Goodbyes, Again

Leaving San Andres was both exciting and sad for us as it was the beginning of an emotional time, and we knew it.

Steph and Stuart, and other friends, Hazel and Paul on Susumi were leaving San Andres, but we decided to stay just a bit longer to do a bit more kiteboarding and because we knew our end was near. It was emotional when Steph and Stu left, as we didn’t know quite when we would see them again. We have parted ways before, but always stayed in contact via internet, but somehow this seemed different. We all enjoyed one last dinner together before their departure day.

One of the fun things we did on San Andres was a beer factory tour that Suart arranged. No matter where we went with Steph and Stuart over our 4 year friendship, it was always an Adventure within. This one entailed a Police escort walking to the Factory, as they wanted to make sure we all got there safe and sound. It was an excellent tour of Barracuda Beer company, they treated us like kings!

A Police escorted journey of the Gringos

In San blas, Darren started learing to kiteboard with Mike. Darren has wanted to do this for quite sometime, but I was a bit hesitant. But we strapped on some gear and took all the advice and lessons we could absorb from Mike and Laura, and to MY surprise, by the time we left San Andres, we had got the hang of it. Darren is much more proficient at it than I am, as I’m a bit afraid.

During our time with NautiKel, we found ourselves a bit ambivalent in the catamaran vs. monohull arena. Coming from a monohull sailing background, we tend to find monos sail nicer, and cats are more spacious to live on. Its quite the dilema. Although she was easy and a dream to sail, we found her a little big for us at times when just the two of us were onboard. There were many spaces and cabins just not used, which is just UNHEARD of in a cruising sailboat. And there is much more to maintain.

So being in two minds, we listed NautiKel on Sailboatlistings page and if the right person at the right time came along, we would sell. And surprise -surprise as usual when in two minds about selling something– into San Andres came her potential new owner. The potential buyer looked at the boat for a few days, and then after his flight back to Canada, he decided that she was the right boat for him and his wife.

They say the best days are when you buy a boat and when you sell her. …. More on this later.

In mid August we left Mike and Laura on Gilana in San Andres, to meet again in distant horizons. They had become such good friends, in just a short 6 month time frame. Mike is super smart and we have not seen anything that he can’t fix. They are those people you can always count on for ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. They will be missed, but HEY!, we would be back soon!!!

With mixed feelings, we departed San Andres with a good weather forecast and sailed NautiKel back to Shelter Bay for her last sail with us.

It was a beautiful 42 hour sail, towards the ITCZ where the lightning and squalls abound. During the night, we kept in contact with our friends on Matador via InReach messaging. They are one more of the forever friends type.

As many of you know, if you’ve been following our blog over the years, we have had so many adventures with the Matadors, from crazy car trips, hurricane hiking, grocery provisioning nightmares, music lessons, Malaria scares, Yoga classes, snorkling trips, fishing competitions, Christmas’s and birthdays, and the famous Green Island lightning strike. They have been around since our FMD days, through our year at home, and back again. Stuart, like Mike, is amazing and was constantly coming up with solutions on how to fix things, and somehow, it always included a beer. We know that no matter what, we can count on them for support. I don’t know what we will do without them. But, we will be back soon!!!!!

We DID manage to dodge all the squalls and storms, not without help as we don’t get satellite images on the InReach, only text messages from Steph on where she saw the storm cells were.

We arrived in the Traffic zone of Colon at 0400 , yes 4am, in the dark. This is like walking into a mine field with a half blindfold on. All the ships have their AIS running, all the ships, whether anchored or not are listed as active, and most have exhaust coming from their stacks. Its get light at 0600, so it was a 2 hour jockey trip of dodging what we though was moving, guessed what may be moving, and listening for the sound of engines louder than our own. It was defiantly exciting.

Its taken me 6 months to write this blog as whenever I try, the tears come and I have to stop writing. We had really come to like this boat.

We returned to Shelter Bay Marina and started our task of unloading our “home” of all our personal posessions. We didn’t think we had that much stuff, but as we found out…. As we did when we sold the house in Parksville,…. We did.

While we were in San Andres, another boat happened to peak our interest. We had thought about going back to a monohull, and an Amel52 showed its presence to us in and was docked in Martinique. We put an offer on her finally, after a lot of research, we made arrangements to go and see her, test and sea trial.

This made our departure from NautiKel a bit easier. Although, after a few cocktail evenings with fellow cruisers who have been around also since FMD days, Carol and Greg, Laura and Thorsten, and Anna and Bartek, we realized how much we would miss Panama and all she has to offer, but we thought would be back within months…..

Tearfully, on a dreary rainy day, which seemed fitting, we left NautiKel, our beautiful Nautitech 47 at the dock in Shelter Bay and walked off of her for the last time.