Sailing to Panama

26 feb - 4 March 2007

As we sail towards Panama, things start well enough. On day one the five of us talk away the arvo, getting to know each other a bit better. Mark, from Whales looks like he is mid 20´s. His subject matter is normally crap like meeting the Sweedish volleyball team out here etc, which makes him sound even younger. Somewhat incredulously he is 40. Brian and Jamie are an odd couple it seems. They both escaped reality in their early 30´s and have lived on boats ever since. By the end of 6 days, we realize thy are pretty over it.

And that’s exactly how they sail, like it’s a chore…. Using auto pilot is fine I supposed, and bitching about the unexpected head wind is normal too I guess. But neither seems to be having much fun.

In general it appears they desperately needed the money, which is why we are here, but they really didn’t appreciate crowding their boat. The water supply becomes a constant nagg, and we virtually run out of food before the trip is over…

We do stop in a couple of nice little anchorages and enjoy the warm water. Unfortunately the snorkeling over ¨reefs¨ turns out to be reefs of sand and weed, not too interesting. A couple of nice BBQs off the back of the boat are nice too.

One positive thing we gain is an appreciation of whether we could live like this. I ask Brian loads of technical questions about buying a boat, maintaining it, and what to do to pass the time. In the end we conclude that we are too young and active to sail around the world just now. There is a lot of nothing time, and most of the other boaties are retired, and conversation just isn’t us.

On the 2^nd to last night we stop at the tiny town of Portabello, in Panama. By sheer chance their carnival is on, and its heaving. It turns out that Brian and Jamie are shocking racists and grizzle that there are too many blacks… the warning from other boaties anchored there about a psychotic Frenchman who tried to firebomb three boats last night is concerning, and gives Brian the perfect excuse to insist we return to the boat within the hour. This pisses us off quite badly cos the fest is in full swing with huge black people dressed as dragons and dancing wildly to some bloody awful music.

And getting into Colon, Panama, we get to see how busy the port really is. Very. Huge tankes everywhere. Quite cool.

Checking into Panama immigration the next morning we have to trot to several different offices. Its no real drama, but Brian again insists its all the fault of the blacks. Unbelievable. We aren’t that sad to say good bye to them….. oh well…