But, make no mistake, it was most definitely another challenging experience!
It seems that no matter how I do this crossing (and Ive done it three times now), its a tough run....
First time I was on a big boat but we had really bad weather and just getting to the boat down a dirt road was probably the hardest off-road that Id ever done.
Next time, the access was easy, but the boat was small and crowded with a bunch of really challenging people. Again we had bad weather and the bike took quite a beating as well as my own patience!
And this time, it was the same boat but with only four people... But the boat was even more dilapidated than last time, and though there were few people, we also had lots of dreary rainy weather which made the boat seem even smaller.
But, the voyage its self was quite straight-forward with the same idyllic little palm covered islands ...
( all pictures courtesy of Greg George)
And dolphins swimming off the bow of the boat...
And wonderful sunsets etc.
Its true that we had more dreary rainy weather but there were no storms or traumatic events at all... very nice :)).... ( Though the captain said his voyage over to collect us did have a really nasty storm, and that in all his years of sailing , this was only the second time ever that he felt like grabbing the EPIRB and sending the signal to call for emergency rescue!!!)
Greg and the Skipper
Me ... Im still a skinny bugger :)
There were four of us on the boat and I guess Ill describe us each for the readers benefit, as I usually do :)
Captain and his Daughter
Greg
So, the captain was the same guy as last time. Hes a small, early sixties Italian guy who has been sailing for many years. He is a retired senior Quantum Physicist (as well as having achieved elite levels in photography and film making) and he definitely enjoys exercising his intellect on quite a diverse range of topics at every opportunity. Hes also classically "Latin" with a propensity to air his feiry temper and his equally boisterous affections on very "short notice" :)
But, hes also quite eccentric and would seem illogical to most "ordinary" people. He does not care at all for "empty"aesthetics... Only for functionalities, and it shows in his boat. Only the core functional equipment on the boat gets maintained, and after several years of abuse by the elements and dozens of trips with transient back-packer cruises across the Darriern Gap, that means that its pretty much only the functional stuff on the boat that still works, and pretty much every thing else is either broken completely or so run down and dilapidated that it would look like a slum to most tourists.... And indeed I would say that "A Sea-Worthy Rat Hole" is not an unfair description for the yacht as far as most people are concerned... Or, at least, the terms "ship shape, and Bristol fashion" would never be applied to this little boat!!
But, the sad part as far as my trip was concerned, was that the boat is definitely deteriorating quite quickly (compared to six months ago) and I think that this actually reflects the man too. His intellect is still a shinning star, but hes becoming very disorganised, his strength is going, and he gets tired now too and it means he doesnt have the energy to keep the boat in good order any more... I dont like to think where it may lead, and I hope he is able to find a way to get some money other than these back-packer runs because it takes so much energy and is so unprofitable for him... Even though we paid him $1600 for the trip, and we made sure that he came because he wanted to (not just because we had asked him) and he would make a profit, I believe he ended up making no money at all because of extra costs for launches from Turbo, and immigration etc. that he had not planned on. (No fault of ours).
One of his biggest problems is that he regularly gets very critical web postings about himself and the boat from back-packers and this makes it increasingly difficult for him to get enough passengers. Its kinda obvious why this is happening (the lack of aesthetics, his elite intellect, and his quick temper) but after an entire lifetime of pursuing his intellectual passions in science and academia, and with no requirement to "be nice" to "ordinary" people, its just more than he can manage to change his personal style now!... And so the pattern of the past seems likely to be the pattern of the future...
But despite his complexities and idiosyncrasies he has a very generous heart and I really like him. I also really enjoyed discussing things with him in the evenings as we sailed across the Gap (the highlight of the trip for me)... :)
His daughter was also on the trip with us but I found her to be much more challenging and less rewarding to be around than her father. First up, she is Italian too and that meant for the cultural behaviours of Italy when father and daughter got together... Lots of exuberant hugging and kissing and shouting of "Amore!" etc for at least a minute or two each time :)... I got no problem with that at all, but it "went on" quite a bit... On first meeting, Whenever they successfully dropped the anchor, Or set a sail, Or a meal was cooked, Or even when they got up in the morning!... And actually, it more or less went on for the entire voyage!
And it also seemed that for most of the remaining daylight hours the two of them were in a close huddle and engaged in rapid and emotional "shouting" at each other in very loud "sing-song" Italian for hours at a time!
They were clearly behaving "normally" and carrying on the types of discussions that family members do when they meet after absences, but for me it was really loud and quite painful because there was no-where that I could go to get away from it.
Next issue for me was that she smoked cigarettes like they were candy... Popping another into her mouth virtually before the previous one was finished... Again this was normal for them but very annoying and uncomfortable for me because she only gave token effort to not having the smoke effect others.
Another "really challenging" aspect of her/their behaviour for me involved personal hygiene with her father... Several times a day she would "preen" him like a monkey... From chewing his finger nails to picking black-heads, scabs and dry skin and then eating whatever little bits and pieces here busy fingers had garnered from their efforts!... I kid you not!... And again, there is virtually nowhere to go to avoid this "show" on the little yacht. Poor Greg couldnt believe what they were doing, but it was obviously perfectly normal to them... I guess it takes all sorts, and it wasnt actually hurting others.
And, like her father, she was very bright too. But it felt to me like she took her fathers constant adoration as her only reference point and consequently thought she was "An Intellectual Giant"!... She positively oozed an air of arrogance and self confidence on every topic... But it seemed to me to be in a way that didnt seem to be backed up by practical ability etc.! But then again, she is after all only twenty years old, and I think its not unusual for bright people of that age to go through a phase like that... My motorbike friend Greg captured it well when he said " I hope she manages to get all her projects done in the next couple of years while she still knows everything!... After that its probably going to get more difficult for her".
Im sure she will "evolve" as she ages, but in the end, all I can say is that Im happily going to be somewhere else!
And then there was my motorbiking friend Greg who is a "bright fellow" in his own right. Hes 32 years old and from New Brunswick Canada. But it seems he just cant seem to settle down and figure out what he wants to do long-term... So he keeps re-skilling to different things... Among them hes been a Tree planter, Fire service smoke jumper, Ice Bridge Contractor, Oil rig roughneck, and most recently a Welding engineering technologist!
Id done the yacht crossing trip twice before and I also knew what sort of a character the yacht captain was, so I was more or less prepared for it all... But Greg didnt know what he was in for! I was very impressed with his ability to put up with both the cramped and messy conditions on the boat as well as the style of our conversations. I guess tolerance for others is something you learn out at oil rig camps! Wherever he learned it, I was happy that he was along on the trip and I was glad to have someone a little more "normal" (read that as "being from a similar cultural background to me") to talk with to break up the long hours.
And of course then there was me...
Well, what can I say, Id really rather let each of the others on the trip describe what they thought of me... But thats a bit flippant though because of course they cant do that on my blog! :)
I guess I started out being quite talkative but then got quiet after a couple of bouts of the intense intellectual conversations ... Which by the way had a rather strong flavour of each of the participants wanting to flex their intellectual muscles and manoeuvre the conversation into their area of expertise for both interest and egocentric purposes ... And that means all four of us!
I did enjoy the conversations, but I found Id quickly "had enough" of the egocentric aspects and then I decided to just let things go rather than play the default "bait and challenge" game. But I also really enjoy learning things through my own thinking and Ive become very good at just spending time by my self over the last few years of motorbiking, so I was happy to think quietly too. On the whole, I tried to engage each of the others in conversations that interested them from time to time, and I always try to be diplomatic and keep the peace when emotions flare form one thing or another (only a few times on this trip).
And that was it for the ship and its compliment!
So, the trip as a whole was successful and Im now safely back on the North American continent and able to ride my bike North at will. But what started out as a hoped for two week visit to Colombia turned into a month, and what I was initially told was going to be an easy six day crossing (including the wait in Cartegena) turned into eleven days of challenges!
I cant say I enjoyed the cramped sweaty conditions of the yacht for the five days but that was always going to be uncomfortable... I can say I did enjoy the opportunity to see a remote and beautiful area of the Colombian coast that I otherwise would not have seen, and I can also say that Ive done "the crossing" three different ways now and its always a challenging
experience and allows me to see and learn more about myself.
I can also say that even though this may have been "The Last Crossing" for me, I do hope that I get to meet that crazy yacht captain again somewhere down the way :)))
