You remember that I occasionally design simple websites and blogs? Self taught I am so I'm not necessarily calling myself a web designer but nonetheless, that's what I enjoy spending my spare time on from time to time. This is one of the latest that I've made for one of our lovely blog readers.
Mrs Kudrocova is married to Kristian Kudroc, a professional hockey player who's one of the important key players in Slovakia's national ice hockey team. This blog chronicles parts from the couples life from the wife's point of view. The readers are taken along on their travels between family and home in Sweden and Slovakia, the current hockey team in Russia and the rest of the world. Read the blog about shopping, travels, hockey, life and love here.
If you'd wish to have a nice, new design on your blog or website (and not to mention all the new readers that I'll be sending your way!), send me anemail and we'll see what we can do.
So sad to leave back the rental car today.. Had four days of freedom, cruising around the island making errands in a normal way, zooming from one beach to another in no time and discovering parts of the mountains we'd never seen before. Freedom is the feeling when you're all of a sudden able to move around an island without having to walk many miles, wait for buses and get sweaty in the sun. You always want what you don't have, right?
Dreaming of past and future, in between sea and sky. wishing i could live parts of my life again and again, sometimes just like they were once done, others in ways more refined.
This extended time far off civilization with hours and hours of inner contemplations, tremendously many moments of silence and peacefulness above the ordinary has been like being on a two year long therapy call. I've cried and I've laughed about the realizations I've made about myself and even though it's been hard, still is pretty often, I am closer to myself than what I've ever been before. I have realized so many things about myself. I've been forced to deal with and open my eyes to the things about my life and my person that aren't that attractive. There are things that I regret that I haven't done and taken care of and there are those things that I've done but not as complete or proper as I should've. It's easy to blame oneself for things that we normally call mistakes, and only that, to be able to look myself in the mirror and dare to say that I've made mistakes, are, if not pleasant, at least a healthy feature on my personal development.
Having been the type of person who's always been on the run, rapidly moving forward without looking back, I've shifted life, place, home, relationships faster than anyone would get the chance to pronounce the word mundanity, it is now stimulating, and quite interesting to see that I've taken a step back. I let the world pass before my eyes instead of trying to keep up with its rapid movement. This enforced therapy has pushed me to go back in time to try to find some sort of peace with my past and the person that I've always ran away from. I used to think and claim that I was just like this or that, because I was born that way. Today I know I'm not perfect, have never been, and that with more understanding about myself, I could have done things way more proper than what I've sometimes done. My past and my life has shaped me like everyone else. Disappointments in life have made me strong, independent, free, open minded. But they have also made me treat people that I've cared about in ways that I regret. I've also had very much time to reflect upon all those things that I've earlier taken for granted. And during these two years on the boat, I've encountered many situations mental and physical, all in between bittersweet life and unfair death, that have reminded me of the fact that nothing is forever, not everything will always be there when we've had our backs to it for an extended time and that nothing, nothing should ever be taken for granted.
Before I grew up (meaning before I turned thirty, although I still have a long way to go), I've always said to myself: I want to live a life regretting nothing. Even the things that weren't that good at the time, I always looked upon them as that they were a natural development, that c'est la vie, shit happens, that's the way world functions. Today I look back and I can admit to myself that certain things were in fact really bad decisions, I know I did those things as it felt right at that specific moment, but if I would have known myself better, if I would't stubbornly, aggressively, spontaneously and repeatedly insisted on running forward, I could have saved myself and others from pain. Pain on others that indirectly have hurt myself just as much.
To really get to know oneself, I mean in a deeper extent than what I earlier thought was to be self knowing, is probably the hardest journey I've done in my life. No physical travel around the world can ever measure up with the ups and downs and hours of circling around in an endless roundabout that it is to come closer to who you really are. Smallest of details can profoundly change the direction of your life, but despite the pain of the realizations, this journey far from everything expect myself has changed my life more than anything I've ever gone through in the past. I wish to believe it is for the better.
If any of you would ever want to get to know yourself a bit more deeply, try night sailing alone (possibly meaning your partner is sleeping and you're on watch). No other sound than the wind and the waves are there to give you company, no other shades than black and occasionally some whitecaps surrounds you and believe me your mind will spin away to places you've never been before. I've developed a love and hate relationship for night watches/solo sailing, I love it as it opens your mind and makes you think, hate it for just the same reason.
What a bliss to anchor in water colored like this. Sublime transparency, fine white sand and a harmonic shade of something indescribable between turquoise, lagoon green and baby blue. Gently shifting tone depending on how the rays of sunlight breaks through.
Things are moving along nicely over here, getting the things we need to have done done, enjoying time with some friends of ours, eating well and organizing inside of the boat. Alex, who's been working super hard at the yard these past few months, is dying to get out surfing so we're waiting for a good swell and hope to soon be out on the waves. Slow is the keyword at the moment, making the best out of simple and uncomplicated things.
From time to time, we get the question from readers, as well as from friends, how do I learn to sail? While that is individual and obviously to know someone with a boat is always helpful, there are some really good schools and courses to consider. One of them is Nautilus Sailing. Nautilus introduces and teaches adventurous younger people (20-45) how to sail in beautiful places around the world. Their clients are surfers, kitesurfers, rock climbers, fly fisherman, kayakers, skiers... Half of the students are looking to buy a boat and set out on an adventure like ours, and the other half are excited about earning the certifications that will allow them to rent sailboats from charter companies. Get on their site to check out what courses and destinations they offer right now. The live aboard course in Sea of Cortez sounds brilliant for the ones who are looking for to learn all the basic facts for living aboard a sailboat.
If you mention our blog when you make your booking, Nautilus offers you $100 off any course.
The sail from Antigua to St Maarten was a quick one. We did 98 n miles in 14 hours sharp. Pretty good average on such a long distance. Duende felt stronger and more united now with all reinforcements that Alex've done on her in the past three months. Love it when you leave early in the morning and you actually arrive before midnight so you don't have to sleep out on sea. It was our first long passage in many months and it felt awesome to be out there again, feeling the fresh air and salty spray in your face, that's a powerful feeling which I had almost forgot how much I've missed. The first deep breath you take of the salty, windy sea when coming out of the safe anchorage gives you such energy and happiness, it is hard to describe.
Although pretty strong wind, 20-30 knots all day and night through, the journey was luckily pretty uneventful as we still have some parts of the rig to replace. Not once have we been disappointed with the way this boat performs, and despite the fact that she is old and still in need of a lot of work and attention, we are very content with the fact that we dared to change boat in the middle of our so called circumnavigation, delaying all further plans, forcing us to stay in one place for time much longer than any of us wanted to. Within 10 months we had decided that we needed to change boat, we got Alex's old boat sold, brought the new one to the place where the refit should begin and had the most urgent refurbishments done.
Our broker and friend Reg who's seen the stress we've gone through during this past year, sometimes tells us it is almost like delivering a baby, dealing with a boat sales and buying process. Same excitement, worrying, stress, pressure and finally, finally after months of waiting, you'll come to a resolution... I've not had a child myself yet so hard to tell the accuracy of this comparison, but hell yeah, it has been one of the toughest years of our lives, that's something we both can attest in a heartbeat. To be totally honest with you: the mental, financial, physical, emotional stress and pressure that appeared because of the long boat changing process indirectly, nearly separated us as a couple but that's a story for another rainy day. The point here today, and what we both are very thankful for, is that we are beyond the hardest part and can finally breath lighter again. There's always a light in the end of each tunnel, one just need to stay focused and fight for what is important, and not for what's not.
If you ever wonder why Alex wanted to change to a bigger boat.. well it was definitely not because of my lightweight shoes. Do you have any idea of how much these things weight? One can wonder how the hell we have crossed an ocean with all these boxes, tools and everything else that are inside of our boat, and we did that with a 35ft back then, remember. Luckily there are many compartments on this new boat where these boxes can be hidden when not in use, not like on the old boat where it literally felt like we lived inside of an overloaded workshop. I can't say that we share the boat building passion, Alex and I, but I'm still glad to have these things around, the refit of Duende would have been much more expensive in case Alex wouldn't have all these tools to work with. I know many of you are curious to see what has been done on the boat in the past few months and I'll get back to you with some photos from the refit in a few days. We're currently on our way towards St Maarten where we'll stay some days before heading down South. Very excited to finally be on the way again.
Does all of you sailors have all these things onboard?
Ok not much interaction with the readers at the moment. You all have vacation already? We'll go to the beach to try to picture our sail towards SE Asia instead.. the water has the same type of shade there, at least. Thinking of it, we've been dreaming of South Pacific and SE Asia for about two years now, it's an interesting thought, how slow things goes when traveling by boat. You could practically get onboard a plane and be in Indonesia in twelve-fifteen hours, here we are, waiting for it for two long years, and there's probably one more year to go before we reach the beginning of those regions. Talk about building up suspense and excitement. Can you imagine how huge the world must've appeared back in the days when there was no other way to travel, than by boat. Many months and a lot of hard work to get from one continent to another. I like it like this. Ok, sometimes, particularly when you're stuck some-fucking-where because you are waiting for something, it can be extremely frustrating how slow time goes. But on the other hand, when things run smoothly, you're making miles and you stop at one beautiful place after another, it is enormously satisfying to sail by own means. You get to see so much, all those real, sometimes beautiful, sometimes weird, sometimes surprising details of the world that you normally miss when traveling by plane. All the impressions, colors, people, sounds and the energy from the sun and the sea - those things are far more powerful than any interaction or stressful moment that you encounter in a busy and noisy robot-like cue through the security control at the airport. Both ways has it advantages and disadvantages obviously, that's something I've come to say a lot these days.. although the fresh, clean air from the sea and the nature logically gives your mind, soul and body endorphins, vitamins and minerals that no moisturizing creme nor facial mist can supply.
Now that we don't have the rowing boat thing in Northern Brazil to take care of any longer, we don't necessarily need to go there this time around and can instead focus on our original plan, which was to get out into the Pacific as soon as we can. First we have the North of South America to sail past and explore, maybe even parts of Central America a bit above Panama, but yea it is out into the Pacific that we want. And now that the new boat finally is prepared for it, we're on our way... still moving very slowly of course, no rush, and still a few smaller things to handle with on the way through the Lesser Antilles. But mentally, we are now free to go.
I'm not sure I need to tell you this, but I do love your perspective on things, so feel free to leave a comment whenever suitable. I'd love to hear what you think about all that I'm rambling about in here.
One a day keeps the doctor away ... no but seriously, every single day I am dreaming of that house by the shore where wild things grow, where the kitchen is half indoors halfway out on the terrace. There's a large mango tree in the heart of the garden, dropping glorious fruits on the ground a few months a year, giving me enough to produce mango chutney, marmalade and fruit sorbet that'll last until following mango season. That's a house that will be mine one day in the future. Which practically means that the house must be located somewhere in the tropics. South East Asia is a good option I believe, it's still reasonably affordable to buy a piece of land, the climate is good, people are friendlier and more welcoming than anywhere else and there are good flight connections to large cities around when in need of some big city pulse (Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai etc). Anyone of you who've sailed to Asia and decided to stay? Or maybe someone else of you readers are living in South East Asia, how's everyday life? I've visited different places in Asia but am curious to know how it would be to actually live out there. What are the pros and cons. And if any of you know of a colorful blog/site written from that part of the world, please send me a link so we can get a visual insight in what we have to look forward to. Hoping to get there with the boat sometime next year.
A while ago I got this gorgeous butterfly set sent to me from one of Finland's most known traditional jewelry maker, Lumoava. The brand has created unique pieces since 1942 and my first introduction to it was when my godfather gave me a confirmation ring from the brand, must've been some fifteen years ago now. Since my beloved godfather Eino passed away a few months before we left on this circumnavigation, I saw Lumoavas contact to me earlier this year as something personal and I am very thankful for both the beautifully well made silver jewelry that I now get to wear and the memories the gifts indirectly reminds me of.
Click here to find your own favorites in the collection. My bikini and hat is from Babajaan.
The thirty minutes bus ride between the harbours on the South East side of the island to the capital St John's on the NE is one we've taken many times in the past year. Provisioning is far better in town than in this more touristy/yachty area by the marina, and if you want to get a sense of real Antiguan life, the bus to town with a potential stop in one of the villages that you ride past, is one of the best ways to get to know the country. These photos shows how the island looks from the window of the bus. The big bay of Falmouth on the first image, is where we are anchored at the moment. Between October-May that bay is completely packed with cruising boats, charter yachts and super yachts, currently very quiet.
