Beamed to luxury

It's been 5 days now that I came back to Marcus and Alita. And now it
already seems to me as if I was never really gone. I had just closed my
eyes, for a blink of time and opened them to a complete new swimming
home full of lovable, luxurious details.

A lot has changed since we arrived in New Zealand last year. Life aboard
Alita has reached a new dimension of home and luxury.

First of all because of all the changes that Marcus has done to Alita.
Her new dodger and hard top, the new storage instead of bunk #4, the new
fridge, the freezer and so many other details. Marcus has indeed done a
wonderful job with all this. I can't thank him enough for his 4 months
of hard work on the boat – and all the heaps of money he spent.

In addition the beanie pillows and beanie bags that I made before I left
in January have proven tobring maximum travelling comfort. I can't
express what a big difference in comfortable travelling they make. How
could I have lived without them on board for 19 months? Not only are
they excellent to sit outside in the cockpit anywhereelse on the boat.
They are also the perfect support in bed when travelling while healing
over to one side. Comfortable sleep guaranteed. We're so in love with
these beanie bags that we will make one for each bunk.

But that's not the end to the new luxury. Alita has turend into a music
composing and film making studio. New equipment that I brought from „the
other home" makes this possible. We have better camera equipment, a
separate movie camera, iPad with lots of apps (navigation software,
astronavigational aids, stellariuum, music composing, games....) and an
electronic piano! I still can't believe this. Today was the first time,
after having sailed all these 5 days, that I set up the piano. This is
so amazing, I am beyond happy. Being on the boat while small waves
gently rocked us from side to side and while the sun set with the
perfect picture red and orange colours made me compose the first bit of
music for our upcoming Alita movie! I am so excited.

Marcus and I have spent 5 wonderful days so far, during which I got to
experience the extremely improved sailing capabilities of Alita. The new
rigging and spray paint job on her body let her race through the water
1-2 knots faster than before. I can't believe how fast she has become.
In these last days we averaged about 8 knots with winds between 8 and 20
knots! And instead of 50° we can now sail up to 30° to the wind! Setting
the main sail is so much faster and less hassle than before. What a
difference a good sail with lazy jacks makes in comparison to the
in-boom reefing system that we had before. Crap.Sailing is so much fun
that we sailed every day, mostly 5-8 hrs, today only about 2hrs. We
enjoy it very much.

Everyday we walk along beaches, go swimming and snorking,. Life is good
– to say the least.

Of course some repairs also had to be done which challenge our
creativity and – mostly Marcus' – skills.

We're now anchored at the beautiuful island Uoleva in the Ha'apai group
of islands in Tonga. We've been here about a year ago already. 2 small
hotels (with open air cabins like the fales in Samoa) can be found here
on this beautiul about 2 mile long sandy beach. All is made small and
out of wood to fit into nature so you can hardly even see the little
buildings. The bay here provides excellent swimming and snorkling
possibilities right from the boat.


Back to paradise. Beamed to luxury. What more can one wish for?