Tahiti/Farewell to the Rally

         I’m writing this at 36,000 ft on the flight from LA to JFK, the last leg of my incredible journey. The feeling is very bittersweet, and I didn’t think I would be this excited to come home, although leaving was difficult. It is also fitting that my last island on this trip will be Long Island, NY.

         After arriving in the Marina Tainia, we got Quester settled in, finished up some remaining projects and gave her a quick scrub. It was time to pack up and move out, but instead of getting a hotel the crew on Dreams Come True was nice enough to invite me to stay on board at the marina for my last 3 nights.    

         The marina had a nice restaurant, and on the night of the 30^th, we were invited to a party hosted by Oyster. After a local shaman blessed the skippers for their remaining journey through the pacific, we were treated to a fire dancing show (there’s a name for spinning these flaming tennis ball sized fireballs around your head on strings, but its escaping me at the moment). There were even a few 10 year-old local boys involved in the show! Ridiculous!

         We had some maintenance to do on Dreams for the first few days of May, but we did manage to party with a few superyachts afterhours, two massive sail yachts, Imagine and Sarissa, and a big Westport named Legacy. 

          On my last day, May 4^th,  we rented a car and drove around the entire island of Tahiti, from Pa’peete in the northeast, down to Teaupoo in the southwest. Teaupoo is the world-renowned surf spot on Tahiti, and is known for its 25 foot waves, which break in 3 feet of water on a jagged reef.  My flight out wasn’t until midnight luckily, so I had a full last day ahead of me.

         We managed to fit almost everything in during the remaining time I had, jumping in for a swim in a grotto, climbing up to a waterfall, and racing a smart car sized Kia around some awesome roads, spending some time on some awesome black sand beaches. We finished up a great day with dinner at a delicious food truck in downtown Pa’peete. I packed up my the last of my stuff, and crammed it all into the Kia, and Ed was nice enough to drop me off at Fa’a International Airport.

          I've had a very fortunate 25 years and have been to some amazing places and met some wonderful people. A big thank you to everyone I have spent time with in the past 5 months, and an even bigger thank you to Jenny for putting up with me deciding go sail halfway around the world.

Tuamotus!

      We are currently anchored in the atoll of Rangiroa, and lucky enough to have wifi that reaches the boat, so I'm taking advantage of it to write another blog. This will be my last one before Tahiti, which will also be my last stop on this trip.

      Our first stop in the Tuamotus was Ahe, which is off the beaten path for most visitors to the south Pacific. The sail from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas was a big of a drag, we had to motor for 48 hours straight due to lack of wind. The motoring isn't that bad, but when the sun bakes the boat, and the engine heat builds up inside the cabin, it basically makes the boat uninhabitable. The result is 5 people crowding around on the shady side of the cockpit, trying not to move and risk creating more heat.

      Lets just say that if Emily things Argentina is bad, she should come here. Holy Shit.

      The good news is that although it was mostly an uneventful trip, we did catch a fish, a very big fish. In fact, this yellowfin tuna put up such a fight that Mike and Steve and I had to pass the rod around a few times to get it into the boat. When we got the fish near the boat and realized how big it was, we also realized that there was no way that we could fit even half of the meat in the freezer. It was this tuna's lucky day. We got it near the swim platform and released our first and only yellowfin of the trip. I estimated the fish at 75 lbs. Steve has a video, but we lack good enough internet to post it.

     This overwhelming heat also lead me to make a very tough decision. The beard or not the beard? I decided my face was hot enough without a fur coat, and brought out the buzzer. Luckily for you all I took before and after pictures. This afternoon I am planning a dive in one of the two passes through the motus of Rangiroa. Its a drift dive through Tiputa Pass at about 5 knots. It should be fun.

     

Arrived in The Marquesas

-->

        19 days, 3000 miles, over two dozen squalls, hundreds of sail
changes, and 6 gibes later were here. We made landfall in Fatu Hiva at 1 pm
local time on the 8th. After some tidying up of Quester, Steve, Jan and I
headed into shore. Fatu Hiva is one of the least populated islands in the
Marquesas chain and only gets about 500 visitors per year, mostly people
off cruising sailboats. Though we get cell service, there are no
restaurants, hotels, shops or really anything besides a few locals playing
in the water, eating pomplemousses (French for grapefruit, which is grown
locally) and serving up some volleyball.

        Once ashore, we ran into the crews off of Pearl of Persia, Chinook,
In Flagranti and Purusa. They told the three of us about a hike to a
waterfall, and mentioned that a few of the guys had started their way up.
Steve and Jan decided to hang around the dock, while I hustled up the trail
after the other guys. This waterfall is difficult to find, and I the only
reason I was able to get there was that on the way, I ran into several
other people who hadn’t found it. After some deductive reasoning that would
have made Sherlock Holmes proud, I was able to figure out which trails
didn’t work after hearing reports from the passing hikers, and I made my
way to the waterfall.

        I caught up with the guys from the other boats about halfway up
this trail. After hiking for about 40 minutes, we broke through the thick
rainforest-like jungle and a picturesque 200ft waterfall, cascading down
into a little pool, appeared before of our eyes. A gentleman off the Pearl of Persia interrupted this fantastic view as he stripped down to his birthday suit and cannonballed into the water…so much for the perfect picture! But after a good laugh, we all jumped in (keeping our bathing suits on) and enjoyed the refreshing water.

        The hike back was just as interesting. On the way down, we were
waved over by a big old local guy sipping French wine out of a Fanta bottle
next to a stream. So classy. Lucas from In Flagranti is fluent in French,
along with about 5 other languages (gotta love the Swiss), and he started
up a conversation with the gentleman. This guy said that he would barter
with us for some grapefruits. Luckily Lucas had a fishing lure with him
that he traded, along with the promise of some wine that we would later
retrieve from the boat.

        Once the price was negotiated, this guys wife led us over to a
tree, pointed up, and told Lucas in French, that we could take as many
pomplemousses as we wanted, we just needed to go get them. Figures. We
volunteered Roger to climb up and grab the fruit off the tree. Roger is
about my age, and sailed here on Purusa with Brendan, the owner. Roger met
up with the Oyster fleet in Shelter Bay Marina in Panama after sailing
through the Caribbean on a different boat. He sailed on Aequitas to the
Galapagos, and then jumped ship to Purusa for the sail to the Marquesas. It
was just him and Brendan on the way over, and since someone always needed
to keep watch on deck, he and Brendan were both pretty sleep deprived from
trading 3 hour shifts, so naturally we thought he was the best one to go
climbing up a tree.

        After a risky climb, he managed to drop about 15 grapefruits into
our arms (keep in mind that we’ve all been eating canned food for the past
week, since we’ve been at sea for almost 20 days, so this seemed like a
godsend). So hands full of fruit, we started the 20-minute walk back to the
dock where the dingies were tied up, but before we got too far, the local
grapefruit trading wino shouted to us that we could take his car. What?

        We had met the guy 8 minutes ago, didn’t really know what to do, so
naturally we took the car. He, however, volunteered stayed behind to polish
off his wine. This island has about 100 residents, all of whom are
Polynesian looking, and 5 cars. So 4 gringo kids in one of the 5 cars
sticks out quite a bit. We got back to the dingy dock and immediately got
confronted with locals asking where we got the car, since they all knew,
and were probably related to, the owner. We had to explain that we didn’t
steal it. We're not sure if they believed us, but we left Lucas with the
car as a sacrifice. The Swiss are good at keeping peace right? We took the
dingy back to the boat to drop off our bounty and pick up the wine that we
had promised.

        I got back and Lucas hadn’t been killed by locals which made me
happy, so we drove the car back and dropped the wine off to our new friend,
who had consumed quite a bit more out of his Fanta bottle in the 30 minutes
that we left with his ride. He invited the two of us to join him, so Lucas
and I sat down next to the creek and passed a cup of wine around for a few
minutes. It would have been rude to refuse his offer right?

        All this happened within 3 hours of arriving. What an afternoon.
We’re leaving tomorrow to head over to another island in the chain, Hiva
Oa, for a few days. From there we will continue on to Fatu Hiva, where
Oyster has arranged for a welcome party for the 25 boats that have made the
trip. We are all looking forward to hearing the stories from the past few
weeks as everyone recounts their most memorable moments, good and bad, that
happened during the sail across the largest stretch of the Pacific. Ill
post some pictures of all of this when we happen across some Internet.

Congrats to Uncle Ben and McKenna, sorry I missed the celebration guys!

Thursday, April 4th: Tuna.com

TUNA!

        Well here I was just finishing up a blog that ended with a comment
about the monotony of long ocean passages. About 20 minutes after I shut
down my laptop, the reel started absolutely screaming after a big hit on my
green “Rubber Chicken” Lure (pictures to come, then you’ll understand the
name). We were on a downwind run with the spinnaker and main up, speeding
along at 7.5-8 kts and the line was quickly disappearing off the reel.
        I yelled out “fish on!” and Mike and Steve sprang into action on
the foredeck and started the process of dousing the chute (spinnaker).
While getting it down, the spinnaker halyard shackle suddenly let go about
half way up the mast, dropping the sail on their heads and sending the
halyard up to the sky at the top of the mast. All of this was going on,
while I was trying to keep my balance on the transom while holding on to
the rod for dear life.
        I cranked down the drag to the maximum setting on the reel, about
55 lbs of resistance and still the fish kept pulling, eventually taking
about 500 yards of line from me before tiring. After the end of his initial
run, the fish still put up a hell of a fight, making me work for every inch
of line I gained back. After struggling to keep from losing all my line,
the combination of the slower boat speed and the tiring fish finally gave me the
advantage.
        While Mike and Steve were putting the chute away in the bag, I was
pumping the rod and straining to get the line back on the reel. It took a
while, but I eventually got the fish near the boat. However, Mike and Steve
were still busy, so Jan had to help me get the gaff out and ready to go.
Finally the boys finished up, and I handed Steve the rod and reached down
and sank the gaff in to end the fight. We got a tail rope on it and sealed
the deal. This is our first Skipjack Tuna on this trip, probably around 40 lbs.
        I cleaned the fish and whipped up a marinade consisting of soy
sauce, garlic and fresh ginger and seared it up. It tasted fantastic. Jan
even had some sashimi style. We have plenty left over and even more in the
freezer.

500 miles to go…

Wednesday, April 3rd: Breaking News!

A BOAT! HOLY SHIT THERE IT IS! ANOTHER BOAT!
A SIGN THAT WE'RE NOT THE LAST PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH!

Ok its really, really far away, and we can barely
see it, but I swear its there. “Vessel in the vicinity of 10 degrees, 9
minutes south, 129 degrees, 20 minutes west, this is Quester, over.”
“Quester this is Pearl of Persia, we read you loud and clear”

Another Oyster! On their way to the Marquesas. It’s been 15 days, 9 hours
and 52 minutes since we’ve seen another Oyster. There are 25 of them
scattered about the pacific. If that doesn’t give you an idea to the size
of this Ocean, then I don’t know what will. There’s a chance we will be
passing Aequitas tonight based on their last reported position. That would
make it 2 boats in 20 hours. Unbelievable.

Since I’ve last checked in, not much has changed. Still sailing west,
south-west at 6-9 kts. We are currently 535 miles out. Seems like such a
short distance to us, based on our initial distance to go- 2980 nautical
miles. In reality, it's still pretty damn far. Haven’t caught much since the
last post, just a few tiny mahi. Nothing we could keep.

The monotony of ocean passages is sinking in as we slowly make our way
across the largest ocean in the world. Oysters are wonderful boats, but
certainly wouldn’t set any speed records. Hopefully we’ll be there on
Sunday. Our destination is Fatu Hiva, the furthest island south in the
Marquesas Chain. Not sure if they will have internet, or anything for that
matter. We won’t make our way over to the main island of Nuku Hiva for a
few more days. There we will hopefully find a place to get some laundry
done. This is probably my last post until we get there. Check back on
Monday.

P.S. Our Oreo supply is dwindling, we may not make it.

March 29th- Day 12 to the Marquesas and under 1400 nm left to go

The past few days has been less eventful than the beginning of the trip weather wise, as we’re finally down in the trade winds. We have had pretty consistent winds from the east-
southeast and today is our first day without any squalls. From noon yesterday to noon today we covered 195 nm, our best day yet. The 200 nm day has still been out of reach but hopefully we
can achieve that milestone before our arrival in Nuku Hivu.

The fishing the past few days has been great. We got a keeper Mahi yesterday as well as the day before. Filleting fish on the stern of a rocking sailboat isn’t exactly easy, but I
made it work and managed to keep the mess to a minimum.
       
It’s been over 10 days since we have seen ANYTHING in the ocean besides fish or the occasional bird. No other ships, dolphins, or turtles…. NOTHING. It’s an eerie feeling, like
being the last person on the earth. If it weren’t for the SSB (single side band radio, range can be thousands of miles) chat with the other Oysters every day, we would feel even more
alone.
       
So far there have been a few mishaps with the other boats. Legend IV had their boom break off their mast and have been sailing with nothing but a Jib for the past few days. Pearl
of Persia had to send someone up the mast to untangle some lines caused by a messy spinnaker douse. Wolfhound had a problem furling their mainsail. We weren’t excluded from issues, as we
have had a few of our own problems along the way as well. We snapped the topping lift cable that supports the aft end of the boom while Jan was on watch. We almost lost the outhaul shackle
on the boom, which would have sent our mainsail flying free. It was only by chance that I happened to spot that the pin had come lose.
       
However, the worst problem was at about 4 am two nights ago, when our anemometer (the wind instrument) went crazy and made Debbie, who was on watch solo, believe the wind had
veered around 90 degrees. After scrambling on deck, Mike and I were able to get the boat straightened out and back on course. That was when we discovered what caused the whole mess.

After a day of tinkering with the wires, we were able to (we think) fix the problem. Just as a backup we have left the good ol’ US of A flag flying on the stern as a backup to figure out the
wind direction in the event of another failure.
       
So long as the winds hold somewhat steady, we should be arriving around the 8th in Fatu Hivu (the names of the islands in the Marquesas are all Polynesian).

Ill send at least one more update before then to Jenny, who has been a wonderful help by posting the blogs for me. Thanks again!

The Sail to The Marquesas: Day 7

 

      So I’m currently sitting in my bunk at about 11pm on Wednesday
March 27. Well, I say sitting, but I really mean holding on for dear life.
This passage has kept us pretty busy between the light-wind sailing and big
pacific swells.

        All the weather reports we read informed us that the trade winds
wouldn’t kick in until we got about 350 miles south of the Equator, so
after saying good bye to the Sea Lions and Boobies (it’s a type of bird
Bobby don’t get too excited), we left Santa Cruz, pointed the boat towards
Antarctica and put up the sails, only to immediately take down the sails
and begin the long process of motoring to find some wind.
        We hit a few patches of wind here and there, and made our way south
to the trade winds. Well, we thought they were the trade winds. Turns out
we were fooled a few times with what turned out to be just a nice local
breeze. But now, here we are, 400 miles south of the equator, and 1000
miles west of the Galapagos, and finally cruising along heading west-
southwest towards the Marquesas Islands. Only 1900 miles to go.
        I’ve had the fishing rod out a few times, but after my last battle
with a Pacific Striped Marlin, I’ve decided to fish some smaller lures. I
know, I’m a wimp. I got two small tuna and two similar sized Mahi, none of
which were big enough to bother filleting. Speaking of fish, I was also
brutally assaulted by a flying fish while reading in the cockpit two days
ago. I was minding my own business when suddenly a kamikaze fish came
flying through the front of the cockpit and into my shoulder, just missing
my head.
        The ocean swells have been pretty big, and rolling under the boat
from the port stern making for a pretty wild and bumpy ride. Sleeping
hasn’t been too easy, but we’re getting by. I’m hanging on to my laptop
with one hand right now to make sure it doesn’t end up on the floor.
        There have only been two constants during this passage besides the
waves, and that is incredibly inconsistent wind, and plenty of squalls. So
much for nice easy trade wind sailing. Good news is we have plenty of
snacks, and no less than half a dozen boxes of Oreos, a case of microwave
popcorn and some Fruit Loops, (thanks to Jan for getting me something
unhealthy) so we’ll survive.
        Some of you may be wondering how I’m sending this from the middle
of the ocean. Quester has a satellite Internet connection, however, it
costs almost $15 per megabyte, so for the next two weeks, updates are text
only. Hope everyone is doing well at home. Big shout out to Murph and his
boys over in the Middle East, stay strong guys. Thanks for protecting our
country.



Ill send another update in a few days, thanks everybody!

Jenny & Joe in the Galapagos!

Turns out getting here was half the adventure. So when planning
Jenny’s flight to the Galapagos, we ran into a problem: all the flights to
the Galapagos have to connect in Ecuador first (the Ecuadorians really have
this whole tourist thing figured out, to make you spend as much money as
possible), and all the flights from Ecuador to the Galapagos leave in the
morning. The only flight Jenny could find to get to Ecuador arrived in the
afternoon, so spending a night on mainland Ecuador was the only option. 
Since Barbie goes traveling solo in a 3rd world country didn’t seem
like a good idea, I flew from the Galapagos to Ecuador to meet her and
spend the night before flying back together.

Sorry for all you guys who have always wanted unleash your inner
Darwin and visit the Galapagos (mom), but it looks way cooler on the
Discovery Channel than in real life. For starters, our hotel, the Red
Mangrove, managed by Nat Geo (you think they would have their shit together
right?) was supposed to be one of the top 3 hotels in Santa Cruz. Well
apparently someone at Nat Geo thought it would be a wonderful idea to build
a hotel in a mangrove swamp. Because of this wonderful planning there were
lots of mosquitoes and the smells wafting out of the decaying mangrove was
a bit unappealing to say the least.  However, I must say that the hotel
staff was very helpful in helping us plan activities.

Ok, now on to the good part. Despite what you would think, there is
actually a decent nightlife in the Galapagos (I know right?), and we did
make a few friends with some sea lions along the way. Someone may or may
not have even pet one while it was having a snooze on a park bench. The sea
lions are everywhere. In fact, in San Cristobal, they are so bold that if
you drop your dinghy in the water even for a minute, you can expect to find
a few of them asleep inside it.

I put a video up on Facebook of us swimming in Las Grietas, a
volcanic fissure resembling a mini grand canyon. The seawater seeps in, and
rainwater collects there making for a brackish mix. The funny part is that
fish eggs can seep in from the sea with the salt water, and once the fish
hatch, they are basically trapped for the rest of their lives since they
are too big to find their way out.

We spent a morning on a bay tour with Carlos. The hotel concierge
introduced him to us, and had a nice little panga named Union II. He agreed
to take us on a bay tour for a half a day, and told us we were sure to see
some sharks.  We were really exited. What he didn’t tell us was that the
water we would see them in was 6ft deep and had visibility that rivaled the
Hudson River, so by the time you saw a shark, it was about 3 feet away. We
saw over a dozen white tip reef sharks up close and personal. I think Jenny
liked the sea lions better.

As beautiful as the beaches and the water were, the highlands of
Santa Cruz were equally as spectacular. We had our friend Isidro the taxi
driver take us on a tour. We stopped at Los Gemelos, a pair of sinkholes,
near the peak of the mountain, and then continued on to explore some lava
tubes. These underground tunnels are created when molten lava flows
underground, and the outside cools faster than the inside. Once the lava
stops flowing, a hollow cave is left behind. Well Jenny was sure excited
for her first spelunking trip!

After convincing her it was a good idea to trek through this 1km
long cave I made sure to videotape the process. I will try to upload the
video from the Marquesas if the Internet is fast enough. Trust me, that
video alone is worth sailing the 3000 miles.

We found a beautiful beach named Playa Garrapatero where we spent
two afternoons, but by far Jenny’s favorite place was the pool at Finch Bay
Hotel. For all of you planning on making a trip out here, stay at Finch
Bay. The pool didn’t even smell like sea lions, it was great.
       
We had a wonderful week together and it was so nice to see each
other, especially after the previous two weeks. I’m sending this from the
middle of the ocean, so pictures of our adventures will have to wait. Check
back in 2 weeks. I should be in the Marquesas by then.

In the Galapagos with Jenny!

First off, sorry for the lack of recent blogs, its been a busy and sad last two weeks. We have lost two wonderful people this March, our closest companion Raine, and our wonderful friend Gerry Deverin, so this post is very bittersweet. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had shared my life with both of them.

I arrived in the Galapagos on March 3rd after a long passage from the Las Perlas Islands (Panama). The winds were light to non-existent and we had to motor quite a bit. The only excitement came from the 250lb Striped Marlin I managed to hook while motoring 400 mi outside the Galapagos.

It wasn't the first Marlin I hooked this trip. While in the Caribbean Sea we were trolling using with a big spinning reel and a flying fish that we had found on the deck that morning. The flying fish have a hard time seeing the boat at night, so its not incredibly uncommon to have one hit you while sitting in the cockpit after the sun goes down. When the first one hit the line, it managed to take almost all the line off the reel before snapping it, leaving me incredibly frustrated. So, while I was in Florida, I took the opportunity to purchase some heavier duty tackle. It paid off (see attached picture of the new reel, ironically enough called the Marquesa, our next destination).

Steve was on watch and I was napping down in the Saloon when I heard the strike. Steve yelled my name, but nothing wakes me up from a slumber like line screaming off a reel. However, after a brief hit, the rod went eerily silent. I had a feeling it was a Marlin taking a swing at the trolling lure with its bill, so I picked the rod up out of the holder and released the drag and let the lure lay still in the water as we motored along. Three seconds and a gigantic splash later, I could barely hold on as Steve and I were treated to a fantastic show of a magnificent Striped Marlin jumping clear out of the water 200 yards behind the boat.

We put Quester in neutral and it was all hands on deck as I battled the fish for 45 minutes, as it forced me to scamper around the entire boat as it made a large circle. Luckily the fish managed to wear itself out before I did, and we were able to get it alongside the transom, while Mike got down on the swim platform and snipped the leader just off the hook. Quester now has the largest catch and release of the Oyster World Rally, and I would love to see someone try and break that record. I'll send another post with more pictures of the Galapagos so far, but in the meantime, check out my sister Emily's blog www.whereintheworldisemtorciv.blogspot.com

First Canal Transit!

Greetings from Shelter Bay Marina!

   We have been here for a few days now and enjoying some down time as well as preparing for the Pacific Ocean. In order to transit the Canal, boats are required to have 5 people on board as "line handlers." Ian the captain of Yantina asked me if I would transit with them Saturday into Sunday, so I got my first canal experience this past weekend! Quester is going through tomorrow along a with 12 other Oysters. I have some pictures of the first transit, and as you can see they rafted up 3 Oysters and had them motor in together. A strong cross breeze made for an stressful few hours of motoring through the locks. We went through the Gatun locks into the lake on Saturday afternoon tied up next to a 46 boat named Flower Girl. We spent he night at the anchorage on the other side of the locks. The morning started out with some excitement when the anchor alarm going off at about 5:15 am, due to the fact that the wind had shifted. Normally this isn't a problem, but since the canal is such a high traffic area we had to anchor extremely close to shore, and when the wind shifted we spun dangerously close to a rock bulked. Ian and I were able to pull up the anchor and avoided catastrophe, and just motored around until our canal transit adviser arrived at 6am.
 
  The morning continued with excitement as the yacht Babe! accidentally started playing chicken with a 800ft tanker crusing at 15 kts. After the tanker let out 5 loud blasts from the fog horn they managed to steer clear of any danger with a few hundred feet to spare. We continued along the channel an onto the "cut" which is the narrowest stretch of the canal. We passed two Panamax (Panamax is the largest possible ship the locks can fit measuring 975 ft long and 105 ft wide), tankers heading east along the way through the cut and had to thread the needle between the ships and the shore. Ian let me pilot Yantina the whole day on Sunday as we motored through the canal and up alongside Dreams Come True and tossed over some dock lines to complete the raft. Dreams Come True was the middle boat, and In Flagranti (my favorite Oyster name... http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_flagranti ) was the other side.

   We made it through the Milaflores Locks without incident and underneath the Bridge of the Americas and anchored at the La Playita Marina near Panama City. Look for another update of Questers crossing when we get there on Wednesday.

Panamania!

Greetings from mainland Panama!

Today we sailed from Isle Grande to Portobelo, Panama. We originally pulled into port here because we needed a repair on our main sail, and were happy to find a nice little town in the harbor. I was even more excited to find a small bar/restaurant run by Captain Jack from New Jersey. After a successful run with a chemical company, Jack bought, Fantasy, his 45 ft sailboat and cruised the world, finally settling in Panama. He has provided cruisers with everything from food and internet to parts and hotel rooms and is a lifesaver. Our new friend Manuel is repairing the sail tomorrow and will hopefully have it back in the afternoon. We will spend another night here tomorrow and then complete the Caribbean part of our trip in Shelter Bay Marina. This is the last stop before the canal transit. There is a live feed for the locks of the canal which you will be able to see here: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
Right now it looks like the oysters will starting transiting through on the 16th through the 19th. When we know our date for sure I will update so you can watch the chaos as a dozen Oysters are crammed into the locks together. Should make for an interesting few days. We will use our time in Shelter Bay to make some small repairs and get the necessary provisions for the next month or so, since we are not banking on being able to resupply in the Galapagos.
I will update from Shelter Bay as soon as we get a definite on our dates, so check back in a few days.

A big hug to the Rich family for all you guys are going through, my thoughts are with you guys.

San Blas Islands, Panama

            Our sail from Cartagena to the San Blas Islands of Panama started off well with strong winds, but eventually the seas caught up with the wind and made for another wild ride, although at this point, we are getting use to it (sort of). With just me Deb and Mike and 3-5 meter waves, sleep didn’t come too easily, but we survived. It took us 3 days to get to Porvenir, which is the main Island in the San Blas chain, and the only one with a customs office. Although we were initially a bit frustrated that we had to spend the night anchored off of Porvenir because customs was a two day affair, we had a friendly Kuna Indian paddle by in a dugout canoe selling lobsters. We bought two and boiled them up for dinner and they tasted fantastic.

            The next morning we sailed 12 miles east to Elephante Island since we heard it was the only one with a resturant and internet, which is where I am at the moment. While they do have internet, there are only two wires running across the bar to plug into your computer, I am able to post some pictures of the San Blas Islands.

            I went spearfishing today, and was initially planning on swimming around a nearby island, a scary close encounter with a Portuguese Man o War made me change my plans. Instead I dove around the boat, but was unable to find any lobster or big enough fish to shoot. Hopefully tomorrow it will be a little sunnier and I will be able to find some dinner. We are planning on spending a few more days here before leaving for Portabello, and than Shelter Bay Marina next to the Canal. 

I will try to update in Shelter Bay.

Colombia!

-->

Santa Marta and Cartagena

            We arrived in Santa Marta, Colombia on the 19^th and had quite an exciting end to our Journey. With the Caribbean Sea spraying into the cockpit being driven by 40kt winds, we finally rounded the last point and found ourselves in the protected (sort of) Santa Marta Marina. We later learned that just a few weeks ago, the winds got up to 50+ kts in the marina, and we saw several boats getting bimini tops and covers repaired. Santa Marta is one of the biggest cities in Colombia, but we spend most of our time near the marina on the main road with a few shops and restaurants. We took a taxi ride over to the nearby fishing village called Taganga for lunch and a visit to a dive shop for some needed parts.  The next day we heard about a nearby town on top of a mountain where Coffee beans are grown called Minca and scheduled a ride up. We met up with our guide and piled in his Land Cruiser for a ride up the dirt road and arrived in time for lunch, before heading out on a hike to a beautiful waterfall. We cooled off with a brief swim and a leap from a little cliff into the deep pool at the bottom of the falls.

            After 5 days in Santa Marta we departed for Cartagena, and broke the trip into 2 days by spending the night in an anchorage along the way. We experienced high winds again along the way which made for a rough and rolly ride, and were relieved when we turned into the harbor and out of the big seas. This time of year is incredibly windy in the south western Caribbean Sea, and some of the Oysters have experienced winds well over 50 kts.

            Cartagena had a new marina that is not yet open to the public, but the owners were nice enough to allow the Oysters to tie up for a few nights. Pandemonium beat us there, and a few days after arriving we were joined by Purusa and Aequitas. Cartagena a very old city with a rich and interesting history, however, you have to be fluent in Spanish to learn anything from the museums. Luckily I knew a few keys words in Spanish that have allowed me to get by: Bano, Cerveza and Wifi. I was also fortunate enough to stumble across a Hard Rock Café in the old walled city which, to my relief, had a few English speaking waiters.

            So far we haven’t had the best luck fishing, and are still waiting to get one on the boat, although I had a 45 minute battle with a 75 lb Wahoo, he was able to get off the hook while I was hauling him up onto the swim platform. Hopefully our luck improves soon.

On our sail from Isle del Saintes (Guadeloupe) to Bonaire, we had a several companions for a few fleeting minutes. Headed out for a dive tomorrow (11/17) in Curacao, will try to post some video. Be back soon!

Heres a clip of my dive in Bonaire, enjoy:

Current Location: Bonaire, Dutch West Indies

Hi everyone,
Just arrived in Bonaire this afternoon. Were currently docked at a marina near Kralendijk. The sail here was about 500 nm across most of the Caribbean Sea and was a little rougher than we expected. We had about 2-4 meter waves in a following sea the entire trip which made for quite a bit of sloshing around, but thanks to some steady breezes we were able to make the passage in a fair amount of time. We spend 2 days in Isle del Saintes before we left Guadeloupe, and I was able to rent a moped and take a tour of the small french territory. I posted some pictures of Isle del Saintes, and will try to put a few up of Bonaire when I get a chance. During the sail here, we hooked up on 2 fish, the first was a Barracuda or a Wahoo, something with some teeth because it shredded the line, and this morning we hooked what I believe was a White Marlin, but because we were sailing downwind, we couldnt stop the boat quick enough and we snapped the line. We saw it jump a few times and it was definitely a billfish, but the white marlin is a guess, could have been a small black or striped marlin. Hopefully we can get some better luck in our future fishing, since I've now lost 2 out of 10 of the lures I brought. Tomorrow will be spend exploring more of the island and taking a few pictures, perhaps a scuba dive, and getting ready for the short hop to Curacao. Will hopefully post again from Curacao
Cheers

Hi Guys,
Alright so this is the first post for the blog I've set up for the trip. For those of you who aren't too familiar with my trip, all of the basic info can be found here:

http://www.oystermarine.com/worldrally/

All of the boats in the rally are equipped with a GPS tracker. The boat I am on is Quester. We are a 56ft Schooner currently docked at the Nelson Dockyard in Antigua. We are leaving tomorrow January 6th for Guadeloupe. This is the first leg of our trip and we will spend a few days there before heading south to Les Saintes and working out the kinks for the 4 day sail to Bonaire. From there we will visit Aruba, Curacao, and Cartagena before making our way to the Canal. We will arrive in Panama in the beginning of February and wait for clearance from the Canal Authorities before making our way through.
The last 2 days we kept busy getting Quester ready to leave port, and we are pretty much all set. The 3 crew members for the entire trip are me, the owner Mike, and his wife Deb, but for the next 10 days we will have two friends Marie and Wayne with us enjoying some beautiful Caribbean sailing. This is just a quick first post to get the ball rolling, and since I am the bar I am sitting at requires you to be a customer to get online, I cant stop drinking until I sign off. So for the sake of my liver, this will be the end of my first post. I should be able to update soon, but in case I don't, I just wanted to give everyone the basic route. Check back for updates in a week or so.