ilka and Fredrik for dinner. Thank you for a lovely evening, we hope to visit you soon and for a longer time!

The day after we flew to Miami airport. As we have been there before and only had two hour transit we were a little bit stressed when we arrived.  This time we manage to get in time with only a few struggles.... custom and immegration

As the plane left Miami we could see the island we sailed two years ago. It was strange to see the passage over the golf stream and how fast we could see the beautiful Bahamian islands that took such an effort to get to last time. They are as beautiful to see from the sky as we remembered them. 

After landing on Grenada we had a feeling that everything went very smooth. Maybe a bit to smooth....??? Waiting and waiting for our bags to come we just had to realize that we were the only ones left at the airport and no more bags were coming. 

The bags are still not here but this is the view from our hotel veranda at LaSagesse. 

Good Night! We will be updating our blog almost every day! See you soon.
Ps: Martin just ordered in a rum punch!

Winner of "Snowbird, the story" competition 2011.

After a tough and exciting competition we now have a winner. The announcement: For having the right answer, being a true and engaged follower of "The Swedish Snowbird" and ending the competition where he engaged President Obama himself. 

We are happy to announce Jason as the winner of "Snowbird, the story" competition 2011. The reward will be as known, a bottle of fine rum.