Lars Ericsson

  • Fjellpulken Sleeper 200 SF

    With the sleep system packed up in the Fjellpulken Sleeper 200 SF, winter camping becomes easier. The sleep system is on top of your pulk and always ready to use.

    The other day I got my Fjellpulken Sleeper 200SF delivered. It´s a piece of equipment I´ve wanted to purchase for a long time. For several of years I´ve looked at ways to simplify winter camping and Fjellpulken 200 SF does that.

    I tried the Sleeper in the warm comfort of our living room. The Sleeper easily fitted my Exped Dura 6R LW sleeping mat, Mammut Tyin MTI Winter sleeping bag and the Ajungilak sleeping bag fleece inner liner.

    The video from Fjellpulken shows the old version of the Sleeper 200 SF. The new version of the Sleeper is yellow.

  • Launch of Fjellpulken Traverse expedition pulks

    If I understand it correctly Fjellpulken have recently launched two new expedition pulks: The Traverse 145 and the Traverse 165. They both look impressive.

    Unfortunately information about the pulks at Fjellpulken’s homepage is only available in Norwegian. I guess information in English will be added by them later.

    Explore our brand new, robust, lightweight pulk with impressive packing volume! The Traverse 165 is designed to provide greater capacity and lower weight than previous models, and is perfect for those longer trips.

    – Translated from Fjellpulken.com
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  • The Skippo navigation app

    Some say that plotters are a thing of the past, that there are other alternatives just as good or better. I don´t know what to believe, but I do believe curiosity should be a leading star in life.

    Skippo was founded in Stockholm 2022 with the goal of simplifying boat life and inspiring life at sea. They innovate and digitize services and products that make it easier to enjoy life as a boat owner.

    Today Skippo is the largest digital boat service in the Nordics with over a million users who use their app or webpage.

    In 2025 I will try out the Skippo navigation app on my iPad. I´m curious to see if it is a good idea to use an iPad as an alternative to the plotter.

    So far I´ve download and tried the free version of the app. Next step is to pay for the premium navigation subscription. In the premium version you get access to more functionality like: detailed charts and being able to download charts to the iPad so the app can be used in offline mode.

    More to come…

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  • Ship´s lamp for the saloon

    When evenings are dark and chill is running through the saloon it´s nice to have a ship´s lamp down below. Just one oil lamp can make such a big difference to the boating experience, providing both warmth and cozy light.

    For our old boat we had a ship´s lamp hanging from the roof. We used that lamp a lot. For our Linjett 33 I’m looking for something that we can put on the table instead, something we can move around down below and maybe even bring out to the cockpit.

    Image from watsk.se

    So far the most interesting ship´s lamp I´ve found is from Watski.se. It´s a model they call ’Oljelampa Galley Mässing’ or in English ’Oillamp Galley Brass’. The model is available in either brass or stailess steel, I prefer the brass version. According to the specifications it´s 170 mm wide by 290 mm high.

    The interior of our Linjett 33 Festina Lente

    I think the ship´s lamp from Watski.se would fit well into the saloon of our Linjett 33. There´s no hurry buying anything yet, I will keep looking, but at least I´ve found an interesting starting point.

  • The light returns

    We have passed midwinter solstice and the days are slowly getting longer. We are done with Christmas, mulled wine and Christmas sweets. It’s just a few days left of 2024 before we sail into 2025.

    Today the sun rises in Sundsvall at 09:20 and it sets at 14:24. Days are short but from the 21st of December they are getting longer, the light returns.

  • Yachting World sailing the J/40

    In the January issue Yachting World is testing the J/Boats J/40 cruiser. From the video it really looks like a really slippery sporty forty cruiser.

    The heading of the test in the magazine is: ’Pinnacle of evolution’. And on the cover of the magazine it says ’Driver’s delight’.

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  • Hallberg-Rassy 340 – The Movie | Sailing and walkthrough

    It was a long time since I used my kayak ergo, but today it happened. Averaged 5,6 knots over 40 minutes of easy paddling. As often I watched Youtube while on the ergo, Hallberg-Rassy was in charge of todays entertainment.

    The Hallberg-Rassy 340 is a really beautiful yacht! Check out the sailing and walkthrough video.

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  • The worst weather

    If there´s one weather our boat don´t like while on the hard in the winter, it´s strong winds from south-southeast combined with wet snow. In those conditions Festina Lente is exposed to the elements. That´s just what we had today. The worst weather!

    Went down to the harbor after work to check on the tarpaulin covering the boat. Wind was from south-southeast, wet snow was blowing sideways and the temperature was around freezing point. It was miserable; cold, wet and windy.

    The tarpaulin was not in a bad condition but I just had to fix it a bit. A bit of fixing took me some 90 minutes of fighting. I think I might just have said some ugly words and cursing the weather gods.

    Hopefully this was this year´s wet snow in combination with a strong south-southesterly wind, fingers crossed.

  • Checking on the boat and having mulled wine

    Today our boat club arranged a small get together in the club house. Mulled wine and gingerbread was served. Nice to meet all of the members that joined in. My wife and I took the opportunity to check on the boat while we were still in the harbor.

    I have to admit that the picture is a bit blurry but that is what you get when trying to handhold the camera in bad light.