Big Waves, Big Blow
Nuking storm force winds bring a massive swell to polynesia and we are there to ride it with Clarissa Hempel on board
Where have all the trades gone?
We lose the wind in Moorea and the Tuamotus and are left…having a blast!
Shark Attack, more kiting, more adventure
sharks attack in the tuamotus takes the amperage up a bit
SHARKS
This trip goes down as one, if not the finest expedition of my life. To qualify as an “expedition” it should have the following attributes: remote, rarely or never attempted, difficult, and requiring great planning and usually heroic effort. Having two amazing chefs and a luxury yacht probably removes ‘difficult’ from our list, but we topped the scales on remote and never attempted on this one, and if you add what our chefs went through to get food on this boat we definitely have heroic. Although swimming with dozens of sharks cannot be described as easy…
Discovery Transits the Panama Canal
After saying sad goodbyes to the whole crew in Bocas we took two days trying to get some sleep, then departed for Colon. It was a fast, easy sail. With building winds out of the north Discovery took flight as she hadn’t in weeks, covering the 140 miles in no time. We arrived the Shelter Bay Marina by late Wednesday afternoon and quickly began arranging our transit of the Panama Canal. We’d already lined up an agent, a giant of a guy named Stanley who doesn’t waste time. We’d no sooner tied up the boat when he arrived, cell phone ringing incessantly, favors being called in, dollar signs adding up. But he got it done. Some boats wait for weeks to get through the canal. He arranged a slot for us Friday evening, 48 hours and closing.
Honkin’
Our new group arrived on the 29th, the first sunny day we’d had in a week. Evidence of Global Warming is everywhere these days, and the weather is any thing but predictable. But somehow we keep getting lucky and wind or sun would be in no shortage for the next week.
Cartagena, Colombia
So I’ve got a fixed mouth and a fixed knee, compliments of one of our owners and one of our sponsors (nice to know doctors!). Other than body repairs, my brief time home was spent visiting my mom and sister, catching up with friends, and working with Jody on all those little things that keep The Best Odyssey operational. A littany of parts needed to be ordered, shopping for needed supplies, planning for future trips, and research for our 09′ season across Micronesia. This last bit entails hours and hours of hunkering down with guides, google earth, internet searches, airline schedules, pilot charts (which give averages of wind and current for specific times of the year). And while it is a bit grueling, it’s also fun imagining and fantasizing the places to come. We now have the first half of 09′ roughly sketched out across Micronesia: Kiribati, the Marshall islands, and much of the Carolines from Kosrae to Palau and dozens of islands in between.
Ever heard of this Place?
Our first trip to Los Aves proved worthy of a return, which has completely altered our planned itinerary, but all for the good. This time the crew of Discovery only had 4 days to prep both the boat and ourselves for our next guests, Thomas and Adriena Scheuring and their daughter Clara from Germany, and Martin Stockl and Keith Cockrum who would join us from the States. Martin and Keith were on our “try before you buy” gig and I’m happy to say now ten days later that they are our most recent owners! I’m not sure if it was the boat, the food, the locations, or what was the deciding element because unfortunately this trip it probably was not the wind. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Wicked
Bonaire is hardly remote. It’s been on the scuba diving map for 3 decades and sports a healthy tourism industry, due to the sound management of its ecological treasures. But it feels way off the map, and we’re finding much to love. With Los Aves so nearby, exploring the two on one trip makes for one hell of a journey. And #11 was wicked in the best of ways.
Discovery at its best
We finished up the last 4 days of the Best trip in Los Roques with just two guests onboard, Ian Huschle, the CEO of Best, out for his second trip on The Best Odyssey, and Michael Bigger, one of Best’s investors. We’d had nearly perfect conditions for the first 10 days, but somehow the winds got even better and really cranked for the final go. Jody still wanted to nail some shots on the outer reef with two of the wrecks, so we headed east out to the barrier reef one last time.