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Published: October 31st 2006
The sail boat Melody and Captain Mark.
This was a wild trip for me, sailing to Colombia, I had imagined all sorts of amazing adventures on the sea. Instead I think I would class the trip as amusing and very salty. I laughed alot, mainly at the expense of the captain who very quickly all of us came to dislike. The real problems came from him being so greedy that he took 9 people and a motocylce onboard. You might as well call that 10 when you think of the space it took up. He had stipulated that he only carries 8 and he seemed to like his rules so I was very surprised to see him break one of his own straight away.
He was flipant about his over count and just expected everyone to swallow it, as he knew none of us would ask the last person to get off the boat. Sailing wasn´t much fun with so many cramped on board, the total was 11 including the captain and Lenin an indigenous Kuna from the San Blas islands (who was an absolute sweety, who the captain treated like crap). When we got to the San Blas islands
and his docked shrimp boat (the one he had boasted off, with its space, tv and dvd and flushing loo) he decided to dock us close to the island instead. In fairness the sea was choppy which is why he did it but he could have docked up by the shrimp boat the next day. The sea was so calm, there was absolutely no wind which made for a beautiful site but also allowed the sand flies to eat us alive the second night. Paula his wife was lovely but you really wondered what the hell she had done, this young intelligent woman spending up to two weeks at a time be stuck out there all by herself and then only having the aging captain, void of any social skills to look forward to returning.
She put on a wonderful spread, the food was excellent and the group of travelers really made the trip for me. As I said I remember practically laughing myself to sleep most nights, what a bunch of nutnuts they were. The whole experience was amazing, we all had a common enemy and it bonded us together. The San Blas islands were amazing, truelly amazing.
We all enjoyed the snorkling and swimming in the mirror smooth crystal blue water. We saw tons of big orange star fish and schools of fish being circled by baracudas. I also got to see a dark small reef shark, it made me stop in my tracks. I did some of the longest swims over the deepest water I have ever done before. I felt so elaited and chuffed with myself at the end of the day.
It was rare to get a hose down and by the end of the trip I felt more dirty and salty then I thought possible in this modern day and age. Still we were happy as larry to all reach dry land and lost our sea legs within a couple of days.
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