Lucie
11/18/2009, Kuna Yala, San Blas, Panama

We finally left Cartagena. Our month there was quite productive. We had lots of wood work done by Alvaro. We were quite happy to leave this beautiful but dirty harbour. Our crossing was a noisy one with the diesel motors on almost all the way. We had a few hours of quiet time with the sails up on a close reach, it was a change from the last few months were the motors did not run. The fishing was good though and we caught three small tuna. The fish were jumping everywhere and and almost thought that one would fly onto our trampoline. It was feasting time. We are not sure if the smaller tuna were eating bait fish or if they were being chased. As we were pulling in our last fish, John saw a great big one coming up for the one we had on the line. It lasted a good three hours and I had never seen anything like it. We made it to Kuna Yala the next afternoon, it was hard to go through the reef in the grey light but we followed the charts and the boys were keeping watch up on the bow. We anchored at Coco Bandero Cay and soon after our arrival, we were greeted by a Kuna family selling molas. The Kunas have learned to approach the cruisers and try to sell whatever they can. Whether it is a mola, which is what they call an intricate pique that the woman wear around their waist, or lobster, crab, fish or beer and veggies they will trade almost anything for a few dollar bills. The next morning, we headed for El Porvenir where we had to meet our guests, Wendy, Jim and Mark. They stayed with us for a week and we toured around the islands. We first went to the Lemmon Cays. Wendy and Jim enjoyed the kayaking and we also did a bit of snorkeling. That first night we had a nice tuna steak dinner and our friends from the Canadian SV Excusme, Scott and Lori joined us. We then went to Chichime and then Green Island. There we met some other friends on Stray Kitty and had another big feast. We bought crab and lobster from the Kunas and learned that their crabs are delicious but have very hard shells, nothing a hammer won't fix-break... We then continued our trip to Nargana, Coco Banderos and back to El Porvenir. We then dropped our guest off after a great week even if the weather was not its best. We are now back at Coco Bandero Cays where we have met again with Stray Kitty who have 3 kids. The weather has been the worst we have had since we left Florida 2 years ago. We have had so much rain, our tanks are full and overspilling. We hope that the tradewinds will start soon and that our kiteboarding time will begin again. Our kites have been collecting dust since we left Aruba. With the winds arriving, the rainy season will also end and our wind generator and solar panels will replace the infernal Honda generator.

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Lucie
10/26/2009, Cartagena

Well, here we are again spending more money on our beautiful boat. It is pretty cheap labour here in Colombia so we thought that it would be a good place to replace what we have of teak decks. We were quite lucky in meeting with Alvaro the first day in Cartagena, it turn out that he had just finished replacing the teak on Simpathica, a Catana 47. After admiring his work, we decided that we should also get him to do ours. We also decided to get him to build us more storage space in the starboard hull. The work is coming along good. We also got some new cockpit cushions and some other sewing work done here and tomorrow morning, we have to pick up Estuardo who will clean and wax the hulls. We can wait to get it all done so we can leave for the San Blas and enjoy the boat with our next visitors who will arrive in El Porvenir on November 8th.
Cartagena is a beautiful walled city. The people are quite friendly and we always felt safe walking around town. The kids had a great time meeting up with some old friends that we had met in Bonaire. We had afternoon field hockey session almost everyday and since they left, the boys are missing it greatly. The boardwalk is good for scootering which they have enjoyed but not as much as hockey. We can wait to get back to clear water and swimming again. The Cartagena harbour is very dirty, to say the least and I would not bathe my dog in it. The heat is very intense with the humidex easily reaching 40C everyday, the water in the San Blas will be unbelivable when we get there.

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Lucie
10/03/2009

Well we are finally leaving Aruba. It has been great hanging at the beach kiteboarding. It's definetely a good place to learn with shallow waters and the wind howling everyday.
We are welcoming a change though and going to Colombia will certainly provide one. Aruba is very americanized with all big hotels like Marriott, Hyatt, Radisson right on the beach. The weather here is unbelievable, sunny, dry, warm all the time...No wonder it is so popular and busy, we are lucky to retrieve to our little island of Tyee.

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Lucie
08/18/2009, Montreal

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are in Montreal visiting with my family as my father is very sick and in the hospital. We will know more in the next few days as for his condition. We left the boat at the Renaissance Marina in Aruba and John will probably return in the next week.

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Lucie
07/29/2009, Curacao,Spanish Waters

We are once again back in Curacao.
After leaving los Roques and a great time kiteboarding, we continued on to Los Aves de Barlovento for a couple of days. The snorkeling there was good and we saw squids, turtles and again lots of parrots fish and barracudas. Then we continued west to Los Aves de Sotavento. The fishing between the two groups of islands was not so good, we only managed to catch some bubbies bird who are so stupid and dive for our baits. We had to bring one on board who had hook its neck.
On our first night in Sotavento, John manage to get his hand caught in the wind generator trying to stop it and slice his index finger pretty deep. His kiteboarding days were over for a few days as he wanted to keep his injury out of the water. My kiteboarding got suddenly better as I was the only one practising with a rescue team. We met another boat from Curacao, "Dutchess" and he was also keen to kiteboard. In the morning we would board and in the afternoon we would go snorkelling, hunting for a good diner. We had lots of lobster and fish. We spend a week there and it was lots of fun but the kids were longing for other kids.
We continued downwind to Bonaire where there was lots of kids and it was great. We met "Pickles" with 4 kids,"Stray Kitty" with 3 kids and "New Life" with one little one, all were under 10 years old. We had some amazing get togethers and nobody wanted to leave. Patricia from "New Life", John and I usually went for a dive everyday. We saw sea horses, octopuses, turles and rays. It was great!
We are now back in Curacao where we will do some replenishing before heading to Aruba and the Colombian Coast.

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Lucie
06/30/2009, Los Roques Venezuela

Well here we are again in Venezuela. Could not stay away. After our last charter, we went back to Curacao to pick up a new anchor, which we love. One of the best purchases we have made in a long time. Then we headed southeast to the mainland of Venezuela for some provisionning. We had a good sail, closereach to Puerto Cabello Marina where we stayed for a couple of days. We took advantage of the running unmetered water to wash everything down which needed it badly after being in dusty Curacao. The boat changed colour. The shopping was good, lots of beer, rhum and nice fruits and veggies for not much. We then left in the afternoon for an overnight sail to Los Roques. First we sailed east along the coast, we thought that we would have to motor up but the wind turn out to our advantage. It can out more southerly and we made good progress without the motors on. Once we reached Caracas' longitude we started our northern leg with a reef in the main. Soon we had to reef again and again. With the smallest mainsail and a couple of reefs in the jib, we were still going 8 knots to destination. We arrived in the early morning, the light was not great to go over the coral reef but we trusted to charts and guide book and headed in the protected anchorage. These islands of Los Roques are so beautiful. We are now at Los Mosquises, two small islands separated by a channel where the wind hollers through at 20 knots. The beach is the perfect set-up for beginner kiteboarders, which WE are. John did get a few rides and tumbles but he is getting the hang of it and by the time we leave this place, he should be able to control it fairly well. As for me, I got the courage to graduate from the training kite to a 7m. Tomorrow, I will let it launch me in the water and drag me around for a bit. See how long, I can last...Theo is a rock star flyer, he gets it from playing gameboy I think. We will see as he does in the water in the next few days. Again if you need to reach us, do so with our High frequency email address which does not need internet access. cfn5324@sailmail.com.

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