It’s February and I’m already looking forward to see the first rays of sunshine hit the deck of BAIA. Last weekend there was an opportunity to sit out on deck providing the cockpit tent was installed (which is obviously not). I’ve been sitting aboard watching storms go by and reviewing these past two years of my life. It’s been an amazing journey but I’ve not sailed BAIA as much as I’ve liked. Every time I make a plan something else comes along and completely wipes the plans off the chart table.

This winter I’ve not spent doing deliveries and crossing oceans. I took it slow, spent my time at home and briefly had a job (more of a hobby) working at a bicycle store. Had a great time, met a lot of nice people but as January passed by I found my future is not to be working on bikes. It’s sailing. It has been and always should be sailing. Although being Dutch I obviously love biking too. I’d go as far as to stuff a new Brompton G-line aboard. If I can find a suitable space to put it. I’ve been cycling a lot. Mostly in the dark as you can see in the image.

I’m currently sitting at my desk updating my O-Charts and contemplating what my plans are for 2025. One of the ideas is to sail to Norway, the other is to head back to Denmark where I bought BAIA and explore that area. And a third idea is just to head to the Med. Finding reasonably priced mooring options in the med is going to be a challenge though and I can’t be aboard all the time as I have to do some work too.

Obviously I’ve been browsing the known crewing websites in search of something interesting and have been reaching out to my contacts. But as I’ve written before: It’s still February so I’m not expecting much. I’ve signed up as a yacht on a crewing website too. As for some of my passages it would be nice to have a small crew aboard. So it’s a good method to expand my network of sailing friends and possibly meet people I’d take along on deliveries too.

So I can hear you think: “Enough small talk, where are you going?” Well maybe I’ll just start thinking on an early spring trip. Just a couple of days checking out the UK east coast. A nice small trip to get BAIA back out of hibernation and to see that everything is working correctly.

I’m especially curious on the watermaker that was installed. It’s been preserved for long term ‘storage’ So I’d need to read the manual again to see how I can flush it and make it functional again. All these little things that need to be checked and done. O-Chart updates are already downloaded to my Macbook without issues and pretty quick too considering I own basically all the European charts.

A radar is still on my wish list. But it’s expensive and I don’t know if I’d be happy with a unit strapped to my mast. My neighbor in the marina suggested a radar pole on the back, but that would look a bit strange in the beginning I think. I’m still actually waiting on a quote for the radar install in the mast. But I guess they are busy and not willing to sell me anything. So It’s probably best to DIY and get the radar pole option. I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen any other Match out there with a radar pole, so I’d need to see it first before deciding.

So for now I’m tidying up and when the weather clears and temperatures rise up I’ll wash the deck so that I can prepare to rig the sails again. And setup the spray hood and cockpit tent for some more living space outside.

Looking back on 2024 it’s been a year that literally flew by with highs and lows. So to all my readers still checking back in. I appreciate it and I’ll try to write more exciting content this year. Comments are disabled here but you can always drop me an email.