Considering the fact that I earlier lived in a house where my walk in closet was as big as the whole boat we live in today, I think I've made a damn good job in weaning myself from the relatively serious shopping syndrome I possessed in my previous life. I have not the same hunger for new things, new labels and the obligatory new designer high heels that I earlier always made sure to convince myself that I needed to update my wardrobe with once a week back home in the city. I have came to the understanding that there are much more important things in life than things. Here on the oceans I simply don't need so much. Give me 20 bikinis, a couple of dresses, shorts and tops and I will be fine. I must say it feels really good to not live for consuming any longer, I'm comparing with the normal society now where you're almost forced to believe that you need so much things all the goddam time, because let me tell you one truth: you don't actually need  more than you  physically need, if that makes any kind of sense. 

I bought myself one new dress the other day though, the green one you can see on the picture. It cost me 20 EXD (Eastern Caribbean Dollar) which is equal to approximately $8 and with this one included I think I have spent a maximum of $100 in the past ten months on clothes. $100 in ten months? Interesting thought, especially when comparing with the crazy amount I used to spend on fashion back home. I honestly think that Alex have bought himself more clothes than I have in the past ten months and who could ever think that was a possible equation. Just yesterday he found himself one new pair of Henri Lloyd jeans which he told me that he needed, apparently good for cold rainy evenings (even though I can't find the logical meaning in wearing jeans in the tropics but anyway..)

One other important aspect of this all is of course that I don't go out on social functions and parties like I did before, and when you are out in the nature most of the time like we are, who needs fashion anyway. The clothes that I need and want should be easy to put on, easy to take off, they should be comfortable and cozy, they should be able to deal with the heat (and sweat) in a good way and they should be as light as they can be. Just like with everything else in life nowadays, I want it all to be as easy as possible to deal with to reduce the amount of hustle and headaches.

One thing that I laid my eyes on the other day though, was a beautiful Ralph Lauren swimsuit that I think I have to go back and make mine, with blue and white stripes and navy colored foundation and all, perfectly suitable for lounging on the boat... will show it to you later if it's still there when I go back to the shop next time.  

You remember that thing Alex was building? It has now got two coats of clear wood sealer and six coats of Goldspar Satin varnish. The opening is now rounded to perfection and all the edges are excellently matched sanded to fit the place where it now should get mounted. Soon it's in place. More pics coming soon. /T

There's been a lot of work done here lately. Boat work, budget calculations and planning for the new boat, blog projects, book projects, photo assignments, body work at the gym, article writings, designing of that new website and everything else in between. Can't complain too much though, all of that will hopefully lead us to an even brighter future and everything we work on is completely self-chosen so we'll continue to work on, move on towards our goals. I remember we once said something like mmm, it will be so wonderful to finally have some peace, no work no nothing, just peace, on a deserted island far from it all... but we have slowly but surely understood that people like us we can't be just still doing nothing. At least not for a longer period of time. We need our projects and new exciting goals to look forward to, to be able to enjoy life fully - even if we physically might be away from it all. As long as we can be our own bosses and plan for our days as we wish, and as long as we enjoy what we do and have the time for what we love, then we're more than satisfied. And if we on top of all that have the freedom to move on the sea and in between countries as we wish, then life is pretty damn close to perfect.

But now let's leave work at home for a while and let's spend the rest of the day at the beach. Will try to have one complete afternoon for nothing but r e l a x a t i o n. 

You know I've been raving about the Caribbean mangos at many times before and I still can't get enough of them. The ones used for this sorbet are not the super sweet ones, these are larger in size, the african ones as Alex likes to call them as they reminds him of the ones he use to eat back in Angola when he was younger - and these mangoes, which I don't know the correct name for, has a lightly almondy taste. They are still sweet and juicy, but much more firm in texture and nutty in taste than the ones I spoke about for some weeks ago. I used two large mangoes for this sorbet, one lime, some wonderful honey that we bought in Morocco in December last year and some water and that's really it. Couldn't be easier even if I tried.

For two bowls of sorbet you will need:

2 mangoes

1 lime

1/2 cup (1dl) water

1/2 cup (1dl) pure honey 

Peel your mangoes and cut it into small pieces. Puree now this well in a bowl, but make sure to leave some smaller chunks for a nice natural texture. In a small pan, bring your water to boil. When boiling, remove from stove and add the honey. Mix well for an minute more or less. Leave it to cool down. When cooled, pour this into your bowl of mango puree and squeeze in the lime juice from the fruit. I prefer to add also the pulp from the lime, but that one you can ignore if you don't like it. And that would be it. Done. Finished. You have your very own mango sorbet. Obviously you'll need to freeze this thing to be able to fully call it a sorbet, but you get the point. I froze mine in zip-lock bags, very convenient as our freezer here on the boat is so small and a bag like that only requires minimal space.

You can also exchange the mangoes to strawberries or pear or whatever fruits you prefer. I will definitely try out more of them in the nearest future. I would also love to add some mint into this particular one, but unfortunately they didn't have it in the local grocery store at this time.

I am very anxious to try my homemade mango sorbet that I concocted last night. If only the freezer could have been a little bit more efficient... and it doesn't quite help that we're in the tropics either, things rather melt than freeze in this heat. Will get back with the recipe and photos in just a while. Have a good day you all. /T

An editor from one of the largest sailing magazines in the US of A contacted me the other week and told me they wanted to buy one of my photos for an upcoming article. One with a woman sunbathing on a sailboat, "I'm sure you got plenty of them" the editor said and I agreed. So I screened through my collection and I found this one. That was definitely a woman sunbathing on a boat in my eyes and I sent it over. One day later I got the response that said: "I'm sorry, this won't work. This is way too hot for us. Our membership is made up of a lot of middle-aged and retired men, some of whom probably have weak hearts. You would kill far to many of them with this shot, and we can’t afford to lose any these days" 

Man, what could I respond to that? Fair enough for the honest reply but I got kind of perplexed by the answer. I mean, you simply just don't go to McDonald's, ask for a cheeseburger and then get surprised when you get cheese on your burger. And you definitely don't go to a hip hop club and expect to hear christian choral music, there are other places you should have considered for an evening like that. What exactly did he expect? Yes I am very aware of that Americans in general and the American sailing/cruising world in particular, are very conservative compared to the same in Europe, but c'mon, I wasn't even topless. The only two things that I find disturbing with this photo though, is my ever so terrible hair color. I kinda miss my chocolate brown hair when I see this mixed disaster. Also it is a bit annoying that my ass appears to be much lighter in tone than the rest of my skin. I guess I have to sunbath more in string from now on.

Well well, c'est la vie. At least I can show this photo to you guys without anyone getting a heart attack here. Right? You must have seen plenty of sunbathing girls before, haven't you. /T

Go check out what Nalden has to say about our world tour. Nalden.net is one of the coolest lifestyle magazines online, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands - and the website is truly amazing. 

That ass of mine have by the way been traveling quite frequently around the world wide web these past six months since it first was published back in January when we crossed the Atlantic ocean. I wonder how many extra sails North Sails have sold because of that photo. We must agree on that it was quite a successful product placement? Without even intentionally being one. 

Hi. I'm an Italian sailor and I love follow your tour around the world.

I feel you like some friends that send me postcards... and I can see these postcards on your blog.

I'm glad to know that the tour is not only like a long cruise: little problems , decisions, works, etc... all this things give spice to the boat life. I feel you are not bored!!!!

I have an ordinary question and doubt. How can you make money? A tour is expensive: hotel, dinner, boat maintenance, and other things.

Can you give me an answer? I will not wait for a very private explaination , but a simple answer about the way you make money. Charter? You are consuming your personal money? Photos?

Thanks.

Best Wind

by Luca

Thank you for your email Luca. This is a very frequent wondering among our readers and I remember we touched the subject quite briefly for a couple of months ago, but here it goes again in more specific details. 

Luca didn't ask how we saved up for this tour so that we can keep for another time, but just shortly: When we had decided that we wanted to sail around the world, we made sure to sell off a lot of our personal belongings. We also juggled around with some savings and made clear that we had cash enough to upgrade the boat to perfection and also to be able to live on the boat for 1,5-2 years. We did spend more than we originally planned for during the first year out, but we do still have some savings left for an additional year or so. Now we don't have any bank loans or mortgages at all so this makes life one step easier for us. We made sure to pay off what was needed before we set off on this tour and we also made sure to upgrade and equip the boat to utter perfection so that we didn't have to deal with sudden failures or unpleasant maintenance for a long time to come.

Since our original plan, that was to sail only for around two years, have been changed to sail indefinitely and for as long as we still love and enjoy this amazing freedom, we need to make sure that we get in cash during the time to be able to maintain this liberating way of living. I think I said it before but it suits to mention it here again; this life and this tour is not a vacation only for us, it's a lifestyle and our everyday life - and we need to make sure it is sustainable for as long as we still enjoy it. The ways to make money differs quite a lot to what we would have done back home on land, but we do what we have the time and the possibility to do and as long as we feel good and happy with that, we will continue in a similar way.

The main importance in life right now is to be free from stress, free from obligations and normal life obstacles and to enjoy the world, the places we get to see and unlimited time with each other. And as our everyday needs have drastically decreased during this first year on the sea, so have also the amount of money that we need to be happy. It is definitely easier to feel fulfilled for a low cost on the sea and in connection to the nature, than it is back home in the big city life on land. We are also very glad that we no longer (well currently at least) are part of the wheal of consumption that is so easy to get tangled up in on life on solid ground.

These are the ways we have made money since we left our home in Barcelona for nine months ago:

- The blog. Having an independent blog that hits around 150.000 page views and 90.000-120.000 unique visitors every month, we now have the possibility to get paid for this story that we have published online. There are several different types of advertisements and sponsorships that appears on this website and I have found a good strategy for what brings in relatively OK amount of incomes every month. We do get a lot of inquiries from companies that wish to send us free stuff for us to promote on the blog, and while that is fun at times depending on what things they offer, it is also of significant importance that our partnerships brings in some real money. This blog is definitely both business and pleasure to me and they both need each other for me to be engaged to it, to this extent. I'm sure you already figured it out, but I spend quite some time on this site and things in relation to it. Something like 2-6 hours are spent every day on this blog, sometimes even more, and I can honestly say that I wouldn't have been online this much if it didn't give me at least some type of payment. This blog is my true passion, a great part of my life, a fantastic way for me to share what I love, it is my baby that I love nurturing and improving with every day that pass, but it is also the greatest source of income for me at the moment and the business side of it is almost equally important as is my personal interest in it. And as I know that many of you love numbers, I can reveal that I currently make somewhere between $500-1000/month on collaborations and partnerships through this blog. That's not a lot, but it helps, and I hope to be able to increase this with time.

- Alex skills. Besides of Alex being a skipper who occasionally takes on shorter yacht deliveries for some good extra incomes I also think I might have told you that Alex is one handy man. I'm not only talking about mounting furniture's bought in IKEA or fixing with simple mechanics of the engine - no, this man is particularly skilled when it comes to composite work (carbon and fiberglass), woodwork and whatever else you can think of that has to do with boats and other handcrafted things. He could basically get a job at any famous boatbuilder in the world with his knowledge and expertise and he has decided to take on shorter projects when there is time and space for it, if the money is right. On the projects he's been doing so far, he have made well enough for us to live on and to top up our savings during the very same time. I was not aware of his skills to this extent before we left and I was confused when he first told me that he might be willing to do some work on other boats, one week per month or so - Work on boats?? But you're a mastering engineer! - but I have with time found out that he loves the art of building and he also has a fucking gold mine in his hands. Literally. Pretty good to know for the day when our savings might be gone and vanished, if we are not yet ready to get back to the normal world that is.

- My photography. I sell some of my photos from this blog to both private and professional clients, information on this can be found here. This has proved to be a very popular thing and I wish that I will continue to have the time (and the clients!) for it for time to come. I have also been in touch with various sailing/travel magazines for publishing my photos in their publications, but I must admit that I have been extremely lazy in sending in samples and portfolios like they've requested. I maybe should be more active on this part, but on the other hand it is a tough industry where you have to work your ass off to be seen and published, the payment is quite low for photos nowadays and also I really do hate to have to promote my creativity as I believe that it all should come out naturally. With this blog on the other hand, I do already see a good future potential and a profit and with the blog I'm also free to work in my own tempo, on my own conditions and the photography shown here pays off in other ways, indirectly. I also do simpler web design and I design blogs for private clients from time to time.

- Sponsoring. Again, when having such a large blog (large in visitors), you will get companies interested in being seen on your website. Because of this we get loads of things for free or for a discounted price. Hotel nights, clothes, boat equipment, marina visits .. you name it. This is a great way for companies to be seen on our website and a good way for us to have some fun without spending too much of money. We are very restrictive though. We do not let just anything come up on our site, and only the things and services that we could consider spending our own money on will have the chance to be connected with our blog. We love working with the places and brands that we had the chance to work with in the past and we do hope to get more of these for the future. It's one of those great win-win deals you can establish if you have a niched blog like ours and one of the benefits I love with the whole social media industry that I've been working with for the past five-six years now.

We are fortunate that we have our creative skills that can give us a bit of extra incomes along the way, but even without it I'm sure we would be able to spend a good time with only our savings for at least a couple of years around the world. I will get back to you one day soon with more specific calculations on how to save up for a journey like this and what are the budgets and so on, but this post is too long as it is already so let's wait with that for another day. Let us know if you have any additional questions on this subject. 

And to illustrate the story below just a little bit more, here's an old photo I found from that morning the day after the Depeche Mode concert. It was basically this sight what made us begin talking about this world tour we are on today. Peaceful view to wake up to, no?

It's a Depeche Mode Sunday here in our life today. One of the best albums ever made in the entire history of music is going on repeat here at the moment. DM has been pretty important to both Alex and me for many many years in both of our previous lives. When Alex first introduced me to his amazing underground music studio that he had in Barrio Gothico in Barcelona during that first winter that we met back in 2009 and the first track he put on on his powerful B&W 802 Nautilus speakers was one of my all time favorites, The Love Thieves, I almost cried because of the perfection I saw in this man.

That was five days after we first got introduced to each other and a couple of weeks thereafter, Depeche Mode was about to give a concert in Palau St Jordi so I made sure to book some good tickets for us for that show. I surprised Alex with a night for us in one amazing suite with marvelous sea view at of the best five star hotels of Barcelona and we spent a great time at the concert followed by a perfect ending to the night in that very suite. I remember the day after to be a Sunday and in the morning, from our huge bed with panorama view over the ocean, we could observe an ongoing regatta going on down below at sea level, 18 floors down, and that was the day that we began talking about freedom and that we maybe one day should sail around the world together..

One additional amazing part of the story is that when we had enjoyed our breakfast in bed and we were about to check out, we met no one else but Dave Gahan in the lobby and we got the chance to get a quick chat with him before he ran off upstairs. So for this whole reason, and for other natural reasons like that DM have created some of the most immortal musical productions ever, is this group very important to us and will always remain.

Here are some of our photos from that concert.

And here's the view from that bed.

We just got back home from St John's, the bustling capital of this little island. We took the bus in the rain, had some dinner over there and rode the bus back home again. I had by the way an amazing fresh cucumber juice to my meal, absolutely divine it was. I'm sure you all think I'm pregnant or something since I don't drink much alcohol any longer and we are getting ourselves a larger boat with one extra cabin and all, but that's not the case. I promise. /T

Hey guys, thanks for your comments in last post, says Alex. I guess we both know that the blog will have to remain pretty much like it is, there is not too much of time and interest from Alex part as he mentions, although he has promised to take the time to post perhaps once or twice per month to give it all a new little twist.

This blog has never really had the intention of becoming a technical or not even a real cruising/sailing blog and even if many of you (men) out there would wish so, I'm afraid that you will have to turn somewhere else if that is what you are looking for. I personally have greater plans for this blog, my work, and in order to achieve that what I have invested a lot of my time in this for, we will need to continue quite similarly to how it first started, although I would love to have Alex sharing more of his personal thoughts (the non technical) here as well, but I can't really force him can I. Writing must definitely come out naturally, like any other creative pursuit. But do not despair, he has prepared another post and will be right back here in a short while with some of his thoughts concerning some of the questions and wonderings you had in the post below. Thank you all for your very descriptive comments.

We hope you all are enjoying your weekend. Here it's raining like never before so not much else to do than fixing stuff inside, training at the gym, reading and taking it easy.... quite boring if you ask me, but  we hope to be able to get back out exploring more of the island in a couple of days. Not much time left in Antigua now. /T&A