Not much sailing on these waters right now, though it is perfect for a promenade or skiing and the water will probably be covered with 20-50 cm of ice for a couple of more weeks.

Homemade berry pie.

When my father goes to bed, his beautiful Russian wife digs up the 20 year old Russian vodka bottles from the lockers. Just my kind of woman. The drinks goes down well with Jimi Hendrix softly playing in the background. I definitely understand and support the Finnish and Russian alcohol culture, how otherwise could you keep yourself warm in cold winters like this. Cheers.

Warming our cold souls tonight with Finnish chocolate, Jewish music and a sweet Cypriot dessert wine after a long winter walk through the icy but beautifully white city. It's my last night in winter-land, tomorrow I'm off to le caribe again. Can't wait to get back home to my love and the boat. Taru

I guess I don't have to tell you it's freezing over here.

- 25°C!!!

This is what I left behind. Turquoise water, tall green palm trees swinging in the wind, reggae or zouk sounding from a bar or a house next door, calm sea breeze chilling your sunburnt body, silky water for a refreshing swim, luscious gardens and colorful flowers, the loud and distinctive sound from the Coqui frogs singing in the nights, white and soft sand for miles-long promenades and +32°C (90°F) in the air.. Can't wait to get back!

My dad informed me of the -20°C (-4°F) situation in Helsinki to where I am on my way and I can't say it tempts me much though it is wonderful to see my dear family of course.

Yes Paris was the right answer of the last post. Brussels was a good try as well even though that city is far from my favorite ones in Europe. Paris is, although it today was colder and more different than ever.  /T

It took me eight hours to cross the ocean which had us sailing for almost one whole month for just some days ago. Weird contrast. I got an emergency reason to fly home to Finland for the weekend and have now made a half day stop in this city, my favorite of them all in Europe. Alex would die for this fresh perfectly made croissant I'm devouring in this very moment. This is the first time me and my man are away from each other since we met actually, so that is a bit weird, too. I will be back with him in Martinique after the weekend if everything goes as planned. /Taru

Our friends have left to Miami and me and Alex have just left St Lucia behind and now arrived to Fort de France, the capital of Martinique. We will shortly begin to explore this colorful French island. I just have to catch up with some work and I'll be back with some stories, photos and videos from the last couple of weeks later on, ok.

Bisous et à bientôt,

Taru

Hello world! Finally Internet connection again. Our satellite unit crashed on the 21st day and I've been dying to give you all an update or two. Anyway, we arrived as I shortly mentioned in the last post (the Blackberry couldn't post anything else than a title - facebook has served us good at least...) in Barbados yesterday and after picking up our friends we sailed over to St Lucia and Marigot Bay. It is beautiful here and we are enjoying a wonderful vacation now and for the rest of the weekend. It is very interesting that so many of you thought that we've been fighting or killed each other or something but the truth is that we fought much less than anywhere else during this crossing, simply because there wasn't much to fight about, no stress, no deadlines and so on... The last five days of the crossing was a bit of a roller-coaster in other ways though. 20 foot seas, constant wind never less than 25 knots and gusts up to 46 knots. Insane ride. Not at all like we expected the Atlantic crossing, yet it feels amazing to have it done. 

Will let you know all about it later on though, now more rum punch please! /T

It has been quite a busy year for me, therefore the lack of writings from my part. They are quite a high maintenance both my woman and the boat and most of these last fifteen months has meant to make these two women of my life happy and ready for this journey we have now embarked on. Finally I can see a little bit of relief on both the maintenance and stress and we all look forward to get some well deserved vacation once we get to the Caribbean.

I want to share with you my toerail to toerail rolling dish even though I am sure most of you sailors already are familiar with it. Some days at sea are just not meant for gourmet cookings as the 15 foot following seas and strong winds doesn't allow you to much more than boiling pasta opening a can ... you got the picture. This is how you do it.

Boil pasta, panfry one can of corned beef, add fried and dry onions, mix all together and enjoy. This is very good. If you ask Taru she maybe will say that the smell and consistence of corned beef reminds her of the smell and consistence of cat food coming from cans with obscure names like "pussy" or "mjau" but who said life on sea always should be easy? Bon Appétit. 

Alex