Amalia – our new boat – is a Sirius 35. We have read a lot about the boat, watched YouTube videos, researched it online, looked at Amalia herself and talked to other Sirius owners, but nothing prepares you for the moment where you actually have to drive the boat for the first time! On top of that, the previous owner had kindly agreed to come along which was a huge help, but also added to the pressure. So, having been taught how to start the engine (step 1), turn on the bow thruster (step 2), I just had to drive the boat off from the dock (step 3). It turns out that the first two were easy, the third less so. However, we got away from the dock with judicious use of the bow thruster and some nervous twitching of the throttle. Once in open water, I could settle down a bit, but it still felt weird. Every boat has its own quirks and handling characteristics and, while they are all positive with Amalia, they are nevertheless unique and totally different to Charmary.
We motored for just over an hour to Mollösund where we moored up outside the harbour at the diesel berth to fill up. Now on the plus side, Amalia has a much larger fuel tank than Charmary. That though means a much bigger bill for fuel, so it took us a couple of goes with different cards before the tank was full.
We left the fuel berth very carefully – partly because I was still hesitant handling the boat, but mainly because the depth sounder was reading zero! Once in clear water, we hoisted the main (push button) and then pulled the staysail out (not push button!). With around 9-10 knots of wind she sailed beautifully, but, as so often happens in the archipelagos, the wind was from nearly ahead, so we tacked our way up through the channel towards Härmanö. Tacking was tough – just put the helm down and, with a self-tacking staysail, she carried on going on the new tack. Even a brief ‘glove overboard’ practice required no trimming of the sails to recover it. A deft flick with the boat hook by Rune had the glove flying out of the water and straight into Ric’s hands. However, the wind didn’t entirely play ball, so we ended up motoring for an hour or so. Once we turned round the north of Orust, we did manage to sail under genoa (push button) for an hour or so, but pressure of time meant us motoring for the last hour or so to Henån where we moored for the night.
