I can't believe how crazy my life is..

We left Antibes for Namibia at the beginning of July. Getting my sea legs was easy and I experienced no seasickness which I was so stoked about. I felt tired a lot though but that is apparently something that comes with the motion of the ocean.

Our first leg of the trip took 5 days to get to the Canary Islands. The weather was picture perfect and we had a good couple of hours in the sun after work each day. The one thing I have found about being on passage though is it doesn't take long for boredom to sink in. There is only so much you can do when stuck onboard in the middle of the ocean. We are very lucky and have access to the bosses' multimedia system which gives us an unlimited supply of movies and music from around the world to keep us entertained. We also have access to the gym on passage which has given us another way to fill in time. I have also found myself addicted to ROCK BAND on Xbox. I am a drummer in a band called "Sex Toyz" and I love it!!!

But at the end of the day, regardless of the many distractions we have, it is so monotonous being onboard and you have to stop yourself a lot of the time from bombarding the Captain with ever so popular "Are we there yet?".

Five days into the passage down to Namibia we got to Las Palmas in the Canary's. We had an overnight stop there to refuel and provision. It also allowed us the opportunity to get off the boat and have a crew dinner. We ended up at a Bolivarian Meat restaurant (so random) where the raw cuts are piled high in front of you for the choosing. We all went extremely hard that night on all the Spanish Red and were all feeling sore and sorry for ourselves when setting out the next day. It was then another 8 days before our nest stop at Cape Verde Island. This is a tiny Island off the African coast that is quite poor and has a strong Spanish influence. We only stopped for the day to refuel but we got the chance again to walk around the villages and have a local brewski.

After Cape Verde we had planned for another stop at St Helena about a week later, however due to the good weather we bypassed this. It's a pity though because the island is historically the resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte's penis and we were all so very intrigued by this fact.

On the 16th of July we crossed the Equator. According to seafaring tradition, anyone who has not crossed the equator before on a boat (known as pollywogs) are to be judged by the court of King Neptune and if worthy get initiated by the king himself. It was a fun day that started with a bbq lunch on the boat deck aft. Then each of the 5 pollywogs on the day had to kneel, in a kiddie pool, in front of the king's court for judging and sentencing (ie. rotting food slops over the head). Both Emily and I (being the only Australians) were sentenced last and were charged for being Australian among other things. The problem with being last though was that every one else knelt in the kiddies pool before us and it was so full of food waste from them that it was stepping into a pool of vomit - the smell is something I'd like too, but will probably never forget!! Em and I got it tough and they got us good. When they had poured buckets of slops over us they then pelted us with flour and ketchup.

We then cleaned up and cracked the Champas at the bridge for the crossing at 2pm. finishing the day off with a Jacuzzi. Was a really good way to break the boredom.

I was now in the southern hemisphere again and the weather changed immediately. It was freezing and we started to hit some pretty big swells making the last leg of the voyage a little less comfortable.

We finally got to Namibia 3 weeks after leaving Antibes and berthed in a dodgy cargo port in Walvis Bay. We spent a lot of the first few days getting the boat ready for the boss. We were on full boss alert and were expecting him at any time. He was on safari about 4 hours away from us so we had to be ready just incase.

While waiting for the boss we still got to paint the town a little red. We went out for dinner the first weekend in town to a little place called The Raft an awesome little restaurant that you go to watch the flamingos at dusk. We tried everything on the menu - lots of game meat like Oryx, Kudu, Zebra, Ostrich, Warthog and Croc.

We went quad biking in the massive dunes of the Namib Desert (photos coming soon). We were also lucky enough to get a flight to the Etosha Game Park in the north of the country and went on Safari. We saw most of the animals that you would expect to see which was well cool. The only thing missing was hippos and lions. Also got in lots of shopping with the exchange rate 12:1, there was no need to hold back!!

After maintaining the boat and going on all the local adventures for about a week and a half, we finally got word that the boss was joining us. He came on board straight from his safari and arrived at about 6pm on the 3rd of August.I was on night shift and as the guests were in bed fairly early I only really had anything to do with them at dinner. By the time I got up for my shift the next day the guests had left and we had to clean up from their visit and stow the boat to head back to the med.

We left Namibia on the 8th. The passage home has been long. Alan (Captain) opted to head straight to the Canary Islands from Namibia so we had 2 whole weeks full steam ahead. We only left the Canary's about 3 days ago and are now on the last leg to Venice. We have to be there for the Film Festival - there are plans for a party on board so that should be fun.

The last few days on board have been a nightmare. Big swells have had us all feeling horrible and none of us are sleeping much. We stopped at Cueta in Morroco today for fuel and will be in Venice in about 6 days, weather dependant. We are supposed to hit some gale force winds tonight.

Lots of photos to post (hopefully very soon) and many more stories to come from my time in Venice.

Til then xxx