For our last portion of this trip, we decided to take it easy and slow down the speed b use of the Genoese over night, instead of the Geenaker. Considering the height of the waves these last 2 days (at least 12 feet and up to 15 did estimate Chris) it was a good choice for a tired-but-happy-to-get-there crew.

Tuesday during the day the sea remained rough, with very harsh swirls close to one another. At 30 knots the white caps on the top of the waves begin to brake and some of them roll under the boat with a noise similar to thunder. According to Matthieu, this section of the trip has the harshest sea of the ARC round the world journey. A pretty steep learning curve for the kids who, despite 7 days at seas and little fun for them, are behaving beautifully.

Tonight, the tachometer was around 6 knots, not fast… but hey ! What is the point of getting to that damn finish line in the middle of the night and then make circles until dawn, to have enough visibility to cross safely the reef barrier that protects the san Blas. Matthieu and I bounced the idea of switching back to Geenaker when I took my shift at 3:30, and then decided to keep it as is. I did not really felt going out on the deck and working 20 minutes attached. Would we be 20 years old, we would have been fast and furious about it. This is certainly middle age maturity.

Similar to yesterday, for most of the night the radar had nothing in sight. A nice black screen without an echo. Nothing, Nada, Kein echo, rien du tout… So almost no boat in the area. It seems that Kuna Indians that we should begin to meet tomorrow are fairly off the chart. They don’t seem to be stressed out by civilization, lucky them. Most of their trade is made by exchanging coconuts (instead of Euros, $ or any other “machins”). For sure Kunas keep it simple when it comes to finance : I give you two coconuts, you give me your fish, I sell you my canoe for 25 coconuts. If anybody can help us on the conversation rate between US$ or Euros and Kunean coconut, it might be handy.  And by the way, we read that Kunas have a remarkably high longevity. (Guess why ?)

We also read that kuna indians are short, rivaled only by pigmies for their size. This owed us a discussion on where pigmies are located, Africa or Australasia ? We would all have liked to jump on google and Wikipedia to become smart about it, but no… we are isolated from the good’ol www as well. Chris was pretty sure that pigmies are found in Republique Democratique du Congo (ex Belgian congo). Considering his African roots, everybody accepted his verdict.  If any pygmy is reading this blog, would you be so kind to tell us where you leave. We will send your regards to your big cousins the kunas.

So here we are, on our way to Liliput. Even Marguerite will feel a big girl when meeting the Kunas, and might try to take advantage of it.

ETA Wednesday around 12:00. Liliput or not, we are all looking forward to actually walk on a non-moving ground for the first time in 8 days.

Matthieu has promised us Rum, Champagne, Wine and all different kind of liquors when we get there. So far we have been operating on the excellent “Font Vella”, a local spring water from St Lucia, that despite it’s pretty name has a very very low degree of alcohol L . So we are waiting for our promised land to open up a little bit (I meant the bottles, of course). It might be that in the next couple of days, if we feel the ground is moving it might be more because of a glass of rum more than because of an ocean of water.

Broadcasting live 75 nauticals off Panama coast and liliput,

Henry for the Noeluna crew.