Most of the Crew on the deck.

On Dominica

This is how shining the boat gets...
The Diamond Waterfall
Jumping in from the boat

I read, listen to music and think when we sail....
Alcohol and party is quite a big part of the sailor life. The boats favourite drinks are: GT (Gin and Tonics) and of course CUBA LIBRE (as you can see from our sink)
This picture is taken 1000 Nautical miles from the nearest land....just swimming in the big blue sea.
Pretty me after shaving....and after 12 days sailing across the Atlantic... The other picture that you see below is our dear boat at St. Lucia...

Extracts from my Diary...

DIARY:
I am writing a couple of pages in my diary everyday. Mostly thought and feelings that I shouldn’t write in my blog, however, I have decided to add some of the "not personal one". So the next few paragraphs are small entries from my diary.

"Max and I tried to get a coconut down today. We didn't manage to, nature was simply too strong; again. Man always wants to beat nature, not realizing that he is a part of it. Me as well, I sail across the Atlantic because it is there (I have to beat
it). I went to Greenland to look at whales, but was it the whales that looked at me? We are catching fish everyday from the boat, but isn't a bit unfair to use to metal hooks disguised as a nice tasty fish? Many people think that they have won over nature, but we can still not control tornados and earthquakes. Man over nature... or Nature or man?"

"Damn, I am bored. One more day on the sea. It is day 10 on the sea, and still no land. Where the fuck does all this water come from? When I am really stressed always dream about doing nothing, now I am dreaming about doing something.
I have done yoga for one hour, a bit of physical training for 30 min. Reading for 4 hours....and what else can I do out here?
Sleep and cook...actually, I think I will make some bread now. I wonder if boredom is a domino effect; that you get bored from
being bored....Wauw, I must really be bored now...anyway, I have nothing to do, I should enjoy it. And it is for free."

"Sometimes it is a bit disgusting with all these tourist. On Cape Verde we saw how Germans and Italians go there to fuck, in the Caribbean’s, people come here to sail and escape from the bad weather. It is funny how I (and we on the boat), talk about tourists. We also talk about them as "Them". But what are we then?.... I always dream about not being the typical tourist, but then I have to stop trying not to be a tourist...because that is sooo tourist.... I guess that we are all tourist all the
time...There are at least some places I haven’t seen in Denmark yet....and a tourist is a person who sees/meet new people...
I still have many people to meet....Yeah, I am a tourist. A tourist is someone who is going on a trip for pleasure, according to the dictionary that we have onboard. Them I will jump out of the clothes as the biggest Life Tourist ever! I go on trips, only for pleasure...at least I try to!"

"Wauw, every single little Island we go to on Cape Verde has a coca-cola shop. A little read box where they sell beers and cokes. I have heard that the most known word in the world is "okay", the second most known is "Coca-cola". It is interesting, how weak that 1000 years old culture is, compare to coca-cola. Culture Vs. Coke, and coke will win on a knock-out. No doubt, about that. I really like to read the history books in 300 years time (if we live so long)..."Coca-cola was the most popular drink, and it spread over most of the world. If you wanted to taste food from China, South-Africa, Chile, France or Canada then you should go to MacDonalds....""

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.... My whole south-America trip is screwed... I think that I just will go home to DK and hide...start working so I can earn money and travel out again. I had just everything planned. I had used United World Connections, and
I got some good places to stay (except for Chile), my trip was planned down to every dollar....but then...Then I meet this
b**** at the tourist agency: " You cant leave Antigua if you don't have a ticket back home to DK...no, you are not allow to go to South America, sorrrryyy".....great, what a birthday gift I got there...I have the next 3 days to plan how to escape from this island....LEGALLY!!!! Nevertheless, I am happy that I have gotten into contact with so many UWC's because of my planned trip......I just hope that I will keep in contact with more of them...UWC is too important to let blow away"

"Amazing...Nareg got into Brown....Mathias got into Princeton....simply amazing, I am so proud of them...both of them deserves it! The even better part is, that both of them want to do a third year option before hand...Ivan and Ed is at Mathias' place, Hajja is going to Nareg's....strange.....There is a UWC New Year in Sweden...maybe I should have stayed back...hmm... maybe I should apply to Princeton, then I could save Mathias from turning into a new Erik...."

"WORK!!! I was told that many times at the college...I remember when I went to the university office, and I told them that I
wanted to chill out for 2-3 years before uni., they got a shock. No, no, no, you should work now and then...gain later.
Should I enjoy now? Or wait for later? and when does "later" end? I have decided to enjoy now, death came too close when I got
my operation....and I can't stop thinking about Javlon...Did he plan a lot for the future? Some people think that money is equal to happiness...I doubt it, it might make things easier, but not happier...Do I just write this, because I know that I will never be rich...a journalist will never get rich...maybe I should just live of the state...HURRAY for the welfare state.
I could have studied more and maybe gotten into a good university....But I really enjoyed laying in my bed writing these poems....I could have done my EE about other things than a book about drugs, but this book was just soooo good, and the movie even better....I shouldn't have talked with Mariano until 02.00 that night, when I had my English Oral the day after, I could have decided not to leave the history exam 1 1/2 hour before time, but I really wanted to go to Flekke Shop....btw, I think that i enjoyed quite a lot my whole life...but I never went skiing, climbing or sailing in the kayak at the college...whatever, Life is too short to think about all this....Who came third in World War II?!? Maybe I should go to bed now...
Has God ever got it wrong?"

"Let me present you for our Dear Mr. Johnson. Roselina would not be able to survive without him. He is our only contact with
the "land world". He rarely complains, only when he doesn't get enough to drink....he gladly helps all of us (11!!) at the same time, and he loves to go fast.... Mr. Johnson is always awake when we have been out clubbing, even though we have to wait for him sometimes....Dear Mr. Johson, you are the best engine that we have ever had!"

"I take up your dingy!", "What did you say?", "Im da man to take up the dingy", "what does it mean?", "I keep eye on your dingy when you are checkking"...."ehh, okay"....Boat boys are everywhere, they will gladly watch over your boat, and if you say no, then they will steal from it. They will help you with finding a laundry place, a nice restaurant, the police station, and where to get water on the boat. They are always willing to help you taking the boat up on the beach... They are everywhere
, especially in Cape Verde...but today I met a young kid on St. Lucia...they have discovered a new business here"

"So many days without a shower....Back home, I take a shower every single morning....here, I can go for 2 weeks without a shower...and no one complains, because everyone else on the boat does the same...The same with the washing of the clothes,
one month is nothing when you have ten pair of underwear’s....Sounds disgusting? I just have to remind myself that we are jumping in the ocean everyday, we are outside in the rain, and we only use a swimming suit, and rarely a t-shirt"

"BARBADOS!!! I saw grass today...both kinds, yeah, first the nice green grass, and then the grass that everyone calls Charley here...Everyone is asking if I want to smoke something, and people are smoking openly. I can also get something to the nose..
But I have to say no...I don’t have the money, and the boat doesn't allow it....next time Barbados, next time..."

"CHRISTMAS SONGS! WHAT! NOW! But...where is the snow? The long warm jackets? and most importantly of all...where is my moms home baked cakes?... I saw a Christmas Show today, and the girls were only wearing bikinis...WTF, that is not Christmas, at least not the Christmas that I am used to.... Christmas in the heat is very differently from what I am used to..."

"Orion...my best friend. He has been with me all the way since Gran Canaria. He is there when I am alone, and when everyone is looking at him. He takes the same walk everyday. From East to West. He has a nice belt, called, Orion's Belt, and there he has three small dots that I am always looking for in the middle of the night, when I am standing alone on the deck. The
starsign Orion is fantastic, and I feel something deep in my heart when I see it. It is so alive, and so far away...but always there!

"okay, this is going to be short, because I am very tired. I saw dolphins. Five of them jumping in the dark. They showed me the way. and then left in the dark. They never sleep. They always happy...or dear dolphins, thanks and goodnight"

"Every beer has is own island.... Banks belongs to Barbados, Piton belongs to St. Lucia, and Antigua has Wadadli (the slogan goes, Our Island, Our beer), the whole Caribbean's has the best of them all. It is called CARIBS"

"LOVE! I am in Love. I rarely falls in Love in material things...but it happened this time. My Love is a 20 years old girl. Or actually, a woman... She has seen quite a lot of the world. Her name is Roselina. I have never been the biggest sailor.
Two months ago, I didn't know anything about sailing. I couldn't see the difference between a Swan, a Ketch, a Benetou or a schooner. I did not know how to take up a sail, sail into a harbour, or cook food in big waves. I am actually gotten into it now, I would not mind crossing the Atlantic one my time. I can be fascinated by big boats, and yesterday we saw a big cruiser ship with 5 masts, I simply had to take a picture of it. Normally, I wouldn't take pictures of silly ships...but I do now.
I just need a tattoo now with a big anchorage."

Part two of "To blog or not to blog"

We decided to go and see the Diamond Botanical Garden, everyone talked about the famous waterfall, and we really wanted tosee it. We were ready to go, all eleven of us. The backpacks were packed with water, food and cameras. We started the long hike to the Garden from the city centre - and we arrived 10 min. later. It was a bit of an antiklimaks to see these pavedroads and nice roadsigns, but we decided to pay the intrance and see the wild waterfall; and especially so we could bathunder the watefall as the guidebook recommended (a guidebook from 1993). We walked on the paved roads through colourfullflowers, small un-known animals and a japanese garden. It was totally wierd to walk in all these green, after havingseen blue for such a long time. It seems like my travels are rememberd in colours. My artic trip was white as all the ice,my Sahara trip was terracotta as the houses and the sand, the sailing was blue in the beginning, and now it is green. Themiddle-east was extremely colourfull (and so was the college of course when i visited it).We finally arrived at the waterfall, and was met by the big "It is not permitted to bath" sign, damn. However, we realizedthat this was the waterfall from where Superman picked a flower in the movie Superman II; beat that one...We walked out of the park on the "natural path", which was a bit more exotic. I suddenly realized that it was possible to get almost every single spice to your food from this park. We saw nugmet, cacao, coffee, bananas, avacado, giant bamboos,plus many more.I decided to go for a bit longer walk afterwards with the other two "young once" on the boat. We headed up mountain and passedby a beautiful area full of palm trees, mountains and sun-shine. I was ready to surrender. I could move to St. Lucia in thismoment, perfect diving, perfect hiking, nice people and a good area for sailing. We walked for 30 min. until we saw a signsaiyng: "Caribbean's only drive-in Volcano", wauw, I had seen a lot of volcanos on Iceland and Cape Verde, but never a drive-in one, so we walked in there. We decided not to walk around the volcano, but instead we took a nice bath. The waterwe went down in smelled like rotten eggs, and it looked like something from a sewagesystem; nevertheless, we were told thatthese sulphur bathes should be healty - and it defiantly felt healthy, it was more than 35 degrees warm, and Life was Good,sitting there taking mud on your own body knowing that there is no stress....damn, I am going to miss these moments of totally freedom. We walked back home, and went early to bed. For the next day was SNORKELING DAY. There was a little nice resort, just behind the bay we were laying in, so we went there with all our equimptment. The divingarea was marked with four boyes which is not particular "nature like", nonetheless, it was a fantastic view that met us.It looked like Love Parade in Berlin (an annualy techno festival), all these wierd and strange lightning colours moving allaround me. I was INSIDE the big watertanks you normally see at museums. I saw Nemo from "Finding Nemo", I saw a group oflightning blue fish (how do they hide from preditators?), I saw the most beautiful corals (only beaten by my dive in the RedSea), there were big and small fish, long and fat, only me....and the 3-4 Honeymoon couples.
We sailed from this paradise island just when the sun went down. We normally sail all night, so we can arrive at the next island in the early morning. It is so practical made in the Caribbean that every island is no more than 40 nautical milesaway from each other. The night sailing this time was fantastic. Full moon, quite a lot of stars and then the wind was blowing10 and 11. That means that we were sailng more than 8.50 (which is a lot for a boat our size). We got the wind from the side,so you had to stand with all your weight on one leg, while the salty water was splashing into your face. You can't help feeling a bit of "mightyness" when you stand and controll a big, two mast ketch. It is only you and the sea. Man againstnature as it has been for so many years. My ancestors (the Vikings) sailed to America long time before Columbus "re-discovered"America in 1492. I was just keeping an old tradition that night.
The native "Caribs" who settked our next island in the 14th century, called the island, Waitikubuli, which means "Tall is herbody." Columbus named it after the day of the week that he saw it, so today we know the island as Dominica. It is very mountainous, but still very similar to the islands that we had seen before. All green, a lot of mountains, and small bays. The main difference for me was that I had the morning watch this time. I had to sail from 05.00 to 07.00. I was met this time with themost beautiful rainbows that I have ever seen. I saw double rainbows, full rainbows, halfrainbows, and we sailed through a couple. They were so close to us that I could almost touch it. It was simply beautifull, the highway to Heaven.The town was very relaxed, and everyone was friendly. Actually it seems that it is only in the Nordic region that we dont liketourists. I am met with big smiles and helping hand, everywhere I go in the world. It is rarely that I meet the same "warm-ness"in Denmark...actually in other European countries.Max and I decided to leave the town early, so we could go diving. We took the dinghy (the little boat we have) and sailed a bit outside the bay. We dived at a okay snorkeling area and saw some few new species, but it was first really nice when we sailed around the corner and found our own little Robison Crusoe place (marked with two boyes). We dived around here and sawa sand diver, trumpetfish, harlequin bass, shy hamlet, jackknife fish (the first one we have seen on the trip), the beautifulQueen Angelfish, my favourite, the Foureye butterflyfish, and of course the hundreds of Sergeant Major.The corals were the finger coral, brain coral, pillar coral, fire coral etc. etc.... You can google all this if you want toget an idea of what we saw. We swam into the coast to relax a bit and take down some coconuts...or actually, we tried to geta coconut down, but it was soooo persistent. We spent 45 min. trying throwing stones and using a stick, but it just didntwanted to leave is safe palmtree.
I don't know how well your Caribbean geography is, but the next islands we went to were just south of Guadeloupe. They arecalled Les Saintes, as the name says, it is an old french colony. The special about these (very) small islands is that therehas never been slaves on them (they were not too good for sugar crops), so most of the population is blueeyed today. What wesaw was a "Little France", but it was actually quite nice to see a new style of housing and people. I took a long walk around,the town which was full of scooters and french tourists, so I decided to walk up in the hills around the town. The island is solittle that I saw 4 hills in one hour. And reached the end of the island after 15 min. I walked to the other side of the island,which took 10 min., but I turned around when I saw a read flag and a sign saying: "DANGER -bla bla bla somethinginfrench".I walked back again, and pased by a cross with Jesus on. It reminded me of Brazil and my next many travels...Max and I decided later that the Red Flag probably meant that it was REALLY good waves for body-surfing, so we jumped out inthe big blue sea, and was thrown all around in the ocean.
I am sitting on Antigua in the north now. A new island, a new currency. It is my birthday, and I was greeted at 01.00 this nightby dolphins jumping up and down next to the boat. I have never tried to celebrate my birthday this way. First of all, not withthe family, second of all in 35 degrees. It is also really special to take a walk around this area that we are in now. EnglishHarbour is very english, full of MOTHER F***** BIG ships. I didn't think that some people had soooo much money to use/waste,on boats....wauw, it is simply amazing to stand next to one of these British, blue Swan boats.........there are soooooo many big boats here....damn!

To Blog or not to blog

I want to be a journalist. Not only a normal journalist; but a photojournalist. I want to write about travelling, or at leastbe in another country while I am writing. Nevertheless, I have one little tiny problem.I havent felt like taking pictures or writing blogs the last 2 weeks. My "creative" mind, or whatever you will call it, hasbeen totally blo(g)cked. I got some kind of virus. I have loads of thoughts, and I see the good "Kodak Moments" when I walkin the streets, I just cant write it down or press the trigger. That is not good for a journalist...not good at all.My solution is to write about it, plus write in the late nights, when everyone on the boat is asleep. The boat is ecatly 62foot long (18.64 meters), and we are eleven people on board. I share a "double bed" with Max, and I have to climb him, everytime that I want to go out - and there are two more people in that room. Nine "men" and two girls....and 18.64 meters.I always try to look for the last 64 centimeters, because I think that is the only place where I can find proper peace sometimes. Most of the time, i find the 64 in the middle of the night, or sometimes when we are in land and I walk alonearound the town. Actually I prefer to walk alone. Just to be alone. I am really looking forward to travel alone in SouthAmerica; to travel alone, so I can meet more strangers. Or new friends.
How much do you know about Barbados? I only knew that my dear American Co-year has been there a couple of times. I mustactualy admit my stupidity and say that I thought that Barbados was more than one little tiny island. Furthermore, it tookme some time to realize how many small INDEPENDENT island there are in the Caribbean's; but who cares about them?It took Columbus 22 days to sail across the Atlantic, it took a bit more than 12 full days for us...and we have never been sofast to take down the sail on both mast before. All the sailorwords (The sailor world is a place where they make up new words,for every single little thing. Not a kitchen, but a pantry etc.) was flowing around me, but I couldnt help just stand thereand look at the island. The town Bridgetown was freedom for me. Barbados is not really famous for anything else than Banksbeer and Mount Gay Rum. Ohh yes, it has been under english rule since 1625, hence they are quite good at playing cricket.I took a long walk alone the day after we arrived. I saw the fish market, where I experienced that you can slice a flyingfish into small pieces in 3 seconds, while singing Bob Marley. I also saw a three meter long tuna fish. Damn, they get biggerthan the once I am used to. (Bought in a supermarket in a can).Barbados also produce cigars; not really famous...but they are called "Barbados Cigar" (even though the tobacco is from Cuba,the first layer is from Camoroon and the robber is from Ecaudor). The only "barbadian" is the 6 women, who sits every day androll the cigars by hand. I really wish that I was a smoker when I smelled the fresh made cigars, and saw how they were produced. It is almost an art.One thing which really attracts me, apart from beautiful and cute girls, is bookstores. I dunno why, but I always get pulledtowards them. I simply Love books. I visited a bookstore there, but someone else had visited my pocket before me, becauseit was empty for money.(I could be connected with the fact, that I had taken out money since Cape Verde...hmm..)When I walked to the tourist office (I had to find a way to get to South America ASAP), I met some streetsellers. Thesestreetsellers were extremely chilled out, and I understand now how reggae could start only in the Caribbeans. When one of the rasta-guys screamt at me: "Dont be lik' a turist', man", I really felt bad. I dont want to be a typical tourist, nevertheless, I always end up saying this, and the line is only used by tourist. WHat really scares me is that the localsthinks that I am the second way of colonizations. Or even worse, that I belonged to the big cruziers that we saw in the harbour (for example Queen Mary II). I decided not to be like a tourist, and therefore I copied the locals. I went into a local bar, bought a Banks beer and some streetfood. I ate it and thought. I drank it and listen. I smelled the food.I was on Barbados now.I went to the big main square, from where I took a bus around the town. I saw the slum neighbourhoods, the cricket field where Barbados National Team has played against England, Pakistian, India, Austrialia etc... I saw Queen Park, where the local guys take the girls with them to make out. I ended my trip with a GT (Gin&Tonic), one out of many this day. I went out clubbing on the last night on Barbados. I was not as exotic as Cape Verde, due to the simple fact that most of thepeople in the club where from England or the USA. We went to the biggest party street, a bit like "Jomfru Ane Gaden" in DK,just with less people, and more live music. THe night out in town was okay, but nothing particular...I am getting too old forthis.....We took a taxi home with the most crazy taxi driver ever. We had a big argument with him about the use of prostetution.He totally supported it. THe woman gets money and you get a "come", and what is the difference? You take her out for a dinner,buy her champagne, buy her taxi home, buy wine etc; or you just pay her and fuch her?I couldnt see the reasonable part in it, why should I pay for something that I can get for free. And what about personal pride?and most importantly of all; what about the women? it is just sad to think about how accepted prostetution in the whole wideworld is....
Barbados was unknow to me....Then try to guess how I felt about our destination St. Lucia. We layed "anchor" in a nice bay,actually we just tied the boat to a palm tree. The place reminded me of the island in the James Bond movie Goldeneye, wherethe evil guy lives. It is extremely dense with vegetation, and has a volcano in the middle. We had two big mountains on ourright side, and a little cosy town on our left. The water was 27, clear and full of fish, and we jumped in from the boat2000 times that day. Life was showing itself from is best side. THe only little minus was that we were not alone.Of course there were still the local boat boys who tries to sell all kind of shit, but there were also 4 other boats. It isa bit annoying to think that you are the first one to discover paradise, and then you see 4 other boats. I am not the onlysailor in the world. So many people do what I am doing right now.... it is difficult to go off the beaten track in the Caribbeans.
---------to be continue......

Just some few pic's from the hard Life as a sailor....:-)
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! CHILL OUT! DONT BUY GIFTS! ENJOY THE HOLIDAY!!! AND DONT GET TOO DRUNK DURING NEW YEAR!!

From a Fine Balance

Extracts from “A Fine Balance”:
“How much I have lost in describing the circle. Ambitions, solitude, words, eyesight, vocal cords. In fact, that is the central theme of my life story – loss. But isn’t it the same with all life stories? Loss is essential. Loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life.” She nodded, not quite convinced. “Mind you, I am not complaining. Thanks to some inexplicable universal guiding force, it is always the worthless that we lose – slough off, like a moulting snake. Losing and losing again, is the very basis of the life process, till we are left with is the bare essence of human existence.”

“You are very kind. Let me tell you a secret: there is no such thing as an uninteresting life”. “Try mine”. ”I would love to. One day you must tell me your full and complete story, unabridged and unexpurgated. You must. We will set aside some time for it, and meet. It’s very important.” Maneck smiled. “Why is it important?” Mr. Valmik’s eyes grew wide. “You don’t know? It’s extremely important because it helps to remind yourself of who you are. Then you can go forward, without fear of losing yourself in this ever-changing world.”

Barbados!!!!!!!!!!!

“INTERLUDE”
Okay, this is going to be a bit confusing. I am not writing this whole entry in “one go”, but over days (due to the high prices at the internet cafés). So, I wrote the “B.I. (Before Interlude)” around 2 weeks ago, and a lot have happened since then.
As I said in the B.I., the islands are very diverse and different, and we experienced that when we went to a little town on the main island, Santiago. We sailed from the capital Praia after two interesting days there, especially the “Mercardo Municipal” was a great experiences, a little area of 40 X 20 square meters where a lot of small “shops” were pushed in between each other. You could buy all kinds of vegetables, fruits, spices and I saw a tuna fish of the size of a little man. All the women would be carrying buckets on the head, 20 kilos, without difficulties.
When we arrived at the other little town on Santiago, we discovered that a little bay, sandy beaches, a bar, coconut sellers, a blue and white church all surrounded by deep valleys and beautiful mountains creates a perfect rest place after a long day on the sea.
We stayed at this neighbour to paradise before we went to our next adventure, Fogo – the island with the active volcano. I will never forget the time when I was standing and steering our beautiful boat, Roselina, towards a rock island and the sunrise came up right behind it, mixing colours that not even Matisse could create. I was supposed to end my watch at 6 o’clock, but it was impossible to take my eyes away from this scenery. These are the kind of times that I realize that my camera isn’t nearly enough; and I have to use the two God-given cameras, my eyes. I visit to Fogo was a mix experiences, the town itself was nice and cosy, but we also experienced that it could rain and be cold on Cape Verde. Nine of us from the boat took a Algueer, which is a form of cheap taxi up to the top of the volcano. We saw the beautiful countryside that we normally miss when we lay for anchor and I was pleased to see other parts of Cape Verde than the tourist industry. The trip to the top of the volcano was okay, apart from the fact that it was totally covered in clouds. Therefore we couldn’t hike the last three hours to the top, but had to stay in the local town. The town is placed right below the volcano, and they seemed to grow a lot of things, even though it was volcanic soil. We bought horrible “Fogo Wine” and “Fogo Coffee” there, but I guess that you have to support the local “industry”.

I would love to describe the next many days for you, but it is difficult to recall every day, it is also even more difficult to describe what I have seen and experienced without writing a whole book, including pictures! I am writing most of this while we are crossing the Atlantic, so many days has gone without me considering sharing this with my few blog readers.
However, I will try briefly to explain what we did, and what I thought of Cape Verde on our day of departure. We went to Cape Verde’s second biggest town, Mindelo, and stayed there for almost a week. We have had some few “internal” problems, so our skipper went with some people to the tourist paradise Sal, while we “young people” stayed at a hotel in Mindelo. I really like sailing and be on the boat, nonetheless, it was a nice feeling to be able to take a shower for the first time after two weeks of sailing, be able to stand up and pie, sleep in a “non-moving bed” and be as messy as possible. Dirk, Max and I stayed in one room where we drank Cuba Libre (our Roselina drink), beers, and vodka. We partied, listened to music, read many books and slept 13-15 hours everyday.
Here are some of the reflections of Cape Verde that I came up with while being hangover in Mindelo.
The native people of Cape Verde are not scared of their bodies, the “national costume” that almost all the girls are wearing here is a tight top and a SHORT miniskirt, even the school uniforms is a white “look through shirt” and a brown miniskirt. The guys here are a lot more “50 Cent” look-a-likes. You rarely see fat people here; it is only in the west that we can afford to be fat.
Cape Verde is one of the places in the world where I have felt most safe, and Mindelo was full of policemen all the time. There are an incredible amount of street-sellers, and even the locals buy stuff from them. The bad parts is the amount of children who asks for money (never give money to kids), hustlers (especially the people who watch over the small boats that the sailors use), and the prostitutes. We went to some nightclubs where more than half of the girls were prostitutes and only danced with fat, ugly, old Germans and Italians. Sex tourism has also reached this part of the world.
In Sahara everyone played Domino, in Cape Verde the locals play “calaha” as we call it in Danish (8 holes on each side, a bunch of small stones, get as many as possible).
The fruit and vegetables markets are extremely nice here; the atmosphere is great, and the oranges, lime and bananas even better. The bread is also really cheap; some people will argue that it is because of the European Union. The culture Life here is really good, lots of cafees, live music and camboerra (I cannot spell this dance/way of fighting).
Cape Verde was also the place where I wrote ten Christmas cards in 35 degrees Celsius; drank and ate coconut on the beach; and it was also here that I talked with Itay the last time before he went to the military for the next three years.

The Crossing of the Deep Blue Sea

We started of on the first of the December with the crossing of the Atlantic, we had bought loads of food (but we knew that all our vegetables and fruits will run out after five days), got all the water we needed for more than twenty days on the sea and filled the boat up with gasoline. The trip was going to take two weeks, inshallah, but that would only be with superb wind. We had a good start, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing 8.5 and we sailed around 6.30 knots; perfect. We caught a lot of fish, and lost a lot as well. We don’t see any other ships when we sail, and you really get to understand how big the world is. I never understand the people who sit in front of their computer and say: “the world is so small today”, they should try to come out and sail around it.
Barbados
Damn, I have so much to tell – but so little time. I arrived at Barbados two hours ago. British accents everywhere…however, it is nice to see other people after 2 weeks on the sea.