We spent the first night here at anchor, and the last two in a slip at Conch Harbor.  The harbor is very nice, and right in the middle of Key West itself, but the slip fees of $3.50 per foot per night overshadow the convenience of the place.  The winds are forecast to be quite strong until Thursday, so we plan to leave the Harbor tomorrow and anchor out for the next several days here in Key West before leaving for Marathon Key.  Slip fees of over $200 per night awaken my love Alaska where we could have stayed for over a week for one night’s fee in Key West!  At least we don’t need any of their $4 per gallon Diesel fuel!   

But the good has easily out weighed the bad, as the scenery, food and people are all very nice!  The fried cracked conk down here is worth a trip in itself!

Tomorrow we again attack the challenge of activating the satellite TV.  We had assumed it would come to life at about the same 16 degree northern latitude that we lost it on the Pacific side of Mexico, but it is still a “no show” in Key West.  I assume that we will have to change to an east coast satellite, but the owner’s manual lost a lot in translation form Japanese to English, and I have not been able to get the Food Network back up for Kathy! 

The oil has been changed in both the main engine and generator, and the fuel tanks still hold almost 1,200 gallons of the fuel bought at the Panama Canal.  ALWAYS FRIDAY is now mechanically prepared to get to Virginia Beach without further stops for fuel or oil changes, but we don’t plan to take advantage of that capability!  Too much to see and do here in south Florida, and more new friends to invite onboard AF before the radar finally reflects the Chesapeake Bay entrance!

Our magic carpet, AF, continues to take us places in comfort that most people never see in their lifetimes!  What an experience this has been!

More over the next few days, but the truth is that their just isn’t as much of interest to tell you about here as there was when we were in Alaska!  In fact, there is nothing on earth like Alaska!

12/10/2007 Monday
Good fortune has shown down on us again, as we are tied up in Conch Harbor next to two new friends, Oliver and Sally Miller from Wisconsin.  They have retired onto their 47 foot Sabre cruiser, (http://www.oneoliverii.com) and have come to Key West by way of the Mississippi River across the Gulf of Mexico.  Their next stop is the Bahama Islands where they will spend the winter.  We have exchanged boat visits and shared several meals together in the restaurants of Key West with cruising experiences bouncing back and forth like ping pong balls!  It has been a frequently proven fact that the world is full of fascinating, very nice people that you will never meet while watching HBO in your den! 

Yesterday’s email offered us another south Florida opportunity when Jerry Wert wrote that he had been following our exploits this summer from his home in Marathon, Florida, and would be happy to help us with any challenges while in the Key West area.  With his phone number from the email, I soon had him on the phone with an invitation to join us for dinner here at Conch Harbor!  So tonight, Jerry, his wife Jeanette, Oliver, Sally, Kathy and I had dinner together at an outside restaurant on the harbor where our new friends from Marathon enlightened us on the details of the local waters and the Bahamas (where they have been cruising for the past 15 years!).   Jerry has arranged for us to dock at a friend’s waterfront home in Marathon where we will visit with them for several days after Key West.  The combination of AF and our website continues to yield great dividends in terms of new and fascinating acquaintances along the way home! 

It was blowing too hard to safely leave the harbor and anchor after dinner tonight, so we will absorb another $215 nightly docking charge in order to diminish the chance of an even larger repair bill should we try to wind our way out of the harbor in these winds! 

It has been the strangest holiday season of our lives with 85 degree days, and Christmas carols replaced by calypso music, but the excitement of the ongoing adventure dilutes the nostalgia of missing friends and family that that usually share the Season with us. 

But don’t feel sorry for us!  We are having a truly wonderful time down here!

12/04/2007 Tuesday

Jeff arrived on time from Texas, and a trip to Immigration had him added to the Crew List for tomorrow’s departure to Key West and points north.  Kathy loaded the tender with groceries and we were off to AF with plans to join Lee, and his girlfriend Michelle for dinner at their favorite local restaurant, The Calypso Grill at Morgan’s Harbor on the North Sound. 

Before dinner, we picked up Lee and Michelle on FRIDAY NITE! for a glass of wine before leaving for the restaurant.  Then with five of us in the tender, we were off to the harbor for a twenty minute car ride to one of the nicest restaurants that you could imagine!  It is so far out of the way that you would never stumble upon it without local guidance, which we had in style with Lee and Michele!  It was a great combination of location (outside on the water), ambiance, and excellent food!  If you are ever in Grand Cayman, find The Calypso Grill!  Your efforts will be well rewarded! 

Kathy and I were last here in Grand Cayman about fifteen years ago and the place is now unrecognizable from what we saw then!  Lee explained that part of the explanation for the dramatic building boom is Hurricane Ivan that devastated the island four years ago.  From the rubble of the storm has risen a first class, first world resort city anchored by nothing less than a Ritz-Carlton Resort! 

Even though it does not seem appropriate in 85 degree weather, the Christmas season is upon us here, and Grand Cayman takes its holiday decorations very seriously!  Tastefully done lights were everywhere attempting to do the impossible – bring what we have always thought of as Christmas to a tropical island basking in 85 degree sunshine!  I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas done by a Calypso band is an unusual touch!  The news from home of truly winter weather there makes the Christmas spirit even harder to summon up on this tropical island!

Lee’s obvious interest in Nordhavns and AF in particular led to an invitation to join us for the ride to Key West….and he accepted!  So our crew list has another addition for tomorrow’s departure!  It should be fun!

12/05/2007 Wednesday

I was up early (5AM) to launch the tender to accompany Lee to Immigration for the exit paperwork for AF’s departure.  In no time, we were back onboard and ready to go.  By 7:30 AM we were underway, passing within a few hundred yards of Paul Allen’s boat M/Y OCTOPUS, with its tender MAN O’ WAR tied along side.  The tender is actually bigger than AF! 
With just a few degrees of deviation from the most direct path to the western end of Cuba, our path took us over Pickle Banks, a famous fishing spot for blue water billfish, tuna, dolphin and wahoo! 
So we soon had four lines in the water, ready for any denizen of the deep that might drop by!  The chart plotter projected our arrival over Pickle Banks about 2:30 PM, but an hour before that, a viscous strike violently took both of the starboard lines down with the reels  screaming that beautiful sound of Penn International clickers going full tilt!  About a hundred yards behind the boat, a beautiful Blue Marlin began a series of greyhounding leaps behind us that snapped the line from the 50W reel, leaving it tied to the back of AF with the smaller 30W rig!  But she (Marlin as big as this one are always females) was well hooked and the fight was on!  Jeff was on the reel for the continuous give-and-take between the fish and AF, as she sounded over and over again, with the boat almost constantly in reverse in an attempt to regain line.  On multiple occasions, the fish had almost all of our line in the sea, but she was never able to get it all!  After two hours, the biggest fish that we have had behind AF was lying on the surface, as exhausted as Jeff!
It was considerably larger than the Blue that we caught off of the Mexican Pacific coast a few weeks ago, and we estimated that one to have been about 300 pounds.  We had all seen big Marlin before, and the consensus was that this one was something over 400 pounds!  She is back in the Caribbean tonight, tired, with a sore bill but otherwise none-the-worse for wear!  Jeff feels far worse!
We will be back on the reels early tomorrow as we pass through some truly great fishing waters just south of western Cuba; in fact, some of Hemmingway’s favorite spots were in this area!
We will be out of touch until we hit Florida, but will update our position on ShipTrak.org daily by SSB.
In sharp contrast to last week, the seas are almost flat, and XM Weather says that they will stay that way all of the way to the Keys.  It is truly beautiful out here, and we are having the most unique Christmas season of our lives – trading Reindeer for Blue Marlin, and the possibility of snow for the certainty of the blue Caribbean Sea in beautiful 82 degree weather!  Not bad at all!

 12/06/2007 Thursday

Last night was the kind of night that would turn anyone to the cruising lifestyle!  The weather is stone-cold perfect!  The seas are barely rippled; the wind less than 5 knots; the temperature in the high seventies….and the stars brighter than city dwellers will ever see them!  Kathy threw together a dinner of crab cakes that would make Bon Appetite magazine’s cover served on real china with tunes from XM Radio again permeating the euphoric scene!  Life is very good on ALWAYS FRIDAY! 

The best seat in the house after dinner was the Portuguese bridge where the celestial Super Bowl was in full swing!  Billions of stars were twinkling like diamonds from horizon to horizon; many of them concentrated in as dramatic a demonstration of the Milky Way as you could ever hope to see!  Every few minutes a shooting star would bisect the heavens with its path clearly visible for several seconds.  Even that description fails to convey the beauty of the scene magnified a thousand times by the clarity of the Caribbean sky and the brightness of the stars when seen in the absence of the light and air pollution of man.  Just when you think that that scene can’t be improved upon, your eyes are drawn from the skies to the sea where the bioluminescence emanating from the bow leads you to expect Tinkerbell’s presence with her magic wand, sprinkling light in the path of AF!  Kathy and I stood there for half an hour captivated by the opportunities that AF has given us to see the world that so few even know exists. 

Jeff, Lee and I split the watch into four hour segments, with the AIS, Radar and plotter reflecting the concentration of ship traffic as everyone funnels into the NW passage around the western tip of Cuba.  It would be hard to sleep much better than we did last night!

The morning began with a long, steamy, hot shower (try that on a sailboat!), followed by one of Kathy’s breakfasts that jump starts the day in style!  But this breakfast was interrupted by the riveting, but welcome scream of a Penn International reel as another from Neptune’s realm fell for the colorful enticements that we are dragging from AF’s stern!  After about ten minutes, the evening’s dinner menu was finalized…..with the presentation to Kathy of a 35 pound dolphin, a blank easel for her to work her culinary magic in our behalf!  Her position as MVP on the cruise is not at all in question!

It is only 10 AM, and we have already hooked and lost another big dolphin, and had another marlin whacking the baits without a hookup.  Frankly, we have had all of the billfish action that any of us really want.  Several hours of manual labor for the blue marlin, and half that for the others is quite a commitment for fish that you release after bringing them to the boat, especially when we have released close to a dozen so far!.  Personally, I am standing by with my soy sauce, ginger and wasabi as the ultimate nightmare of any yellowfin tuna that might pay us a visit!  And remember, we are not fishing; we are traveling!  All of this action is taking place at cruising speed as we pass through fishing grounds made famous by Hemmingway, but rarely visited by sports fishermen because of the remoteness of the waters.  We are now about 80 NM from the western tip of Cuba, and about 200 NM from Grand Cayman, in the Yucatan Channel and getting a boost from the Northern Equatorial Current as we roll along at almost 9 knots at 1600 RPM.  Tonight AF will enter the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in her life.  Things are starting to sound more like home now, and in fact we will cross the 1,000 NM range ring from Va. Beach this afternoon!

It would be hard to improve upon this day!  I have finally found a XM station that is not playing It’s Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas, and the fragrance of the annual Christmas tree has been replaced by that of suntan lotion!  If Santa knew about this, he would dump that sack and drop by here!   Did I say that life is very good on ALWAYS FRIDAY?  I did….but it’s worth repeating! 

12/07/2007 Friday

After last night’s dinner of freshly caught dolphin cooked very well by Pseudo Chef Jeff, it was another quiet, uneventful and beautiful night of split watches among the three of us.  The day was dedicated to direct travel to Key West with the hope of making landfall during daylight early Saturday, since I had not taken a boat into Key West before.  But the ocean gods did not allow for that luxury.  As we turned the corner at the tip of Cuba, we picked up a strong boost from the current that dictated our arrival about midnight Friday, rather than daybreak the next morning as anticipated.  We actually throttled back to 1,000 RPM and still made 7.5 knots over the ground!  At our usual setting of 1,750 RPM, we were making over 10 knots!  So about 11 PM, we arrived at the “A” buoy off Key West, and began the challenging radar run in to town.  An uneventful hour later, we were safely anchored off the Coast Guard station near downtown Key West! 
ALWAYS FRIDAY was back in the USA!! Another important milestone in our trip was in the log!  A call to Customs confirmed that we could check in Saturday morning, so it was off to bed with a feeling of satisfaction that our trip of a lifetime continues to go smoothly!  

12/08/2007 Saturday morning 8 AM
A beautiful day in Key West!  We plan to spend a few days here before moving north to Marathon Key where a new friend has offered us a slip as we move towards Virginia!  Stay tuned!  The fun is not yet over!

12/03/2007 Monday

Yesterday was one of those real surprising days when things that could have been a hassle turn out to be not only easy, but even more importantly, very enjoyable!  You may recall that I commented upon how helpful the lady from GCI Port Security was when we presented unannounced at the harbor’s entrance, knowing little about what to do or where to go.  Since we had not anticipated going to Grand Cayman, we had of course not prepared for our entry there.  No problem!  She welcomed us to Grand Cayman, directed us to a mooring buoy, and made the calls to arrange for Immigration to check us in the next morning!  All with a very cheerful attitude (not to mention a beautiful British accent!) that spoke “Welcome!” very clearly!  The next morning she called us on the radio, directed us to the North Pier, and arranged for the Immigration officers to meet us there.  To top even that performance, she then offered us the opportunity to stay at that dock all day until the cruise ship next scheduled there arrived in the early morning of the following day….all at no charge!  And things continued to get better!  When the officers arrived to complete our entry papers, they were friendly, very professional, and a real pleasure to have onboard!  This was in sharp contrast to what we had seen in several other countries (including our own!).  Trevor and Malachi walked us through the necessary steps in no time…and then stayed a while for a visit and a Coke!  I showed them all over ALWAYS FRIDAY, the capabilities of which they were quite surprised.  The electronics and the engine room generated prolonged discussions, but the FLIR system (Forward Looking InfraRed or night vision) was the hit of the show!  Trevor was so impressed with the propulsion systems that he went and got the port engineer to look at what the wind had blown into Grand Cayman!  In a very brief period of time, we had two new friends that actually gave us their home phone numbers in case we needed anything, and offered to pick us up later that evening and deliver us to any restaurant that we chose for dinner!   You talk about a royal welcome!  The lady at Port Security, Trevor and Malachi could single handedly function as the Department of State for Grand Cayman and immediately be a respected country on the international scene!  So the expected one hour of drudgery associated with immigration check-in turned into a six hour visit with some of the nicest, most capable people that you would ever hope to meet!   

Just as we were about to leave the boat for lunch, two clean cut American men showed up on the dock with questions about AF.  You guessed it again…we invited them aboard for a tour!  We didn’t know it at the time, but they were two officers from the USCG Cutter THETIS, moored not far from our buoy!  In fact, Tom was the Captain of the ship, and Brian his Legal Officer!   This tour of the boat took considerably longer than usual since our audience was on this occasion, truly professional mariners!  Before we had finished, we had not just looked at all of the toys onboard, we had turned them on and played with them!  As it turned out in this small world, both men were from Va. Beach, and the list of common friends was impressive.  Of particular interest was the fact that Tom’s dad, Ed Crabbs,  had relieved my Skipper, Al Fancher, in Fighter Squadron 32 in the mid seventies when I had the privilege of serving as a Flight Surgeon with Carrier Air Wing One onboard the aircraft Carrier, USS KENNEDY (CVA-67)!  Tom, through his dad, knew of all of my old shipmates from those days when he, as a teenager, idolized the fighter pilots that I flew with on a daily basis during three of the best years of my life!  At least an hour was consumed with stories about Al Fancher, Zeke Burns, Ed Andrews, Don McCrory, Andy Damlekan, John Allen, Fred Lewis and Rick Parlettt.  As the years accumulate, memories such as those and the ones of this trip seem to become more and more important.  But the “New Friends of the Day” was not yet closed!  As I checked my Blackberry for any new emails, there was a message that I had not expected. 

Under the title “Welcome to Grand Cayman”, it read: 

Hello Buddy and Kathy; 

My name is Lee Arie. While taking my Sunday walk today through town today, I noticed Always Friday clearing customs.  What a beautiful boat.   I have admired the Nordhavn’s since first setting sights on one about 5 years ago. 

When I returned home I Googled your boat’s name and have been reading up on your adventures.  Your “vacation” is my goal.  Thank you for sharing through your website. 

Anyway, I just wanted to send you a quick note to welcome you to Cayman.  If there is any local knowledge needed, please do not hesitate to ask via e-mail or my cell: 1-345-916-8888. 

Safe travels, 

Lee Arie.

 Surprise!!  I immediately called and invited him to come see us!  Since he lives only a few blocks from the harbor, he was onboard in no time.  Once again, AF had been the difference in being just another tourist or a welcomed guest of the country.  So in four hours, our boat had introduced us to Malachi, Trevor, Tom, Brian and now Lee while Paul Allen sat on his rich fanny onboard M/Y OCTOPUS, a yacht too big to come into port!  (I may take FRIDAY NITE! (our tender) over to OCTOPUS today and offer to introduce him around the town!) 

Lee turned out to be  a real pleasure to meet.  He came here about ten years ago from Orlando, and never went back.  He is now the general manager of a large car dealership here, and very happy with the casual lifestyle.  When I mentioned our frustration over the lack of internet access, he went back to his apartment and retrieved his  wireless receiver for our use!  That is why we now have about ten days of new updates and almost a hundred new pictures on the web page today!  This evening, we are going ashore to meet Lee for dinner, as good things continue to flow from ALWAYS FRIDAY’s impressive appearance in the harbors that we visit! 

Tomorrow Jeff Hawkins is going to join us from Texas for the trip around Cuba and into south Florida.  We met Jeff in Dana Point, CA last spring when he was there looking at a Nordhavn as a prospective buyer.  He has since become a good friend, and will be a welcomed addition to the crew on the three day passage into the States! 

We are spending the day in Georgetown today, with the boat guarded by Raleigh & Binky.  They are not allowed ashore since they have not been inspected by the Cayman Department of Agriculture!  Apparently they have our two little dogs confused with heads of lettuce!  But that is no problem….they haven’t touched ground since the Republic of Panama.  Two more weeks at sea and they will be candidates for Scurvy!  I’ll get them an orange when we go ashore! 

11/24/2007 Saturday – Canal Transit!

With today’s long anticipated passage through one of the engineering wonders of the world eminent, I arose at 4 AM to be certain that our 6:45 departure from Flamenco Yacht Marina would go off without a hitch.  Although the boat’s propulsion and steering systems have been flawless, the Panama Canal would be no place for the first mechanical glitch of AF’s life!  So hydraulic fluid levels, system pressures, fuel manifold selectors, oil levels, stuffing box drip levels, etc were checked for the last time before committing to the transit.  The Canal Authority does not tolerate delays from anyone, and if they occur, there are dire financial consequences.  With any concern for a vessel’s ability to maintain the pace of Canal traffic, a tug is called to stand by for assistance, and you have instantly spent ~$2500 in tug fees and sacrificed your buffer fee of ~$600!  Of the 38 vessels transiting the Canal today, only two are private boats – AF and a 45 foot sailboat (more about that boat later!).  It is quite obvious that this is very big business, and we are inconsequential in the big picture….unless we stop the flow of traffic!  How big a business?  The big boys pay six figure fees per day for the privilege of taking thousands of miles off of their trip, and many thousands of dollars off of their fuel bills while traveling among the continents.  In fact, a cruise ship paid over $300,000 last month to do just what we are doing today for less than 1% of that!  As directed, we and our two line handlers, Roberto & Winston, were along side Channel Buoy 4 at 7AM to pick up our Transit Advisor who functions as a pilot for boats under 65 feet.  (For the Canal’s purposes, AF is 62ft, 11 inches – they add the bow pulpit and swim platform to the length of the boat’s hull.)  The Transit Advisors are in the process of becoming Pilots, but the time frame is as long as 4 years before they take the big ships through.  We had the good fortune to draw Frank Samundio, a native Panamanian who could not have been more able, helpful or informative.  Rubin, a tug boat master, was along today as a part of Frank’s training, and between them, we learned more in a day about the history and function of the Canal than you could glean from books in a month!  Since only a small percentage of the 40 NM trip through the Canal involves the locks, we had ample opportunity to avail ourselves of their considerable Canal knowledge and experience. But nothing tops taking your own boat through the Panama Canal!  With Frank’s advice always at hand, we drove AF every foot of the way, not willing to miss any available experience that this opportunity might present!  The first set of locks from the Pacific side are the Miraflores Locks that lift you 84 feet from Pacific sea level to the level of Gatun Lake.  The next phase of the trip is the 35+ NM ride down the man-made wonders of Gaillard Cut leading to Gatun Lake, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world, covering over 400 square miles.  Upon arrival at Gatun Locks, approximately 12 hours after beginning the journey, you are lowered the 84 feet to the level of the Atlantic Ocean to renew your journey!  But that simplistic explanation fails to convey the enormity of the accomplishments of the engineers that “did the impossible”! 

The lock system was necessary not because there is an appreciable difference in the levels of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans – the difference is less than a foot – but because there is a major difference in the tide swings of the two oceans.  The Pacific high and low tides differ by approximately 17 feet (We saw just that in Flamenco Yacht Marina), while those on the Atlantic side swing no more than a foot or two.  If you were to dig a sea level canal between the two oceans, the radical difference in tides would make the tidal flow incompatible with shipping – so the lock system was devised to solve that dilemma.  It has worked beautifully for almost 100 years, and a new canal, set to open in 2014, is now under construction parallel to the original one using the same basic plan as the first!  That is quite a compliment to the original design!    

To lift or drop these massive ships the 84 foot difference in the levels of the Oceans and Gatun Lake, 44 to 56 million gallons of fresh water from Gatun Lake are used to flood each chamber of the lock!  The filling or draining process takes about ten minutes, and you can easily see the changing water levels along the walls of the lock.  Not just see them!  You can feel them!  The turbulence is dramatic!  In fact, we were in the first Miraflores lock with the only other small boat of the Canal’s day, the 45 foot sailboat.  As the water rose with dramatic force, we saw that very light boat tossed around like a feather in the wind to the extent that it appeared to be in serious trouble.  The degree of pitching and rolling associated with the influx of water was so violent that the Transit Advisor onboard the sailboat subsequently requested a slower flow rate to minimize the instability of the process.  (But the sailboat’s travails were not yet over!) 

The trip down the Canal took us through the haunts of crocodiles, poisonous snakes, monkeys, peacock bass and, perhaps the most deadly of all in the old days, insects.  Mosquitoes were instrumental in killing many of the 20,000 casualties of the Canal’s construction, with their weapon that of Malaria!  Crocodiles remain a real threat as evidenced by the loss of a Panamanian man in the waters adjacent to Gatun Lake a few years ago.     

But as you approach the third and final chamber of the Gatun or Miraflores Lock, a new potential threat raises its head.  It is well known, scientifically understood, and clearly warned of in any publication written for the operator of a vessel passing through those locks.  It applies only to the third lock on either end that empties you and its water into the respective oceans. The challenge arises from the fact that the locks fill with fresh water from Gatun Lake, but when the final locks empty into the ocean, the fresh water is almost instantly mixed with salt water from the sea.  The sea water is heavier than the fresh water, so it rushes to the bottom of the lock, violently forcing the fresh water and any small boat in the lock out into the pathway to the ocean!  Both Frank and Rubin briefed me on the procedure required to overcome the violent but predictable exit currents.  As soon as the gate opens, the response must be full power, with immediate corrective measures for the current pushing you into the starboard (right) wall of the lock, followed by a countercurrent attempting to force you in the opposite direction…..before a third current again attempts to slam you into the right wall again!   Even though warned of the violent nature of the currents generated by the mixing of fresh and salt water, I was still surprised by their strength! We rolled about 30 degrees in opposite directions while accelerating under full power to yield a ride usually reserved for theme parks!  The experience was otherwise just as predicted, and AF’s response appropriate to get us through unscathed!  But the sailboat, now in the opposite chamber with a tugboat, and considerably lighter than AF, did not fare as well.  As the crew of AF watched in awe, the sailboat was grabbed and tossed by the current in a fashion usually reserved for movies like the Perfect Storm!  The hapless boat was rocked and rolled more violently than in most any storm before being ejected into the Atlantic on a heading 180 degrees from that planned – in other words it was spit out backwards!  Whether it hit the wall or not, we could not see, and do not know, but Frank said that such gyrations were often associated with wall collisions and significant damage.

After returning Frank and Rubin to the Pilot boat, and Roberto and Winston to the dock at the local boat yard, AF dropped anchor off the city of Colon, Panama for a night of welcomed rest!

Our four Panamanian guests had contributed greatly to the thrill and enjoyment of our Panama Canal passage - one of the true highlights of our adventure!  Frank, Rubin, Roberto and Winston will always be significant parts of our very pleasant memories of this special day!  Although she was not with us for the passage, our Canal agent, Tina McBride (tinamc@sinfo.net ) and http://www.panamcanaltransits.com played an essential role in the success of this past week.  She arranged for AF’s dockage, all preparation and scheduling of the transit, our excellent line handlers, and all of the challenges of the immigration process with skill and efficiency.  She clearly met or exceeded all of our high expectations!  There may be other canal agents, but in my opinion, Tina McBride is all you need to know if you follow our path through Panama and its Canal! 

ALWAYS FRIDAY is now in its home ocean, in one piece, without a scratch and with all aboard healthy and happy!   Ninety-four hundred nautical miles behind us; about 2,500 more to go before we are home!  Next stop – San Blas Islands tomorrow!  They are supposed to be a true tropical paradise, inhabited by native Indians, and not often frequented by outsiders!  We will tell you more about it soon!

11/25/2007 Sunday

We anchored in Foxtrot anchorage just off Colon with about fifteen other private boats, mostly sail powered. At daybreak, we were on our way out of the Cristobal anchorage for the really big ships, and surrounded by car carriers, bulk carriers and tankers awaiting their turn through the Canal.  The city of Colon is protected by a very impressive seawall necessitated by the large swells that frequent the area.  As we came through the entrance to the harbor, the swells were indeed present and impressive – about 8 feet and 10 seconds apart, yielding a bouncy, but tolerable ride for the next ten hours to the San Blas Islands.  Upon arrival, it was if we entered a time warp!  The tiny islands no more than a quarter mile wide, had huts with thatched roofs, sometimes only one to an island.  As the big yellow boat inched our way through the poorly charted waters, the natives began to converge upon us from each island holding their wares out for our inspection.  But this was not junk marketing reminiscent of Skagway!  These were true natives with tattooed faces, pierced nasal septums and ankle beads right out of National Geographic!  Their dugouts were obviously locally made with the awl marks clearly visible, and the paddles still bore more of a resemblance to a limb than a paddle.  Their sails were a single triangular piece of fabric run up by hand when the breeze was appropriate generating a crude but striking beauty against a backdrop of these tropical islands!  Thee first two natives to get to us were fisherman selling the octopus strewn on the floor of their dugout.  Since Kathy did not know how to cook them, we attempted to ask about “langoustes” or lobsters.  They seemed to understand, but had none at the time.  When Kathy asked by hand signals for permission to photograph them, they quickly stood up in the dugout, held an octopus in each hand, and smiled from ear to ear!  So much for the cruise guide’s advice that they don’t want their picture taken!  In an effort to show our appreciation for the pleasure of visiting their home islands, we gave each of them a pair of flip-flops from Old Navy (Kathy had been told that they were highly cherished by the natives, so she bought a dozen pair before we left California!) and a handful of cookies and candy!  You would think that they had just won the lottery, and maybe they had in their world!  When word of their success spread among their tribesmen, AF became the center of commerce for everything that comprised their Gross National Product!  Mothers in unstable canoes padded out with infants held by four year olds to peddle bowls from coconut shells, colorful fabrics and wood carvings.  Kathy bought a bowl for $3 that would probably sell for $20 in the city market, but was able to resist the other shopping opportunities.  Although fascinating, it did not have the attraction to her as Nordstrom’s, and finally we had to say “no” to the rest of the crowd that gathered in the waters around AF.  But none paddled away without cookies and candy! 

Quite an experience, and none of the manufactured feel of the American Indian villages!

Tonight we are anchored off Limon Cay with the fires of the natives lighting the beach.  Tomorrow we are going to Cayos Coco Banderos for another night on the anchor.  The SSB is giving us a weather forecast of smoother seas as the week progresses, so our next long leg to either Belize or Cancun should be more pleasant than the ride from Colon to San Blas.  After an excellent shrimp dinner, it will be off to bed with the Trade Winds rocking us to sleep in this true and unspoiled tropical paradise!

11/26/2007 Monday

This morning we covered the 15 NM to Coco Banderos in several hours, only to find the islands so exposed to the weather than we were uncomfortable in anchoring there.  The fact that we could see twelve foot waves breaking on the shore added to our concerns, but the 500 foot freighter laying 45 degrees to its port side locked in its death throes on the reef cemented our decision to seek shelter elsewhere!  The ship was a relatively recent victim of the reef, in that not only were its masts still intact, but the rigging and antennas also looked ready for service…if only the ship could float! So back to the charts and Bauhaus’s book, The Panama Cruising Guide for another option. We settled on an island named Canirtupo, or Green Island about 10 NM away.  After a very slow and careful approach to the recommended anchorage, we were safely hooked to the sand in about 25 feet of water.  Once again the local Indians were around the boat selling their wares which include Molas, or tapestries for which they are famous.  We made our requests for “langouste grande” and  we think we were told “tomorrow”!  Down came FRIDAY NITE!  our tender, and off we went exploring the islands and their beaches!  Upon our return, a swim in the 85 degree water was a refreshing way to end the afternoon.  Two new friends from a sailboat anchored near us accepted my invitation to join us onboard AF for a visit.  Dennis & Paula have been cruising for four years after their early retirements as an engineer and artist respectively.  They educated us about the local Indian tribe and related some of their fascinating experiences with the natives here over the last several weeks. Paula has become quite knowledgeable on the topic of molas, and shared her outstanding collection with us.  They gratefully accepted about ten of our old magazines, having been deprived of such pleasures as the price of cruising solitude. 

Another neighboring sailboat dedicated to pursuing a circumnavigation caught a 25 pound Snapper from the back of their boat this afternoon, so I may have to drop a hook down there tomorrow!  However, the only fish I saw today was a small barracuda, which I consider inedible in the Caribbean because of ciguatera poisoning, but not really a food fish for anyone other than hungry natives. 

Today was truly a quiet day in paradise surrounded by friendly Kuna Indians who have adjusted well to their remote and Spartan existence!  Tomorrow, we may stay here for another day or head for another island with a different view and different products for sale.  Kathy really loves this place…it’s the shopping I think!! 

11/27/2007 Tuesday

It rained hard about 3:30 this morning – the beautiful sound of heavy rain hitting the deck magnifying the joy of being in a tropical paradise!  Around mid-morning, we weighed anchor and set a course for Isla Porvenir, the site of a grass runway where Jeane will catch a small plane to Panama City, and ultimately home for long standing family commitments.  Doug is having so much fun that he is going to stay with us until at least Cancun.  A high pressure system north of us is generating winds from the NE of 20-30 knots with 10-15 foot seas that should diminish over the next 24 hours.  I have been using multiple weather services down here, but perhaps the most impressive one is a free service from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.  Billy Smeltzer, a delivery captain that we befriended in Guatemala, told me of their program in which a phone call (001-305-229-4425 from the San Blas Islands) puts you in touch with an expert meteorologist specializing in the area in question, who then delivers a detailed briefing just like you get from FAA Flight Centers as a pilot!  When I did so today, I spoke for about 15 minutes with a very knowledgeable briefer who went out of his way to answer every question, and assist in our plans for the transit from here to the Yucatan peninsular.  If you are an offshore cruiser, you should strongly consider availing yourself of the expert services of that Center.

Later that same day:

We are now anchored about 200 yards off of the grass runway and town of El Porvenir, with the Kuna Indians surrounding AF with shopping opportunities, some of which were too good to pass up!  As an example of the work ethic of these people, we asked yesterday at our last anchorage if lobsters were available.  Two young Indians conveyed to us somehow that there were none available that day, but they would have some the next day.  We left at mid morning without a sign of the young men or lobsters.  About 5 PM today, a dugout pulled in behind AF and yelled a greeting!  It was the two men from yesterday’s anchorage…with seven lobsters!!  They had paddled 20+ miles in a dugout canoe through moderately rough seas just to bring us the lobsters that they had promised to find!  The price ….$9 for seven lobsters…we gave them $15, and they too looked like lottery winners! 

We also had the opportunity to witness a true National Geographic moment …in fact, a real one!  The NG channel has been running a series called Taboos!.  One of the featured taboos is a tribal ritual of the San Blas Islands Kuna Indians (who now surround us on AF in a number of about 50,000!) in which if a family has a disproportionate number of male children, the next male child is raised as a female, and functions as a woman for their entire life!  They are trained to take on feminine traits, no matter how masculine in appearance, and wear female clothes and makeup while accepting the tasks usually given to women in their society.  Interestingly, they are accepted into their society without a stigma of homosexuality or transvestitism, and in many cases appear to be highly respected members of the Kuna society.  When we finally get our pictures on the website, you will see two of the men that have embraced the female role.  One in particular is quite interesting.  He sold Kathy a mola that he had hand stitched with great skill and diligence, and he will be pictured on the site holding it up on the stern of AF.  He appeared to be about 20 years old, very athletically built (like a line backer!), but dressed as a woman, with flowing hair, and thick makeup!  His mannerisms were clearly effeminate, in sharp contrast to his obvious masculinity.  We were told that they occasionally revert to the masculine role when an adult, but usually spend their entire life in this flip-flopped sexual role.  Yet another experience not frequently encountered while cruising the Chesapeake Bay!  What an adventure this is!

The degree of convenience offered to us by the capabilities of AF’s systems was brought to light again today when Doug and Bill from the S/V LaSTORI came over by tender to ask if we had any extra ice.  They had been weeks without a single cube during their travels from Cartagena, Columbia to the anchorage that we now shared!  They are now on the return leg to Southern California with plans to be home before Christmas.  We filled their cooler from our freezer, and they gratefully headed back to their sailboat for a much anticipated rum & coke! 

It is interesting to note that although we have seen about two dozen cruising boats here in the San Blas Islands, ALWAYS FRIDAY has been the only power boat!  There is a reason for that…we are in the middle of nowhere, and only those boats with impressive range can come here (and get back home).  Sailboats with their inexhaustible fuel supply (the wind), can go anywhere as long as you are not in a hurry!  But power boats with their relatively short range are tied to the availability of Diesel fuel….unless you have the range of a Nordhavn!  When we left Flamenco Yacht Marina in Panama City for the Canal passage, we had 2,350 gallons of Diesel fuel onboard.  The full tanks of AF will easily allow us to go to Miami non-stop, or even to Virginia Beach if we throttle the engine back a few hundred RPM!  So here we are!  Surrounded by sail boats with no ice, while we enjoy air conditioned comfort and the option to go straight to any destination without regard to wind direction!  Sailors truly seem to love that lifestyle…but I will take the power boat option every time! 

Tomorrow, for the very first time, we will take a heading designed to take us directly home to Virginia Beach!  If the weather allows us to do so, we will head for Cancun, MX while leaving the options of intermediate stops open if the winds dictate that approach.  If things go very favorably, we may deviate towards Cuba, leave that island to starboard, and go directly to Key West (or even Miami!).  Such are the options in a boat with the capabilities of AF. 

Safety remains the number one priority, and will not be compromised for any reason.  Sadly our adventure is winding down towards the final chapters…but we still have miles to go and more challenges ahead.  I like that. 

1128-29/2007 Wednesday/Thursday

We were up at 5 AM in order to take the tender down to run Jeane the 100 yards to the air strip where she was to catch her Twin Otter aircraft for Panama City and ultimately San Francisco.  She has been a real pleasure to have with us, and we will miss her good humor and high spirits!   Her 6:30 plane arrived at 8:30, so our departure time for Cancun was slightly delayed.  The weather briefer in Miami had told us to expect high seas initially, but rapidly improving conditions as a high pressure area north of us dissipated.  So we were not surprised or bothered by seas of about 8 feet as we began the 5 day, non-stop journey to Cancun.  However, as we moved off shore, the seas became more impressive, and soon we were facing winds out of the north at 25+ knots, and building seas of 12-15 feet!  The boat handled it fine, but it was far more uncomfortable than you would want to endure for five days.  We tried various course deviations with no real benefit, so we settled down to a compromised speed of 7 knots to await the improved weather promised by the forecaster.  Throughout the night, nothing but the salon and (by necessity!) the bridge were habitable secondary to the boat’s reaction to the strong seas.  When the heavy salon chair that had not been moved by any preceding weather flew across the room and took out the louvered doors of the AV system, it was time for a change!  Another “Plan B” situation!  The charts suggested that a change in destination from Cancun to Grand Cayman Island should yield significant relief on several fronts.  First, the new heading of almost due north would get us out of the troughs of our present beam seas.  Secondly, Georgetown, Grand Cayman would be reached a day sooner than Cancun simply because it is considerably closer.  And finally, it is a British island that Kathy and I know well from our frequent SCUBA trips there; a much more hospitable experience than more of the Mexican jumping bean Immigration procedures!  So we three agreed to turn further north to Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island.  Another example of the flexibility of traveling at your own pace, on your own non-existent schedule!

Since we are now about 200 miles from shore, we have no cell or internet service, so the SSB radio came through again!  I called the Maritime Net on 14,300 kHz, informed them of the change in our destination, and asked them to post our position information and destination change on their internet site’s “ship tracker” feature.  They then tied me in with Kathy’s father, an amateur radio operator in Florida, for me to reassure him of our safety and well being!  An amazing service to boats at sea with no other reliable means of communication!  (In fact, on AF we have the option of using the satellite phone, but I reserve that option for circumstances where we have no other good choice – very expensive and not very reliable.)  So now we are at Latitude 13N with expectations of regaining XM Radio and Weather Works near Lat 16N, about 180 NM north of our present position.  The weather is clearly improving, but I can still hear the wind as it whistles through the antennas at something over 25 knots.  The ride is acceptable and we are moving directly towards Grand Cayman Island at about 7 knots.  Kathy made BLT’s for dinner tonight, the first meal that the weather had allowed us to prepare since leaving the San Blas Islands!  (Yesterday was a Gatorade and Oreos day!)       

 The SSB was alive today with reports from near St. Johns Island, the scene of the earthquake of ~7.3 on the Richter scale!  Most of the talk centered on the probabilities of a Tsunami from the quake, and most assessments were that one was very unlikely since the epicenter was in only nine feet of water!  Other than the fact that we have two very good friends, Skip & Brenda vacationing in that area, that question is of no practical concern to us, as we are in the safest place that you can be for protection from a Tsunami…at sea!

Good night!  More tomorrow!

11/30/2007 Friday

The weatherman was right, and we did the right thing.  We are now just north of the 14^th northern parallel and the weather has improved considerably. The wind is down to 10-15 knots, and the seas have fallen to a comfortable (at least in this boat!) six feet.  The swells remain about ten feet, but the period has lengthened to over ten seconds, taking most of the sting out of them.  Our speed has picked up to 8.5 knots now that the head seas are down, yielding an ETA into Grand Cayman, 275 NM due north of here,  of early Saturday night.  Doug and I are splitting the bridge watches every three hours during the night.  Since there is very little to do other than engine room checks, fuel tank management, and close attention to the navigational instruments, that has worked quite well.  Kaleidescape and the iPod continue to take us through this area of total “entertainment silence” as we await the return of Xm Radio and SeaTel TV.  As I picked up the detailed weather forecast from WLO on SSB this morning, the importance of that piece of equipment was again reinforced.  It remains my strong advice that if you are ever coming this way, get your amateur radio license and a SSB radio before you come!  And be aware of the fact that a SSB is not a radio that you take out of the box and start talking to someone thousands of miles away!  It requires considerably more homework than a VHF before you can use it effectively. 

The boat is performing flawlessly in an environment that would put many boats at risk for their survival.  Doug, who has spent all of his adult life at sea said it well last night with the statement;  “Nordhavn’s can’t make rough seas comfortable – even cruise ships can’t do that – but they sure can make you feel safe in any sea that you might find yourself thrown into!”  As the ultimate compliment, Doug is now looking at a Nordhavn 47 as his and Jeane’s future retirement home! 

So we chug on with enough fuel to reach Virginia, enough food to get to Europe, and enough water to get to the Moon (water maker!).  Grand Cayman Island is off the bow, then Key West is around the Cuban corner!  Ten thousand nautical miles down; fifteen hundred more to go before Binky and Raleigh are again chasing squirrels in Virginia!

12/01/2007 Saturday

Now four days out of the San Blas Islands, I am of the strong opinion that the Caribbean Sea in late November is no place for a social visit!  The usual word is that the Trade Winds don’t begin to be a problem until mid-December, and we had made our plans based on that premise.  However, the fact is that this has been as rough a passage as we have experienced with the exception of the Point Mendocino gale last May….and it has been sustained for almost the entire 600 NM trip!  At present, we are taking white water over the pilothouse with regularity with 20+ knot winds off the starboard bow generating breaking seas of 8-10 feet with steep swells of 12 feet or more.  The boat handles it well, but man can not build a boat (or ship for that matter!) that the sea can’t toss like a cork!  Last night was marginal for opening the galley, but Kathy insisted, and we topped off the day with another great Wahoo dish!  …….but today is another Gatorade and Oreos day!  We are less than 50 NM from Georgetown, Grand Cayman, and should have the anchor down shortly after dark.  Since we had no plans to come here, we have no applicable travel guides and must rely on the Nobletec electronic charts.  Luckily, they have considerable information on anchorages and depths, so that should suffice until we are able to glean more local information tomorrow.  We are hoping to sleep at anchor without levitation tonight!  That would be a welcome change!

Later:  Upon arrival near Georgetown harbor, a call to Port Security yielded a very nice, very British lady who was quite helpful in getting us into port.  She assigned us a mooring buoy, complete with GPS coordinates, with the admonition that if we chose to drop anchor, we would be subject to substantial fines if we were to touch a reef with the anchor.  We will clear customs in the morning and Doug will be on his way back to California after riding almost 2500 miles with us.  His admiration for Nordhavns has been reflected by his frequent perusals of the brokerage sections of the yachting magazines onboard!  Kathy came through as usual with an excellent dinner that would have rivaled any shore side restaurant had we been allowed by Immigration to leave the boat!

So it’s off to bed, made even more comfortable by the stability of AF’s sheltered mooring.  It’s nice to be free of the PacMan like gyrations of an angry sea!  Quite a change over the last four days! 

!2/02/2007 Sunday

We awoke to a beautiful 82 degree day with bright sunshine and blue skies and occasional white puffy clouds!  The wind is still blowing, but we are on the leeward side of the island, and in sharp contrast to the last few days, the breezes are our friends.  The anchorage is populated by cruising boats from multiple countries, again predominantly sailing vessels…with one BIG exception!   Paul Allen’s (co-founder of Microsoft) boat, M/Y OCTUPUS, is here!  It is something over 450 long, with helicopters on each end, a 56 ft tender, and a submarine large enough for dozens of passengers!  It looks more like a cruise ship than a yacht, and is too large to moor on anything other than a cruise ship’s mooring ball.  I heard the captain talking with Port Security on the VHF this morning about his inability to find adequate moorage.  Apparently his solution is to drift down the beach all day since dropping his anchor over the reefs might even strain the budget of Paul Allen!  So after sharing Glacier Bay, Alaska with M/Y LAUREL, we now share Grand Cayman with M/Y OCTUPUS!  These are two of the premier private yachts in the world, and their views have been no better than ALWAYS FRIDAY’s!   

We are about to depart for the immigration docks for clearance into Grand Cayman.  Doug will leave from there, and we will await more favorable winds before leaving for Key West or Ft. Lauderdale.  We have the last laugh on King Neptune!  He has blown us into a beautiful place that we would not have seen had the seas been more receptive to our presence!  More to follow.  (I may even have a lead on an internet source!)

Later:  If you are reading this around December 2^nd, my internet source worked out well!

11/15/2007 Thursday

We arrived at Marina Pez Vela in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala to a warm welcome from the marina staff, immigration officials and a dozen boaters who had never seen anything like ALWAYS FRIDAY! It was obvious that someone influential had told them that we were coming, and we knew who that was! Frank had arranged weeks in advance for us to stay here for a few days at the marina developed by his good friend from the fishing world, Fernando Aguilar. Fernando is a native born Guatemalan, educated as a chemical engineer in the US, and now a very influential and successful citizen of his native country. He is an international leader in Billfish conservation and well known throughout the International Game Fish Association as a champion of fair catch rules and the release of these beautiful fish when caught. But even more impressive than his credentials is his personality! He is the quintessential Latin gentleman, and he made our visit one of the more memorable ones of the trip! He developed this marina in response to the world class marlin fishing that surrounds this area, and the fishermen of the world are flocking to it! At present, the record for most billfish releases from this marina in one day by a single boat is 120 fish! Many offshore fishermen go a lifetime and don’t see that many fish, much less catch them in a day!

There is an air of excitement here as some of the best known boats in the sports fishing

world are gathered in this marina for two tournaments scheduled for the next week. But not only is the fishing phenomenal, the area is fascinating as well. There is a restaurant at the end of the docks that serves excellent local cuisine, making it unnecessary to go into the third world town for anything other than curiosity. But Fernando introduced us to the real pearl of Guatemala – Antigua! We had been told by many of the North Americans (the locals are quick to remind you that they too are Americans here!) that you must not leave Guatemala without seeing Antigua, and they are RIGHT! Fernando came to the boat about 9AM, treated us to breakfast at the marina restaurant, and then took us to Antigua in his big Suburban, about an hour’s drive from Puerto Quetzal! The ride through the countryside was fascinating as the fields of sugar cane in the lowlands gave way to the coffee plantations among the slopes of the volcanoes as we climbed the 6,ooo foot elevation to the ancient city of Antigua! It is a bustling center of the new and old, with the old dating back to the 1500’s. The architecture is beautiful, and the city very clean. The local artisans are very talented, and their expertise ranges from beautiful artwork to metal work to furniture making. There you will find many items that would be at home in the houses of the rich and famous! But Fernando had the crown jewel reserved for us for lunch…the Casa Santo Domingo Hotel! It is the only five star hotel in Central America, and it deserves six stars if there is any such thing! The food was phenomenal, the surroundings just as good, and Fernando’s hospitality even better! After touring all of the high points of the city, we were back at the boat by sundown, having seen the best of Guatemala with the nicest of gentlemen! If you are passing through Central America, retrace our steps! You will not regret it! An internet visit to the hotel at http://www.casasantodomingo.com.gt will give you some idea of its beauty!

So today we are off to Panama, about 900 NM from here. If the weather holds, we should be approaching the Canal in 4-5 days, but if necessary we will anchor in one of the many oceanside bays and wait for smoother seas.

All is going well here on ALWAYS FRIDAY…and one of the most memorable events is about to occur – the transit of the Panama Canal! If the internet connections allow, we will keep you updated on our progress. At present, it looks like the Blackberry will remain invaluable in our communications network.

11/16/2007 Friday

Our morning departure from Guatemala was delayed until 6 PM while a local electronics technician finally repaired our SSB radio. Reception has been intermittently blocked by interference which ALCOM, the installers, could not rectify. Now that we are out of range of the internet, cell phones, satellite TV and XM (both radio and WxWorks), the SSB is our most effective communications tool for weather, news, personal communications and emergencies. David, the technician, and two of his assistants finally isolated the problem to a connector that had been improperly wired. With that repair, we were back in action on the airwaves….and back at sea about sundown! Frank was forced to leave us for business commitments, leaving us with freezers filled with tuna, wahoo and dolphin; and memories of over 40 billfish raised behind AF over some of the most productive fishing areas in the world!

The eastern sky is beginning to glow a faint orange as the sun prepares to pop over the horizon in about an hour, but for now, the coastline remains brightly lit with the lights of El Salvador. As we have moved through Central America, I have been surprised by the density of the populations along the coasts of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. I had expected long stretches of barren land, but that has been the exception rather than the rule. Right now, the Salvadorian coast is lit up not unlike that of south Florida! We have no plans to visit all of these port cities along the way to Panama, primarily because of the hassle and expense of entering these little countries. In my opinion, the immigration procedures are more designed to generate unjustifiable income than to control the influx of undesirables. We have spent almost a thousand dollars just to enter Mexico and Guatemala, and Panama awaits us with her hand outstretched as well! (But of course, I now p