Plans on a sailboat seem to change with the wind.
We are staying in Cartagena a few more days. Guin is flying back to the states with her dad for the summer. He is arriving here on Sunday. Guin is excited, and sharing her love is part of having a child that isn’t biologically yours. It’s all good. Her dad is understanding of our life-style and I’m sure they will have a great summer.
The thought of not having Guin around for the summer is a strange one, I’m wondering how Sam will take it? I’m hoping she doesn’t freak having to just deal with me all the time :) They have never been apart for this long before. ‘La vida es aci’ (Life is so). Sam will visit her parents later in the summer and bring Guin back to us in the San Blas. This will give Sam and I a good opportunity to knock out some boat projects. Sam is pretty good with the varnish!
I know a number of people have been asking about charters and it’s time for us to start working. I’ve been trying to figure out the pricing, and for the moment I’m going to keep it simple. A 40’ boat and captain usually costs about 7k a week. Frankly I wouldn’t know what to do with all that money so we are going to ask $1500.00/couple, plus a “provision” fee which will be a few hundred depending on food & alcohol requirements. We are not doing “luxury” charters so helping yourself to a snack or fishing for dinner may be a requirement. We will cover the cooking and dishes. The concept of “Splendid” charters is the same as when I was chartering on Namaste. My goal is to teach people/families how to cruise on a budget. Project BlueSphere is a key that allows dreamers access to the reality of cruising, and our charters is just the next step, a ‘slice of life’ if you will.
Getting to the San Blas is pretty easy. Flights from the states to Panama city are cheap. Once in Panama one would have to take a taxi to the smaller (Allbroke) airport and take a $40.00 shuttle (flight) to Porvaneer in the San Blas where we would be waiting. From there we would cruise around the San Blas for the week and would return to Porvaneer for your return trip home. Reservations for the shuttle can be made online through Air Panama. I did half a dozen charters in the San Blas and all my charters assured me it was an amazing experience.
We are going to sail for the Rosario islands on Tuesday. They are about 10 miles away. I need to give Splendid a bottom cleaning before our trip to the San Blas and it is way too dirty in Cartagena harbor. We will spend a day or two in the Rosario’s before making the 200 mile passage for San Blas. We will be without email for a few weeks but I’m hoping to be able to get logs posted through my Orbcomm system. I hear there is Cellular service in parts of the San Blas now and will get a cell phone is Panama as soon as I can.
Cheers
Sail far and live slowly.
Alex