Spent almost all day to figure out how to design the thing. Thank goodness for the rich assortment of stuff they have at Erlandsson’s Brygga in Sisjön. Walking around for hours trying to make up my mind on how to build a steady platform making room for the micro plastic trawl, the 70W solar cell, the 4G Internet antenna and our plastic debris collection bins. It had to be super steady for wild waters, lightweight for the balance of the boat and look at least ok and respectful, as we will be doing some serious scientific data collection while sailing around in the waters of seven countries. It also have to be safe. If a Man-Over-Board incident would occur, anyone should be able to cut the lin

Left Stockholm for Gothenburg, Långedrag Marina and GKSS. On a so called high-speed train through Swedish summer landscape. Any Chinese, Japanese or French train travelers would not be impressed by the speed, but possibly the view of he landscape. It was a beautiful day and not boring at all:-) Back onboard. It is always nice to get on the deck of S/Y Johanna and enjoy her sleek lines. The batteries seemed to have managed pretty well, and I prepared myself to spend two days designing, building and fixing my “Scientific Center” at the transom, back of the boat: Extra solar panel, the micro plastic trawl, the 4G antenna for internet access and updates on charging ancd consumption of electricit

Time for some family business...woke up in Copenhagen. My son Johannes’ examination day at Copenhagen Business School. Shifting from a barefoot boat life into a university hall with students and parents. Then enjoying a great family dinner in a smart, really good and conscious Copenhagen restaurant (will come back to that when sailing into Copenhagen later on the trip). Next day, travel up to Stockholm to celebrate "Swedish Midsummer" with my sweet mum. Next morning celebrating my sweet daughter Julie’s 23 birthday and while she partied out with friends I checked out the VOR-tracker for the last part of the last race... And yeez was that exciting see Dong Feng (red boat in upper right corner

Wheehooo, this was one of the most exciting days in a long time. Leaving the marina and sliding out on Götaälv together with the legendary “Whitbread Armada” and then another day zig-zag sailing around them VOR-racers and spectators in pretty much wind:-) Got great help from a Norwegian random friend who more or less jumped onboard on my way out from the marina. Good to have four hands on a windy day like this:-) Thank you! Here you go folks, tried to film the start on the last VOR-leg outside Älvsborgs Castle and their last leg/race down to Hague. Turn The Tide On Plastic is up there fighting in good speed... go-go-go TTTOP!:-) (Coming soon: Video from the VOR) Thank you all for some really

Today I had all the luck a guy can have. Got a chance to personally salute a fenomenal ambassador for humanity, the oceans and the UN Sustainable Development Goals – aka Agenda 2030 – Skipper Dee Caffari, sailing for the United Nations in the Volvo Ocean Race boat Turn The Tide On Plastic. We met at the Gothenburg Ocean Summit – a very interesting day with great speakers and panel discussions with reps within the top layers of decision making in Sweden and from around the world. Dee has not only raised tremendous awareness on the super serious plastic/ocean issue, she has chosen a crew onboard from a gender equality perspective, a global/international/cultural perspective with 10 nationaliti

Ihaaaaaa....arrived last night at Långedrag Marina and today we made Johanna ready to set sails for the mighty Volvo Ocean Gothenburg In-Port Race...as a spector of course, but anyway. Together with a German 50-footer we were the only ones sailing...meaning zig-zagging back-and-fourth inbetween lots of spectator boats, military patrol boats and the Swedish Sea Rescue Society ships. It was fun, wild and partly risky as the dicipline about the marine rules on who shall avoid whom, were set aside in the excitement and the hunt for the best views of the "Mean VOR Machines" bouncing around in 20-25 knots. Photo: janajulian.com Looks like we still were ahead of them at this shot haha (didn't last

Something like that was the text message I met when switching on my mobile phone waking up back on Koster Island. Today I was in Skärhamn. The super friendly guy running the crane lifted the boat in an instant, the super skilled Torqeedo-dealers delivered the new updated pod drive version and shifted it fairly easy – even if they had to use a hand crafted instant stick for a certain "get-the-new-cable-through-the-hole-maneuver". And yes, the new updated pod drive started fine while on land and charged well in water when sailing above 4-5 knots. And yes, the super charming girl at the Watski store next by managed me to buy spare parts needed one-by-one...and she may have influenced on my deci

Great two days. Starting off in rain at a sweet local cafe and bakery in Grebbestad, then setting sails and leaving for Smögen. From rain and no wind into sunshine and strong winds together with my daughter Julie 22 as crew. Then next day arriving in Skärhamn marina at 10 PM in a gorgeous sunset. Arriving Skärhamn... Leaving Grebbestad (testing exporting video to 480p) Getting closer to Smögen/Kungshamn (testing exporting video to 720p)

Leaving Koster islands – one of the sunniest islands in Sweden due to statistics by the way – we charged our batteries with pleasure. I received a text message from our Torqeedo dealer Henrik: "Go to Skärhamn, we will replace your pod drive with an updated version". Ok, so it will be. We sailed on and stopped for the night at a random rock. This news fast forwarded the journey and unfortunately the booked meeting with Linnea Sjögren and Jonas Pettersson at Catxalot in Havstenssund had to go. We stopped by their shop but they were out on the waters with clients this day. Linnea and Jonas are doing a great thing – harvesting seaweed and making new healthy and sustainable superfood with it:

It is a simple idea. Use the sun beams to generate heat and cook food or boil water with it. In Oslo at the Sail Off Ceremony we served cooked carrots. Worked perfectly fine. Today was the day we tried to cook scrambled eggs... We got our scrambled eggs fairly scrambled alright, and they tasted GREAT! Knowing we used nothing to get them cooked feels like a extra tasty add-on. However, floating liquids is perhaps not the best to cook in a tube if you sit on a moving vessel...or decide to move the oven while coocking. We also boiled our morning coffee/tea water in a smaller version of the sun cooker. Next time we will cook dinner – and create a more detailed test.

We managed to get the trawl off the boat and into the water. We also managed to sail with it for some two Nautic Miles, which is the least we need to do (2-5 NM is required) in order to make a correct sample collection. The students at the University of Gothenburg demanded that I wear a lab-coat and safety glasses while doing this scientific assignment...haha, and who am i not to obey them:-) Here is a little video from the first test and pilot sample. Crew on this leg was Johannes and Julie. What the sample looked like...stay tuned, we will report on that and show you what we got even if this sample might not be a perfect one due to our first-time-handling...

Oh, what a challenge this was... I arrived Fredrikstad's "West River" at 4 am after some swell single handed sailing in pretty nifty winds through a pretty rocky archipelago. The rules says that one have to call the bridge guys well in advance if you want them to open the bridge for you in order to "sail" into the city center and "brygga". So I called at 7 am, to get through at 9 am. At 9.05 I called again...just to be informed that the West River bridge is not working since some few weeks back...What? Ok, so if I am fast and have good winds I will manage to sail around Kråkerøy in 3-4 hours...and enter from East River through that bridge at 1 pm instead. Presentation meeting starts at 2 pm

After an intense day with events and sailing we arrived late evening in the community Drøbak south of Oslo. The off-season signs were quite obvious. A great marina close to a capital, but hardly any boats. The ones there were empty. No people. Grab some food and hit the sack was the evening option. Next morning I did some laptop-yoga and got to get some work done. At 2 pm I met with the manager of the Drøbak Aquarium. An important institution that keeps local knowledge updated by keeping the local sea water fauna, fishes and animals from the Oslo Fjord in aquariums filled with fresh water pumped directly from the Oslo Fjord just outside. Met with manager Klaus Bareksten – a very inspiring ma

Sailing off from Oslo I managed to get three young advocates for smarter alternatives onboard Nora, Klara and Erik. We didnt have much wind, but we had lots to talk about. We have so much to learn from each other, listen to some snippets of these two interviews of my first crew members: KLARA, working at GoMore - an app about coordinating cars between owners, renters and riders. 600.000 users in Denmark, 2 million total in all their markets... NORA, studying – and working for the green party in Norway in her spare time ERIK, working at the Swedish Trade Counsel – now dealing with a smarter way to share charging stations for cars in cities, communities and even small family houses. Way to go

This could not start in a better way. Rear Admiral Louise Dedichen in the Royal Norwegian Navy and her entourage participated at our "Sail Off Ceremony" at Aker Brygge in Oslo, Norway. Feeling their support and trust is a true honor and something we will cherish deeply every Nautical Mile we will sail for the sake of our oceans and generations to come. After a short presentation of the project and the journey, Rear Admiral Dedichen officially took her shoes off (yeay, she sure is a true sailor:-) and jumped into the boat to officially seal the shore power charger in front of the cameras and some 15-20 people... Photos: Sigurd Haug Louise and Bjorn. A prominent Admiral and a Skipper, or just

YES! The day did come. The day when it was time to roll out S/Y Johanna from the shipyard and launch her into her element. The 27 year old boat my kids were more or less born in, and definitely grew up in, have been renovated and pimped into a new one. Ready for them to take over. She has been turned into an electric sailor, she has been prepared to meet their new times and she is ready to be used as a vessel for an important message about how to live a smarter life on water.. Okey, enough of the philosophical symbolics. Launching days are about reality "here and now" and for me, this day and the next to come were full of reality challenges to say the least... Rolled out into the bright sunn