Pictures of the last few weeks. Explanation may or may not follow.

Colon, Bhuddists in recycled boats, Joshua and the Kuna Yala!

So.... Panama! Colon is rough. Don't go unless you have to. That's all I want to say about that!

Why am I here? Well... to find a yacht to sail to New Zealand, of course! The Panama Canal squeezes hundreds of boats into one place and many are looking for helpful (un) people just like me (i hope!). Where to start! Go to the yacht clubs and chat. The internet is a great thing also. With a day of looking I found a guy who wants to set up a floating zen buddhist ashram in a self built recycled catermaran named Absolute Absolution. Naturally I was excited to find out more.

I took some time to look at myself and at the boat and have started meditating. It's great. You get to sit around and do nothing and call it mindfulness. The boat was something else. In the end I doubted that it would survive on the ocean very long. That and the face that the boat needed a lot of work. No rudders (an even more technical job on a catameran), no engine mount and the fiberglass was falling off the bottom and a lot of the ply wood/beams were rotting. I thought long and hard about it. It could have been an amazing project, I would essentially have been captain, Poppa Nutrino (Incredibly interesting guy, half snake, half rabbit. Read more about him at http://www.floatingneutrinos.com/) and a polish guy names Lech was cook.

Then one day Poppa came back from town with 4 other people. 2 Sweeds and 2 Brits Viktor, Jungert, Rob and Charlotte who were looking to sail to Colombia. Poppa changed his plans and said we'd take them over if they helped fix the boat and pay. Thats was when i really started to think seriously about the ship. Would she make it? Did i want to take that risk? 6 peoples lives in your hands on a boat made of... I didn't sleep for 2 night (and you know how much I love to sleep!) and then when talking about the motor mount system one morning (many meetings were involved) I realised that it was just a littel bit too crazy for me and much more responsibility than I wanted right now. So, many thanks Poppa, but no. Good luck with everything. Sorry for leading you along.

Not all was lost though, the boat is anchored in Linton Bay, near Poerto Lindo. Stunningly beautiful place. We were right next to monkey island! The monkeys were great!

When I left Poppa I joined with the other 4 guys for a bit and we stayed in a great hostel in Portobello which boasted 2 monkeys of its very own! A small 'titi' that lived on the veranda and a bigger one which was best mates with the dog and ran free. We had an extreamly relaxing few days there.

The others were still looking for boats to get to Colombia (there are lots of them and one day I think I'll join in!) and eventually found a spot with a great guy named Freddy, a Colombian. I'd met him before as he is trying to sell a boat which he has gutted. I was tempted but it needs a lot of work and I think I need a bit more experience before I head out into the sea on my own boat... One day soon though (anyone got any good money making ideas?)! The trip down to Colombia takes 5ish days and you stop off in the Kuna Yala Islands (the spanish called them the San Blas). I decided to join them for a couple nights and see the tropical paradise. When I found out that Freddy's boat was a Joshua, one of the 15 made to the same design in the early 70's I knew I hadto sail on her. I won't go into too much detail but Joshua is Bernard Moitessier's ship. isa sailing legend. He took part in the 1st solo not stop circumnavigation of the world, got all the way around and then decided that he wouldn't finish the race and sailed back the way he came, still not going to land. So french. Knox-Johnson won the race but Moitessier won the ocean, if that is possible.

She sailed great. My only qualm is that her mizzen was not up so the helm was heavy. Then I was marooned. After 3 days sailing deep into the Kuna Yala I literally jumped ship after we had pulled up the anchor with my DM's around my neck! One of the local Kuna Indians had already taken my bag over to the island.

Staying on the island was great. just indescribeable.


there is much more to say but i ain't gonna. wrote this weeks ago and then started working.

to cut a long story short, it was great but I lost my DM's and got an mashed up infected tropical sore on my foot. A sad day indeed.

Strike time in Martinique!!

Martinique is on strike, (Greve in french). MAybe i should have checked out the current political climate before i got there but hey, I´d probably still have gone! So I turn up, it´s sunday and everything is closed. I met some of the locals and ended up staying with them. The next day, i would have thought to be monday but in fact during Greve eveyday is sunday. Except the streets fill up with pissed off people. Things are too expensive and there is no money. That what comes of being an oversees department of france!

So... what did I do for 10 days during greve... Exactly what most of the young people were doing... PARTY! A great time was had by all!!!!


Then on to Panama. I cheated. I flew.

It was great! damn the planet!