Panama to Colombia by boat

This was a tough, exhilarating journey but the highlight of our trip so far.

A guerrilla war, drug runners and possibilty of being shot as a spy makes overland across the Darien far too dangerous. The only options are flying or finding a boat.

After 5 days of going round the marinas and hostals in Panama City we eventually found a French Captain, David, willing to sail to Cartegena if he could get a least 5 passengers. He had 4 but we were dependent on an Irish guy signing up.
Home for 5 days
It was only at the last minute that we got confirmation (in the end there where 6 passengers, 2 Brits, 1 Irish, 2 Swiss, 1 Swedish) . We had to cross the country by bus to get to a tiny village called Puerta Lindo on the Caribean coast. There we asked around until someone pointed out David´s boat


We sailed at 7 am to the San Blas islands. This can take anything from 6 to 24 hours. It took us 14. It is tough going when you are sea sick for that long even if you have taken pills.


We spent 2 days on the San Blas islands which must be the most beautiful in the world. They are perfect, completely undeveloped and there are nearly 400 hundred of them. The only people who live on them are the indigenous Kuna people.

The snorkling was amazing, especially around a wreck close to the shore that was covered in coral and hundreds of fish, while barracudas patrolled around.

David cooking dinner on the island
At 4pm the second day we set off for Colombia. This is where it got a bit daunting. We were about to sail for 50 hours in a 34 foot boat with a group of people we had only just met. At one stage we were going to be nearly 100 miles from shore. None of us could sail, so we were totally dependent on the captain who occasionaly had to sleep. That meant for 2 nights us novices had to share the watches, steering by the stars and keeping a look out for cargo ships.

David´s answer to the question ´what do we do if you fall overboard?´ was ´nothing, dont worry the wind will eventually take you to land´



The biggest skill you had to develop is to pee and crap over the side. The alternative is to go below, operate a complicated set of levers, get wet feet as the loo slops over and spend 10 minutes pumping it all out. While you are doing this you are bounced around and bashed against the sides. A perfect recipe for being very, very sick.

None of us managed the crapping but everyone, except me, managed to pee over the side. Even Marilyn donned the safty harness, stripped off and lent her backside over the edge. I discovered that I have some sort of mental disorder that shuts off all ability to pee if the thing I am on is a sailing boat!!
The only way to wash was to get naked and hide behind the water tank
When we arrived in Cartagena, 5 days after setting off we were extactic. It was a wonderfully exciting trip, David is a great sailor, good company and surperb cook. It was a great crowd. Despite the discomfort, being at sea in a small boat is beautiful and so much more exciting than flying



Useful Contacts

Captains  -  dlel@sailmail.com,   tarona28@yahoo.se,  sailmysticwind@yahoo.com,  ZCNZ4@sailmail.com,  zaoezao@yahoo.com

Hostal in Puerta Lindo, good contacts with captains - dlel@sailmail.com

Hostal in Panama City, very helpful,   Zulys Independent Backpackers