Let there be light!

Calabash Tree

Under way since more than seven months and we were literally sitting in the dark all this time... in the dark cockpit, I mean. We've been looking in any kind of store you can think of to find a light: hardware, marine, antique, local crafts - we could either spend a few hundred bucks on a stainless piece of art or get a cheap, ugly, greenish plastic camping light, both not an option for us. Then in St. Lucia we discovered the Calabash, a round fruit growing on trees as you see in the picture above. We learned that you actually can't eat the pulp, but that people use the hard shell to make bowls, cups or artwork out of it. Our Rasta-tourguide Vision "organized" some of these babies for us and it was then when Marco was stroke on an idea. Why not tinkering a lamp out of it? Here is the making of our new cockpit light:

One need a pristine and firm Calabash of the size of your liking

Cutting off the top of the fruit - a saw or the like will work fine

Spooning out all the pulp which unfortunately is not edible

Drill a hole on top of the Calabash big enough to insert an electrical

cable, attach a little bulb at one end and a 12V plug at the other

We hang it up on a removable hook at the Bimini straps and connect

the plug to the 12V socket which is mount at the side of the helm

The Calabash looks almost golden while illuminated

Now we have a warm and bright light in our cockpit which is actually our living and dining room. We enjoy this space now even more often to chill, to read or to eat. We're de*light*ed!

From paradise with love
Rahel