WORLD TOUR STORIES - Taru and Alex sailing around the world.

Thursday night

2012-02-02T18:44:00.006-04:00

.. is the night for slow time, a bit of cheese and some wine. A pity one can't find so many interesting cheeses here in Falmouth Harbor but this will do for tonight. Leaving for St Maarten again next week and must remember to bring back home some good French ones. We're currently having wet dreams about soft and buttery brie, an aromatic morbier, creamy saint agur and the delicious comté.... mmmmmm. Btw did you just realized I said home? yea it almost feels like Antigua is a sort of home to us now, having had spent almost seven months here in total back and forth. So many beautiful memories created here, I'm sure this island always will be one of those places to which we wish to return back when we are gone and have continued with this world tour. But for now, let's focus on cheese...

LED lights

2012-02-02T16:01:00.004-04:00

Last time we were in St Maarten we went to our favorite chandlery in the Caribbean, Budget Marine, to get new led lights to all lamps onboard. Just like we did on our previous boat, we'll need to make Duende maximum energy efficient. One of the first steps is of course to replace all normal bulbs with led bulbs as they draw much less energy. It's funny, all what we did only 1,5-2 years ago on Caos is now getting repeated on our "new" boat. But c'est la vie.. at least things goes quicker this time as we know what we need, like and have been satisfied with. Alex will tell a bit about our energy consumption onboard and how he thinks regarding solar and wind power shortly for the ones that have asked about that. Thank you for your patience, Alex has been overloaded with work these past weeks but it should calm down a bit with soon..

Look at that face

2012-02-02T11:13:00.010-04:00

I told you Alex is a true animal friend. Just have a look at how happy this little rat, sorry, chihuahua look in his arms. This mini-dog belongs to our friends in St Maarten.

What a proud little dog, here with one of his owners.

Random beach

2012-02-01T11:51:00.005-04:00

Currently dividing time between boat work, beach, laptop, boat work, beach, laptop... it's hard to be stuck on one beautiful Caribbean paradise island, I'm telling you. Two more terrible months to go.

Solar energy

2012-02-01T08:02:00.014-04:00

Every morning should begin and each night should end, with a walk on the beach, don't you agree? What I love about the Caribbean is that as the sun sets so early in the evenings, around 6.30 pm, one usually goes early to bed, and you will therefore always wake up with the sun in the early mornings. We usually get up around 6.45 am, just when the sun is beginning to spread its rays over the bay. To be present when the sun is rising gives such energizing effect to your soul. Particularly those days when we're not busy with anything else but being out in the sun, far from laptops and work. Looking forward to get back to the natural rhythms and take advantage of the quiet nature in a couple of months from now.

Intruders

2012-01-31T18:21:00.009-04:00

Look at those greedy little motherf-ckers. They're definitely not scared, not even of me sitting here without make up and all while I'm frenetically typing away on my computer as the computer nerd that I am. Nice with some company though. I think we agreed on that the species is bananaquit, or sugar birds, last time we brought up the subject? And yes, that's sugar they're eating from my saucer.. just wait till they dive into the milk jug.

Spicy prawns

2012-01-31T15:30:00.013-04:00

All those food images that I've indulged in these past two days got me inspired to try out something new and exciting. Been quite dry in the food and cooking parts of my brain lately but I'm feeling the inspiration flowing again, thank god says Alex who can't stand pasta and bolognese one more day, eh? (yes currently in our house I'm the only one who cooks as Alex is working the hardest of us two). Anyways, so today I bought some prawns and made a spicy prawn and mushrooms concoction, cooked it all in olive oil, garlic, cayenne, chili, parsley and a squirt of lemon juice and served it with Caribbean long grain rice cooked in butter. Here presented on one of those beautiful Moroccan plates we got on our journey over there. Alex can attest the prawns tasted even better than what they look in this photo so I think I might be doing them again in the near future. Maybe with pasta and a wine sauce next time? I used uncooked prawns and soaked them in oil and spices before heating them up in the pan. Took me about 12 minutes in total.

Foodspotting

2012-01-31T11:52:00.002-04:00

Just like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and the BLOG wasn't enough, I am now also sharing the best meals we've enjoyed around the world on Foodspotting. Foodspotting is basically a food community where you can share photos and recommendations of a meal that you've encountered and loved. Will see how long it lasts with this sudden interest in all things new social media but you can currently find my Foodspotting profile here. I guess the day when we get out traveling/sailing again, these things will slow down but as I'm glued to the laptop now anyway, I'll give it all a try, for now.

Good morning

2012-01-31T08:42:00.001-04:00

Not shy at all. On islands like these you'll find goats, cows, horses, dogs and cats strolling around freely. I find it kinda charming that the traffic sometimes gets stopped or slowed down because cattle or horses have decided to have a slow walk on the roads. Would probably not work in many other parts of the world but here it does most perfectly. You can't be in a rush when living on an island like this.

Another obsession

2012-01-30T16:36:00.006-04:00

Just another social media thing to get obsessed with... follow my pinterest here to see what inspires me. Still empty but I'll be filling up with more of my favorite images and products shortly..

Beautiful beaches of Antigua

2012-01-30T11:11:00.000-04:00

Antigua is known to have 365 beaches, one for each day of the year, and while we've not been to close to most of them yet, we can assure you this country boasts with some of the most beautiful beaches we've seen in the Caribbean. Many of them are sheltered by expansive coral reef and the water is warm, clear, calm and the white sand gives the water the right bright reflection. The South West side of the island, by Picarts bay (just by OJ's beach restaurant) where we spent our yesterday, is a favorite area because of the extensive Cades reef that protects the shoreline. It is not uncommon to see large wild turtles swimming in these warm waters and the water hosts an abundance of brightly colored tropical fish, rays, smaller reef sharks, lobsters and beautiful coral of every different shape and color. And on land, the beauty and sound of the water quietly lapping on shore would get even the most stressed out person relaxed. We have many more beaches to discover and our mission for the moment is to pay a visit to at least one new beach each week for our remaining time on the island.

You can find more beaches on Antigua on my friend Stephanie's blog, here on Sugar Ridge's website.

Golden

2012-01-30T09:19:00.008-04:00

.. All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep..

... is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

From: A dream within a dream - Edgar Allan Poe, 1849.

Picarts bay

2012-01-29T21:03:00.000-04:00

That's where we hung out today in between squalls and steaming hot sunshine.

Sunday morning

2012-01-29T09:26:00.001-04:00

Photo from my 'office'.

Have a bright and pleasurable day everyone, we'll be spending most of ours by the beach.

Regarding a blogs authority and importance online

2012-01-28T15:18:00.031-04:00

Let's continue with the questions you had for us. Warning for a long answer to one single question.

Q: On your "advertising" section you say: "They say this is the worlds largest and most famous independent sailing/cruising blog..." What does this mean and how do you know your blog is the largest independent sailing blog?  We have followed your world tour for a year now and wish to leave for a similar journey ourselves one day. i see you have done well in promoting your trip and the blog is a success, your ideas would be helpful as we too would like to set up a blog for our journey when we set sail. Thank you. /Phil and Susann

A: Many of you have wondered about what we mean with that, let me explain: When I say "they", I refer to the overall authority and popularity which this blog has on the world wide web, compared to other independent blogs. There are a few ways to determine your websites relevance and importance online. One and the foremost is to check how many visitors your website has, this is easily done with the various analytic and statistic programs that you can find online. We use Statcounter and this is what it looked like yesterday when I checked our traffic for the past 30 days.

As you can see we got a bit more than 104.000 unique visitors and around 187.000 visits between Dec 28th and Jan 27th. Usually we have around 120.000 unique visitors and 210.000 visits monthly but the traffic slowed obviously down a bit during Christmas and New Year as people been busy doing other things than hanging online. Should be back with 120k unique, or more, next month.

That's a fair amount of visitors, but how do I know that we have more than others, and that our blog is so "popular"? First you can register your blog in different blog portals where you can get an idea of how many readers you have in comparison to other blogs/pages (like this one where we are #1 of all sailing/boat websites worldwide). Numbers on these portals are never 100% accurate but gives you an overall picture of how you stand in relation to the other websites on that specific portal.

Second, and even more important, thing to do is to check your page rank which is Googles valuation of your website. There are many blogs which has many readers, but your Google authority and your popularity online are only determined by the amount of backlinks (meaning sites writing about your blog) as well as the quality of the links that are sent your way. We have been blessed with having many readers who not only love what we do but who also have enjoyed sharing our story with their friends and followers. That is a successful project and blog in my eyes, when the many hours you spend working online is compensated by generous quality backlinks. The more links you got from sites with a high pagerank, the higher page rank/authority will you eventually get for your own site. Click here to check your page rank.

Your page rank is pegged on a scale 0-10 and the higher your site ranks on that scale, the more valuable it is in Google's eyes. Our blog has page rank #5, which is very high being an independent blog without support from a large newspaper platform or such. Every website or blog whose aim is to make money on their site wants to have as high pagerank as possible so you can dominate search engine rankings and to be interesting in the eyes of advertisers.

When compared with other sailing/cruising/sport/travel blogs or any other blog for that matter, our rank as 5 is regarded to be very good. Most of the independent blogs out there has somewhere between 0-3, some has 4 whereas 5-7 is considered to be very high. To give you a comparison, Facebook and Google has rank #10 obviously, Amazon has #9, Greenpeace #8, New York post has #7, Garance Doré and West Marine has rank #6 and Laser Performance got #4.

Websites which are in the same "league" as us with pagerank #5 are Conde Nast, Blondinbella (one of Sweden's largest blogs written by an inspiring young business woman/blog personality), American Apparel, Not without salt (one of the most popular food and cooking blogs on the Internet) and Style by Kling (one of the world most famous fashion bloggers).

To check what page rank you got, just type in your own website here and if you'd like, compare your rank with your favorite sites. We are today offered a good amount for ads and partnerships with our blog and considering the amount of inquiries we've received since we've started, a blog like ours is apparently a perfect place to be seen.

If you'd like a tips regarding how to make your blog successful, I can tell you the only good way that I know, which is to be interesting, unique and genuine in your production. You should be faithful to your niche as well as to your readers and instead of constantly chasing new followers, focus on making a damn good blog and to build an intimate relationship with the readers you got and the rest will follow. You will need to spend lots of time and energy on your project and daily updates are crucial when looking for to create and develop a highly ranked blog. There are today over 156 million blogs in existence so you better be unique, dedicated and hard working in order to stand out among the rest. It's all about building a true and strong foundation, just like with any other business.

Memories of past and future

2012-01-28T09:56:00.016-04:00

Got served fresh mango juice this morning on a table cloth that reminds me of warm childhood summers picking blueberries with my grandmother. 20 years ago but still so close to my heart. Speaking of age. Very soon I'm turning thirty... there's a great intimate party in the planning. For the change of age I don't care too much, but I'm looking very much forward to spend the day with some really amazing people. Isn't that what is the most important in life anyway? Not things nor possessions, but relationships with people you meet during your lifetime. Sometimes it feels like I have had it all, done and possessed what many only can dream of, but in the end of the day what is etched into my heart and what gives me smiles, warmth and good memories for a lifetime, are the friendships, relationships and times I had the blessing to share with people that I loved. Some does naturally fall off along the way as life is such, not everything is meant to be forever, but the memories and lessons that I have kept from them all are what makes me an incredibly thankful and rich human being.

Freezing

2012-01-27T17:43:00.006-04:00

Brrr... it's so damn cold here. Need to pull on jeans or pants every day after 4pm as the winds are as chilly as during a cold summer night back home in Scandinavia. January and February are supposed to be the coldest months so here's to hoping both these months pass fast. Or in a way it is way better than those sweaty months of August and September when I think about it. Alex and me could barely sleep in the same bed because of the high humidity and the oppressive clinging heat so I guess this might be just a tad bit better, but still: Cold! Here's a hot mix made to heat up frozen winter souls, by Brooke Johnston, goes well with a glass of round red wine to get you (almost) back into a summery mood.

Last night at Cecilia's

2012-01-27T10:26:00.010-04:00

Cecilia Nord is a Swedish ex-model who've worked with Helmut Newton and many other influential photographers back in the 80's. Today she runs one of Antigua's most interesting and reputable restaurants with an intriguing melange of Swedish, Italian and Mediterranean cuisine on a private beach at Dutchman's Bay, very close by the airport. It was a long time since I enjoyed such a wonderful pyttipanna med ägg och rödbetor as I did last night.. and the generous portion of confit de canard that Alex had was absolutely amazing. Great night spent with a few of our beautiful friends from Antigua.

Do not miss to check out Cecilia's Highpoint next time you're on the island if you're looking for great ambiance and delicious food in beautiful surroundings

Moroccan handmade

2012-01-26T14:58:00.001-04:00

When we were in St Martin last week, we picked up some of the few remaining things that were left on Caos and cleaned her out once and for all. These handmade plates from Morocco were some of the things we flew home with. Suits the style of our "new" galley most perfectly.

Scroll through this chapter if you wish to see how it looked like when Alex, Caos and me stayed 6 weeks in Morocco, a bit more than a year ago. Would love to get back there one day with Duende too.

Go green

2012-01-26T11:52:00.009-04:00

Another beautiful day spent on the beach, this time with Abi and Victoria. Abi, aka the narghile pimp, had graciously matched her sunglasses with the narghile* hose. Smoking shisha on a beach with good friends while sun is setting is one of my top five most pleasurable things to do 2012. And green is definitely the color of the season in the Caribbean. lol.

Stephanie, you were missed!

* Waterpipe, also called hookah, shisha, narghile etc depending on which country you're from. It originates from the eastern world, India, Persia and Arabic countries and smoking the waterpipe is a common social activity in most of those areas of the world. You usually fill the bowl of the waterpipe with tobacco mixed with whatever flavor you'd prefer, like apple, mint or another sweet, flavorful ingredient.

Turn the lights down

2012-01-25T22:10:00.000-04:00

Sun's down, pizza's eaten and time for us to go to bed and collect some energy for another day in paradise.. see you all tomorrow. This is a great tune to go to bed with. Sweet dreams everyone.

Answers to the first questions..

2012-01-25T12:01:00.016-04:00

1. What language do you two speak on the boat when it is just the two of you? You seem to speak so many languages.. Sure enjoy your Blog! / Tim

English. Some words comes out in Spanish too but mainly it is english for sure. It's good for us as we both can practice.... other than that Alex teaches me French at times.. unfortunately Alex doesn't speak Swedish or Finnish.

2. Thanx for a awesom blog and inspiration! How long are you planing to sail.. any specific goals, like 2 times around the globe? Are you working to get all end to meet or i the blog and savings enough?  Have a great day / Criss - Sweden

Thanks for reading Criss. No specific plans more than we'll do what we want to, when we can. The new boat must be ready and safe before we cross a new ocean.. We have spent much money and time to make our other boat, Caos, a very safe boat, now begins the job of doing the same with Duende. We will probably stay a few months here in Antigua, then maybe sail a few months around in South America, then Pacific. But can't tell you when. One day we will maybe get around the world. 

We don't have much savings left... spent most of it on our first 1,5 year of cruising and on the boat/s. Now we must slave at work as most other! Glad that we can do our job from almost wherever we want to tho. Or almost anyone could do the same I think? It's all about choices and priorities. There's always a way.

Besides of being a talent with wood/joinery, Alex is working as a carbon fiber/composite specialist and he got loads of good job now when the season has started here. I'm working as a freelance photographer and I do quite alright as well during this season. Then we got the blog which is my art project as well as a portfolio but also a quite lucrative business. We make OK money from the blog and the plan is to get enough from it and things in relation to it so we don't have to be working with anything else. Maybe end of this year that dream will come true? Alex has a great (musical) plan that involves this blog, he will get started with it as soon as he's done with the boat later this year (hopefully late spring/early summer). He's normally a successful mastering/mixing engineer when he's not sailing around the world so he's looking forward to pick up that side of life again, combined with our travels of course. We will also open up our market online later this spring so the blog is of much importance to us and so far it has proved to be a very good source of income for us... we got a lot of plans with this little blog for the future so we're very thankful that y'all are reading. Thanks so much!

3. Who's idea was it to change boat? I read it was more speed and space you required.. ? / Pete

It was mainly Alex's idea.. he has for a long time been longing for a project where he can build something with his hands. A Hallberg Rassy is hard to modify to your personal needs and ideas, it's made the way it is and it would be a shame to start dismounting it. Alex will one day build his own boat from scratch so this new Duende is one step closer to that dream as she offers many possibilities for modification.  Also Alex has been frustrated with the (slow) speed of Caos. He raced much when he was younger and he wanted a boat that can give him a real challenge. For me I was alright with Caos, she's safe, strong, comfortable and ok in size... but I do understand Alex's point of view and Duende is a beauty plus the size and speed appeals to me as well.  Besides of being a great boat, we both see Duende as the perfect home and we can see a long future with her. We don't want to build a family with kids and all that for now, but we wanted to have a home/boat which we can slowly build and rebuild to something that suits our life and needs. This boat is equal to a house on land for us as we will be sailing around the world for many more years so it's important we both feel happy with it. It's a family project which we both value very much. Alex will use his skills to rebuild/refit this boat to his high standards and he's happier than in a long time. For him it's important to be able to create something. He's an artist and needs to have a fulfilling project to feel satisfaction in life. For me, I love the size of the galley and saloon of course.. it will be so very much work for us, again, but so far we've figured it will be worth it. We're currently dreaming and planning for all the beautiful things we will do to make her shine as the star she was created to be (and more).

4. Who came up with the idea of this trip? Did you agree from the beginning, or did someone think their partner were crazy? /Celia

Initially it was Alex's idea for us to sail somewhere warm for a few weeks/a month (like Morocco or such) and I asked him why we couldn't sail around the whole world instead? That was when we had dated for a few weeks only and one year later we left. Alex had owned many boats in his past and to sail around the world has always been his dream, for me that dream was created when I met him. I had never sailed before I met him but for now I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. Read more about how it all started here.. and here's the longer version which explains how we met, who we were before that and all other perhaps interesting things about our past.

5. Hello, I love your blog, especially the great photos you take! So excited already which places in the world you gonna discover and share with us this year (: My question would be: Is there any specific place or piece of nature you seen so far, that impressed you the most and like sticks in your memory more intense than others? Like the most overwhelming thing you've seen so far on your travels? If yes, which one was it? I mean,you see and discover so much and i'm interested if there was something which was most special/beautiful for you.  Or is it all just so amazing and you can't really make a difference between the places? Anyways,pleae keep on writing this amazing blog like forever,thanks /; Ines

Thanks Ines, glad you're enjoying our blog. I've made a diagram of what we think is best with each of the Caribbean islands we've been to so far, will show it soon. But best for nature experiences are: Nevis and Dominica, both are very very beautiful and peaceful places, not too crowded nor touristy. I will show pics from the rainforest of Dominica soon, it's so wild and untouched. Feels like the only place on earth where humans haven't destroyed it yet..

6. What brand and how much sunscreen do you use on a daily basis? / Kent in Kansas City

Banana Boat spf 50 (Alex) Jan Marini spf 30 for face (Taru), Vichy body spf 20 (Taru) we have sunscreen on almost all the time.. more when on the beach or sailing of course. Alex is still looking for the perfect sunscreen though, one that is dry, not oily, and works for sailing/surfing/long hours of out door work, any tips are appreciated.

7. What happened to the HDPro camera? Why not set up a live web cam over Alex working on the boat, so we can see the weather the scenery and live activities. Can you charter out Caos, at a low rate so it is always in use? Just generate some income from it while to go forward instead of waiting around for a lump sum? Did you see the Dutch girl arriving in Sint Maarten on Saturday? The marina at the draw bridge. Looked very very window from the news videos. Simpson Bay I think. There is a monster yacht parked there, just massive, do you know who/what it is. Enormous white thing with a black stripe around it (I think). Here's a screen shot of the massive yacht I am referring to http://i44.tinypic.com/so8v81.jpg /Oswald

Haven't received GO Pro camera yet because of messed up postal service on these islands.. will sort it out soon. We don't want to charter Caos, we want to sell her and move on with our life. We didn't have time to wait for the Duth girls arrivial (youngest person to finish a sailing circumnavigation) but we saw her father at the Yacht Club by Simpson Bay Bridge. He looked excited. I think the boat you're talking about is Abrahomivich Eclipse maybe? The one I have a shot of here?

8. How are both of you financing this trip around the world? I see some photography assignments, merchandising and articles as evidence of some of the income.  Also, once you pass into the Pacific, where will your first landfall be located? /42N

We're working along the way, see answer #2. Landfall for Pacific... not sure.. right now we're focused on making Duende safe and ready, will take a few months. We might then make a season of South American cruising (Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina) before we get out into the Pacific.. time will tell, but South America has so much interesting places to discover so we're kind of figuring it's a shame to miss all that before we set off for the South Pacific. Also for the music project Alex will do later this year, it might be better to be in South America... looking forward to it. Miss speaking Spanish!

9. Hello there!  I'm one of the daydreamers that one day will sail away with my boat and hopefully will meet you in at anchor in a fantastic place in the middle of nowhere. Do you think your lifestyle will change after crossing Panama channel? South Pacific is huge and quite different from Caribes. Will you be able to update your blog so frequently like you're doing now? Best wishes! /Claudio Italy

Hey Claudio, our lifestyle will (hopefully) change to more hippie bohemian in the South Pacific and we look forward to spend much less money over there.. Not sure now when we will leave for Pacific though, will do some South America first. Regarding updating the blog over there: It might be a bit slower on this blog during the long ocean crossing. On the Atlantic crossing I had only a satellite connection to use for blog updates but I think I could report quite much anyway. At least once every day. Not sure how it is to find bars and restaurants with wifi in the South Pacific but what I heard from others who've been there, it hasn't been a problem. The reason why I spend so much time with the blog and other online projects now, is because Alex is working a lot. When he doesn't work as much, I will naturally slow down my work as well so we can find a comfortable balance. It has been a good year here in the Caribbean, business wise, Alex got lots of work and I had time and peace to build and expand this blog and our trademark. We do look forward to work less and travel more later this year though.

10. Do you want English lessons as you post blog entries? While your English is 99% accurate there are many small subtle things missed, and unless pointed out will never be corrected.  For example the paragraph in this post is 100% accurate except the last sentence: "We look forward to speak to you"  which should be:  "We look forward to speak[ing] to you"  Very small thinks like this all over the place where the use of in should be on, lots of these e.g. "Swing in a liana anyone?" -- this should be on. Anything on the outside is on, anything inside is in.  Not trying to be clever but for a non-English speaker unless someone points them out, they will never be corrected and learned.

YES please!! I know my grammar sucks at times... correct me anytime you have time por favor as I do want to perfect my writing, thanks. I know how irritating it is when I read Swedish texts and people use the wrong grammar so I can understand it hurts your English speaking peoples eyes at times!

11. I remember Alex owning a motorcycle before your trip and with his mechanical skills he must have owned a series of interesting vehicles before spending endless hours in the bilge. We read your blog daily from car-obsessed Los Angeles every day. /Bill Price

alex answer: hi bill, yep i owned some nice bikes such as Harley Davidson 1980 883cc sporster, HD 1340 cc springer, HD 1998 1600cc evo dyna superglide, HD 2001 1800cc dyna sport, Yamaha 2001 1300cc, of course all of them with a lot of mechanical tweaking... I bought/sold much bikes back in the days but just like with boats... you don't make much money on them on the second hand market. i also had some nice cars like Alpine a310, Mercedes coupe 300ce and Audi s8.

12. Alex,  Tu as choisi un superbe bateau. Il a une ligne fantastique et ça doit être un vrai plaisir de la barrer. Pas trop de boulot de maintenance tout de même? / Luc

luc, merci pour le compliment, duende a effectivement une superbe ligne et navigue tout aussi bien, jusqu'à 8 noeuds dans de la mer formee, tout en maintenant une extreme précision a la barre

par contre on ne pas parler encore de maintenance mais plutôt de restauration...

That's all for now,,, more answers coming up later....

Homies

2012-01-25T09:53:00.002-04:00

When we leave Antigua, whenever that will be (April?) Noopy and Byron are two of the ones we will remember the most. Our daily conversations will definitely be missed. Noopy (left, born in Curacao, raised in Antigua) is by the way a very artistic man, I'll show you some of his art with a video one day.. and Byron you've met before, here.

Good night

2012-01-24T19:51:00.000-04:00

While having a cup of warm lemon grass tea in this chilly Caribbean night (no joke) and answering the questions you had for us, we're listening to these soulful tunes:

Etta James - Misty

Ann Peebles - I can't stand the rain

Janis Joplin - All is loneliness

Amy Winehouse - Some unholy war

Bill Withers - The same love that made me laugh

Chet Baker - You go to my head

Otis Redding - Change is gonna come

Nina Simone - Strange fruit

Don't forget that you can still ask us whatever you wish to know, here, answers coming up in the blog tomorrow..

An Italian dessert

2012-01-24T16:24:00.005-04:00

We had an amazing tiramisu the other night at Southern Cross, a new Italian restaurant in the marina. It's a dessert not too hard to find around here in Italian Harbor, sorry, Falmouth Harbor. Did you know that tourist brochures and books made here are written in English AND Italian, that much Italian influenced is this island (local population speaks English as it is an old British colony). I'd say every second person you meet of the foreigners here, are Italian, and every second restaurant you bump into are Italian. Good or bad, up to you to decide. Glad for the abundance of tastful tiramisu's are we, at least.

Question time

2012-01-24T09:08:00.001-04:00

So as we sometimes don't have time to answer all emails and comments, Alex and me figured it might come handy with a live questions time? It's all very simple, you ask your question/s here in the comment form and we answer it all as soon as we can. We'll be online for now for a few hours so either you'll have your answer in the comments straight away otherwise all questions and answers will be published here on the blog tomorrow. Ask us what you want from boat stuff to travel plans and life philosophies and we'll answer what we find appropriate.

We look forward to speak to you!

A rainforest walk / Day in Soufrière

2012-01-23T17:14:00.012-04:00

I have so many photos on my hard-drive(s) which I haven't had the time to show you as yet. You remember when we made a one night stop in Soufriere, St Lucia? St Lucia has its more touristy/yacht areas like Rodney Bay, Castries (the capital) and Marigot bay.. this little town is more authentic I would say. More dirty and rugged, more real in a way. I know that many excludes this town from their itinerary by but we did enjoy it a lot. We might not be walking around these streets on dark nights, but we loved the city despite its cosmetic flaws and we truthfully enjoyed seeing a different side of the island.

Soufrière has a population of around 8.000 compared to the total of the country/island of 174.000. The famous Piton mountains/volcanic plugs as well as the hot springs and water falls are located just South of town. Both of which were on our agenda for the day.

The streets are colorful and rustic although much is still destroyed from numerous hurricanes this city have had to deal with.

A typical Caribbean coffee shop.

And a very typical street of Soufrière as well as of any other Caribbean city or town.

Caribbean houses. Most of them are very colorful around here.

The view when we've walked up on the hill above the city.

A goat by the road, usually they're not leashed and they're running around like they want to.

Alex always make friend with animals.. he can even get wild birds eating from his hand and tropical lizards to cuddle up with him. I swear. Will show you pics of that one day.

Misty day but nonetheless a beautiful view.

Caos anchored down there. Beautiful yacht isn't it? Buy it here.

The view of Soufrière from above one hill, view to North East.

Taken at the same spot, looking out on the sea to the North West.

Fantastic view when we came over one hill and walked down South on another.

A bull hiding in the bushes..

Up one hill, down another..

Green rainforest all around.

Lots of villas beautifully nestled inside of the lush nature.

Swing on a liana anyone?

Almost there...

Finally found some natural springs and rainfalls to enjoy after a long, sweaty walk.

The water comes out straight from the volcano and is very hot.. we loved it.

After the walk we met a man who sold fresh fruit, this is a cocoa fruit, did you know that all your favorite chocolate comes from this? The white cocoa beans are wonderful to eat/suck on just like this, tastes very sweet. When the fruits are fermented and dried, they become brown and dark and only then is when they get the characteristic cocoa flavor and can be used to make cocoa mass (after they're cleaned and roasted of course).

More fruits..

Great day spent in St Lucia. We've done many of these promenades around on different islands and I will try to post more pics from some of them in the nearest future.. the nature of the Caribbean islands are breathtaking and if you are in the right mood, you will feel very energized and refreshed after a day soaking in all this spectacular natural beauty and the tranquility of it all.

Here's another favorite town/village of St Lucia that we visited in the beginning of last year.

Wknd in sxm

2012-01-23T09:44:00.011-04:00

We've spent the weekend in St Martin. One of the nights we were out dancing salsa with our good friends, Reg and his beautiful wife Marianne. Always great to see these two taking over the dance-floor, perfect combination of two very talented dancers. Reg is by the way the broker we've dealt with here in the Caribbean. He has a wealth of knowledge and have made sure to meet all of our requirements. Make sure to get in touch with him here if you are looking for to buy or to sell a boat in the Caribbean. He will take good care of you and will guide you right, plus give you all valuable information one might need for this region. I know of many whose Caribbean cruising dreams have come true because of his personal service. Now let's just hope he can sell our HR352 soon as well, no pressure Reggie! lol

Details and new reduced price on our Hallberg Rassy can be found here. She needs to sell asap.

sunday

2012-01-22T11:34:00.005-04:00

so happy one can be for a little ice cream ... eh?

have a lovely day everyone.

Flying high (up in the air)

2012-01-21T18:24:00.002-04:00

We got another perspective on our usual blue playground the other day. Been cruising high up in the air instead of down by the sea level. We're out on a few missions on another island, back in Antigua shortly. This is good plane music.

Sunset

2012-01-20T09:29:00.000-04:00

By Pigeon Beach.

Kaleidoscope

2012-01-19T18:28:00.000-04:00

Hello fishes, what y'all doing down there?

I'd love to show you the 1,5 meter long tarpons that usually swim around here but they were busy doing something else today.

Favorite links this week

2012-01-19T09:40:00.005-04:00

There are so many inspiring sites and things out there which I occasionally run into while working and doing research so I thought I'd share some of those finds with you, once a week or so. Also I will take the opportunity to highlight our fantastic sponsors and companies we've worked with, to give something back for the support they've given our journey and this little blog of ours. Here's a mix of some of those and a few of our favorite sites of the week:

Audrey Victoria - Audrey Victoria is a media designer who's blogging stylishly about all things design, fashion, music, travel, art and that kind of lifestyle. Always inspiring short stories and a beautifully designed website.

Blogg-Bloggen - I usually stay away from gossip blogs but this new Swedish one is quite hilarious in fact. It's the Swedish version of the famous Perez Hilton and I foresee it becoming Sweden's most famous gossip blog in the nearest future. Fun also to read that they are enjoying our blog. Check out what they have to say about us here.

Aviators and a Camera - Kirsten is a traveler just like us, not a sailor but nonetheless she's out and about in this world, constantly flying from one place to another. She recently visited one of our dream destinations, Costa Rica, and I can't wait for her to publish some of those shots in her blog. She's more busy on her Twitter so check that one out too.

Babajaan - You've heard about our premium fashion sponsor Babajaan quite some times now if you're following this blog but I sincerely can't stop praising them. As a matter of fact, I could live in their sexy, beautiful, comfortable clothing and swimwear. Here on the seas and always close to beaches I don't need anything else than this and Babajaan covers all beach, sea and lounging needs I have in a fashionable way. Check out their latest collection on Net-a-Porter and do not forget to like them on Facebook (where you can find a few pics of me as well).

Mangolandia - There pops up new, young travel blogs everywhere on the world wide web and this particular one is beautifully made. Caye and Jaxon are sailors and plan to sail around the world in their Ranger 28. Currently they're visiting Caye's family in Ecuador but I think they'll continue their sailing adventures from Mississippi (where their boat is located) shortly. We love the photography on this site.

That's all for today, don't forget to shout if you have a link/brand/site you think we should check out.
Read on here for some of our earlier favorites online..

How to wear it

2012-01-18T20:15:00.003-04:00

My friend Abi taught me how to tie and wear the sarong with a bamboo ring the other day on the beach and I'm amazed I wasn't aware of it until now. It's very versatile and this is only one of the ways to wear it. And oh yes, I got sick and tired of my hair always-getting-back-to-orange-tone so needed to dye it back to dark. What a difference it makes. Loving my own reflection again.

Read on here for my very time consuming hair journey in 2011, desperately trying to get back to my natural roots..

Balance

2012-01-18T09:53:00.010-04:00

Good mixture in our life right now. We're accomplishing a lot of work together on the boat which feels fulfilling for ourselves and for our future plans, then I got my online projects which takes quite some time, Alex got some other work and we're saving up as much money we can for future travels. We're also trying to spend as much time on the beach as possible in between all the work and the flow feels good.... Life was turbulent in the last quarter of 2011 but our situation seem much easier now and the new year has started off well so far. Looking forward to find out what else this new year has in store. We got so many things in the pipeline and many interesting projects and places to discover and we can't wait to make our new boat ready to get out there on the seas again. We are very excited for this year and we're thinking it might be the best one of our cruising years so far. Just need to finalize a few things on the boat first..

Rainy days

2012-01-18T08:59:00.001-04:00

When you're out cruising in your dinghy and it begins to rain, the best place to escape is underneath these giants for protection.. Yes I say underneath, cause some of them are so large that the curve of their hull goes around and above your head when coming from under.

Treasure hunting

2012-01-17T10:59:00.007-04:00

Continuing our search for beautiful treasures and choosing which items and collections we'll have in our web-shop that I spoke about a few months ago. We've been busy with so many other things lately but finally I got some time to continue the development of this little project. Hoping to have the shop up and running in the end of next month. Can't wait to set sail in February to pick up a few more things from Dominica, Martinique and St Lucia to this shop of ours.. so many beautiful handmade things on these islands that we believe you might be interested in. The shop will be filled with jewelry, interior items, a few bags, sandals and some clothing as well. Can't wait to show it all to you.

This handmade jade, rose quartz and volcanic stone necklace is a beauty, I love how it's twisted in three layers and at only $39 it's good value too. One of these days I'll show you the woman behind it and other beautiful local jewelry this lady makes, Ruth is her name and she has become a very good friend of mine during our stay here in Antigua.

Bird of the day

2012-01-17T09:17:00.002-04:00

This looks like some type of heron to me. Anyone know better?

Read on here for more beautiful birds we've encountered.

In between work

2012-01-16T08:48:00.002-04:00

Sorry guys... not as much boat talk as I promised. Alex is repairing things step by step and tells me I can't publish anything up here before all steps in each category are finished so we can give a full detailed description (with photos) which explains the whole process from disaster to perfection. Currently he's busy repairing some rotten coamings and when the epoxy and fiberglass have dried (sorry if I use the wrong terms here), I'm allowed to show you the whole process. Until then, here's a few more beach shots from this past weekend.

Alex shorts are from Orlebar Brown and my bikini top from Babajaan, two of our favorite summer brands.

Last nights dinner

2012-01-15T11:13:00.004-04:00

Ribs cooked in a thyme, garlic and red wine sauce served with oven baked potatoes - best enjoyed with a glass of Merlot.

Yes, the dining table will be replaced, it's just one of those 3482 things on our to-do-list for this boat... at least the fridge is working now after Alex replaced the thermostat.

Pigeon Beach

2012-01-14T12:40:00.009-04:00

Perfect day at Pigeon Beach yesterday with two of my favorite Antiguan girls. Think we'll need to make this day a weekly ritual. Mimosas, beach, clear water to swim in, shisha and lovely women is the most successful mix for a well composed Friday afternoon.

Fâshion

2012-01-13T10:58:00.004-04:00

Tried to take a beach outfit shot in the most serious fashion blogger style for you but my bag which I had meticulously placed next to me on the quay for a nice little detail kept on falling over and over so this is all I have for you today, sorry.

Next stop: The Beach. Have a lovely Friday everyone, what are you up to around the world? Still snow and cold where you are? I'll send you my warmest thoughts from the beach today, marinated in the beautiful flavor of rum and coke of course.

Lunch stop

2012-01-13T05:34:00.003-04:00

I've written about this place before but now when they've started with their amazing lunch buffet, I must mention them again. RumBaba is not only great for dinner, but also the perfect lunch stop when you wish to alternate your local Caribbean diet to something more Mediterranean. For 5 XCD (€1.50 / $2 USD) you will get one scoop of meat, rice, grilled vegetables, daily fish or whatever you prefer and what's on the menu for the day. Three scoops would make it for a full sized lunch for me, four for someone like Alex. Great food, good value and like always: a really nice, homey ambiance. Just don't forget to say hi to the charming owners Ilaria and Serge from us next time you get there.

Office

2012-01-12T16:16:00.007-04:00

I've found a new place which I've made into my new office. Wifi doesn't work all the way out to the boat and the satellite connection is so expensive to use so that's only for emergencies and ocean crossings which leaves me quite dependent on bars, cafés and restaurants and their wifi connections to be able to maintain my daily work online. Antigua is great for many reasons but not the most reliable when it comes to steady Internet, but this particular place that I've recently found out about has so far proved to be the best one around here. A big plus because of the intimacy, quietness and the good location. Let's now hope not everyone finds out about the fact that they got a superb wifi-connection so it doesn't become one of those noisy, jam-packed places where it's almost impossible to get any work done. That's why I'll only show you the toilet from this local gem for this time..

Falmouth Harbor By Night

2012-01-12T11:03:00.002-04:00

These are our neighbors.

Today's

2012-01-11T15:41:00.011-04:00

As there are and will be much boat talk here in the blog for a while I figured it could be nice to mix it all up with some fashion for the female readers who might be interested in that. Not so fashionable today perhaps but you get the point. I'm working in the service industry after all and need to be pleasing all of you simultaneously, yes I know hard work but someone's gotta do it. Anyways, this is more or less how I look most of the days here in my Carib life: jeans shorts, a comfy top, my organic bag (what are those called now again?) which fits my laptop when I'm working or towels and swimwear for beach time and maybe a couple of bangles around my arm. And the Ray Ban's of course, always my Ray Ban's. I hold these particular ones very dearly as they've survived almost six months without me loosing them to the greedy old ocean like so many times before. That neck strap was definitely a lifesaver.

What else? I was today invited to have a look at the new amazing condominium that is taking shape here in Falmouth Harbor. South Point Falmouth Harbor is Antiguas most interesting property to invest in for a vacation residence in paradise. The complex will also operate as an exclusive boutique hotel for short term visitors and owners are able to rent out their apartments with lucrative benefits. The condos are gorgeous with high end Italian interior decor, generous colonial style balconies overlooking the harbor and the mega yachts below and the restaurant and lounge bar by the water with a dinghy dock will be the place to be when this condominium opens up in November this year. Have you ever dreamed of a luxurious home in paradise, this might be your best choice. Will show you photos one day later on when the apartments are ready to be photographed.

I started the day by whining about no time to blog and ended up publishing three posts in less than 10 hours, more ambitious and efficient today than I thought. Filled with much energy and inspiration after our fantastic holiday in St Barts.

Bajatzu

2012-01-11T12:43:00.000-04:00

Just a little restaurant tip for you all: Bajatzu in St Maarten is one of the best places in the Caribbean to enjoy an International meal. The interior is classy and the ambiance very NYC style, the steaks are perfect, the garlic-baked snails incredibly delicious, the apple tart fantastic and the service absolutely impeccable. We've heard good reviews about this place before but the service and the attentive gentlemen serving us were so amazing and above any expectations that I couldn't get this place off my mind for a long time after our first and second visit. Brilliant Bajatzu. We'll see you next time we're back in St Maarten.

Music of today

2012-01-11T10:46:00.008-04:00

In lack of time for blogging, here's a smooth happy mix for you to enjoy, and here's another one a bit more soulful and funky. More amazing podcasts can be found on Louche. Great site.

Favorite sites

2012-01-10T16:33:00.014-04:00

Spoon Fork Bacon - There's an endless amount of great food and cooking blogs out there but as I don't have much time to scroll through them all, it is always a pleasure to find one that covers most of my needs. Spoon Fork Bacon is a fantastically well made blog with stunning shots, perfect artwork and well written instructions. Very inspiring.

Orlebar Brown - One of our fashion sponsors for this journey. OB provide Alex with super sleek and stylish shorts and polos, very riviera style things with great quality. Are you looking for classy swim and beachwear for men, this is one of the best ones on the market. Glad to have such an elegant brand as Orlebar Brown joining our tour around the world.

Boats and Beautiful - I found this tumblr after they published a few of our shots on there and I dig the collection they/she/he? have put together. Gorgeous pics of boats, beaches, summery beautiful people and all in between. Isn't it great when others put together inspiration boards for you? I love it.

Rue Mag - Now interior isn't usually of much interest to me as we live on a boat and sail the oceans of the world, but now when we have a new boat to refit and when she offers so many great ways to personalize our living space in the same, I do feel a need to get interior inspiration. It's a boat we have, not to confuse with a land-based home, but still there are ways to make our mobile home more homey. This is a very inspiring web magazine for the ones interested in interior and the beautiful things in life.

Seven Sails - Do you dream of doing what we are doing but don't have the time, interest or possibility to let go of everything and make it a full time living? There are many sailing charter companies out there but none that I came across which offers such young, unique and adventurous journeys as this one. This is basically a group of friends who've put together a charter business offering spectacular sailing vacations at amazing destinations around the world and you are free to join them on each of their travels. Choose either to rent a boat by yourself or leave the work and responsibilities to these cool people and all you have to do is follow the ride, explore magical destinations, beautiful waters and enjoy a vacation way more adventurous than any you've been to before. This is the way I'd roll if we wouldn't have our own boat to sail.

☞ Don't forget to share if you have a blog, site or brand you think I/we'd enjoy having a look at.

Caribbean delights

2012-01-10T11:16:00.012-04:00

This was one of the many wonderful meals we enjoyed with our friends during our stay in St Maarten two weeks ago. Grilled Caribbean spiny lobster, delicious as always, simply prepared with garlic, lemon, parsley and sea-salt.

Details

2012-01-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

Inspecting the wooden spreaders (which needs to get new paint asap) and replacing the lines for the lazy bag.

Sunday playlist

2012-01-08T15:04:00.008-04:00

Here's what we're listening to while cleaning and fixing inside of the boat today:

Nicolas Jaar - I got a woman I'm totally hooked on Nicolas Jaar's dreamy, hypnotizing electro trip hop and slow beats at the moment. Can you believe this guy is born 1990 and makes music this incredibly well produced and mature? I can't get over it, he's a fucking genius.

Nicolas Jaar - Encore Another huge favorite.

Nicolas Jaar - Too many kids finding rain in the dust And another one. He also produces mas rapid minimal techno but I prefer his take on the slower beats.

Azari III Jamie Jones remix - Hungry for the power New Years Day 2012 @ Do Brazil St Barts..

Butch - Last tango

Art Department - Tell me why

Minz - Maqam Incredible track, reminds me of Beirut and BO18.

Butch - Amnesia haze The one playing in the video of me dancing.

Damian Lazarus- Different now Deep tech at its best.

Art Department and Seth Troxler - Living the life Sexy soulful house.

James Blake - Air and lack thereof

Morning memories

2012-01-07T10:12:00.016-04:00

Thanks for your ideas regarding videos. I'm having some ideas forming already and as I need to keep myself busy here in Antigua besides of helping Alex to fix Duende, I think I will have much time for video recording in the next few months.

This is by the way the view we tiredly encountered when we left our anchorage outside of St Kitts the other morning, sometimes around 5:30 am. A lonely superyacht anchored by the shore of Nevis. Beautiful as the sun slowly rose behind the volcano and speckled our view with an explosion of different shades of yellow, orange, gold. A great memory for us as well, last time we visited Nevis we bicycled around the whole and complete island. I don't know if any of you have done that but five hours of biking up and down through hills and valleys is a pain in the butt for an amateur biker. Had pain in my ass and thighs a week after, all thanks to our friend Timothy at Montpelier Plantation who told us it was "a pleasant ride, maybe a couple of hours", it proved to be much harder and longer than that as of the long detour we took but in the end very much worth the pain. Biking is such a liberating and inspiring way to discover islands and Nevis climbed right up to one of our top three most beautiful islands in the Caribbean after that very ride. Nevis for us is equal to extremely friendly and welcoming people, breathtaking nature, serenity and it offers an inspiring and peaceful pace of living.

A short one

2012-01-06T18:03:00.003-04:00

I'm saying good night tonight with a tiny little video from St Barts... don't ask me what I'm doing with my mouth. Talking, dancing and eating candy (?) was obviously never meant to be done at the very same time.

While we're having our beauty sleep in our mega-large bed on our new boat, maybe you could tell us what type of videos you wish to see more of in this blog of ours? I have understood from many that videos are what you want so before I even get there I'd like to know what type you'd prefer. Boat stuff? Cultural episodes? Beach tour? Sailing? Talk to me.

Finnish sweets

2012-01-06T11:54:00.003-04:00

Glad to arrive "home" to Antigua to realize our mailbox was filled with Finnish candy, kiitos isi!

Before the squalls

2012-01-05T15:15:00.011-04:00

Video in slow-motion in the beginning, actual speed after a while. Fair sea, good breeze and in this particular moment we sailed at 7,5-9 knots in winds of around 18-22 knots. This boat is a great pleasure to sail as she, like I earlier said, reacts and accelerates on slightest change of wind and she points incredibly well. Also I love the fact that she pushes the water away from her while moving along in a very powerful way, cutting the surface with grace. There are still some other aspects I still haven't got used to though, like the motion of the boat which doesn't feel quite as comfortable and smooth as the one of our HR352, Caos. Will hopefully get used to it with time..

P.S: Don't forget to remind all you know that our beautiful Hallberg Rassy 352 still is for sale. We need to have her sold asap as we can't be stuck with two boats here in the Caribbean for much longer. All reasonable offers will be considered.

Here you can find the video and our movie channel on Youtube.

Let the work begin

2012-01-05T10:17:00.005-04:00

Back on water where we belong. St Barts and the high life that is offered over there is occasionally nice and fun but nothing gives the sense of real meaning as does our self-chosen life at sea. Particularly now with our new boat which we'll slowly transform to a home and vessel of our dreams. It took us two long days to sail from St Barts to Antigua with a one night stop in St Kitts halfway. That passage is always a pain in the ass but this time it was harder than ever. 20-30 knots of headwind as well as a beat against currents, waves and continuous squalls. A good but tiring challenge with the new boat, happy to be back in safe harbor now though. Antigua will be Duende's and our home for the next 2-3 months and we have an extensive refit to look forward to, combined with as much work as we possibly will have time for, starting already tomorrow. I apologize beforehand to you non sailors/boaters out there for much boat renovation talk that I will share in this blog in the following few months. New travel and sailing adventures will begin again in March-April although I still have quite a few shots from St Barts to share with you all.

Do Brazil

2012-01-02T12:53:00.003-04:00

Superb day at Shell Beach yesterday, much thanks to the amazing Brooke Johnstone and Julien Roussel and their deep, minimal set... felt like being sent back to Ibiza. If you're anything like us and prefer your music to be more dirty underground and if you're sick and tired of the commercial tunes at Nikki Beach, Do Brazil is the place to be on Sunday afternoons. Check out Brooke's mixes here.

Last days in St Barts

2012-01-01T11:36:00.003-04:00

Hope you all had a lovely New Years Evening

My beautiful green silk dress is from my favorite loungewear brand, Babajaan,
just like my purple kaftan in the previous post.

Love this island

2011-12-31T13:10:00.005-04:00

Happy New Year Everyone

Haven't drank this much bubbles in years

2011-12-28T11:57:00.001-04:00

We sailed over to St Maarten for a few days to clean our old boat and to show one of the beaches to our friends. Karakter on Simpson Beach is a really nice spot to hang out at, reminds us much of los chiringuitos in Spain and our hometown Barcelona. Great healthy food, good champagne obviously, fantastic smoothies and a nice, smooth vibe.

Holiday mode

2011-12-27T11:28:00.007-04:00

Amazing days at sea among the best of company, most glorious of weather and the most beautiful boat in the world. Not even Romans Eclipse comes close to the beauty of Duende.

Alex clothes are from this amazing brand.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-26T11:39:00.000-04:00

Greetings from St Barts. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Impressive sailing

2011-12-25T09:47:00.004-04:00

It was not as calm and quiet as it looks, more like 22-28 knots of wind and 2-3 meter waves close hauled. Duende offers an impressive sailing experience and although we constantly got sprayed wet and salty from the waves we couldn't help but smiling and laughing (almost) all the way till we got to St Barts. We didn't want to pressure her too much now in the beginning so we started off with two reefs in the main and a blade. So surprised at how easy this boat is to sail and even singlehanded you can easily maneuver her, didn't know it was so easy to manually tack just one person on such a large boat. And what a powerful boat this is, she reacts at the slightest change of wind and it literally feels like your driving a machine, can't describe it, must show you video one day when we get that rigged. Also what else impressed us was the amazing pointing ability of this vessel, we're basically gaining half of the time on a passage in between eg St Martin-Antigua. That makes a hell of a lot of difference in the end.

Many of you have asked us what boat this is and no its not a S&S but a custom classic Herreshoff from 1971. She was designed, owned (50%), built and raced by Halsey Herreshoff. She was also the winner of many races in between the 70's until today. A beautiful classic which we now will do our best in bringing back to the high standard she was made for.

43 ft of elegance

2011-12-24T13:47:00.001-04:00

We missed the Simpson Bay bridge opening with about 2 seconds .. next one is 4:30 so I have some time to show you just another shot of this gorgeous vessel. She is so beautiful that I think I might burst in tears only looking at her and thinking that she is ours. Never thought you could be so much in love with a boat, it is insane what strong feelings we have for her. Nothing of this would've been possible though if we wouldn't have received the great help from our broker Reg Bates from Weather Eye Yachts here in St Maarten. He has not only been good in dealing with the administration for this purchase but he has also became a very good friend of ours during the process. Make sure you contact him if you are ever in search for a boat in the Caribbean and he will be taking really good care of you. We are also very thankful for the great assistance and understanding we've received by the previous owners of Duende who have gone through this last process with us this close to the stressful holidays.

First night

2011-12-24T08:48:00.001-04:00

First night in your new home is always special. This yacht has so many interesting features which gives her character and personality and we cannot wait to begin the long process of refitting her to our personal ideal. This is a project we have been dreaming of to put our hands on for a long long time now. The TV was included and although we never care to watch television any longer, it might come handy when having movie nights in our new comfortable couch...

Couldn't have wished for anything better for Christmas

2011-12-23T21:11:00.005-04:00

There has been many months of uncertainty in our lives, much because of the sales process of our HR352 as well as the buying of this new boat but finally we have came to a few resolutions and we can from today onwards call Duende our new home. It hasn't quite sunk in yet as we got so much to do before two of our friends will arrive tomorrow in St Barts and we're still moving things between our two boats in St Martin but be sure that we'll get back to you soon with more photos and information of this amazing, beautiful, perfect yacht.

Comfort food at its best

2011-12-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

Our favorite place for Indian food in the Caribbean: Lal's Curry in a hurry. Great ambiance by the lagoon and the authentic Indian cuisine is absolutely fantastic. This modest restaurant gets 10/10 in all categories. The buttered chicken is one of the best Indian meals I've ever had and I always tend to order the same thing each of the times we visit Lal, although everything else I've tried are almost equally fantastic. This place is simply a must go when in Sint Maarten.

Back in St Maarten after an exhausting ride

2011-12-21T13:38:00.003-04:00

The last photo and blog post might have given a false picture of how our day at sea was as the passage between Antigua and St Maarten was nothing close to blue and harmonic. At least not after leaving the coast of Antigua behind. There has been a storm in the Atlantic which had left its remainings over the Northern Caribbean. Usually it takes us around 22-26 hours sailing this distance of 100 nautical miles due to often very irregular conditions, this time we spent not more than 16 hours to get from harbor to harbor. 25 knots of wind from the NE quickly speeded up to 30 with gusts up to 35. All. Night. Long. Due to the large swell that had built up, which we got straight on the beam, we opted for manual steering instead of overloading the autopilot so needless to say, there were barely no sleep on the whole 16 hours. Squalls, large swell on the beam and heavy winds = not the most comfortable passage but glad it went quickly at least and our Caos performed as a star with an average speed of 6,8 knots, with a max speed of 12 knots(!). Always funny to get back to safe harbor after a ride like that, almost surreal how the world looks so different from those two angles. The stormy and unforgiving sea and the somewhat calm and comforting anchorage. You are rarely as close to real danger and catastrophe as you are on the sea in heavy weather but that's something you seem to forget quickly after each and every time you've got yourself back on land.

Greetings from the big blue

2011-12-21T08:49:00.003-04:00

Soon arriving to St Martin.. how I've missed the fresh wind and salt in my face. The sense of freedom one gets from living on the sea is addictive and it almost gives you pain in your body when you're forced to be stuck in one place for too long. Life at sea is a lifestyle perfectly suitable for restless souls like us.

Good bye for now

2011-12-20T09:56:00.013-04:00

Have a great holiday friends, we're just about to fly away from here for two long weeks. Por fin. We will literally be flying as of the strong winds from the NE. Looking forward to a rapid passage towards St Martin tonight.

P.S: Just had two lovely readers from North Carolina with their dog saying hi to me at Skullduggery's Antigua. I just wanted to thank you for dropping by to talk to me, you left me with warmth in my heart. Funny how a second and a short meeting can change ones perspective of the day. Have a beautiful Christmas in Antigua and I hope we will have a chance to meet you three again. Send me an email if you'd like so we can keep in touch.

Fighting misery with love

2011-12-19T16:52:00.018-04:00

The roller-coaster in which we've mentally traveled these past weeks should come to some sort of finalization, or at least a pause, tomorrow - as we'll cast off for a ten days work-free vacation. Yes, we are sailing around the world, but no, we are not some filthy rich kids who can go on and on around this globe of ours without making money during the way so that's basically what we've been busy doing for the past weeks or months, can't remember as I'm trying to repress the misery. Besides of work there has been a mountain of issues and obstacles scattered on our way so this holiday that we are to look forward to which begins already tomorrow, will mark the start of a new chapter in our lives. Work and problems are still not completely dealt with and done but at least we will be able to take a break from it all, leave the problems and stress in Antigua and enjoy life in a way it was partly made to be enjoyed. With friends, music, food and love. I know some of you are dead curious about the issues and problems we've faced which I've mentioned briefly in some metaphorical ways and one day I might tell you. One day when the issues are far gone and distanced from now. Never been good with talking about current problems, somehow they are always easier to discuss in retrospective. Good news is that we are two brains and two hearts here fighting against it all, together. To share your life with a person who has the same values and beliefs as oneself is the best thing I've ever done. No one is perfect, no relationship, no person but if there's love, trust and the fundamental values are well combined then you're literally able to move mountains together. Love has a strength I never experienced nor thought existed before I met Alex.

Here's something I've been listening to today while finalizing some photo editing. Sound that makes me fly far away and forget stress and worries at least for a moment. (Alex has by the way made the masters for those two tracks and the complete EP "We make hits, not the public" by Downliners sekt. Read more about that specific vinyl on their Soundcloud.)

All these social media sites

2011-12-19T12:38:00.009-04:00

A few of you who doesn't use Facebook have asked us if we can share the content on our Facebook Fan Page for the public so that is now finally done. If you for some reason can't "friend" us then you will at least be able to view most of the discussions and the interaction we have with our friends and fans over there, you'll be able to see the music video suggestions we make, see our photos and more. You can also "subscribe" to our public posts even if you are not registered on Facebook, if you for some reason can't get enough of us already.

I must admit that I've been useless in replying emails from readers lately (sorry), particularly these last couple of months when we've been so busy with other things, but Facebook is the place where we most of the times will be able to reply to your comments and wonderings. It's also where you most probably will find updates from us when the blog hasn't been posted on for a while.

See you on there..

Sunday reminder

2011-12-18T10:39:00.017-04:00

Read on here to get a fresh reminder of why it is so important to be true to yourself. Why it is so valuable to choose happiness, take advantage of your strength to fulfill those dreams that you always had and why you should dare to say all those things that you always wanted to say. One day it is all too late and I certainly will not let myself become one of them who are full of regrets when I die. Life is precious and it is yours to embrace exactly the way you've always wanted to.

Happy Sunday everyone.

A photo from our travels

2011-12-17T10:10:00.009-04:00

Long time since I last mentioned our photo shop, but I thought it could come handy for the ones of you who are still looking for a unique Christmas gift to give to someone you care for. Many of the photos from this blog are available to buy in high resolution which can be used for print so why not surprise someone you love with a framed image from Alex and my travels around the world?

Unfortunately I don't think the postcards will have time to reach you before Christmas, but a high res shot will always be with you in the next 24 hours. Email me if you got any questions or to see if your favorite shots from this blog are available in the size that you need.

Click here to get to our photo shop.

P.S: I have also recently updated our journey page.. read it here.

One more kebab

2011-12-16T18:39:00.005-04:00

Boat is a mess by all moving and reorganizing, we are stressed and lots of things/work going on so no peace and time to cook whatsoever. Kebab, pizza and burgers has been our diet the last couple of days.. I asked for curves and I definitely got them back, amazing how fast it goes? Oh well, things should get back to normal in a while. Very sorry for boring updates lately by the way. Sometimes life makes you feel like you're in transit, you're awaiting next step, next chapter and that's exactly how we're feeling right now. Anxious to finalize certain things. Hoping for both our life and this little blog of ours to get more interesting and exciting when we are free from work in only a few days from now...

Awaiting a special type of Christmas

2011-12-16T10:00:00.010-04:00

A bit of Christmas feeling in the Caribbean as well. This was taken in the capital of Antigua, Saint Johns, a few nights ago. I'm not a very Christmas loving person myself more than for the fact that it's a great chance for family and friends to get together and to enjoy lovely food. Usually I do not find great interest in old fashioned traditions like these, particularly not those that are created from a religion that I do not believe in, and which are turned into commercial ventures, but this year Christmas has a very special meaning to us as our friends who we haven't met since October 2010, will arrive here from Spain on the 24th, so we're almost equally excited for these last seven days to pass quickly as the children are who're waiting for Santa Claus to arrive.

Motivation

2011-12-15T10:29:00.006-04:00

So much to read, write and edit this week... having another cheesecake to keep myself motivated. Phew.. this year has been one hell of a busy, active, mind-twisting, introspective, annoying, frustrating, exhausting yet fulfilling and wonderful year but we seriously can't wait for it come to an end. Only 15 days to go until the year of 2012, hoping to survive until then.

Reflection

2011-12-13T10:07:00.000-04:00

That's how a well polished hull should look like..

Lunch by the beach

2011-12-12T14:21:00.009-04:00

How do you spend your Monday afternoon?

And yes I should stop smoking completely but tell me something that is more reposeful and enjoyable than burying your feet in the sand on a beautiful beach, having a good book in your lap, a bottle of red stripe in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The simple pleasures of life that I allow myself to devour at times... Have you ever read anything by Michel Houellebecq by the way? I'm in love with his daring, uncensored way of storytelling. This is a great book.

In need of chocolate

2011-12-11T18:34:00.007-04:00

For all of you who love them, as well as for you who hate them: Another sunny bikini shot. What would this blog be without them I wonder? And just my general little advice to women who are fighting to loose weight: Live on a boat! Whatever I eat and drink, my body fat is constantly at the minimum and I am as skinny as I was in third grade. I'm not saying it is a good thing or a bad thing, only pointing out the fact. It's just that this boat life with much physical movement and quite healthy living really doesn't give my body a chance to keep too much of fat around. I'll have another tiramisu tonight just to try to get back some of those curves... Also need to tell my father to send me some more Finnish chocolate, please!

Bikini is this and this one from Babajaan.

Sunday morning

2011-12-11T09:19:00.001-04:00

First day in a long while that we wake up to a blue sky and no rain and misty weather..

Music for rainy days

2011-12-10T13:30:00.014-04:00

Been raining more here this week than ever before during our Caribbean stay and the rainy season is supposed to be over by now. Here's one of my favorite smooth jazzy tunes, perfectly suitable for cold rainy days. And this is another version of the same with gorgeous Julie London. Female artists had so much more class and subtle sexy sensuality back in the days compared to todays modern musicians and singers who all seem to have lost femininity while trying to be as crazy and provoking as possibly attainable.

5.000 miles

2011-12-09T09:44:00.019-04:00

Oops what a rush we find ourselves in at the moment. But that's no news to anyone of us, the time until Christmas was not expected to be anything less than stressful. We're sailing to sxm tomorrow, back here again on Wednesday and then off again towards St Barts on December 22nd. It's all for a good sake though and the holidays are very close now so we just need to live with this stress for a few more weeks. I doubt there are many other cruisers who've sailed this many miles in such a little time between islands here in the Caribbean before. We'll easily clock up more than 5.000 miles only in between the Windward and the Leeward islands when we're done with this season. Not the most comfortable and enjoyable cruising/sailing lifestyle but when you have things to do you just have to get them done.. we wish to believe that life will go back to slow mode and tranquility somewhere around April 2012 with a ten days break for the holidays in the end of this month. That's how it goes when you wish to change boat in the middle of a circumnavigation, so we have only ourselves to blame this time..

Current situation Falmouth Harbor

2011-12-08T08:19:00.010-04:00

Parties are continuing here on the docks and music is screaming to the early mornings from yachts and the few restaurants around, that much that I wake up around four in the morning and need to plug in earplugs to be able to get a few more hours of sleep. Damn I'm old and boring, can't deal with alcohol and party more than one-two nights a week and also got way too much job to finish before we're sailing up North (St Martin and St Barts) in a few days so I better continue to focus on what really is important. While I'm busy editing photos, writing and dealing with things online, Alex is currently working his magic in carbon fiber composite for a few of the yachts. It is not easy to find specialists in that area around here in the Caribbean so good that Alex has the knowledge (as well as in fiberglass and kevlar composite of course), and I can tell you he's been very very busy. I'll show you boat building interested guys some of the things he's been designing/creating/producing later this week. Impressive it is.

And a P.S for the girls: I just received these beautiful silky garments from my beloved Babajaan among some other glamorous fashion pieces. The red dress might be what I'll wear for Christmas and the other one's a fantastic loungewear dress for sexy tropical evenings this upcoming holiday season.. check out the latest collection from Babajaan here.

Snapshots from last night

2011-12-07T13:26:00.011-04:00

Spent the evening in the company of my two new, fantastic Antiguan girlfriends last night. Did I tell you I've been dying for some female interaction? That is definitely what I miss the most on our sailing travels, and suddenly I got it in two beautiful, warm and intelligent human beings here on the island we've spent most of our time. One of the girls has lived here for six years, the other one's born in Antigua as a West Indian Arab. Can't even begin to tell you how glad I am to have met them two. And all thanks to the good old Internet. I have the World Wide Web to thank for a lot of nice things in my life.

The day of independence

2011-12-06T11:37:00.017-04:00

Having a few photo shoots this week. This is an image from one of them.

Today is the independence day of Finland, my beloved home country. Although I left from there when I was 8 years young (but of course visited on a yearly basis), Finland has its special precious place in my heart and I am a proud citizen of the land of my roots. Like I said on our Twitter earlier this morning, there are today 20 countries in the world with a female president and Finland is one of them. Finland was in fact the first country in the world to both allow women to vote and to be members of the parliament, as early as in 1906. Not only are Finland a pioneer in gender equality, but it is also according to new studies, the second least corrupt country in the world, only New Zealand is slightly above. No country's social standard and history is completely straight and unblemished, but what I have always loved and admired with our culture and Finns in general, is the straightforwardness, strong sense of personal integrity in most of the people you'll meet and the hard working mentality both in terms of social and political change and in everyday life that we are so well known for.

It is no thanksgiving day but today I am extra thankful for all the nice job that I have got, the amazing sponsored collaborations we have to look forward to for 2012, Alex and my future plans which will be preceded by hard work for a few more months, and for my roots and my family's background which has shaped me to become the person that I am today.

Click here and here to see a few of my photos from my beautiful home country and to read the story from the last time that I flew home to Finland for a few days, earlier this year.

Living with the ocean

2011-12-05T08:41:00.006-04:00

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere,
cloudcover thick. I try to stay
just above the surface,
yet I'm already under
and living with the ocean.

From The Essential Rumi, poems by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks.

Brave visitor

2011-12-04T13:09:00.003-04:00

I get a lot of different visitors to my "office" here at the Yacht Club. Dogs, hummingbirds, lizards and this yellow little thing. Anyone knows what type of bird this is? They are experts in stealing sugar from your table when you've ordered tea or coffee, they even steal the whole one-serving sugar bags made of paper and fly away with it. A bag almost the size of the bird itself.

Enchanting skies

2011-12-03T22:47:00.000-04:00

Goodnight Antigua. New day tomorrow.

Floating in between

2011-12-03T14:47:00.017-04:00

Slowly but surely I'm realizing what fundamental changes this journey has made to my mind and my persona. Physically and geographically we haven't come that far as yet and we've been locked up with schedules, deadlines and/or work ever since we left Barcelona for a bit more than one year ago. I haven't had the time nor peace to reflect from the inside in the way that I wanted, yet I have came to many smaller conclusions and discovered many truths that are profoundly important for the future. I have made a few smaller steps towards the inner me, which was the main purpose of this journey after all. You know the person that you are deep inside of yourself when you are completely naked with no external/social influences and you are as stripped from other peoples opinion on everything that surrounds us, as possible. I don't think we can ever completely be our true selves as we're already affected by so many deeply ingrained patterns of thinking, events that has shaped us and by the outer worlds propaganda and thoughts regarding everything there is to have a thought about, but I do think it is important, at least for myself: to try to reach towards that bare, inner self as far as humanly possible.

Feeling like I'm one step on my way towards a more spiritual and fulfilling future, slowly searching my way forward, but the other foot gets constantly distracted and is somehow still stuck in the past, fighting to get things done, to work, to maintain what is needed to be held up. Things are definitely happening within, but it's frustrating that I can't take those reflections to the next level before we're out of here, before we have finished what we've started, when work has slowed down a bit. Longing so much for the time when we're far away from possibilities and opportunities to do other than just be, when there is only Alex and me and at least for a while: no work, no plans, no schedule. I even long for the time when I can take a pause from blogging for an extended period of time to see how it really feels to be completely disconnected. But for the time being there are so many things happening, so much work and great projects that are in the starting process and which are good to consider for the future that I/we just need to keep it all running.

We're still struggling to find that comfortable, ideal balance in life, it certainly doesn't come over night even though you left everything behind to start something of a new life. My mind is currently moving two steps forward, one and a half step back, just like I said the other day, so I better keep my energy for what is our main priority of the moment: work. I wonder if I will miss these active days of jobs and projects when we are stuck on one tiny, deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. Most probably. Because as much as I believe that it is possible to find some sort of fulfilling balance, I know for sure that we human beings are constructed in a way that we will never be completely and utterly satisfied, at least not for a longer period of time. My daily meditation is for me a new psychological tool which is well needed in these times when floating in between the worldly/physical/practical world and the one that is mental/spiritual.

Hot potato salad with salmon and peppers in 15 minutes

2011-12-02T15:05:00.007-04:00

When I don't have too much time for preparing food and I wish to make our lunch as hustle free as possible, this is a favorite recipe: Boil a few new potatoes, pan fry half a chopped onion and a can of salmon from Bumble Bee in oil, salt and pepper. Toss in some red and green peppers, maybe some garlic oil too and throw in the potatoes into the mix when they're done. There you got your lunch in 15 minutes and of course you could replace the salmon with minced meat, canned tuna, other meat or a vegetarian option if you'd prefer. Tasteful, easy and very nutritious.

Looking for a photographer in the Caribbean this season?

2011-12-02T11:26:00.022-04:00

Have made a few updates to my little photo portfolio, check it out here.

I will be shooting in the Caribbean for the rest of the season 2011/2012 and I'm currently taking bookings for this period. Feel free to email me for discussion regarding collaborations/bookings: taru at tarutuomi.com

Beach will have to wait

2011-12-01T09:11:00.012-04:00

Both Alex and me are extremely busy here before and during the Antigua Charter Yacht Show. We made a good choice in deciding to stay here for the following two weeks as both of us have got a lot of good jobs coming in. Always good to top up the travel funds for future travels. Will show you later next week or so a little bit of what we are/have been up to. This is one of the best weeks/places to be for networking and to get work done if you are in the yachting industry and we are taking advantage of it as much as we can.

Behind clouds

2011-11-30T16:33:00.002-04:00

Good bye sun, see you again tomorrow.

Preparations

2011-11-29T16:38:00.009-04:00

Antigua Yacht Club Marina, Falmouth Harbor and Nelson's dockyard are rapidly filling up with super yachts. The Charter Yacht Show's starting on Sunday and crew on each of the yachts are busy washing, polishing and preparing their vessels for brokers and clients who'll soon be here to carefully judge every little detail before booking the yachts for charters for this upcoming season. I'm having a nice view from "my office", upstairs at the Yacht Club and admiring one huge yacht after another that are entering the harbor area. Lots of people here now by the way, crazy dynamic atmosphere compared to only a week ago. And these yacht people/crew sure know how to party, dangerous it is.

Espresso Martinis

2011-11-29T06:01:00.000-04:00

@Skullduggery, Falmouth Harbor.

Baby dogs and children

2011-11-28T10:50:00.008-04:00

Look at this beautiful pitbull/rottweiler baby girl, it almost breaks my heart to lift her from my lap and leave her back to the owner. If only we could have one of these onboard our boat, a pity they don't stay this petite for the rest of their lives. But kids and dogs will have to wait a few more years till the day we are ready to turn our focus from adventure and our own personal development, not sure when/if we will ever be ready. Have been talking a lot about kids lately with several different people as it seems like it's kind of expected of a woman close to thirty to start planning for family and kids. It is not at all a must in my world. I don't necessarily need own children to complete myself and I/we are still not certain if it is the right way to go for myself/us. To have children at all that is. I'm scared to love them too much, to get totally overprotective and loose myself completely in the process. One day I love the idea, I can picture our own little family and I know what an amazing father Alex would be, the next day I'm sure that I will never have any children at all because of the fact that it would bring just too many more headaches into life and I really want to keep things simple, and some days we're more into adoption and could imagine ourselves taking care of a few of the ones less fortunate. There's so many kids out there in the world without parents, security and love so why putting more children onto this planet. But as I told you, I'm still not sure what is the best way to go and luckily I got a few more years to think this all through.

Saturday fun

2011-11-27T16:06:00.002-04:00

Was a nice day yesterday in good company.

Dinghy

2011-11-27T15:21:00.013-04:00

Happy owners of a new 9 feet rigid dinhgy. Really wanted the one from AB but unfortunately our favorite chandlery Budget Marine hadn't got their dinghy delivery for the season as yet and we really really needed a new one asap. What an easy way to upgrade the comfort in life, to get a larger and more stable tender. Only the outboard missing now, will probably get the Yamaha 8hp this week and that should be much better than our current Suzuki 2,5hp.. still debating whether to go for the 15hp or not but it is also much heavier to haul up and down from/to the boat, any thoughts?