Fritz and his girl Tully and their 1st mate, Yelson, a local Kuna prepared dinner. Oh and loading the bikes was difficult but not impossible. We rolled them all on and tied them down and we anchored off shore from the dock for the night. By the way, Fritz is an amazing cook. The cost for one bike and one rider is $790 to sail to Cartagena, Columbia.
I slept outside on deck and woke in the morning to this …..
Some more passengers arrived but only one couple stayed. The others didn’t like the arrangements or the bikes or whatever I don’t know. The couple that did stay was Mathias and Louisa, and we were happy they did. And a little later Mick, Marcus, Malcolm and Jules boarded, we were happy they did too. In the end we all became a close family and while I write this from Cartagena, Columbia, we have met for dinner and drinks every night. Malcolm left today and slowly we will all depart for new worlds. I have to stop writing now for dinner, but I will continue later on. I have a great deal to share about the voyage, and how Yelson the 1st mate was left on an island by the Captain Fritz. Today it is September 12th, 2009.
Captain Fritz and his lady Tully went to the island for supplies leaving us alone on board with the other travellers and Yelson. After they came back we set sail and headed for more of the San Blas islands. ….
We checked out of Panama here, well Fritz had our passports stamped while locals came to sell some stuff. When he returned from the island he said that he was missing $1600 from his briefcase, part of the money we had given him. He said that his 1st mate Yelson had been with him for 5 weeks, and already some stuff had gone missing on previous voyages. Fritz said that when he and Tully went to the island to get supplies Yelson knew where the key to the safe was and well, the money is missing. He didn’t suspect any of us, so now it was just a matter of time to see what would happen.
We anchored in between two islands for two nights, Fritz’s favourite spot before we head for the open sea. So we did some snorkling, swimming, sleeping, reading, talking etc. Dinners were great, and so were the nights ….
Locals would come to sell anything from fish to vegetables to smoke. We played games at night and swam like crazy during the days. All the while the tension between Fritz and Yelson was increasing. ‘He could have hidden the money anywhere on this boat, there are lot’s of places. I already checked my cabin, if he had the audacity to hide it in my own room’. Then suddenly Yelson dove off the boat and swam to the island only wearing trunks. ‘Where is he going? I didn’t say he could go off the boat’. So Fritz and Tully jumped into the dingy and raced ahead to go to his cousins place to intercept the exchange while we sat on the boat speculating, joking and wondering. Later Yelson returned alone, then Fritz and Tully on the dingy. Nothing came of it. We were due to leave at 5pm, while Fritz worked on the second engine, he only usually sailed and used the one engine. Wallace, the guy riding the Ural, had everything, we thought he had two of everything. Wallace is/was a mechanic for the Canadian Army and he and Fritz worked on the motor. Yelson was sent to the island to get some supplies and then later returned with the dingy, but rowing cause he couldn’t start it. We thought he might be out of gas. As it turns out, this was going to be the showdown when Fritz went under the deck to fetch some gas for the dingy. And then all hell broke loose. The two containers ( 250 litres of gasoline, used only for emergency for if the catamaran broke down or whatever, the dingy could push the big cat to safety ) Anyway it was all gone. Fritz freaked out on Yelson and demanded to know where the gas went to and then the money and we all awkwardly sat around wondering what the hell would happen. In the end it was ‘Bastardo! Bastardo!’. And he kicked him off the boat, and we left him on the island, and left without the only guy who knew what to do, and how to understand Fritz. Later on, Fritz wondered how Yelson would do on the island with $1600 plus dollars, considering you might buy an island for $500. He figured if he lived he would be okay. (I’ll continue writing more later, time to eat now. Also I’ll explain the pictures below that I have not written about as of yet).
Excerpt from journal …. Day 84 San Blas Islands …. Still anchored thankfully in Fritz’s favourite cove among the San Blas Islands. He’s working on the motor, everyone is hanging out and Mathias speared an Angel Fish, a shot just beside the eye; a kind of pleasant happy melancholy day, but we never did eat that fish.
Fritz taking a time out from working on the engine. He played a couple of familiar songs but I didn’t know the names of them.
Gargoyle is listening to the Dude’s music ….
About here everyone started to feel sick from Ocean’s swell. Remarkably I didn’t feel a thing the whole voyage, even while drinking beer, rum and wine. I’m just lucky I said to El Capitano, Ahh yes, this is good that you know you are just lucky. I was on the first watch, for everyone was in bed somewhere on the Cat. Plenty of vomiting had occured earlier, so I stayed up watching for lights on the horizon. Even Fritz was asleep, for he never knows when he may be up all day and all night.
Excerpt from journal …. Lying on the deck above the kitchen/lounge during the night while everyone is sleeping including the Captain, was a beautful place to be. I came close to imagining what it must have been like to sail a ship through new waters, but not really, or the harsh reality of being a prisoner/slave down in the bottom, locked inside with other such people for four months until they get to Australia or the US, most dead and some alive but with terrible diseases. Later in the night Mathias came to relieve me of my duty and I happily went to sleep outside, every once in a while opening one eye to make sure someone was watching for ships in the night. Later on in the day a storm came and we had to do various things while Fritz screamed Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! All was okay in the end, now a beer and all is peaceful and quiet again.
Here Mathias took the wheel so Fritz could help us with what it is he wanted us to do. This picture is after the storm, I was kinda busy before.
Tony’s bike didn’t fair so well in the storm but at least it fell the right way.
Tully and Andy pretty much lay right where they are the whole trip out on the sea.
Excerpt from journal …. Day 86 A storm in the night and another broken beautiful sleep. Sailing into Cartagena, Columbia in the wee hours of the morning, and I’ve almost forgotten what I’m doing here.
Our happy family, we did it!
Loading the bikes off, first with planks but by the end we just man handled them off in the brutal heat of midday.
