ScandiDavia: August 2014

The Brantevik Norra Hamn Yacht Club

A few of us in Brantevik decided it would be a good idea to take tiny little sailboats called "Lasers" and sail them on a gigantic body of water called the Baltic. We started from zero boats at the beginning of the summer to six boats by the middle of July. The Norra Hamn (North Harbor) Club has graciously let us keep our boats on the harbor lawn. I have the suspicion they let us do so because they are taking bets on which one of us will take the free trip to Poland (or Finland) Our goal is to revitalize Brantevik into the sailing powerhouse it use to be. I named my boat "Lil' Tippy".

P.S. Don't worry Peter. I still love sailing Miss Landskrona and plan on sailing her tomorrow to Ven (if these winds die down!)

The yachts

"I think the dopey American is taking the free trip to Poland today, Yep, definitely the American...

Wait for me! I'm always the last one out...

The History of the Sea House

The Sea House is in the town of Brantevik which has a long history as sea port. It's hey-dey was around 1900. The town of Brantevik has a very nice sailing museum of which I am a proud member. In the museum, there is history on every house in Brantevik. It turns out that our house was built in 1909 by a sea captain who was a bit stingy. He sailed a 90' schooner called Emma of which there is a pretty painting hanging in the town museum. The guy who lived on the property before Cap'n Stingy was a fisherman who died at sea. Cap'n Stingy's son also died in the norther harbor not too far from the house so I am guessing that the reason we got the house at such a good price is because it's probably haunted.

From the town history

"An old dilapidated house was here once. It was called Jyns Hus and Jöns Hannson lived here. He was a fisherman, but died in 1885 when his boat capsized outside Simrislund. The house was demolished and Nils Martin Håkansson built a new one. He skippered a square sail schooner Emma, named after the first wife, twenty-five years, from 1908 to 1933. His son Nils drowned in the northern harbor in 1928. A quote from one of his crew:

"All were frugal. Now we would have to say stingy, but then thrift a virtue. The food he had down there for twenty-eight cents per man per day. Uncle John and I ate supper on board the Emma in Reposaari once. We had sailed in the ship's boat from Mäntyluoto. I borrowed the best man's fork. He had to get along with just the knife. Any extra dinnerware detail seems not to have existed. The food was fish, which the chef holed up outboard, and fried potatoes, and tea and crackers."

The Sea House

The Sea House awhile back

History of the Sea House in Swedish

A painting of the 90' square-rigged schooner "Emma"

Sputnik at the SeaHouse

The heating system at the Sea House is to say the least "unique". It has taken me over 6 months to figure out how it works and I a still learning. The main part of the system I call "Sputnik". It has 15 separate values and 9 different temperature gauges. Sputnik has three water storage tanks and is feed by three different systems:

Sparky: Two 6kW electric heaters
Sonny: Solar panels that heat water
Woodrow: A wood burning furnance

We also have a Danish crown wood burning stove that heats up the house very fast when we get there on a cold winter night. I call him "Woody"