For the senses

It is not only teak and electronics that have been replaced, mounted and installed on this boat lately, finally we have also had the time to take care of the interior and at last it starts to feel like the boat is a real home and not only a boat. New cushions have arrived for both cabins and the saloon, new delicate pillows and sleeping sheets for different temperatures, wonderful designer cookware which brings harmony into our petite galley, some discreet pieces of art on the walls, scented candles to add an aromatic fragrance in the night time hours and a few, robust plants. (Any tips on how to keep the plants long lasting on a boat and through stormy weathers are most welcome!)

I might have gotten rid of a lot of stuff/clothes/shoes for this tour we have ahead of us, but one thing I can't see myself living without neither on land or on water, is a peaceful home where lights, scents, tones and design are in perfect harmony with one another and I must say that we're so slowly getting there, in the boat as well. /Taru

34 days to go.

It is very stressful around here on s/v Caos this week. We have the last parts of our teak to refit and also the toerails. Added to that we are now in the process of organizing for the last missing parts to be ordered before we leave to Sweden in the end of this week, so that everything is here when we come back - to avoid delays for our departure on the 31st of October. Finally the windvane is ordered and a big Thank You goes out to Stellan Knöös at Sailomat for giving us such a generous discount, can't wait to have it installed and tried out! Other things ordered this week are the bathing platform, the water maker from Katadyn, new portholes, new parts to the windshield, new cushions to the v-berth and a lot of other missing parts.

So what happened with the boat exchange? The truth was that, as we decided for going around the world just for a few months ago, we never really had the perfect time to try out how this boat would fit us both and during the summer we realized what we realized - that we would like to have it bigger. It might have sounded like a crazy idea to realize that two months before heading out, but there was no time earlier and we had to give it a try. Others might plan for their circumnavigation for years and years and they might have been perfectly in the know of what boat they'll use, we are the more impulsive ones: Go around the world? Hell yes! What boat? We'll figure it out later! As happy Hallberg Rassy owners we are though, we were always and are still convinced, that HR is the brand we want. We believe that for a journey like this, we'll need a boat which is strong, safe, well made and reliable - and that is exactly what the Hallberg Rassy's are.

We've been visiting a lot of beautiful boats these last weeks and found a couple of very interesting ones for sale in our neighborhoods. One Hallberg Rassy 38 and one 39, and we decided to go for any of them IF we got our boat sold in time. This is where we still are, many people have showed their interest but none of them could be able to fulfill the deal this year (which we can understand), so we'll have to wait. Now we know more or less what we want, but the timings must also be right. We are not in a hurry to make the exchange, and will not lower the price on our boat just to get it sold. The day we get it all perfectly matched, will be the day we'll exchange to the next boat. Until then, Caos is the one taking us around the world, and we are perfectly happy with that. Especially now when she is getting close to perfection!

Next on the agenda: Figure out which brand to invest in for a full set of new sails.

/Taru

A weekend of shopping

Tip of the week came from the wonderful Dreamkeeper crew aka Gar and Nicole, who're in town for some weeks for a stop in Barcelona before they head further West on their last leg of their 4 year long circumnavigation. Besides of tons of other invaluable sailing-around-the-world-tips, they explained for us the convenience of having a printer/scanner/photo printer onboard for all administrative paper work in harbors etc so yesterday we went out for some printer shopping. Shopping has by the way been our main task this weekend. IKEA shopping, tea shopping, electronic shopping, computer shopping and some provision shopping has filled our days and if we thought the boat was over weight before, it is nothing to what it is today. Alex is begging me to throw out more of my shoes to get some additional space, as we still haven't organized our new boat buy, and I guess I soon have to give in for the pressure. Who needs 30 pairs of shoes on the oceans anyway? /Taru

Sunny days

It's a beautiful and sunny day today. Starting to get a little colder in the nights here in Barcelona but we can still enjoy hot, Mediterranean climate on the sunshine hours - hoping to be able to do so all those days until we're leaving this town in 36 days. /T

Mashed potatoes from heaven

When I grew up, mashed potatoes was equal to: potatoes-butter-milk-salt-pepper and nothing else. Nowadays I'm trying to experiment as much as possible with it, as it goes with close to anything and the homemade version is a serious classic none can live without, right?

Sometimes I'll add herbs, sometimes bacon or parmesan - sometimes I'll make it simple with only some salt and oil, but this one I have to consider to be the favorite:

I boil my potatoes in small cubes. In the meanwhile I'll fry some very thin cut red onion and 2 small cloves of crushed garlic. When the potatoes have boiled (around 15 minutes), I'll mash them (but not too much, leave some chunks!), adding the onion mix, liquid cream, loads of butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of chili powder. This might not be either a low carb or low fat alternative, but oh so damn good. It goes especially well with grilled chicken or fried fish but really anything goes, I'm sure.

Try it!

Picture: My mashed potatoes served with fried Barracuda meat.

3. What language do you speak to each other?

Let us proceed with the inquiries you guys had for us.

I can understand that you might wonder about the language thing as we're of French/Greek/Finnish/some sort of Swedish-origins and none the same as the other but the answer is very simple. Besides of a lot of bodytalkin', we're using the International language of English to make ourselves understood.

It is not always we do so, though, and there are a lot of misunderstandings made (especially in arguments!) and it will most probably get plenty of more of them in the future, but at least we're getting close to where we want. It is certainly a pity that we sometimes can't express ourselves and our deepest thoughts with the most perfected words, as none of us speaks completely perfect English, but that's how it goes when choosing a partner from another country. We could of course converse in Spanish as well as that is a language we both master (though Alex is much better than me), but English is definitely the one in which we have the largest vocabulary - beside of our own ones.

Alex is also teaching me some French and I'm hoping to be able to speak it well after the circumnavigation. At the moment I can only boast with an excellent vocabulary of naughty and expletive words, and with those I do not get very far in life. /T

Sagone/Vico

One of those days in Corsica, we anchored up in Sagone and had a day-trekking-tour to the small village of Vico. Vico can be found some miles up in the mountains, inside of the Corsican island. A beautiful, very petite countryside village where Alex spent many of his early ages with his family. The place was so very peaceful and also reminded me of the small village in Sweden (Magra, 72 km from Gothenburg) where I grew up among horses, cows, deep forests and a feeling of being totally cut off from everything else that was going on in the big world.

As there were no buses or trains, we hitchhiked our way up on the mountains and got a pleasant ride by 1. A firefighter 2. A young man on his way to work 3. A man, his daughter and their very amusing and happy dog - in the back of their pickup along with the dog.

It was a beautiful and funny day and very wonderful to get high up in the mountains for some variation from the sea life. Too bad the owners of the horse ranch weren't there, I would have loved to have a ride and also see Alex on a horse. Next time!

The car of the village's pastor.

Beautiful view and delightfully fresh air.

Blueberries in the forest.

I told Alex to take my picture while I was standing inside of a cork tree. I wasn't there for very long though as I suddenly felt termites all over my feet and inside of my shoes!! Alex couldn't stop laughing and made fun of me for the fact that I would do anything to have a nice photo of myself. I don't understand what he means.

We were strolling along in the forest and suddenly a cow showed up from nowhere. They walk along completely free and liberated here on this island. Along with other types of animals such as donkeys, goats, cats, dogs and chickens.

Hello there little beauty!

In the back of the truck with a friendly dog.

1. Who are we? and 2. How did we meet?

One very frequently asked question that we've received on the blog since we started this documentary of ours is: Why don't you guys tell us more about you!?!?

That is a very vague question which might be in need of a complex answer so I'm not sure where to start, but here we go with a short introduction of us both...

Alex was born 1973 in Paris, France. He's half French, half Greek. Grew up as a globetrotter already as a child due to his mom's career in the French embassy abroad in several conflict areas around the world. This obviously gave Alex the taste of diversity of different worlds, from a very early stage. One year he sailed his small optimist and fished Barracudas bigger than himself on the coast of Angola, Côte d'Ivoire or Zaire. The following years he became witness of the disaster that war brought into Lebanon and some years after he would wake up every morning to the sound of the morning prayer call from the Grand mosque of Omayyad, Damascus.

In between studies in France in his early 20's, he left Europe again for surfing around the globe. This brought him to California, South Africa, Mexico and Australia. No matter where he ended up, he was always close to the sea. Sometimes he lived on a boat, occasionally in a house on the beach or on a surfing camp. The sea has played a massive role in his life, still do, and he was also studying the basic courses for becoming an oceanographer, but later on he changed direction into the music industry. After five years of studying at the university, he graduated as a Sound/Mastering Engineer and it is from that profession he has made his living in the past ten years or so. That is also what brought him to Barcelona, where he opened his own mastering studio.

People who know Alex would all describe him as a very relaxed and down to earth person. I assume his story and his fascinating adventures from the day he was born until today - has made him a very humble, loving and understanding human being. He is a person who has his heart on the right place and appreciates the real things of life, instead of the materialistic or worldly objects. I admire him for many of his strengths, rare personality traits, which make me love and respect him more than any man I met, or ever thought I would have the chance to meet.

He has been sailing all his life and he bought and moved aboard Caos, just three months before he met me here in Barcelona. Considering the fact that I had never sailed in my whole life before I met Alex and now we live together on the boat, is a great proof of how compatible we find ourselves to be with one another - since the very first months we met.

So what about me?

I was born in Finland in 1982. A short history lesson for you who are not familiar with my part of the world: Finland is the small country between Russia and Sweden, close to the North pole in the North. Finland hasn't been independent for more than 93 years of its history and it has experienced a past of cruel civil wars, the cold winter war against Russia in the 30s and my grandparents were fighting on the German side against Russia, in the Second World War. My family has for years and generations been a very divided one, all the way from the early periods of the war. Me myself took on my grand mothers destiny and just like her, I grew up in an orphanage. She as a war child in Sweden before she moved back to Finland to produce my family, and me in a smaller city of Finland. I lived in the orphanage from the age of 3 and when I was around 9, I got moved to a foster family in Sweden and there is also where I got a new family and siblings, went to school, got my first best friends and learned to take care of myself - as I moved from "home" at the early age of 16.

Traveling came to be a very important part of my life as well and all the way since I moved from home as a teenager, I have done everything in my power to get out in the world to explore new places, cultures and people. Might be my background made me more unbound and free from the usual need of security - as I remember myself traveling to places such Egypt, Malaysia and Spain just by myself, at the age of 18-20 and one day I decided to leave the security in the neutral country of Sweden behind, for adventures in Spain. I stayed some months, came back to Sweden, opened up my own fashion store travelled extensively between New York, Paris, London for some years, worked hard for some more years, moved to the Middle East for a year or so and then back again to Barcelona, Spain - where I later on met Alex.

After around four lovely months of, again, living in the beautiful, wonderful Spanish city Barcelona, I was due to organize a Halloween party in my house for all of the craziest people I knew in town. Earlier that night, one of my friends asked me if it was OK to bring another friend of hers. Of course, I told her, who is he? "He is very nice guy, I'm sure you would like him. He's living on a boat, driving a Harley Davidson, he has a lot of tattoo (very important information?) and is just the sweetest man on earth in all his beauty and craziness. I'm sure you'd like him." - she told me, and left me intrigued. He came very late that night, and he was indeed very intriguing. And very, very sexy. At this time of my life I was more than fed up with men - but this one was special. He kidnapped my camera and took my photos all night and I remember I was flattered and also impressed by his creativity. He was the only one with a steady calmness, sober and all, among us butterflies flying high in the night and he had the manners, those manners that are so rare to find in this modern world. He simply got me feeling things. Wonderful things and I even remember I told my friends in front of him that night: "This is the man I'm going to marry one day" - given the fact that I do not believe in marriages, that was a clear statement of the strong impression this stranger had on me. So... 7am that morning, when everyone was on their way home, I told him that he had to stay with me and ... the rest is history.

Here are some photos from the first night we met, Alex taking all pictures (expect the ones where he's included obviously..)

And the first time Alex took me out sailing, with a couple of our friends.

And here is my private little story of my last 12 months spent in Barcelona, written in my other blog.

/Taru

Pause music

Sorry for the delay! Answers coming later tonight! Why don't you listen to this old goodie in the meanwhile.

A historical day

I'm just ploughing through the embarrassing results of last nights election of the Swedish parliament and thereafter I will answer some of the questions you had for us. Talk soon.

The photo has obviously nothing to do with the text, just thought I could light up they grey and depressing day a bit. It is also a reminder that we need to wash the sails asap. /Taru

Baking day

While Alex is up on deck refitting our teak, I'm working on some online projects and simultaneously baking bread in the Remoska. This is my favorite Focaccia, but instead of the all-purpose flour, I used whole grain to get a more rich and rustic texture and plenty of more fibers (rosemary excluded as well).

I'm in a serious baking mood today. Just finished the bread, thinking of mixing together some ultra-thin pancakes now and dying to have a fudgy chocolate cake or a sweet cake with fig marmalade for later on.. Just too bad we don't have enough space for a freezer in this boat so my bakings could be saved for more then a few days... hoping to get it solved for the next boat. /Taru

Various pics from Corsica

What you want to know

43 days left till departure! Cannot believe how fast time has gone since we decided to do this and now it's soon about time to set off.. Many pending things still to take care of and it feels like an mission impossible to be able to finish it all in 43 days. However, 31st of October is THE date and 31st of October we will leave.

Many of you have asked us if we can't tell more about us. Also we have received a big bunch of questions and inquiries by email since we started this blog, so we decided it would be fun to collect the most frequently ones here on the blog so you guys can get to know us a bit better! If you have anything in mind you want to know about us, the trip or whatever: add your question here in the comments or simply send us an email. We'll give answer to everything we find appropriate for the blog, after the weekend.

Best in Corsica

One of the most amazing places we visited on our last journey was Girolata. This bohemian village on the west coast of Corsica can only be visited by boat as no roads are built to it to preserve the village's natural beauty and environment. We were glad to have found such a great shelter when the storm hit in, as the village gave us some excellent last couple of days in Corsica before leaving the island for this time. The turquoise bay, the green and moist hills and the free spirited hippie ambience makes this small village a rare beauty hidden in between the slope of the steep mountains.

It was beautiful to see the animals here, living just like they were free - the donkeys strolling along with the cows, the cats and dogs running in and out of the bars and creperies. This place offers such an relaxing environment that it was hard to leave.

Some amenities can be found such as a few restaurants, smaller accommodations, a couple of bars, wifi from the marina (bad reception though), water service on the pontoon etc.

Mooring on buoys around 27 Euros for our 10,5 meter vessel. Wifi 5 Euros for 24 hours. You can also anchor up just outside of the moorings, but that wasn't possible while we were there as of the strong SW winds.

Girolata is a Must-Go, when visiting Corsica!