Back In Bocas

September 5, 2017

It's been over a year since my last post... We have been fully focused on our work, running a private yacht, covering more than 5,000nm around the Caribbean Sea. Our semi-circular route began in the east Florida coast of the USA, heading east to the Bahamas, then southwards down the Eastern Caribbean Island chain and finally crossing west to Central America, ending in Bocas del Toro, Panama.It has been a phenomenal year in so many ways: The rare opportunity to set up a brand new private yacht from scratch, a beautiful blank canvass with almost total freedom to kit it out with all the necessary gear and design the interior. The running of the vessel to super yacht standards while travelling extensively in pursuit of the elusive "Permit" fish. Most valuably though, developing relationships with very special people we can now call friends for life.One of the many things Rufus and I have in common is our strong work ethic, and while that has always benefitted us professionally, it has not always been the best for us personally. We are passionate about what we do, we believe in excellence in all things, but sometimes it becomes hard to distinguish between the professional and the personal areas of our lives when we become so invested in our work. It has been an especially difficult lesson to learn to distinguish between work and personal life, switching off at the end of the day despite our home also being our work place.For that reason 99.9% of my time, effort and energy has been focused on the job over the last year. Thankfully there is something else we (hope) we are good at and that is learning from every stage in our lives, both good and bad.This year will ideally be different: no less commitment to our work, but a much smarter and more balanced approach to every aspect of our lives, especially the personal side, relationships and physical health. Here's to a happy year filled with many more rewarding challenges and experiences, starting with one of our favourite places so far, Bocas!

Crossing the Panama Canal

April 21, 2016 kate brand

After we returned from our overland trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, we spend Easter weekend in Bocas del Toro and then made the trip down south to the port town of Colón. Before we left though, we met up with a friend from our super yacht days, Peter, and invited him to join us as crew for the Panama Canal transit.

Colón was a bit of a shock compared to Bocas del Toro. We came from beautiful jungle covered islands, surrounded by clear waters and we arrived in a dirty dilapidated "post apocalyptic" city. It was, however fascinating to watch all the massive ships in the port and we had friends with us to help pass the days waiting for the canal passage with lots of laughs and good conversation.

We arrived in Colón on the Wednesday after Easter weekend, Melody had her appointment to be measured the following day by one of the Panama Canal Officials and 5 days later wefinally transited the Canal!

It was our first transit and there are so many horror stories passed between yachties that we were rather nervous, not to mention the seriously high price tag to go through and the fat deposit you have to put down in case something goes wrong in the canal...

In the end it was actually completely relaxed and most of our time was spent waiting - for the big ships to catch up and join us in the locks, for each lock to be filled or drained, depending on which side we were of the lake etc.

It was a victorious moment motoring out into the Pacific as we exited the last lock of the Canal. We are finally here!

Next stop: French Polynesia!!!!

checking out or neighbours in Colon. photo credit: Peter Thomas

Ruf and our advisor, as we enter the canal

on our way to the canal. photo credit: Peter Thomas

friendly crew of the nearby ships in Colon harbour

José our friendly admeasurer, registering Melody for her canal transit — José our friendly admeasurer, registering Melody for her canal transit

fellow cruisers in the Colon anchorage, preparing for the canal transit

João and Natali on one of their provisioning runs before they transit the canal

the "yacht club" we anchored at in Colon

Peter & Rufus prepping the fenders (tyres) and lines for the canal transit

one of our friendly line handlers in the canal

Rufus and I with our advisor in the first lock. photo credit: Peter Thomas

our fantastic line handers, João and Paula

most of the canal transit is a waiting game - João catching some zzz while we wait for things to happen

in the last lock before we exit into the Pacific - Rufus standing on the foredeck, posing for the Canal cameras as our families watch online

our full team aboard Melody as we finally arrive in the Pacific!

Surfing Kusapín

March 12, 2016 kate brand

In the last post I mentioned that during our island hopping trip we stopped at Bluefield Lagoon and did a short overland walk to the well-known surf spot of Kusapín.

Two years ago, while we were in Trinidad, we met a Brazillian guy by the name of Manuel Alves. We became fast friends and when we came to Panama he offered his help and connections, as he also has his sailboat based in Bocas del Toro. He is away working right now but he kindly loaned Rufus his surfboard for our time here, as we gave away all our boards in Guatemala, when we thought we would not be returning to Melody last year :(

There wasn't much swell and the waves were teeny when we arrived, but that didn't stop the four of us from having fun in the water anyway!

Here are a few photos from the day and the local indians from the Comarce Ngäbe-Buglé Indian Reserve on the island.

Cruising Bocas with Babilé

March 11, 2016 kate brand

Last week we arrived in Panama, after 7 days sailing down from Guatemala. We dropped anchor in front of Isla Colón which is part of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, off the Caribbean coast of Panama.

To our absolute delight, the same day we arrived, our favourite cruising friends Natali and João, of S/Y Babile, appeared in our anchorage - reunited after almost 2 years!! We spent a few days anchored there, resting and exploring the island, enjoying the restaurants and bars of the little surf town.

As usual, we started getting itchy feet quite quickly and decided to head off to the surrounding, more remote, islands with Babile and another French boat, S/Y Spip. We did a day sail to the Zapatilla Islands and from there to Bluefield Lagoon where we did an overland trail to the beautiful beaches of Kusapin, a well known surf spot, in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé Indian Reserve.

We filled our days with spearfishing, beach barbecues, swimming, walking in the tropical forests, surfing and enjoying time with our friends over good food and local beer.

Next stop is the mainland city of Colón where we will await our turn to go through the Panama canal!

seeing our favourite Brazilian and Portuguese friends, Natali and João of S/Y Babilé, for the first time after 2 years!

anchorage in front of Bocas Town, Isla Colón

one of the waterfront restaurants in Bocas towm

interesting characters at the Kraken restaurant

there are lots of places to stay in Isla Colón

on our way to the dinghy dock at Hotel Olas, after provisioning for our trip out to the other islands

Portugal, Brazil, South Africa and France brought together by a beach barbecue in Panama

our makeshift "table" courtesy of Babilé

Natali's delicious octopus salad, caught the previous day

barbecues and good food always bring people together

Where are we now?

March 4, 2016 kate brand

Hello, friends!

We are on the move again... and yes, I am sorry we have not been keeping better contact re. our movements. I have been struggling with updating the blog chronologically (as in going back 6 months and doing each post individually) vs. doing one post with a summary and bring you all up to date with where we are at right now - literally and figuratively.

Over the last few of days I have tried the chronological option but it's taking so long, especially with the mostly slow and unreliable connections we have here in Central America. So, the obvious choice now is to do a roundup of the last 6 months and then I guess I can elaborate on each happening as time and wifi allow.

While still in Belize, working for Belize Saling Vacations, we received the phenomenal opportunity to star in a few ads for the launch of the new Kia Rio, which was shot on Jeju Island, in South Korea. When we returned we spent some time in Guatemala travelling and working on Melody in preparation to sell her and start working in the superyacht industry. While we were in Guatemala, Rufus had the opportunity to crew on a delivery of Phaedo, the Gunboat 66 that had just won the 2015 Transpac race, from Hawaii to Newport Beach. While Ruf was away I helped out with the BSV charter boats in the marina where we were staying, keeping an eye on them and doing some work on Melody as well.

Not long after Rufus' return from Phaedo we received a job offer on a private super yacht. Within 36hrs we moved Melody from one marina to another, hauled her out onto the hard stand, packed and boxed all our personal items to be shipped, put her up for sale and left for Newport, Rhode Island to join our new yacht!

We worked as 1st Mate (Rufus) and Chef/Stew (me) as part of 4 crew on 109ft sail yacht. We spent 3 months in the US and then delivered the boat south, to St Maarten, in December. We hosted the French owner and his family over December and early January, sailing the BVIs and St Barts for New Years. We returned to SXM in January and after a lot of thought, careful consideration and detailed financial calculations, we decided to return to Melody and complete our circumnavigation this year.

On February 7th we flew from St Maarten to Guatemala City to start the next chapter in our sailing expedition around the globe. Two weeks in Guatemala were spent cleaning Melody up (she took a bit of a beating during the rainy season in Guatemala) and of course, as always, doing the necessary maintenance and a few more upgrades!

An extra solar panel, new shade covers, a new inverter and one hardcore industrial sewing machine later we left Guatemala and sailed south, for 7 days, to Bocas del Toro off the coast of Panama.

So that's where we are right now: anchored in front of Bocas Town, in Panama, reuniting with special cruising friends and planning the next leg of our trip through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific!