We made it up into Gatun Lake via the 3 locks. However on our way down to the lock we heard the heart rending mayday call from a yacht that had gone aground on the reef by Shelter Bay. We had seen them come out of the locks and head towards Shelter Bay. We heard that all 6 onboard had been rescued but such a shocking end to their trip through the canal especially when you think all the hard bits had been conquered. Our trip so far has been a little more straightforward if a little delayed. We

Currently in the Flats anchorage where we wait for our advisor to head to the canal. The due time has changed from 6pm to 2pm and now 7pm. There are a few boats here, some quite big! We think we are all ready, fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later. It would be much easier in daylight!

After a wonderful month in the San Blas islands, and much messing about in Portobelo and Shelter Bay, tomorrow we head to the Flats anchorage ready to transit the Panama canal later the same day. Its a time of much nervousness, preparation and excitement! The transit involves locking up through the Gatun Locks, likely after night has fallen. It takes about 90 minutes from leaving the Flats to reach the first lock and we have yet to find out how we will be configured. Its mostly likely that we

This is not a place to arrive in the dark. You need to see a judge reefs based on the waves and colour of the water. So we decided to slow down yesterday to arrive this morning as the light winds had not allowed us our usual speeds. Electronic charts here are useless. The bible is Eric Bauhaus' Panama Cruising guide. Eric has overflown and surveyed many places in the San Blas and we all use his charts and anchorages. That does lead to some busy places, but there are only 2 other boats where we

We've had a great time in Cartagena but it's time to move on. We need to get somewhere with less barnacles! So we left the bay via the larger Boca Chica channel and headed towards the Rosario Islands. We've anchored in behind Isla Grande ready to strike out to San Blas tomorrow...

We arrived in Cartagena on New Years Eve. Our last night at sea was with 40knot winds and big seas but Duplicat handled it all very well. The famous "Christmas Winds" had arrived and haven't really stopped since! Cartagena is a wonderful city packed with history. The old walled city is very nice to walk around and the quality of food in restaurants has been eye-opening both for price and quality. A very good 3 course meal with a couple of glasses of wine is about £25/head. We sho

Ok, we neglected the blog. For ages. Sorry! But it's time to start writing again as we are heading west, big-style. First a little catch-up though. We've done 2 seasons in the Caribbean as well as the rally down to Guyana. Duplicat has been under a program of modification too and she now sports a super hardtop along with another 1kW of solar panels. The hardtop makes a huge difference to life onboard. It's larger than the bimini so we now have an extra room. With rain/sun shades alround w

Once most of the fleet had arrived, we had a real treat. The launch of Ariane VA226 to put 2 satellites into geo-stationary orbit was due and we were being treated to a trip to view it! It as a very long day, and due to the springs tides we had to haul the dinghy right up into the mangroves to keep it safe whilst we were away. However it was definitely worth it. From our vantage point, 7.5km away (still within the zone where we'd need gas masks to scrub the acidic gas from the solid rocket boos

We had a very quick tour of Georgetown followed by a river taxi from Parika back to Bartica where we were collected by Mike for the trip back to our boats at Hurakabra. All was well onboard, even the batteries were fully charged which was a great relief as we'd never left Duplicat for so long at anchor! Mike was keeping an eye on them but all the same... After a wonderful stay in Guyana, and a farewell meal at Hurakabra, the next leg was the 300nm sail to French Guiana and the Maroni river. Thi

It's hard to imagine how abrupt the transition from rainforest to Savannah is, but it occurs like a binary switch. It's much clearer from the air though. Rock View lodge is owned by an Englishman called Colin and he makes you feel very much at home. This despite our visit coinciding with their music festival. Alas the timings for the rally meant we couldn't stay for the music, but we did get to meet som of the artists and see the rehearsals. It's a great place and we wouldn't hesitate to g

From Kaieteur we flew down to Iwokrama. We were staying the night at River Lodge, on the banks of the Essequibo. The rooms were very nice and being a research centre there were plenty of scientists on hand to tell us about the area. We saw the big caiman that frequented the pirogue landing area After dinner we went out in the pirogue to spot wildlife by torch light. The night sky was stunning, and with the torch we were able to pick out birds, snakes, rodents and caimans. The followin

Our inland trip had been on, off and on again because of problems at the Kaieteur National park, but thanks to the efforts of Kit and Gem, and especially Cathy Hughes, the minister of Tourism, the park was re-opened just in time for our 3 day trip into the interior of Guyana. Gem had been faced with so many permutations and combinations over the days leading up to our trip, I'm surprised she hadn't gone mad! However, she arranged for a charter plane to take us all to Kaieteur and then onto our

The day after the official welcome, we were taken on a tour. We joined Balkarran of D Factor guest house and Delta 2 tours (see Doyles) and had a fast ride up to Marshall Falls including shooting some rapids. Not quite used to that sort of speed! The falls were a short hike from the landing and Balkarran made it very interesting indeed, stopping to point out plants and trees and their various uses - one of which was to make a walking stick for Amanda. The swim at the falls was very refreshin

The Official welcome party, hosted by the Guyanese Government, took place at Hurakabra - also known as Kit and Gem's place. There were speeches by Kit, politicians and I was elected to say something on behalf of the fleet. We had a great time and it was good to see Cathy Hughes, the minister of Tourism again - fully supporting the rally. In fact, we showed her and some others around our boat. I was glad we'd done the washing up before going ashore! Typifying the sort of welcome we've al

We had a wonderfully peaceful night anchored in the middle of the river at Wakenaam Stelling. It was good to catch up the sleep after a few days of night watches. Next morning, we were up early and caught up with the fleet comms. Piano and N'Oubliez-jamais were close and would probably reach the river that day. Freya had comms problems - no-one could raise them on VHF, though they were close. Ocean Rainbow were also close but not yet in VHF range. Gaia left first, but even at tickover we were

Day 3 saw us arrive at the Essequibo, a mere 65hours after leaving Chaguaramas! We had heard so many horror stories from many of the people we'd spoken to about the trip to Guyana. "5 knots of current and wind on the nose? You are brave" etc. What a myth! I wonder if any of them have actually tried it? Well - we have, along with other Nereid Rally participants and you know - its not so tough! Yes, you get a counter-current, though it really isn't so bad at this time of year. Its an upwind sail,

What a beautiful days sailing! Blue oceans, lots of dolphins, fish in the freezer and all on one tack without needing to adjust the sails. However, it can't last - we were slowly losing the East that we'd banked, and we caught the trailing edge of a number of squalls giving us some solid SE winds for a while (but on rain!). So we will need to put a couple of tacks in to get us down to Guyana. We have time in hand, and are now planning to arrive at the western channel into the Essequibo at dayb

The crews of all boats gathered at Sails restaurant for a bit of a send off. Some music was laid on, a few drinks and lots of chat about the upcoming trip. We got to say goodbye to many of our new friends from Chaguaramas. It was very nice and relaxing start to things. However, you could tell everyone wanted to get on with it! We were all ready and now was the time to go! The plan was for the boats to parade past the masses at Sails for a nice big send off. First, we had to get out of our box m

We've had a great time here in Trinidad, though it's pretty hot with limited airflow in the anchorage, we've stayed in both Crews Inn and later in Powerboats marina where we could run the AC permanently for a reasonable fee. We've needed it! Our main reason to be here was the seminar for the Nereids rally which we joined nearly a year ago. Today we depart! The seminar was interesting and graced with ministers from the Trinidad and Guyana governments, as well as the deputy mayor of Saint Lauran

We've had a fantastic time in Grenada. The people are very friendly and happy to talk. The diving has been superb (thumbs up for Eveline and Scubatech). Other cruisers have been great too - we've made lots of new friends here. It's hard to imagine that we have been anchored in one spot for over 2 months now! Our neighbour boat, Aurora, has been here a little less than us but Ted has been a great dive buddy. He helped me dive on the anchor and attach a marker buoy so we could see where it was.