Part of our motivation to get Prrrfection in tip-top shape and working very hard at it whilst being hauled out in Trinidad, was the forthcoming visit from Riaan, my son, for his school holidays during December.

He and a friend, Byron, flew into Bonaire after a two day flight from Johannesburg via Madrid and Puerto Rico and as you can imagine the reunion was wonderful. My son takes after his dad, Deon - who had a fatal heart attack in Mayotte whilst we were cruising the Indian Ocean, and I was overwhelmed with pride and joy when I saw him, tall and handsome, happy to be with me and his two younger sisters, Mariska and Rochelle and Claude who has been my partner for the last 20 months and whom he introduced to me and played matchmaker too. He is now living with friends in South Africa whilst finishing his final two years at school.

Bonaire, part of the Netherland Antilles and the B in the ABC islands, were exactly like the licence plates on the cars read - a diver's Paradise. Crystal clear water, with a visibility of about 30 meters, beautiful coral, lots of fish and Kralendijk, the capital, was the most beautiful town we have seen so far during our travels.

Although we initially decided staying only a couple of days there, Nature brought along a weather system , which turned out to be Hurricane Isobel in the Caribbean and we happily stayed longer in Bonaire waiting for the frontal system to pass.

We were quite apprehensive about the sail along the Colombian coast from Bonaire to Panama, which according to some cruisers, was the worst they have had during their circumnavigation. The passage about to be made was reported to have big following seas with back waves from the mainland and an unsafe Colombian coastline with drug trafficking, lawlessness, etc., making Colombia a place we would rather avoid, although I would have loved to see Cartagena, a world heritage city. We stayed well offshore, in deep water, and although the seas were big and the time gap between the swells short, the passage was better than what we expected. The American Coast Guard gave Prrrfection a "visit" on the high seas, first with their helicopter, circling the boat whilst filming the kids who were on deck (Claude and I were sleeping, as we just came off watch) and then later with the navy vessel, motoring slowly close to us and asking a few standard questions over the VHF.

The San Blas islands are located along Panama's Caribbean coast and comprises a 365-island archipelago. Formerly known as Mulattas and locally known as Kuna Yala, these islands with the local inhabitants known as Kuna Indians, were the most unique place we have been to. Only about one-tenth of the islands are inhabited, very crowded though, and the rest - palm fringed beaches, white sand, coral reefs, fish, lobster, crabs, secluded anchorages....paradise! The Kuna Indians are native American Indians, short in build, reddish in skin colour, black hair with slanted eyes and are trying hard to retain their original culture and traditions. The women still wear their traditional dress - a wrap-around-skirt with handmade mola blouses, which have puff sleeves and two embroided panels on the front and back. The red head scarf, colourful beads around the ankles and arms, gold nose ring and a tattooed line along the bridge of the nose completes the traditional look of a Kuna Indian woman. The women tend to speak only Kuna whilst the men, dressed in western T-shirts and baseball caps, are bilingual (Spanish and Kuna). The Kunas are enterprising business people. The men barter or trade for crabs, lobster, fish and shells and some operate stores and restaurants in their villages. The women, of course sell or trade their molas.

A Kuna woman wears mola panels as the front and back bodices of her puff sleeved blouse. The mola panels are stitched by hand and are a source of pride and accomplishment, not to mention income. A mola panel is begun by layering brightly coloured rectangles of cloth, stitching them together and sketching a design on the panel. Cuts are made through one or more layers at appropriate places and the cut edges are folded back and neatly sewn in place. This reverse applique sometimes is accompanied by embroidery, the process taking weeks to complete, sometimes longer, depending on the intricacy of the design.

Designs come from a variety of sources and the woman loved our old magazines, which they use to get ideas for new molas. The women are very proud of their handwork and I loved walking through their villages, visiting them in their palm huts, bare of any furniture with sand floors and hammocks to sleep in, trading or bartering for the molas. Some of the trade items sought after by these women are fabric - polished cotton in red, orange, green , black, yellow, thread, sewing needles, scissors, cosmetics( lipstick, nail varnish, body lotion), actually anything..........