Changed plans!!

We will be leaving Barcelona one day earlier than planned. There is rough weather on it's way and we do not want to get stuck here more than neccesary. We're ready to go and will so do tonight. Champagne and farewell hugs at 8 in the harbor tonight. Come by if you're around! 

As you can see, we did not have the time to repaint in the cockpit. Just like we didn't have the time to finish the teak, the toe rails and millions of other smaller things, but it doesn't matter... Now we just want to leave!

More updates coming soon.

T&A

I don't know how, but we've survived this week..

Paint is on!

Bathing platform is on!

The new dinghy and the engine to it have arrived!

The portholes are (almost) on!
The Internet antenna is here!

The watermaker is here!

The books have arrived!

The headache from all the stress is still here, but I'm sure we can solve it with some fine wine/rum/vodka and a delicious dinner with family and friends tonight. It's the last night out in real Barcelonian style...

Hasta Mañana amigos.

Internet

The Satellite unit arrived last night. I think I forgot some important information last time I wrote about it. It is a Thrane&Thrane hardware and nothing else. We're connecting to the Inmarsat Satellites and airtime is delivered by KVH. We don't have the time to install it before departure, but we'll let you know later on how it works. /T

Last night

Last night we were invited to our new friend's Adam and Camilla's wonderful Hallberg Rassy 312 for dinner. So incredibly stupid of us to bring the camera and still forget to take any pictures - for their boat was beautiful! In fact one of the most interesting boats we've seen, as they've done so much qualitative renovations on it. Their galley, for example, was - hands down - the best one I've seen so far, in a sailing boat. Such an incredible way to use limited space and also making it feel like a real home and not only a boat - with a nice Scandinavian touch to it all. That was an inspiring visit, for sure. Go in and have a look at their well made blog, and say hi from us (their blog is in Swedish but they do speak perfect English).

Thanks guys for a perfect night, and Camilla the food was amazing!! /T&A

Photo from their blog.

Shiny

We got some very good help by a blog reader, who also recently re-sprayed his Hallberg Rassy 352, to find out which colors to choose from Awlgrip, for our Caos. Thans a lot for your help, Mark! 

The hull is now painted in Oyster White, and the Royal Blue tone will be added tomorrow. Unfortunately we will not have the time to paint the blue lower line, close to the water line, as we need to put the boat back into the water on Saturday, and this line would not be able to dry before the boat gets back into the sea. Will have to sort it out one day later on when we have left Barcelona. Because we're leaving on Sunday and nothing can stop that plan, remember!?

Can you tell how shiny and beautiful the hull is now? You can mirror yourself in it! /T

Lunch time

Luscious macaronis with mustard chicken

This is probably the easiest thing to put together and suits us fine when life is upside down like it is on this boat right now. A little bit of pasta, a little bit of marinated chicken and some rucola to that and you're all set. This is how I do it:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions. I've used large macaronis for this dish, as I love the texture of them and the fact that the creamy sauce gets stuck inside of em'. Very wonderful and juicy, from the inside and out. While the pasta is cooking, swirl together a little chicken marinade into a bowl. You'll need more or less:

1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of mayonnaise
salt
pepper
ground chili powder
also you could toss in some garlic if you'd like..

As soon as this is done and mixed up, bring some sliced pieces of chicken into it. Leave it to absorb for ten minutes or so. The longer the better but if you have not much time, five-ten min should be OK.

In olive oil: panfry some chopped onion, why not shallots. When they're golden brown, bring in the marinated chicken. With all of the marinade, obviously. Let it all simmer around and leave it to get a brownish, golden tone. You'll see when it's ready. When pasta's done, remove the water and dump in the pasta into the pan with the chicken. Mix it all together softly and add some fresh rucola to it.

This. Is. So. Damn. Delicious. You have to try. Now!

/Taru

Sitesucker

A little tips for you all out there. There are some websites that we simply can't live without (sorry I'm dramatic but that's almost true) and as we cannot access the Internet whenever we need to no longer, what if we had the websites saved on our laptops to be able to view them in offline mode? This is possible of course. What I am using to download full websites is a software called Sitesucker and it does exactly what the name hint of, sucking up every single information from a website and saving it on your hard drive. This is excellent as we now, for example, can be able to view important information about harbors, clearances and specific country informations on Noonsite, wether we have Internet connection or not. The good thing is that this little piece of code actually saves the whole thing in the mode it is showed online with permalinks, images where they should be and all set up for you to view, exactly as it would be on the net.

Unfortunately this is developed for Mac-computers and iPhone's only, but I'm sure there is similar programs for PC's.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 42: Zombie Rising

Click here for more Wordless Wednesday participants

The great feeling of letting go/What will I miss

It is not so much physical things or material that I will miss, but these are the things that will be a bit hard to live without, once we've left this world for another:

Spotify - The digital music library, where you're able to instantly stream all music you wish, whenever you wish to listen to it. Although we've downloaded hundreds of CD's, I'm sure there will be a lot missing once we're out there. Music is equally important for me and Alex and luckily we have the exact same taste, when it comes to this massively important area in life.

Google Translate - When writing in English, which is not my own language (Swedish and Finish is, FYI), I need to double check spelling and grammar to the extent it's possible. This digital wonder, is definitely something I will miss like crazy, and I hope that y'all will forgive me for my (even more) incorrect spellings and grammars once we're on the seas..

Google - In general. I am a person who's dying to know everything possible about everything I encounter in life and I will miss this open source of endless information like a wise, beloved grandparent. I am a curious, knowledge nerd and want to know exactly what was that bird, what is it's behaviors, how long does it live and why does it do like that? It is heartbreaking to know that I will not be in the know of everything that is going on around me no longer. The collection of 100 books that we're bringing with us will have to be enough as guidance and information bank.

We're living in a digital world for sure, where information is sent faster than the light, and besides of missing some important people in my life, the access to the www is the thing I will miss the most. Yes we do have Satellite connection through Inmarsat, but as the price for usage is around 10$ per MB, it will only be used to what is absolutely needed. Which is to receive important weather informations and to quickly update this blog through email, a couple of times per week.

Some things that I will not miss, but what will be an exciting and a bit strange difference to the previous life, is the access to blogs. Alex, who never reads any blogs - with an exception of a few sailing blogs, have always been wondering how the hell can I have such an interest into reading about other peoples lives? Although I do not at all read blogs to the wide extent I used to when I was deeper involved in the social media industry, I still scroll through a bunch of interesting and less interesting blogs out there, just like I'm holding on to an old habit. Imagine to have been in the know of what people around you, and not around you, do and what they think - for several years, and all of a sudden this access to information will be totally gone. Looking much forward to receive additional hours to the day with this healthy, new change. And I also look much forward to being totally disconnected from it all, for an extended period of time.

I think there is a meaning to all things that happens around us and the fact that I accidentally dropped my Blackberry in the water, was a great way for me to get rid of the strong, unhealthy relation I had with it, as I think I might have had a bit harder to let go of it by myself. I believe that one always have to let go of things, habits and sometimes even people, to reach new meaningful insights in life. And as this circumnavigation may be a one time chance in life, I will try making the best out of it, in the most natural way possible and I want the normal world and the need of constantly being connected - to be as far away from the new life as possible. All the way until I have found the new insights I'm searching for. 

When I ask Alex what will he miss the most, the only thing he can think of is an excellent cup of hot coffee with milk. He is wonderfully simple like that and it will be a great challenge to see how long time it will take for me to reach to a similar level of feeling content with less. Can't wait to begin the process. /T

Reclaim the Night 2010

"Reclaim the Night: 22.11.08" on the Fawcett Society Flickr stream

On 27 November 2010 at 6pm, the annual Reclaim the Night march will embark from Whitehall Place, central London.  Women will march to Camden Centre, Euston where they will hold a mixed rally and party.

Why Reclaim the Night?

According to the British Crime Survey (2001) there are an estimated 47,000 rapes every year, around 40,000 attempted rapes and over 300,000 sexual assaults. Yet our conviction rate is the lowest it has ever been, one of the lowest in Europe, at only 5.3%. This means that more rapists were convicted in the 1970s when Reclaim The Night marches first started than they are now. Did you know that the maximum sentence possible for rape is life imprisonment? Probably not, because rarely are rapists even reported or convicted, let alone with a realistic sentence. This situation has to change.

We march to demand justice for rape survivors.

I will be taking part in the Reclaim the Night march this year and if you would like to join me, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.  It is a women-only march but there will be a Pro-Feminist Men’s Group solidarity demonstration meeting by the Edith Cavell statue, opposite the National Portrait Gallery, also at 6pm.

So close but oh so far away

It feels like we're so far away from this image, although it is only a matter of five days left till departure. It starts to get really cold here in Barcelona, 16 degrees (60F) on the days, and the nights I don't even want to think about. It is terrible. As terrible as is the tone of our skin that slowly have began to fade to a pale, dusty shade of white - after not being exposed to the sun for over two months. There is no words that can describe how much we want to get away from this all now. How much we want to trim our sails, slowly sail away with the serene and calming sound of the waves lapping against the hull, with the wind in our hair and the knowledge of that we do not have to return. At all. Ever - if we don't want to. The thought of being able to sit there on the deck of our freshly painted and newly renovated boat who will bring us from this cold place to one adventure after the other, gives me pain in my stomach - as it feels like light-years to reach to that day. It is a painful longing we have to deal with at the moment and the time seem to go so terribly slow that I almost can count the milliseconds between each breath I take. 

Picture taken 6 months ago.

P.S: Don't forget to become friends with us on Facebook, this is where you will find more info and short notes from us, when we don't have the time to update here. New pictures uploaded in our private folder today. Only visible for our friends, remember. /T

Happy Tuesday

Alex thought I should throw in a happy and joyful picture after the bad mood I (we) had to deal with last night. So here we go. A childish smile, captured this morning for breakfast. I don't have much more than this to give you, this morning, as there's too much things to check off from the never ending to-do-list. At least we've now organized for Internet connection aboard so that we will be able to receive important weather information and update this little diary of ours, from the middle of the vast oceans. We'll be connecting to the Inmarsat Satellites, with a Thrane&Thrane FB150 antenna unit and we're purchasing the airtime through KVH - which was the company we found to have the most affordable airtime plans. We'll have the antenna installed the day after tomorrow. That's all for now. /Taru

Patiently waiting

Isn't this beautiful? It's the valve for the watermaker. For the watermaker that should have left Switzerland last week but for some reason it will not hit the road before tomorrow. Will it be here on time, is the big question of today. What else are we awaiting? The book order. We ordered books from The Book Depository with the impression that the delivery would reach us no later than 3-7 days after placing the order, as they promise on the website. It has now gone 12 days and only one of 56 books have arrived. When I contacted the company to ask for the tracking number on our delivery, so that I could search for the rest of the books myself, they informed me that they do not send any packages with tracking possibilities. Excuse me, you don't do what? - Was my instant reaction and suddenly I regretted that we've placed a 600 Euro order with them in the first place - but there's not much to do now, I guess. Just wait and hope for the best. Stressed, frustrated and a bit pissed off - that's the mood of this sunny afternoon. /T

Morning view

This is the view we encounter first thing in the morning when getting out on deck, out hauled on the yard. It is a delightful and sunny day and so far we've been extremely lucky with the weather. It's like the weather gods knew that we only have a few days left and that we desperately need to finish the spraying process. Thanks for that.

Early Morning at Kathu Shrine

I always try to visit my "local" shrine in the morning when they are doing their street procession as part of the Phuket vegetarian festival. Kathu is (so the history books say) where the festival originated and the local community take a lot of pride in the festival and their history. I already blogged about our visit to the shrine on the 7th for the opening ceremonies of the festival. I also headed to Kathu a couple of times during the week for food, as I tried very hard to stick to the vegetarian diet for the duration of the festival. On Friday 15th the idea was to be at the shrine nice and early, but the morning looked so grey. I did not rush, got to there at about 6:30am, a bit late to watch face piercing. I had been earlier last year and had some piercing photos like this one. Last year the morning was bright and sunny.

Seemed to me that with approaching rain the participants in the procession were keen to get moving. They walk all the way from Kathu to Phuket Town, through town and end by the sea at Sapan Hin, a walk of about 8km. Barefoot. With sharp objects embedded in cheeks, or carrying statues of the emperor gods. Actually, maybe they were glad for a cooler, wetter morning. Easier walking compared to a hot sunny morning.



I had been shopping the day before and bought a 50mm f1.8 lens for my trusty Canon EOS 20D. Figured it would be good for portraits like the one above, and good in lower light. Using a fixed lens is rather odd when you are used to a zoom, the composition of the photo depends a lot more on where you stand, and varying the aperture can have a huge effect. And if you want to zoom out, walk backwards!



The shot above uses f2.8, as I wanted to blur the face and accentuate the piercing on the arm. Obviously the spikes in the cheeks and lips weren't enough for this guy - give me needles in the arms too! And the photo below, one of my favourites from the day, shows I think why I wanted that new lens.



The devotees started out of the shrine at about 7am. I had decided not to follow them to town due to the weather plus this blog is still just for fun - I have a dive shop to run! The guy below is a local policeman and a regular participant in the vegetarian festival.





The Ma Song (above) swings axes outside the shrine. Some of these Ma Song really do cut themselves such as this guy at the Bang Neow shrine procession on the 13th. Some seem rather more careful to swing without cutting too much!

The procession left the shrine led by the most important Ma Song who was carried along on a vehicle. Other Ma Song were on foot. Not all cut themselves. I am not sure of the hierarchy, but I think that the most important Ma Song, the ones who really seem possessed by spirits, are the ones who do not impale themselves. They leap about, or walk bent like old men, offer prayers, and I hear them speaking in strange voices. Can be a bit spooky. A lot of attention goes to those with pierced faces, but Ma Song like the one below are fascinating to watch.



The way they walk, talk and move, I defy anyone to tell me it's all an act. I am sure there is something quite real happening, even if it's sometimes hidden behind the showmen - the ones who stick unusual objects in their cheeks in the hope of getting their picture in the paper! Yes, I mean you, Mr "baseball bat"!



The rear of the procession is the loudest. While the odd firecracker may be thrown at the feet of the Ma Song, the majority are saved for the gods and those carrying them. As the emperor god images are paraded through Kathu village, I dashed around trying to avoid deafness and too much smoke inhalation and trying to get a photo. The guys carrying the god images are prepared - wearing sports shoes rather than sandals and certainly not barefoot like the pierced devotees. Barefoot would be asking for burns! Firecrackers are thrown and hoisted above the gods on bamboo poles. The noise and smoke are something to witness.





As the procession left the village that was pretty much the end of the festival for me. I did attend the fire walking event at Kathu shrine on the 16th (photos here) and very very almost lasted an entire 10 days on the vegetarian diet. By the evening of Saturday 16th I was ready for a big ol' burger and it happened that a friend's restaurant (The Lunch Room) had just been renovated and does burgers and they have big TVs to watch the English football! Farewell vegetarian festival 2010. Next year the festival starts earlier (date depends on Chinese lunar calendar), about September 27th. So, only 11 months to go!

• More photos from Vegetarian Festival at Kathu Shrine 15th October (Flickr)

The beginning

So many people have been asking us to upload videos. Here's a little thing I made today.. As soon as we'll be leaving Barcelona and finally getting out on the sea again, there will be more time to produce and upload longer videos. Looking forward to it.. /Taru

The Internet issue

So we'll hopefully be leaving very soon, and it is about time to find out which Internet solution to go for. We would be very very happy if everyone who has an insight, could give us a glance of their experience regarding this matter. Please let us know if you have answers to any of the questions below:

What we want: A stable Internet connection with which we can get online for daily necessities. We want to be able to receive emails, send emails and upload the blog. The blog will probably be updated with email (text plus image) with minimum weight on around 150-200KB per day.

What we're evaluating are these options:

Option 1: SSB Radio with Pactor modem, coupled with Sailmail software - or is there other options? Can Gmail for example work well with the Pactor? Cost for the SSB/Pactor package 4.000 Euros plus annual fee to sailmail 200 Euros. For this price we'll have 12 minutes of free connecting time. The problem, as far as we've understood, is that it is not possible to send emails with attachments. Is this correct? Is this because you can't make it in 12 minutes or is it totally impossible to send email with attachments? I mean, if we pay extra minutes, could we send emails with images or is it out of the question due to limitations in the software, hardware or the connection? If it is possible, what does the extra minutes connected, cost? Have any of you guys sent images through the SSB radio and does it work properly? How does it work on let's say, the Atlantic. We do understand that text based emails are easy to send from wherever, but to also be able to send images are very important for us. 

Option 2: Sailor 150 fleet broadband. We will be able to connect to the Internet basically from where ever in the world. Might be distortions on the big oceans? Is the connection reliable on the Atlantic, for example? Cost for this installation will be 6.500 Euros. Added to that will be the usage, 11 Euros/MB. More or less how many MB would we consume when we quickly want to connect to the email software (gmail for example), receive emails, send textbased emails, and also send one email to blogger with attachment (attachment/photo around 150 KB), send it and log out? Does anyone have a clue? 

Option 3: Which is not really an option, but more of an addition to all this. The long range wifi receiver. This will be used when we're close to the shorelines and can pick up wifi from land. Price 200-300 Euros. Which brand should we go for?

So we've figured that we want to send minimum one blog post per day coupled with one lightweight photo. This when crossing the oceans. Once we're on islands, close to shore, on land - we'll use the long range wifi, local prepaid Internet card or other free wifi connections in coffee shops etc.. We would love to be as free from coffee shops as possible and we're now looking for the most comfortable options for this world tour.

As you can see we're still a bit lost and we'll need to have made a decision no later than tomorrow, Monday. Please let us know your thoughts if you have any. How have you other cruisers done?

FYI: We'll be using our Spanish wireless Internet modem all the way to the Canaries, with some smaller exceptions when in Gibraltar and Morocco. So until end of November we're all set.

Some pics from the new camera..

We were just playing around with the new camera last night...

From mess to reasonable

When we left the boat yesterday afternoon, she looked something like this. Imagine also all tools and things covered with sheets - and the sheet covered with a generous layer of dirty dust. The dirt was flying in through the open porthole-openings and if you didn't have asthma before, you'd probably get it in this mess. A real d i s a s t e r, that we simply just had to escape from for some hours.

So after a long (clean) nights sleep and a steady hotel breakfast, we went back to our little mess and threw out everything from the boat. I'm not kidding. Everything went out and although Alex insisted on waiting with the full house cleaning for some days when it all will be finishes, I made him understand that I needed to do it today. My brain simply can't function in such horrible, messy environments. If Alex is the tidy one with sails, lines and everything that has to do with the sailing part and the more messy one when it comes to our living area, I am the total contrary of it. So I sent him back out to work on the hull while I for three hours threw out every little piece of thing from the boat and carefully cleaned it in every nook and cranny. All loose stuff went out obviously, all cushions, everything that was kept inside of the lockers and drawers and when Alex came back in again and heard his own echo in the boat he said: Wow, this feels like the day when I bought her.. This boat has probably never been cleaner. 

Our cabin without any cushions or anything. Only some stored Blue Performance cases full of clothes. That's how we store most of our clothes, by the way. In some really good, hard cases with shelfs inside. Can much recommend the ones from Blue Performance. The white ones are from IKEA and are OK, although they do not have a cover on the opening. Usually we keep the cases on the right side, on the bed which we're not sleeping on. The wood in the back is still not fixed as you can see,  we'll get it back in place ones the bathing platform is up again.

So, now starts the rest of the project for today: To clean all the stuff that has been thrown out and get all those things back in the boat again. Also this cleaning process was a really good thing for us so that we could start contemplating about which stuff we actually need with us and which can go to the trash. We're having a new deal here right now: for every tool Alex have to throw out, I have to throw out one piece of garment or a shoe. It's pretty fair, I guess.

/Taru

Still some stuff to do...

When you see Caos now, it might be hard to understand that she will be ready to begin a circumnavigation in 8 days from today, no? Anyway: the portholes are out, the bathing platform's off again, the paint is stripped off the hull and now we're ready to start the preparations for the spraying process. We'll get it all finished in time, don't worry. (Or was that just something I said to myself to not feel stressed..) Action! /T

Refreshing change

We've checked into a cozy (and clean!) hotel this weekend so we can get away from the dusty, noisy environment, at least for the sleeping hours. Looking much forward to be able to dress up for the night and exchange my dirty overalls to something hot and dazzling. A hot shower, dinner and a loooong nights sleep is just what we're in need of.
Hasta luego amigos. /Taru

Next up

Sorry for the lack of sexy blogs lately, it's just that our life isn't very sexy at the moment... This porthole project has got a bit delayed as of other projects gotten in the way but now we've started. It is a serious mess for all people involved. Alex is now cutting out the old ones, I'm trying to cover up and organize things get moved around in this mess so we don't get metals all over the place and a guy we've hired is sanding the hull outside so we can get started with the painting preparations asap. Along with this mess we're also trying to decide which exact shade of white and blue to order for the paint from Awlgrip.

UPDATE: Off white and Royal blue it will be. /T

For the watermaker

This collection of bronze is the main project of the night. Fun? Not at all. I feel sorry for Alex who has so incredibly much to install on this boat and having to live with a women who's completely useless when it comes to working on this type of things. Although I'm giving a hand when I can, it still feels like it isn't enough - at least when considering the few days we have left here. I'll stick to the painting and polishing and maintaing this blog while Alex unfortunately has to deal with the rest of the 3459 projects.. Glad though we're having some very helpful friends who're helping out as much as they can.

Think I'll need to cook my man his favorite dish tonight and give him some very well deserved massage, later on - for all the hard work he's been going through this week./T

Differences/balance

Text from Cruising Compass:

_____________________

    _____________________

We get a lot of links back to our website. A lot from every corner of the world. In the beginning we were a bit pretentious and thought it would've been nice to link back to all our links, but that's not possible any longer as of the enormous amount of links and notes from blogs, communities, portals that we're receiving every week. Some of them we'd still like to share with you all though, as they are an interesting base for discussion or because they simply are something special. This is one of the latest ones, coming from a website called Cruising Compass. 

It is a nice little notification of our World Tour but if you read carefully you'll also find a very common perception of sailors and cruising in general, in the text. It assumes, like many people assume, that the norm of cruising sailors should not enjoy life and the beautiful, maybe exclusive, things with it, in order to be real sailors. And in one way this, very frequently encountered perception, is somehow claiming that most sailors are one type who mainly live for the sea and the boat and are happy with only the simple things in life. 

It has slowly dawned on me that this, our type of sailing dream, might be pretty much a new thing. A cruising couple in our age, maybe with our looks (as many has discussed), who's is interested in BOTH sailing the world with our bare four hands - through rough weathers, extreme conditions and storms and loving the physical and mental challenge it will give us - and ALSO enjoying the good life: expensive wine, stylish clothes, gourmet food, sophisticated and perfectly sufficient equipment for us and the boat, ironed shirts and many other beautiful things life has on offer. 

We can totally understand the controversy this blog and this plan brings, as we're obviously not like the norm of cruising sailors, and we do understand the interest it/this blog has evoked. 

I do not in any way intend to defend us or our lifestyle, as this is who we are and we prefer to live with our feet in different worlds at the very same time and indulge in EVERYTHING what the beautiful life has to give us, but I can tell you some things so that you maybe can get a bit clearer view of us as a sailing couple:

If we wouldn't have had each other; this blog and this dream would probably never exist. We see this all, what is given us, as an ultimate gift from the universe. It is for us a wonderful thing that one extremely experienced and well educated sailor meets an artistic, adventurous soul who're dying to transmit this journey and our lives afloat in an appealing way to family, friends and our other readers.

None of this would have been possible without the other. I would probably never sail around the world, if I didn't met Alex in who I trust with all of my heart to take us perfectly safe around the world. And Alex would probably neither read blogs, or even less would he create a blog himself, if he wouldn't have met me. Both because he doesn't have the Internet and blogs as a passionate interest like I do and also he's so far from being an exhibitionistic attention whore like I am. If (this is very unlikely though) he would have had a blog, his would probably be one with technical content and only the mechanical aspects of the boat would have been shown. It would probably never contain photos of colorful food, my somewhat spiritual thoughts or not even the sexy shots of people like us. And like that he/we would never have gotten to know most of you guys. Our dear readers and followers who there's now almost 100.000 of, each month. So I guess we're a good team for The World Tour. Each of us fulfill our own purpose on this journey.

Many times when sailing, there occurs great clashes between us. Especially when I, the more artistic, sometimes messy and maybe a bit lazy person (lazy when it comes to things that doesn't interest me such as renovations and boat mechanics, that is), am pulling my f*cking hair off from all the boat projects that has to get done when I would rather call someone to do it for us and I could instead spend my time on shooting a series of pictures, working on different online projects, concoct a beautiful meal for us both, or write in my memoirs. I can scream of frustration as the captain orders me to drop the anchor in a specific way which I've already created my own technique for and equally there's times when Alex would swear and shout when he realizes that I once again tied an incorrect knot to the dinghy and it almost got lost behind us underway. Or when I'm running down below to get the camera in the most stressful of moments in stormy weathers when he desperately needs my help to exchange the genoa to a storm jib and I rather shoot some photos of the beautiful white caps approaching us..

There's definitely some work to do on the communication area in this relationship when it comes to the sailing part, as there is in many new live-aboard-families I suppose, but we're getting there. We're getting there as we have the same goal and we both love and live for the plan that is made. We love the unusual life that we've created and we're learning day by day to adapt to each others differences. As much as I'm learning how to sail the boat and all the complexities around it, as much is Alex learning what are the benefits and pleasures of having a popular and successful blog and also he's learning how to adapt to my way of being comfortable in life and what is needed so that I can use my creativity to the max. Cause in the end of the day, the main importance is that we do share the same vision of how to live, how to to enjoy life and to what dreams to fulfill in the future. The way to those visioned dreams might look slightly different depending on who of us you ask, but there's a beauty in that as well, as we prefer to see it. We have found a balance which suits us for now and we see us as the best dream team in the world to fulfill a task like the one we've undertaken. 

So back to where I started: Yes, we do understand that people can have some doubts when they see us and our lifestyle which might be a far cry from other cruising sailors - as most people are made to be doubting when they encounter things or constellations they haven't seen before. It doesn't bother us much though, instead we're rather amused by the fact that this story/our vision/our dream/the journey has evoked such an interest in so many different medias, forums and among so many people from all over the world - and we can't wait to give you more insights of our exciting life afloat, as the trip proceeds. It is an interesting discussion though. We're glad to be able to bring in fresh new air into the world of cruising/sailing, and even more happier are we when we understand that we might inspire other people to also follow their dreams to do something like us. Because, as most of us already know, there's never a right or wrong when it comes to following your dreams. We are all of us the ones limiting our own possibilities, as much as we are the ones who are in charge of our own destinies and futures. If we can do this, I'm sure many other out there can do the same. Maybe not in the exact same way as us, but in your way. With your own way you can make anything possible, as long as you're not scared of doing the things the wrong way.

Thank you all who're reading, leaving comments, writing us emails, writing about us on your own websites, supporting us on our fan page and taking your precious time to follow this dream of ours - it wouldn't at all be the same without y'all.

/Taru

Bathing platform up!

The guys removed the wind pilot for a while to install the new bathing platform. It looks perfect! We realized by the way that we would need (not need really, but we want) to repaint the whole boat after taking off the portholes and before we'll installing the new ones, so tomorrow starts another project... When was it we're leaving again? In 45 days? Well then there's perfectly enough time for it all... Ha! The stress!! 9,5 days left!! /T

Wordless Wednesday ~ 41: Finally

Click here for more Wordless Wednesday participants

Action can begin

Our new baby has arrived. Some of you have asked for videos and the truth is that I didn't want to publish any of the ones taken this summer as they all were shot with an old video cam with not much quality (I told you I'm a perfectionist, no?). But with this new one I'll promise you that there will come up some hot stuff as soon as we have the time. Besides of being a damn good full-frame SLR camera, this sexy bastard also allows us to capture superb HD videos. Can't wait to begin to use it. Can't wait to document the whole, wide world for you, our dear readers, in an even better way than before. /T

Bang Neow Shrine - Street Procession in Phuket Town

October 13th was the day for devotees from Bang Neow shrine to strut their stuff. Bang Neow and Jui Tui shrines have the 2 largest processions. I had been to the Jui Tui procession last year, which was huge, and very crowded around the shrine. The weather thus far in the festival had not been great. I'd been along to 2 shrines (see previous blog entry) in the morning of the 10th and 11th under grey skies, and when I woke at 6am on the 13th, the sky looked heavy. I almost headed straight back to bed, but after a coffee, I decided that fortune favours the bold (Latin lesson: fortuna audax iuvat). And, fortune did indeed smile on Phuket Town that morning. It turned out to be a sunny, hot morning. Great for photos, maybe not to great for walking 5 miles with swords in your face under a burning sun.

I was there before the procession hit the old town - they first walked south to Sapan Hin, then back up towards to old town. The procession route was shown on a map from the TAT office so I had some idea where might be the best places to stand for photos. On a sunny morning, the sun shines right along the East-West streets of the old town. I walked around past the market and began taking photos there as the procession started to pass.



These were the first in line (above) walking along the road between the market and Jui Tui shrine. The sunlight was very strong so I tried to find another place where the sun would shine on the faces of the people in the procession. It was one of those hot mornings where it's already roasting before 8am, especially if you're dashing around trying to keep up with entranced Ma Song! Standing in one place does not really work if you want to take photos. You need to walk along with the procession, walk backwards in front of devotees, hope your camera can focus on the move, keep out of the way of sharp spikes jutting from cheeks... sometimes those with pierced faces will stop for a second for a photo, some seem more entranced and keep moving, eyed fixed.



I walked and jogged along with my trusty Canon looking for both sides of the festival. There is deep tradition here, one has to be aware of this, I am acutely aware of not getting too much in the way when taking photos. The faces of the local people watching show the respect they have for the participants in the procession and the respect they have for the festival. The respect is passed down to the younger generation...



The Bang Neow procession is a big one. I was in town for over 2 hours and the procession was still going on. I actually ran out of memory, filled a 2 GB card on the camera. Too easy to do when shooting in RAW but I had not filled a whole card in a couple of hours before! Will be sure to have a 4 or 8 GB card next time. Of course some were all blurry or not all that great but I have distilled them down and put some of the good ones on Flickr.



Oops, sorry, should have warned you about that one. Too late now.





After seeing a few years worth of vegetarian festivals I have got used to seeing the pierced faces, a bit of blood and gore. The participants who suffer in this way are doing it for the good of their community. Their pain brings good luck to everyone. At the rear of the procession, statues of the emperor gods are paraded. It's considered an honour, maybe even a proof of manhood in the community to carry one of the statues. Nothing too hard about it except you're walking miles through a hail of firecrackers aimed at the statue (next to your head) or at your feet. You'll see from the photos below, these guys are not too macho - they wear shoes that cover the feet and cover heads and faces with towels or face masks to avoid too much smoke inhalation. Just walking along with the procession for a while, I was choking on smoke and my ears were ringing from the firecrackers. Quite a buzz really!





Unfortunately I ought to be at the dive shop by 9am, and so maybe the full memory card was a good thing or I may have lost track of time and followed the procession for another hour. The watching crowds were big by 9am. This festival is important here, although it is celebrated in other areas where there are Chinese-Thai communities (Bangkok, Trang). My wife was in Chumphon this week and they do it there too, but Phuket is where it's at! This is ground zero, this is the epicentre. Walking along with the procession and being surrounded by the tradition, the noise, the Ma Song and the endless firecrackers - love it.

To come - more from the vegetarian festival, morning of the 15th I was at my "local" shrine in Kathu.. and after that I can get back to blogging about the other, less bloody Phuket! I was on holiday before the festival started so have a few little things to write about.

• More photos from Bang Neow procession (on Flickr)