Yesterday as the plane rose through the jungle trees and banked over the bay
of Golfito, off to port just below me, I could see Gijima sitting calmly at
anchor in the sunlight looking very peaceful. It was a strange feeling, one
of emptiness in someway like I have always felt when we you embark on a new
challenge especially unknowns, I have done it so many times in my life and
many times in the last year, but the "butterflies" in the stomach are always
there, but so is the excitement of looking forward. Friday I opened up my
navigation software and zoomed into Australia and started investigating the
routes Brisbane north, and Brisbane south to Yamba, the hours past quickly
as I became absorbed in investigating, and it became like a new country as I
have never sailed these areas and only some I have been to by land if that
years ago. I was pleased see that there are many anchorages and bays to
break up the trips into very doable day legs which will please Tracy, so my
mind has already switched, and the excitment of the new adventure new places
captivated me.
For the last couple of days I have been very busy cleaning, and packing away
Gijima, Tracy and boys arrived back in California to our friends Helen and
Warren, and are happy and excited to see everyone, attending parties etc. I
got on and went through all the systems on the boat cleaning, shutting down
things like watermakers etc, and the boat is amazingly clean and tidy. But
by Friday evening I was complete, so I went to happy hour at Banana Bay
Marina with all the locals, I spoke with a lot of the sport fishing
captains, they swapped stories I added in with my fishing from Kenya, a nice
community of people. I then rowed out to a new boat who had come in two days
ago, on a Petersen 44 they from Seattle and are heading north, after just
completing 5 year circumnavigation. They left South Africa in March and are
now heading home to go back to work, and do local northwest sailing, they
had come on board Gijima to take photos of many of ideas we have done. They
have a nice boat but have some needs to make things easier as they will not
be doing ocean passages any longer. So we had drinks talked allot about
their trip and places as they have been Australia, South Africa and also
really enjoyed Vanuatu (which is where Tracy and I want get to in a dews
years when the boys have grown a little).
The Panama Canal closed earlier in the week due to heavy rain and the lakes
becoming full, first time it has been closed since 1989 when the USA
invaded, so shipping is a mess. Our last shipping date was the 19th, but to
be honest none of us (the Shippers local agents) and I believe that it will
hold to 19th as canal has put at least 2 to 3 day "spanner in the works", I
believe it could be 24th but we will see. That is why it is not worth just
sitting around when we have many things to do in California to clean things
up ready for the transformation.
As I flew up out of Golfito I looked down on the Gulf of Dulce as we flew
along the coast the clear water and the areas we were sailing a week ago,
and then over to Drake and up the coast to Quepos I could recognize it all,
a clear day not so high up so I could look into the bays and imagine it on
the water. You could see the big brown intrusions into the blue water from
the rivers still running off the wet seasons rain. Yesterday afternoon I
went into San Jose which was closed off for the Christmas parade 1000s of
people. I walked miles wandering in amongst the people, and looking at
things, as I have never spent any time in San Jose. The parade was much
bigger than I had expected with huge floats and the whole town (1/2 the
population of the country) had turned out, they even tried to make snow in
80s but everyone was dancing and as I watched it was a nice way to say
goodbye to Latin America after 12 months in the Spanish speaking world. With
Christmas carols in Spanish, songs and dances in the bright colors as so
typical in this part of the world, and happiness in the faces of the people
and kids.
It has been a rewarding year of absorbing and experiencing this part of the
world one I have hardly got to before, and now feel I know reasonable well,
the people cultures, nature and natural wonders, so many good memories, yes
2010 will be a special year in our memories.
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