It's pretty rainy here too but who could be surprised. Love being back though, meeting friends, having a few meetings with sponsors and others and just enjoying a quiet city life. So much is so different in life nowadays and two years on a boat has definitely changed my worldview and the way I feel about life, places and things in general. A couple of immediate things that struck me during my first 24 hours in London are: How easy life can be when living on land, everything is available at any time. And: How stressful life appears when sharing space with thousands, millions of others, and when your schedule quickly seem to get filled up as soon as you land on the concrete ground. There will always be a side of me that love what only a big city can bring, but every time I'm off the boat I seem to miss that quiet little oasis of ours that we've created, Alex and I, during our first two years on the seas. 

Not that we didn't know about most of them, but Duende has proved to have much more urgent needs of repair than what we had originally planned for. After been sailing with her through pretty stormy weather the other day, we experienced the hull to flex way too much for us to feel safe on a longer passage.

This is what needs to be done before any overnight sail or longer crossings:

- Replace a few bulkheads and re-tab the rest.

- Replace the rigging wires.

- Seal all leaks on deck.

- Replace some of the beams.

- Build some knees at the hull deck junction.

- Build stringers at the bow and the stern.
- Replace rudder fittings and rudder stuffing box (the boat is currently taking in about 20 gallon of water/hour through the rudder post while sailing...)

..... and more.

We both are extremely tired of being in this same place for this long and can't wait to get moving out of here, the only reason why we will stay additional days with the boat on this island is because, as I earlier mentioned, Alex has access to workshops, a good yard and help with parts of the job when needed so we have elected to get these things done right here, right now before the boat gets moved to Sint Maarten to get the rest in order. Do we regret that we got this boat? A second here and another there perhaps, but we're convinced, or at least Alex is, that the boat will be safe and seaworthy if only these few things are sorted out. While Alex have begun the work already, I have booked my tickets to go home to Europe to see my family and friends for a few weeks. I'm not a particularly good help with these kind of physical boat building stuff anyway so will be good for us both to focus on the things we're best at until I'm back here in a few weeks. And what happens after that? We don't exactly know right now and we choose not to think too much about it. We were planning to go to Brazil as you may recall, but rather than making any firm plans until the boat is good to go, we'll see where the winds will take us from there.

I have so many photos and stories from the past months that I haven't used as yet so I will be posting some sailing/boat posts during my time in Europe to not leave this blog all empty and boring. Also I'll send a few posts and photos from Europe too, if that could be of any interest for you all. I got London, Göteborg, Stockholm, Malmö, Helsinki and Barcelona on my flight schedule as it seems right now, and I am very much looking forward to catch up with all my people on the other side of the pond. Alex promised to pass on some images of his boat work in progress too which I will upload here on the blog during these following weeks.

Jesus, had no idea it was so hard to get back on the blog-track. Have been as far from computer as I've possibly could in the past ten days and it made me realize how different life is when not sharing it with 120.000 people, so it has been pretty hard to convince myself to get back to it.  So where were we... classic regatta, brazil plans, change of plans, hangover.... give me another couple of hours and I'll see what I can come up with.

"Filmed in the Grenadines, Vanishing Sail tells the story of trading by sail in the West Indies, and follows a community of boat builders in Carriacou who struggle to maintain their tenuous grip on a dying skill. Through a collection of dramatic sailing scenes, rare archival footage and unprecedented interviews with the last old, Caribbean Sea Captains, Vanishing Sail seeks to preserve the legacy of boatbuilding in the Grenadines, first introduced by Scottish settlers in the 19th century. Crafted on the beach, with skills passed down the generations, these schooners and sloops worked the trade winds, fishing and carrying cargo - including contraband from St. Barthelemy where the smuggling trade in alcohol and cigarettes thrived until the 1970's." 

Support Antigua resident, yacht photographer and videographer Alexis Andrews to collect the funds needed to fulfill the production of this gorgeous movie. Preview above. You can check out Alexis kickstarter project here.

Still having a "vacation".. back with you soon. Seems like some sailing plans may have changed a little, will tell more about them shortly.