Finally, we took the time to record a proper walkthrough of Santana.
Even though I’ve been living on board since April 2022 and have shared plenty of photos along the way, I never managed to film a full tour—until now. Well, Nike did. 😉 The video was shot in February in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and we decided to include it a bit earlier in the Untie The Lines series. A lot of Nike’s longtime viewers were familiar with Karl, her beloved Reinke S10, and some were understandably confused about which boat she’s currently sailing on.
For those of you who’ve been following for a while, you might remember my friend Bo from Elba—the previous owner of Santana. I met him years ago while sailing Simplicity, my tiny wooden Nordic Folkboat. We stayed in touch through COVID, and when Bo decided to sell Santana, the timing was perfect. I was ready to move aboard full-time, and Simplicity had just encountered shipworms and was in desperate need of a serious repair and refit.
That first season on Santana was a hands-on one. I had to recaulk most of the teak deck, install a permanent fridge setup, and—because it mattered to me—strip the white paint off the mahogany interior and bring the original wood back to life with fresh varnish.
Of course, one thing led to another. I discovered rot in the main bulkhead and signs of rot around the wood core chainplate attachments. Since then, I’ve replaced those, added a Windpilot self-steering system, installed an aft arch for solar panels (then replaced it with a larger one), added a swimming platform and most recently upgraded the entire solar setup. I’m now running 800W of solar power and have a watermaker on board too.
So, if you’ve ever wondered what the boat actually looks like, or where I’ve been living the past couple of years—this is it.
Check out the video and come aboard.
I’d love to know what you think.
All the best, stay fresh and salty, Floh