Taking it all in.
You know when you look back on a period of life and think, ‘We’ll that was a whirlwind!’? We are FULLY in that space. And I’m beginning to understand that there’s no changing that, only embracing it. The part I have trouble making peace with though, is that whirlwinds don’t hand out lots of opportunities to reflect on what’s happening. I’m realising I’m going to have to create – even fight for - those opportunities, and it’s in that spirit that I sit down to write this edition of the newsletter.
First, a play-by-play of the last 30 days
The Start of the World ARC Rally – Mixed in with a daydreamy ‘Is this really (finally) happening?’ feeling was the need to be really focused on what were doing as we swirled around in Rodney Bay with 30 other boats full of people feeling the same way. We crossed the start line, emotions surged, and we cheered on our fellow boats as they did the same. I know some days of this journey will blur (some already have!) but I doubt we’ll ever forget that beginning.
5 Day Sail to Colombia – Our first passage of the trip brought plenty of wind and some big waves. It was full of gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. A full moon ceremony, complete with howling. Power Ballad belting. Blog writing and Vlog producing. Plank challenges. Foo’s supershakes. No luck fishing, unless you count the flying fish that landed in Zena & Marissa’s cabin! We watched the sun rise over the Sierra Nevada as we approached Santa Marta Marina.
Santa Marta – We’ll never forget the WIND! In the pool on the roof of a hotel nearby the marina, you could swim laps while not moving at all! La Victoria Coffee Farm, Waterfalls, nature walks and tubing down the river. Provisioning shenanigans – the store’s computer couldn’t cope with the size of our purchase and so we had to make several withdrawls at an ATM in order to pay. (That’s a few MILLION Colombian pesos!) We celebrated David’s birthday aboard Pure Joy with bubbles and new friends. The kids joined in for a scavenger hunt designed by Marissa and Zena, where Jason (one of said new friends) dressed as a Viking to handover the treasure chest of candy once the kids had solved the puzzle. And then we went to the World ARC Prizegiving for the first leg, where Pure Joy came in 3rd place in the multihull division.
Guna Yala (San Blas) Islands – We set sail the next day, knowing that winds would make it a rough passage. The biggest waves and bumpiest ride we’ve had so far on Pure Joy. Gladly, it was only a 1-day passage. (And, a friend had given me a sea-sickness patch which was a total gamechanger! I’ve since procured several more.) We arrived in the remote island of Coco Banderas a bit weary but were immediately greeted by locals who swiftly boarded Pure Joy to sell us their beautiful Molas. We stayed 2 nights here, swimming, kayaking, snorkelling and beach BBQ-ing with some fellow ARC boats. We bought lobsters from locals and hilarity/terror ensued as Marissa, Zena and I did the dirty work of preparing them to eat! We island hopped a couple more times over the course of a week. We snorkelled on a sunken ship and walked the circumference of an island with only us on it. A failed snorkelling expedition (we saw exactly zero fish) ended up with us on the tiniest, most beautiful island inhabited by a single family, surrounded by turquoise water so clear it almost hurt our eyes. We departed the San Blas late at night so that we would arrive in Colon during daylight. It was tricky to pull away from an island dotted with reef and other boats all around it, but careful planning and brilliant teamwork got us on our way safely. The passage to Colon was our roughest yet (again). The 5-meter waves had us thrashing about quite a bit but Pure Joy handled it in her stride.
Colon – Shelter Bay Marina is where boats wait to be told when they can go through the Panama Canal. As much as I hate to consider anywhere simply a place we need to ‘get through’ on this journey, the anticipation of the canal definitely made this stop feel like a means to an end. Having said that, we made some great memories in Shelter Bay. It was there that we were visited by my Aunt Kirby and friend Deb, said farewell to Foo as he met up with them to continue travels, and we welcomed my Dad to the crew! We were transported to a beautiful Embera village via speed canoes. We visited the locks to see them in action from the sidelines and were able to cheer on a few our fellow boats who were going through. We popped into Panama City for a little exploration and knew we’d need more time there. We spent plenty of time at the marina restaurant and pool. We even made our kareoke debut as a crew (Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen). And finally, we were given word that we would be heading through the canal on Thursday February 6th.
The Panama Canal
In attending the Skipper’s Briefing a few days before, we learned in more detail about the active role that we’d be playing in making sure we crossed the canal safely . While we’d have an advisor on board to help us understand the right way to do things, we were responsible for the boat. A few days later, we were given industrial size fenders and lines and told to meet our advisor in the bay outside the marina at 245pm the following day.
As the Canal Authority boat pulled near to drop off our advisor for the day, we all stood on the deck ready to greet him. Instead we greeted the bow of the boat crashing into one of our stantions, knocking it over like a toothpick. Not the way we wanted to start, but a relatively easy welding fix so we counted ourselves lucky that no damage had been done to Pure Joy’s hull. Our advisor Jose met us with apologies for his colleague’s error, warm welcomes to the transit process and then it was down to business.
We eventually learned that we would go through the first set of locks on our own – that is, not ‘nested’ with any other boats. This meant that we would be handling 4 lines (one for each corner of the boat) as we ascended all three locks. Once inside a lock, our line handling partner 2-3 stories above on land, would through us a line. We would tie that line in a bowline to the industrial lines we’d be given and they would hoist those heavy lines to the shore and secure them to a huge cleat. Then – the gates behind us would close and locks would start to fill up. As line handlers on the boat, it was our job to continue to pull tension on the lines to ensure that our center position held firm. Once the locks were full, the gates in front of us would open, we’d proceed to the next locks and repeat. We did this three times over the course of a couple of hours. It was fascinating, daunting and harder work than you might expect!
After going UP the first set of locks, evening was setting in. So it was time to moor ourselves into Gatun Lake for the night. After struggling a bit to lasso the mooring ball while dark set in, we had a quick dinner aboard with Jose and then bid our farewells as his boat came to pick him up. We chatted amongst ourselves about what we’d experienced and went to bed early in prep for day two.
Gatun Lake is in the middle of the jungle. And the Howler Monkeys were not going to let us forget it that morning. We ate breakfast and waited for our advisor to arrive for the day. Julio boarded around 8am (without incident – yay!) and we were on our way.
After MUCH discussion amongst Julio and his colleagues over the radio, it was decided that for these locks, we would be rafted with a large tourist boat and one of our fellow World ARC boats. In this configuration, we would not need to handle lines to the sides, BUT we would need to raft up with our buddy boats before each lock and de-raft from them before proceeding to the next.
Getting three boats tied together while the current of water rushing into/out of the lock is pulling at you AND you have a MAHOOOOSIVE freighter on your tail is a task that requires a good deal of teamwork and a skilled captain with a steady hand. Luckily, we had all of that going for us. Truly, I will never forget standing at the ready to throw lines while watching David manoeuvre and re-manoeuvre Pure Joy into place all while the largest ship I’ve ever been so close to continued to inch up behind us.
Watching those final gates open and pulling away from that last lock and into the Pacific Ocean gave way to a sense of accomplishment and opportunity unlike we’d ever experienced before. The two-day journey that we’d been wondering about for four years was over. It had exceeded expectations in every way…and we were happy to have it behind us!
Panama City – We spent two nights in La Playita Marina in Panama City, primarily so that we could process our immigration paperwork and do a BIG provisioning run. As we stocked the boat this time, we were thinking about not only the food we would need to get us through to the Galapagos islands, but because this would be the last time we’d have access to a major grocery store for a long time, we had to ALSO pack as much as we could for the trip aross the Pacific Ocean. AND, we needed to keep in mind that the Galapagos has very strictregulations on what you can bring with you. (No fruit or seeds of any kind, meat must be frozen and sealed in your freezer for the duration of our stay, eco-friendly cleaning and hygiene products must be used, etc.). Thankfully, Marissa had been building a mega-spreadsheet to make sure we bought enough of all the right things. We took a printout of that sheet to the grocery store and 5 carts, 2 Ubers and several hours unpacking and storing all the goods on Pure Joy later, we were fully stocked and ready to go.
David and I managed to sneak a date night into the agenda in Panama City as well, giving us a chance to stroll around the Casca Viejo (Old City) and enjoy some amazing food and drink and a rare evening with just the two of us. We spent the night in a gorgeous hotel (La Compania - an old monastery now full of charm and luxury - highly recommend!) and basked in the glory of a LONG hot showers, extremely soft sheets and breakfast cooked for us. A real treat we won’t soon forget!
Las Perlas – The next day, we set off for Las Perlas Islands. We were very sad to only have 2 nights there. The delayed canal schedule had most of the fleet scrambling to get to this rendezvous in time though, so in the grand scheme of things, we were lucky. We spend some time on the beach, a bit of a practice scuba dive, a tad of snorkeling, getting the boat ready for the next leg, swimming at a hotel pool. It was also where we’d say goodbye to my dad. I put him on the ferry back to Panama City, feeling really grateful for the time we got to spend together doing this once-in-a-lifetime thing together. And of course feeling sad that we wouldn’t see each other for quite some time while we pursued this adventure. Love you, Dad!
Then it was time for another skippers briefing, this one all about preparing us for the Galapagos. Then a lovely World ARC party and bonfire so that we could all connect briefly again before setting off the next day.
And now we are sailing to the Galapagos Islands! The water is glass and we have virtually no wind so we are motoring along with the sails up, ready for the wind when it decides to join us.
So that’s what we’ve been DOING for the last month. In terms of how we ARE…
Elliot – He has made some great friends he can run around and be silly with. He’s kept in touch with his friends back home too, texting and video chatting from his ipad. He even had a call with his old classroom! I was bemused to hear him tell everyone on the call that when he’s in port he basically ‘plays with friends and goes to parties’. (I promise we are doing cultural and educational stuff too!) Boatschooling is still not his favourite activity, but we are keeping pace and he’s doing so well. I swear he’s grown an inch…and so has his hair!
Joy – To be completely truthful, I’ve had a rollercoaster of emotions in this first month! The highs have been epic. And the lows have felt really hard. Which is on some level confusing because after all, we are in paradise, right? As it turns out, life’s challenges still exist amongst the palm trees, they are just a bit different. And the process of settling into a new life, all while changing location almost daily, not fully clear on how you want to be experiencing things, let alone how to create those experiences… it’s complicated. But a complication I wouldn’t trade for the world. (I go a bit deeper on this in my professional newsletter, Notes from the Sea Suite.)
David – Calm as always. Really, it is the best quality in a captain and life partner! The twinkle in his eye tells me he’s having the time of his life, too.
Sometimes we are sweating our butts off, trying to fix something on the boat, struggling with Elliot with schooling or wrestling groceries from cart to cab to dingy to boat to storage. And sometimes…we are diving into the Pacific Ocean or having a quiet chat under the stars or feeling the softest sand between our toes or the breeze on a day of perfect sailing.
It’s all happening. And we’re doing our best to take it all in.
Next up: The Galapagos Islands