Snack day

LAT 13°23.106 N

LON 16°32.650 W

Speed: 6.9kn

Course: 341°

UTC Time: 16:19:15

UTC Date: 30-11-2011

We’ve managed to see the national park with tons of birds and monkeys. Supposedly there’re leopards living there, but we’ve seen none.

To properly celebrate our little expedition, we opened a bottle of Port wine. Two, to be exact. That lead the girls to be super cheerful and when the dolphins appeared in the middle of the night, it was time to join them, not thinking about the current… So I had the chance to be the hero of the night, hunting naked women in the river Gambia. It was fun. At least for me.

In the day, we had another little expedition, my task was to sleep as hard as I can and I did it. Till 10 in the morning, then a little breakfast and off again till something past eleven. Then we had the official breakfast and pulled off the anchor.

We’re arriving back to Banjul now, and on the way we stopped on the pirate island named James island, that was cool. And I learned that it was a pirate island from 1817 to 1819:)

And at the moment we’re being attacked by zillions of butterflies and other insects. Fun, but not on my jam!

Now I’m thinking how to get the stuff for Farak, the owner of the shop next to the CVD. I would like to make it and get him the Gambian “kamara”, a kind of belt/bag that he would like to use as an enduro belt. He owns an impressive collection of enduro bikes, some very old, but good, like the BMW GS850 and  we spoke about taking them for a spin out of Dakar, but we have to make a plan on how to avoid police controls.

Just before we left, he sold his KTM Adventure 660 that was bought after the race from Paris. This must be a sweet bike to ride in the sand.

LAT 13 27.246 N

LON 15 51.173 W

Speed: 4.9kn

Course: 286

UTC Time: 15:45:09

UTC Date: 29-11-2011

Work in progress

Today at 8:45 we got stuck in the mud pretty badly and I have the feeling that the fault was partially mine, coz I turned on the ice maker that causes the depth meter to go a little crazy. Anyway, after trying to move the vessel with the dinghy, only to make the situation worse, we realized that the current I too strong and the tide will rise only in few hours. So we wait. Till 13:32 to be precise.

In the mean time, we had a bunch of hours to kill. So instead of visiting a national park (that was the plan for today), we do some work on the boat. First I clean he hull, coz the boat was leaning enough to see all the algae. That was fun, mostly because it gave me the excuse to have a “look around” the boat with the dinghy. Then, some earwigs killing. Tonight they came out of nowhere and in the morning it looked like they’re gonna take over our boat.

After that killing spree, it was time for breakfast and carpentry work. Some minor work mostly, but the captain has a new idea every second, so there is plenty of little projects to take care of. That’s also nice, I can play with the power tools and especially, with my favourite one, The Über Frese. Marvalous tool that can do pretty much anything with wood and probably it’s good for metals too. Cutting, edging, drilling carving it’s the jack of all trades of the boat.

Yesterday night and the whole morning we had some trouble with the fishermen. Because we forgot to turn on the anchor light, we got a net around us that eventually got teared apart, so no sleep for those who sleep on deck, coz the fishermen just couldn’t get over with the teared net. I felt very sorry for them, coz they will not fish for a week because of us (that’s what they say). They didn’t want money straight away, African style. First they talked about an hour on how they are sorry, but also what damage did we make, then Micha had to go with the old fishermen to find the other part of the net (it got teared in half), then more talking till dusk, when we headed to their village for more talking and finally paying with a gift net we had on our boat.

We had a similar encounter this night, when me and Frank got woke up by 3 old fishermen shouting in Mandenge, but it seems there wasn’t any problem because after a loud “NEEEE, something in german, sounding like “not again!””, the fishermen left and never came back.

As a result, I might consider sleeping inside tonight…

Stuck in the middle of the river

River Gambia national park

Yesterday we reached Kuntaur and visited the “stone circles” near the village Wassu. It got pretty touristy since 2003 they say, so we had to pay a 5 dalasi fee to enter the site.

Anyway, we’re going back  now, because it will take us about 4 days to come back to the sea.

David, Carmen and Bruno left for the big adventure. Going back to the sea on the south of Gambia on a donkey cart full of surfboards. I must say I am a bit sorry I didn’t join them, but my love story with Pantagruel hasn’t finish yet. This is mainly because it is the only way to go back to Senegal, for free and keeping my passport safe with me. So in few days I’ll be a true illegal immigrant hidden in the dusty streets of Dakar. Waiting for my passage.

At the moment, we’re motoring back to Kuntaur, where Sven will leave the boat. He has a flight from Dakar in 2 days and I’m really curious if he’ll make it. But he’s got money with him, and here everything works just perfect if you have enough of it.

About the animals here, we’ve seen pretty much all the main animals you are supposed to see here. Plenty of birds, hippos, crocodiles and apes. But the insect world is the best represented. Never seen such hardcore mosquitoes and the horse-flies are though too. They don’t care if you have 99% DEET, or IR3535 or insecticide on your clothes, they just go for your blood. I think that if I didn’t get any disease so far, I’m pretty much immune to everything.

Motoring up the river

LAT 13°34.161 N

LON 15°22.411 W

Speed: 4.9kn

Course: 357°

UTC Time: 12:09:39

UTC Date: 25-11-2011

It’s the 3^rd day we’re going up the river. So far, we ran aground twice, the first was me, when we tried to reach Lamin Lodge, near Banjul, and the second was Frank, the new crew member who I met in France on our way to Lisbon.

Fortunately the river bottom is composed from mud and sand, so we usually laugh at that.

So far everything’s good, we’re having fun even though the effects of the anti-malaria pills are quite obvious on some crew members. But except the occasional mood swings I think we’re doing great.

The locals are also fascinating. Opposite to Dakar, here no one wants to sell you anything and even the few ones who want to, they do it in a very relaxed way so you don’t get the feeling that you’re just a walking wallet for them.

Yesterday we reached the Elephant island and went to visit the Bambali village, where we’ve been welcomed from the chief of the village and later invited to the post electoral party. The party wasn’t really what I was expecting, but it was still very nice. The electricity is a big thing in that village. They have a generator and it runs only in special occasions such this party. And the electricity was used only for the sound system. The sound system itself wasn’t really big, it was basically a pimped hi-fi tower with some bad ass speakers.

I also noticed that there was virtually no women that night, which I guess is normal in Muslim countries.

About hippos, crocodiles and all the super wild animals we’re constantly looking for, we didn’t count many. We’ve seen some huge dolphins the second day leaving Lamin lodge and a wanna be crocodile, that revealed to be a bird in the end. But now it’s the joke of the Gambian leg of the trip.

I’m sleeping on deck now, because as the youngest on board (or some other mysterious reason) I have to donate my place to every new member that joinig us. So after a 3 time berth swap I ended with the shortest (180cm) berth that is nearly impossible for me to sleep in. I manage to sleep about one hour then it starts to feel like I’m Gulliver in a can of sardines.

But, looking on the bright side, this gives me the chance to see the stars, wake up ultra early (and then move to sleep in the under deck) and most importantly, I hear all the crazy sounds of the jungle. I guess if I was sleeping in the same place, but on ground in a tent or so, I would be completely freaking out. At some points of the night it gets very loud and you can hear deep hauling that makes you think of something huge. In the end it must be a harmless monkey, but it still sounds awesome.

A really hot day in a mauritanian tent

First of all, thakns for following in such a number! I really appreciate.


I'm on holiday now:)
After my bar tending duties yesterday I had to reprovision the bar. At first I thought it's gonna be easy. Because I have Amadou, my new friend and business partner I thought it's gonna be just making the list of drinks and pay. But It's not that easy. When I showed the list, nothing was available at the moment and especially not in such quantity (we're talking of 10 bottles of Coke and similar things). And because I figured out that this might take a few days, I decided to take the situation in my hands.
That's how it looks shopping for 15l of coke, 10l of tonic and some club soda.
Find a taxi. Luckily that part is easy, most of the times they find you.
Set a price and have small notes in your pocket. That can be stressfull at times, but I have Nanga, my personal driver, who can be an asshole, but I know his weak spot. If you don't like the price (usually they try to change it at the end of the ride), just pretend you're deeply hurt because of that:)
Or even better, if you know the rider, have no money at all.

So I went to the first real cash and carry look alike. Cash King... full of useless stuff. No coke, no tonic, no water...
Another "western" shop. Outrageous prices (2 liters of coke 2000CFA) and very out of stock all the time.
Cadil - it's my favourite one, you have everything in limited quantity.

So I borrowed 20000CFA from the taxi driver and collected almost all that I planned to buy.

It's interesting the reason why you cant get tonic water. It's because it's rain season time and in Senegal, the main anti malaria remedy seems to be exactly tonic water.

After this educational morning I spent some time talking to people, helping the guys with water provisioning and impregnating my clothes with pyrethrine. Die mosquitoes, die! I see it's working, coz while I'm writing this, the flies that stay on me for too long, don't seem to be so alive anymore.



And almost all the new crew is here and I must say I'm not very excited. Even though they seem nice, the average age is 100 (if you include me). So I guess there will not be much fun on this boat. But at least we'll see crocodiles.

I'm lazy to upload the new pics, because I'm getting african I think.

but as we say: " I'm on holiday, you're on holiday, everybody holiday!"

TRACKING DEVICES

ANYONE INTERESTED IN MY HOMEs EXACT POSITION, here is the link of Pantagruels tracker


http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=0fQEu0hRkYX5FQpeMDEj8hms84EuXOsRl

Problems make your life worth living

Writing from the poor people yacht club in Dakar (Cercle de voile de Dakar - CVD). There is another, much fancier one just under the president's residence, but also much much more expensive (more expensive than european marinas). We had breakfast there today, with a police boat riding around the entire time:)

Yesterday we've been on the Salave island or (Ile de Goree). I think it was one of the most shocking experiences in my life. I knew about the history of slavery and I tough I was prepared. But after seeing the cells and especially the "breeding room" I felt deep sorrow. I am officially ashamed that I'm white.
I go back to happier thoughts… If we can call them so.

Later this evening…

I found out that there is much malaria in Dakar and that in the yacht club, much people has it! And just yesterday I was thinking about sparing the heavy repellents for Gambia. But at this part of the trip I really don't care anymore. It's so impossible to protect you 100% from mosquitoes, that it's just a matter of luck. And Gin&Tonic.
Tonight the new crew come, we have Gi-Gi for dinner. He's a local expert, ex-smuggler and very relaxing guy that got stuck here because of bad luck and high bribes. With him and his stories I feel like there is really no problem that cannot be solved and he's so cool about everything that it's a real pleasure to have him around. After tasting my cocktails and getting quite hammered from them, I see how he will help me. As the ex bar tender of the yacht club (and now the IT expert), he ot me a cheap cheap cheap room, the cheapest in Dakar as he says and maybe a job in the CVD bar. I guess that after I come back I'll stay here and wait for a boat. And my room will cost me just 20000 CFA, that's about 30€ per week. And with the new connections in tha hood, I can have an impressive lunch for 2€ and different treats from Abounanafal, the local biker, owner of a »super« market.

All in all it seems pretty good. I like Dakar and as the locals say: »All is possible in Dakar«



So, going back to my work, tonight I have some people to get drunk. Gonna ride the dinghy with this tune coming from the CVD bar.

 

 

Fear and loathing in Dakar

  The captain already left for the police and customs stuff, so we were alone, when the customs boat approached. With our shitty french and the sneaky officers, they spent almost 2 hours searching the boat and asking questions. They tried to pull a few tricks to earn some money, old radios, tobacco etc., but mostly unsuccessful.


It was 1300h when we left the boat and I was getting nervous. 5 crazy (lost) Germans and a hungry Slovenian don't mix very well... I'll spare the details, but I'll just say we ate lunch at 1600h. After my belly was filled with good but not very impressive food, we moved a few streets for shopping. That was fun. I got my mosquito stuff, and a new anti malaria pills (some got lost on the way to Dakar) and then I got a really good time, sitting on the street, talking to the locals, while the crazy germans tried the most bizarre african clothes one could imagine. In the end, they bought wedding dresses. And the fun didn't stop, Sven and David proudly wore them through the entire day, earning the nickname of Jesus (David) and the Prophet (Sven). I'll upload the pictures later since the mosquitoes are biting my ass pretty hard and the bar is calling for a drink.


Tomorrow we leave to the slave island of Goree.

Paris-Dakar

LAT 14°42.845 N

LON 17°25.496 W

We are in Dakar!

This morning we approached to the Senegalese coast and started to look for surf spots. Finally we found a well known one, the Mosque point break (I’m not sure about the name). The scenery was just amazing. A lonely mosque in the middle of two cliffs, very astonishing all together. When I first saw it, it looked like a dream! Good swell, but low tide, so there were a few rocks that were looking out of the water. Some took it with precaution (me and David), some not, so after seeing the only other surfer, a local guy, Carmen followed him to the sweet spot. This unfortunately resulted in the “german woman on the rocks”… I already have a cocktail with that name. It ended with just a few scratches, some sea urchin thorns and a scratched (epoxy) board. All good, or at least not as bad as it could be. So, we proceeded to the marina where we found a nice bar, with nice people (mostly white…) and wi-fi!

The adventure ended more or less like this. I’ve realised we’ve much different opinions, that we don’t want to listen, but all in all, we all take it with irony. And I mean this for ALL of the crew.

I’ve decided I’ll give up my malaria prevention cure and use the pills only if I get the disease. The side effects are just too hard, and from what I read, there is no actual assurance you don’t get sick  (80% of people who take it, still get sick?!). So I think I’ll try to avoid the “more than 1 out of 10 chance” of getting strong diarrhea, vomiting, depression, nightmares or sleeplessness and hallucinations… Dehydration is as much, if not more, lethal as malaria and with those pills combined with a sub-tropical environment you have much chance to get it.

Tomorrow I’ll try to see some places with Sven, find some nice DEET repellents and take care of the “real world” stuff… Maybe I’ve found my ride through the Atlantic and it seems the company will be much more than nice. E-mail power to the 3^rd exponent!

Dakar sunset

Early morning, we spot the Senegalese coast

How you know you're on a German boat

After surf care

Sweetest surf spot

Dreaming of lovely mermaids

LAT 15°35.249 N

LON 17°22.262 W

Speed 5.8kn

Course 180°

UTC time: 21:18:49

UTC Date: 14-11-2011

TTG (time to go): 13:33H  Destination Dakar

Drinking G&T in my berth, enjoying the high humidity and perfect temperature of  27°C.

Today we had a frustrating day of sailing. The wind direction and speed was perfect, but the waves kept on coming from the wrong angle so the genova and the front jib kept slaping pretty hard, putting (too) much stress on the main mast. So we had to finally give up our perfect course of 195° south, to a bit less favourable 170° that keeps on changing to a better direction.

Because of the waves from the wrong angle I mentioned before, the night was also kind of fucked up. The boat kept on rolling pretty hard so I just replaced Sven (who was sea sick again) and had my 4 hour shift solo. Nice night, but no sleep after. I woke up like a boxer after a 9 round night. Difficult to describe, but I guess some of you can imagine.

During the day we saw a lot of flying fishes, which gave me the idea to try to catch them with a net. No success… But I was on duty today, so the day passed very quickly, pretty much in the kitchen and under the deck, then a watch from 1400 to 1700 and luckily most of the time with the most intrataining member of the crew, Carmen.

I was just thinking. How beautifully irrelative time is on the sea. Hours feel like days, but days feel like minutes. We’re a week at sea now and it feels like we just left Tenerife.

One thing is sure. Tomorrow we’re all gona be land sick!

After a quick briefing about safety and general dos and don’ts in Dakar held by Cristoff,  me and Hadas started to think about our problems. Both with big plans about travelling as far as possible and both without visas… I wonder is 20€ will be enough to buy me an entrance to Senegal.

Quote of the day: “I can’t believe that the boats entire navigation system is based upon a mobile phone” Hadas, about the iSail the most used chart program on the boat…

I'm fishing with a stick

LAT 18°39.401 N

LON 16°51.725 W

UTC Date: 13-11-2011

UTC Time: 8:32:04

Speed 3.3kn

Course: 137°

Wonderful weather today!

In the last days we had nights of fog and no wind, crazy fishermen boats trying to hit us, nice pirogas with smiling Mauritanian fishermen and mysterious boats with no flag or name, also trying to hit us.

This last one happened yesterday morning. A white boat approached us at high speed on collision course, stopped, changed course so it was parallel to ours, stayed like this until we called all men on deck and then crossed our trajectory right in front of us… Some say it might have been the Sea Shepherd, but I doubt they are such suckers to do that kind of things.

Anyway, today I have my watch from 6 to 9am and I love it. This and the one at midnight are my favourite. You can get a decent sleep and still enjoy the best  parts of the day/night. And today it was a real special morning. Almost no wind, so I shut down the auto pilot, laid down and watched the sky and the rays of the raising sun that pierced through the pale clouds. A look to the windex now and then is compulsory and the fact that you’re not checking the horizon for potential danger only adds to the experience. Feels like staring to the side when riding a motorcycle. Sweet cuddling with fate.

And yes, today, my seamanship training starts. Can’t wait  to be called a seaman (funny word, I laugh every time I say it). Have to go, we have to make a jibe.  …shifting is when you change the position of the Genova or the Spinaker.

By the way, we have a new Genova (90sqm) compared to the main sail that it’s “only” 65sqm.

Later that day/night…

LAT 17°52.824N

LON 17°10.021W

UTC Time 19:58:21

Speed 6.5kn

Course 181°

With no wind, but with plenty of whales surrounding us, the captain decides it’s time we have a bath. I’ve just finished my fish cutting table so I climb the mast and jump like a frog. I need more practice I guess… With over 1000m of salty water under my ass, just a few meter dive looking to down the infinity of the sea, feels like a parallel universe or something completely strange to my senses. I love the unknown…

After that huge school of Pilot whales this evening we continue to be amazed (captain included) by this incredible surroundings. At this right moment  we look at colonies of some plankton, it looks like the sea and the sky are one. This Luciferasus, the bacteria that is bio luminescent (so cool to have 2 marine biologists onboard),light their body when shaken. The craziest thing about that is that you can see when something is swimming under water and it’s approximate  size. A whale looks like an aurora borealis and a school of dolphins looks like an underwater firework show.

I think I’ll read for a bit and then my watch starts (2200 to 0100, just as I like it).

The nights got warmer and the first day of study was perfect!

Immagine a LOT more whales than you can see on this picture:)

Sailing is just sooo coool! New Genova on the left.

Pirates in Mauritania

David messing with my bird Henrique

I'm cool, I climb masts and take pictures of me!

The real killer whale, Dingo

A hole in the water...

 

“A boat is a hole in the water, surrounded with wood where you put money” Unknown

Later that night we anchored on a remote beach in Western Sahara. In hope of a good surf we’ve been sleeping like on a crazy roller coaster only to discover next day that the wind was blowing strongly on shore, so we just had a ride with the dingy to see the possible surf spots and left to another place.

I caught a nasty cold from last days watch, so  today I’ve been more a kitchen guy, helping Hadas, who injured her back yesterday while trying to move the dingy. Crippled boat I must say. Sven, the funny German is seasick the entire journey so sometimes I wake up at the gentle sound of his vomit under my berth. And makes me glad that I don’t get seasick.

While writing this, he caught a tuna, which is getting transformed into sushi, Pantagruel style.

And soon after that, a sea bird attacked our bait, got caught and lost it’s head. Today, we eat duck and sushi.

Cristoff, the one man band

Some romance

Even more romance, btw, I'm getting better with my tin whistle:)

The duck with no name

Waking up from a dream to another dream

LAT 23°05.085N

LON 16°14.412W

UTC Time: 21:27:23

UTC Date: 9-11-2011

Course: 181°

Speed: 6.1kn

Today I woke up in Africa. After a calm and nice watch from 00 to 03 hours I slept till 10 o’clock and when awake, I’ve seen a desolated coast with just sand and nothing else. The sea was pretty calm (sea state: 2) but crowded with huge fishing ships and tankers. I’ve never seen such huge fishing ships in my life. They are the size of a proper container ship I guess. Now I can understand how do we manage to over fish our beautiful seas…

Anyway, we’ve been still fishing for our food (our diet is mostly vegetarian at the moment) until some birds I have yet to discover the name (tartugas?) attacked out bait and at last managed to tear the fishing line and leave us without our lovely plastic squid we used as bait. Hopefully no bird was harmed, I sincerely doubt it, because they seemed to be just fatally attracted to the shiny bait, but still smart and skillful enough to avoid the hooks.

The other little disappointment today was, that in all the deserted beach, we managed to find the only tiny peace that had a some kind of outpost nearby so when we anchored to have a nice surf at the local beach brake, we soon had to leave because for unknown reasons they showed us we’re not allowed to stay there.

So we continued sailing. My next watch started at 16h and was supposed to last till 21h (capn’s mistake) and gave me the opportunity to see Dakhlar from far away and enter Western Sahara’s territory.

During the dark hours we’ve been sailing there, we’ve seen a signal rocket, but channel 16 (the emergency channel on the VHS) said nothing about it.

Quote of the day:

“Surfing is not like Las Vegas” David

I don’t really agree because surfing is based on luck, but his explanation is that you cannot just come whenever you want and play… Further debates followed.

Sending somee love to Africa

Leaving Tenerife!

Western Sahara coast

Crazy birds

Big sailing preparations

Yesterday and today we've been preparing for the big trip, cleaning, provisioning, repairing and maintenance.
After a very long night of singing and generally keeping in shape, I had the chance to sit down and do some sail repair. Had to take the entire main sail down
stitch some new loops that keep the sail on the boom and on the mast. It's harder than I thought, but after some time, trying different techniques I managed to finish.
13 in total, took me the entire day, but after seeing the sail flagging on the ship again
I felt like I've spent the day in the right way. The others took care of the tidiness, crew change and the installation of 2 very fancy solar panels.
Today we were provisioning and as the bar keeper I had the scary part of the drinks. I will not write the shopping note, but I think you can get an idea looking at the picture (and this is not the complete bar).
A total of 1100€ and 45 bottles of drinking water(plus the tank and the desalinator).

So, tomorrow we'll be rocking on the gentle waves again. It seems the wind will be good, so in about 3 days we should come Morocco (todays plan update), after we'll have a stop in Mauritania and finally Dakar.
I have yet to check the wave forecast, but hopefully good and I'll be finally able to surf in Africa for the first time!

As for the crew, so far everyone seems nice, I could not say who's most interesting, but I'll be able to say that when I'll meet them better.
7 Germans, captain included and one Israeli girl, Hadas. From what I've seen today, we're gonna have some interesting debates.

I'm gonna fix some drinks, take the last decent shower I guess and hit the berth.

New bar arrivals

Socialising with the neighbours

German engineering at it's best!

My workplace

The boat is completely packed:)

Hello Pantagruel!

Finally my bad is rockin' again. The wind caresses my face and the gentle/funny Scandinavian music from the neighbours boat spoils my ears.
I'm back on the mighty Pantagruel, awaiting new adventures every day. As I learned today, there's gonna be some changes, some pleasant, some less. The first leg of our journey will take us to Mauritania. Kind of illegally, as nobody has a visa for that country, but as our captain assures, they have no coast guard boat for now, so if they find us, we kindly leave their waters and there should be no problems. Sounds good to me!

There is the less pleasant surprise, it seems I misunderstood the captain, so there is place for me only till the end of the Gambia adventure. That means I'll have to find some way of going to Cape Verde from Gambia or get there with a ferry from Dakar, which would mean getting a visa I don't have (coz I couldn't get it in Lisbon). Hopefully we'll bribe or just distract the customs with all the German passports on board. For now, this is a topic of less importance. We have much trouble in setting (getting) the nets, insecticides and repellents for the trip, because the interior of Gambia is infested with malaria, dengue and never the less, the fearsome yellow fever, for which no one took the vaccine.
But in San Miguel everything is fine. The temperature is just right to seat outside without the need of additional clothes and the ambient is so calm and lovely that no one could think of any problem. I feel quite an egoistic when feeling like that, but the hell, we're not James Bond, we shake our Martini and we only live once.

It seems I'll (have to) learn some German these days, as the yacht population is made mainly by Germans and so it will stay through the entire trip. Good for me I say, German is a valuable language, since they're the only who make money in the EU today. And I can adapt to their sense of humour I guess.
Oh, and it seems I'll be the bar keeper again, since the only mixture the former crew can make is 50-50 rum-coke drinks. I'm joking, but not quite:)

So, I hope I'll be able to write as much experience on this trip, but as David (my new surf buddy) said, "not too much about the surf spots!"

I wish you all a pleasant night and I'm back to the bar job.


I leave you with a song that reminds me of the sonf our scandinavian friends are singing right now...

Chus

Back to Tenerife

I made it to Tenerife after a hard laughing night on the ferry from Madeira. The company was decidedly disparate. A business woman in pursuit of a relaxing/party holiday, a hippie tramp from Mallorca and a canarian hair dresser/bouncer. Never seen so many different points of view on simple topics like dog ownership etc. We also got to play some Bingo:)


Now, safe ashore, I'm drinking my tea at Harald's place, looking at the sea and thinking about the sweet surf I could get today. Unfortunately my board suffered some injury during the travel, so tomorrow I'll have to look for some epoxy and then I hope I'll be able to make a quick dip before I go hiking with Antonio and Kian, two guys I met through couch surfing. I expect it to be amazing.
I also found some decent insecticide for my mosquito net, now I'll be extra safe at night. Screw you Denge mosquitoes!
So now I have some relaxing moments before the big adventure and I intend to take full advantage of that.

Now for some nice dinner, wine and relax...

Hippie guy

Porto Santo in the back

with JuanCa the bouncer