Balance

Just a reminder to myself of the things I'd like to have done in the nearest future. For as long as we have our friend here on the boat and as long as we are on a mission to get to our final destination Cartagena, I probably won't be able to finalize any of it, but this is what I'd like to have time for this week, in a perfect world:

  • Show you some of the beautiful faces, places and animals (flamingos!) that we met in Bonaire. How we loved that little island.
  • Respond to all emails that's been piling up... sorry if you await a reply from me or us.
  • Show you how Curacao looks through my lens. We've had such a good week here.
  • Tell you all about our crossing from Grenada through Venezuela to Bonaire. Problem is that those long image articles takes like four five hours to produce, no joke.
  • Continue sketching on the design of my first book! Currently working on a cool project with another creative woman.
  • Organize tens of thousands of images on every hard-drive.
  • Write an article for one magazine.
  • Reply some comments here and on Facebook that I've missed.
  • And, sort out some more clothes and things from the boat. I gave away one large bag full of clothes to a girl in Grenada, I guess I could get rid of one more bag. We have implemented the rule here now that for every thing that gets onto the boat, another thing must go. This goes for all tools, clothes, shoes, cooking utensils and whatever else miscellaneous things. Lately we've been adding quite some stuff to the inventory so some must automatically get out of here. 
But... there really is no time for any of that right now. It's funny that we've managed to attract so much work into our lives - when the original plan was to slowly travel around by boat in some sort of peace and calmness. I'm not complaining as I love most projects we've taken upon ourselves. And I know that we are very fortunate to be able to lead such a free and unique lifestyle where we can, most of the times, choose when and where to work. But still, it's occasionally a bit confusing. To lead a sailing vacation sort of lifestyle where we constantly travel, meet new people, see new places and live off the grid with no phones nor always a functioning wifi connection. But at the same time we work close to full time with boat maintenance and building projects to keep the boat floating and in good working condition (Alex mainly). Photograph, document and write about the experiences we encounter (me almost always). As well as keeping up with the rest of the projects we are dealing with that might not be visible to a blog readers eye. It is a very special life indeed, and it takes some time to get used to and find the right balance. I think that as long as one knows that what you're doing is the right and fulfilling thing to do, there's probably always a way to puzzle it all out. Some days it seems easier than on other, I assume the same goes for most of us, in whatever way we've chosen to live our lives.

It's now 1:00 and we are supposed to wake up at 5:30 this morning to sail towards Aruba. That'll give me exactly four and a half hours of sleep after a long day out fetching spare parts, groceries and preparing the boat for the 78 miles passage to Oranjestad. Should be fine, can sleep while underway once we got out of here. 

Hope you all are fine and that spring time is coming to the colder parts of the world very soon!