Isla de san andreas

buenas,

we have now sailed to san andreas, another island of columbia. we left providencia at 2am and arrived at san andreas at 2pm. a good sail with a good moon to start the journey. we finished our time at providencia with a wonderful hike to what we think was the highest point of the island. it was great to be exercising for a few hours and it was great to be in the forests for a bit. great views from the top.

now in san adreas, we´re waiting for good surfing weather and to pass the time, we´ve paid 10 dollars for access to a swimming pool, a basketball court with soccer goals, a weight room, showers and the like. lots of activity.

san andreas is nice, but lacks the small island feel of providencia. there seem to be endless shops of bathing suits, shoes, electronics, and perfume. we rented scooters again and toured around the island for two hours a few days ago, going easily around the circumfrance of the island, while scouting our surfing spot. we attempted to go surfing on the south end yesterday, but the waves were big and the wind was strong. rob and i attempted anyway, but the current swept us around the point, so we had to do the long paddle to the point where we could safely get out among the sharp coral. a surfing competition had just been completed the day before and rob and i saw 6 columbians walking and pointing in the direction for us to get out. they showed up on the rocks where we were to get out and were very friendly, all there to make sure we got out okay.

that´s all the news from here. shaved my beard off to a fu man chu, long mustache thing. quite funny, i feel like i´m a bad guy from a cowboy movie. got to keep myself entertained.

adios

Panama

Hi folks,

Crazy horse finished about 48 hourse of mostly continuous motoring when we anchored at the island of bocas del toro, panama about a week ago. we were coming from albequerque cays, of colombia, where we had a day of excellent reef snorkling, and met a couple sailing in the same type of boat, an alberg 35. had a potluck on the beach and over a kingfish dinner, it came out that the alberg 35 owner, Dave, was the captain for an important man´s motorboat. the important man: non other than the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, yes, chuck yeager. many can imagine my excitement. many entertaining stories about dave´s own airplane and helicopter flying stories.

the highlite of the passage came when we saw a clumb of bamboo floating in the water. we were trying to sail, but recognizing its futileness, we furled the sails, turned on our engine, Ron Dog, and motored towards the flotsam in search of a mahi mahi dinner. we found lots of fish, including mahi mahi and probably about 50 bull sharks up to 5 feet long. we hooked a few mahi mahi but as soon as the sharks detected any panic out of the hooked fish, it was a gonner. we were running about the deck, quite half cocked, with fishing gear everywhere, and trying to get it all on video tape. the urge to see pandemonium and crazyness in the water overwhelmed our desire for a fish dinner and we hesitated in pulling in the hooked mahi mahi long enough for the sharks to go mad, which caused us to lose our dinner, twice. very exciting and amusing entertainment to an otherwise uneventful motoring. from there we spotted a group of 20 pilot whales which we motored over to as the basked in the sun. the continued basking and a few swam towards us. back to the flotsam and a few circles later, with sharks chasing us, we headed south again.

we came to bocas del toro in search of ´the best surf in the caribbean´. yet we have had nothing but flat calms for over a week with no forcasted signes of improvement. we have entertained ourselves with a bit of snorkling, exploring the island of bastamientos, playing soccer and basketball wtih the local boys, eating cheap food, and sharing in our exasperation about the lack of surf in this legendary spot. one of the highlites has been ´crazy guy with a plane on a stick´. we have a series of ´crazy guys´ that we´ve found on this voyage, including crazy cat woman from jamaica, crazy wood guy, from san andreas, who half the time would give us smiles and say rasta things while the other half of the time he would start yelling at us apparently for not buying his wood things. crazy plane on a stick guy is about 20 and pulls a model airplane on a stick up and down the street during the nights. the first night he just went back and forth, talked to no one, we had doubts about his mental condition. but on the second night, after doing his full check out, and a good pit of taxiing, he started to run, and lo and behold, the thing took flight. you can imagine our excitement, especially mine.

after a week of no surf, we got a weather forecast and it was north east to east 10 knots and 4 foot seas, which in our experience means, no wind with which to sail anywhere, and no surfable swells. so we packed our bags, knowing we would not last in bocas one more day without surf, and came inland, where we are now. got on a boat taxi which goes about 30 miles an hour to the mainland and then ducks into the rivers with no abatement in speed. it is quite beautiful and gets our adrenaline going. from chinguanola, where the boat taxi took us, we took a $8, 4.5 hour bus ride to the city of david, near the pacific.

the bus ride was fantastic. it was wonderful to be inland and we rode over the continental devide into the clouds and cooler temperatures and then back to the warmth of the lower elevations, with spanish music going the whole time, except for one welcom english song that we all sang along with, janie´s got a gun. that night we got two rooms at a hostal, $2.75 each for me and ted for a double without an attached bathroom. $4.50 for chris and rob for the attached bathroom. our deal seemed better until the following morning when our neighbors in the next rooms over woke up, packed up and left, making us realize that though the walls go to an inch above the floor we were essentially in one room with plywood partitions hanging from the ceiling. still can´t beat the price for a night´s rest. that night we watched the movie, hitch, for $2.50, which we all thought was really cheesy but there were many parts where we were laughing outloud and i even clapped a few times in my enjoyment. when we return we´re going to see blade 3. the following day we took an hour bus for 90 cents to the backpacker town of boquete, where we will spend our second night tonight. it´s a cute little town, with friendly people, cute and talkative kids, and cheap food. this morning we woke up at 3:45 am, got our prearranged taxi at 4, then drove to the entrance to the parque nacional, where we proceeded to hike 14 km to the summit of the highest mountain in panama, volca boru, i think is the name, higher than 11,000 feet. the path was a rocky four by four dirt road to the summit, which made for slow going by headlight for the first few hours. but after the sun rose above the clouds that were already below us, we had a great time and made the summit and celebrated in being able to see both the atlantic and pacific oceans from one spot. having returned, we are resting our blisters and almost rolled anckles, and rob and ted prepare for a day of kayaking tomorrow with a rafting outfit. (only two boats available, they´re the experts, so i conceeded.)

we plan to return to bocas in a day or two, and hopefully the surf will meet us there. we love panama; it is beautiful, cheap, friendly and easy to get around. that´s it from the haus, sorry it´s so long, but it´s been a while, thought you´d all like some details, and the internet is only $1 an hour.

(by the way, i apologize for spelling colombia with a u in a previous email. for the correction, i give credit to my friend, frank abagnale. thanks frank.) all the best to everyone at home,

hasta luego,

Isla de providencia

hello crazy horse readers

we are now on la isla de providencia, a columbian island off the coast of nicaragua. we had a great 3 night, 3 day passage (350 miles and done with no hours put on the engine) from jamaica to hear and are having fun on the 16 km circumfrance island. we´ve been here for a few days and already have rented four scooters to tour the island in style, broke a chain off one of them on a bad section of the road, hiked up a little mountain, climbed palm trees to get coconuts which we hacked open with our rusty machete that we found a few months back, seen families of five riding down the street on motorcycles on the island there are few cars. everyone rides scooters or motorcycles. we are working on our spanish and i bought a spanish novel today and am determined to read the whole thing, doing justice to all the pain that those spanish stories that i had to read in spanish cass brought me.

caught another mahi mahi on the way down here which was delightful. very few boats here in the harbor and very few tourists here now so it is a very mellow feel, especially compared to jamaica where we were always approached to see if we wanted a taxi or illegal substances. we love being in spanish speaking country and love being near such lushious volcanic mountains. we have a few more days here and then plan to go to san andreas, fifty miles south, and then to colon, panama.

adios

More of jamaica

still in port antonio, jamaica, but we've had some interesting forrays into the countryside. first was a raft trip down the rio grande river. eight miles inland out to the ocean on rafts made of bamboo by the captains of the rafts. two people sit on this very long flat bundel of maybe 15 bamboo rods, in a nice chair of bamboo. then the captain stands out at the very front and poles our way through the small rapids. very fun and we have good video footage of it.

then back to port antonio and for me, an afternoon of soccer. i got a real ball here and even some new turfs so i was happy to run to the local field in hopes of some exercise. i was the only white person on the field of perhpas more than a hundred of all ages and all playin in little games around the large field. i started juggling by myself and eventually drew in five others, so we got a 3 on 3 game and played until it was too dark to see. it was great to run around, and fun to play with a 2 foot ditch running through our mini field that was on the side of the big field. the ball was considered out if it went into the ditch but you could pass it to someone on the other side of the ditch and still be in fair play as long as it didn't fall in. and they even asked if i was coming back tomorrow - a question which i took to be a great compliment. not having played in a while i guess i held my own. they didn't talk to me much, and i still can only get a few words here and there when they are talking but i can understand them mostly when they speak to me without their native slang. the next day we went inland again tor three hours to st. catherine where a woman that had lived with rob's family was living. it was very neat to drive through the countryside and see many little and big (kinston) cities of jamaica. the house was made of concrete, there were goats everywhere, and we were the only whites in the whole town as far as we could see. and everyone said hello by saying, "you alright?" and the customary response is, "ya man". there was a funeral there the next day which we ended up going to, for the woman's brother in law. the service was a new experience and involved an open casket, many amens, many songs, a few cell phone rings, and much jesus talk. the burial followed in which the casket was lowered into a cement cell covered by boards, then plywood, then a crosshatched frame of rebar, and then cemented over as we all sang songs in the hot sun, while a boy was rolling around an old tire in the adjacent field and a few more were practicing their cricket in the farther field. quite an experience with many images we will not forget.

then we said goodbye to norma and her jamaican family and rode back three hours with dickey, who gave us more lessons in the jamaican tounge, much to everyone's enjoyment as we bumped along with the loud regee that came nonstop from dickey's speakers.

now we prepare for the super bowl, which we will watch in the marina television, (not much market here for american football - it's all soccer and cricket here) and we'll get our immunizations tomorrow of yellow fever, typhoid and hep. A, with malaria pills soon to follow. our dingy still is holding up though we can put no pressure on the floor of it so we must look funny going back and forth all on the side tubes.

hope you are all well, and i welcome updates from all of your lives. i may not be able to responde to each of them, but i very much value news from all of you back home. thank you to those who have done so already. it is nice to know that people enjoy getting the updates from crazy horse. adios, go patriots!
ben

Jamaica

hi everyone,

we're now in port antonio, jamaica - arrived yesterday morning. we finally left georgetown, on grand exuma island of the bahamas a week or so ago. we were all very ready to leave and hoist the sails. we sailed north east to get around the north tip of long island. we had to motor for most of the 20 miles and once we got around the north tip, we shut down the engine, hoisted our light wind sails and proceded to not find the wind we were hoping for, though we were not sure it was going to be there. so for the experience, instead of motoring back an hour to an anchorage we passed, we tried to slowly make our way south.

throughout the night we drifted, mostly in cirlces, about 12 miles to the north. it was a beautiful night and none of us really minded having easy two hour solo watches of two hours under a beautiful sky and on a calm sea. during ted's 0600-0700 watch, we finally got some wind and the other three of us awoke to finally a little bit of progress - we were actually going south again, but still had much ground to make up.

the highlight of that leg of our journey came an hour later when a full sized 30 ft long minke whale surfaced right next to our boat. it was about thirty feet long and we all took turns dunking our heads in the water with a mask on while the others held our feet. it was so amazing to see this huge animal move with such ease under the water, back and forth underneath our boat, turning on its side to peer up at us, staying with us for about half an hour. grey on top, light grey on the bottom with a white stripe on its fins. it was perhaps the coolest wild animal experience any of us had ever had. from there we continued all day and night after the wind finally kicked in from the north east 10-15 knots and sailed through the third night finally making it to great inagua island at 5:00 am.

we had still not caught any mahi mahi fish, and this was driving us crazy since we have had hooks over the side at every opportunity. and during this passage we once had three on the lines at one time. but one ripped the lure free of the line, and the other two somehow wriggled off the lines. devestation - especially since a boat we were travelling with had caught a few.

at great inagua, we checked out with customs, got some more food and prepared to head for jamaica. during that time we discovered the floor of our dingy had separated from the outer inflateable tubes. it still could drive all of us to the beach but we had only about six inches between the top of the tubes and the water on the inside. it was quite funny, though now we're trying to make some sort of fix. right now we're using some friends boat while they are docked and we are now at anchor.

the passage to jamaica went well, and took about 48 hours. we went with another boat named the great escape: a retired couple from california: duey and nan. duey is a retired navy carrier pilot who flew F-18s. needless to say i have had many questions for him. we were a bit concened about the guantlet between cuba and haiti, so we traveled together, checkin in with each other every two hours on the single sideband radio, giving our positions with a 100 mile offset to confuse any bad guys and were ready to go stealth if we needed to. duey also talked about a water cannon that he had and mentioned that he had gasoline. (didn't really know what he meant by that except that maybe he would make a flame thrower and use some of his military combat experience)

the passage was uneventful - we had good winds and relatively calm seas, practiced some celestial navigation, and admired the mountains of cuba while we kept on the lookout for fast moving ocean ships and refugee boats. one of the highlights, though, was finally hooking and retrieving our first mahi mahi. delicious and beautiful in all its colors. we thanked the fish for its sacrifice and enjoyed its taste with our customary rice dinner. so into jamaica we came, checked in with customs and immigration and were off to explore town. my exploration highlight was watching a school gym period on a field where i was serching for a soccer game. everyone was running hard, lifting weights, throwing the discuss (into the track, nearly hitting one of the runners) or doing sit ups. it was a very active scene, everyone was running as hard as they could, the track was a run down field with worn stripes and rocks on it most kids were barefoot. it was interesting to compare it to the u.s. high schools. you can do a lot with a little if you are creative and willing.

my dad has passed his third ham radio test so we are now in contact with him daily on the single sideband radio. it is wonderful to be in contact with my parents and it is great to be able to hear about all my siblings and other things like the cold weather without paying a dollar a minute. so that's about it from jamaica. we plan to stay here for a week or two. enough to watch the superbowl - go patriots, see some of the inland island, fix our tender, and get some shots for central america. it's nice to be in the jungle type climate and my tarzan instincts are returning. the adventure is continueing and it's nice to have a new flag flying from our starboard spreaders.

all the best to everyone at home.

ben

To central america

hello all you crazy horses,
we're still in georgetown, and i'm getting very antsy to get underway, which we will as soon as this weekend's football games are over. on further review of time left for this trip and cruising destinations, it looks like we're going to head to jamaca and then to central america, panama to mexico, so we can work on our spanish and do a little more exploring of non cruising destinations and making the tip of florida by next october or so. nothing's definate but we'll soon be making tracks one way or another. any recommendations regarding good places to visit in c.america are welcome. adios,
ben

Happy new year in nassau

Hello gang!
we're celebreating the new year in nassau, bahamas. we sailed in from the little harbor of the abacos in strong winds, after a wonderful christmas karaoke celebreation that we were invited to by the other cruisers in marsh harbor. we sang all sorts of songs and were known as the boston boys. there was also a number of dances including the electric slide, the macarena, the chicken dance, and more. we now have some very funny video footage of it all. so now we are in nassau, spent the last bit of 2004 at the atlantis casino. i came away with 25 cents more than i went in with. having played only $1.25 in slots. chris came away with $10 having at one point been $20 up on the game where the ball goes around and then lands in a number and color. i was quite happy to leave the place although there was a great acquarium and we did see A-Rod of the yankees there, much to our excitement. then to a outside bar for wonderful fireworks and dancing, then to the junkanoo parade which started at 2am and supposedly went to 11am this morning. there were the most decorated costumes we've ever seen. thousands and thousands of people lined the streats, everyone comes out for it and they say they wait for it all year. we finally got back to the boat at 5am. we'll be here for a few more days when we'll get ted back on the boat, (he went home for the holidays) and then we'll make our way down the exuma chain...and BEYOND!! that's all for now. hope everyone's having a great start to 2005. thanks again to my friends shane and ladleah for their email and info. they run a school for people to learn these type of cruising skills in a bit more comfort than the outward bound pulling boats. so if any of you want to do some cruising sailing of your own, check out www.newenglandsailing.com, they are the best. adios
ben

Treasure cay to marsh harbor

hello gang, sailed down to marsh harbor on great abaco island from treaure cay. we've had wonderful weather, good sailing and a "norther" (cold front) coming our way. we purchased a wind generator and mounted it on our mizzen mast, so we're now somewhat independent of our engine and making power when ever the winds are blowing. we're trying to get to another good spot for snorkling and surfing and going to wait out the big winds in marsh harbor. huge thanks go out to my outward bound friends, shane and ladleah, who've been down here many times. they gave us tons of info on the big crossing of the gulf stream and all about different wind generators and much info about the bahamas in general. we were much better off with their help. well that's all for now, we're getting ready to start christmas carolling to the other boats in the harbor. adios, ben

Bahamas

hello all, this'll be a short one. we're safe and sound, crossed the gulf stream with no problems, but caught no fish. have had wonderful snorkling, lots of barracuda, eaten conch, and other fish, many tasty lobster. are now in green turtle cay heading south in a day or two. things are going very well, and we're having fun finally made it out of the intercoastal waterway. internet is very pricy so i must be going. hope the christmas time is going well. ben

Departure delayed

hello again, it is saturday afternoon and we are still in fort lauderdale. There was just too much stuff to do and not enough time to get the rest we needed to leave the country in style. so now we wait for another weather window, hopefully around wednesday. we now plan to finish our list of things to do, hopefully do a little surfing and enjoy the fort while we're here. adios,
ben

florida to grand bahamas

hello to all, well, we've hopefully gotten this email thing straightened out. you'll now be getting updates from my own address and hopefully it'll go smoother. right now we're in fort lauderdale, florida with a weather window opening up tonight for a passage across the gulf stream to grand bahamas. we rented a car today and have been running around the city picking up last minute supplies, food, and the like. we are very excited to be ready to head out and if we can make it happen, we'll be in the bahamas by nightfall on saturday. otherwise, we'll have to wait a few more days until the wind comes from the south again to go the same direction as the gulf stream (otherwise there are fierce waves across the gulf stream). otherwise we had a great thanksgiving dinner courtesy of rob's mom and each read a list of 10 things we were thankful for. one of which is all of our supporters and people interested in what we're doing. we thank you very much. now to see if this new set up works. hope all is well wherever you are. hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving. adios, hopefully write you again from the bahamas.
ben