La Vita Pirata

26/08/2024

Celebrating 6 years together ❤️‍🔥
Where better than on this insanely beautiful beach?
19.08.18 - now

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but not make a bond of love: Let it be rather a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

24/08/2024

Marina life lately ⛵️📚💻🎨

Completely immerged in the Living The Off Grid Dream course. We're laying the foundation and gaining knowledge on how to realise our life's biggest dream: starting an off-grid permaculture pirate paradise in the tropics 🏴‍☠️ -Almost finished!-

& slooowly getting back into the good ol' boat maintenance... starting slowly with spray painting some random objects.

Like our gas bottles. Oh and our toilet seat 🚽

04/07/2024

Byebye San Blas, Hello Linton Bay...
& An amazing reunion with our dearest friends from Spain: Jaime and Cristina! ❤️

Some paths are just meant to cross... 💫

Rest - reset - prepare for our next chapterrr...
Bocas Del Toro here we come!

02/07/2024

I wonder... I wonder I wonder I wonder
when we gonna drop the ANCHORRR?!

Rare footage from a fellow sailor who witnessed our 45 anchoring attempts. 🤟

I'm sitting there quite chill (maybe a little bored?) at the bow checking for unexpected or uncharted reefs while waiting for Tommy to find "his perfect sweet spot" and after 6 years, I know he likes to "turn around a couple of times and check all possible spots before dropping" but honestly... I could use an umbrella and a cold beer in the meantime!

I'm sure some of you can relate ✌️

30/06/2024

Just one month at San Blas wasn't nearly enough... we'll be back in January for a full sailing season! 🌞

Thanks to all the amazing people we've met so far in the San Blas sailing community... It was heartwarming to share our stories over a BBQ on a a pristine palmtree beach with people from all over the world ❤️ the perfect welcome gift!

20/06/2024

After 5 days of big sweaty city life in Cartagena, we were more than happy to loosen our mooring lines and head off to the next and final destination of our huge sailing adventure of 2024... Panamá ! 🇵🇦

Eventhough the 2-day sailing trip was filled with slightly stressful lightning and thunder storms EVERYWHERE around us, and we didn't manage to avoid them really, we did arrive safely and well (and wet and tired) 🙏

We are now since 3 weeks roaming the paradise-like islands of San Blas (or as the local natives call it traditionally: Guna Yala). An archipelago of more than 350 coconut filled islands, inhabited by the indigenous population who have preserved most of their lifestyle and traditions... the Kuna. Friendly, lovely people who happily welcome us sailors in their incredible natural world.

& Raining season has started and this is one of the most electric regions of the WORLD, so we happily fill our days with sunshine, clouds, rain, lightning, sunshine again, and so on.⚡️🌞

Finally, after 7 months of vagabonding the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Islands we can now say
"welcome to our new home for the next years ❤️"
It's going to be amazing.

27/05/2024

Today we celebrate our one year anniversary of our marriage last year! 💫🌹

In 2018, I met this cute & inspiring little Italian rebel in south Spain. A vegan kitesurfer, aspiring sailor, and wildly enthousiast grower of all kinds of veggies and fruits, also a rebelious believer of alternative ways of living in this crazy world. We both believed in a different kind of world and life for everyone here on earth, closer to our nature and food, in harmony with the elements. And so we fell madly in love on day one... Even though we got married last year, his real proposal was in 2018, a couple of weeks after we met:

"Will you sail the world with me?"

I knew from the first millisecond that this guy was not only unapologetically utopic and inspiring, he was also a man of deeds. And so our adventure together began...

Here we are, 6 years later of crazy boat refits, crossing the Mediterranean all the way to Greece and back to Spain, crossing an entire ocean together and finally landing our feet in Panama, where we hope to grow our roots and start an offgrid paradise-like project for the years to come...

I love you, my crazy sailor, you inspire me every day to be a little more dreaming, a little more out-of-the-box, a little more loving and a little more silly. You truly bring out the best in people and your smile lights up every soul.

I proudly stand by your side and will do everything I can to help you too grow into the magnificent person you already are and the one you are becoming every day of our voyage together.

Love, your little pirate 🖤

18/05/2024

Holy moly.
After 4 days of sailing, we made it to Colombia! Tired, hungry, sweaty but oh so happy.

It was definitely not the easiest trip but we knew beforehand. Strong wind with gusts up to 30 knots, big waves and the constant threat of electric thunderstorms in the air. Initially we wanted to sail straight from Bonaire to Cartagena, but because of storm predictions in north Colombia, we decided it would be safer to stop in Aruba. We had to wait for seven days but then the incessant wind and rain finally calmed down and we took off.

We had a perfect sail in the end, reached record speeds of 154 miles in 24 hours (that's an average of 7 miles an hour for a ferrocement 20 ton boat, not bad!), didn't catch a drop of rain and only saw some lightning in the far distance. We also celebrated our 5000 nautical milestone of 2024! 🤙🏴‍☠️

Now we will be here in Colombia for a couple of days to rest, visit this historical city and load up on fresh (and hopefully cheaper than Caribbean!) fruit and veggies. After that we initiate our last passage of this summer. We sail to Panama, first to San Blas and then Bocas del Toro, where we will stay until the end of the year to catch our breath and explore our off grid paradise plans for the near future...

Any other sailors heading up there? 🌞🙏

19/04/2024

Anchored under the magnificent mountain peaks of the Gros & Petit Piton of Saint Lucia ⛰️ and hiking the jungle for hidden treasures!

18/04/2024

What happens when a 20 ton ferrocement sailboat wants to race 😂😂
Nice try, Tommy!

14/04/2024

Che bella la vita pirata... 🏴‍☠️
Already 6 weeks in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean and boy, it is EYE-OPENING 🔥

🌬 ALWAYS WINDY in between islands. Not like the Mediterranean Sea at all! We spent summers motoring and hoping for wind which would change direction every day... what a relief to sail here!

It's sunny everyday, sometimes cloudy, always around 30°C and almost everyday it rains. And when it rains, it pours out of the sky without mercy, but 20 mins later the sun is already back to dry everything. 🌧🌞
That is also why it is so lush and green and fertile here. Gotta love the rain if you want to love the sun 🌤

🐢 We've seen sooo many turtles, stingrays (even almost stepped on one😵), starfish, colourful fish small and big. But no sharks yet. We've seen coralreefs for the first time!!! (even though small and definitely not the healthiest) and mangroves and all kinds of flowers and exotic trees like coconut palms, mangoes, nutmeg, almond, cacao, ... there's just so many new plants and species and flavours to get to know 🌴

We've met some lovely locals along the way, who take the time to salute you and talk with you. A fistbump here, a graceful hand to the heart there, a "respect man" and a lovely smile in the eyes.

Thanks to the Rastafarian community, we even occasionally find something vegan to eat! Thank you guys 🙏❤️ In Barbados and St Lucia, ital food (aka rastafarian vegan, alkaline, "vital" food) is easily found and we are, as always when sailing new countries, adding many new recipes to our mental database of world cuisine. Oh god if only one day we could open a restaurant somewhere, we would know what to serve for sure.

Maaany more insights to share in our next posts... meanwhile, we go sailing a little further south ⛵️

📸 Photodumb from our time in Saint Lucia, anchored in the picturesque Marigot Bay. We walked up the hill to see the bay and our boat from above, enjoying the incredible view with a fresh coconut in the hand 🥥😌 and the sunset afterwards on the beach was just breathtaking.

15/03/2024

🎂 Happy birthday Tommaso! 🍻

He is not only a courageous pirate captain, 🏴‍☠️
but also a seasoned kitesurfer and surfer, 🏄‍♂️
a passionate beerlover, 🍻
convinced pizzafreak, 🍕
one of the cutest unicorns on earth, 🦄
a really bad hoolahoop dancer, 😂
a sweet tooth for "la torta con la crema pasticcera e fruta", 🍰
a vespa enthusiast 🛵
and occasionally a dinghy formula one racer. 🚤

10 pictures to describe the vibrant and versatile character of my favorite man on this planet. You're the best. And you're getting old and wise ❤️🔱
Here's to another year of adventurous explorations and unlimited growth!

Ps. Can you guess his age? 😃
Pps. His birthday was yesterday but we were too busy SAILING ofcourse!

16/02/2024

This hike down the mountain was well worth the 4 days of excruciating muscle pain afterwards ... isle of Santo Antão, Cabo Verde 🏝

Luckily we can chill & relax now onboard, because

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO THE CARIBBEAN! ⛵️🏴‍☠️🌞

It's day 4 and we already sailed 450 of the 2016 miles! SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE PIRATES! ❤️

10/02/2024

Welcome to Mindelo, vibrant port city on the island São Vicente 🏝

After our long voyage at sea, we do what sailors best do... We head to port to recharge our batteries (literally and figuratively speaking 😂), to visit the local markets and find out as much as we can about the new place we just discovered.

This place is quite magical.
There is live music everywhere every night,
the people are dressed in all the colours of the rainbow,
in the streets we hear the beautiful and intriguing creole language (a mix between portuguese and african languages),
the markets are packed with spices and tropical fruits,
There's art centers and cute shops that sell local made jewelry, bags, souvenirs and local delicacies.

We just fell in love with the colour and music everywhere ❤️

oh and the best thing... this weekend it's Carnaval! 🥳 So we will be able to savour one of the best local festivities of the year, in true Capeverdean style 🇨🇻

15/01/2024

🏴‍☠️ Our extreme adventure & expedition vessel setup ⛵️🚀

We've been continuously upgrading Grazieba over the last 5 years and now we've reached a really good self-sufficient and comfortable setup!

We added to our stern...
1. Hydrovane Windpilot 🌬
Extremely useful mechanical self-steering system, which means we can use it instead of our electric autopilot! Double win!

2. Starlink ✨️
High-speed internet antenna which we can use in open seas! Usually, sailors don't even have telephone connection in the ocean.. but with this technology, we now have access to internet to download weather forecasts and communicate with family & friends.

3. Silent wind generator⚡️
Our 400W wind turbine provides us of renewable green energy onboard!

4. Dinghy davits 🛶/ extra solar panel arch 🌞
Custom made and welded for us by a great artisan in Sicily. With ofcourse enough space for storing our surf&kiteboards and on top, 2 extra solarpanels adding 380W to our already 400W of old solarpanels on top of our hardtop bimini.

And that's it for now... we had to puzzle a little to use every cm2 available but we made it work! Even had to move our "Grazieba" name letters to the right to make the hydrovane fit, but it FIT 😅

Ready to cross the Atlantic! 💪come on wind, we're waiting for you!

06/01/2024

My "2024 is gonna be MAGIC" intentions list 💫

Hi  I'm Laura - 29y/o, truthseeking sagittarius, Belgium (Gent) born&raised, dreamy utopist, lifelong student and aspiring teacher, lover of knowledge and wisdom, but at the same time insanely determined and hard-headed stubborn unicorn 😌🦄

This year I'll

~ endure the Atlantic crossing with our lovely sailboat Grazieba
~ Learn to meditate for real everyday
~ Keep practicing yoga as morning ritual
~ Make sailor friends cause I miss social connection at sea
~ Go surfing, kitesurfing and scubadiving as much as possible
~ Read 10+ books
~ Edit 10+ videos and get better at storytelling
~ Be there for my dear family and friends and reach out to them more often
~ Set first steps in studying permaculture and offgrid living
~ Discover more about our human origins and history
~ Keep working on my personal development and introspection to become the best version of myself (DAYUMN this is a huge one)

& Start looking for a fertile land for our next crazy pirate project that we're breeding on...

Oh and sing more, laugh more, say more "f**k it" and pet every stray cat I meet in the streets. ❤️

I'm ready to make this year the best of my life. ✊️

Ps. I have no idea why that tiny dreadlock is so rebellious.

01/01/2024

Ahoy rebellious mateys, landlubbers, swashbucklers, and seadogs! ☠️

May your sails catch the winds of fortune, your treasures overflow, and your heart match the courage of the boldest buccaneer on this new voyage around the sun! Here's to a year of adventures as vast as the seven seas! 🌊

Happy new year, all you scallywags! 🏴‍☠️💫

Meet our crew: captain Tommy, first mate Laura, and our newest addition: Mateo, the French sailor turned pirate! Arrrrr, let's set sail across the mighty ocean, seeking new Caribbean adventures! 🏝⛵️🏴‍☠️

But first, let's hone our pirate skills with some board games! 👊

26/12/2023

We made it to Lanzarote! ⛵️🏝

We spent these last days with Tommaso's family from Italy here in Lanzarote and it felt so incredibly good to see each other. 💙

We hadn't seen them since May, when Tommaso and I celebrated our marriage in Italy... So it was definitely time for a reunion! 💫

We celebrated the birthday of Tommy's mother, visited the spectaculair island, walked in volcanic caves, sailed to Playa Papagayo and built a huge sand castle with Elia!

Dear Loredana, Carlotta and little pirate Elia, always a pleasure to have you onboard! ❤️🏴‍☠️

See you next time at the tropics... 🥰🏝

24/12/2023

After 5 days of sailing, we made it to the Canaries! 🏝

On tuesday 19 dec we arrived at 4 am at our anchorage in La Graciosa, a tiny island north of Lanzarote. It was pitch black and our gps lost signal -again for the 500th time this trip akrghhgogkfk😒- so we had to rely on our radar and our "spot torch" to anchor safely in between the other boats. We quickly found a sandy spot to drop the anchor and we went to bed to sleep like babies. It was our first night to sleep more than just 3,5 hours at a time and it was mooore than welcome 😅

The next morning I woke up early and excited like a little girl on christmas morning, I ran outside to see the incredible landscape of this otherworldy volcanic island. I was not disappointed 😌

After 5 days of sea, we're finally touching sand again and we're able to witness the insane colours of this beautiful land. A mix of the moon 🌕 mars 🪐 desert 🏜 and volcano🌋.

Just wow 💙

19/12/2023

Sposati con un Italiano e sarai felice 💚🤍❤️

*Marry an Italian and you'll be happy 🥰

Tommaso made this vegan focaccia on board our pirateship and it was deeeeliiiiiciiiiooouuussss 🍕

Without an oven! Ahá! 😉

18/12/2023

Crossing from Spain to the Canaries! ⛵️🏴‍☠️
Day 1 - 2

Left with reaally cold northern wind 🌬⛄️ but luckily our brand new sprayhood kept us warm! Our cockpit looks like a cosy veranda now 💙

The first part of the Strait of Gibraltar was an easy ride but as soon as we got past Tarifa, the waves got bigger and choppier. For the first time, I (Laura) got really seasick and had to 🤮 3 times. Luckily and Tommaso were being the heroes of the day and did everything they could to let me rest 😵❤️

Fortunately, the orcas didn't come and bother us although Tommaso thinks he saw them... either orcas or a whale! He's not sure 🐳

We had a really difficult first night and second day, with constant waves bashing us around while trying to cook or sleep or go to the toilet (haha always funny to be tossed around from toilet to shower to sink), but hey, we've missed the sea 🌊

On day 2 the waves calmed down, we got into the rhythm of our nightshifts and even cooked some fresh vegetable soup with toasted bread and some Moroccan Shashuka (?) to soothe our hearts ❤️‍🩹 the simple joys of life at sea...

14/12/2023

OFF TO LANZAROTE! ⛵️🏴‍☠️

And we have with us onboard this very special sailor that CYCLED all the way from Lyon, France, to Algeciras in search of a sailboat to the Caribbean! Mateo, you come with us! 😃💪☠️

See you guys in 5 days ❤️

09/12/2023

Cutting in our teak stern (the "butt" of our sailboat) did hurt a little... 🪚⚡️

But fortunately, it was for a veeeery good reason... we're installing a windpilot! 🚩

Grazieba @ the BOATYARD ⛵️
DAY 8 - 11 of 12 🛠
November 2023 🗓

- 2 layers of blue Hempel Silic One ✅️
- 1 layer of white top paint ✅️
- Replace all bronze seacocks ✅️
- Install our Hydrovane windvane: in progress

Exhausted, everyday a new muscle group that hurts like hell, sweating in the sun, cursing at the almost impossible installation of our windvane... but the end is near and then we'll have yet another victory to celebrate! 💪🙏

07/12/2023

Big boats require big tools🔧

Grazieba @ the BOATYARD ⛵️
DAY 5 - 6 of 12 🛠
November 2023 🗓

Ready to paint! We applied 2 layers of primer on the damaged spots, which turned Grazieba into a white stained little seacow 🐄

& then we got to the yellow tiecoat layer turning her into a little sea leopard 🐆 This tiecoat bonds between the primer and the next final 2 layers of silicone paint!

⛵️ Boats usually have a self-releasing bottom paint that contain biocides. These toxins prevent sea animals from growing on the hull, which would create resistance in the water and result in performance and speed loss. However these toxins are entering our oceans, contaminate the food chain and disrupt growth of marine life... 🪸🐠

That's why there are increasingly more alternatives being developed. Since 2021 we use this silicone based paint which creates a smooth surface which prevents organisms attaching to the hull. And it seems to work! We didn't have too many spots to repaint, and we think it'll get better and better every year 💪

06/12/2023

Grazieba @ the BOATYARD ⛵️
DAY 2-3-4 of 12 🛠
End of October 2023 🗓

Boat details ⛵️
KETCH Endurance 44 - Ferrocement hull - Hempel Silicone biocide free bottom paint since 2021 - very happy 🙏

Flashback to these long autumn days of pure hull maintenance and love and SWEATING LIKE HELL! ❤️🥲

📸 1 - 3
SCRAPE the loose paint away, scratch open the bubbles of water that have formed under the paint, get dirty and full of blue everywhere 😏

📸 4 - 7
SAND the uneven surfaces even again!

📷 8
Overview of our hull after sanding everything! Ready to start plastering

📸 9 - 10
"STUCCO" aka smear that epoxy filler everywhere where it's still uneven! Even surface = good bottom paint adherence. 💪

It's the first time we get her our of the water after applying Hempel Silicone in 2021. The silicone paint hold on very well in most spots, that's why it's the first time we didn't have to sand the whole hull, thank goodness 🙏

Ready for the next step!

05/12/2023

There she is, in all her glory! ⛵️

DAY 1 of 12 🛠
Grazieba @ the boatyard
October 25th 2023

Every 2 years, we need to get our sailboat out of the water to get rid of all the sea growth like clams and algae, repaint her hull and check and replace the seacocks. This year she was pretty clean on the bottom, with only a few spots of diehard clams 🐚 and black algae. 😌 Good girl ❤️

These last months have been crazy to us. Soooo many things to do: we literally worked every day, no weekends off, always 100% focused on our goal to cross the Atlantic this next month.

So we've been extremely quiet online, because when stress kicks in, social media is the first thing to get kicked out of our to do list, obviously.

But luckily, we are almost done! NEXT WEEK WE SET SAIL TO THE CANARIES 🤙

So ready to finally start enjoying this adventure! ❤️🙏

16/10/2023

Have you ever experienced an extreme longing for a place you've never seen or been to?

I know I do. And it has a name! Farsickness

Ever since I was a kid I've been mezmerized by Latin and South America. The tales of thick jungle and hidden temples and pyramids, mysterious ancient civilizations and their magical spirituality, and the beautiful peoples with colourful robes...🦜🌄 My ultimate life goal has always been: to go there and hopefully never come back. 😁

I was supposed to go 5 years ago, after graduating from university... I worked every barshift I could that year, lived as cheap as possible, had saved all the money I could... I was ready to buy a one way ticket to Peru (my absolute dream destination number 1!!!😍) to go and volunteer there ...

But then I met this inspiring, charming, unconventional and insanely funny Italian guy, Tommaso, who shared my life's values and philosophy and dreamed of a different life outside of society, just like I did. He also happened to be a sailor... I fell head over heels in love and so did he, and I postponed my mission of traveling west to the Americas in order to be with the person whom I suspected of being my soulmate... ❤️

And I guess I was right! Here we are, 5 years later, and ALMOST ready to cross the ocean together in this sailboat. It was well worth the patience and the time we spent fixing his old boat and transforming into our little floating home.

Can't believe I almost bought an airplane ticket 🙈 GREATEST ADVENTURE OF OUR LIVES, HERE WE COME!!!! 🫡🙌

01/10/2023

Expedition vessel loading... 🚀

This summer we've been upgrading our pirateship to a whole new level! Say hello to our new (secondhand lol) RADAR, an ingenious instrument that will help us spot any big objects around us, such as other boats, floating icebergs or big stormy clouds! ⛈️

It'll drastically reduce our risk of colision at sea and make the heavy task of our night watch a little easier. No need to, like in old pirates' times, to climb the mast and watch for obstacles from up there! The radar will do the job for us 💪

07/09/2022

Last 2 spots available for our Sustainable Sailing Expedition from Menorca to Ibiza!🏴‍☠️⛵ Next week, 14 September until 21 September.

Check our website for more info:

https://www.piratesforplanet.org/sustainable-sailing-expedition-balearic-menorca-ibiza/

Jump onboard our Sustainable Sailing Expedition at the Balearic Islands from 14 to 21 September 2022, where we'll sail from Menorca to Ibiza.

10/08/2022

⛵ Rough sailing 💦

Welcome to the Aegean Sea....
Big waves ✔️
Strong wind ✔️
= Perfect die-hard sailors & pirate school! 🏴‍☠️

Sailing is not always as pretty as it seems on instagram.

We all know the romantic idea of soft waves and a steady breeze in the sails, the whole crew relaxing carelessly in bikini and swimshorts on the deck. 😌

But sometimes... There's non-stop strong wind for days with gusts of up to 40 knots.

Sometimes there are merciless waves that hit the boat one after another, spraying all over you, and making you feel like being inside a washing machine! 😵‍💫

And in those times, it can be hard! Nature's forces are testing your limits and should not be messed with!

And in those cases, we sailors must adapt, stick together like a crew and just...

Buckle up and enjoy the wild rollercoaster ride 🤙