Sailing home.

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Sailing Home
We left the great landmass of South America the way we entered it, by sailboat. It had been over three months since we hitched a lift on Hughes (Eugg) and Caroline's boat to Ushuaia and started this overland odyssey. It seemed right that it was another french Capitan whose job it was to sail us and a dozen or so other backpackers on El Gitano del Mar to Panama. His name was Jepe and he is a pirate. Both his ears sported a large gold hooped earring and his arms were covered in tattoos including at least one stereotypical anchor tatt. Dark tanned skin and fishermans pants completed the look, but far from being a cliche he exuded cool. The sort of cool I'd try to make small talk with about the weather (surely a hot topic amongst sailors!) and get a nonchalant French shrug back. He went through the rules and regs of the catamaran including, "no drugs on zee boat" "when you pee off zee back of boat at night, you must inform a friend" and "You win zee sweepstake if your nominated person vomits first in zee communal vomit bucket". We set off out of Cartagena harbour just as the sun was making its way down between the masts of the gently rocking boats moored to the jetties. Spirits were high and we lost no time getting to know the rest of the gringos as we cracked into our generous supplies of booze. The next two days were spent out in the deep blue sea heading for Central America. We had a strong following wind and a full spinnaker, the boat chopping and slicing gracefully through the water as we all lay sprawled on deck soaking up the rays and the occasional wave which spashed onboard from the choppy sea. Eating delicious meals cooked by Jepe's wench, an attractive Colombian half his age who was a dab hand in the kitchen. She really came into her own when both the trawling fishing rods that we had hardly noticed started bucking and whirring. Jepe and his first mate sprung into action and landed two big, beautiful yellow fin tuna which were quickly made into delicious raw sushi. Jepe followed this with a hot shot of rum and wasabi for all!

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