Mom and I arrived in Amsterdam to find the "Bitch", as we so fondly refer to her now, at the hotel screwed up our reservation (long winded story ahead)...and this weekend is the tulip parade and gay fest in town, so there weren't any hotels for miles around the city. Eventually we end up where we are now ...in the middle of nowhere and nothing to do. BUT free internet and a bar in the lobby...(and even a few cute boys) so this may not be the last time some of you hear from me...tonight...I think I will be very bored....besides the boys...but they always seem dull these days...so I will be surprised if that would be different tonight.Paris, on a lighter note, was utterly amazing!!! As stated to many of you before, my mom and I walked for 5+ hours some days...and I mean hoofing it, We saw so much of the city in two days we had to figure out what exactly we wanted to do on the last day as we had checked off everything on our list that we wanted to see...luckily we found the Matisse showing in our quarter and thoroughly enjoyed soaking that in for a few hours. Next time we bring a pedometer...but it's good because we walked off all that cheese, chocolate and wine my aunt fed us in the alps.Our night walks were My favorite...at certain times of the night the Eiffel tower sparkles like a christmas tree and watching from a bridge over the Seine while tour boats and colored lights fill the darkness was magical. Even the romance was ok sometimes...couples everywhere, it's hard not to feel lonely...especially with all the making out everywhere...in restaurants, parks, the burger joints, museums, street corners, clothing shops....just spontaneous kissing and caressing everywhere. UGH...but I guess it goes with the territory. Nutella crepes are better then sex.And in Paris you can get hot latin shirtless guys with fire to serve you drinks!!
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Tuesday, 14 April 2009 at 00:42}
happy holidays....i wont get to see any of you because...well i am still off the african coast in a tallship doing diving tours....some havent heard from me in awhile that is why i may be repeating myself)i realized the other day as i was sweating on deck that it is almost christmas!!!! holy cow!!! this is the least that i have ever felt the "cheer"...it was just november the other day wasnt it???i am on am island called sal right now, where we are ancored waiting for and cleaning the boat for the next guests. the beach is white powder and this is probabley the best place in the world to kitesurf and winsurf. the water is sooo blue and warm...like piss really...i am spoiled now...if there is a cloud in the sky i am like...oh its too cold im not going swimming today. and it like 25 degrees for god sake
Yup. Skinny.
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Tuesday, 14 April 2009 at 00:15}
learning some great dutchstraylen ikgetting in good troublethis town is like a st andrews with canals, more pubs and german men everywhere...and dutch boys too...and they dance sexy ..yummhaving a blast but glad the cooling temp is driving me southleaving tomor, after mooring the ship, with the captains gazelle of a nephew to visit sanny from st maartens to check out all the parts of town i cant tell my mom about... in amsterdami love this place(lemmer) where i am for once and exotic foreigner...dutch guys love sailing...i sailed here...popular at pubs...i think soloving the chocoade, the koffee, pastries, huge egg rolls (loempias), and of course the cheap brews.hope to hear from you all...i'm not lonely yet though. i promise to always be home before the sun gets up...i tell the captain that so he can sleep at night(says i'm trouble) captain is starting to act like my dad so i am going to be glad to escape that.
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Monday, 13 April 2009 at 23:29 }
Hello all that actually care that I have made the voyage. Honesty due to the whole thing I feel more alive then ever!!!!! No negativity pushing me down like extra gravity.Stay with me as I try to put all I want to say in a quick email done from the library where I have no idea how long I have due to the fact all of the signs are in dutch. ya.nee. dank you.Sooooo.... it took 25 days to sail the atlantic. I made it. (List form works best right about now)-Sharks on cresting gale waves as we take down the main sail-a walrus off the grand banks-waves so big from hurricane karl that the whole 100 ft boat rode up one side and down the other...along with the companion fin whale that stayed all day-hundreds of white sided dolphins that you could FEEl through the hull of the boat...at night you could see them swirling around in the bioluminescents AMAZING!!!!-I took the helm on most of the rough weather times (the captain said my blood is part sea water)...picture this if you can...gale 7, tide change, night time, dover strait, huge container boats everywhere and we had to take sails down!! the wheelhouse was lifting off the deck with the sheer power of it all.- Another night we had another gale and the captain said there were things in his cabin that hadn't moved, shifted/flew across the room, in years and at that point we were in the North sea with oil rigs everywhere.-saw a submarine come up right in front of usWe arrived in Ijmuiden, Netherlands Sunday...took a trip on the drug cops/customs zodiac after we (Emily &i) showed them how to make handcuffs out of rope-Went to my first "cafe" ...hung out with the tender after hours at the local hells angels bar "the Cuckoos Nest"-Took in the sights of Amsterdam after sailing up the canal-Now I am in a province named Friesland in a town called Lemmer.so much to tell but getting kicked off the comp...i will write soon again.
My graceful goose.
{first publishedby Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Monday, 13 April 2009 at 23:21}
back in the capo verde islands and i am glad.Dakar, Senegal, Africa was crazy, dirty and poor and although i was glad to experience it all I am even more happy to be here in sal again, where i can jump off the boat and swim and there isnt a layer of oil on the water or china guys squating for hours beside my boat watching me paint. I understand that they had been to sea for more then 6 monthes but when they start offering your captian 200 000 african francs (which is about 300 euros and 600 canadian) to "make love" to the blond one, it gets a bit much. The Muslim Africans were not much better, they can have 4 wives so an added white girl would be quite a status symbol and a bonus in muslim terms...i had about 100 marriage proposal..at least...all were serious, some were actually hot too if it werent for ....In dakar the market or bazaar is the craziest place i have been on earth...more smells, cars, people, chickens and random sidewalk shops overlapping themselves in a collidiscope of crazieness that words can't ever explain. I almost got hit by a car because the streets share the shops, fruit venders, scooters, walkers, carts, salesmen, homeless and other random randomness with the cars and the cars want to move. and you can't. And so the story goes for blocks and blocks of weaving in and out of the randomness decribed.and the poor.I've never seen anything like it, i think it hit my cousin who is younger and going to school there harder then I, but it was hard not to shutter at the amount of homeless, dirty, childern and handicapped on the street, sleeping where they can, begging and chasing after you on the street...at one point we had a race of wheelchairs after us for blocks.The pick pocketers are damn good at their profession. It didn't happen to me, but to our cook. Three of us where leaving the bar when a man came up to me to sell something, a child went up to emily and held her hand and the cook got his back pocket emptied...a small scuffle ensued and we returned to the boat. No one was hurt and that was the overall best scenerio. They only got about 10 euros but what an elaberate plan eh?Being white eveyone thinks you have extra to give and all you can do is either have nothing or buy nothing, as soon as you do hoards of other people swarm you with necklaces, birds (to set free with a wish), paintings etc. Even when you are in an establishment the street salesmen will pace back and forth trying to get your attention with items that you would never be interested in unless you went out to buy something of the sort on purpose..."I'm sure that pair of sunglasses is nice and not a fake (even though i enjoyed pointing out that the ray bans said made in china) but as you see my friend...i already have a pair on my head"Anyways, the beer was good and the music amazing and the experience willl stay with me forever...i survived, that's what i feel now. And i feel clean again...all that sand and dirt.So we are back here for the month doing some tours of the south Capo Verde islands and that's cool because i haven't seen them yet, so i am excited. I get to scuba this week and I think my plan is to come back to canada in march or april but don't count on it! I think the captain from the crossing is coming on this boat so i might want to stay longer...also it is going to be kinda weird soon because everyone but me is leaving in the next month and i will be the one on crew that knows the boat the most...! i dont know how that is going to feel.so the 3 day crossing back to here was great... i love sailing for long voyages, doing watchs at night and eating and sleeping the ocean day after day...tis the life for me my friend.i miss you all and hope to hear from you all soon.
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Monday, 13 April 2009 at 12:58 }
July 04
July 1
Ok so my life goes in these cycles eh. Tight ones. I know the months in my life when things happen...Oct ad April for example ...but nothing is as accurate as Canada Day...it's always a bust. This week I met a guy one day, slept through the celebrations the next and got rejected by the guy the day after. Now it's not the rejection that bothered me really...it happens...trust me...and from people that I really knew, would die for and that I actually gave a shit about...but it was the whole circumstances, not to mention how wrong I was, once again, about someones intentions. I mean this person was mesmorized and James Dean cool enough to lift my eyebrow at...I wasn't swept off my feet, mind you, but an actual contender is a rare breed. He just went for me like a bull and shooed me away like a fly. Craziness. I am trying to take people for what they show me, thinking if I just be myself and stay open there will be no reason to lie to me or play games. I like looking but I am not needing for anything. I lost my soulmate long ago...now I am just a drifter. So why, men out there, is there the need to pychoanalyze everything to death within such a short time. Do we all have to be looking for those husbands and wives??? Do we have to ruin the moments? Nothing lasts forever.
"We love for a meer moment in time"
Everyone is looking for partners and I guess I am just in a place, where right now is all I have...tomorrow is always uncertain and I just float along with my instincts and go with it. I doubt also, that I will fall in love like i've been before. I am intrigued at the thought of someone blowing my doors right off me...but regretfully am not counting on it...I would not bet money on it...lets just say that. I sound so wounded I know, but really I write this in the minds eye not a boo hooey emotional state. I started living the dream long ago.
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Thursday, 1 January 2009 at 02:02}
hello, ola everyone...
back in good old mindelo now after cruising the northern islands for the second time just with new guests. getting to know all the hot spots to go on all the islands and even meeting a few friends too....alot are small childern who love candy and counting games with me and of course...touching my weird blond hair. one minute i have two kids with me and the next i have a parade of 10 all wanting to escort me around the town.
my holidays were unqiue for me to say the least...xmas day was spent on a deserted beach snorkelling and exploring tidal pools, then we headed to soa antiao which is closest thing to heaven ive ever seen...last time i was there i only got to snorkell to the beach and back, this time the first mate and i got to hike to the top of the village which is situated on a mountain and has a stream running through it, this makes the village gorgeous because most places are really dry on all the islands but this place has banana plants and palm trees all the way up the valley and in between there are colorful homes and that day was laundry day so everyone had there rainbow of clothes hang drying in the sunlight. there were donkeys and goats and not much else. after we returned to the bottom of the town at the beach the fishing boat of the weeks supplies for the whole village showed up so about 100 people were down on the beach carrying away various goods on there heads. a different world i tell you. the people are so cool too. as soon as they see you they are curious but shy but as soon as you wave and say "BON DIA!" you have made yourself a new friend. on that island i also got to do more snorkelling but this time on my first reef not a sandy area...i saw the most amazing fish...escpecailly a huge parrot fish that was like a swimmiing rainbow.
new years was spent serving a huge dinner, drinking gorg (local hooch) and pounche (from menora =yummy), setting off flares (that only lite the container dock here on fire once.. that we know of!) and dancing on the deck til midnight. around 1:30 am the captain and some crew and i went on land to explore the huge street party...which was quite good. my fellow canadains will be proud to hear that i was up for our new years ...which was 4am here...i did us proud.
{first published by Sea Siren Tales ~ The Drifting Chronicles on Thursday, 1 January 2009 at 00:35}
