Better late than never!

Sorry I haven't been updating my site since... for ever. Anyway.

I'm now back in Denmark. Been here for some months now. Back working as a truck driver for the danish post. Not very interessting. I guess that's the bad news. The cool news: I'm on my way to Iceland. I booked a ticket and of I am the 24th of august! Check www.island.droob.de This site's gonna be in danish. So if you don't know the language... I guess I'll write you personally ;)

A short resume. I went o cuba. Had a shitty flight. first It was cancelled and therefore I was redirected to Venzuela were I had to wait for my flight for 24 hours or so. Then I could catch my next flight to Cuba. Here I had problems getting through immigration. They were suspecious about my one day stay in Venzuela. Even thoough I had my original Ticket from Martinique to Cuba I had difficulties convincing them. The thing I was

Cuba -say hi to david

So... Now I'm at Martinique but not for long. I'm cheating a bit and I'm taking a flight from here to Cuba. My money is running out. They lasted long allready so I'm not disapointed. The point is that I got the idea to see Cuba before Castro dies and the country will change I quess.

I don't wanna sit in front of this computer (with this merde french keyboard) anylonger. Just wanted to tell that from friday I'm leaving the sailboat and becomes a back packer again. I miss the dusty roads.

My Skipper is now looking for new crew as his 1st Mate is leaving. He is going north from here and will proberly cross from Bermuda to the Accories and hit from there to England and then DK. So if you are interested contact Skipper Ole ( frigg_131@hotmail.com ) for the details and the final rute.

By the way -if you got some money to spare I'll be delighted to spend them for you in Cuba...

PS. I will not longer update this site. It takes to f#cking loooong. I'll rather tell the strory when I see you.

Stole water

Just wanted to share with you guys that I got my shower! It was... fantastic. Warm rinning water from a pipe! The first since we left Gran Canaria the 3rd of december...

By the way I kind a stole the bath... I went to a habour and just sneeked my sorry smelly ass into the shower! Im a new boy now -and looks like one. I though my tan was getting better, but now I just realised... I was just filthy...

Crusing the Carabean

First thing. My last text was a bit messy. There were so many things I wanted to say and some of them I wasn't quite finish thinking through. The thing about crossing the Atlantic... It was cool and for sure a trip I'll never forget but after talking to some guys who also crossed I came to the conclusion I would not do it again. After all it's "just" three weeks on the sea -just transport. If I got my own boat and I wanted it in the Carabean then no probleme. But now: been there done that. Right now I would rather spend the three weeks here on these beutyful islands.

Bequia
After Barbados we went to Beguia (or how that is spelled). Celebrated New Year here on the beach. Wierd. New Years eve and BBQ on the beach. It was great. Somebody (I don't now who) had arranged some local food -yammi! Bernd, The Crazy Sweed got charmed by the chefs daughter. No wonder.

I walked the whole island on a couple of days. On the north I found a Sea Turtle Farm where I petted on of the turtles. I haven't seen one in the sea yet but still hoping...
On my way back I meet Joe which I met earlier on Barbados. I guess the Carabean is not that big. Anyway we decided to explore one of the peaks. Half way up we ran out of tracks/paths. No problem: Joe had bought a machete unfortnunately it wasn't sharpened yet so it was not that helpfull. But it looked cool! So from now on Joe is known as Jungle Joe. As we finally reached the top -got though the bushes and "funny leaves" as we called the thorned leaves which were everywhere we sad and taked 'bout smaller things as life. For example -if you should use one word describing what's most importent in your life, what would it be? By the way Jungle Joe found out later that "the funny leaves" (as we named them) was poisonous, but I guess we are to tough to kill!
The reason Jungle Joe bought the machete was we found some coco nuts and we had our difficulties opening the things... We sat and slammed the nuts against a sharp rock while the locals passed and laughed a bit (so next time they'll get the machete). But we got our reward, though -coco milk.

The next day I headed south. I walked path and small road which wasn't on my map and offcause I hit a dead end with a big sign saying "private proberty". Then I talked to the landowner who was laying in a hammock and enjoying his view of his land. Ofcause I got premission to walk his land. It was so such a cool place. The landscape was kind a rough and it was very windy as well 'cause it was in the south east and the tradewind was blowing constant. Nearly as back home in windy Denmark. just more sunny... And if I saw some of his sheep I should let him know. They had run away a while a go and he had no clue where they were.
The guy also offered me a job as a tractor driver. He had some land he need to clear. It looked very interesting as it was on a very steep hill! I didn't take though.

On one of my other hikes I met the land turtle Speedy. First he was a bit shy but after I shared my water with him I made a new friend!

St. Vincent
We only made a few short stops at St. Vincent. We saw the bay where Johnny made "Pirrates of the Caraben". Lots of plastic and glasfibre. Everything is thin and fake and now just left to be a turist attraction. There was a bounch of local poor people running around a telling they were acting in the movie as well as their boat was in it. Fun to see the set but not as much fun to face the fact that these local people are trying to make a living of this abandenned million dollar movie set...

I found a cool place. Tropical rainforest with water fall and shit. I was walking 'round by my self and it was a bit interessting. These small track which were very steep and slippery. I felt like I was in the middle of nothing. There were nobody around -which I found a bit exiting. Parts of the tracks were steams. Awsome!


St. Lucia
Now we're at Castries which is the capital of St. Lucia. It's not that big and I think I have seen much of it allready. The people are in gernel friendly and it's way more civilized than some of the parts I saw walking around on the country side -outside the turisted bays. There are a lot of beggers here and the have no probleme trying to make you feel sorry for them and guilty if you're not giving them anything. The funny thing is that you feel like you are beeing rude when telling them off because you have to be so direct but they aren't effended. I found myself able to get a "respect" when I'm just talking a couple of seconds with them.

I've been walking some of the bad nabourhoods. Many came up to me asking if I wanted to buy "som good shit". When I told I was just walking around "chilling" I got another "respect". But maybe I was pushing it. I walked down an alley -not a very nice one. I passed an elderly lady which was on her shattered portch. I said "evening mam" and continued. I came to a cross section 50 meters down and I was spending a couple of seconds deciding: left or right. I also to some water when I realised that the woman was waving at me. I went back to her and she asked where I wanted to go. I told her "just vandering". She looked at me, thinking for a sec and told me she thouhgt it would be better if I vandered in the other direction = the way I came from and added I was heading for a really bad nabourhood. "The will guide you to a place where they'll take what you got" she told. Must say I got a funny feeling in my stomic. Maybe she was just beeing precausious, maybe she was wrong but I took her advise and turned a round. She even got her son to follow me back to the "turist highway". Then I passed the church and I went in. Sat there and chilled there for a while... I was seeking limits (as a child) and I think I found it...

Talking 'bout being direct. Here in Castries they are quite honost about us men are a bit dangerous to have a round...

Now I'll see if I can find a place to take a deasent bath. I just realised we haven't had a real bath since before Christmas -actally my last shower was the 3rd of december on Gran Canaria. From then till now I've been swimming the sea/bay's where we were anchoring. Actually that is more than fine but it's a problem when we are anchoring in a industri dock as we are here in Castries. The water is not that nice in the habour...

Trans Atlantic(ed)

Juhuu, Perfect - Carabean!
Finally arrived! I'm at Barbados! We left Gran Canaria the 3rd of december and arivede here at the 27st. It took longer than expected: a couple of storms forced us to change direction and we lost some time and then the trade wind which was supposed to carry us all the way was barely there!

Crossing the Atlantic... That's crap. It's more "zig zagging the Atlantic"! It's said that a boat rolls/rocks more than a million times crossing -there where times I was convinced that the boat rolled that many times in just a single night!

Beeing at the sea... Yeah, it's something allright! Must say I'm tired of sleeping in Nato position and hanging on to something all the time: your plate and cup, the toilet not to fall of and still you're getting brused all over the body. I got a pretty nice hit on my hib which ment I had to sleep on my right side (still in Nato position) for a week.

Not (sea) sick of it
Didn't get sea sick! My biggest concern was weather I was gonna puke for 3 weeks but it didn't happen and that's super duper nice! The crossing... I'm not sure if I would do it again. Thinking... ... ... ... ... I don't now. I think I need some time on to think on this one -time to reflect. No question about I learned a lot; both about sailing and a bout my self (and the 3 other guys). Before we left Gran Canaria I caught myself thinking that it was a bit funny that these two other crew members took a month vacation "just to cross the Atlantic". Why not take a flight to Barbados and stay there for a month? Now I now. They obvously been giving this more thought than I did. Proberly because it's been their dreem for a couple of decades. I was the naiv one. I just got the idea it would be fun and had no clue of what it was about -proberly still don't... It's hard to discribe -put it into words and there's alot more to it. Some other time.

Not much to do
-other than working on your tan, sleep, read, cook, eat. So with that in mind it was a great move - I was restless on an island and then getting on a boat with nothing to do... Smart one, david! Any way, just sitting there, killing time by spotting dolphins and whales (saw a Killer Whale and dolphins ofcause) while thinking of the big issues like life, choclade (which is not melted), fresh fruit, a cold beer, a bed (not soaked by the salt from the air) and maybe even a double whopper cheese! After 3 weeks at the sea, getting to the land again I found my knees saw. It was clerly lack of excercize on bord.

Getting along with the crew was no probleme. Cool people. Must say I was happy about this. It must be the key of beeing on a boat for 24 days and not going insane. Ofcause there was some smaller tensions once and a while but it would be weird otherwise. Having less space for sharing than Animal Rights fights for for pigs in the stable... There is this "sailor joke" that it's a certain divorce reason buying a boat - not to mention what happens if you're Zig Zagging the Atlantic! It must be a reminder only to cross if your wife's money (or half of it) if worth it.

Can isolated
Can food. Yammy! I lost count on how many times I made paralels to my time in the army: can food vs. can food and the fact you're imprisoned. Beeing in the field, staying in a blotty gun hole not allowed to move and actually had to cook your can food in there. In both situations dreaming of what you'll order returning the civilasation. Yep, must be times like this you wished never ended.
The isolation... You get use to it. We only saw half a dosin boats/ships which where the only other people we could reach by our only communicator: our VHF radio which only could reach as far as you can see. So if we againt any ods should hit an iceberg on the Atlantic nobody would know, the chances of somebody beeing within reach of the VHF or could see our fire crackers would be nearly 0. Different from beeing back home, carrying my mobil phone around all time for reasons which seems... not that importent.

More than 20 days with can food seems like no problem compared to the fact that we nearly ran out of tobacco. With the 3 other guys smoking it would be a disastor! The tension was rising a bit when we could see it wold take longer than the 20 days zig zagging as the tobacco was running low. It brought up a lot of serious math and the cigarettes were rationised. I must say that I'm glad that the tobacco lasted. Men without tobacco... I would rather hit an iceberg.



The nights were awsome! The stars and the moon not spoiled of fake city lights! Amazing. Luckely there was no girl around otherwise I would fall in love in a sec. Having watches in the night also gave me the oppertunity to follow the path of the moon and doing that for nearly a month meaning follow its cyclus: from full to a thin banana.

There's pros and cons but all in all it have been a super duper fantastic expierence. Must have been as I' concidering sailing back to Europe...

Protection payment
Here at Barbados it's not easy find a place on the pier and you have to anchor. But by coincidence we found this guy who was "runnig the pier". One of the locals motor boats was in the ship yard and we could get that spot. We just had to keep in mind that we should use "his man" (Ian) getting our supplies. No strings attached and everything was for free but we were welcome to tip "our man" Ian at departure. After all he was the man taking care of the boat and making sure nothing "happened" to it.

What up?
No idea. We're leaving Barbados tomorrow and heading for St. Vincent for New Year. There are some of the other boats we met earlier. I would have like to stay here for a bit longer though. The people are so friendly here. The downside is that it's the most expensive island in the Carabean. So I go on and check some of the spots Johnny Deep made "Pirates of the Carabean". Thought og scubba diving. But first I'm going to enjoy having sand between my feet!

And a happy New Year to you guys. By the way I hope you got some of all the christmas food that I was only dreaming of on the Atlantic.

Couch Surfing
I met a great guy from Virginia, Joe, here at Barbados and he told me of www.couchsurfing.net . I think I'll chenck it out when/if I reach the states. It should be world wide it could be usefull to some of you guys. Maybe even offer a couch for us low budget travellers...

Glaedelig Jul (Happy Christmas)

I'm gonna take this one on danish

Det er lidt maerkeligt. Man vader hen til supermarkedet i shorts. Solbrillerne bliver ved at glide ned paa naesen fordi jeg sveder som en... en meget svedig én... Kranbiler er ved at saette usmaglige lys-figurer op over gaderne og de kunstige grantaeer hives ud af aeskerne og stilles, overfyldt med glimmer og spray-sne, overalt i butikker og supermarkeder. Jeg maa indroemme at jeg ik er kommet i Julestemning, men det er selvfoelgelig os' kun november.

Naa, men jeg bliver noedt til at sende Jer alle en Julehilsen nu da jeg ska bruge det meste af december paa Atlanten. Saa GLAEDELIG JUL allesammen. Og nu maa I jo endlig nyde flaeskestegen, roedkaalen og de brunede kartofler! Pis nu blev jeg sgu ret sulten -orv, ja. Jeg glipper os' jule-anden. Hva' fa'en er det jeg har rodet mig ud i her! Jeg maa tage til takke med de hvide (bounty-)sandstrande og det klare vand paa Barbados...

Jeg beklager paa forhaand at de gaver jeg havde koebt ik naar frem, da... da... hmmm... jae... de... oehh... Der er ik postbude hernede. Ja, I maa noejes med et virtuelt jule-kram...

Naeste gang jeg gi'r lyd sku' det gerne vaere fra Caribien!

Bye bye Gran Canaria

Must say there are many goodbyes to make after staying here at for nearly two months. Right now I'm trying getting round to say bye to the cool people I've met down here. Yesterday I went to the airport to say farewell to "The Zimbabweans" and afterwards I took to Las Palmas where the danish boat "Pi" had arrived. Nice seeing them again, but it was allso another bye. My point is there are a lots of byes when you're travelling which is not allways fun cause you don't know if you'll see each other again.

But now I'm off as well. I'm leaving my apartment the 28th and board the boat. We will then leave Gran Canaria the 1stof december if everything goes as planned. There is some minor repairs on the boat before wee can go. There is a problem with the mast/boom -I've heard it's great having this done before you cross the Atlantic...

I'f i don't have time to come by to "Dragstore" then take care Chris and Eric.

Thanks for the home made strawberry hat, Frida.

Danish boat for sale

I made freinds with a dansih couple. Awsome people! Long story short: they wanna sell their boat "Pi". It's a one off (a kind) and is build so you can live on it. It's isolated and shit. Anyway -here's a link to their page: http://www.geocities.com/detgodeskibpi (the site is dansih).

Crossing the Atlantic

By boat to the Carabean
I've been here way to long now, but there was no where to go. I was stuck at this blotty island for nearly two months. No, is't so bad. I'm just getting pretty reastless now. I want to be on the "road" again! So WEEEE -I've just found my a ride a cross the Atlantic, and I'm now going to Barbados, Carabean! Thats f*cking great! I've actually got a ride with the danish boat I got my first "water-ride" which was from Lisboa. The boat is called "Friig" and I met the Captain again by coincidence when I was walking a round one of the habours looking for my ride. It's gonna be great... I hope. It's gonna take like 20 days to cross the sea and I guess I'll bee sea sick again, but lets hope it's only gonna be the first couple of days till I'll get my "sea legs". This means I'm gonne be on this very same boat with the same 3 guys a round the clock from the 1st of december till we reach the other side just before christmas. The Captain really wants to spend the christmas on the other side, but I don't really care where I'm gonne be. Where ever it's gonna be, it's gonna be wierd beeing away from my family -and freezing Denmark...

Too celebrate I found the ride across til Atlantic I decided to spend some ekstra money... So I rented a MC and drove around the island. That was so cool. It's been too long since I last rode a bike! It was great fun but f*ck my ass got saw after riding. It was an Off Roader soo I naturally had to go off road which was great fun. The machine was a bit heavy thoug while it was a 660 ccm but that allso ment it was pretty fast...

Gran Canaria

Update
As I just started this site I'm gonna start with what is going on right now and I'll the road trip on my thum down through Europe.

Boaaaat trips from Lisaboa to Gran Canaria
The short story is that after hitchhiking from Denmark to (my goal) Portugal I actually wanted to take a fligt to the states. But I've had this naiv idea about getting further on the same "thum manner", so I went to the habour to see if could find a boat. First I tryed to find a coaster which went to the States but that was't possible. To many rules, regulations and paperwork -blotty burecrathy (how is that spelled?)! Anyway. A guy told me to try private yachts. So I now went around asking sail boats if they were crossing the Atlantic. It paid of! I got a ride with a danish boat to Madeira. We stopped first at another island called Porto Santo (warm water here: snorkled all the time). It took 5 days or so on the sea plus the time we spended on the islands. Madeira is so blotty beatyful! It's green and less touristed than Gran Canaria which compared is very dry. From there I got a ride with a norwegian boat "Bonanza" to Gran Canaria. Cool lads. 4 guys who bought their own boat and are sailing the seas for a year. I'm jealous!

Found Job
I've been so blotty lucky! I found a job short after I arrived here. I'm a driver at a Jeep-safari and drives around the island with pale fat tourists in a open Jeep (actually it's a Nissan Patrol). Its cool, but blotty dusty, though. It's not paying much; 25 Euros a day plus tips and breakfast and lunch. Thats nice, cause now I actually get some deacent food again which I'm sure will be some comfort for my mother. But have to say that I'm kind a fed up with driving around the same dusty off road tracks now, so I'm looking forward to move on. I was offered a "promotion" to be a guide for the english tourists. That would have been a bit more challaging, but then I should have to stay here and I was hooked on getting to the Carabean, so I turned it down.

Starting a web-site...

Request
I've had several request from people who asked if there was a site where it was possible to follow my trip. Until now I've just wrote mails back to my family and friends in Denmark in

danish. But one of the things I've realised on this trip, is that not every body speaks danish. So I made this site and I'll try write in english (og Mormor, jeg beklager at vrager modersproget frem for der der engelske...) -and I'll appriciate that noboby will comment my shitty grammer or the misspellingz...