Guest of the week: Ann-Sofie and Jonas on S/Y Lady Annila, long-distance sailors.

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Ann-Sofie and Jonas have both been sailing most of their lives and six years ago they left Sweden for the longest sailing trip ever. During this time they have mainly sailed in the Mediterranean, but they have also travelled all the way to the Caribbean on their boat S/Y Lady Annila. Now a new era in the couple's life is about to begin, with permanent residence in Portugal.

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We've asked what it's like to be out sailing for so long and heard about the hardships Ann-Sofie and Jonas have experienced along the way. If you want to read more, you can follow the couple's adventures on their blog. Sailing life or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Can you tell us about the crew of the S/Y Lady Annila? Who are you?

We who sail on S/Y Lady Annila are Ann-Sofie and Jonas. We are a couple around 55 who have sailed most of our lives, Jonas since childhood and I since just over 30 years when we met. We started sailing on an L32 a boat built in the early 60's barely 10 metres long. Before we decided to go long distance sailing, the trips usually went along the west coast, Blekinge archipelago and around the Danish islands.

Can you tell us a bit about your boat?

Lady Annila, our current boat, is an Amel Super Maramu 53 feet/16 metres long, ketch-rigged i.e. with two masts. A boat made in France in about 500 copies. The boat was designed and built to be a safe and practical boat to sail around the world and is one of the more common models for long distance sailing.

How long have you been sailing and what is the route?

We left Sweden in 2010 and have since then sailed around the Mediterranean and the Caribbean round trip totalling a little more than 30,000 nautical miles. We started in the Mediterranean and in 2011 we sailed from Ayamonte on the Portuguese border to Crete via Mallorca, Menorca, Sardinia, Lipari Islands, Sicily some islands in the Aegean Sea and Crete.

2012 it was Croatia and more Greece. 2013 Greece, Sicily, Algarve-Portugal and out into the Atlantic to Madeira and Gran Canaria. In December we took the big step and sailed over to the Caribbean. We stayed there for two seasons and sailed back to Europe and the Mediterranean in May 2015. Spent the winter of 2015-2016 in Sicily and are now in Europe. Portugal, the Algarve coast.

How did you manage (financially and practically) to go on a long trip by boat?

We were far from retirement age when we left Sweden, but because I was able to continue working from the boat, we have solved the financial situation. Thanks to the fact that today you can connect almost everywhere, it has worked. Many times it has been an exciting and frustrating hunt for SIM cards for phones and modems.

What is the most challenging aspect of sailing as you do? Can you tell us about any hardships?

We don't really see it as a challenge. More as a way to live in the moment and with nature. A very relaxing and stress-free life. When we, after about 1 year, came back to Sweden for the first time, our friends said that we felt so calm and peaceful. Of course we also have stress but it is a positive stress. Not because of any calendar or deadline, but more because the weather suddenly gets worse, that the anchor will not hold if we get strong winds, etc.

The challenge is more when we are ashore, to find supermarkets, mobile phone operators, spare parts and to manage without knowing the local language. We are usually out in the countryside and there the knowledge of English is very varied. If you are in Portugal/Spain/Italy, the challenge is to keep the languages apart. As you know, they are very similar.

An Italian who spoke about as much English as I spoke Italian told me that it was not a good idea to take a Spanish word and pronounce it in Italian. Guess I felt flattened I thought I was making a very valiant attempt to make myself understood!

There are a few stretches now and then. For example, when we sailed away from Crete in 2013, we had a wonderful sailing trip with the wind with us, a slow wind from diagonally behind, blowing perhaps 7-8 m/s. Suddenly the wind dies, the sails just flutter and before we have had time to act, the wind has turned 180 degrees and doubled in strength. Then we had to hurry to re-sheet all the sails and reduce the sail area.

The scary thing was that we didn't know how long it would last or if the wind would increase more and we had a long way to any island for shelter. But as suddenly as the wind came. It disappeared again about 2 hours later. We checked the downloaded weather report a little more carefully when we had anchored a few more hours later.

All wind arrows in the area showed that we would have tailwinds and light winds. Except in one small area, which we managed to hit. There it was forecast for exactly the weather we got. The most embarrassing thing was that we had seen that wind arrow, but thought it couldn't be like that. There must be an error in the forecast ... If we had only gone 3 nautical miles further north or south, we would have avoided it.

Or when in Tobago we had to take the dinghy to the beach and there was a heavy swell. It was a first for us with the combination of beach and dinghy diving, so it was a bit exciting. Here is the blog post about it all.

The last leg back from the Caribbean was also a bit exciting with a storm in the last 12 hours. "It was very nice when we came into the lee of Portugal. We knew that we would get some stronger winds on that leg, but not that much. We were happy that it was dark so we didn't see the big waves. But despite everything, we felt safe on the boat and were just counting the time until we would get to leeward.

Can you tell us about the best places you have visited so far?

Picking a few Best Places is difficult. Everything has its charm, but here are some, in no particular order.

• Crete - an island with so much to see and do that just lying on the beach should be a criminal offence.
• Trinidad and Tobago - including the Carnival about 40 days before Easter.
• Grenada - the island of spices with cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, pepper, avocado, mangoes, bananas and more everywhere.
• British Virgin Island - an archipelago with lots of different islands and bays. The islands here so wonderfully imaginative names: Dog Island, Deadmans Coffin, Bitter End, Saba Rock ... Wonderful crystal clear water with many coral reefs to dive or snorkel on.
• The Greek islands - with sleepy little villages, beautiful waters, good food and sunshine. If you're thinking about boating, we can really recommend the islands in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. Travelling around and seeing and experiencing is so much more enriching than just lying on the beach.
• Sicily - The largest island in the Mediterranean with an incredibly interesting history dating back thousands of years before Christ. Exciting archaeological sites to visit such as the Villa Romana di Casela with its mosaic, the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento with Greek temples. Licata with Minoan remains. Taormina at the foot of Mount Etna with a marvellous view.

What are your future plans?

The future is a bit exciting right now. We are moving to Portugal and will be land-based for a while. Will learn Portuguese and get to know the country and its traditions. We hope for many interesting trips and excursions in the interior that will result in, hopefully, interesting blog posts.

Finally, a question we ask everyone we interview: What is your dream destination?

Japan, South America, New ZealandUSA and especially British Colombia are some of the places on our wish list. You can sail to all of them, but some sailings are more strenuous than others and the ones we have listed here are the ones we fly to.

Thank you Ann-Sofie and Jonas, S/Y Lady Annila, for sharing your experiences and thoughts!

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