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. Check out one good book here.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

- The Essential Rumi, poems by Rumi -

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.

Goodnight Antigua. New day tomorrow.

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. 

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.