now what?

So now we've passed our big brother period, recorded some tear-filled goodbyes and even had the pleasure of seeing the real face of television. Recording the morning, evening and night scenes within one hour in the afternoon, repeating lots of scenes and sailing with motor. All sweaty and exhausted after putting the sails up the director comes with a: "very good, now can you do it again a little bit faster because I didnt manage to get all the angles right". And the best thing of it all, one month of recording, of repeating scenes and hours of sailing will all be cut down to 26 minutes of television ;).

Last few days weve had some visits from potential sponsors, right now the most urgent needs of the boat are to repair the masts and the sails, two pretty essential needs. So Im crossing my fingers hoping everything will work out. 

Nice though to feel that things are moving in the right direction, even though the actions of the next few weeks is very uncertain, this weekend well hopefully get some more information. Until then we have three more parties and lots and lots of cables to take care of.

Navegar é preciso (sailing is necessary)

Lately the crew has been very close to cabinfever, everyone started to get superannoyed over nothing, which is probably merely a sideefect of too much work and a very intense living-situation. Marcelo managed to 4 times in a row enter the bathroom with a (not so) small present waiting for him and went crazy, I had several misunderstandings with most of the crew and came to the point where I even wondered why im here. And then came the cameracrew. Ready to film every move we make. which at the beginning seemed like a very bad idea, until we found out that part of this was that we were going to sail. The feeling when the sails catches the wind is indescribable but its like all of your worries just blows away. 

Or to quote one of the books on sailing that we have on the boat:

"Sailing is a hobby that can provoque the most contradictionary reactions; excitement, fear, boredom, confusion, love and hate.. and very likely in the same person during the same day" (Fitzpatrick 1992) 

fame

We are gaining more and more fame, today we were interviewed by Renata Simoes that is travelling with us during the red bull events (there are lots of videos from the events on the homepage of red bull, look for music armada, but most of them are in Portuguese). But wow, it feels kind of strange when one of the most famous bands in brasil leave their instruments in your room.  

After a successful party in Ilha Bela we set sail for Paraty, where we finally gained some free time. Everybody was getting on eachothers nerves but after some hours on land I think that we all will calm down. The return to firm earth was on the other hand a horrorfilled experience for me. Landsickness is far worse than seasickness, because you don’t even have the grace of the ocean to enjoy.

Tocorime has a new improved website: http://www.tocorime.com.br and now I´m even listed as an official crewmember!

Anchoring in Santos

The workday just finished, the last few weeks have been really hectic with a huge workload for the whole crew. Were raising money for the project, hosting various parties for MTV and Red Bull. So the days are filled with sailing from place to place and lots of maintenancework. My time is mostly spent in a close relationship with all the ropes on the ship, doing splices and trying to keep them all in shape, or if Im not there im inhaling paint or repairing sails. 

The first voyage that we did from Paraty to Florianopolis threw us in the middle of  a storm with a windspeed of 35 knots and waves of 5 meters, but also dolphins swimming on the side of the ship and huge turtles passing by. A good reminder that life on the sea never is predictable and that it generally provides its visitors with enough emotions to cover a year on land. 

Hopefully Ill be able to put some fotos up the next few days. I could spend the whole night trying to descripe the absolute harmony and peace of a sunrise on the open ocean but I prefer to show you. 

the beginning

24^th January 2011 – Up, up, up!

So Im off. I try really hard to keep my restlessness in its leach, but when the world calls so persistantly, I find it hard to. I justify it with acknowledging the amazing oppurtunity that this journey is to me. 

Except for that, Im trying to live choosing the most challenging way, since I believe that is the best way for me to constantly develop. And god knows this has been a tough descicion to make, because even though this is the journey of my dreams, life in sweden is so easy. It is nice never having to think about economy, its nice not having to numb yourself in order to manage the injustice of the world. The bad conciounceness is wild and vivid in sweden aswell, but at least there you are not faced with it on a daily basis. Having a safe harbor should not be underestimated. 

Now im going on a journey that im not qualified for, the warm shower from yesterday will be a memory Ill treasure dearly since no one knows when Ill be experiencing that again. 

Leaving my family, once again, is increasingly difficult. At the same time I know I might be seeing parts of my other family, its all very double-sided. 

But there is one very effective cure to most of my fears, aside from challinging them head on, I just sit down, turn on the computer and turn on Into the wild. It reminds me of that part within me that only wishes for a life in the middle of the world. A life where I can feel my strenght and my weakness, as that is the only thing I have to work with. I am no supertramp, I lack his determination and I enjoy being the gueststar in most of the worlds that this earth has to offer, Im not the protagonist here, barely an observer. But this is a reality that I am looking forward to take part off. 

”You can't depend entirely on leaves and berries. - I dont know if you want to depend on much more than that” (Into the Wild)

Let's start off with an introduction

"It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins, the exact 

same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, 

we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the 

ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it — 

we are going back from whence we came. "

—John F. Kennedy 

I find it intriguing, the effect that the ocean has on me. Whilst studying for exams, repeating lifecycles til I drop or writing reports that sometimes barely make sense to myself I find myself doubting why I put myself in the position of studying something that has few, at the best, chances of ever landing me a secure work-position (even though a secure job never was my highest priority, it is still something I would like to have the possibility to procure one day). 

Then I feel the smell of the ocean, and it all falls to place. The question has no concrete answer. For me, it is simply the feeling of finding your way home after a long array of confusing paths. And there are few things as natural as searching for ways to protect the essence of your home. 

The oceans are the origin of life, and neither the natural nor  the anthropological evolution since has created an independence from those two-thirds of our planet that we still know so little about.  We need the oceans to survive, and here, in their prescence, I feel it in every cell of my being. 

Backround-check 

My name is Therese Carlsson and Im studying to become a marine-biologist at the University of Gothemburg, I started 2010, but ive studied some environmental science, environmental law and environmental politics before. 

This is my third time in Brasil, I was here 2007-2008 and 2009, at a total for 13 months; 10 months working at a wonderful orphanage outside of Rio called casa do caminho, and 3 months working at the chinese djunk Kublais Kahn II (she was my first real introduction to the ocean when I met her the first time in 2006, and maybe my first love, but thats a story we can take another time).  It was then that I first met Tocorime and her owner Markus Lehman. 

When I heard that Tocorime was the ship that was going to make this journey (I already heard about the project it from some dutch sailors I met whilst crewing on a boat this summer) I quickly applied to join the boat as a volunteer-crew. After a long nervous waiting Markus answered that I was welcome to join the crew. 

So, 23 years and 123 days old I joined the crew onboard of Tocorime Pamatjori (the name means adventurous spirit) in Paraty in Brasil. My intention was to partake in a project designated to follow the footsteps of Darwin from Fernando do noronha to Galapagos. It turned out that the project was very delayed, but nonetheless I fell inlove with the boat and the experience, so when I was offered to work on the boat I decided to stay to help realize this amazing project. So at the moment we are raising money, sailing the coast and partaking in different events and doing alot of maintenance work. 

Since we are spending alot of time sailing I wont always be able to access the internet but Ill do my best to keep the blog up to date.