Lust4Life Sailing

Breaking News: 🥳
We have just completed the sale of our beloved SV Lust4Life ⛵️⚓️ Our baby has new owners from 1st May and we have decided to take a break from the live aboard lifestyle for some time. Our new homes will be in Lanzarote in winter and Berlin in summer. 🥳

Dear L***y 😍
Thanks for being our home for the past 4 years and for sailing us safely through all kinds of weather to so many beautiful places. We enjoyed countless different things on and with you: like fishing and eating the freshest fish, freediving from you in the colorful waters of the different oceans, watching the most incredible sunsets, stars, moons, listening to our favorite music and podcasts while you were making miles and miles, watching movies even in the middle of the ocean, washing our clothes, sleeping confi, doing spa treatments, sports and yoga sessions on passage in all weather conditions thanks to your safe cockpit, cooling our food in your fridges, taking hot showers, having friends over for BBQs, watching dolphins on your bow, having deep conversations and all emotions from doubts, fears, miserable mood to laughter, happiness and tears of joy. As you need (and obviously deserve) a lot of attention, Andy became captain and engineer in one and we were both growing up with you. But you were worth every single effort because you have been providing a home in a period of our lives that has been so colorful and full of all kinds of lessons that we needed a “shoulder” to lean on more than once. Your “shoulders” are stronger than life and the sturdiness and safety you provided gave us all the time and space we needed.

You stripped us to the bones and then helped us to put all the pieces back together – just like a loving but in the same time very demanding parent. ❤️

Some interesting facts and figures about our 4 year long trip: 💡

Number of countries visited: 15 (Spain, Portugal, Cape Verde, Barbados, Grenada, SVG, Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, St. Martin, Bahamas, Bermuda)

Number of islands: 30+

Nautical miles: 11.500 (21.000 km)

Fuel spent (engine and generator)*: ~ 1.500l
* roughly 80% for sailing under motor, 20% for producing energy (mostly for the watermaker)

Water produced on board: ~ 100.000l (most of it powered by PV panels, rest: generator power)

Fish/shellfish caught: too many to count ;-)

Energy produced by the PV panels (3x335 watts): ~ 8.000 kwh*
99% of our energy for all electronics/electricts on board including 3 fridges, navigation, various pumps, light, induction cooking, charging of phones and other devices, making ice,… has been produced by the sun. Making water and protecting the batteries in the rare event of a few cloudy days in a row have been our main reason to run the generator.

Moments that felt like giving up: 10.000+

Moments that we gave up: 0

Trust in each other before the trip: 99,99%

Trust in each other now: 2 x 100%


We wish the new owners always a safe journey and a memorable time with you. Congratulations to an amazing blue water boat. You surely won't regret it 💪

We truely love you Mrs. Lust 😍 It was a great honor to be your crew.

Now it´s time to move on and let you do what you are best at: Protecting, serving and guiding another couple through the stormy lessons of life and love.

So guys, stay tuned, there´s a lot more to come – on and off the oceans.

Biggest hugs for all of you, your Lust4Life team
Andy and Antonija ⚓❤️


P.S New boat related ideas/plans are obvisouly in the make, since our wonderful friend Blazenko is always right and has probably been right once more when he said: „Ohne Boot bist Du tot“ which means in a drastic way that he cannot imagine us to be without a boat after 20 years. Our imagination does not go much further than his.

***y

The last 2 years were super intense and adventurous.

We are so grateful for everything and couldn't be more happy to be back in our home port Rubicon in Lanzarote after sailing the Caribbean sea with the most western point Aruba and crossing twice the Atlantic ocean as a team of us two. ⛵️🐬🌞

We are grateful that we had the chance to see countless different anchorages and wonderful places, to swim and freedive in the most beautiful waters, to meet lovely people, to go through ups and downs especially during the crossings and coming back healthy and still married. 🤣 Living on the hook for most of the time was quite intense and challenging. But this adventure was life changing for us as individuals and as a team. Looking forward what life brings us in our future on land and sea in 2024. 🙏🤩

We wish everyone out there a healthy, happy and colourful new year! Hope you can appreciate what you have: love, peace, health, a warm meal and a bed which is not moving 🥳
🤟

Biggest hugs 🤗🥰
Your Lust4Life team ⚓️
Andy & Antonija

Did we have fun in the Azores?

Oh yes definitely! We are still stoked about the lush green of these special islands in the middle of the Atlantic. We just visited Faial, Sao Miguel and Santa Maria for this time. So we have many reasons to come back. 🐳

We enjoyed the visit of our lovely frendos on board and are happy to had the chance to join Mare de Agosto - one of the oldest music festivals in Portugal 🤟

After a passage of 3 nights we are now reaching a very special place for us with wonderful memories we made 2 years ago: Porto Santo ⛵️🫶
Can't wait to hug our friends we met there, eat Espetada and get drunk with Poncha 🥰😎🥂

Happy weekend and biggest hugs,
Your Lust4Life team
Andy and Antonija ⚓️

We are super excited to let you know that the Lust4Life team arrived safely to Horta (Azores) today - tired and exhausted after challenging 12 sailing days and nights through the rough north Atlantic - but also super proud and happy for this special experience with the best team ever ❤️ now time to get some sleep, wash the boat and celebrate land 🤟⛵️⚓️🥰 More pics / videos to come so stay tuned.

Thanks for all your support!
Big hugs
A & A

What do we love most about the Bahamas? 😍

Definitely the breathtaking underwater world and nature in general. 🦈🐠🦞🐋🏝
Our unforgettable journey started in Great Inagua and ended in Abaco. The absolute highlight for us was being able to spend 3 days and nights at the only Atoll in the Atlantic Ocean - the Hogsty Reef which lies in the south of the Bahamas. We anchored in the middle of the ocean, more than 40 miles away from land, surrounded by 2000 to 3000 meters of deep blue ocean being the only boat for more than 24 hours, had to fight a thunderstorm at anchor in the middle of the night with lightning and gusts up to 35 kn, first time freediving with sharks, catching our first lobsters to make a proper BBQ lonesome on the very very small patch of sand. From unbelivable paradise to worst nightmare in a couple of minutes - classical boat life. What an experience! 🤩

Since the weather here is getting more dynamic each day and all boat works for the crossing are nearly done, it's time to set sails direction Europe. 🤞🍀⛵️ Will start our journey in the next days from Abaco (Bahamas) to Bermuda and to the Azores. If you like to follow our journey, here is the link: https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Lust4Life/

Wishing you all the very best!
Stay tuned 🤟,
Your Lust4Life team ⚓️😍
Andy and Antonija

We would like to wish you happy Easter and hope you all have some wonderful days off with family and friends 🐣🥂

Check out some pictures of our last adventures from the Lust4Life crew: after spending nearly 7 months on land on the Maltese Islands due to business reasons while leaving the boat on the hard in Aruba, we visited and explored the beauty of Colombia by plane. Finally back in Aruba we were so happy to continue our adventurous life on board of Lust4Life. We were working on the hull, enjoying the friendly and positive environment of the Aruba Varadero and were happy to see our L***y finally back and floating in the water. After saying goodbye to "one happy island" Aruba, we experienced some rough sailing conditions on the way to St. Martin/St. Marteen. But it was worth every single minute. We love this friendly island and it feels a little bit like home. Bahamas will be our next stop but first enjoying some days off with new and old friends in this beautiful place and waiting for the wind for a proper downwind sail to the Bahamas. ⛵️🏖

Will keep you posted. Stay tuned and enjoy your Easter holidays.

Captain Andy and co captain Antonija ⚓️🤗

We wish you all a fantastic bombastic new year 2023 with health, love and unforgettable moments 🥰 2022 was full of adventure and exciting moments for us with ups and downs. Let's see what the new year will bring us. We don't know exactly where we will be going but we promise it won't be boring 🤣

Enjoy your NYE party and stay tuned 🤗
Your Lust4Life is sending big hugs from Valletta, Malta
Antonija and Andy 🥳

Nearly 4 months ago we left our boat SV Lust4Life on the hard (on land) in Aruba with high hopes and two pieces of hand luggage to fly to Malta to "quickly" finish our construction site for a holiday home on the beautiful Maltese Islands. We thought we just need a few weeks to finish and furnish it. But the state of it was unfortunately far away. We started with a garden hose as a shower, a bucket as a toilet flush, a mattress on the floor as a bed and a camping hob as a full kitchen. It was a very tough time full of ups and downs. Our toilet door is still missing - who needs that anyway? But we tackled it like always - as a team. Finally the day has come and we see a light at the end of the tunnel and a beautiful boat waiting on the other side of the world since after all, we are getting close to finish and can't wait to open it as a holiday home in Victoria, the capital of Gozo. We are so much looking forward to welcome the first guests here and to get our well deserved break back on board continuing to explore the Caribbean seas and beyond ⚓🥂🌴🌞 stay tuned, happy and healthy!

Your Lust4Life team ⛵
Andy and Antonija

Living on a boat – from paradise to potential hurricanes… 😎🤩🥰😨

Bon Dia means good morning on Bonaire! We would like to take this chance to share some impressions and real feelings with you guys because we feel that you and us deserve to know how it really is to live on a boat.
Watching and reading the usual travel blogs sometimes makes even us believe that there must be a worry free life in which you can have drinks 24/7 without getting sick, where you can stay in the sun for days without burning and where everything is always “so amazing”, “gorgeous” or just “wow”.

Yes, we are very privileged being able to visit so many beautiful places and get to know the most wonderful people and we know that but we do have days that clearly ask us why we are doing all that and remind us how relaxing a day in front of the TV in a non-moving, cool place on land can be or how good it can feel to not have a look at the weather every 2 hours to avoid disaster.
We want to share our last weeks here on Bonaire with you because we believe that this period provides an honest picture of what we do.

We have been departing from Martinique almost a month ago arriving to the beautiful island of Bonaire, after probably the best sailing experience of our lives – a 3 day sail in perfect downwind conditions with a motivated and happy crew on a boat without any known problems, chilling, laughing, even catching a fantastic Mahi-Mahi to provide some much needed change in the menu – just perfect.

We knew that anchoring is not allowed on Bonaire (the B of the ABC islands, just off the coast of Venezuela) because the island is surrounded by a wonderful and protected reef. You need to have a berth in the marina or one of the very limited mooring buoys laid out by the local authorities.
Since Bonaire is said to be “Hurricane free” we were not the only boats that wanted to spend at least parts of the hurricane season (June-October/November) here.
We ended up paying crazy amounts of money in the marina to secure a berth for a few sweaty nights full of mosquito attacks, swearing, waiting, hoping. They gave us a week to find a buoy or to leave again. On our last “asylum” day, tired, exhausted, mosquito tortured and sad our friends Agnes and Johan from svmaxim46 came up with a solution because they had to leave their boat in the marina for 3 weeks so we could take over their buoy for the time being.
From overpriced, humid, mosquito nightmares directly to paradise in one day – the mooring buoys on Bonaire are pretty much what every cruiser dreams of. Safe, not too packed, crystal clear water with colorful sea life just on your “doorstep” – Bam.
A wise man in Malta once told us: “Paradise is when you die” – meaning that nothing in life comes without a downside as well. He was right as we should figure out only a few days after we have finally made it to our long desired spot.
Weather warnings started to pop up on Facebook, on cruiser groups first and slowly the discussion made it to the local media as well.

Now, we are on our buoy waiting and hoping that the dynamical system that kept on gaining power and kept on getting more and more threatening will not hit us too hard.
Like the old man in Malta said, there´s always a downside. The downside of our mooring on Bonaire is that once the wind turns or just gets above say 40 knots the moorings are not safe anymore and you need to untie yourself and seek “shelter” in the ocean.
Many boats have already left the moorings to sail over to Curacao because there´s a supposedly safe bay (Spanish waters) that provides good shelter from the sea (not the wind though), others have sneaked in the marina to find shelter there and others, like us, have decided to stay on the mooring as long as possible. While we are writing this post it seems that we might be lucky since the majority of weather models that we are following predict less impact than yesterday.

Why are we telling you all this? Because we want you to know that “paradise is when you die” so hopefully not too soon but life with all its ups and downs is wonderful. Keep on dreaming, keep on hoping and keep on struggling – all this together is life, the rest is marketing. 🥰🤗🤩

Your Lust4Life team
Andy and Antonija

Dear friends, 😍

it´s been a couple of weeks since our last post. That´s why we would like to give you a short update.
Here is where we have been since our Atlantic crossing in December 2021 and what we have been up to in a couple of pictures and words:

- Barbados:
trying to get a good sleep and relaxation after the Atlantic crossing (unfortunately Carlisle Bay was a bit too wavy and crowded for that), doing some yoga and stretching on the beach to get rid of the back pain after the crossing, snorkeling with turtles and rays next to our boat, exploring the colorful capital Bridgetown by feet on our own and the rest of the island with our new friend Jendrik - who is one of the last piano restorers in Germany/Europe and who took us to hidden gems of the island with his Jeep “golden egg”, trying local Banks beer, rum, plantains and the local fish.

Sailing between the islands can be tough sometimes due to the changing wind directions and intensity and the squalls. But catching some fish while sailing can be a good reward ;)

-Grenada:
getting a real good sleep in the quite marina of Port Louis, relaxing on a pool (felt like some proper holiday ;-)), cleaning the boat and doing some minor repairs like changing the membranes of the water filter (Andy has still some scratches on his back due to this operation; unfortunately more repairs, especially on the gear box of the engine are waiting for us in Martinique), starting jogging again, enjoying the beauty of Grand Anse Beach, exploring the island on a scooter, hiking and jumping into waterfalls, getting a Covid vaccine booster, buying and eating a lot of chocolate made in Grenada.

-Carriacou:
making friends with locals and other cruisers living there for years (wonderful community and vibe there – it won´t be our last visit), starting to go out listening and dancing to live music (“Ruffanuff” with Cora and Stan is the best live music we heard for months, probably years while Cora and Stan have such an interesting story that we will most probably do a feature, exclusively for and with them), watching birds flying over the sea (pelicans everywhere) and goats on the road, buying and cooking our first lobster, enjoying the waters of Paradise Bay, snorkeling at Sandy Island, painting our logo on the sailor´s wall at Paradise Beach Bar (they have excellent drinks and food there), enjoying nature and finally slowly finding our very own Caribbean rhythm.

-Union Island:
that´s where we are at the moment especially to improve our kitesurfing skills (crossing fingers to get on the board again). Very, very beautiful but very “Disneyland” as well.

-Tobago Cays:
that will be the next stop most probably to have a proper look into the colorful underwater world of the Caribbean – stay tuned for some breathtaking photos of the Cays – one of the most beautiful water spots in the whole Caribbean waters.

We are super happy and grateful for this trip and to have the opportunity to live nearly self-sufficient on board while exploring these beautiful places of the world.
There is more to come. We will keep you posted! Thanks for following us.

Stay safe and happy.

Your Lust4Life crew
Antonija & Andy 🤟⛵

Dear friends, first of all we want to thank you all for your great support and feedback, we feel very honored for all the love we are currently receiving.
So far Barbados is good to us and we are slowly recovering from the crossing.
Since we know that some of you are sailors yourself and because we‘re a bit proud we want to share some ‚technical data‘ of our trip:
Leg 1: Marina Rubicon (Lanzarote, Spain) to Marina Mindelo (Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde)
Total distance: 1018 NM, True heading: 220•
Duration: 131 hrs (30.11. 2021, 1100 hrs - 05.12.2021, 2100 hrs)
Average speed: 7,8 Kn
Engine hours: 17 ; Generator hours: 9 ; Watermaker hours: 4
Fuel consumption combined: 64,5l ; Water produced: 600l.

Problems:
Cosmetical: Ballooner/Gennaker could not be set because of a broken mouse, genoa furler with limited usability because of 2 bent distance rods. As a consequence we had to have one person on the foredeck day and night whenever switching from a stb to port tack.
Critical: Problems with autopilot at the wheel including some water intrusion through the rudderpost. We realized this in the first night, close to Gran Canaria. We almost took the decision to divert our route to Las Palmas but managed to tighten the rudder while sailing and switched to the other autopilot which sits directly on the rudder. Forces on the rudder have been huge because of the strong winds and the dead downwind course we were sailing.
Continued to monitor the rudder area every 4 hours until our arrival in Barbados.

Leg 2: Marina Mindelo (Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde) - Carlisle Bay (Bridgetown, Barbados)

Total distance: 2032 NM, True heading: 167•
Duration: 278 hrs (12.12 2021, 1200 hrs - 23.12. 2021, 2300 hrs)
Average speed: 7,3 Kn
Engine hours: 38 ; Generator hours: 20 ; Watermaker hours: 7
Fuel consumption combined: 145l ; Water produced: 1050l.

Problems:
We realized that we did not have gears when we arrived in Barbados. Changed gear oil while sailing, gearbox came back but still not as it should be. We assume that the oil cooler has a leak. Anchoring upon arrival was easy but the Barbados port authorities have more or less ignored our warnings that we are basically not able to maneuver properly and decided to call us to the commercial port to dock between some huge cruise ships on the cruise ship dock. Short version: After they have realized that our hint with the gearbox was no joke and we really cannot maneuver properly they have granted permission to proceed to the anchorage and do the check-in without the boat. In line with the rising level of empathy they have even sent a pilot boat who after almost crashing us against the pier with his wake helped us to leave the pier against the pushing wind and promised not to approach any boat again in full speed…

So far we can say that we are very satisfied with the perfomance of the boat and the upgrades we have added in the last 12 months. To our big suprise we did not produce enough energy from our solar panels. The reason for this was that the headsail created a huge shade on this particular course. Therefore we used the motor (motorsailing) and the generator more than expected but we will work on that and will be able to again get closer to our goal of operating the whole boat without fossil fuels.
With 6,5 liters of Diesel per person per day on passage for all our energy (travel, house, personal) needs we feel that we are on a good path but there‘s still a lot to do.
On anchor we are already fully indepent and able to run all our systems including the watermaker from the energy that the solar panels are creating.

We made it to Barbados 🤘 💪⚓ Exhausted, overwhelmed, sore, proud, grateful, super happy,... 😍 Fully giving in to nature for almost two weeks, gave us a first idea of one of the lessons that this trip will provide for us 🌍

Wishing you Merry Christmas and the best things in life for 2022 🥂😍

Thank you all very much for your support messages, thoughts and prayers. They mean the world to us and provide the missing bits of energy needed in those challenging moments 🙏

More pictures are about to come. Stay tuned and enjoy the time with your beloved ones ❤️

Your Lust4Life Crew
Andy & Antonija

Cabo Verde (Sao Vicente, Mindelo) was super interesting, beautiful and relaxing. 🌴🌞 We are more than thankful to get the chance to be here. More pictures and facts are about to come. 🤩

But since the trade winds are right perfect now and we heard them calling us, we will set sails to the Carebbean tomorrow. ⛵We are well prepared (even did a traditional German Vollkornbrot on board) and can´t wait for our second part of the Atlantic crossing.

If you want to follow us, just have a look at https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV_Lust4Life/

Stay safe, happy and enjoy the festive season with your beloved ones!

Big hugs from your Lust4Life crew
Antonija and Andy 🤟😘

After a rough but great downwind ride of 5,5 days and 1000 nm from Lanzarote we made landfall in beautiful Cabo Verde - our longest open ocean experience so far 💪 It was an exhausting and special trip full of wind, waves, seasickness, but also breathtaking with unforgettable moments and emotions ⛵ Can't thank my captain enough for that experience and for keeping us always safe. Looking forward to explore Cabo Verde and continue the Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean with you soon ❤️

We´ll be back with more about Cabo Verde and the crossing. But now it´s time to take a good rest and explore 🤩🌞🌴

Stay tuned 🤟
Antonija with captain Andy
Your Lust4Life crew

It´s been roughtly one year since we got our Lust4Life in Lanzarote, a Super Maramu 2000 redline. After big preparations – from putting the new name and flag on her, clearing the boat, installing a new solar arch inclusive the inverter, fixing our water maker, replacing and installing the whole navigation system including radar, getting new emergency equipment (and trying the old life raft), studying and trying our diving gear including the second hand diving compressor, learning how to use our ballooner, checking all sails, trying to fix our dishwasher (it is still not working – sorry Andy), doing a whole haul out including anti-fouling with Silic One, servicing all engines and machines aboard, cleaning and polishing every corner of her from inside to outside to provisioning and pre-cooking - we are finally ready to set sails from Lanzarote via Cabo Verde to the Caribbean. We couldn´t be more thankful and excited about our upcoming adventure.

A big thank you goes out to all wonderful people who crossed our paths during this exciting last year on board, but especially to captain Andy for all the works he did on our boat – he became a real handyman and boat mechanic 👏

Let the adventure begin. We will obviously keep you posted and post even more pictures about the beautiful places we have already visited in the last year.

Stay tuned 🤟
Antonija with captain Andy ⛵️
Your Lust4Life crew