While wating for Thomas!

 While I am waiting for Thomas to strike I will do an attempt to do an update of my blog.

Write something...anything.........you are living on a ship and sailing between islands in the lovely Caribbean surely you must see some stuff and experiences some things. 
Well yes and no..........as they say at one point it all become everyday life, and who wants to hear and read about a mediocre day............yes that is a waste of time.

I know that I am supposedly in what some might call paradise on earth, but in my paradise on earth the bread and cheese is good and doesn't have a strange aftertaste, and the weather is less humid and the oranges would yes be orange!
Not that this is going to turn into to one of these long, sad and complaining posts. This post is more meant as a reality check.
To bring everybody up to date. I am currently sailing around in the Caribbean, right now Grenada - also known as the Isle of Spices. We have been here for about a week now, before that we were 1 day in St. Vincent, 3 days in Tortola, a week in Bequia and 1 day in St. Lucia- so a lot of sailing recently. Btw on most of our sails we often see dolphins, who are trying to race our boat, a magical sight especially in the night :-)

I am living and sailing around with a tug boat by the name 'Flying Buzzard', together with 3 other crewmembers, the owner and her husband.

TO THE LEFT THE FLYING BUZZARD 

 At most days we get up at 8 in the morning, where we'll have some coffee, a slice of toast and if we are in luck a piece of fruit ( yes you would think that fruit grows everywhere here and that all trees carry fruit, well guess what, they are don't). After that work starts (btw we work 6 out of 7 days). The work includes everything from cooking, to cleaning, to fixing stuff, watch-keeping, cleaning, to banging rust......... I work as a volunteer - this means that I provided food and shelter, but no money unlike the rest of the crew who is on a contract. So not too bad, though I am convinced that my bank hates me by now and would love to see some money deposited on my account. Late afternoon, normally somewhere around 16:30 the hired crew is let off and go to do their own stuff. On days where the weather isn't like today (RAIN!) we go to the beach, or drink mate, or read books, or play on the computer, or do macrame, or snorkeling or...........you know the kind of things you would normally do after work.

After sunset, which is around 18:30 here, we normally start doing some cooking - unless if going to town (like yesterday where we went to a local Fish Festival) - and around 20:00 - 20:30 we start watching a movie. It is important if watching movies that we start before the generator is switched off as my computer only have battery for about an hour or so.

                    FRIDAY FISH FESTIVAL IN GRENADA

Sunday is our day off in the week where we try to go out and see some of the island if the weather allow us. Last week we went to an underwater sculpture park and did some snorkeling.

So all in all my life is pretty much similar to every one else'. Except that I'm living on a ship, under the rules of others and can't leave and go somewhere else as easy as when being landbased, meaning f.eks. that if I feel like going around the corner for getting an ice-cream or a cafe-latte...........well forget it. So the sense of free-moving as many think is extensive on a boat - as you can pick up the anchor and go wherever you want - well it is limited in other ways as described above. 
Furthermore, as I spent 24x7 on a tug boat on salty water - (I guess I don't have to point to the fact that metal rust when it is in connection with water and salt) - means that by now all of my cloth, including underwear have spots of rust on it. So by now I have sort of picked up a bad habit or should I say I have given up looking like a 'dancing queen, it is simply too much of an effort and I don't have the cloth for it anyway. Well guess the good news is that my cloth shopping has decreased or should I rather say completely stopped since coming down here.
I guess by the time I return to Denmark my cloth can be mistaken for the ones of a beggar. One thing is sure, during my time here on this boat I have become good at mending/gluing cloth and recycling/reusing all kind of stuff :-)

So living on a boat is not a holiday and the Caribbean is not entirely paradise, the food is not good enough for it to be paradise ;-) But yes the beaches, or many of them are amazing. And either I am drunk or the weather has started to pick up and Thomas is getting closer but I think it is time to stop for this time.