Boating

After crossing the Caribbean Sea we reached our destination of Colon in Panama after making a brief pit stop at the stunning San Blas Archipelago.
Colon would be the start of out Panama Canal adventure of which would normally only take 12 hours but managed to last nearly 2 days due to a pilot shortage and consequently having to stay overnight in the canal, which is apparently a very rare thing. During the overnight stay I was the unfortunate one that had to do anchor watch in what has being one of the most nail biting watches I've done.
After dropping anchor the captain has informed me that we are sitting in about 8 meters of water with the arse end of the boat just about in the canal channel, the front within 10 meters of the canal bank and 2 big steel moorings either side which we could possibly hit if we swing around. Nice! the perfect watch. As I'm pacing round the bridge trying to spot the mooring and the shore line in pitch black darkness I notice a massive cluster appear on the radar (like something you see on a Loch Ness Monster film), can't be rain I thought as it's a perfect night and can't possibly be a ship can it, it's massive! So I grab the binoculars and peer out the window noticing that all the shore lights behind us that were there a minute ago have disappeared and now our yacht has started to rock up and down violently, what the hell it going on here. It's only then that I notice a sliver of colour change appear in my binoculars lens, as I step out onto the deck to see a wall of steel hull silently and stealthfully push ever so closely past out now seemly small stern.

Having finally made it through the 5 locks of this marvel of engineering we anchored off Panama City where we are now not only on the other side of Panama but also in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. After being granted shore leave, I headed into Panama City to get my first taste of Latin America.
Having walked round the city for nearly a day and discovering its charms I decided to venture down a street that looked quite enchanting in the beginning; with multi-story colourful shacks and children playing in the streets and chirping "Hola" as I walked past, but then turned quickly into a seedy neighbourhood where anybody not from this neighbourhood should not be. Ignoring my hunch I continued on down the streets, with my head in the sky looking up at what was; and going deeper into somewhere I shouldn't. Somewhere where even if I wanted to turn back I couldn't.
As the realisation set in that I was travelling the streets of a Panamanian ghetto, my heart started to beat faster as my legs picked up the pace and my sense were at high alert before BAM! It happened. In all the time I have being travelling nothing remotely similar had happened like this. I was being mugged. Not knowing how to react to the group of teens who had came up from behind me, I turned round with my bag that they had being trying to snatch still firmly attached to my back and started throwing a few swings here, there and everywhere before they fled with nothing but what they arrived with.
In hindsight I think retaliating like that was probably not the best of ideas, as the rest of there buddies and no doubt there family were down the end of the street waiting to see what bounty they could come back with. I don't hold a grudge to people I don't know and rarely to those I do, and I was just a walking opportunity in a place where opportunities are few and far between but still it scared the shit out of me and I got the hell out of there quick smart.

After spending a few days in Panama it was time to start out 10 day voygue up to San Diego. The first few days were absolutely perfect with clear skies and a rippleless ocean which made it possible to spot the countless turtles and pods of dolphins. It seemed like we were disturbing the peace as we cut through the middle of it all; making waves and noise in the otherwise unspoilt landscape.
The seas picked up a little after a few days and the fog drifted in briefly but our trip to San Diego was just about near perfect......except for the fact that we couldn't get off the boat, were still working on the boat, and were rationed to 2 beers per day

Check out the pics here >>>
http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4648377_n8w4r/1/271325639_Fp4SA

Well I've made it!
I've made it past the one month trial period, but only just as there have been a few incidents which I thought would have stitched me up for sure. Such as pre empting an anchor drop & letting it plummet to the ocean floor while still pushing 4 knots and then there was nearly losing the waverunner which I could have sworn I clipped on; until seeing it about 200 meters away and realising that " Hey! That's ours!!". But I take a little comfort in the fact that my deckie buddie, who is also a newbie; managed to nearly lose the tender....at night! We were lucky enough to see it in the dim moon light being wished away by the strong currents. The captain must think he's got a couple of clowns working for him.
So it's being a very interesting, challenging and tiring month.

As the owner was on for all of our cruising of the Caribbean it's being non stop shifts 24/7 and not being able to get away from it like a normal shore job has taken some getting use to and I'm still not cool with it but we have got to see some wonderful places along the way.
After leaving St Martin we headed down to Antigua to pick up some guests before cruising down to Guadeloupe and all the islands down to St Lucia, which is about halfway down the Caribbean chain of islands; before heading back up to Antigua. It all took a little under 2 weeks to take in all the islands on our whistle stop tour before the owner and the guests got off and we started to prepare for our next journey.

The weather here had being a bit shitty and not really what I expected of the Caribbean for this time of year with choppy seas, non-stop wind and countless passing rain showers to drench the boat that you have just meticulously dried from the previous shower.
But on the days that have been perfect I've tried to make the most of the down time we have and any shore leave that we're given and were lucky enough to be treated to a watersports day where we could use the yachts toys like the jet skis, waverunners and kayaks and I've never had so much fun on a waverunner as I did that day. Jumping over 8-10ft relentless swell of one of St Lucia's beautiful points, wave after wave; airborne and blinded from the salt spray. Wicked stuff!

So now we're heading across the Caribbean Sea, heading fro Panama and the famous canal where we will hopefully get some shore time before making the long 10 days treck up the coast to San Diago and the U S of A baby!

Check out the pics here >>>
http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4648377_n8w4r/1/271325639_Fp4SA

After streaming through the Suez Canal we entered the Red Sea where we were flanked by Sudan & Egypt before making our way south towards the pirate zone in the Gulf of Aden where Somalian pirates were our biggest threat. Fortunately we made it through unscathed, although hearing on the news a week later that a Japanese chemical tanker had being taken over by pirates in the same area was a bit unsettling, lucky for us I guess.
From there we started our 4 day voyage across the Indian Ocean where some of the sunsets were just amazing and in between the seemingly endless workload were treated to a BBQ up on the Sundeck and the use of the jacuzzi, for a moment it felt like I was on holidays......then the polishing started again. The weather across the Indian & for most part of the trip was quite good, a couple of bad days with the wind and swell & an incident of motoring across a fishing trawler line, which at first though might have been another small vessel as fishing trawlers are not common in that area.

During the trip we didn't have access to the internet or TV which was just hell as it meant that the crew had to bond & with most of them being quite jaded everyone just seemed to go to bed......at 7:30pm!
I decided to make use of the ships gym & do a workout every night while I could, god did it burn for a couple of days, my body has done a complete 3 60 since Ibiza and I even put one weight as I'm fed 3 times a day! When I went to put on my jeans after making it to land again thought the laundryman had shrunk then in the dryer but no the belt had gone up 2 notches!!

After finally making it halfway across the Indian Ocean to our destination the Maldives, we arrived in Mali where we fuelled up and moved onto our anchorage the next day at Bandos Island. There we had 10 days to get the boat in tip top condition before the guest arrived and also got 3 days off to rest and go ashore. I was lucky enough to be able to sort out a trip back to Mali with the yachting agents, but as none of the other crew members in our group wanted to go exploring it was just me and the laundryman who went to check it out.
Was nice being back to some kind of civilisation as I had a few things to buy and sort our as it was our last time ashore for a while and was wicked to be able to explore the little island capital. The Maldivians are really nice people & didn’t realise they were so closely related to the Indians, but was nice spending a good 10 hours there before being taken back to the yacht. Was also nice being able to go ashore at Bandos and drink & dance with some of the other yacht crews that had anchored up.

Unfortunately though it has all but finished. It seems that I may have rocked the boat a bit much and managed to get fired, for what could possibly be the first time.
In all honesty I would have stayed and just gone through the motions because of the itinerary but most probably came out just as jaded as most of the crew, so not all a bad thing and was a good month on board, an interesting & eye opening experience that I am going to try and do again.
I was flown back to Nice in France via Dubai where I had a 14 hour stopover and after debating with myself for 3 hours and trying out all the seat selections in the terminal reluctantly checked myself into the airport hotel where I’m still feeling dizzy about the price I had to pay. Then it was onto the next leg from Dubai to Nice where I managed to top my longest flight record to 10 hours. All of this flying was through Emirates which is much better than the EasyJet flights I'm use to. One of the finniest things though was when the food come out, there's so much stuff on that tiny little tray and watching everyone trying to manoeuvre 3 dishes of food, a coffee, water, a beer and 2 sets of cutlery and hearing distant sighs as it goes terribly wrong is quite amusing. I seemed to have managed it after hitting some turbulence and ending up my beer & lemon marang in my lap and my buttered bun in my water.

So I'm now back in Antibe, where I didn’t think I would be so soon, it just a week till Christmas & am trying to figure out what to do next as I don't really want to spend the Festive season here alone & freezing my tits off.

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4002340

Well it's my first week aboard & where in Egypt already! The boat is moored up here for a night to take on fuel and supplies ready for our 2 week trip to the Maldives down through the Suez Canal and Red sea and onto the Indian Ocean. We should be arriving there around the first week of December and be there for Christmas & New Year with the guests.

All is well on board, one hell of a learning curve but getting there slowly although I think I've got a mild case of culture shock for the first time in all my travels!!! The fact that I'm working on a boat for days and days without seeing land, no nightlife or entertainment to speak of besides DVDs, no girls, no alcohol & nothing to do except live and breath and scrub the yacht. I'm sure I'll get use to it, just a bit of a shock to the system and different words for EVERYTHING!, can someone get me a yachting dictionary for Christmas hehe; alright for the hardcore yachties on board but I’m already realising that I don't want to end up like that, seems like it can turn into the 9-5 office grind....even at sea!!!

Not sure when I can be in contact again as we are loosing internet for the next two weeks and might not have it for the whole duration in the Maldives.....like till after New years!!!!! don't know how I will cope

Check out the pics here >>> http://redmonkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4002340