08/12 4am. Nightwatch

Got up at 4 to start my night watch shift with josh. I was awake anyway cause its so bloody hot in the rear cabin. All is normal on the boat apart from my apparent hunger and a need to piss - even at this rediculous hour. Signs of me getting old it seems.

I think choosing this shift was best cause we get the sunrise. Haven't seen a proper one yet since we've been away, despite the many early morning departures and a 4am hike in Xela, Guatemala and the countless other night buses we've taken so far on out escapade.

Signs of an electrical storm on the horizon, but looks like it won't affect us too much apart from giving us a great light show. Seen a few shooting stars and sometimes the whole sky is lit up. Absolutely incredible and a definite way to keep awake at this our with nothing else for miles and miles to see.

Considering there is still no moon and you can't see the horizon, and therefore no static point to concentrate on, I'm surprised I'm not feeling a little queezy. The bobbing and swaying in complete darkness would understandably make anyone feel pissed as a fart and want to hurl over the side. Thankfully not me. Today.

Doubt we'll get to Colombia on time. There's still no wind and were having to use the engine most of the time. Slow progress especially when the engine breaks down on out boat or Iliki's which seema to happen often.

Sailing all day and no swim stops. The wind is picking up tho which is great news.

First close dolphin sighting too! First there were 3 way off in the distance, then suddenly they were right with us at the front of the boat! Dodging and weaving each other as if they'd been trained to entertain.







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Location:Somewhere en route to Cartagena, Colombia

08/11 Last day on San Blas

Woke up at about 8 which is late for us now.
Already, most guys awake up on deck already. Put on the old trunks and away we go. Nice dive off the top rails and a good swim before breakfast. Huge amount of shooting stars on the shallow beach today.

After breakfast the kuna man turned up with fresh ice, beer, coke and bread. The essentials. Back to the water where there were sharks the previous night. Some of us used the anchor chain to see how deep we could swim. I got about 6 feet or so from the bottom but it was jamie that completed the challenge. Bringing up a handful of dirt from about 40 odd feet down. It's amazing how deep you can get providing you equalise on your way down. You feel like your head and lungs are going to implode as you turn around to start your ascent. But then you see the silver surface above and the lungs expand and it's the most relaxing thing. If those sharks came back I don't think I'd be so relaxed.

With a scheduled departure of midday, jamie and I swam out to a reef off a neighbouring island. Just before we got there the water bacame so shallow over coral I thought I was going to beach myself and rip the skin off my chest but a hundred meters later it dropped off and the coral walls were home to some cool fish. We swam back, shattered because we were trying to keep close to the surface. We left at 2. Straight sailing to cartegena lies ahead now. 48 hours and about 200 miles till destination.

Evening. Our first catch. A mirror was caught and reeled in from the back of the boat. It turned into a tuna as it came out of the water. Guido unhooked it and held it down calling for the knife. Patrick couldn't find the right one and the fish started to panic. Instead Guido ripped it's head off. Literally. In his bare hands.


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Location:San Blas. Somewhere off the coast of Panama

08/10 Campfire and Hawkfish

Sailing thru the caribbean listening to Springsteen over the stereo en route to yet another uninhabited island, somewhere off the Panamanian coast - another day in la officina.
However, todays destination and home for the night is an island where Captain Guido lived for a few years on his boat.
It was tiny, we walked all the way around in under 10 minutes. Yet again there were a few other small islands within swimming distance.

Did a bit of snorkelling and saw some cool fish and a few lobsters.

Spent a while collecting palm leaves and stuff for a camp fire where later both boat crews got together for drinks and dinner.
We cooked hawk fish and potatos on the fire and had them with garlic butter and chilli sauce. All this fresh seafood is so damn tasty even though it's cooked with virtually no other flavours. Maybe a bit of salt and pepper.

I think this island was named Coco Bandera.


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Location:San Blas, Panama

08/09 Grupa Fish, Crab and Lobster

Got to one of the San Blas islands and jumped straight in. Waters were so clear and a few of us swam to a tiny island we had passed on our way in. It had only a palm tree on it and room for half a dozen people.

Earlier in the day we bought grupa fish, crab and lobster. All fresh from the kuna people on their boats. They just rocked up to our boat in their little hollowed out canoes and sold it to us, for very cheap. The crab was absolutely huge. We had it all for lunch and fed 10 hungry crew to bursting point.
All cooked traditionally over smoking coconut shells.

I think the island was called Chi chi mai, but nowhere can I find a directory to double check. Over 100 of the islands in San Blas don't even have a name. I suppose that's part of the beauty of it!


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Location:San Blas, Panama

08/08 Day One on the Boat.

Recap..... This is going to be a working blog, most of which done in retrograde, with posts being added to and updated from time to time as we remember stuff. I apologise for the sometimes boring prose and other times note form, but let's face it, hannah and I are having way too much fun travelling.
Also, most of my permitted 'iPhone time' is taken up checking mcfc news, emails and facebook. In that order. So updates will perhaps not be as regular as we'd like.

Ok, so halfway thru our trip we decide to start writing some things down. Presently Hannah and I are sailing from Puerto Lindo, Panamá to Cartagena, Colombia.
We have spent 3 months travelling already which began in Havana, Cuba. From there we travelled through México, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then into Panamá where we started out in Bocas del Toro - this is where they had also recently been tracking a couple of serial killers. Great.... We didn't notice much of a shady vibe while we were there, in fact most others knew nothing about it.


We arrived at Hostel Wunderbar from Panama City yesterday to say goodbye to Central América. This was the place where they organised the yacht trips to San Blas and beyond.

The hostal was full of Panama to/from Colombia folk, some had just done the trip in reverse and were relaying some of their less fond experiences of the voyage.

Hannah and I were on the 50ft Seeadler (sea eagle) complete with 7 other travellers, 5 motorbikes, and a crazy (but just the right amount of crazy) German captain called guido.

Luckily, all the crew were great, and everyone got on right from the off.

There were 2 yanks, Darren and Jamie from Vermont,
2 'grand dad' bikers, also from the states - patrick and steve, or more affectionately, grand dad and ropes (Steve had 7 year dreadlocks),
And 3 more bikers, two of which were kiwi's and had been riding from Canada, and were going all the way to southernmost Argentina. Wow. Rob the bearded American had joined craig and josh in Mexico, he was from Portland, and he was cruising down to Lima, Peru where he would start a new job.

The other boat, Iliki, with which we'd be sailing alongside and sharing some meals with when we were in land, was almost exclusively german. And most were couples. Although they weren't all XX/XY couples.


We set sail after breakfast. But more like 10 than 8 as planned. A day of sailing should have seen us all the way to our first San Blas archipelago islet but we left too late to get all the way in as planned - Because of the surrounding reefs it's too dangerous in low light. And tonight is a New Moon. Absolute darkness as of about 7pm.

Instead we anchor down and go for a swim in the open sea for half an hour before we ate on the boat.

Here is our crazy skipper...

Location:Puerto Lindo, Panama