Andiamo!

After a brisk sail out of Rio Chagres and around Colon, we made it to Portobelo. The trip entailed dodging several container ships and tankers that were making their way in and out of colon’s harbor and the entrance to the Panama Canal. The weather was good the whole day, so it made leaving the Rio Chagres that morning easy. The winds stayed good for most of the trip. it was nice to have an easy close reach sail.

One thing that was a bit freakish was all the logs that were floating in the water. Either there was a bad landslide or some river was dumping tons of deadwood into the sea. For awhile there, I had to bob and weave in and out of all the chunks of wood to avoid hitting them or running them over with the prop. After an hour or so, things cleared up considerably.

We made it into Portobelo in the early afternoon. This was good, because our plan was to do a round of provisioning, pick up some gasoline for the generator, and head out of Portobelo later that night. Doing this would enable us to get to El Porvenir in San Blas early in the day the next day so we can complete our checkout of Panama there. So that was the plan.

We headed into town after dropping anchor and quickly found a couple of good local mini-supers to stock up on fruits, vegetables and other basics. There was a library close to where we anchored that offered internet access. So I checked the weather there, and all still looked good for the rest of the trip.

On the way back to where the dinghy was, I ran into this one guy I knew from La Ceiba. Apparently he had run off on a dock bill there, and headed to Panama. We’re not buddies by any means, but what was notable was that he had just gotten out of the hospital after having a major infection in his leg. His infection, however was far worse, and he needed to have much of his skin tissue and some of his knee bone removed! The doctors then grafted skin from his other leg over the spot.

I found this freakishly ironic, because the infection was the kind I thought I had when I went to the hospital in Bocas! I apparently was pretty lucky, because I was able to get out after just 6 days with IV antibiotic treatment. He on the other hand, was in three different hospitals over 6 weeks and had to endure several surgeries. Sobering stuff!

After dinner, we all crashed for a few hours. We prepared the boat to leave, so I would just have to wake up, start the motor, pull up the anchor and go. Portobelo is a very deep water port, so it was easy to get out at night. The winds were blowing 20 knots from the Northeast, making it easy for Andiamo to sail out and around the point with just two tacks. The wind pushed on for the first few hours until sunrise. It was to make a nice peaceful sail the rest of the night. The only thing I needed to do was keep my distance from the coast. On this part of Panama, there were several reefs, rocks and cays just off the coast, so keeping distance was the best way to avoid them. One set of exposed reefs in particular, called “Dos Hermanos” stuck out a bit. Getting around them on the tack Andiamo was on made it effortless.

By sunrise the massive rains started pounding the coast, and us. For several hours it was sheeting rain, giving me no visibility whatsoever. The winds died, so the motor had to go back on, and we motored the last couple of hours to El Porvenir. I had to slow the boat down a bit on our approach to Porvenir to see if the rains would die down. I didn’t want to go into there blind.

The rain finally let up, and we crawled in, and dropped the hook. In another half hour, the dinghy was in the water and I was headed in to see the port captain to get checked out. It was the friday before Christmas week, so I was sure that they would be shutting things down for the holiday period. So I wanted to get it done asap. Lucky for me the port captain was there, and I got the paperwork done. An hour later we motored over to Chichime, a nice set of cays not far from Porvenir to anchor for the night. There were many boats there. The anchorage had good holding. We found our spot and dropped the hook without letting out too much chain.

Almost immediately, the Kunas came out on canoes with tons of molas and jewelry they had to sell. We made our obligatory purchases, but they wanted us to keep buying more. Finally, they gave up and left. Some Kuna fishermen came by later and offered us some fish and lobster. I saw one particularly large lobster that I liked, so I got him for $4. The nice part about being in San Blas, other than the surroundings, is that you can eat great and cheaply by just buying from the Kunas.

The Kuna tribe is the indigenous tribe in this part of Panama. They have a whole territory that is governed by them and they are completely autonomous from the rest of Panama, though still part of the republic. It’s a matriarchal society, and they have many interesting customs and norms that many gringos would find hard to comprehend. Inter-marrying outside of the Kuna fold is strictly forbidden. Nor can anyone own land or sell or buy land. Many of the Kunas split their time between the islands and the mainland. They live simply, and thrive in all kinds of conditions. They really are fascinating people.

In Chichime, I saw Sonny and Kay of “Valentina” anchored there. I went over to say hi to them the next morning. That night, we had all received a mayday call from a boat that was on its way to San Blas from Colon. Apparently, they were sailing too close to the coast and they slammed right into that reef called “Dos Hermanos”. The Panamanian and US Coast Guard both responded quickly, but the boat sank. The crew however, made it off unhurt. When Sonny told me about what happened, I was stupefied. I was sorry to hear about what happened, but at the same time, it was totally avoidable. All the captain of that boat needed to do was bear off the coast. One of the passengers was from a boat that I knew from Rio Dulce, and I was glad to hear she made it ok.

The next day, we spent swimming, and exploring the island. The Kunas are very inviting and hospitable people. They showed us their homes and how they live. Interesting stuff. They even had a volleyball net up and let us play some beach volleyball. We wanted to work our way over to the Holandes Cays, where there was an anchorage called the “Swimming Pool”. Those cays are located right next to a major channel leading out of the reefs back into the open sea. From there I can point Andiamo to Cartagena for the 180 mile trip to there.

We pulled up the hook, and set sail almost immediately. Though the winds were light, I decided this would be a good sail to get the gennaker up. It was a bit of a job getting it up, but once we did, we were cruising. We ate lunch under sail, taking in the amazing scenery of scattered islands and cays. 11 miles later, we were at the Holandes, and once inside the reef, I dropped the hook.

It was a great night, The skies were clear, and there were clouds rolling off the mainland’s mountains, spurring on stratospheric lightning. This is the kind of lightning you don’t need to worry about. The only problem we had that night was the sandflies. By the time we had all gone to sleep, they were biting fiercely. It made for an uncomfortable night for most of us. The girls had their legs so badly bitten up, they were perforated with bites. The next morning, we made it a priority to get out of the anchorage and underway asap to get away from the bugs.

There was absolutely no wind on the way out of San Blas. The weather was sunny and clear though, and seas were smooth. We motored along at a steady 7 knots with a current pushing us along most of the way.

About 3 hours into the sail, the motor died. I knew immediately why, and started kicking myself. Back in Bocas, I had put in an additive to kill off algae growth in the diesel tanks. This stuff is known to cause a thick slime in the fuel after killing the algae. This slime then tends to clog fuel filters. When the fuel filter clogs up, the engine stops. This was the first time in 4 years I’ve ever had to deal with no engine power while underway. Luckily, I had everything I needed, and with Justin’s help, I was able to get the fuel filter changed out. The only problem was that the casing that holds the filter wouldn’t open. No matter what we did. This frustrated the hell out of me. But finally, we got it. After changing the filter, I had to bleed the air out of the fuel lines, and luckily, I had been through that before, and got the engine started in a matter of minutes. We were underway again.

The only other problem was a coolant leak, but I discovered it and took care of that too. One of the things I’ve learned after being on Andiamo for four years is that your boat talks to you. When something is up, there is always a sign or a sound to let you know that there is an issue that needs to be dealt with. I’ve learned to listen to Andiamo when she talks to me.

The rest of the trip involved dodging major storms and trying to get some wind to sail with. Both Justin and Steve stood watches and did a good job. The winds started kicking up finally in the morning, to the tune of 25 knots. The only problem was that the wind was blowing directly from Cartagena. This made pointing to Cartagena tough. We also hit a hell of a counter-current that was pushing on us. I finally came up with a good motorsailing point of sail that kept us going at a steady clip. As we got closer to the Colombian coast, the mainsail started taking on a heavier load. Finally, something gave way and the sail blew out at the clew. I had to roll the main back in, and motor the rest of the way with some help from the jib.

The delays caused by the motor problems caused Andiamo’s schedule to get messed up. We were now arriving into Cartagena after dark. After checking the charts, I decided that it was ok to enter Cartagena’s main channel at night. This is a major shipping hub, and the channel would be well-lit. The only thing we’d have to do is avoid ships entering or leaving the channel. After dodging two large ships, we were in the Bahia de Cartagena, and working our way into the harbor. Cartagena lights up like a christmas tree at night. The skyline is quite spectacular when approaching it from the water. It was a very pleasant night approach. We found the anchorage, and dropped the hook. We had made it to Cartagena!

Our night in Escudo proved to be fairly uncomfortable. There was just too much swell action going on and the boat rolled constantly. It was ok when trying to sleep, but for everything else like cooking and squaring the boat away, it was just too much movement.

Our next stop was the Rio Chagres, about 130 miles away. So to time our arrival for the next morning, we didn’t have to leave until that afternoon. The weather got better as the day progressed, and I was encouraged by a West Wind that was blowing pretty steadily all morning. This would be the perfect wind to get us to Chagres on a nice easy broad reach.

After a nice lunch and some swimming antics, we pulled up the hook and headed out. The west wind stayed until we were about three miles out of Escudo, then DIED. Just my luck. The wind did shift to the north for awhile, so that was ok, but then it also died. For the next few hours, Andiamo found itself pounded by one deluge of rain after another. In some cases we got lucky and were able to sneak through in between oncoming squalls. Luckily the squalls were just pounding rain and nothing more. No killer shearing winds or lightning to speak of. But it did keep things on Andiamo damp and humid the whole time. And that started getting old. It also exploited a couple of nagging leaks I had on the deck over the salon, resulting in really annoying drips. I knew where they were but needed some good dry time in order to seal them up.

Since this was going to be an overnight sail, I was sincerely hoping that the weather would get better as we headed east just as the weather forecasts predicted. Not too late into the night, we got the first sign that things were getting better when the sky opened up to a massive display of stars. I was the only one on deck at the time, and wanted to share my favorite part of sailing with the rest of the gang. So I roused them out of their sleep. They were not disappointed.

Things held up this way for the rest of the night. Justin and Steve both agreed to take night watches so I can get some much needed sleep. Because of the nasty weather, I had to sleep below. But Andiamo kept course all night, and things went well.

The next morning, we started our approach to Rio Chagres. Rio Chagres is a major river that goes almost straight across Panama from the mountains on the pacific side to the coastal delta its mouth creates just outside of Colon on the Caribbean side. The river is dammed up to keep Lake Gatun, a huge man-made lake that is a major component of the Panama Canal, filled to its needed levels. The rest of the river after the dam however, is a pristine natural paradise! Because the Rio Chagres is on a natural preserve, there is absolutely no development on the river or its banks. There is no boat traffic other than the occasional dugout canoe from a local indigenous fisherman. The water is clean and pure, and goes clear through an amazing jungle. I was really excited to finally see it.

The approach in is a bit tricky, because there are rocky bluffs on the east side of the entrance, and treacherous coral heads on the west side. You gotta be dead on the right path to get in to avoid smacking up the reefs. I had everybody on deck watching out for the reefs. As we approached, I noticed a boat leaving the river. This was a big help because I was able to watch the path he followed to get out. Turned out I also knew the boat. It was Billy and “AnnVeraLynn”, a buddy of mine I’ve known since Rio Dulce. We were both hauled out in Puerto Cortes at the same time, so we hung out there. Nice guy.

We circled each other while we got caught up on the radio. He told me what to aim for on the entrance. He also told me he was heading to San Andres for Christmas with a Colombiana he met back in Portobelo. Sounds like he’ll be having a nice holiday. After signing off we headed in, carefully following the track I just saw Billy use to get out of the river, along with info from my cruising guides. Ten minutes later, we were heading up the Rio Chagres.

The river was everything I imagined and more. It was so quiet and peaceful despite the fact that it was a mere six miles down the coast from Colon, which was anything but quiet and peaceful. There were green parrots and toucans flying around everywhere, and howler monkeys were shrieking in the distance. Egrets and herons were everywhere. Crocodiles plied these waters and we did manage to spot a few of them later in the night. We dropped the hook about three miles up the river, not far from a couple of other boats. The weather got really nice once we were in, and it was nice to be in the sun again. Especially here.

Later in the afternoon, after a quick rain, we heard the howler monkeys going off not far from where the boat was. Having spent so much time in Rio Dulce, the sound was unmistakable to me. But the others had never heard their sound, until now. We broke out the binoculars, and managed to spot them within minutes, and spent the next few hours watching them and some spider monkeys hurtling around the treetops. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

The night was particularly peaceful. We enjoyed a nice grilled fish dinner, stargazing, and finding crocodiles by looking for their red eyes reflecting in our flashlight beams. You could see the faint glow of Colon’s city lights just over the trees, but it still felt like a million miles away from any kind of civilization. I’ll definitely need to come back up here and for a longer time!

The next morning we made our way back out of the river and started on the short sail to Portobelo. Being only about 20 or so miles away, we figured we’d make it there by early afternoon.

Yes, I’m a little late this year with my list, which has become a Thanksgiving tradition since this Andiamo thing started. This last Thanksgiving, I was incarcerated in a Bocas del Toro hospital, getting treated for a nasty leg infection. With NO wireless internet!! For almost SIX DAYS!!! It’s a miracle I survived.

So on to the list of the people I want to thank for getting me through 2007 (as always, in no particular order):

The staff at Bocas del Toro Hospital – Ok, this is a public hospital. And in most places in Central America, you stayed away from public hospitals as much as possible. If you could crawl, limp or drag yourself to a private hospital, that’s where you would have to go. I’ve heard a couple of horror stories about the hospital here in Bocas, so I was enormously apprehensive about going there when my leg infection flared up a couple of weeks ago. I had no choice but to go to the emergency room one night, and the doctor on duty admitted me immediately. They kept me there for six days, administering antibiotics via IV, nursing my infected wound, and more.

Yes, the food was pretty ghastly (even though the ladies who served the food were very sweet and friendly), the water was off half the time, and you had to bring your own pillow and towel. But the hospital was kept clean. The nurses were professional, caring, and competent. The doctors, while rather aloof, were also attentive despite their overall lack of bedside manners. And in the end, my six-day stay cost me a whole $50.00. If I were poor, I would have paid nothing.

It’s disheartening to me that a country like Panama can provide this kind of care to its poorest people while a country like the US makes it almost impossible for their poor or uninsured to get decent, affordable medical care. I can only say that I’m glad I was here and nowhere else when I contracted this injury, and thank the Minsterio de Salud (Ministry of Health) for doing what they do.

Aaron and Lyla of “Blow Me Away” – These people are the best, they’ve helped me out countless times. Lucky for me they carry dozens of spare parts onboard, or I’d be screwed. But also thank them for all the fun rum-filled nights of conversation, company, and great food to boot. I’m sure I’ll run into them in Cartagena, at least I hope so. I have a bunch of parts of theirs that I owe them. So many thanks Aaron and Lyla!

Mietsie Truyers – Our relationship has been rather turbulent and difficult at times. But she has always been there for me any way she could be, and I appreciate it to no end. She was thankfully there for me during the loss of Aretha, and I couldn’t have imagined going through that alone. So thank you Mietsie, your friendship is important to me, always remember that.

Sarah Miles and Jenni Tuomiivara – These two girls, Sarah from UK and Jenni from Finland, crewed on Andiamo down from Honduras to Panama. We became a fun team despite some crew setbacks we experienced at the beginning of the trip. They handled themselves well during the crazy weather too. It was a very entertaining trip, and I’ll always remember the fun times in San Andres and the Albuquerques, eating lobster while anchored in a most incredible setting. They are also the very first Andiamo crew on record to swim naked off a bar dock, thus making history. They are welcome on Andiamo anytime.

Luigi and Luisa Bellotti – As always, they’ve been a big help to me and Andiamo. They particularly came through for Sjelle when I was dealing with getting her boat sold off earlier this year. And I so miss Luisa’s crostata!!!

As always, there are so many other people that have contributed to my experiences and helped me get through the crazy times and crises, and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart.

I barely made the flight out of Bocas to head to Guatemala City. The weather’s been iffy, and the flights in and out have been getting delayed and/or cancelled like crazy. Luckily, my flight was just delayed a couple of hours, and I got out in time. I had a few hours’ layover in Panama City. So I made arrangements to meet up with Liz and Margaux, 2 Belgian sisters I knew from Bocas. They were biding some time before flying off in different directions. Margaux was heading back home to Belgium and Liz, interestingly enough, was heading up to Antigua. So that means I’d probably see her there too.

We met up at their hostel and headed over to Via Espana for lunch. We ended up having Chinese at a busy place. The food was good, but took way too long to come out. We chatted and gossiped about Bocas stuff for awhile, it was nice. Unfortunately, I had to head out a bit early because it was raining massively, and I needed to make sure I made the airport in time for my next flight. We headed back to their hostel where my bags were, and I headed to the airport from there.

The flight to Guatemala was lengthy, because I had to make two stops from Panama City. First to San Jose, then to San Salvador. I finally arrived in Guatemala City. Thankfully Mitzy was waiting, because I was exhausted.

She set me up at the Westin Camino Real Hotel for the first night. Definitely a four-star joint. The room was absolutely incredible and the bed was, to date, the best bed I have ever slept on. I’m not kidding. It was like sleeping on a fluffy cloud. I didn’t think I moved the whole night. It was amazing.

After getting checked in, we went to pick up Moni. She’s the GC Gang contingent who lives on Utila, now a very good friend. She was in Guatemala for a visit, and for the big wedding. Interestingly, Mitzy didn’t tell her I was coming. So when we picked her up at her house, it was a total surprise.

We dined on sushi and got caught up on all the Utila happenings, along with other related subjects. Then, they were in the mood for poker. I was just way too tired, but I told them I’d try to keep up. We hit a couple of poker rooms close by, but there were no good games. Then we went to another one, a newer casino. There was a good game brewing, but not enough room at the table for all three of us. Despite yielding my seat to go ahead and play, but they decided not to, and we headed out. I was really exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in my lovely bed at the Westin anyway. As I previously mentioned, I was not to be disappointed.

I slept so well that I totally missed my wake-up call. It was awesome, I never wanted to wake up. The shower was a beautiful thing too. It was one of those 2-headed massaging get-ups. It was a long, hot shower. Ohh.. yeah…

A bit later, we made arrangements to get some lunch, pick up Moni, and head to Antigua. This is where Rosi and Andres were getting married. It’s a town made for weddings, with something like 33 churches there and plenty of settings for receptions. Mitzy had set me up another very nice hotel there as well. A really nice place called Hotel de Casa Noble. Huge rooms, casually yet elegantly decorated. In the Spanish colonial style, surrounding an incredibly well-manicured courtyard with running fountain. It was spoiling, needless to say.

The wedding was the next day, but we had plans to meet up with a couple other GC gang’ers that night for dinner at an Indian place. Liza ended up being the only one other than us three. Dinner was very nice. It was sure to be a crazy day the next day, so we all opted to turn in early.

Now though I managed to dredge up some presentable dress clothes for this clambake on the boat, there was a slight problem. I didn’t have any dress shoes. Mitzy said not to worry. Campollo, one of the GC Gang who I’ve met several times, and was on the ill-fated Easter trip to Cayos Cochinos last April, would lend me a pair. So all was good.

The next morning I was ready, except for shoes. Campollo was to meet me at the hotel with the shoes, then I’d ride with him to the church for the ceremony, which started around noon. Eleven o’clock went by, and no sign of him. Then noon, still no sign. Mitzy came back to the hotel after the ceremony, which I now had missed, to tell me Campollo called. He was running late because of traffic. He showed up a short while later. After donning the shoes, we were on the way to the reception.

While I was sorry to have missed the ceremony, I kinda wasn’t. I’m not a fan of long, traditional catholic masses, much less catholic wedding ceremonies. My leg was still hurting after the spill I took back at Bocas earlier in the week, and I really didn’t feel like kneeling and standing, and so on. So in a way, I was glad Campollo was late.

The reception, now that was a whole other story. I didn’t want to miss a minute of this thing. They held it at an old coffee plantation house that had been converted to host events like weddings and large parties. There was a stage with a band, loads of food, drinks, and quite a lot of people! I believe it was over 200. I was definitely the sole gringo at this event, and yet, I didn’t feel uncomfortable, not once. Well, maybe once.

Each table had its own set of liquor and mixers, which were promptly refilled upon emptying. The food was quite nice, and there was plenty of it. It was a very elaborate affair. The band went on until about 8 or 9 pm. Despite my injury, I was able to hold my own with my fake salsa and merengue routine.

Then a DJ took over, that’s when the dancing kicked up in earnest. He
played a bit of everything, keeping the dance floor going well into midnight. He also had a tendency to play “What’s Up?” by Four Non-Blondes about 10 times through the night. I think it was because everybody was singing along at the top of their lungs.

Things finally started winding down after midnight, and plans were being made for where the after-party was going to be. There was a lot of major inebriation by this point, naturally. One particular GC member who shall remain unnamed, swayed a bit too much, and took a spill. She ended up landing on the dance floor in a very alarming way. The rest of us thought she was seriously hurt. Luckily she wasn’t, just a small cut on her lip. That little incident, however, sort of set the tone for everyone to just head home and maybe play it safe.

The next day, I got an email from Elizabeth, who I had just seen in Panama before flying out. She had arrived and we arranged to meet at the park at 1pm for lunch. So while the rest of the gang met up and did the after-wedding thing. I met up with Liz, and we hung out the rest of that afternoon. She was planning on being there for 5 weeks to study more spanish. Knowing Antigua fairly well, I showed her around, and gave her some tips about the place.

Later on, we met back up with the gang at a local cafe, and I introduced her to everybody. She had to go back to where she was staying early because she didn’t have a key yet, so we arranged to meet up again later. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, because everyone else got vegetated, and we ended staying at Liza’s house and watching “Apocalypto” instead. Campollo and I went into town to get some dinner, but that was it.

I flew out the next day. Because of the flight schedule, I was going to be stuck in Panama City that night. Unfortunately, I got there too late to do anything fun. This actually worked out anyway, because I wanted to pick up a battery charger for Andiamo while I was in town. I had just enough time to do that before heading back to Bocas. I was rather hoping that my leg would start feeling a little better by now. But it was still swollen and a bit bruised around the injury. Maybe I should have danced on it so much.

Now that I’m back in Bocas, the plan is to get the prospective crew and passengers set on a departure date, get Andiamo ready, and head out within the week.

At least, that’s the plan.

So things are coming together for the Cartagena trip. I’d rounded up a good group of people for passengers, and a new buddy Joe tells me he thinks he’s up for crewing. With all this coming together, I made a last-minute decision to fly up to Guatemala next weekend for a GC Gang wedding I’d been invited. Rosi, one of the esteemed GC Gang elite, is tying the knot on the 10th. Mitzy, and Moni (from Utila) will be there as well.

I figured I can put off the departure a few days to make the gig. So what the hell, I say. It helps that Mitzy used her major travel industry contacts, scoring me a cheap airfare, and a four-star hotel in Guatemala City (I dig the bathrobes). So after touching base with the potential passengers, I went ahead and made arrangements with Mitzy to make the trip.

It was a holiday weekend in Bocas, yet again. Seems like Panama likes to celebrate like three different kinds of independence days. There’s “National Day” on the 2nd, which incidentally means, there’s no alcohol served or sold until midnight. Then there’s Independence day from Colombia on the 5th, but there’s two more major holidays coming up later in the month as well.

Needless to say, there’s a festive spirit in town.

I’ve been doing my best to participate, but it hasn’t always gone well. I got thrown out of Barco Hundido, a local dance spot, because I raised a ruckus about being charged a bloated cover charge at something like 2:30 AM. One of the bouncers decided I was being disrespectful, and I was told to leave, and given my three dollars back. I was laughing in disbelief, I can’t remember the last time I was thrown out of a bar. I guess I was due.

Then, to add to the irony, I went back in to Barco Hundido with some friends a couple nights later. Follow me on this one. Apparently I wasn’t permanently banned from the place, because they let me right in this time. It was pretty crowded on account of the holiday weekend, even though it was a Sunday. I ran into Sabrina, a Cali chica I know, and decided we’d do some salsa.

Now, I’m not a trained dancer by any means, but I sure can fake it when it comes to salsa and merengue. I guess spending 3+ years in Mexico and Central America will do that to you. I’ve actually come to like it, and I get complemented on my fake salsa and merengue dancing all the time. So Sabrina and I were just dancing along on the crowded dance floor, doing pretty well, minding our business. I usually don’t take my flip flops off during dancing, but this time I did. The floor was a bit too damp, and they tended to stick a bit.

A few minutes into our third or so dance, I gave Sabrina another twirl (I find most of the faking can be done by just twirling the girl a lot, accentuated by dipping). When she snapped back, I felt a crack under my foot. That second, the whole floorboard, which was obviously rotted, gave way. Sending my left foot and shin right through it. I was now caught into the crack up to just below the knee. It happened so fast, Sabrina didn’t even notice. I looked up at her, now feeling the sudden jolt of pain from my knee being wedged into the hole. Everyone else just kept dancing around me, it was unbelievable.

Sabrina noticed a few seconds later, and helped pull me out. I limped off the floor, and checked out my leg. It hurt. I felt a bump below my knee, but I was otherwise ok. I went over to my friend Nathalie who tends bar there, and she hooked me up with some ice. I iced down the injury, and it started feeling better right away. But I was done dancing for the night.

I limped back to the boat shortly afterwards to nurse my knee back on Andiamo. The next day, it was a bit swollen, but otherwise ok, I took some ibuprofen and went about the rest of the day. I ran into Sabrina that afternoon and even laughed about the incident. I was just glad that she didn’t go through the floor too. I just hope my knee heals up ok, and fast. I really want to head out to Cartagena early next week.

So tomorrow, I head to Guatemala City for the big wedding gig, should be interesting, fun, and too put it mildly, festive.

Rather than try to eulogize or chronicle the life of a cat, which may seem a tad puffy, I just thought I’d try to figure out a way to celebrate Aretha’s life. This seems more appropriate to me. Since she’s checked out, I’ve managed to get past the initial sadness and mourning. I’m now more able to reflect on her life with smiles and laughs over tears. Well most of the time, at least.

And here’s why…

For a cat who was rejected by her mom and essentially left out of the litter to die (like my other cat Lucy was, in fact), Aretha has lived one hell of a life. Now, I’ve had several cats throughout my life, all interesting, all with their unique quirks. What set Aretha apart was that her life was chaptered with challenge after challenge, adventure after adventure, and ordeal after ordeal. To which she dealt with all displaying savvy and aplomb. And through all my challenges, adventures and ordeals through her lifetime, she’s been pretty much the one thing that has always remained constant. Through it all, she was always in pretty good control. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

Here are just a few notable headlined adventures of Aretha’s life that come to mind:

Aretha’s EUROPEAN VACATION! – About 2 years after we got her, around 1995, my now-ex-wife Mahi and I decided to go to Europe after her semester ended for a month-long trip. Mahi wanted to spend time with her family in Holland, and we were also planning to spend a couple of weeks driving through Belgium and France. I even talked my dad into coming out and meeting us for the trip. It was going to be fun.

While making our plans, we tried to figure out someone or someplace where Aretha can be taken care of while we were gone. Being that the semester was over, Gainesville was essentially dead. None of our neighbors that we can trust would be around. We called a local kennel, and not only were the costs ghastly, we really couldn’t deal with having Aretha essentially locked in a cage or a pen for a month. After fast running out options, we figured we’d look into taking her with us.

Surprisingly, the cost of flying Aretha to Amsterdam and back was less than $100, or about a quarter of the cost of the kennel fee for a month. So after a stop to her vet to get her health papers worked up, she was off to Amsterdam with us. The vet did indicate a concern for Aretha on such a long trip, and suggested we mildly sedate her. We ultimately opted not to, and nervously, we checked her in with the airline.

Fast forward about 10 hours, we got Aretha back at baggage claim, and she was perfectly fine. Once we got our rental car, Mahi let her out of the carrier, and she was happy as a clam. It was really surprising. No muss, no fuss WHATSOEVER. And being in the travel biz for a few years before this time, I have heard plenty of pet travel horror stories, so I was prepared for the worst.

When we got to my in-laws’ house, Aretha quickly made herself at home. Despite the cool, wet weather, Aretha preferred to be outside most of the time. Remember, this is a FLORIDA CAT. She made her place on the roof of the house, and all was cool. We left her there when we started our road trip to France. We came back about 2 weeks later, and I don’t think she even noticed we left. She handled the trip back to Florida with no problem either.

Aretha’s MAJOR TRAUMA! – About 4 years into Aretha’s illustrious life, she was out roaming around the apartment complex we lived at in Gainesville. There was lots of open space, grass, and woods. Also plenty of moles and squirrels for Aretha to chase and catch. Suffice it to say, she spent most Of her time outdoors. We suspected that Aretha liked Gainesville lot more than we did. Anyway, one night, during Aretha’s usual romp, she got hit by a car. Apparently, she got smacked by the bumper of the car with incredible force. The impact broke her cheekbone, which in turn pushed up into her left eye cavity, destroying her eye, and pushing it out of its socket.

Despite this major injury, Aretha still managed to run back to our apartment gate, JUMP OVER IT like she always did, and get into our courtyard. There, she sat and waited for us to find her. My ex opened up the door at Aretha’s usual returning time, to see her sitting in the dark. The light hitting her damaged eye in a way that Mahi could see something was clearly wrong. She called me, and I went out to the yard, and saw she was hurt. We called a 24 hour emergency vet, and brought her over immediately. She was clearly in shock, and we were afraid she was going to crash on us.

The vet told us that her eye was not salvageable, but he would keep her stable until our regular vet was available the next morning. He said he would transfer her to the other vet for us, so we would just have to go directly to her. Our vet told us she was going to lose her eye, and have to experience a major surgery which was extremely risky. Aretha made it through with flying colors thanks to one of the best vet surgeons in Florida, and her will to just plain survive.

Her recuperation was slow and painful, she constantly tried to get at her stitches which closed the area where her eye used to be. She had to wear one of those damn cones around her head for weeks. She’d get stuck with it on furniture and wall corners. It was comical and sad at the same time. But she got through that recovery process. And within a few weeks, she was completely back to normal. Sure, she had to learn how to manage her poor depth perception to handle making jumps onto walls, etc. The first few times she tried to jump off our roof onto the top edge of the courtyard wall, she missed. Falling all the way to the ground. Amazingly, she figured out how to compensate for her disability. Her jumping, climbing and other skills went back to normal. Even our vet was amazed.

She wore her lost eye as a badge of honor, it was a testament to her ability to survive, and adapt.

Aretha’s CROSS-USA ROAD TRIP! – We had made the decision to head west to California after my ex-wife graduated UF. The plan was to move to LA, where I had a sister living, continue building my budding internet business, and my ex-wife get a good job with an architecture or design firm. we shipped most of what we owned to my sister Judy’s via freight. We decided to make the drive cross country in January 1997. Despite it being winter, we decided we would take a week or two and make some special stops along the way. So, we packed our remaining stuff, and Aretha, into our 1989 VW Cabriolet. We had so much stuff packed to the top of the inside of the car, that the only space left was just enough for Aretha’s carrier, and a small litter box. It was funny.

For the most part, Aretha handled the trip like a good sport. She’d whine from time to time, just to tell us that she was tired of being stuck in the car for as long as she was on that leg of the trip. She seemed to enjoy our stops in some really nice places along the way. Places like New Orleans, San Antonio, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and many others.

One night while driving through NOWHERE in Texas, Aretha started getting a bit restless in the back of the car. She was whining loudly, and scratching and biting at the gate of her carrier. Mahi asked me to stop on the side of the road, and let Aretha out on the leash. Maybe that would relax her a bit. I was a bit reluctant, because it was: a) PITCH BLACK outside, and b) a rather narrow 2-lane stretch of I-10 with lots of trucks and big-rigs screaming by. With both Aretha AND Mahi whining, I finally acquiesced and pulled off the road. I carefully got out of the car with Aretha on her leash. She hated the leash, but liked being outside of the car for awhile. She sniffed around while I stood there.

A few minutes into this foray, A massive 18-wheeler blasted by, and for some reason sounded his horn. This freaked Aretha out instantly, and she bolted. So fast, that the loop of the leash flew right OUT OF MY HAND! Aretha was now running away from the road straight for a wall of thick brush only a few dozen feet in front of her. I was chasing her madly, in the DARK, trying to catch Aretha who was now running at full speed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch her, so I opted instead to try to grab or step on her leash instead. While running after her, I stuck my right foot straight out where I THOUGHT the end of the leash would be, because I really couldn’t see it, especially while I was running! I got lucky, and nailed my foot on the end of the leash, and not a moment too soon. Aretha was less than a FOOT away from where the short grass ended and the heavy brush started. Had she gotten into that brush, there would have been simply NO WAY I could have found her.

She made the rest of the trip with a better attitude. And she actually learned to stay quiet in the motel rooms that we had to sneak her into because they had strict “no pet” policies.

Once we got to my sister’s house in LA, Aretha had a new set of challenges. While we tried to get settled into LA, Aretha had to basically share a house and backyard with my sister’s three dogs and 2 cats. One of the dogs, a greyhound mix named Stax, particularly loved chasing down cats and KILLING THEM. But she managed how to continually avoid them, lay low, and made the best of a very sticky situation.

Ironically,7 years later, when we moved on to Andiamo, we drove back to Florida from LA in our 2001 VW Cabrio. This time, we had 2 more cats, making the trip even more intense than before.

Aretha FALLS OFF ANDIAMO AND DISAPPEARS! – About four months into our tenure aboard my then new boat, Andiamo, we were docking into a marina in Key West. The first night we were tied up there, Aretha decided to jump off the boat onto the dock and go for a little tour. She’d been doing this in Miami and all our other stops along the way, so we figured she knows what she’s doing. That night, I called out for her to come back, and she didn’t. I figured she’d found a nice place to hang out on the property off the dock.

The next morning, still no Aretha. By the end of the first day, we really began to get concerned. during this week, we were trying to resolve some electrical issues on the boat before continuing on to Dry Tortugas. We were only going to be at the marina for a week, since it was CRAZY expensive. Despite our best canvassing efforts, Aretha was nowhere to be found. The week passed, and we had a weather window to make it out to Dry Tortugas, an overnight sail away. After one last major push to find or locate Aretha, we tearfully gave up. As we pulled out of Key West, we cried over our loss, and only could hope that Aretha was in a good situation.

So we proceeded on to Dry Tortugas. The winds died down at night, so we had to motor. While motoring, we found a new major electrical problem on the boat, and had to turn the boat around and head back. We tied up back at the marina we had just left. To our surprise, one of our former dock neighbors ran up to the boat and told us Aretha had been spotted. He even brought her some food. We ran over to where she was spotted, and within a few minutes we found her. The relief and happiness was immeasurable. Aretha was a little thin, but otherwise ok. She hadn’t cleaned herself in awhile, and we realized it was because she covered in salt from salt water. Turns out Aretha fell off the boat while trying to jump back on, and fell into the water.

She was unable to find her way back up to the boat because all the docks and pilings were concrete, not wood. So apparently, she actually SWAM out of the entire marina area, AROUND a large concrete breakwater over to a shallow area. There, she was able to get back on land. Despite the fact that we looked over that entire area, we never spotted her. But somehow she managed to survive on her own for more than a week. Within a couple of days after getting back on Andiamo, she was completely back to her old self. Utterly amazing.

These are by no means the limit to Aretha’s many adventures, but I think you get the idea. In her 15 years roaming the earth, she’s had more than her share of adventures and challenges. She was far from the friendliest or most affable cat, but that didn’t matter. What won people over about Aretha was her genuineness. This cat was the real deal. She didn’t just like anyone, but if she liked you, it’s because you somehow deserved to be liked. She had a nasty disposition, particularly when she wasn’t in a good mood. When all three cats were still on board, there was never any question among them who was in charge. But you can also tell that she didn’t take life too seriously. She was amazingly complex for a cat.

I also find it amazing that Aretha, as old and crusty as she was, not only adapted quickly when she was brought onto Andiamo, she THRIVED. In the first year aboard, she lost weight, and became even more fit and active than she was before. You can tell that she got something out of sailing. Because whenever we were sailing, particularly at night, Aretha was either on deck or in the cockpit, taking it all in. She’d go all the way to the bow, while we’d be sailing in some decent wind and seas, and she’d look down at the water off the anchor tray. This used to freak me out totally, because I was sure that one day, she’d just get washed off or fall off and that would be IT. It never happened. She had a zest for life that you don’t see in most people.

So, not only do I thank Aretha for the multitude of memories, I applaud her for having had such an awesome life. She always had the right spirit and attitude to deal with what life dished out to her. I’m proud of her, and I’ll really miss her.

Not bad, for a cat.

Aretha had to be put down today. She had become extremely critical from an obstruction in her intestine, and the vet said she couldn’t handle surgery on account of her being too septic and her age. We gave her a burial at sea right off the anchorage here in Bahia Almirante.

I’m dealing with the loss pretty much as expected. She’s been a constant in my life through so many changes, losses, and all that other stuff. It’s really hard to imagine life without my bitchy, annoying one-eyed cat.

I’ll write more later.