More colors from the streets. Making my best in capturing all the beauty that has been our everyday scenery and background during our very extended stay on this island, before we leave. Will show you more of life on Antigua in the following few days. I love the photo of the woman in the first image. Her bright, colorful appearance stood out on the grey and dusty street and she was a very sweet and charming lady too. 

Crabs for lunch, anyone?

When in London, I met with the talented Julia Cameron, the designer behind a gorgeous jewelry line, Adorn til dusk. At the function where we met, I couldn't help but staring at her beautiful headpiece and I eventually made sure to get myself my own. I love the vintage feel of it and how easy it is to add to any type of look. Can only imagine how well it will go with either a long, goddess type of maxi dress, or a dressed down hippie ensemble. As vintage is a passion of hers, you'll also find handpicked vintage bags, belts, sunglasses and shoes in Julia's online store. Check it all out here if you're into that kind of stuff. Or have a look on the Facebook page where all new jewelry are posted. I really love the star and crystal headpieces that are not yet on the website. Here's the link to the gorgeous style that I have btw.

As I probably will get the question like so many times before: "why do I write about and promote fashion brands on a sailing blog?" Well firstly, this isn't probably your typical sailing blog after all, but also as around half of our readers are girls/women and because many of those 50% have followed me since my early blog years, started already in 2005, when I was working in fashion. I think I wouldn't enjoy writing this blog to this extent if I wasn't able to share with you the mixture of all the things that I love, and quite naturally, all those females would probably not follow us around the world if this blog was only about boat maintenance and sailing... gotta keep you all (myself included) satisfied somehow, and it seems to have worked out pretty well thus far, no?

Quite a contrast, coming from the hectic city life straight to the quietest of seasons on a tiny Caribbean island. Being the hurricane season, most boats have sailed down South to avoid being in the region which is most prone to hurricanes. We were around this area during last years storm season so we consider us pretty safe and in the know of how things work and what to do in case we would have a tropical storm coming our way. What I like about this season is of course the lushness and the fact that everything is much more green than in the high season, but also the fact that it is so. very. quiet. 

Living on a boat and cruising in busy areas like these during high season (October-May), you are normally pretty exposed to your neighbors. It's not like you can close yourself in like in a flat or a house, as the outdoors is a major part of your everyday life. You basically live in the nature, the boat is merely the place where you sleep, cook and store your things. You eat your dinners in the cockpit, you shower on deck and you have the occasional swim around the boat (when in clean anchorages). 

If you haven't found yourself a hidden anchorage, which all most probably are at least a bit busy during high season, you will always have a boat close to your own. Occasionally it can be nice to be in a bustling marina or a busy anchorage, but most often we try to avoid being in too crowded places so we can live the way we wish to and to be able to feel totally free, close to nature, without facing the risk of having your neighbors watching while you're in the shower. It is therefore a blessing to come back to find Duende as almost the only boat in the bay, with a good distance to the rest of the few that are around. 

Don't get me wrong, I love a good company and if we meet some nice sailors along the way of our travels I'm the first one to invite them over to our boat for a glass of wine, it's just that it's so relieving to have the peacefulness and tranquility that only a quiet, natural anchorage can offer. And that's basically why I prefer to sail these North Caribbean waters during hurricane season. We have three more months of quietness, by that time we should have made all those stops along the way that we're planning to before we eventually, if all goes as planned, have made our way down to South America.

Beautiful sunny Antigua, you're just as I remembered you. Now only a few more days left for us on this island.

I't might be over with long steaming hot showers, millions of alternatives in the supermarkets, late night drinks, dinners and long conversations with my amazing friends. But instead I'm back with my man, I can have naked showers on deck when the tropical heat gets unbearable, swim in crystal clear water whenever I feel the need for it, eat as many super sweet mangoes as I can deal with and the sound of nothing but wind and water gently lapping against the hull does give me more harmony than any noise of the city. There are so many things that I will always miss when I'm on the boat, far away from other people that I love, yet there are so many things that I want to rush back to when I've been away for too long from our peaceful, mentally fulfilling and challenging life on the sea. Each situation and place has its advantages and disadvantages and the balance is what we all are looking for I guess. Will share some of my new realizations one of these days, will just try to catch up with it all over here for a while.

So it seems as we're staying in Antigua to carefully pack and prepare the boat until early next week. We should thereafter be on our way towards new horizons, first up North very quickly, then down South. Looking so much forward to continue our journey once again. 

my bikini's from Babajaan

So I'm still in London for a few more days and I spoke to Alex on Skype earlier. We got all sentimental when remembering the beginning of our life on the boat. How exciting everything was, our dreams were big and we had so much to look forward to. Two years later, we have achieved many of those dreams already, we've got to learn a lot of things about ourselves, each other and the new life that we so slowly had started to get accustomed to when these photos were taken, and yet there are still so many things and dreams to learn and to fulfill on this journey. All these photos are from Europe and our Mediterranean cruise that we did exactly two years ago, in the summer of 2010, before the official circumnavigation started. Can't help but miss Mediterranean when looking through these images, yet we can't wait to explore some of South America and further continue out into the South Pacific ocean as soon as we get the possibility to do so. Every place has it's own thrill and beauty and we are anxious to get out there exploring more of all what this world has on offer, new places and horizons are yet to be discovered. Will also be amazing to continue the journey from the Caribbean and forward with our newest family member, Duende.