Summing up half-a year's life

Someone has written beautifully how life should be counted in terms of moments that take one's breath away, so here's how I count those moments of breathtaking wonders that left me lost in two worlds of changing scenes and landscapes. We left Stockholm with the last wild mushrooms picked and the rest covered by autumn leaves.

For three weeks, from October 26th, we lived in a boat in Las Palmas marina. We had dinner cooked in the boat, drinks in the cockpit with new-found friends, ambulance sirens singing all day long, and restful loving nights.

On Nov. 12th, we left the tranquility of a safe harbour for the most daring sailing adventure we embarked - crossing the north Atlantic from Las Palmas to Cape Verde. Y/S Sheilah was prepared for this big trip with more than sufficient food and drinks - all shopped in Lidl. We left Las Palmas with all the daring our spirits could muster for what was going to be an unforgetable experience of a lifetime. The sailing took nine days and six hours. It was a life and death situation as huge swells threatened to swallow us.

We came to Sta. Maria in Sal Island and begun our new life as islanders. We learned to live by the Cape Verdean's life motto: "No stress!" It means many things - both good and bad. We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with Cholo, Felicity, Steven and later with new friends in swinging CaboBar.

We embraced the lifestyle that the island offered to all - a 24-hour of sunshine and turquoise blue ocean within seconds of walking, and the perpetual lapping sound of the waves lashing at the near white sandy beach. We found interesting works to do, projects to tie-up two different worlds. We looked at inter-island shipping and West Africa cargo services; at owning a bar and restaurant, a travel agency that will concentrate on organised health and medical tourism between Cape Verde and the Nordic countries. With the troubles in the Middle East, many Nordic tourists found way to Cape Verde. We have a local business registered in Cape Verde.

We made a trip to some islands and marvelled at the beauty of nature as well as the sprawling resort hotels just waiting to embrace lovingly the battered souls from lives of hurried living. The best moments we continue to enjoy are the sundown drinks in our balcony, looking at the sun as it slides slowly to the other half of the world, the infinite ocean in its solft blue grey colours and the dots of small fishing boats anchored in Sta. Maria pier.

Our island life has been made richer by new friends we found and whose company we shared in great joy and laughters - over uncredible foods and ceaseless flow of spirited bubbles. We met and have been entertained in the private homes of Cape Verdeans proud of their food culture, their love for music and a life unhindered by demands for economic development. Even progress has to wait for its time when the people are ready to embrace change.

Now and then the drummer boys turn up in the beach for a few hours of drumming and we put on Cesaria Evora's evocative music. "What are we toasting today?" we ask each other. " Why, to life of course... and these moments of bliss and love and all the little challenges that keep the mind alive." (Picture taken at the CaboBar in Dec. 2010, just before the arrival of 2011)