However, the tales of Captain Dennis and the 60 foot catamaran Mystic Wind already seem to be the stuff of legend. This is a boat trip where captain and first mate take on up to fifteen intrepid travellers on what they describe as being "THE party boat for hard drinking" on the Panama to Cartagena crossing. Of course what they have failed to mention is that captain and mate drink harder than most of the passengers (no small feat given the target market), and that they occasionally have gotten lost at sea and once or twice dropped passengers at the wrong location. On one occasion, the passengers apparently mutinied and threw all the alcohol overboard after the ship was blown out to sea after a storm and they ran out of fresh water.
Our fearless leader was German emigre Captain Andreas, who has been plying the Panama to Colombia route for more than two years, although says we were his penultimate human cargo. While looking slightly disheveled at first impression, Andreas seemed to adopt a professional attitude of a service culture mixed with a minimum number of rules necessary for the comfort of all passengers and safety on an ocean crossing. My impression was that he was very laid back, slightly quirky, but generally in good control of his boat and what takes place on it.On the first evening, he even demonstrated a reasonable talent for cooking after turning out a very good conch stew (conch is a shell dwelling invertebrate that tastes a little like squid for those who aren't familiar with it).
On the first afternoon we went straight to the immigration island where the passports of our captain and eight adventurous backpackers were stamped to exit Panama. These consisted of Anglela and Christian, a couple from Switzerland on a twelve month gap year break, Adam a 29 year old English IT risk management consultant who went on holiday to Mexico in February 2007 and is now thinking of returning to London in a couple of months, Alicia, a Californian resident who took an extended Central American holiday after losing her drivers licence, Dara, a self confessed jaded ex-lawyer from Vancouver, and Sean and Bryan, university friends from California who decided to break from the surfing holiday crew they were travelling with for a few days of sailing. Oh, and me.Andreas was quickly nicknamed "Captain Ron" (a character from a comedy movie of the same name played by Kirk Russell for those who don't recognise the reference) by Sean and Bryan, a name that was proved to be apt over the coming week. By the second morning his shorts had been discarded in preference for a pair of bum-hugging lycra swimming trunks that left rather too little to the imagination (see photo below ).
All went without major incident, although until the second night of the five day voyage when, after navigating a reef and dropping anchor well after sundown, Andreas left the cooking in charge of an enthusiastic passenger (yes, that would be me), and simply disappeared on the dinghy for three hours. He returned well after the meal quite seriously stoned saying that his friend Captain Dave was on another boat moored at the same island and he may have been offered a "quick toke" from Dave. We got to meet Captain Dave the following night, a fifty year old American who lived on his boat, and an interesting character.After protests from several of my fellow passengers about the inequity of us saving pasta and sauce for Andreas but not being shown reciprocal consideration in return, Andreas disappeared below deck to look for his stash, but returned empty handed saying that he didn't know why it had all gone, but he guess he must have smoked it all at New Year.
Although I still can't help wondering whether that little plastic bag with the dried herbs that I added to the pasta sauce really was oregano...
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