Start of the 2019 season - 1 st June 2019

Well, 2019 is the year of my retirement from my job in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. As a result of being a new retiree, I have never been that busy, as François from Cybèle 17 has always told me I will. 

After atour of Europe in my car (7,500 km), I had to get Belisama off water for the cleaning and antifouling of the hull. A hell of a job as this is exponentially related to the size of the boat. 

Chasing auroras in Tromsø - 13 - 16 December

This was my third trip in Tromsø in winter, and as for the two previous trips, we saw nice auroras. Tromsø is certainly one of the very best place in Europe to watch auroras. But Tromsø in winter has much more to offer.

Ersfjordbotn

Days are rather short when we approach the winter solstice, but you can get around from 11:00 to 14:00, giving plenty of time to explore the fjords around...

Övergran church, 4 November 2018

Another of the Albertus Pictor painted churches visited during All Saints day in November. 

And another marvel church in the Mälaren!

MOOC on meteorology for sailors on French sailing school - What I learned on clouds, 18 November 2018

Going on retirement, I registered to the French National School for Sailing MOOC on meteorology, a three-week course for sailors wishing to improve their meteorological skills. The first week of the MOOC was devoted to meteorological principles and clouds. In this post, I will highlight what I got out of the MOOC regarding clouds.

Husby Church - 2nd November 2018

On second of November, we visited the church of Husby-Sjusoflt, one of the churches with Albertus Pictor frescoes.

Stove fan, the solution! - 5 November 2018

For quite some time, I was looking for a way to circulate the air in the cabin when using the Antarctic Dikinson diesel stove. I got tired of getting my feet frozen while running full stove. While shopping in Clas Ohlson for led lights for the boat, I came across this product put on sale, to be put on wood or diesel stove to circulate air in the "stuga", the typical cabin owned by most Swedes. In fact, according to Wikipedia, there are 680,000 stugor in Sweden, meaning that 50% of the population has access to a stuga. Heating the Stuga in winter is quite a problem, and therefore, any way to improve the heating is quite a priority.

I bought one and tried it on Belisama...

Dingtuna chuch - 1st November 2018

Visiting the churches with Albertus Pictor painting is quite complicated because they tend to be closed most of the times. Around Västerås, we realised that most of these churches are no longer holding Sunday mass. They are just used on few occasions for baptism, wedding or funerals. All saints celebration is one of the few period of the year when the churches may be opened to public.

The Dingtuna church is located few kilometres from Västerås (see map here). It is one of the 35 churches painted by Albertus Pictor.