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Published: June 25th 2009
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Our hostel told us about a boat sailing to Panama a few days past when we had wanted to leave. But, they said it would be a bigger boat, more comfortable, so we thought we would take a look. It had an Austrian Captain. I was wondering what that would be like. I didn't have to wait long to find out. We were not on the dingy more than 30 seconds before his engine died, swiftly eliciting the F bomb. Once he restarted, we made it about 15 more seconds before hitting a mooring line, after which he went off and let us know what a fuckup the marina was. He was far more colourful than my writing portrays. So, I found out that Fritz was the quintessential sea captain. By the time we reached Panama, I knew better than to look up from my book when he started swearing. If I did, I would never finish my book. Meet
Fritz the Cat Our reasons for going by boat were two fold: since we had read that crossing the darian gap and going to Panama by land was not advisable, we were left with the choices of either flying for about $200,
or taking 5 days and going by boat via the San Blas Islands for $375. We decided that the $175 premium was worth it, and thus asked the Casa Vienna Hostel in Cartagena for info on the next boat heading over.
Day of departure was completely uneventful. We left our hostel and boarded at 10am. After saying our hellos to Fritz, his cook / assistant Lous, and the other passengers, we sailed. Lous had just recently been hired to assist Fritz, and this was her first trip. She does not speak English, Fritz's Spanish is not that great. This presented lots of interesting situations. First one was that, because the day of our voyage was Lous's birthday, she was getting lots of calls on her cell. This did not stop Fritz from putting her in charge of steering the boat out of the harbor. Yep, we were zig zagging throughout the harbor while she was on her mobile before Fritz noticed that, while he had been busy putting the sail up, we were on course to hit a Colombian Navy Destroyer. After Fritz's tirade, Justin volunteered to steer and we were off to open seas. And open they were.
Fritz the Cat
© Fritz the CatI had just stabilized my worst bout of food poisoning since starting the trip (I think the faulty item was a fruit smoothy, which seemed like a good idea at the time). However, the combination of hours of rolling seas and a stomach that was upset when I woke up at the hostel was enough to send me over the edge. Well, at least the upper part of me. Even though we had assigned cabins, I ended up sleeping on the back deck because there was more fresh air there. Slept ok, but was not really excited about breakfast.
After breakfast, Jorin the Kiwi spotted dolphins swimming alongside the boat. For an hour and half, we had about a dozen dolphins playing with the boat swimming just ahead of it, all within 15 feet of someone standing on the forward part of the left pontoon. We would have a few visits from dolphins on our way to the Islands. They were having a great time, jumping out of the water and playing with each other in addition to the boat. It was a lot of fun to watch, and took my mind of the motion sickness. Other than that,
I didn't have a whole lot to do.
In fact, I napped pretty much the entire day, as I had no motion sickness when I was horizontal with my eyes closed. We even hit a rain storm on the 2nd day, so I got to nap when we hit a feel swells as well. But after dinner on the 2nd day, I was feeling fine. We arrived at the San Blas Islands and the calm water at 2am, which then served as our launching point. Since I had been sick for a day before leaving Cartagena, I was really really ready for breakfast. After my power meal, I swam to the first Island we were anchored off of and walked / ran around it. Took about an hour. The problem with travel this time of year is that it is hot. Really hot. By 11am, it is time to head into the shade and read. Even with some sunscreen, it is easy to burn after a half hour in the mid-day sun. We had seen some casualties from the islands in Cartagena. They were peeling like I had never seen people peel before. I played it nice and easy.
Photo 2
Dolphins swimming next to the boat I did, however, get a chance to finally meet the other people on the boat.
3 people from the UK
1 from New Zealand
2 from Australia
2 from Germany
2 from the Netherlands
1 from Israel
1 from Poland
Justin and I
We enjoyed our group.
On the 3rd day a large group of people went off to learn how to catch crab from a local fisherman. $4. I decided that since I didn't snorkel, I would rather not roast out on the reef. So, I borrowed a book on Ryanair, and by evening had absorbed 386 pages of it. What can I say, even in paradise, there is such a thing as too hot to do much. I really enjoyed being in such a beautiful area, great scenery to look up from a chapter in. I just couldn't be bothered to jump off the boat and fry. The group came back from the reef, and it turned out that their lesson was very short. The boat the local had taken them out on had broken down, so they ended up pushing / pulling it in from the reef and then swimming back
to our boat. Wow, great fun. They were gone for 2.5 hours and ended up with about 10 minutes of actual 'outing' time.
Life on the boat was good. Food was plentiful, the group got along, and the weather was good enough that I slept on the deck all but one night. The Catamaran had twin trampolines out front, which made for great sleeping areas as they were ventilated from both above and below. As it didn't get much below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, sleeping in the cabin was to be avoided.
Our last day of Island hopping got us into the little island village that processed our entry stamps into Panama. While Fritz took care of the paperwork, 4 of us walked around the enjoyed some nice overcast weather. It was really nice to be able to walk around without feeling like a roast on a spit, but the pictures didn't look that good with the bad light from the clouds. sigh. The overcast day did not convince some members of our group from going to visit a another village later on. Since it was already getting dark, I decided to stay. It then poured rain, and those
that visited the other village got soaked. Reading a book on Ryanair has proven to have so many advantages. One of those perks did not seem to be late checkout. Fritz wanted us off the boat by 7:30am the next morning so he could turn around and make more money even faster. Our group let him know that we would not be leaving at the crack of dawn. So, we ended up leaving about 9 something. Plenty of time to get to Panama City for a late lunch.
In Conclusion, going by sailboat was a good way to go. However, our Captain, despite being able to speak a little Hungarian, proved to be a ranting insult to too many on board. He offended a number of people with sexist / racist remarks ( such as apartheid being necessary because blacks couldn't govern themselves), sexually charged humor and poor communication skills. Which were all less offensive then his environmental record. 'Everything overboard' was his motto, and he didn't stop at broken pumps or plastic rubbish. He did save bottles and cans, but his liberal use of the back deck garbage chute was appalling to some. I was never the brunt
of his anger or comments, so I did not leave with that bad of an impression, but did feel sorry for anyone who tried to help him out and got the brunt end of the tongue.
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