sailing vessel Sänna

Blogs from our sailing vessel Sänna. Eastwards from England to New Zealand... & sailing circumnavigation.

09 May 2023 | Willemstad, Curaçao - Dutch Caribbean.
12 June 2022 | Sherwood, Nottingham
30 March 2022 | Cartagena, Colombia
03 March 2022 | Shelter Bay, Panama
14 December 2021 | Shelter Bay - Caribbean Panama
20 November 2021 | Vista Mar, San Carlos, Panama
11 September 2021 | Nottingham, England
11 August 2021 | No Location
25 June 2021 | England
30 April 2021 | Lockdown in England
14 April 2021 | Lockdown - Nottingham, England
31 March 2021 | Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England
09 March 2021 | Vista Mar, Panama
17 February 2021 | Sherwood, Nottingham, England
07 February 2021 | Sherwood, England
28 January 2021 | In national lockdown, Nottingham, England
28 December 2020 | Nottingham, England
20 October 2020 | Vista Mar, Panama
23 April 2020 | Vista Mar, Panama

El Capitan…

20 November 2021 | Vista Mar, San Carlos, Panama
Dave Ungless
Photo: Hauled out joy...

Each evening, before finishing up, Marie and I have the same conversation. What was going to be worse... wading thigh-deep to cross the fast-flowing river, the long walk in the stifling humidity to San Carlos or one more night in Ollie's El Capitan guest house? We'd long decided that we couldn't at this time stay onboard Sänna - the interior is in such bad state after eighteen months abandoned in Panama, it was gonna take at least another two weeks before she was anything like shipshape. Once more we agreed - it was the overnight confinement in the gloom of El Capitan.

Not that El Capitan is anything like the worse place we've ever stayed, but it's the bunkbeds in the windowless bunkhouse rattled by the din of the air conditioning, there is nothing to do except lie on the bed glued to our devices - no bars or restaurants in the nearby village of San Carlos, everything is closed because of covid. So, in the manner of two weary explorers, we descend the ladder down to the boatyard roadway, we cross the breakwater to the tidal deluge of the river, decide where the ever-changing sandbanks offers the safest crossing, we wade across thigh-deep, precariously, then walk the abandoned public beach in the twilight darkness to the road before we trekk the half-mile or so to the locked gate of El Capitan. Then the bit I dread the most - Ollie's five free-roaming dogs. The dogs are friendly enough, delightful in their own way, but once thru the locked gate then comes Dante's hell - the walk in the by now darkness thru dog-shit alley. Every night I feel the soft warm experience between my feet and toes, that gleeful sensation when you know you've trod in something you'd rather not, the ritual of washing my feet and flip-flops under the cold running tap before unlocking the bunkhouse kitchen door into freedom sanctuary. Marie, somehow, never treads in anything.

The defects list on Sänna is horrendous. The radar has seized, so has the fridge, so too both toilet heads, the cockpit lights, Raymarine instruments, the anchor windlass, our watermaker... the list goes on and on - even our expensive ornamental brass maritime clock has locked up solid. Both of us are bewildered and downhearted, we knew it would be bad but not like this. Marie comes up with the answer... to get thru the workload without falling down we need to take a break. Marie suggests we make the four-hour bus ride into Panama City at the weekend, the historic old town quarter, joy, bars & restaurants, a nice cheap hotel then back to the Monday morning drudgery in the Vista Mar boatyard.

In the end, somehow, we got thru, we launch Sänna back into the water then withstood the relentless surge of the Pacific Ocean that blights this marina. We have made new friends, Richard & Caroline on the English sailboat Midnight Breeze. Henry joins us from England - it all suddenly comes together. Marie suggests we go for the Panama Canal - we're not ready I say, but Marie insists, we need the break, we need to achieve, we've gotta have the challenge. Without even half the onboard problems fixed we head south to the canal, I declare on the canal authority forms that we are safe and seaworthy when I know we're not - we're nowhere near. I check tick boxes on the authority form that I should never have ticked but we get given a transit date - we're ready to leave the pacific ocean to go thru the Panama Canal. Nearly ten years in the pacific but we think nothing of it when the canal pilot climbs aboard at the number four red buoy…

Bastard covid, bastard bastard covid - wading the river, treading in dog shit...
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Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.

Read more about the mishaps and mayhem of Nellie, The Ship's Cat
Vessel Name: Sänna
Vessel Make/Model: Ocean 50 (Bavaria)
Hailing Port: Poole UK
Crew: Dave & Marie Ungless
About:
We have sailed together for over ten years now, leaving the Mediterranean to head eastwards. Our destination was Australia and New Zealand which we achieved in 2012 before attempting a full round-the-world circumnavigation across the pacific and back to the UK. [...]
Extra: Sänna is a hybrid Bavaria Ocean 50, custom built for bue water ocean cruising. The build and re-fit specification is high and to date boasts over 56,000 miles of ocean cruising. For more information visit our main website at www.sanna-uk.com.
Home Page: http://www.sanna-uk.com
Social:
Sänna's Photos - Main
56 Photos
Created 24 May 2020
26 Photos
Created 23 May 2020
24 Photos
Created 8 December 2014
12 Photos
Created 1 September 2014
42 Photos
Created 2 September 2013
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9 Photos
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12 Photos
Created 8 November 2009
Starting out
6 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 8 November 2009
11 Photos
Created 8 November 2009
www.sanna-uk.com