This is the story of taking up again an idea that began in Horta, came to a hard stop, and is now being rebuilt with Marthine as home, base, and direction.
This project is not about trying to squeeze two hobbies into the same website. For me, sailing and running belong together, and that is what I want to share here. I like the transition between them: coming into harbour, tying up, going ashore, looking up at a mountain, and feeling that the day is not over after all. That is where the whole thing really lives.
In short, this is a site about building something up again without stressing it to death. About living inside the project while it takes shape. About getting sailing and running to belong together for real. And a little about keeping spirits up while I screw, train, tidy, and try not to make things any more foolish than they already are. In winter it also happens that I throw on my touring skis and wander off into the mountains. I still ski like a mildly sceptical crow, but it is beautiful anyway.
Where this comes from
I was born and raised on an island on the south coast of Norway and have been used to boats since before I could walk. I got my first sailboat when I was nine, and several more have followed since then. I have sailed a lot up and down the Norwegian coast, lived for several years in an earlier boat, and had large parts of my life shaped by salt water, rope, and weather in the background. So sailing is not something this project invented. It is simply an old rhythm being given a little more space.
Where running entered the picture
I caught the running bug in my early twenties and have more or less not looked back since. Over time, the longer outings were the ones that started to pull the most, and what still gives me the most is running in the mountains. That is where it feels as if the whole system wakes up a little. I have been running for twenty-four years now, and the longest outing has been around sixty kilometres, but it is not necessarily the longest ones that stay with me the best. Quite often it is the feeling of terrain, weather, and view that lingers.
Why Horta matters so much
In 2017 I helped bring a sailboat home from Horta in the Azores. Before we sailed away, I ran from the quay up to the summit and back down again. Later, when we reached Brest, I jumped ashore and went for another run there as well. It was not some grand, planned revelation with film music in the background, but something stayed with me. I felt how right it was to arrive somewhere by sea and continue up into the landscape on my own feet. That was where the idea started to take shape.
Why it took so long
I tried to start a trip like this in 2018, but it came to a pretty abrupt stop. First I got caught by the mainsheet during a tack, was thrown into the side of the boat, and ended up with several broken ribs and a crack in my back. After a couple of weeks, when I tried to run a little again, I rolled my ankle badly and tore tendons in my right ankle. After that, running disappeared from daily life for several months. I got back to it, but never quite without effort. Later I got an Achilles programme from a physiotherapist that I have kept up for years. So this project is also about finding my way back to something, not only about setting off.
Why it is happening now
In November 2025 I bought Marthine. She is not just transport in this project, but home, workshop, workplace, and the whole frame around what is going to happen next. There is a lot of maintenance to take care of, and I try to get a little done every day between work and training. It is not fast, but it moves forward. That actually suits me quite well. I like challenges, but I do not feel any need to pretend that everything has to happen at full speed. Better steady and properly done than big and short-lived.
How I see it now
The goal is to get the boat ready, sail south to Portugal, and from there return to Horta in the spring of 2027, ten years after the idea first appeared. Then I want to run the same route again. After that the journey continues north, stopping wherever there are good outings ashore, preferably up into the mountains. I hope to make it all the way to Nordkapp before winter, but I have no intention of behaving as if weather, boat, and body owe me anything. This is allowed to take the time it takes.
What you will find on the different pages
Journey
The main thread: the background, where the project stands now, and where it points next.
Running & mountains
Both Strava traces and outings that deserve a little more than numbers and a line on a map.
Boat life
The engine room, cool box, rig, deck, order on board, and all the jobs that are not especially glamorous but very important.
Journal
Shorter texts about pace, body, waiting, calm, irritation, and the small things that hold the project together.
Marthine
The boat's history, the type, the ferro-cement hull, and why this particular boat means so much in the project.
