And the winner is...

Säntis in the evening light © Stefan Somogyi - Photography**

Frankly, we have been surprised and overwhelmed with the response we got when we asked our readers to help find a name for our new dinghy: We got estimated 100 Facebook responses, several comments on the blog and even some mails. After all it was a lot of fun to read all our dear followers response! Thank you very much!

After some comments I felt at one point the need to justify my dink decision. But what the hell? I learned a long time ago that the cheapest buy you can make is if you buy the best what you can afford. Since I'm not a "real dinghy specialist" that's what I did and I enjoy it every day. 

There have been several names I loved, "Mastercard" our flexible friend, "Bernie Madoff" always taking you for a ride or "Fatty Tuna" to name a few. My favorite (thanks Nigel) was "Graf Spee" just because it sounds sooo big. I learned later this was the name of a German warship in WWIl. First, it was very successful by sinking commercial boats (without any casualties until this point). Still, there would be a few drawbacks: I'm a pacifist and against all kinds of war, it would be ridiculously stupid to name a boat after a warship. Second, the captain of the Graf Spee decided, since he thought (wrongly) that there is no chance of survival of the next battle, to scuttle the ship himself. He even commit suicide later. Guess it would be a bad thing to name any kind of boat like that... 

A Dutch friend gave us the idea of using some typical Swiss names like "Raclette" or so. Since Habibi is Arabic we liked the idea to pay homage to our Swiss roots aswell with a corresponding name. At least for the dink. So we decided to call it....Säntis.... 

Säntis may not be that funny, but it's "our" mountain, right in front of our hometown St.Gallen. At  2'503 meters above sea level, Säntis is the tallest mountain in the Alpstein massif of northeastern Switzerland. The mountain is not just a highly visible landmark, the panorama from the summit is spectacular: Six countries can be seen if the weather allows: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, France and Italy. That fits somehow cool for world travellers, right?

Since we will not paint the name on the dink, nor will it show in any document the difficult spelling is of no concern. And as the idea of using a Swiss name came from Vincent we're glad to announce that he just won a 10 days cruise in the Caribbean on Habibi*! There will be no name giving ceremony until the name provider is actually able to participate. And I'm locking forward to see how he tries to crack a bottle of Champagne on the rubber tubes.... 

So if you'll hear in the near future a dinghy with a funny Swiss name calling the mothership over the radio with an even more weird Arabic name - watch out, we may be close....

  *Flights, Drinks and Marina Fees not included :-))

** picture credit by Stefan Somogyi - Photography - All rights reserved 
     Please check out his website here: http://www.stefan-somogyi.com/gallerie.php
     Stefan is an amazing landscape and macro photographer. His specialty is to capture 
     atmospheric pictures from the lake of constance region - that's where Marco had his
     first sailing boat and we both grew up. 

Delicious Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I love bananas, Marco sometimes even calls me "little monkey". But at the moment the bananas are almost too plentiful in our galley. A friend of us who lives on the island grows different kinds of bananas in his garden and now it's obviously the time when they're ready to eat. And you know how it is - they're usually all ripe at the same time! So when he kindly brings us a new bunch of bananas we almost can't keep up with eating them before they go bad - and we both don't like bananas that are overripe...
That's when I decide to bake a new loaf of banana chocolate chip bread as for this recipe you actually need bananas that are way over the point of being just ripe and would otherwise be destined for the garbage! I'm usually sharing the bread with our boat neighbours as firstly it's best when eaten fresh out of the oven and secondly we're not able to eat banana bread all the time. Many asked for the recipe so I'd like to share it here with you. I'm usually measuring it with cups but I try to give you the metric measurements aswell.

Ingredients:
    2/3 cup (or 160ml) milk
1        cup (or 235ml) mashed, very ripe bananas, about 2 medium
                 you can substitute one banana with apple sauce if you like it a bit more light
2 1/2 cup (or 310g) all-purpose flour
   1/2 cup (or 100g) sugar - I usually take half white and half brown sugar,
                 add more if you want it sweeter
   1/2 cup (or 110g) unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
   1/2 tsp. baking soda
   3/4 tsp. salt
   1/2 cup (or 60g) walnuts, chopped
   1/3 cup (or 60g) dark chocolate chips
1        splash of Rum, if you like

Combine ingredients in order listed in a large bowl and mix by hand just until the flour is moistened. Spoon batter into a bread pan (size approximately 9x5x3" or 25x13x8cm) and bake immediately.
--> I have a bread maker and select Quick Bread. The rest is done by the machine. So the temperature and baking time are just estimates from me. You'll have to play around and try what's best for you:

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.
Bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean and the edge of the bread starts to separate from the pan.
Once the pan is cool enough to touch, carefully invert the pan — the loaf should drop right out, so make sure you support it with your other hand. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack at room temperature.
Bon appétit!

With love from paradise
Rahel

Cleaning the attic

Our attic, also known as guest cabin...

One thing all cruisers seem to share is too much clutter on the boat. Despite tons of spares and tools you move a complete household around the world. But most of the boats are fairly small, if not tiny if you compare them to a house or an average flat. Just imagine you had to move all your possessions into the smallest room of your house. Yes, you need to include the kitchen stuff, your books, food for a month or so and all your so loved memorabilities which you normally keep in hidden boxes in the attic. It may have become clear that there is no room for that couch and a 100 inch plasma TV with twelve speakers.

Since cruisers are per definition poor (or that's what they claim they are!) they hardly throw anything away. Which means after six months of sailing the boat carries an additional ton of gadgets which you bought new or was a replacement but you never got rid of the not working unit - it may become handy at one point again, right?

And you know what? On a boat you can see (yes, SEE) how much useless stuff you're carrying in your life. It's not the cramped lockers (they're well hidden behind the cabin sole). It's the waterline. Every boat has obviously a part which is under water and a part which is above the water - or at least you hope so. The part under water is painted with a special stuff called antifouling which prevents growth of alges and barnacles so your boat keeps moving easely through the water and does not become an artificial reef. The line where this antifouling, or bottom paint, meets the normal hull color above the water is called the waterline. So as heavier a boat gets as more it sinks into the water, means the waterline goes higher.

That's where we are now. Our waterline became slightly higher and higher, the water is now just even with the antifouling paint. Which is not a big problem, it's just that this damn marine growth seems to know that there is a boat with some unprotected (new) underwater area in the marina. After a few days the stuff starts to inhabit that area and slowly turns the boat into a living reef. There are three ways to fight that: 1. Raise the waterline 5 - 10 cm and admit that you have too much stuff or 2. get rid of some unused junk and make the boat lighter. 3. Optional you could dive every week and clean that waterline with a scraper for two hours.

Since I'm fairly lazy I decided for option one and two only. We will raise the waterline next time we need a new antifouling and second I will force Rahel to get rid of some high heels, handbags and clothes - tools are more important anyway :-)  No really, we use the current harbor time to get rid of a lot of stuff - the rule is simple: If it's not a spare and we did not use it the last three months it gets kicked out! You would not believe......

After all it's amazing how living on a boat can change life. Since you literally see the weight you carry, you really start to think what you actually need, just to realize how less it needs to be happy. While cleaning our boat "attic" from unneeded ballast, a quote from Mildred Lisette Norman, also known as Peace Pilgrim who wandered the USA for 28 years (her only possessions were basically the clothes on her back and the few items she was carrying) came to my mind. And I guess there is no better saying:

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions."

Real Jazz again

Last Friday I had a very moving music experience you seldom get in nowadays commercialized music world.

I love Jazz for years. I was on several live events from Zurich, NY to London, but there was often a missing link – most of the Jam sessions have been staged or were just otherwise part of the event. I was always in the search of something like the "The Köln Concert", the probably best Jazz happening ever. This concert took place in January 1975 – sadly I was not quite allowed to go to concerts at this time. If you ever happen to listen to that record, you may agree that this concert somehow catched the real soul of Jazz:  

In a few words: Keith Jarrett was convinced by a 17-year-old concert promoter (!!) to play on a wrong, defect piano after an exhausting long drive from Zurich. Worse, the concert took place at the unusually late hour of 11:30 PM. But Jarrett adapted to the substandard piano, played different as usual during his performance to cover the weakness of the piano. Jarrett's performance was not just enthusiastically received by the audience, the recording of " The Köln Concert" became the all-time best-selling piano album with sales of more than 3.5 million.

That’s what makes Jazz unique to me - a few guys playing fantastic music, they improvise, they include the audience and just have fun! And believe me, this concert in St. George's was just similar. It was not staged, way from perfect. Some of the musicians were outstanding – some simply not. But they provided a platform for all kind of artists, playing together, everybody could participate with different topics. All in a warm, friendly “jazzish” environment.

I highly doubt, that any record of this evening would ever be a best-seller. But for sure, it had more soul than many concerts I have seen in the past. I know now why they say Grenada is the music capital in the Caribbean! 

Grenada - Round the Island in one day

little houses in the mountains

As we're gonna stay a while in Grenada we really want to see as much as possible from this beautiful island. When a friend asked us if we want to join a "Round the Island Tour" she was organizing we happily agreed. We were 12 people plus our guide Joe who was born and raised in St.George's. He was a careful driver and during the nine hours we circled the island we got a little taste of the nature and life of this little Caribbean gem.
Grenada is not very big (344km2 - that's roughly 120 times smaller than big Switzerland) but as it is mountainous the few streets have to wind up and down and distances seem to be bigger as they actually are. Colored little houses are clued to the steep slopes of the mountains everywhere, almost hidden in the lush tropical vegetation. It seemed to be laundry day as there was linen out to dry outside at almost every home - or maybe they did hang the laundry out to get washed as there was rain on and off that day?

laundry day

rain coming and going

The rain scotched our plans just a little. When we arrived at the Concord waterfall we just got a glimpse of it in bright sunshine before the clouds densified and a heavy rainshower poured down. No surprise that nobody felt like having a bath in the cool water anymore...

Concord waterfall

Many people make their living with fishing. When we arrived in Gouyave we could observe fishermen pulling in their nets. This town is famous for its "Fish Friday" where food stands are set up down a street serving all kind of fish. We will go there soon! That day we had lunch in one of the local Restaurants. As we got there a bit too early and the cook was not fully prepared we just had simple dishes like Wrap Roti or Fish & Chips. 

Fishing village Gouyave

It was not a culinary delight but it was good to have something in the stomach especially given our next destination: The River Antoine Rum Distillery. On our tour we observed a process of Rum production that has changed little since the 1800s with the oldest functioning water-propelled distillery throughout the Caribbean. They are bottling two kind of Rum, one with 69% and another with 75% Alc/Vol (you can't bring the second one on a plane as it is too strong!). We did of course taste them but for most of us they just fired the throat!

Rivers Rum 69% Alc/Vol

Luckily our next stop was the Belmont Estate! It operates as an organic goat dairy, has its own gardens, museum and restaurants. But what we came for was chocolate! OK this is not entirely correct. The Grenada Chocolate Factory doesn't offer any tour, but as the Belmont Estate produces organic cocoa for them they close this gap. So we learned about the fascinating story of the cocoa bean from traditional to present-day methods of processing and the transformation of raw cocoa into chocolate and other products. Unfortunately they don't produce any milk chocolate but their dark chocolate with 60% or 71% cocoa tastes really good - and it's no secret that the consumption of dark chocolate can be good for your health! So off we went to visit the on site store to buy a bar (or two) of chocolate or some pralinés... Mmhhh

Belmont Estate / Grenada Chocolate Factory

To get back from the East to the West coast our guide drove through the Grand Etang National Park & Forest Reserve in the central part of the island. The highest altitude we passed was around 580m and when we stopped at the Grand Etang Lake to stroll around we could feel the significant drop of the temperature - how refreshing to breath cool air! The street snaked through parts of the rainforest where the elfin vegetation amazed us and our eyes couldn't almost cope with all the different shades of green! Joe asked me if I was able to drive such winding mountain roads? I answered honestly: "I guess, I would! We have many roads like this in Switzerland and I'm used to drive on them." Marco poked me in the side and hissed into my ear: "I guess, now you have insulted him! He'd expected you to say NO!" To be honest, I'm really bad in being diplomatic. In this case I don't find just to enhance a males' ego I had to lie - what do you think?

Grand Etang Lake

Grand Etang Rainforest

Our very last stop was in Fort Frederick that was started by the French after they had captured the island from the British in 1779. I don't want to tire you with historical details - but the view was amazing! From its location you have a view in every direction.

view from Fort Frederick

I will upload much more pictures on our facebook page, so feel free to have a look or even like our page if you haven't yet.

From paradise with love
Rahel

messy but healthy?

Soursop before ripe

Cruising different islands in the Caribbean not only gives us the chance to see fascinating places, meet interesting people and learn about their culture and history but also to taste food we haven't heard of before. We love to try the specialties, stroll through markets and stores to get a feeling of what's grown locally. And there was a fruit we have read and heard of so much but never had a chance to taste it - it was almost like a myth: the Soursop (also called Graviola, Guanàbana, Pawpaw etc.)
In Chris Doyle's guidebook it says: "It is a knobby green fruit which is ripe when it begins to go soft. It is really delicious, but messy to eat because of all the seeds. It can be blended with a little milk and ice to make an excellent drink." A friend even told us that this fruit has the power to prevent or even heal cancer! That made us really curious!  (I found different articles regarding this matter in the web but want leave it to you to make up your mind if this sources are credible or not. I'll add some links at the end of this post.)
When I next went to the market I chose one of this quite ugly looking fruits. It was heavy and not yet ripe. But after 2-3 days it changed its color and went soft. That's what it looked like:

ripe after 2-3 days

It was time to have a look inside. I cut it in half and a peculiar smell filled the air. The flesh tasted of a mixture of strawberry and pineapple with a sour twist and its consistency was very creamy, like mashed banana. But as mentioned it was difficult to eat because of all the black seeds and after a couple of spoons I had enough anyway.

Soursop pulp with seeds

So, there was still more than half a Soursop left and I didn't want to throw it away. I decided to mix it into a milkshake. There was just one little problem - I didn't have a blender... Whatever, I started to peel all the seeds out of the pulp, by hand! Phew, that took some time and looked like this:

Soursop pulp without seeds

Achieved this I then added 1/2 liter of milk, little sugar, some lime juice and crushed ice cubes. From the mixing process I didn't take any pictures as I turned the galley just in a mess! I tried it with a mixer, pressed the pulp through a strainer, then whisking it again. OK, there's still space for improvement! BUT, after some sweaty work the drink looked like a Milkshake:

Soursop milkshake

 And it tasted like a milkshake with the peculiar flavor of Soursop!

 Mmhhhh.... cool and creamy, that was well deserved!

My conclusion: I really should get a blender! In contrary to its effect on cancer it's obviously a proven fact that this fruit contains significant amounts of vitamin C, B1, B2 and is used as a herbal medicine among people where the plant is growing to treat a variety of infections and diseases. And it's tasty.
Pure natural power!

With love from paradise
Rahel

Here some links, without liability :
Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/242555-Soursop-Fruit-Kills-Cancer-100-Fold-better-Than-Chemotherapy
cancertutor.com: http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/Graviola.html
searchdominica.com: http://searchdominica.com/health/soursop-graviola-guanabana/
wirkstofflexikon.com: http://www.wirkstofflexikon.com/data/de/Graviola.html

name wanted

Our new dinghy is still nameless! I don't think this is a good thing for a boat. And we will not put "Tender of Habibi" on it. Yes, you see this often - people think it's cool to name the dink after the mother ship. It's not cool, it's actually stupid, as a matter of fact it's tremendously stupid.

Imagine you're one of this clever dicks who paints now the name of his yacht on the dinghy. And your dinghy is at shore while you're shopping or whatever. A dink on land indicates your boat on anchor is most probably unattended. But it's difficult to say which dink belongs to which boat. EXCEPT of course you have been so smart to put the name of your boat on it! 

You do not need to be a scientist to figure out what can happen: Even a drunk pothead (yes, exactly this kind that already hangs out early afternoon) is now capable to figure that out: One scumbag will watch your dink to see when you're coming back, while his friend "checks" your boat for any valuables. Stupid, eh? 

And for the sake of argument: Yes, it's easy to spot a yacht without dink anyway. But it needs a bit more effort to check and see where the owners are. It's like everywhere in the world, most of theft just happen when you become an easy target. 

So our dink will not be called "Little Habibi" or so. I would like to have something funny but we're out of ideas (I liked "Red October" but that's a friend's dink name already). Help us to find a juicy name! Asking you - any great idea how we could call our little, very fast dinghy?