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. 

Stormy weather

We were kind of supposed to leave towards St Martin today to visit our new boat, but this heavy rain and thunderstorm won't let us. We just had some gusts up to 60 knots of wind here in this bay and when studying the storm potentials on this excellent website, it also looks like we should keep an eye out for a tropical storm that is now building East of the antilles. We know that we aren't in the most perfect place on earth at this time of the year considering what season it is but let's hope no hurricanes will arrive at least before we get ourselves away from here.

Will need to be in Martinique by the 28th at the latest.

Rum for all

Here's our friend Byron. He's homeless and spends his days hanging around here in between Nelsons Dockyard and Falmouth Harbor. He sometimes asks people for money and so also us and I guess we've given him some dollars every time we had something with us. Since we have gotten to know each other better now as we've been around here a few months, we occasionally buy him a bottle of rum, too, because that's what he anyway will go and buy for the money. Who doesn't get happier with some warming and delicious rum? I know I do. And once when we had cleaned the boat here and we gave Byron some clothes that Alex no longer uses, he turned around and looked at us with a bothered face: "Clothes? For what? Does it look like I'm homeless or what?" whereupon he cracked up in his characteristic loud laughter while he happily grabbed the bag. Ahahah. Gotta love this guy. Think we'll need to get him another bottle of Cavalier before we leave this place.

Daily purchase/fruit shopping in Saint John's

Pineapple, mango, tamarind, soursop, orange, kiwi, banana, starfruit, melon, sugar apple, papaya....  

It's all about time

One other good thing with leading a life like we do, far from it all to repeat myself for the hundredth time, is that you have all the time in the world to make all those things you never usually would have the time for. At home in the city, you continue to collect pages from magazines, handwritten notes and bookmarks are slowly filling up your computer with things that you should get back to, to read one day when "there is time for it", but you always end up not coming back to it, simply cause a normal life doesn't offer much free time in the end. A normal life is too busy anyway and doesn't in fact offer that much free time to reflect, breath and to do what you always wanted to do alone, in peace. Our society is not made for this type of relaxations, it is made for working hard and constantly delivering results.

Here, on the other hand, we have all the the time we wish to read all of those books we always wanted to devour, we have the time to check off all those movies from that miles-long list of old classics, Alex has all the time he want for all of his boat projects (never ending, he always find something new to do), I have plenty of time for my book project (I see no end to this either, never thought a book would take so much time to write/photograph/edit) and also I can take my time to try out new interesting concoctions whenever I feel like. If you have followed us, you should know that I've been curious about the meat from the goats here in Antigua for quite some time now, and while we've tried the famous local speciality goat water a couple of times in several different local restaurants, I've finally had the chance to try it out myself, too. 

This goat stew on the picture is made with tons of garlic, a massive amount of yellow onion and a spicy pepper sauce. This was my first time ever to cook with goat but I prepared it more or less like I would have done with lamb. The meat itself is very low in fat with almost no marbling, just what I guessed, and I cooked it very slowly over low heat. Made for a good meal with butter and lemon cooked rice and enjoyed with a refreshing bottle of sparkling water. I'll probably try the curry stew version next time.

I have tons of more Caribbean delights and interesting new ingredients I wish to try out when there is time for it, and it is definitely a joy to be able to go them trough, one after another. Guava muffins or guava cake is something I wish to have the opportunity to get together soon too, maybe already tonight.

One night in Antigua

Lots of work done here today. We slept an amazing 13 hours last night and worked for approximately 12 today. Up again quite early tomorrow morning to finalize some stuff with the moving of things from the boat to our storage on land and then we have approximately 3-4 days left here on this island for this season as it seems, before we set sail towards new adventures in the Southern parts of the Caribbean island chain.

I'm also still fixing with this blog as you might have noticed, far from done with it, and I'm currently filling up with some highlights from this tour and also adding posts into the food/drinks section. If you have any suggestions on which posts to add in the highlights page, please let me know. Would be fun to know which posts from this journey have been your favorites thus far. I hope you all had a good weekend.

All things coco

And I ain't talking about Chanel this time.

What is more refreshing under the sun than fresh coconut water straight from the fruit?

I think I could live on coconuts, mango and ... rum and all things made of them. My three all time Caribbean favorites.

Lunch break

When not in the mood of cooking (it is almost too hot to cook here during the days anyway) we enjoy going to one roadside shack where Grace, a Grenadian woman who lived on this island for more than 20 years now, serves the most delicious Antiguan food. For 15 ECD (approximately 5:50 USD) you will get a plate of home-cooked, authentic meal based on either baked chicken, lamb, curry conch or baked pork served with the traditional rice and beans, some plantain banana, macaroni pie and fresh salad. We've tried many local restaurants around here but the best so far must be this one, Grace Before Meals is the name of the place and it is located in a small bright-colored orange/yellow house on the road between Falmouth Harbor and Nelson's Dockyard. Make sure to check it out next time you're around if you want to enjoy a delightful Caribbean meal.

7 mangoes later

I cannot express my love for these fruits well enough. They are absolutely divine and I can eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and before I go to bed. Simply can't get enough of their sweetness.

P.s: Sorry, the blog is still a bit disordered, I'm working on it. 

Drink of the night

Like I said earlier on our Twitter: I am such an extremist. No alcohol whatsoever for one week/ten days, and the following I tend to jump on every possibility that comes my way to sponge something alcoholic. Malibu is one other sort of rum that I can't get enough of. Makes for such sweet and delightful drinks that I'm almost able to convince myself that it isn't alcohol. So I drink it like juice and get drunk accordingly. Malibu mixes best with pineapple juice and coco Lopez like I showed you here, but it goes also very well down with sprite zero and a squeeze of lime for an extremely refreshing and a bit lighter version of a tropical coconut drink. Incredibly fresh and perfect for hot summer nights here in the Caribbean.

Cheers to life and have a great Thursday evening you all. /T

Time for a break

There's been a lot of work done here lately. Boat work, budget calculations and planning for the new boat, blog projects, book projects, photo assignments, body work at the gym, article writings, designing of that new website and everything else in between. Can't complain too much though, all of that will hopefully lead us to an even brighter future and everything we work on is completely self-chosen so we'll continue to work on, move on towards our goals. I remember we once said something like mmm, it will be so wonderful to finally have some peace, no work no nothing, just peace, on a deserted island far from it all... but we have slowly but surely understood that people like us we can't be just still doing nothing. At least not for a longer period of time. We need our projects and new exciting goals to look forward to, to be able to enjoy life fully - even if we physically might be away from it all. As long as we can be our own bosses and plan for our days as we wish, and as long as we enjoy what we do and have the time for what we love, then we're more than satisfied. And if we on top of all that have the freedom to move on the sea and in between countries as we wish, then life is pretty damn close to perfect.

But now let's leave work at home for a while and let's spend the rest of the day at the beach. Will try to have one complete afternoon with nothing but r e l a x a t i o n. Talk to you later. /T

Feel like getting tipsy tonight

Sometimes there ain't nothing better than:

1 part Mount Gay rum

2 parts diet coke

Maybe you could toss in a song like this too to make it all even one step sexier.

And that was the final words of wisdom I had to share with you all for today. /T

Mmmmmm mango

I never really thought of the fact that sorbet actually is so incredibly easy to produce. But it is. Ridiculously easy in fact. And what is more tasteful and suitable under the hot tropical sun than a big bowl full of sweet, ice-cold fruit sorbet? This very version that I concocted beats many many of the fabricated ones that I've tried in the past and I must say I definitely prefer it this simple: no dairy products, no sugar, and as pure and natural as it possibly can be. 

You know I've been raving about the Caribbean mangos at many times before and I still can't get enough of them. The ones used for this sorbet are not the super sweet ones, these are larger in size, the african ones as Alex likes to call them as they reminds him of the ones he use to eat back in Angola when he was younger - and these mangoes, which I don't know the correct name for, has a lightly almondy taste. They are still sweet and juicy, but much more firm in texture and nutty in taste than the ones I spoke about for some weeks ago. I used two large mangoes for this sorbet, one lime, some wonderful honey that we bought in Morocco in December last year and some water and that's really it. Couldn't be easier even if I tried.

For two bowls of sorbet you will need:

2 mangoes

1 lime

1/2 cup (1dl) water

1/2 cup (1dl) pure honey 

Peel your mangoes and cut it into small pieces. Puree now this well in a bowl, but make sure to leave some smaller chunks for a nice natural texture. In a small pan, bring your water to boil. When boiling, remove from stove and add the honey. Mix well for an minute more or less. Leave it to cool down. When cooled, pour this into your bowl of mango puree and squeeze in the lime juice from the fruit. I prefer to add also the pulp from the lime, but that one you can ignore if you don't like it. And that would be it. Done. Finished. You have your very own mango sorbet. Obviously you'll need to freeze this thing to be able to fully call it a sorbet, but you get the point. I froze mine in zip-lock bags, very convenient as our freezer here on the boat is so small and a bag like that only requires minimal space.

You can also exchange the mangoes to strawberries or pear or whatever fruits you prefer. I will definitely try out more of them in the nearest future. I would also love to add some mint into this particular one, but unfortunately they didn't have it in the local grocery store at this time.

Go ahead and try it, I'm sure you will love it! /T

Good morning

I am very anxious to try my homemade mango sorbet that I concocted last night. If only the freezer could have been a little bit more efficient... and it doesn't quite help that we're in the tropics either, things rather melt than freeze in this heat. Will get back with the recipe and photos in just a while. Have a good day you all. /T

Memories

It's a Depeche Mode Sunday here in our life today. One of the best albums ever made in the entire history of music is going on repeat here at the moment. DM has been pretty important to both me and Alex for many many years in both of our previous lives and when Alex first introduced me to his amazing underground music studio that he had in Barrio Gothico in Barcelona during that first winter that we met back in 2009 and the first track he put on in his powerful B&W 802 Nautilus speakers was one of my all time favorites, The Love Thieves, I almost cried because of the perfection I saw in this man. That was five days after we first got introduced to each other and a couple of weeks thereafter, Depeche Mode was about to give a concert in Palau St Jordi so I made sure to book some good tickets for us for that show. I surprised Alex with a night for us in one amazing suite with marvelous sea view at of the best five star hotels of Barcelona and we spent a great time at the concert followed by a perfect ending to the night in that very suite. I remember the day after to be a Sunday and in the morning, from our huge bed with panorama view over the ocean, we could observe an ongoing regatta going on down below at sea level, 18 floors down, and that was the day that we began talking about freedom and that we maybe one day should sail around the world together..

One additional amazing part of the story is that when we had enjoyed our breakfast in bed and we were about to check out, we met no one else but Dave Gahan in the lobby and we got the chance to get a quick chat with him before he ran off upstairs. So for this whole reason, and for other natural reasons like that DM have created some of the most immortal musical productions ever, is this group very important to us and will always remain.

Here are some more of my pics from that concert.

Dinner in St John's

We just got back home from St John's, the bustling capital of this little island. We took the bus in the rain, had some dinner over there and rode the bus back home again. I had by the way an amazing fresh cucumber juice to my meal, absolutely divine it was. I'm sure you all think I'm pregnant or something since I don't drink much alcohol any longer and we are getting ourselves a larger boat with one extra cabin and all, but that's not the case. I promise. /T

Water!

That's the only right thing to do in this heat..
And who cares if it's in the dirty waters of the harbor area, at least it's refreshing!

Good morning world

It's 6.30 and we're sitting here planning for the nearest future. Lots on our mind. The new boat. When should we leave. What about the hurricanes. Where should we go after Antigua. When will we be done with what has to get done on Caos. What is the plan when we get South. The new boat again. Is it a good choice. What are the benefits with such a drastic change of boat/home/vehicle and so on... You might think that we are on a permanent vacation of some sort, but this life is also very much our normal life. We have everyday things to deal with even though we might have chosen to call the world our home instead of having a fixed land based house or an apartment. We also have a future to plan for and we want to make sure that we take the right decisions and make the right moves, you know all those questions that most of us have to deal with in this world. Ok I can admit that the majority of things are easier to handle when you are not forced to work 9-5 and instead you're able to take those life decisions while surrounded by beaches and palm trees and beautiful nature, but still, this is our life and no matter how the layout of it looks, we want to make sure we do the things right. One thing that is really really annoying right now though, call it a luxe problem if you want, but the temperature and the humidity is almost unbearable here in the Caribbean at the moment. And when you are not on the beach or swimming, it is a joke to try to be fresh when sweat is constantly pouring down your skin. That's one of those problems we have to deal with over here..

Have a great Thursday you all. /T

Off the hook

It's not everyday you have to collect a fishing lure from the spinning wind generator while underway. A large barracuda made sure to get released by jumping around and desperately pulling the line several times. His last jump was so powerful that the whole line snapped off and got tangled in the AeroGen. That fish was just not meant to get caught.. /T

Night in Liberta

We had a loooong walk to the neighbor town tonight. Was really nice although the massive rain hit us just before we arrived into a safe and dry restaurant by the road. And lucky us to find out that buses were still running in between villages after 8.30 pm so we didn't have to walk all that long way back home again. /T