Not to the temple of consumption but out on the ocean, for the second time this trip we’re going place ourselves in the mercy of Poseidon and his entourage for a couple of weeks. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be I guess, shopping for corned-beef is done, shopping contraband rhum for the trip home is done, water and diesel is not done but that’s the last thing we’ll do.

Leaving this side of the pond comes with quite mixed feelings; it’s going to be fantastic getting back to Scandinavia but we’re going to miss these islands like crazy. I think it’s a mix of the cruising community and the weather that make me want to come back again. Sure there is a kind of sailing community back in Sweden but I’ve never really felt at home there, for me sailing is a way of taking me places a way that let me travel at a pace my brain and body can cope with. I’m not the kind of person that go sailing for the experience of the sail, you’re not finding me tacking my way towards a goal up wind just because I’m on a sailboat. You see all that you pass when you travel this way (except for when you’re sleeping or the fog is to thick), every nautical mile we’ve travelled is a nautical mile we’ve seen and focused on. When you go by plane you’re up in the air for a couple of hours and then you’re in a different country, now we actually have seen the trip here. I’m not going to say that one way or other is a better way to travel and I’m really not going to say anything about the people who go by plane. Some of our fellow cruisers look down a bit upon the people chartering a boat here in the Caribbean, island hopping for two weeks and paying about the same amount as we do in three months just to be here. Sure we feel a bit smug when they look with big eyes when entering a bay and they are lured in to picking up an overpriced mooring that probably is as safe as our dingy anchor but that’s just because we’ve gone cynic. Cynic and sure one can feel a little bit good about yourself when you’ve crossed an ocean to get here but sometimes I’d like to change place with them. They’re heading home soon on a plane, the boat they sailed are going to be taken care of and they don’t have to worry about Atlantic weather patterns. Step on, get drunk, get tanned (or at least red), snorkel a bit, eat some local food, step of, take a shower and done. That’s all folks…

We on the other hand have to cross the pond again and getting to the Azores, we’re only halfway there. Halfway back to reality…

Yeah, back to travelling by boat, the best thing is that you have your home with you, all your stuff, and your own bed. You don’t have to pack and unpack all the time, your hotel room moves with you and at the end of the day you sure feel good about doing this trip. But why do we do it?
For me it’s not about the spiritual trip that some people talk about, I wanted to go back to the Caribbean and I wanted to be able to stay there for a while, thus sailing there because if I’d gone there by plane and hotel my budget would have been gone long time ago. Sure, some people claim finding their life meaning, getting spiritual, wiser or whatever floats your boat (no pun intended) the only thing I’ll take with me from this is that I can do it. No more, no less, I can cross an ocean under the circumstances that I did cross it.

I was going to write about the small patch of sand that is the most photographed patch of sand in the Caribbean but when I got there and saw that the beach was almost gone and all the touristy things there that thought went away. See if you can find some photos of the place today compared to a couple of years ago. Didn’t find Bourdains curve nor the shawarhma truck either, but that don’t get me down, I wouldn’t be a true pessimist if things were accomplished.

Now we’re getting the last things in place before we raise our anchor and sail out into the great unknown again.

Here we go, here we go, here we go!

TL:DR? Just go listen to “Stakka Bo – Here we go again” and just switch the consumption with ocean and you’re fine, you lazy…..