WORLD TOUR STORIES Alex and Taru sailing around the world.Travel blog. Lifestyle blog. Sailing blog.

Archive for October 2012

On the blog agenda

I have a few things I'd like to show/tell you but as time is precious, I don't always find enough of it to catch up with everything that I'd like to share with you on here.

These are some of the things I will share with you in a not too distant future:

- Refit of the boat. Have received numerous emails and comments about this from you readers who wish to see what Alex has done to reinforce the boat and this is coming very soon. It's not super easy to get him to sit still in front of the computer for more than ten minutes at a time. And if I'd write that post by myself I'm sure I'd miss some very important details, so I'm doing my best here to convince him to take.the.goddam.time and get this over and done with. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

- Marie-Galante. I'd like to tell and show you why that island is one of our top three most gorgeous places in the Caribbean. Above photo is from there to begin with.

- I've promised to tell you what sunscreen and shampoo I use to protect my hair and myself from the destructive UV-light.

- Show some images from our visit to one of Martinique's most renowned rum distillery where both Alex and I managed to get tipsy. I might have told you that Alex doesn't drink too often but that rum is the only alcoholic beverage he enjoys.

- Show a Go Pro video from our previous sail from Marie-Galante to here. Must find time to edit it first...

- And I wish to tell you about that collaboration we've been whispering about for a while, but as the specific product for that specific brand that we have been appointed to be ambassadors for hasn't hit stores in the US yet and it's further delayed, we must wait a few more days...

And what happened at the Dr's btw. He said, just as Danelle suggested on our Facebook page, that it's a bone spur of sort which probably is a result of an earlier damage that I've had in my ankle years ago. It's basically an extra piece of bone that the body has created in an attempt to repair that earlier damage. I've now got anti inflammatory drugs and should rest for a week or longer and hoping that will help. Thanks all for great links you've sent me, feels safe to know that we have so many knowledgeable readers would we ever need medical assistance again!

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three is the magic number

Hello sexy, congratulations for putting up with me for three long years. In only a few hours from now, it was exactly three years ago that I met this gorgeous man and human being the first time, on October 31st 2009. Who knew we would be bobbing around the seas like this, that first night that we met, and who knows where that sea will lead us, in the future.

We were supposed to celebrate a little on a beautiful location in Mustique tomorrow evening but I'm having an appointment with the dr tomorrow and I guess I anyway need to rest my damn foot so we'll be staying here in Martinique for a few more days.

Check here to see how we celebrated last years anniversary on the beautiful Montpelier Plantation on Nevis.

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Self-medicating

Have barely been able to walk today as I've got a huge bump on my ankle out of nowhere. Have got a couple small bumps on one of my feet before, around that bone on the side whatever it's called (talus?), and I suspect they show up as I never walk in high heels anymore? Maybe a blog doctor can advice. So it is quite painful nonetheless and we must probably stay here a few days longer so I get to see a doctor as the large lump as well as the pain continues to grow. The picture illustrates how happy (neurotic) one becomes when discovering a fine bottle of wine in the bilges, excellent medicine that makes you forget the pain for a while.

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sailing south

Such a short stay on all the previous locations for us, and it's soon time to pack up, prepare the boat and leave southbound once again. Not so much left of the Caribbean for this time around..

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daily reminder

Lately more than ever, we've been reminded of how important it is to take care of the few days that we have on this earth. A good friend of ours just lost her best childhood friend, a woman in her mid thirties, who tragically left two young children behind. Accidents and tragedies can happen to anyone of us in less than a second. We humans are so incredibly vulnerable and fragile that we need to remind ourselves as often as we can that life should be filled with: not stress, negativity, hate nor bitterness. But love, joy and simple beautiful moments with the ones that we care about. Nothing else really matters in the end.

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Navigating on land

We have a rental car this weekend and are busy exploring parts of Martinique that we haven't seen before. The East coast is beautiful, sea is calm and still like a lake, sheltered by the large barrier reef surrounding the Atlantic side of the island. What else is characteristic for Martinique are the bananas, they've gone completely bananas with the plantations here, it feels like 50% of the island is covered by banana plantations. Wherever you drive there are mileslong lines of banana trees with the banana clusters covered in blue plastic, ready to soon be shipped. Most of them goes for export to France as far as I understood it.

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For a night like this

One of the beauties we got home from the distillery today.

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Not the catch we were hoping for

Happy to hear the reel spinning the other day, first catch (and first time of fishing) in a long while. Got a bit perplexed though when we realized there was neither a mahi mahi nor tuna on the hook, but a small reef-shark. First instinct was to let him or her go, sharks are not meant to be eaten at least not in my opinion. But after a while of contemplation, we realized there would be no way we could have released that aggressive little beast from the hook without getting bitten, and none of us were up for a voluntary shark bite to be honest. Also, to cut the line and let the shark swim off with the hook and large plastic lure deep down in his or her mouth would have been even more torture. We simply found no other way around it than to bring the shark up on the boat. I was a bit skeptical to cook the meat to begin with but thought it would be a waste to throw it away. Alex cleaned the fish and I marinated the boneless shark meat in oil, lemon juice, garlic and herbs and served it with rice and vegetables. Tasted surprisingly good, albeit very soft and a bit spongy. It definitely tasted better the second day when the meat was no longer as fresh and squashy as when we just had caught it.

The texture of the skin was very interesting btw. A sharks skin is apparently made of a matrix of tiny, hard, tooth-like structures called dermal denticles or placoid scales. These structures are shaped like curved teeth and leaves the skin with a texture like harsh sandpaper. It was easy to pull your hand over it from the head and down, but impossible to do it upwards.

Interesting experience but I'm still hoping this was the first and last time that we got a shark on the hook :/

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Mackerel and chocolate sponge cake

Not the healthiest lunch perhaps but what to do when you arrive to a French island around midday on a Sunday, and all restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores are closed for la pause déjeuner. This was the only food we could get our hands on from a local rhum bar-turned-into-a-superette and our creative lunch was enjoyed by the beach now this past Sunday when we had just arrived to Marie-Galante. The view we had in front of us could not have been any better. Marie-Galante is one of those places to where we truthfully wish to return one day in the future. One of the most beautiful islands we've visited thus far in the Caribbean. Will show a few more photos from there a bit later.

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Martinique

Tacking around this diamond rock and on towards Marin du Marina in the South of Martinique this morning felt like a triumph of sort. We first arrived here 1,5 year ago after having crossed the Atlantic ocean and so many things have happened, and changed, since then. This time we are here to say farewell and our brief stop here will mark another milestone on our sailing journey. The more islands we can leave behind us up in the North, the closer we are to the Pacific ocean which we tremendously look forward to begin crossing.

So there's another little thing that we'd like to speak to you about. Unfortunately not as positive a thing, but we still need to bring it up. We have many faithful readers and followers and we hope you all know how much we appreciate your existence and your participation on this journey. But as there are so many of you, it is inevitable that a few of you will be annoyed or bothered by us and/or the things that we write here on this online diary. This is fine of course, we are not here to please everyone, we would just like to share a few parts of our beautiful journey and our lives with the ones who are willing to listen. If you like it, that is very pleasing to hear. If you don't, we're sure you can find yourself a better blog, couple or life to follow. We also realize that if one is openly willing to share ones life like we do here, one must be prepared for some sort of hatin'. It comes with the job, so to say. What bothers us a little though, is one man in particular, we can call him Mr D, and we will keep his full name anonymous till we know if he can accept our request that is shared below.

Some of you might know this man as he writes a blog himself. This Mr D is clearly obsessed with our blog in general and us or Taru in particular, as he tries to get our attention, as well as our readers attention, around five times every day. He sends not only petty threats but also sexually insulting and obscurely harassing comments in hope for us to publish them on the blog or for us to stop blogging or who knows what his real mission is. His comments carries such an aggressive and offensive language that it would make you all lose hope for humanity if we posted them up here.

We don't exactly know why this person, a "family-man", hates us so much, but we assume that he might have gotten offended by something that we (or Taru) have written in the blog in the past. Hard to know exactly as he still hasn't had the courage to stand up for his beliefs with his real name. Instead he's "hiding" behind what he thinks is a 100% secure proxy program that "allows" him to change his IP location to various places around the world, as well as the various pseudonyms that he makes up as he writes. If these negative comments would happen once or twice every month or so, we would continue to ignore them. The thing here is that this man is Obsessed and clearly needs someone's help.

It was never our blogs nor our intention to inspire someone to waste his life on hating us or anyone else for that matter, and if we at any point may have responded bluntly to any anonymous comments, do keep in mind that when choosing to not sign with your own name, you are just that to us: "anonymous", so the response could not have been directed at your self. One can not be so sensitive that one takes things written in someone elses' online diary, personally. At least not until the day that we actually do write about You.

We will gladly agree on not taking this thing further, if this annoyance will end, Mr D. We are fairly certain that your family, and your and our blog readers would not be too pleased to read the 250 most previous, absurd comments that you've sent us.

/Alex and Taru

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Gone sailing

Soon in Martinique...

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La Baleine Rouge

If you find yourself in Marie-Galante, you must visit Jacky's wonderful little restaurant La Baleine Rouge. Good Wifi connection, great crepes, an extended a la carte menu and the best sunset view over the channel between Guadeloupe and Les Saintes.

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Underway

We are rapidly catching up with the lost days of sailing by quickly moving on once again. See you on our next destination. Here's some great, powerful music for sailing that we gladly listen to while underway.

I have so much photos and videos that I wish to share with you btw but the days don't seem to have enough hours right now as we rather devour these glorious sunny days on and around the water.

Fragrant air

Laundry never dries faster than in the fresh breeze while underway.

And our whole passage from Les Saintes to Marie-Galante carried the sweet scent of Lavender...

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The beginning of a new chapter

So we left St Barts the other day with the hopes of having a pretty calm passage. 10-15 knots of wind was predicted but we realized pretty quickly that the forecast was under-exaggerating like so many times before. 21-24 was more close to the truth and the mixed swells made the boat consistently banging into the waves. Nice with a change if you look at it from an optimistic perspective.

Back to cooking at 15 degrees. Beef stir-fry for lunch.

Arriving to St Kitts where the swell and wind calmed down with the protection of the mountain.

Calm before the storm. Blissful to, for a while, maybe an hour and a half, have complete calmness during sunset. There was almost no wind due to the mountain shadowing, yet we were still slowly making way around the coast.

And suddenly when the sun had disappeared in the horizon and we were again out in the confused seas, a huge squall hit us. We could see it coming with the little light there was left on the sky. Normally when you do you might attempt to escape it by altering your course, problem here was that we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of three, four different cloud formations coming from what seemed as all directions, leaving us with absolutely nowhere to escape. If you have ever sailed in your life you might know how it feels when you see the dark clouds approaching, the rain slowly moving from "there" to where you are and you quickly rush to prepare what can be prepared. Reef the main another time, in with half of the jib, throw the cushions below, on with the foul weather jackets and basically prepare yourself to eat shit, like Alex would've put it.

During my almost three years on the seas I have learnt to love and admire the sea in an overpowering way. It has brought me endless of love, thrills, excitement and many life lessons so I cannot else than respect it dearly. But I also know how vulnerable we can be in relation to it. There have been moments when I have felt that I was close to loose my life to it, and even if it only lasted for a brief moment, sometimes not more than ten seconds or let's call it ten thousand milliseconds in an attempt to try to paint a picture of how long those seconds can feel, it always always brings me back to the ground. Alex has a lifetime of sailing and sea experience, but this particular night we got hit by the strongest, in wind force, squall that we have ever experienced together. It lasted only for a blink of an eye but was enough to shake up our existence quite dramatically. Sitting here in the comfort of a coffee-shop it appears so distant and I have almost hard to remember the stress and anxiety a moment like that evokes, but truth is that if something has humbled me during these past three years, the sea is much responsible for it.

When the screaming wind drowned out our voices and we saw the display showing digits over the fifties we got into the sort of trance that we have experienced together only a few times before. Luckily this one didn't last as long as the storm we went through during our Atlantic crossing, but was gone rather quickly. A tornado forming right above us and a few seconds later it was calm and quiet again. Such a surreal, bizarre feeling. It will never cease to amaze me how schizophrenic the weather, winds and waves are. Catastrophe can turn into complete stillness in a second and vice versa and there is a certain type of rush mixed with fear that comes with a moment like this. It puts you in place to say the least. Our main got scratched in several places during those seconds it swept through btw, need to get that repaired asap.

After the wind calmed down, we decided to drop the anchor on the coast of Nevis. Beautiful Nevis. But this time we were not planning on going ashore, just rest for the night and continue onwards the day after.

Early morning and we're off again. Sea was calm as a lake and what had happened the night before seemed almost like a dream.

Arriving to the SW coast of Montserrat, an overseas territory of the UK. This is the active Soufrière Hills volcano that erupted and destroyed the capital Plymouth in 1995. Tho thirds of the islands population was forced to flee, and much of the abandoned capital that you can see to the left in this photo is still buried in ashes. Most of the people that left the island have never come back since they lost all what they owned on Montserrat. The capital was later changed to Brades, located in the North, far from this particular volcano which still is active. When you sail past, you can feel the strong smell of sulfur as fume continues to vent.

Dinghy needs some bottom cleaning btw..

And late in the night we arrived in Deshaies in Guadeloupe. This is how it looked in the morning when we woke up. Calm and sunny and we were glad to have the hardest part of the passage behind us.

Leaving Deshaies for Les Saintes. Almost no wind but sometimes that is better than too much of it.

A good sign of Alex being back in his comfortable and enjoyable routines is when he picks up his fishing rod.

Was a long time ago since last time.

Reading through some sailing books in search for anchorages in and around Guadeloupe that we might have missed on our previous journeys around here. Very happy to have the shade of a bimini btw!

Glad to be back in waters where fishermen is a norm rather than rarity.

A cup of tea with Dutch cinnamon biscuits and our latest obsession, skorpor with honey...

At least five of these passed above our heads during the six seven hours it took us to slowly sail the thirty miles to Les Saintes. We imagined the planes to be flying to French Polynesia to where we wish to sail early next year. Such complete different ways of traveling.

I have not seen my captain this relaxed in a long while. 1,5 year of hard work and stress is finally behind us. It might not have appeared as such in the blog, but we have gone through parallel hells, albeit small ones, but still enough to function as heavy weight on our shoulders. Alex has carried most of the physical stress and no one is happier than him that we are now opening another new chapter in our life. We're finally back in the cruising mode again, something we abandoned when we arrived in Antigua last year with the change of boat, too much work and other issues we had to deal with. Glad those days are over and behind us and that we finally can continue with the real World Tour...

And when we finally arrived in the channel between Guadeloupe and Les Saintes, the wind picked up once again. Flat sea and 15 knots of wind and we literally flew over the strait and into the bay of Le Bourg ..