Sailing down the Colombian coast, big, grey, dusky mountains so close by. The mist is rising up the gullies and ridges, looks like bushfire smoke, wreathed in the trees, slowly tearing itself away, spiralling up to join the massive thunderhead, taking up half the sky, a gigantic slow motion explosion, billowing out, twisting and contorting, blindingly white, so pure and perfect, a larger-than-life, laundry detergent commercial. Spooky bit of mainland Colombia here. The Darien. Impassable, no roads, incredibly steep mountains, dangerous swamps and lots of people with guns: Colombian police and military, their Panamanian counterparts, the guerrillas, the cartels’ militia, CIA, FBI, DHS, KGB, ASIO(?)…it’s the bit of Colombia that borders Panama, the link between Central and South America, and you can’t get thru’. 4 weeks at sea, had a burger at the marina cafe, first ... read more

After dinner one night, sitting out back, dark, swirling water, swells rolling thru’, it’s so much spookier at night, the foreboding-meter ratchets up to 11, I chuck a piece of leftover bread out the back…suddenly a massive splash, flash of silver and gone!…quick!!….out with the line…. bit of somescrap on the hook and in….the line didn’t get 10’ down and whack…big fight…this one’s a real goer…..the handline is slipping thru’ dinner greasy fingers…I can’t hold it when it runs…slowly clawing back ground….finally fought it onboard, a big Horse Eye Jack…looks edible so I skin and fillet it…darkish firm flesh, a bit tunalike…we ate it next night….not too bad….would be good curry. Next I let out a line with just a hook, floating on a piece of bread…10 mins and snap again…this time a nice sized ... read more

In this episode: Winter in the bar, constant contrasts, plumbing the unfathomable - the Venezuelan toilet system, security, the effects of too much gravity, the Marina and the Development, Puerto Ordaz, Caracas revisited, another rum factory, the bus, the neighbourhood (there it goes), getting published and more grammatically strangled pithiness. At least my español is improving and I have ñ on the keyboard! yes, the time is slippping away...I've got no idea any more about anything ...but my conscience has been prickling lately so it must be close to blog o'clock...I've been keeping some notes but it just isn't the same atmosphere on the boat as it was on the bike....like fear, danger, impending and real disasters, speed, pain, more danger etc etc.....here life just oozes out like melted chocolate down the asphalt beside the crashed ... read more

JOE WAS COMING TOMORROW TO MEET WITH OYSTERS AT A FART PARTY What I meant to say was I’M COMING WITH MY GIRLFRIEND AND MEETING THE OTHERS AT THE FESTIVAL Ahh language!…If one is, as I am, verging on the bereft when it comes to speaking espanol…even on the computer I can’t find the bizzo that should go over the ‘n’…then conversations on the telephone are nigh on impossible!…however, as some testament to endurance over competence I did manage, this morning, to get us into a marina….fortunately, as we approached this enormously expansive waterway with multi-marinas, our guy was waiting at the dock and sign language sufficed to settle us in….but, in general I am still grappling with the lingo…actually getting by pretty well…it’s all relative!….for general conversation I can hold my own but then, when ... read more

Ah, just when you thought he'd given up...he's baack. What was the last one? just the change of eddress maybe?? Well, since then I've been up to Townsville a couple of times, cruised around and generally tried to keep the footloose spirit going....this has been assisted by selling the house and doing a torrid CELTA course (to teach English to non-English speakers) and now I'm looking to get some work around here teaching and then head off to join the Bro' somewhere in the Caribbean in June and look for some work around there. Cuba would be good but it's difficult to find out what's happening there...otherwise Venezuela, Colombia or somewhere in centroamerica. So.....these are some ramblings over the past 4 months.... Did I tell you about waking up early, the sun comes up over the ... read more