Tikkels & Munten

One thing that is both good and bad with being on a Dutch island (ok half Dutch, half French), is that there's loads of different salty liquorice, very similar to the Swedish and Finish stuff, to find in the stores. That's great because I haven't had any since we had friends visiting us back in February or when I flew home to Finland a couple of days after that. But it's also really, really bad because I can't hold myself from eating too much of it when I get it, I mean too much when you can't eat your lunch or dinner because you're already full from the two bags of salty coins and pastels you just treated your poor stomach with. I certainly have no self control whatsoever when it comes to this shit. Shall we move over to the French side, please?

Beach break

My beautiful silk kaftan is from this brand.

We're having a really good time here, in between all work.. Alex forced me to move my ass from the computer today to spend the afternoon at the beach instead and I must say it was a good move. Loving the vibe of this island. Should have less work to deal with and more time for island exploration after the weekend hopefully. 

Purple sky

Caos lonely at the quay, one quiet night in Gustavia, St Barts. St Martin (SXM) in the background.

Hey Randy, you forgot your cap!

Les Voiles de St Tropez

Did you know that the previous owner of this beauty of a boat that we're now busy preparing for a circumnavigation was D Randy West? Yes, the professional racing sailor, multihull captain and author of the famous Hurricane Book. Randy is very well known here in the West Indies, particularly on our favorite island St Barts where he lived for over 30 years, with Duende for some of them. Alex and I had the chance to meet this crazy entertaining man a couple of weeks ago and boy did he have some interesting stories to tell. Look out for more of them in his upcoming new book. I'd also like to suggest you to check out his very amusing first: The Hurricane Book, that's 18 stories from the 18 hurricanes he has survived, all told in a very humorous and informative way. 

Galley friend

These miniature bottles of rum that people left here or I don't know from where we got them, comes very handy in the kitchen. Instead of opening the big bottles, I use these little bastards to add a few drops in the cakes that I bake, in my West-Indian chicken stew, in fruit-salads, over grilled vegetables and every thinkable concoction that could be in need of some sweet improvement. Very practical as there are only very few things in life that wouldn't taste better with some rum mixed with it.

We're home

So we are back in St Martin again. With our new baby, Duende. We're slowly getting used to this new island which will be our new home for the following four weeks at least. Looking forward to spend an extended time around here. It's always kind of exciting to get to know a new place/new country for real, and not just by passing by for a day or two. Particularly appealing is it here in the Caribbean, where a number of countries with many different cultures, people, lives and societies are located so close to one another, just a few hours of sail in between them. There's definitely an island for everyone and for every taste here in these crystal clear waters of the West Indies.

Busy

Sorry for the lack of interesting updates lately, its just that we are so incredibly busy with all kinds of urgent things around here. If I only had the time to process all the photos from these past four weeks, I would love to share with you:

• Pics from the week we spent with Alex family in St Vincent and Bequia


• A story from our rainforest trekking in Dominica


• All the wonderful photos from our day in the waterfalls and beyond in Pitons, St Lucia


• Also I'd like to answer all the questions and emails we've received lately


• Tell you more about our new boat


• Add a FAQ section to the blog

But this we have no time for what so ever, as we're super busy here doing this:

• Writing a long article for the worlds most stylish yachting magazine, deadline Monday


• Snapping shots for several different photo assignments


• Preparing the purchase list for the equipment we need for Duende


• Ordering everything we need for the same


• Preparing the new boat for further travels around the world


• Dealing with new sponsors and partners


• Answering the 20 most important emails in the list of hundreds


• Answering questions for an interview


• Also I'm trying to find some time to write on my book

So many projects and missions constantly going on in our lives, it never ends and being born restless, it really seems like we never can take a step back and chill down. Properly. We definitely have to work on this. One day. Maybe when we get to the Pacific?

And oh, somebody asked us why we have chosen to have someone else moderating the comments that we receive to this blog, and that's simply because out of thirty nice ones there's always one retard trying to annoy us and as you can understand, we have neither time nor space for that kind of bullshit. For the rest of you, you amazing people that send us normal comments, the ones that we actually do read and all of you who've been in touch with us by email and/or through our other social media sites, we love you all and appreciate that you take your time to talk to us. I just have to apologize that we have been late in responding some of the emails that we've received lately, we'll get better on this as soon as it chills down here a bit. I'm sure you know how much we love sharing this journey with y'all.

That's it for now, listen to this great track produced by Alex's brother in the meanwhile if you'd like.

We'll be back with you soon.

Back to the sea

So it took about two comfortable nights of quiet, non-rolly sleep and three days of land walking to get back to the sailing mood again. I think I told you before but sailing is deeply addictive, once you got the salt water in your veins it's very hard to get it out and it starts to itch under your skin when you've been away from the ocean for too long. We'll be hanging out in and around Antigua for a couple of more days before we head back to Duende. Hoping for the wind to shift back to E so we can get a pleasurable passage back to St Martin after the weekend.

5:30

One of the many fishermen you might meet if you are up early in the mornings. This encounter was made outside of St Pierre, Martinique a couple of weeks ago.

Exclusive Brazilian Beachwear

We're back in Antigua for a few days because of a number of reasons, one of them being that we had got a few parcels delivered to our address here. This is a sneak peak of what was hiding in one of those. Delicious bikinis and sophisticated beachwear from one of the most interesting swimwear brands right now: Babajaan. I'll show you some more of my favorites from that collection soon, in the meanwhile you can find parts from the Brazilian born Sandra Moleirinho's new collection here on Net-a-Porter. 

A harmonic weekend

Finally I'll have some time to share some more photos from our wonderful stay at Buccament Bay Resort in St Vincent the other week. One afternoon we anchored up in the lush bay of Buccament, we got greeted at the beach by the staff with drinks waiting for us upon our dinghy arrival. What a mad contrast to our simple cruising lifestyle. Being the only boat anchored in the private bay that weekend, we had our Caos in clear view during our whole stay, making the experience one step greater, I mean how often do you get to arrive with and park your own boat on a five star resorts private waters just outside of the luxurious villa you're staying in for the weekend? 

The resort itself is idyllically located inside of a volcanic valley, among rainforest and steep green hills, a place on earth almost surreal in its beauty. The settings reminded us of a colorful fairy-tale with its natural fairness beyond imagination. The perfectly white sand beach laid out a smooth and silky carpet before the crystal clear water and the large pool area with a sophisticated bar and a stylish restaurant overlooked the same calm sea from above. Our villa was tastefully equipped with the latest technology, discreet art and all was decorated in subtle peaceful tones. We had a large private jacuzzi on our terrace and everything else was available that one could be in need of. A large comfortable bed with crisp white cotton linen for example, something that we don't really miss in our nomadic boat life before we actually get into one. Oh those mornings in the bed of the resort, wish they could never end.. We had only three things on our mind when we arrived to the resort and they all got very much fulfilled: eat, sleep and relax and I can't think of a better place for satisfying those needs and wishes than this place where the food and drinks were outstanding, the staff and the service was all equally flawless in every little detail and the ambiance and the astonishing surroundings gave us an incredible peace of mind. Three days swept away faster than ever before... Definitely hoping we'll get the chance to revisit one day. 

For more info of this amazing place, check out the Buccament Bay Resort's website. 

After the storm comes beach

The storm passed by our area pretty quickly. Four hours of 25-40 knots of wind and our two anchors held us in place without any kind of problem. It was kind of a small storm after all and like Alex said; we've been through worse, and those times we were far from land and safe anchorages. The sun's now back here again and we're heading to the beach for some meditation time. Haven't slept much last night due to the screaming wind so a day on the beach is perfect.

By the way, as we don't moderate the comments ourselves any longer we don't get to see more than the comments that gets published here in the blog, but I just got the information that a few of you still insist on commenting anonymously. Please make sure to add your name to what you have to say, otherwise your comment/questions and wonderings won't go through. 

Have a great Sunday evening you all. 

Irene

Already in the early beginning of the year, when they announced this years names for the upcoming hurricanes of this season, I said to Alex that Irene would probably come our way. Not that I'm an expert in tropical storm developments or anything, it was just a feeling I had, most likely because Irene was the name of my beloved and very much missed grandmother and it is also my own middle name. So now it seems like I was right in my prediction. Irene is the ninth named storm in this 2011 Atlantic hurricane season and it is predicted to develop into the first real hurricane, sometime on Monday when it should approach the coast of Dominican Republic. Luckily, for us, the storm isn't going to reach those terrible and devastating hurricane forces before it has passed through the Lesser Antilles and moved on to the West, but nevertheless we are expected to get a good portion of strong winds, 40-50 knots, and the typical torrential rain that usually develops with these tropical depressions. Alex woke me up at 2.20 am a couple of hours ago and we have now set out a second anchor (using a Delta and a CQR) and more chain so let's now hope that the boat will stay firmly with this set up until the storm has drifted away. 

This is the first tropical storm in our lives, hoping it will be an experience not too powerful. It would also be amazing if Irene could hold herself as close to the coast of Guadeloupe as possible as she's now  supposed to hit land for the first time since she was developed into a storm. We're currently around 60 nm from the center of the storm. Click here for more info about Irene.

Exhausted

We have sailed around 1000 nautical miles in the past 30 days, that's very many miles let me tell you and I feel it in every part of my body. Now I hope for at least four-five days of non movement under my feet, no rolling, no banging into waves, no uncomfortable heeling and no more sleepless nights during night watches for a while. I know I'll get the lust back for getting out on the ocean again in approximately five days but until then I'm glad we're safely anchored up and with no intention to move from here for at least the following 96 hours.

J'adore St Barth

We were supposed to sail down to Antigua to fix some stuff down there for a few days but we got stuck in between on this amazing French island again. St Barth is dangerously close to St Martin where we supposedly will spend quite a lot of time this year, only a three hours sail away, and I can imagine that we will find many future occasions and excuses to jump over to spend some good times here. St Barth is an exquisite French island smacked into the most beautiful of the Caribbean waters and it is very easy to fall in love with the style, the vibe and the beauty of this place. Having major headache from last nights party but Alex has already forced me to change the sails so we're now on our way on the seas again. Hoping that the salt water and breeze will help me to recover.. 

One of those sunsets

One night at Buccament Bay resort, St Vincent.

Costs updated

I realize I forgot two important parts on our sailing budget that I showed you the other day.

Fuel: €75/month - We're cruising around the world with a sailboat and we hate the sound of the engine running so we try to keep the fuel cost at the minimum. We rarely spend more than this per month.

Laundry: €40/month - As we definitely have no space on the boat for a washing machine, and because we are extremely lazy and bored with hand washing, we leave our clothes for cleaning as soon as we get the chance in a harbor or town. We're washing maybe 4 machines per month and generally it costs €10 per machine and at least here in the Caribbean, you get your clothes back clean, dry and nicely folded for this price.

The new project

So here's a few more shots of our new boat. Everyone who sees her goes "oh wow, look at those elegant lines!!" and yes the lines of this classic yacht are indeed very beautiful but our focus have completely gone from that aspect and all we can feel right now is merely something like: Holy fucking shit, what have we done? How the hell will we ever have the time to make her ready to sail out into the Pacific before April 2012?? 

Updates

Arriving to the crystal clear waters of SXM

So much to do, so little time. If I only had the time to show you and tell you all about everything we've been up to in this past month that would be nice but time doesn't allow me at the moment, therefore all these ultra short posts. Anyhow, we are in St Marteen and have started with the work on our new boat. She's up on the hard at the yard and we are going through everything that has to get done on this old lady, it's a serious amount of work I can assure you, I get sick only thinking of it all. Luckily I found a wifi here in the restaurant just next to the boat so I can escape the boat work every once in a while. I will show you pics of the beauty later on if that could be of interest.

On another note: I have understood that the picture of the sailfish we got the other day has disturbed some of you and yes I can understand that, sailfish are a beautiful fish which belongs to the sea, but in this particular case the poor thing was dead already when Alex reeled it close to the boat so we thought it would have been a waste to throw it back dead into the water. Instead it came to good use by a family we met at the dock in St Barts and they now probably have fish to eat for a whole month.

We have by the way received loads of questions/emails about a lot of things lately and although I don't have the time right now to personally answer them all, sorry for that, I promise to get back to you when it is a bit more quiet around here.

And the last thing that I had on my mind is the cake competition we announced for some weeks ago, the winners are ...... Richard Jagger and Eveline Dalin. Congrats to you both, cakes are on their way..

Sint Maarten/Saint Martin

Back in St Martin. The island of contradictions.

Last night in St Barts

We sold the fish and went for dinner at L'entracte instead. Great food, great service, great atmosphere and great conversations just by the harbor. It's very busy around here at the moment, restaurants, bars and clubs are jam packed compared to when we were here last time two months ago. It's summer vacation for the French and other Europeans whom have now invaded this lovely little island and it feels almost like being in St Tropez in the summertime. 

Your private cocoon

I am totally and completely in love with this amazing invention sent to us by the Cacoon team. It is the most cozy little thing into which you can escape and close yourself off from the outside world for a while. Your perfect cocoon where you can relax, read, or just... hang around. Best thing is you can hang it wherever you wish. In a palm tree, on your boat, in your house or garden and it is made of sailcloth which makes it super resistant and strong. Thanks so much for this guys, our Cacoon will come to very much enjoyment!

Click here for more details and info on where you can get your own Cacoon.

Sail fish on the hook

We are in St Barts to refuel before we head over to St Martin. Alex caught this 1,85 m long sailfish just outside here on the coast, what a beauty.

Chocolate in the making

There are many ways to save money and great possibilities to stay self sufficient when sailing the seas. You could make your own chocolate for example. That's just what Alex is up to at the moment, drying the cocoa beans (from the cocoa fruits we got in Dominica the other day) in the sun while we're sailing towards St Martin. Perfect day here by the way. 14-16 knots of wind from E-NE, flat sea and blue skies. Arriving to our new boat tomorrow afternoon.

Costs - updated

Many of you have asked us to share our thoughts about the costs involved in sailing the oceans and traveling the world like we do so I thought I could show the most basic thoughts here. I will only get into it quite briefly now to not make it all sound boring but generally, these five factors are what must be considered before taking off for any journey around the world, according to us:

- The cost of the boat - or whatever other vehicle you might wish to travel in.

- Monthly costs like food, living, harbor fees, custom fees, boat maintenance etc. 

- A buffer for unexpected costs and happenings.

- A good travel insurance for yourself (and your boat).

- Communication in terms of Internet and/or phone.

The cost of your boat/vehicle is naturally very individual. If you browse the boat sites out there you will realize that there are seaworthy ships from as low as €15.000 and up to the millions, all depending on what you are looking for and what your requirements are with safety, comfort and style. There are obviously a wide range of safety equipment, electronics and other things that needs to get installed on your boat to make it ready to cross oceans if you are not buying a completely ocean ready boat that is.

Ok, so you have your boat, or you are maybe planning to travel the world in a backpack, and now you'll need to figure out how much money you need to bring with you. We live much cheaper here at sea compared to what we did at home in Europe, this means almost no shopping (maybe only €100 per month), not much restaurants, no clubbing and not at all as much bar hopping that we might have done in the past, or at least it is much cheaper here in the Caribbean.

Harbor fees: Since we left Europe behind, we have rarely spent our nights in marinas. There are so many amazing anchorages to choose between here in the Caribbean, and also since we are living on our savings with not much incomes coming in, we do not feel like wasting our money on harbor costs when we can be out in the free nature. We spend maybe 1-2 nights per month in harbor. This occurs mainly when we feel the need of cleaning out the boat completely or when we wish to top up the batteries and fill the water-tank without hassle. Cost in harbor for a boat in our size is around €20-40/night here in the Caribbean and I count water and electricity included in this cost. This sums it up to a total of €60/month.

Sometimes we pick up a mooring buoy when anchoring is prohibited, add an additional €60/month for that.

Custom fees: Depends of course on how many different countries you wish to visit. If you are sailing only in one country this will never affect you, but as soon as you cross borders you will get aware of the very different procedures and costs that comes with traveling in and out of countries. Here in the Caribbean we love entering French islands, not only because we know that there is plentiful of good wines, cheeses and yoghurts to choose between in the grocery stores, but also because the clearance procedures are the simplest and best of all, it is free to clear in and out of them. You register yourself on a computer based in the customs office, get a stamp by the officer and off you go. On other islands the procedure can take much longer time, you might have to run between the immigration, customs, police stations and you will probably have to pay a big fee divided in many small fees to enter their land. Bequia is a good example of a very costly clearance. Last time we had to pay approximately 200 ECD (around 70 Euros) to get the allowance to sail and anchor in and around the waters. Might not sound much for non-sailors but imagine that we have cleared in and out to/from ten countries in only the past six months and much more will there be, plus you will have to add your mooring fee and sometimes also anchorage fee in case you wish to anchor somewhere where the waters are included in a national park. Since we're traveling quite a lot in between countries these days, our estimated monthly customs cost is around €250 although we try to avoid this as much as we can.

Food: Also very individual of course. Are you a gourmand or do you do well with pasta and canned meat? We try to not eat out in restaurants too much while living this life as I have all the time in the world to experiment with dishes that I always dreamed of making, and also because we do not want to spend our complete monthly budget on bars and restaurants. I could maybe estimate the dining-out-cost to be around €200 month in total. Some months more, some months less obviosuly. We shop groceries for around €100/week = €400 month. I guess you can do it much cheaper than that and also you could spend much more than that if you want but try to calculate what you really would feel conformable with, and of course what your wallet allows for. Food cost per month: €600. In fact, some months, when living much more remote and far from cities and restaurants, we have made it in around €400, we hope to get it down to this cost when we get out in the Pacific for example.

Boat maintenance: This depends so much on how well maintained your boat is. We are lucky that Alex loves working on his boat projects and that he has done it on this very boat since the first day he bought her - this has given us quite a lot of peace of mind and we haven't had any real failures with Caos since we left Morocco behind (there was that autopilot thing last year if you remember?). But we're counting around €275 per month for engine maintenance, varnish, change of oil, diesel and so forth.

Laundry: Spending around €40 per month on this.

Insurance: We have chosen this boat insurance which also covers our personal travel insurance needs. Assurances Plaisance have proved to be the best for our needs and they allow us to sail here in the Caribbean in hurricane season as long as we follow strict guidelines and safety instructions in case of a hurricane where we are located. For other travelers, for example backpackers, I would suggest this travel insurance which seem to be the best out there to help you insure yourself and your belongings while traveling the world by foot, plane, train or however you transport yourself in the world. We pay around €3.000 annually for our boat and personal insurances with Assurances Plaisance, this can of course be much cheaper if you choose to sail in only one specific area of the world and if you are backpacking obviously.

Communication: Most people who are sailing or traveling around the world rely on free or paid wifi in coffee-shops and bars to stay connected with family and friends. We do too, but we have also a satellite unit onboard our boat when a wifi is too far away. The installment and the actual unit was ridiculously expensive (around €7.000) we certainly believe this will be less expensive in a couple of years, but the monthly cost thereafter is alright, we pay around €200 for the airtime plan that we chosen. This satellite connection gives us great security in the way that we can monitor the weather easily from any ocean in the world, we can regularly check our emails, we can call emergency or whoever we want from anywhere in the world through the sat phone that comes with it and of course, the blog will be updated every day if we feel like it.

So the sum of these factors brings it up to:

Food cost: €600 

Customs, mooring, harbor fees: €370 

Boat maintenance: €275
Laundry: €40

Insurance: €250 

Internet: €200 

+ Shopping: €100

€1835 or $2644 per month.

We know it is very easy to live much cheaper than this, the day we would absolutely need to, we could easily cut down on the food cost, the customs, the Internet and so on and we know of people who makes a trip like ours in €500/month. I believe in general that if you have a good boat, or a good plan for how to travel the world, plus if you have money saved for food and unexpected happenings plus a good insurance, then you're free to go. I haven't included the buffer for unexpected costs in our calculation but I guess there isn't much left for us since we are spending most of the money we have on living a very, very comfortable life.

Early morning in Portsmouth

I have by the way added some of our very favorite websites and blogs down on the sidebar to the right. There are so many pages out there to read but these are some of them that I/we always get back to to find a good style, good vibes and plenty of inspiration. Will add up with some additional sites in the next few days.