There’s a really curious side of sailing that may not be immediately obvious to people outside the cruising community. In our little sailing world, word of mouth is everything – where to anchor, where to eat, which marina is good, how much is diesel in the next port, did you hear about that Japanese boat that exited the Panama canal backwards, don’t miss the so and so – the list goes on. The interesting thing that I have noticed is that in face to face conversations the commentary tends to lean to the positive – we tend to recommend things to each other, often boasting about the great deal we got or the fantastic experience we had, whereas online, on forums, discussion boards and mailing lists there is a serious tendency to have a good old fashion whine about stuff… this city is dirty, that marina is overpriced and rude, don’t go here, be careful of this, watch your back – stay at home or doom and gloom shall befall you!!

We had a 12 day wait and took the opportunity to antifoul Squander at Shelter bay marina.

In preparing for the Panama canal crossing, I had done my fair share of online research and truth be told I started believing that it would take a small miracle for us to get through to the Pacific in one piece, let alone with any money left in our pockets – tales of overpriced agents, bonds, deposits, damaged boats, delays, incompetent line handlers, advisors and skippers alike were just some of the stories that I came across. To be fair I am sure that all stories were true, however I’m fairly convinced that they represent only a tiny percentage of what really happens.

Here’s our story…

Pre arrival to colon

I emailed three agents and got quotes ranging from the ridiculous ($3375) to the surely too to good to be true ($1109). Having had friends that went through before us and arranged everything themselves for a total cost of $820  + taxi fees & a solid day of running around – I decided to give the too good to be true guy a go… and it all worked out!

We were pre –registered with Canal authorities before we even arrived in Colon, and I stayed in touch with our agent via email such that we were admeasured 12 hours after arriving in Shelter bay marina. Once the measurement is done you can go into the queue to go through the canal. Our waiting time was estimated at 10 days and in fact ended up being 11 days.

We had a fairly long list of things to do from provisioning to anti fouling and the 11 days flew by a lot quicker then we had anticipated. We were on the hard at Shelter bay marina for 6 nights and in the water for the remainder of the time.

 
A taxi to Colon is $20 but there’s always someone who’s willing to split the ride with you.

Colon is a confronting city at first although we found everyone to be helpful and courteous.

the buses in Panama are the best we have seen – real works of art – at night they come alive with all sorts of lights and decorations.

Squander with brand new antifoul, a greased prop, rudder checked and 3 tonnes of food onboard! 

On the day we were ‘splashed’ back in the water, the young solo circumnavigator from Holland pulled in on her boat “Guppy”
Laura Dekker has just turned 15!!   

 
Squander was soon back in the water and ready for action.
 

Well almost ready – we still had to address the broken spreader.  

with some careful rope work to hold the mast up, we eased the shrouds, climbed to the first spreader and removed the damaged wing. 
before long the new spreader was in place and the rig was back in one piece.

After 10 solid days of going at it, working, shopping, preparing and socialising with boats from around the world, we watched the final sunset on the Atlantic side…

Ashley from Backbeat was mistaken for being Laura Dekker and we didn’t have the heart to tell these guys that they had the wrong girl. 
On Saturday morning Erick, our agent delivered 14 tires  and the necessary 4 125 foot long lines to our boat.

A well timed torrential downpour took care of washing Squander down and before long we were on our way for the 16:00 rendevouz at an area called “the flats” near the entrance to the Canal – we checked in with Crystobal Signal station via VHF at 14:00 from the marina and they advised us that our advisor would be ready to board at 16:30. 
Goodbye Shelter bay – a welcome change to the sweltering heat of the past few days.

the flats some 2.8 miles away.

Fenders, lines and line handlers in place – Rebecca and Mojgan arrived just in time to give us a hand.
 
they instantly took a liking to our Virtual crew member – Michael Spiro who has sent a lifelike action hero doll version of himself for the trip to Australia.

Andy, Gavin (with VM) and Simon 

Our Chamber-mates – a Russian boat on the left and Magnum from California on the right. 
By 16:55 the advisors were on their way and without fuss Sylvestre our advisor jumped onboard and gave us a 2 minute briefing before suggesting we get underway!

We soon spotted the last boat to join our posse! 
We let him go ahead and followed at a safe distance.

Sylvestre was easy going, spoke perfect english and was happy to share as much or as little as our level of interest demanded.

 
As we neared the Gatun locks, Magnum and the Russian yacht caught up and we all rafted up with Squander in the middle.  

The months of sailing with Dimitry paid off as Simon communicated flawlessly with his Russian counterpart – harasho – I loove your socks Man!

A few last minute adjustments….
 
… and we were one happy raftup!

Kara on Magnum contemplates what lies beyond – after circumnavigating the world with her Mum and Dad for the past 5 years – Anne, Uwe and Kara are heading back to San Francisco and Kara will have to go to school – ouch!   
Andy & Simon – always time for a quick snack!
The arrow goes green – clear to proceed.
  

 
the lock chambers don’t look that big from a distance.

steering the raft, took a while to get the hang of turning, and slowing down this 40+ tonne beast.

The shore based line handlers soon had our lines and we were moving into the locks. Interestingly all vessels move through the locks under their own power, including the big ships, the only reason for the lines is to stop the ships and rafts banging into the walls.  

The Chamber is 110 feet wide and 1050 feet long – the biggest ships (known as PanaMax) leave only 2 feet (60cms) of clearance on the sides.
  
before long we were in position – one last look at the Caribbean sea…!

and the locks closed behind us

the locks start filling…. 
… and 15 minutes later we are 10 Metres above sea level
 
One of the few tense moments is when the ship starts moving forward and creates a river effect pushing a lot of water which causes all of the lines to creak as they take the strain of the weight of the three yachts.

Once the ship is in place in the next chamber, we are clear to proceed behind him.

Squander was the main engine however I had the option of asking for assistance through the advisor for extra power on either port or starboard if I or the advisor felt we needed it.

And again the second lot of chamber gates close behind us…

…. as Andy looks on.
 
The water starts filling and we are now 41 feet above sea level 
There are 2 lanes in each lock – next to us a big ship is also going through

being the centre boat, our line handlers had a day off – and got to relax and enjoy the experience.
 
STI Conqueror turns its screws….here comes the wave!
 
….team Helly Hansen!

Pretty amazing to think this has been operational since 1913  with no more then an occasional 12 hour break.   
As we make it through the final lock in one piece, we’re all tired but happy to have made it in one piece.  

We exited the final locks some 30 metres above sea level into the lakes 

The next day we woke up at 6:30 and proceeded to motor through the Gatun Lakes and onto the Pedro Miguel & Miraflores locks some 35 miles away.  

The traffic through the canal is 24 hours per day. 
10 floors of cars….!
     
no one lives on the shores of the lake and wildlife is abundant – birds, monkeys and plenty of crocodiles!

On day 2 there were a total of 6 yachts crossing together with no big ship in our chamber – just a passenger sight seeing ferry..
 
A true Panamax – 13 containers across the back and some 900+ feet long
 
The American navy boys in  a BIG fast speed trimaran.

the dredging division never stops, constantly ensuring the canal is deep enough. 
By 11:00 am we had made it to the first lock and it was time to raft up again.

Going down is a lot more relaxing. We were at the front of the chamber with the passenger ferry behind us and another raft of 2 yachts behind them

the gates close as the big boys turn up

….going down….
 

 
Evita from the UK and another yacht from Hawaii

…. and we’re through 1 – two to go.
  
and through the last one…. 
Quick team photo – 3 April 2011 – Simon, Mojgan, Rebecca, Andy & Gavin

Welcome to the Pacific!!!!!

Big thanks to Ian from Evita for sending these through – they were screen shots of the live web cam

We finally made it to the anchorage outside Panama City where we stayed for two days before moving on south towards the Galapagos…. we haven’t made it very far as there’s very little wind and el Nino is playing havoc with the trade winds… but we hope to resume the journey soon!

Leaving Nassau wasn’t as easy as we thought. The generosity and hospitality of our new Bahamain friends was second to none and it seems that the Weather gods conspired to keep us there for one more night – which turned out to be a brilliant way to say goodbye to the Bahamas – with a home cooked feast at Geoffrey & Rosa’s house, with the whole family coming over to say hello – a beautiful baked hog fish, home made coleslaw, banana fritters (whose name we cannot recall) & plenty of amazing rum all served with plenty of that unbeatable Bahamian hospitality that we have grown to love!

Thank you – especially to you Amanda, you rock!

We’ve packed away the dinghy on the foredeck

So we left Nassau in a stiff Nor easter which was meant to be an easterly and it soon became obvious that we would be beating into it – punishing the boat and crew alike – Todd and I had a quick look at the charts and decided to head for Grand Bahama – a 150 NM detour, but one that would allow us to ride “the magic carpet” of the gulf stream as well as hopefully avoiding the high pressure area with no wind which was forming north of the Bahamas.

How to turn an 800NM trip into well over 1000 Nautical miles

The plan worked well – the wind settled overnight and within 24 hrs we were travelling at 9knots over the ground picking up up to 2 knots of current.

It was a great trip, with plenty of time for fun, games and the odd bit of thinking time.

We’ve all, at one time or another in our lives, strived towards something we really wanted – in my younger years I worked crappy jobs whilst studying to save up enough money to buy an old VW kombi Van – the work sucked, but the appeal of buying my first car kept me going with a smile on my dial.

A bit of downtime on watch – Nath finding innovative ways to keep his hand warm

Since then there have been many situations where I have resorted to imagination as a way of justifying and motivating myself through difficult situations – “imagine the day I don’t have to wake up and go to work, imagine the day when I don’t have three proposals hanging over my head, budgets to meet, clients to see, staff to hire, meetings to go to… imagine the day when I’m sailing under a star lit sky, on a balmy summer evening, listening to great music, the boat is self steering on auto pilot and I’m suspended in the moment – it was on the 4th night or so, the conditions were so calm that we decided to do one man watches and get plenty of rest – we were motoring in calm waters.

I came up on deck at 3:00am and no sooner had Dimitry gone to bed, that the wind came up – a perfect 12 knot breeze just aft of our beam – I hoisted the main and as the wind swung further back I decided to pole out the headsail – within 15 minutes Squander was flying along in the calm seas, steady as can be – I looked up at the sky and thanked my lucky stars – and they replied – with a huge shooting star lighting up the night sky.

Sun rising as my watch comes to an end

It was at that moment that I recalled all those times when I would day dream about this precise moment, those 6:00 am rises when the surf was pumping but instead of hitting the waves I headed to the office to try and get a head start on the day, those evenings when instead of catching up with friends for a beer I’d be finishing proposals at my desk till 9 and 10pm, those sunny summer days – when I hated looking out of my office window realizing I was committed to the indoors instead of being out there – That moment alone, on a solo nights watch, made all that hard work worthwhile – and there have been many such moments in the past 18 months with hopefully many more to come – It seems that dreaming about better days seems as important as remembering the shitty days once your dreams start becoming reality!

The trip from the Bahamas was largely uneventful as far as sailing goes, but being an inventive bunch we kept ourselves well entertained…

Paper Airplane  flying competition

The competitors’ airplane design varied greatly

On the 14th of May at approx 29N 77W we had the inaugural “Airplane Cup” where Russia took on the might of Australia and came out second best – see the video below!

Name a food game

Very simple game that kept Strike and Action entertained for hours – you start with A (eg Apple) then the next person names a food starting with B (eg Bread) and so on until you get to Z or someone gets stuck – might seem trivial but how many foods do you know that start with X??

hahah – yeah it was a slow trip!

Search for Russia’s next male model – dimitrij does blue steel

This man not only has “the look” but also managed to sneeze 17times in a row – impressive huh??!

Hooking a huge Marlin
Whereas not exactly a game it certainly broke up the boredom – as those of you that have been following the blog for a while know – our fishing has been really bad to date – we’ve caught 2 Barracuda and a beautiful big Snapper – but nothing else???!! A mix of doing a lot of upwind sailing & shallow water sailing I think has contributed… anyway – late one afternoon one of the rods went OFFF – whizzzing like crazy – I tried putting as much drag as possible on it and it didn’t even begin to work… within 20-30 seconds I could see all of my 500M of line disappearing – we had hooked something huge – I grabbed the fishing rod and just held on to see what would happen.

Just as we thought the monster at the other end was going to break off all of the fishing line – a huge MARLIN jumped into the air some 300-400 metres away and freed itself from our lure – a bitter sweet result as we’re glad we didn’t unnecessarily kill a 2-3 Metre fish but it would have been fun to fight with it for a while and it certainly would have provided some great entertainment!

Casino 31degrees North was setup in international waters aboard  Squander. Games of 21 were fiercely fought between players and the banker alike – we’re not sure who won in the end as thankfully the wind came up and broke up the fun.

Spot something – anything!

A ship, another yacht, a bird, flotsam, a huge blue bottle

400 NMiles from land, motoring in dead calm conditions for 36 hrs – great excuse for a BBQ!

Salt water spa bath – Squander style – one day we were all getting a bit on the nose and needed a good wash. The sun was shining and all 2,500m of water under us was blue and calling – we were sailing at about 5 knots with very light breeze behind us so we decided to try and get dragged / washed behind the boat – Action volunteered to go first but only lasted a minute or so as he opened his eyes under water and thought the rudder was a huge shark fin – we all ended up taking turns, enjoying the afternoon & getting a good wash in the process!

Action looking for sharks


Cap’t Gav no longer in command of his ship

Getting out was not as easy as it seems – Dimitrij demonstrates

DJ Strike Harvey’s greatest hits at full ball were also a memorable aspect of the trip – in fact we will miss old Nath a lot as he’s forever providing entertainment, laughs, ingenuity and not to mention his constant efforts to produce extra wind – whether we need it or not!

Nath’s favourite hour or three – sunset drinks

We tried having a rule that we were allowed to start sunset drinks when the sun was about the height of a beer above the horizon – Nath pondered this idea for a while… it was  3:00pm and things were fairly thirsty onboard – he disappeared down below, put his PARTY playlist on at full ball and came up with beers for everyone proudly announcing a solution to a problem that we didn’t know we had – rather then waiting all those hours until the sun goes down towards the horizon, we can stack 4 beers on top of each other and use the sun’s decent to pace ourselves as we consume them…so brilliantly STRIKE!

Nath’s leaving Squander in the next couple of days and heading to Canada to spend the summer in Muskoka teaching water skiing. On his last night at sea he took charge of the stereo and entertained us with all sorts of tunes at full ball – with the highlight definitely being the change of watch wake up – listening to Pink Floyd’s “comfortably numb”, travelling at 8 knots under a star lit sky at 3:00am – brilliant (well for those of us that were on watch anyway – sorry Simon and Todd hahahahh wakey wakey fellas!)

Nath’s last night at sea on Squander

We arrived in Bermuda almost exactly 7 days after leaving Nassau – and although it wasn’t a particularly fast time – we were happy to be in port, having not only completed our first decent long passage but also really enjoyed it!

Land Ahoy!

The markers north of Bermuda warning about the outlying reefs

Entering St George’s Harbour

Leaving the Atlantic behind for a week or so

Todd and his phone – the story unfortunately doesn’t end there… but more on that in the next blog post!

I’ve had this idea to sail around the world for a while now, in fact I tried to work out when and how I first got this idea and haven’t been able to crack it – the earliest confirmed mention of this was when I was 19… but I’m guessing it would have been born much earlier than that. Either way, it feels quite incredible to be on the eve of beginning to fulfill a dream that I have been working towards for half of my life.

This journey is unlikely to end up being a full circumnavigation of the world, in fact I’m not entirely sure how long it will last – I have given myself a broad target of reaching Australia within 18 months and other than broad stroke plans I’m only looking some 2-3 months ahead at a time. Beyond that that there’s only one condition that I have promised myself to stick to – only continue as long as I’m enjoying it and not that I’m just doing it ’cause I said i would!

So, having done just about all I could in Australia before leaving, I packed all 70Kgs of stuff that I needed to bring with me (including my jar of vegemite that didn’t quite make it), bid farewell to friends, family and my beloved ’stralllia!

(TIP: 46KG  per person allowance flying to anywhere in the Americas + extra 23 KG if you have Qantas Club membership + 7kg carry on luggage – includes South America!)

The flight over was fairly uneventful, usual routine, movie, food, drink, movie, drink, sleeeeep… ahh we’re there! landed in LA, had a 4 hour stop over where I had to pick up my bags and re-check them in en route to Miami. All bags were there, safe and sound… a quick check of emails in the lounge, surrounded by Aussie musicians making their way to “South by South West” music festival. Amongst others, David Faulkner the frontman from the  Hoodoo Gurus and the whacky looking kids from “Children Collide”.

Finally landed in Miami 23 hours after leaving Sydney (11:00pm local time) tired, but excited by the prospect of seeing “Squander” the next morning…

 
MISSING IN ACTION

My plans to get underway asap got slightly held up when my surfboard didn’t materialise and it was no where to be found in the computer systems! 2 hours later I filed all the necessary descriptions, forwarding addresses and so on and was under way for the 2 hours drive to Fort Pierce – north of Miami… and so it was at 3:00am that i finally drifted off into my final sleep on land for a while.

I woke up the next morning with my phone ringing, it was Adrian on the line (the original owner of Squander), there had been a mixup in the marina and the boat was going in the water in 15 minutes as opposed to the original plan – full steam ahead, i jumped out of bed – grabbed my bags and bolted out of the Motel… the reality of the moment sinking in finally, adrenalin pumping, mixed with early stages of jet lag, lack of sleep – it all made for a pretty funny cocktail of emotions!!

Adrian and Jan were by the boat as I pulled in, we greeted each other briefly and went about starting to launch Squander – WOW!!!

It all happened fairly effortlessly, Adrian was kind enough to steer the boat for me as I was in no state to try  and figure out left from right let alone focus on steering a 45 foot boat in close quarters!

The next 3 days were jam packed with Adrian and Jan going out of their way to  make the handover as smooth as possible – we went through the entire boat with a  fine tooth comb, Adrian imparting his years of experience and me overflowing trying to take it all in, taking notes, photos, videos and the whole time realising that I was facing one of my steepest learning curves to date.

Once all was said and done, including a cheeky night out to the local restaurant followed by a few quiet drinks, it was time to go for a first sail. Adrian kindly agreed to sail with me the 90 or so Nautical Miles down to Fort Lauderdale and I would drive him back.

The conditions looked perfect and so it was a little after high tide that we set off from Fort Pierce at 1:00pm. After negotiating the shallow exit from the marina,  I got my first taste of the Intra coastal waterways where you have to radio ahead for the bridges to open and were small sailing boats and BIG power boats travel up and down the east coast of America from New York  all the way down to Florida safely protected from the evils of the Atlantic Ocean. We eventually made it out into the open ocean. 

View where’s gavin in a larger map

A light breeze we set sails and took off south… a few hours into it, the wind went just enough aft to allow us to set a kite for a an hour or so. It was like the cherry on top of a perfect handover – it dawned on me that “Squander” was now mine – my home, my shelter, my transport and my responsibility!

Since getting to Fort Laudrdale, I’ve used every second to prepare the boat as best i can for the next 2-3 months.

From buying bulk food, testing all the equipment onboard, buying cups, pots, pans, bed sheets, charts, tools, rum, spare parts, oils, greases, glues, filters and teh list goes on! A friend of Amanda Dormer’s – Doug – has been a huge help – he’s a SuperYacht captain based out of Miami and has every imaginable contact needed.

He has been supporting me and pointing me in the right direction daily – from organising a berth, to hiring a car to putting me in touch with riggers, mechanics, wholesale suppliers of spare parts, who’s good, who’s not so good – it has made my life so much easier – THANK YOU!!

Last Thursday evening, Doug called me to ask if I was interested in sailing Squander down to Miami for the weekend to act as a makeshift hotel – some of his crew wanted to go to ULTRA – a huge 2 day outdoor electronic music festival that also doubles as the closing party for the WMC conference where all the who’s who of electronic music gather every year.

It didn’t take long for me to say yes, it was a good excuse to go and sail and it also meant I would get away for the weekend and have a break.

We ended up having seven of us sleeping aboard, docked at the Miami Beach marina. (where you really stand out if you’re a sailing boat – definitely land of the power boaters)

On the Friday night, the crew went out to the festival whilst Doug and Alma came over as the first official guests onboard – we shared a bottle of champagne, a few more drinks and Alma jumped into the galley and cooked up a  late night dinner for us.

Miami turned on it’s best in Saturday, sunny skies, a balmy 27 degrees and perfect conditions for a waterside, outdoor music festival.

The guys that were staying onboard (Bron, Dave, Nina, Olly, Nick and Renae) invited me to head out with them to the festival. Despite it not being my scene, I figured “When in Rome…” – I’m really glad I  went – great vibe, good music and delivered at a proportion that I had never experienced – I’m not sure of the official numbers,  but it was a sell out and I’m pretty sure it was 100,000 people!

That’s it from me for now… it’s Monday morning and I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. A blocked toilet to fix, fishing gear to buy, a cleat to replace, a new stereo to install, satellite phone to work out, bulk food to separate and re-package and prepare for some visitors over Easter next weekend.

Hope all is well with you wherever you may be reading this from.

signing out.

g

MORE PICS FROM ULTRA

Nurses giving security a heart attack

 
The hill was worth a look

Main Stage in the background

“oh my god… we forgot to tell you that were going to wear clothes!”

I love the colour of your top!

 
Miami Sunset

 
Nina & Olly

Feather Man

Nina, Olly & Nick

Christmas has come and gone and what a great success it was. The whole xmas crew enjoyed themselves, food, drink, sunshine and presents a plenty!!

Had a fairly restless sleep last night… actually thinking about work, and solving website hosting issues in my head. how loong will these last for? still get the odd pang of anxiety-like sensations about having to return to work soon, only to remind myself that in fact I don’t!

Funny thing happened yesterday, my watch battery went flat, it’s worked faultlessly for years and it’s an interesting time to stop. Maybe I should’n't get it replaced and dump the watch for a few weeks to see if I miss it?

The surf has been pretty disappointing to date, but it’s given us a perfect opportunity to
stuff around, get the longboards out and get into the Xmas spirit with the girls! Gidget would be proud!!

Wishing you ALL a fantastic Xmas and a happy new year!!

It dawned on me on Monday that this is the first time since 1997 when I was travelling around Africa for 4 months that I am unemployed, have next to no responsibilities, don’t own any businesses and am basically free to do what I want… FAAAAAARK!! seriously it’s a fairly scary feeling… but I’m getting over the anxiety pretty fast!

So, in the last 4 days I have skateboarded twice, ridden my mountain bike a couple of times, have squeezed in a surf, 2 social lunches, a breakfast with Brento and a dinner with Luciana’s friend’s last night and it’s only Thursday morning. I’ve also been ridiculously busy preparing for our trip!

The 4WD is looking more and more like a house every day. So far we have a dual battery system, a fridge, drawers, a UHF radio, table, chairs, cooking stuff, auxiliary lights and as I write this am waiting for the “Piece de resistance” – our Columbus Variant Auto Home Italian tent! A second hand purchase that should be arriving by truck this afternoon.

Off for a swim… will try and get some pics later!

Well after running a business in one form or another since 1994, I am attempting a re-birth of sorts by shedding as many responsibilities as possible and hitting the road… hahah alright for those of you that know me, you’ll know that this is near impossible for me… but seriously, I’m going to attempt to spend the next 6 months of my life (leading up to my 35th birthday on May 7th 2009) just having fun!

I am almost certain that this will be a bigger challenge than living a normal working life, however that is why it excites & challenges me.

so, if all goes to plan, this blog should end up having a lot of insights, many good times and possibly be a real distraction to you the reader if you happen to be sitting at work. Assuming I am having fun and genuinely feeling like the experience is making me a better person and truly recharging the batteries, my aim will be to inspire others to do the same as it will confirm my long held belief that there’s a lot more to life than a life dictated by a 9 to 5 job and 4 weeks holiday a year.

UPDATE: 8 July 2009… hmmm well my 35th birthday came and went and I am still loving life & not working. Some of the highlights SO FAR have included:

- 2 months 4WD around South East Australia
- 3 weeks surfing in Bali
- A long weekend mountain bike riding in Thredbo
- Sailing 1500 Nautical miles from Sydney to Vanuatu
- Hanging out in Manly over summer, surfing, sailing and relaxing
- Taking my mum out for a long lunch, during the week!
- Not rushing, sleeping in, reading non business books
- Thinking and NOT thinking

and there’s more to come… in terms of insights, here’s what I have worked out so far:
- I needed to do this
- I have never been busier or happier in my life
- By quiting work I feel like I have crossed some point of no return, yet I’m not 100% sure of the new destination yet.
- If you’re scared of doing something similar, it’s with good reason – it is freaking scary, but sooooo rewarding.
- As the old saying goes, you’re far more likely to regret the things that you didn’t do, than the things you did so DO it!!!