7:37.386N 81:16.141W

Stings and rain can't keep us

Isla Santa Catalina, Panama
28. April 2012

The morning swim to the beach had become an obstacle course! Hundreds of tiny jelly fish and stingy strings occupied the water and made the excercise a rather unpleasant event. The beach here is black, too. Black, as in really literally black. However, instead of the fine fluffy sand, it was covered by thousands of tiny round pebbles, nice and warm from the morning sun. Since the clouds were covering now the sky, it was actually very pleasant to feel the warm stones on the sore muscles and tendons. Michael's back is still giving him some problems and I felt pretty achy myself from the work on the mast on the rocking boat and the winching and pulling sheets of the long sail.

Unfortunately, the nice feeling was swepped away by the horrible swim back through all the jelly strings. Lucky Michael seems to be immune to that. Though he feels the stinging, he doesn't even have a red bump! Mine on he other hand start itching and some of them are forming blisters a few hours later. Aaaaargh!

Anyway, it started to drizzle and the shore didn't seem to be so inviting after all. The next stop is the famous surf spot Santa Catalina. Though there's hardly a swell right now, we were happy to set sail to find a more pleasant place. And in the hope of some sun and waves, we made the next 12nm West, with surprisingly nice wind and little lows.

Let's see what the weather tomorrow will bring!