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The Crossing

We left Phuket as the sun got up over Mai Thon Island. A strong 20 knot breeze pushed us through the few islands lying south of Phuket, and we quickly rounded Promthep Cape, heading North West, to the Andaman Islands (India), 400 nautical miles away ! Finally we were at sea. My first time crossing a sea with Dali. Iva’s first time in the open waters. I had been waiting for this moment since I started living on my boat in 2011. Island-hoping along the coast of Malaysia and Phuket is one thing, but being out at sea for four days is totally different experience.

Finally we do not need to worry about the coast, the reefs, the fishing boats. Time and days as we know them on land disappear. All of a sudden, it’s only about making the boat sail well in the right direction. The sun gets up on one side, and before you know it, it’s down on the other. Activities are limited to maneuvering the boat, cooking and reading. Life becomes very simple.

A very happy cloud over the Andaman Sea

A very happy cloud over the Andaman Sea

Fish with Wings

Exocoetidae : Fish with Wings

The toughest part of the crossing is to get used to the incessant movement of the boat and to find your new sleeping pattern. The sea is in constant movement, and so is the boat. Everything needs to be stored away. Your body needs to adjust. For most people who are not prone to severe sea sickness this takes two to three days. Luckily Iva and I felt at ease straight away.  We just needed to get our night shifts in order. At night, someone constantly needs to keep watch. It is not easy getting used to sleeping in three hour shifts. Unfortunately we were sailing without any moon, and I can tell you, it gets dark, really dark. Luckily Dali’s radar is in good functioning order and most ships are therefore easily avoided.

On our first morning we were welcomed in the Andaman sea by a school of dolphins, about a dozen of them playing around the bow of the boat ! What an amazing sight to have these large mammals guiding us towards our destination are the sun gets up… We felt welcomed. Our second day at sea, we maneuvered a lot, trying to get the most our of the five to ten knot breeze pushing slowly towards Port Blair. As the wind died, we motored through the night.

Our third day at sea turned out to be glorious. Thanks to a fifteen knot wind from the North East we managed to cover 80 nautical miles on a beam reach (the wind blowing on a 90 degree angle to the boat) in 12 hours. It felt perfect, being in the middle of the Andaman Sea, just the two of us, with only water around us, and the boat, so happy, singing in the waves. I wish that day would have lasted forever.

As the wind died we enjoyed a swim in the crystal clear Andaman Sea waters.

Depth : 2,500 meters

We mainly motor-sailed the last stretch to Port Blair, the last night being cloudy and amazingly dark, with it’s share of rain. We were happy to see the sun get up as we were 40 nautical miles of our destination !

Port Blair Lighthouse

Port Blair Lighthouse

Reaching your destination after a long crossing is one of the most amazing feelings one can experience. Your eyes have only been used to the blues of the sea and the sky divided by the horizon for more than four days. And all of a sudden there is so much to see, to hear, to smell… Port Blair is a lovely tropical Indian town on a peninsula. We anchored in a very large protected body of water, close to a few other sailboats and not far from very large cargos on their way in and out of India. Finally the movement stops. It feels strange.

In India as a sailboat, you are treated like any other ship. Which means that as you enter the port you need to contact the authorities and wait for Customs, Immigration and the Coast Guard to board your boat and complete the necessary paperwork. We had read that this was a very complicated experience and that dealing with the local bureaucracy was a nightmare. What a pleasant surprise to be welcomed by lovely officials, most of them all smiles, interested in our story and very happy to help ! Of course it is a big change from dealing with the authorities in Thailand or, even easier, in Malaysia. We had to prepare some paperwork prior to our arrival. But in India people are just interested and care. They try to do their job, sometimes too well, but who can complain about that ?

Team Dali + Port Blair Coast Guard Official

Team Dali + Very Trendy Port Blair Coast Guard Official

As the sun set we were done with the 12 people that came on the boat that day, and enjoyed a few cold beers while chatting away into the night, about the crossing, our boat, our life, and the many amazing years that are still to come…

 Phil

Return to Dali

Después de varios meses lejos del mar, fue linda sensación volver a poner los pies en el agua. Cuando el taxi nos dejó en la playa, ya los dos soltamos un suspiro… Aliviados al ver el velero flotando todavía en su lugar. En los días que siguieron, los primeros de este año ya bien empezado, trabajamos con cuidado  buscando complicaciones y problemas que por (mucha, mucha) suerte nunca encontramos.

Una vez que estábamos convencidos que todo seguía en orden pudimos recibir a nuestra primera visita del 2013; mi hermana Ileana y su novio Alejo.

Hacía mucho tiempo que esperaba poder compartir con mi hermana lo que he vivido este ultimo año sobre el barco. Desde que éramos muy chicas, de las dos ella fue siempre la aventurera… Y ya que por el momento esta ha sido mi aventura más grande, quería compartirla con ella.

De nuestros invitados, Ile y Alejo se destacaron por su facilidad de sentirse como en casa arriba de Dali. Fueron los que más tiempo pasaron en el agua y los únicos en atreverse a prepararnos una cena. Con Phil nos admirábamos del entusiasmo infalible de los dos a pesar del calor infernal de la cocinita abordo.

Disfrutamos de poder mostrarles un poco de nuestra vida marina. Visitamos cinco islas en siete días, aprovechando para introducir Alejo a las particularidades de las playas Tailandesas. El también nos sorprendió, victorioso en su primera y muy pública pelea Muay Thai!

Así pasamos una semana soleada, clima perfecto para empezar el año. Sin embargo las vacaciones se suspenden un tiempo, mientras que Ile y Alejo vuelven a sus vidas porteñas y nosotros nos preparamos para la próxima aventura.

Iva

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After these joyful reencounter with the boat and the Thai island hopping life, it was finally time to get ready for our first faraway trip on Dali.

The Andaman Islands. 400 nautical miles (760km) to the North West oh Phuket. Three to Five days at sea with usually fair winds from the North East this time of year. It will be Iva’s first open water crossing, and also my first time to sail the open seas with my own boat. It’s exciting. The Andamans are a part of India, hundreds of gorgeous lush tropical islands with an almost untouched marine life, since commercial fishing is prohibited in the area. Most of its islands are uninhabited and we look forward to the amazing snorkeling, fishing and deserted beaches.

But as usual there was a lot of work before departure. We needed to get the boat ready, a task that always has its fair share of surprises. Change the batteries, Check the rigging, grease the winches, install the wind wane, repair al sorts of small details. Fill up with water and diesel, buy a month’s worth of groceries, replenish the pharmacy, wash the boat inside out, check the engine…it’s a long list.

Laundry Day on Dali

Laundry Day on Dali

We also had to get ready for the Indian authorities that will board the boat at arrival in Port Blair. Visas, a large pile of paperwork with introduction letters, inventory, itinerary, requests to spend a lovely month cruising the Andaman Islands.

The Beautiful Visa Photo Studio

The Beautiful Visa Photo Studio

We also needed to get our communications working. SSB radio, Satellite Phone, VHF to be able to send and receive emails, most importantly receiving weather charts during the crossing. The authorities also require that every boat radio’s in its position everyday while cruising the islands.

It was hard getting everything ready with only three weeks to spare as we wanted to leave early to catch the end of the NE monsoon. We made our way North along the east coast of Phuket to spend our last week of preparation at Yacht Haven Marina, definitely our favorite marina on the island. On the way, since the paperwork finally came through during our visit to France in October, we were finally able to undertake a little ceremony to change the name of the boat. There are many customs to achieve a peaceful transition to a new name. We tacked (crossed the axis of the wind) three times, with a drink of rum for Neptune, the boat and the captain (the first mate was also invited !) after every tack. Dali can now show off its beautiful name on the high seas.

We are finally ready. We should leave in couple of days, after meeting up with our good friends Bernard and Pui on Salulami, anchored off Mai Thon Island ! Next post in more than a month with undoubtedly exciting stories !

Phil

Dolphins

The past month had rushed by so quickly. It’s hard to believe that a month ago we were driving my brother Julien and his girlfriend Sabine to the airport after almost three weeks of festivities on Dali and on shore!

It was great to have Julien visiting a second time, and this time with Sabine! We did remember that when he left us in Phuket after five rainy days on board  in May he told us, “see you in September” but it went by so quickly that when we picked him up at the airport in September it felt he had just left us a few weeks back…

They took a risk in coming to Phuket end of September, usually the most rainy time of the year. Iva and were worried that we could only offer them indoor activities, the four of us cramped in our tiny living space… But the weather turned out to be surprisingly nice ! Even the dolphins greeted us on Julien & Sabine’s second day on the boat!

Dolphin Pod

More dolphins…!

We got to enjoy the sun striking the clear water of Koh Hae and Koh Mai Ton and had a fast sail to Koh PhiPhi that rewarded us with its usual night of partying and jumping through rings of fire.

We got back just in time, seven hours motoring against the wind in a sea that was starting to get rough, in anticipation of the storm that finally soaked Phuket from the West one more time in this year’s heavy monsoon season. Our friends Jose and Anna welcomed us in the beautiful house they are taking care of in the south of Phuket, and for a few days we hid away from the rain, enjoyed delicious food, funny games and soft mattresses…

A first visit to Phuket needs to be celebrated in the colorful nightlife of Patong, and Sabine was not disappointed as we danced away in the clubs and gazed in disbelief at the unusual sights the place has to offer…

The Infamous Tiger Nightclub, Patong

The rain quickly gave way to the sun again and we were able, back on the boat, to enjoy some lovely anchorages we had not seen before.

On their last night we enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in Thailand from a gorgeous platform bar on the top of cape Panwa. Sometimes everything just comes together perfectly…

Baba’s Nest, Sri Panwa

Only one month has passed. Thailand seems so far away… After stopping in Kuala Lumpur to attend the premiere of the TV Show we’re participating in (The Apartment – Style Edition) we started a very long trip around the world, that will take us to three continents to visit our families and friends. Here it goes :

KL – Doha – Paris – Berlin – Nice – Cannes – Paris – London – Paris – Doha – Buenos Aires – Mendoza – Buenos Aires – Doha – KL.

Hope to see you all on the way !

Phil

Your friendly hosts…

More from Phuket

Article in the Travel section of The Phuket News.

Brief summary of our new appreciation for Phuket and its surroundings.

Thank you Simon for the feature!

Dali 2012 Tracks

As this year slowly approaches its end, we find ourselves reflecting on months gone by.  I have trouble grasping the idea that I have been living on a boat for eight months now. The change in lifestyle is still a very fresh one, almost abstract in my mind when compared to the futures I had previously imagined.  Yet it’s a lovely feeling looking back on this year in quiet surprise while, with time, I become more and more used to the idea.

Below is a map showing the combined journeys we have made since I joined Phil on Dali this year. Together we have travelled roughly 1,250 nautical miles which is 2,012 kilometers (yes, really!).

We have come to be reasonably comfortable along the West Coast of Malaysia and Thailand. We had the amazing luck of discovering new anchorages, beaches, islands each time we made a move. Returning to old favourites made me feel incredibly privileged… I know it is a rare thing to be able to say, “let’s go back to that favourite mooring, where the water is clear and the sun sets between Rok Nok and Nai”. And then a few days later, do so.

In short, these are our travels. As much as these ups and downs have taught us, we will be happy to explore new horizons in the coming year.

Iva

Eleven On Board

There’s nothing like the feeling of leaving a marina after being tied to a pontoon, mixing sweat and grease, for a time that always turns out to be much longer than expected…

So on a sunny day, in fifteen knots of wind blowing through Phang Nga Bay, we finally untied the lines and left Yacht Haven Marina. With on board, Isabelle and Mathieu, two friends visiting from France ! They would be the first of numerous guests coming and going, sleeping on the available bunks and bringing life and laughter to our small living space in the two weeks that followed…

Isabelle and Mathieu

On our way down to the south of Phuket to meet the rest of the crew, we enjoy some really nice sailing in the strong wind on the flat waters of the massive bay. Isa and Mat quickly take their marks on board and love the boat heeling in the gusts…the intense limestone islands, as if suspended above water, surround us as we anchor for our first night far from the rest of the world…

Fresh prawns, straight from the fisherman’s net to our table!

After a couple of days sailing down the west coast of Phuket, we meet up with more friends! Pierre-Henri (PH) and his girlfriend Clothilde. also from France, and Elise with her boyfriend Vikram, a.k.a. Sunny, flying in from India. It’s a couples’ holiday ! I’m delighted to have three of my best friends on board with their better halves, most of which I meet for the first time.  And it’s the first time Iva meets my French friends. It turns out they all randomly came to visit at the same time ! She won’t be disappointed, we’re now eight people on the boat !

The following week, we all sail together from Phuket to Koh Hae, couples taking turns to sleep on the boat (it only sleeps five) while the others book cheap accommodation on land. Cruising around the islands, snorkeling in the good spots, lunch on the beach, sundowners on the boat, dinner on land, what a perfect few days catching up on their lives back home, sharing our own new living conditions… It feels so good to have my old time friends on the boat, actually finally understanding what our lifestyle implies…

Elise and Sunny

A typically French apéritif : rosé wine and saucisson !

Couples’ Holiday !

After a very relaxed beginning of our group holiday, we decide to change the mood and head to Koh Phi Phi, where Jess, Sinead and Diane, three Australian friends of Iva will join us…the more the merrier !

Sailing to Koh Phi Phi

Clo and PH

Dali…the love-boat !

Phi Phi Islands

Iva catching a mooring line, on our arrival in Phi Phi.
That one broke a few minutes after… I prefer my anchor and chain !

Our anchorage in Phi Phi

As mentioned before on this blog, Koh Phi Phi is a group of two islands lying 20 miles east of Phuket. Koh Phi Phi Le, the small one, famous for being the setting of the movie The Beach. Kho Phi Phi Don, the large one is a pretty busy tourist destination, mainly attracting young backpackers looking for gorgeous settings and beach parties… It’s a change for our guests from the more isolated places we’ve taken them so far : streets, people everywhere, long walks with their backpacks to find a place to stay…

Iva, Jess, Sinead and Diane

But at night, the party on the beach starts, with numerous bars blasting heavy bass into the night, firedancers and a lot of drunken tourists… What a perfect spot to celebrate our random reunion, eleven of us drinking and dancing our hearts out till it’s really time to go to bed…

It’s not Phi Phi without fluorescent paint…

After a couple of days recovering from that first night, by diverse means such as sweating it out on a long trek over the mountain or simply sitting on the beach enjoying lots of Thai food (which is NEVER bad), we have to head back to Phuket.

Post Party Trek

The Phi Phi Viewpoint inspires many interesting poses…

Loh Bagao Bay, east coast of Phi Phi

PH and Clo continue their trip to Koh Lanta, Isa and Mat head back to Phuket on an early ferry to extend their visa and we sail back with the rest of the crew.

Early morning stopover in Maya Bay, set of the movie ‘The Beach’, before the daily tourist invasion

Sailing back to Phuket

Cozy girly time on a sleepy afternoon sail…

Unfortunatly we have to say goodbye to Elise and Sunny who head back to Bangkok to catch their flight for Dehli. But Jess, Sinead and Diane stay to enjoy their first night on the boat ! A nice dinner of bangers and mash and a good movie put us all to bed quite early…

The following is not my most glorious moment. The girls booked a hotel room in the infamous Patong for a last night of party in Phuket’s vibrant streets. Isa and Mat were joining us as well. Everything was set up for a crazy farewell night. But the party was cut short rather quickly. As the girls were getting ready to go out, I caught my small toe on a bed corner in a hasty movement. All I could do is look at the sad result : a  toe dangling from the side of the foot. End of the party before it starts. Head for the hospital for an X-Ray that shows the extent of the damage. Well, a broken toe.

Welcoming eleven people on board within two weeks is not an easy task. As the captain of the boat, you are responsible for every person that steps on it. Everyone has different expectations, different plans. Trying to please everybody at the same time, while taking their schedule into consideration, on top of the handling the boat, dealing with the weather, the tides, the dozens of dinghy trips to the beach…not a holiday for Iva and I.

We estimate about a hundred dinghy trips made during the holiday!

But the smile on the faces of your friends, chilling on the boat, enjoying a sunset or awing at the color of the crystal water you brought them to…more than worth it.

We thought after these two weeks we could have our own “holiday”. Finally only responsible for ourselves. Free as little fish in the sea. Well we had to think again. First I have to rest my toe. Let the bone consolidate. Then we need to head back to Langkawi…to meet more friends !

Phil

We would like to thank Isabelle, Mathieu, Elise, Sunny, Pierre-Henri and Clothilde for letting us use some of their photographs for this post.

Casting Call

This year has been all about trying new things.

On a visit to Kuala Lumpur a few months ago, we met up with Andy, a good friend to us both, my best friend’s boyfriend and coincidentally also the person responsible for introducing Phil and I to each other. All in all, a very important friend. In the midst of the usual exchange of news, he let slip that he had heard about an audition for a reality TV show. Though Philippe and I would have never considered ourselves Big Brother material, the more Andy told me about the show, the more interested I became. As soon as he finished saying the words “shopping, interior design, challenges” I had decided we would at least try out.

Convincing Phil was the next step.

It was the last round of KL auditions and we woke up on a Sunday, hungover and feeling less than camera ready. Despite the big night out, I managed to drag Phil out of bed and into the shower where he reluctantly agreed to get dressed to go. Our agreement that day was that he would go to the casting with me but never participate if called back. I shrugged off his averseness, and as we had little else to do that Sunday afternoon, my curiosity drove us to Subang.

Our Audition Photo

Auditions came and went and as months passed we accepted that as we had imagined, we were not reality TV material and went on with our routine. As Phil mentioned in the last post, it was after a month of non-stop work that the phone rang.

“Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in The Apartment, Style Edition! Can you fly in tomorrow?”

After five weeks of arduous work under the unexpected monsoon-like weather, the boat was just finally beginning to look habitable again when we were offered the chance to drop everything and participate in something far outside our normal realm of activities.

We didn’t have much time for decision-making. It was hard to think of leaving the boat in the marina after such hard work, but also a little disappointing to imagine passing up such a unique experience. Not to mention the possibility, however slight, that we may even win the Grand Prize: a brand new luxury apartment in KL!

After much deliberation over beers and peanuts, we decided that we had nothing to lose…

The Apartment: Style Edition will air October 18th on Star World at 8:55pm (UTC/GMT +8 hours).

Introducing All Teams

We will post more about this surreal experience soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the show here, or follow their Facebook page.

Wish us luck!

Team Dali

Dali in the News!

We were excited to be recently featured in a Travel article in the Phuket Gazette. Having spent so much time in Phuket, we are happy to see the boat in one of their main English-language publications! Thanks to Andrew for the article and his visit to Dali.

Repairs

Yacht Haven Marina

Three months have passed since our last entry… We’ve been busy.

No major repairs had been undertaken on Dali since November 2011. After 6 months of sailing up and down the coasts of Malaysia and Thailand, the boat needed some love and care to fix its injuries. We headed to Yacht Haven Marina in the North of Phuket for a month of work.

The biggest job would be fixing the leaks at the hull/deck junction at the back of the boat as well as on the bow. While the hull is solid fiberglass and most of the deck is a fiber/balsa wood sandwich, the sections around the cockpit and on the bow are just plywood covered with fiberglass. Due to bad isolation, some of the plywood was rotten and needed to be changed. Both storage areas at the back of the boat were leaking water !

Beginning of Deck Repairs

Deck repairs being finished

The diesel tank was completely clogged up from not having been cleaned for years. The only way was to take it out, cut a hatch into it, clean it and put it back.

Diesel Tank Repairs

Tank Repaired, Aft Cabin Painted & Organized

Our cushions covers were old and tired, and we were excited to replace them with the fabric we had purchased in KL’s Little India a few months back.

Curtains to match the cushions

As you start working on the boat it is hard to stop. You keep on taking things apart, finding new areas that can be improved or repaired. The toilet needed a major servicing, the anchor chain and anchor could do with a galvanizing, the anchor winch needed maintenance, one of the chain plates had cracked and a replacement had to be ordered from Bangkok, the water tanks were leaking and needed repairs, a new main sail was in order…the list is long.

Replacing the Chain Plate

Quick Nap Between Jobs

Beautiful New Main Sail !

And the weather didn’t help. As soon as we docked, it basically started raining for a month, a very unusual thing for May-June in Phuket. This made everything more complicated as we tried to protect the working areas from the rain so that the resins used in the repairs could dry properly. And during this time we were still living on the boat, moving it’s contents from one area to the other as the jobs moved on, sleeping in the middle, with very little living space.

Luckily, we ran into Chris, an Australian sailor aboard Lady Bubbles, whom we had met in Koh Tachai a few months back and happened to be doing repairs on the opposite dock ! He was leaving his boat for a month in Phuket while going back to Australia, had rented a room nearby, and offered us to stay in it for two weeks while he was gone ! Thanks mate ! This enabled us to start on a brand new paint job inside the boat, while the rain kept pouring and a lot of other jobs where on hold.

Bathroom Before & After

Storage Space Revamped

After enjoying the freedom we had in the past months sailing the gorgeous waters of the Andaman Sea, it is not easy being stuck in a marina for weeks. No more virgin beaches, crystal clear waters and outrageous sunsets. Just work all day. Trying to figure out the best ways to fix complicated systems. Driving around Phuket town trying to find the spare part that’s missing, or the greasy machine shop that will do the welding job you need… before heading back to the dull Marina life where every boat just floats there, sadly tied to its pontoon. And then, slowly but surely, you start to move on. You’re not taking things apart anymore, but putting them back together. The boat starts looking less like a workshop and more like a living space. The exit is near…

Shop in Phuket Town

Second-hand Bookstore, Phuket Town

Interesting Architecture of Phuket Town

Freaky life-like monks

Yacht Haven Marina Parking Lot
Trees grow as we work

Then there are administrative issues. Our Thai visa was only valid for a month. We needed to get out of the country. The fastest and cheapest solution when you are in Phuket is to do a visa run to Myanmar, 300km to the north. It turned out to be a lovely trip under the rain. We decided to rent a car and drive up the West coast to Ranong. From Ranong you can take a long tail boat for an hour, crossing the estuary that separates Thailand from Burma. On the other side of the boat trip you really are in a different world ! A much poorer world; with hundreds of boats living of border trading activities. Dozens of cute children jumping from boat to boat. Very chilled custom officers in a little hut that only accept brand new or ironed US dollar bills. Buddhist temples everywhere. An intriguing country where I would have loved to spend more than half an hour.

Ranong Pier

Approaching Kawthaung, Myanmar

Back in Thailand, we stopped at the impressive Ngao waterfall. It felt great to be on the move again. The green hills of South West Thailand in the rain really soothed us after a long month of work…

Ngao Waterfall

Ngao National Park

A month and a half had passed and we were almost ready to move back onto the boat and finish all the jobs. The leaking was fixed, the serviced diesel tank was installed, the cushions were ready everything had been freshly painted and we were putting the last finishing touches when the phone rang…

That’s another story.

Philippe

Boat Life, Thus Far…

Difícil describir semejante cambio de estilo. De vida. Dormía en la casa de mis padres, en la ciudad donde pasé la mayor parte de mis veinte-y-cinco años. No había pasado mucho tiempo pero algo de rutina tenía, y todo lo familiar. Mis horarios parecían organizarse independientemente, según factores ajenos que me interesaban pero no me pertenecían.  Y aunque tengo padres jóvenes, que con su entusiasmo, energía e insistencia siempre nos acercaron a ella, nunca me sentí muy afín con la naturaleza.

And then you wake up. And though the sun has only been up an hour it’s enough to lure you out and into the water. My favourite thing about the boat is what it sits on. A sapphire blue, an electric, a pastel, a stunning, stunning blue, a turquoise, a cyan, a whole world of crystal hues where you can float suspended in a different reality.  The freedom to jump in whenever you want; however you want. With no one but the fish watching.

I have discovered mornings, which never seemed to last this long in the city and for the first time in my life my body deems breakfast a necessity as everything falls into a more natural routine. Mornings spent chasing fish hovering over coral reaching the beaches touching the trees.

Tiene otro ritmo el día que se pausa a la mitad cuando la tierra lleva como corona al sol. La hora de un almuerzo hecho con las manos, con lo que hay o con lo que queda. Un rato de descanso sin culpas con la tranquilidad de saber que todavía te queda toda la tarde por delante y toda la isla, todo el mar.

As with everything else, afternoons are also determined by the weather. Postcard perfect afternoons taking the dinghy to explore more and more beaches. Underwater afternoons swimming in our private aquarium. Afternoons when it’s too hot to move and we lay belly up reading and dozing. Productive, cloudy afternoons working on things here and there on the boat. Rainy afternoons graciously enjoying the temperature drop inside with a movie.

Of course it’s not always idyllic surroundings and fair weather. As of late, more often than not we are running around gathering materials and hoping for less rain so repairs can move forward. But even the hard work seems more rewarding when it’s physical, and it’s a nice feeling doing something for no one other than yourself, the other person and the boat.

El mejor momento de descanso viene teñido de violeta y nunca dura lo suficiente. Un juego de cartas, algo de música, las preparaciones para la cena y de repente termino el día.

Being on the boat has taught me a lot in these short months. I am braver than I was. Though braver is much too robust a word and it’s more accurate to say I am learning to prioritize my fears. It is a relief in a sense to be thrust into a squall and feel dwarfed by the power of the wind and the waves.

And everywhere is as impressive. Vegetation dripping off limestone walls disappearing into green water mirroring the clouds pass. The crystal water black under a sky with no moon but littered with stars. The same black water lighting up with bioluminescence with every drop that stirs. A jet stream of glittery bubbles behind the dinghy on our way back home.

De las comodidades urbanas extraño pocas, aunque seguramente eso cambie con el tiempo. Por ahora mis mayores preocupaciones están relacionadas con el higiene y el cuidado femenino que tan cuidado lo tenia. Lo peor hasta ahora ha sido tener que ir cortando principios de rastas, mientras mi pelo lucha contra la sal, el mar y el sol.

Thus, life on the boat has been a welcome change for me. I hope it will continue to give me opportunities to grow; learn more about myself, about my surroundings, about it all.

Iva