Some things just never go away

This is the second time in as many months I've been headed toward a sailboat and, likewise, the second time I've felt like this. I guess I never mentioned it before - things just got away from me, I suppose - but damn I miss my dad.

Surprise!: South America Here I Come

As the map above demonstrates, Cartagena, Colombia is clearly north of Panama* and therefore on the way home to Florida. Sure, right. Which, then, explains how exactly I ended up here [well, if add in the whole sailboat thing, I suppose], even if I wasn´t quite expecting to. Sure, right. In truth the decision was not mine - rather it was Astor´s captain, Richard´s - so even if I was not exactly expecting this, I am not exactly one to look a gift horse in the mouth; a little Colombia exploration is in order. (We will be in Cartagena for a few weeks, actually, waiting for hurricaine season to end, giving me more than enough time to explore in a somewhat limited range.)
After all, I started my trip southward thinking that there was no more necessary a stopping point than The Panama Canal - how was I to know it might just have been the beginning?

* ...and more to the point, of the San Blas Islands, from where the Astor began its trek northward.

Shipboard, again

My travels are increasingly being defined by abrupt left turns - you´ll forgive me if I even go so far as to call this one a jibe - but that suits me just fine. It feels good to be on a boat again, especially a boat such as this. Indeed, having spent so much of my time of late in water, it is nice for once simply to be on it. The boat, Astor, is itself incredible. 86ft (26m) long, but only 13 across (4m), she is a woodened-hulled schooner from 1923 that just cuts through the water. She was designed for racing and, according to Richard and Lani, even though her displacement is 63 tons she can go over 30 knots - and when she does, watch out: it can take her up to two miles to come to a full stop. It is, needless to say, the biggest boat I´ve ever sailed on and damned intimidating. Fortunately for me, her owners, the aforementioned Richard and Lani, are anything but. California retirees in their 60s who have been slowly sailing Astor around select parts of the world for the last eight years - they are warm, friendly and inviting. They, like the boat itself, are better than I could have ever hoped for.

As if all of this were not enough, however, get this: the first night´s menu was the absolute freshest lobster you have ever seen.

I could get used to this!

Into the drink, dear friends!

So, having now reached the Panama Canal - and let me tell you, seriously, wow - by way of the longest bus ride in recent memory (15 hours, San Jose to Panama City), my journey south has come to an end. Fortunately, however, my journey back north is just beginning! Through a strange serious of coincidences - the best kind, I always say - I have lucked into passage, as crew, aboard the very sailboat pictured above. The timing is not exactly perfect (thus my marathon travel session), but the set-up is, so this time tomorrow I will be working my way north from the San Blas Islands of Panama.*
I could not, I assure you, be more excited.
Next stop: the high seas!

* This also means that communication of all kind will have to be kept to a minimum. Phone calls, IMs, e-mails, and even this blog with pretty much dry up for the duration. On the bright side, the boat has an e-mail address, so you can sporadically check its progress here: http://www.astor.org/