Just bought new courtesy flags for countries we're hoping to visit in the next few weeks. 

Can you guess which one is our #1 on that list?

200 miles to sail from here to the San Blas islands of Panama which is an archipelago comprising approximately 378 islands and cays, of which only 49 are inhabited. Looks beautiful, wouldn't you say?

This is where I sit before the beautiful skyline, in the afternoons when sun’s getting lower, when it’s acceptable to be outdoors again. After five fifteen that is. While Alex been busy repairing the teak in the cockpit, I've also managed to do some real good progress on my side.

Three blog posts up yesterday and several longer texts started for later this week. I’ve edited a bunch of photos for the book which I am in the process of producing. I’ve replied many emails and some requests. Organized for our next destination and for the following few weeks. And I’ve also informed the communication director at Estée Lauder (EL is the owner of Tommy Hilfiger fragrances) that we are no longer interested in delivering material for the Tommy Hilfiger freedom tour collaboration that was supposed to run two more months in Panama and the beautiful San Blas islands (the contract was officially over a month ago anyway). 

A fairly productive day all in all. 

And why is that, you might wonder. Well since they've failed in living up to what we had agreed on, on each of the four occasions we’ve delivered material so far. It kind of reached the limit of absurdness. In the end it became a standing joke here on the boat “will she/they really take another opportunity to violate the terms and go against the only little thing that we had specifically asked for?” and yes, they did. Every time!

Incredibly amusing. Without apologies, only an “I’m sorry you feel this way”- email sent through her assistant. I have yet to figure this one out, why would anyone want to fuck up their own projects for which they've used a considerable amount of someone else's money, time and had at least six of their full time employees involved for almost a year? What happened to integrity and common sense?

Oh well, it was fun as long as it lasted. At least Tommy Hilfiger seemed happy from the last report we received a few months back where it said, “The Freedom Couple posts on Facebook have engaged 500,000 people globally”. I’m not surprised by the numbers, I think we did a real good job with those photos from different exotic locations. But not a thank you nor an apology from Estée Lauder’s part. Their attitude was more like: “Yea we might have done wrong and failed in living up to the agreement, but nothing we can do, sorry you feel this way”. And yet still they were hoping for us to continue promoting the fragrance in International press. Thanks, but no thanks.

And you ask why we choose to live on a boat. Seriously. We left the normal world behind to get rid of this type of sad and abusive behaviors and people, yet they seem to follow wherever you go. How far from civilization must one sail to find real peace of mind? It's quite funny thinking about it, the partnership was supposed to be called the freedom tour, yet these people did everything to limit our freedom, agreement wise I mean. Of course we have no further interest in such a one-sided collaboration.

Other than that, we are now planning for our continued tour. Seems as we might be moving off from the marina in the next few days. That’ll be fantastic to get out gliding on water again. Been in harbour for almost two months now but a great progress has been made on the boat. Definitely need to get out sailing soon! 

Fixing the smaller cockpit leak that we had. Sealing the floor and re-fitting the teak. Finally will our guests be able to sleep without water dripping down on their feet in the quarter berth. Michael did you hear that?!

His boat S/Y Quest is a custom made 64 foot steel boat which Göran have spent the last fifteen years to build by himself. The boat is impeccable and extensively equipped, and like Göran said, it took such an extended time because he didn't want to add any equipment nor material that were't the best he could find on the market. Quest was built to the highest specifications for sailing and diving as an expedition yacht. It's designed with a fully insulated hull, central heating system with radiators through out, as well as being air-conditioned which makes the boat a very comfortable yacht in any part of the world. The boat rooms comfortably eight guests. 

Göran started his ocean career on a fishing trawler in Sweden at the age of 16, and has since spent most of his life at sea. After graduating from the Merchant Marine Academy in 1979 he has worked as a captain and chief officer in commercial shipping throughout the world, including eleven years on an expedition cruise ship covering Indonesia, The South Pacific, and later Antarctica and the Arctic. He has also been captain on 160 foot Mega yachts and a live aboard dive vessel. When he hasn’t been working on ships he's been sailing his own yachts, including six Atlantic crossings. 

Görans extensive experience of ocean sailing and traveling all over the globe makes him a tremendously valuable guide and he sure has some great stories in store!

Since we'll be around the Caribbean sea for a few more months we're hoping to run into him again one of these days. Maybe in San Andres and Providencia?

Check out his website here and if you're looking for an amazing diving holiday on a super comfortable boat with a knowledgeable guide and captain, you know who to get in touch with.

P.S: Funny side note is that Göran was neighbor with this world cruising sailing family in Sweden back in the days. Another great sailing blog, if you know Swedish.

I'd need help to solve a spelling issue that I have. English is only my third language of four that I can make myself understood in, so forgive me for the occasional misspelling and grammatical default here on the blog. But there are some words in English that should be easy, yet they seem so complicated at the very same time. 

For example, why is color spelled colour sometimes? Who spells it with the u, and who does it not? Is this a matter of British English versus American English? And if so, which one should I use as I belong to neither of these nationalities? I seem to use both depending on the mood. It's all very confusing. 

And then I have a thing I would like to inform some of you about as I see this typical misspelling on a daily basis. This concerns mainly Americans, 45% of our readers: The country Colombia is spelled with an o all the way through. No u's involved whatsoever which is a letter you also might want to put into the color-word. I've noticed Canada has a providence province called British Columbia, the US a lot of cities and towns called Columbia and there's also an American clothing brand called Columbia, but neither of these have anything to do with South America's fourth largest country called Colombia. Two different words.

I'm not going to blame you, my English isn't perfect either as I just pointed out, but let's help each other to get these simple things right in the future. If only to show respect to a great nation. 

So it should be: Colombia - and not Columbia. 

Now enlighten me about the color/colour thing please.