Cruising

05
Apr
2024
Gallery – San Blas I

Gallery – San Blas I

The next leg from Providencia will take us together with SV My Motu to Panama, or to be more precise, to San Blas. We heard a lot people saying, cruising in San Blas is a must, so we want to spend a few more nice weeks at anchor here and then sail through the canal to reach the Pacific. We clear in at the small island of Porvenir and spend two weeks exploring the archipelago with its more than 350 islands. But there are still a few jobs on the list before we can cross the channel, such as a liferaft service, then we need to buy the new anchor chain and loads of food. I sail single-handed into Linton Bay Marina for the first time, while Karin deals with things in Switzerland. Linton Bay is where Karin and her father Georges will return to from Switzerland so that we can sail one more time to San Blas.

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01
Feb
2024
Gallery – Providencia

Gallery – Providencia

After leaving Rio Dulce, we are cruising 600 miles with a rare, extremely helpful but uncomfortable westerly wind to Providencia, a small Colombian outpost off the coast of Nicaragua. Here we drop anchor off the island’s largest town, meet the crew of SV My Motu and will spend Christmas together until after New Year. The island is easy to travel around by golf kart and, in addition to dream beaches, has plenty of jungle and super friendly inhabitants to offer. We find a reggae bar from which we watch the start preparations for a small fishing regatta, climb to the highest point on the island at “the peak” and the underwater world speaks its own language.

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23
Aug
2023
Mystery Mexico

Mystery Mexico

After more than three days of crossing, exhausted and satisfied, we drop anchor in the bay on the northwest side of Isla Mujeres. The anchorage is calm with a light breeze. Here we want to clear in to continue sailing south in Mexico later. We go ashore and first of all have dinner in a marina. The island is a tourist hell, but after Cuba Mexico seems to us like a gourmet temple: guacamole and tacos, fresh fruit juices and juicy meat.

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29
Jul
2023
Gallery – Mexico II

Gallery – Mexico II

The next leg in Mexico brings us to the mainland, Puerto Aventuras. The marina is a kind of Disneyland for adults with motorboats. From here we explore the depths of the jungle, the cenotes and our consciousness. Before continuing on to Guatemala, diving at Isla Cozumel is on the agenda. The island is world famous for its breathtaking drift dives with perfect visibility. So we take our new friends from Ekumal with us on the crossing and spend a day in front of el cielo at the southwest tip of the island.

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28
Jul
2023
Gallery – Mexico I

Gallery – Mexico I

Coming from Cuba we reach the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Our first destination: Isla Mujeres. We were not aware that this is an American tourist stronghold. The culture shock is correspondingly great and we immediately realize that we won’t be staying here for long. In the end it will be almost two weeks, the Mexican paper war is merciless and drags on. In the meantime, we visit Cancun and cenotes in Mexico’s jungle.

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17
Jun
2023
Cuba’s wild south coast

Cuba’s wild south coast

As we approach Cuba on an early morning in May, after three days and three nights on the open sea, we immediately realize that everything is different here. In the bay off Santiago de Cuba, on the eastern edge of the big island, men drift across the water on truck tubes, a paddle in one hand and a fishing line in the other. The sailing itself should also be somewhat unusual here in Cuba.

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04
Jun
2023
Caribbean and conflicts – life on a sailboat

Caribbean and conflicts – life on a sailboat

Life on a sailing boat is more than just drinking gin and tonic at sunset. Karin Mandy Schielke from Deutschlandfunk Kultur explains how we had to completely rediscover our roles and why we would move back to a sailing boat at any time. Listen to the podcast “Plus Eins”:

https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/aussteiger-paar-zieht-auf-ein-segelboot-karibik-und-konflikte-dlf-kultur-12b7dafb-100.html

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