Wednesday September 12, 2007
The 30 hour crossing from Cartagena back to San Blas was forecast to have ten foot waves and plenty of wind. We prepared for weather as we left the waters of Cartagena. I gave Sergio some preventative Dramamine for motion sickness and stowed while Jeremy strapped on the scuba gear and scraped Max's propellor. It was covered in growth from weeks of exposure to the filthy city water. When we got under way again Max was was going 25% faster than before!
As evening came we waited in anticipation for the weather that was supposed to come, but it never did. Instead we had a much more friendly visitor. A beautiful gray seagull-sized bird began to curiously circle the boat. It was especiallyinterested in Sergio who was standing on the cabin top, and after circling very close a few times, landed right on Sergio's shoulder! Even when he yelled out in alarm and moved around, sure that it was going to peck his eyes out with it's long sharpbeak, it stayed perched. After a few moments it took flight again and landed on our spinnaker sail covor which was fluffed uplike a big soft nest. It stayed there all night and hung out much of the next day after Jeremy fed it one of the sardines that had jumped on the boat in the night.
The seas remained calm for most of the next day and we all spent it lounging around the boat, watching our fishing rod hopefully. Sometime in the late afternoon I was taking a nap below when I heard Sergio shout "Pescado! Pescado!". I hopped up onto the fishing platform as the line was rapidly whizzing out behind us and picked up the rod. The moment I did so the huge fish decided to stop messing around and took off towards the bottom of the sea, snapping the line in an instant and taking with it our last lure which we had just purchased in Cartagena. To add insult to injury we had canned tuna fish for lunch.
Later in the afternoon a strong squall hit and repeatedly blew sea water over Max's bow and washed it off again with heavy rain. It only lasted an hour or so, and then left, taking all of the wind with it and leaving us with smooth seas for the rest of the crossing.
As the sun began to set we were visited by another feathered friend. A lovely little fly catcher bird hovered briefly around the fishing platform where Jeremy was standing before landing right on his shoulder! Jeremy perched it on his finger and handed it to me, the tiny bird snuggling my shirt. Then a few more came and as Jeremy and I stood on the platform and held out our hands they lighted right on our index fingers! Two took flight again and found perches around the boat, but the first one stayed and kept me company, sleeping in my hands as I kept watch. Within a few hours we were entering the waters of San Blas. It was a new moon, and though we had waypoints programmed into the GPS from our previous visit, it was quite nerve wrecking sailing between reefs and around coral heads without any kind of visual in the suffocating darkness. We decided to play it safe and anchor on a nearby flat rather than to get closer to any of the reef- lined islands. Once the anchor was set we had a stout anchedram (In case I haven't mentioned this important piece of information before, an Anchedram is the norwegan sailor's tradition of having a stiff drink upon setting anchor after a passage) of rum with which we toasted to Sergio's first crossing, said goodnight to our little birdie friend, and went to bed.
