Sailing to Colombia

Having breakfast on the Pacific in Panama City and onto Portobelo for dinner on the Carribean. Not many places you can do that. Our transport of choice to Cartagena was a beautiful 50 foot yacht skippered by Salvatore, an incredibly nice chap from Spain and his adopted first mate, an orphaned mongrel named Chilly.

Our motley crue comprised a couple from Italy, an English guy, two Swiss Germans, myself and my two Paddy bodyguards. We set off on Wednesday morning into a slack wind and made our way slowly towards the San Blas islands home to the Kuna people. We motored between Robison Crusoe like islands composing nothing but golden sand and palm trees. In fact at one stage there were dozens of such islands as far as the eye could see. On the first night we dropped anchor off yet another paradise island and as Salvatore prepared dinner we all jumped in and swam towards shore. The waters were so clear you could see down at least 10 meters. Just off shore there were starfish the size of dustbin (American translation: Garbage can) lids and sea slugs large enough to embarrass an elephant. Dinner was fantastic and accompanied by many a beer followed by the obligatory rum to finish off the night.

Day two was more islands, a bit of snorkelling followed by a BBQ on a tiny island (yes, with palm trees and golden sand) with some Kuna people. They cooked up a storm frying lobsters and dishing out some fabulous coconut rice. More beers and rums and a couple on insights into the Kuna culture and we were back in the moonlit dingy heading back to the mothership.

The next morning we weighed anchor late and headed out of the archipelago into the Caribean and true to form the waves increased in size and saw half the crew leaning over the side regreeting their breakfast. The rest of us made like Salvatore and cracked open a beer and just chilled topdeck waving every so often at passing oil tankers. To cap it all off at one stage we had an escort of dolphins racing us for a couple of kilometers. So after 5 days we arrived into Cartagena harbour at 3am, at little worse for wear but a lot of memories richer.