With a brand-new set of Elvstrøm Sails EPEX, Anders and Eva-Lena, better known online under their boat name, Ingrid Marie, have set out for new adventures this year.
The plan is to start from home waters and end up in the Mediterranean, but it comes with quite a large detour as they have just ticked the box on a long-awaited experience: Sailing north of the Arctic Circle!
Now, they are heading south down the west coast of Norway with the Shetland Islands and Scotland as the next big destinations.
Ingrid Marie - 2.0
The sails, set up and fitted with the help of Elvstrøm Sails Sweden, has already seen lots of action as the duo has already clocked over 2.000 nautical miles since the sails were fitted in the middle of March - a spirited start of life for a set of sails that – essentially – measure the same, but feature a step up in terms of material choices. In short, it has been a smash hit, Anders says:
- In many ways, this new set of sails is version 2.0 of what we had. We have kept the original measurements but changed the material. Niels from Elvstrøm Sails Sweden suggested a change to EPEX. At first, we thought it was too advanced for our use, but I must say we are convinced. They are great! We have been asked a lot if they are faster and what differences it made, but as soon as you get some mileage in, you feel it. You can go higher to the wind - it is faster, and the shape will last much longer.
The first mile was the time he could conclude what it was all about. The original sails on the Hallberg-Rassy 45 were getting rather old, so the opportunity to upgrade made sense in more ways than just feeling that the next big journey would be done on fresh gear.
- The new sails made a few changes for our boat. We have had many questions about the differences, but also lots of comments about the new look, which everyone really likes. It has been a pleasure to use these sails this season – they were fitted in mid-March and now we’re at the end of May, and I have clocked over 2.000 miles with them already. Great!
The big journey
For Scandinavian sailors, it may feel a bit early to have made it through 2.000 miles of sailing up and down the coast of Norway starting as early as mid-March, but for Anders and Eva-Lena it has sort of become second nature. Especially given the latest other upgrade. Not only are the Elvstrøm Sails new - they also opted for cockpit upgrades, which has made wintertime sailing much warmer and more comfortable than neither of them had ever dared to imagine.
- We had this new cockpit enclosure made. It made a world of difference. Everyone said it was impossible to sail to Lofoten in March and that it would be complete hell to do the journey at that time of the year. But I dared to do it anyway, and had lots of special clothing with electric heating and what have you. But most of it got to Lofoten without leaving the bag. Even on the coldest days, it was totally adequate to sail wearing a sweater because the combination of our cockpit and the diesel heater running on full proved so effective.
And speaking of Lofoten, they add it had its perks to visit the place under your own sails – and out of the season.
- We thought we had seen a lot of sailing, but visiting Lofoten on your own boat is special. It is so hard to point out one, two or three favorite moments or sights from this, because all the anchorages are so beautiful. Every day you get out in the morning, and your eyes can’t fathom how wild a landscape this is. Now, we are exploring the fjords while sailing south, and when we get a little further, we will leave Norway for our next chapter of this magnificent journey, Anders says.
Visiting Lofoten was the first destination on a long journey. As Anders and Eva-Lena found a way to make their daily life fit around a longer expedition, they have plans for not only the coming months, but in fact all the way to 2027. A journey which should take them to the Mediterranean, but not without more detours. So next up are the Shetland Islands and Scotland:
- It may sound like a bit of a detour to go from Gothenburg to the Mediterranean via Lofoten, but in our world it is all worth it. We are really looking forward to the next chapter of the journey, which is the Shetlands and Scotland. And course, we can’t wait to share the best of it with our great audience, Anders ends.
