Where else can you find such tasteful artwork?
Panama is planning on taking over the busing business and take it away from the independent business man, that really breaks my heart, and will rob some very important culture from this amazing country.
An old American school bus is a families livelihood and they take extreme pride in their buses. I’m thinking to take a few weeks and just photograph theses wonderful busses before they are all gone, it would make a good coffee table 
book or documentary :) What do you think?
The music booms and at night and disco lights fill the interiors. The old and young people of Panama sit together listening to contemporary Panamanian music as they travel to and from work, school, or play.
Everyone seems so happy and riding these colorful goliaths and it is seems a healthy social activity.
I went to Colon today with my friend Paul. He decided to point me in the right direction and pull me out of the hopeless Kubota project. He re-designed the entire system and laid everything out in a compact and simple way. Its all going to work quite well and I’m going to stop beating myself in the head over it. I think I’m a decent mechanic but far from an engineer!
It looks as though I have a charter in a few weeks :), and another the last week of March into the first week of April. A few weeks after that I should be off to Miami where I will board a ship and go to sea for three weeks working as a carpenter. I should be able to pull myself out of the deep financial hole I’m in and put the finishing touches on Splendid.
I’ll do some backpacker runs and make some extra money and transit the canal in 6-8 months and gear myself up for another Pacific crossing. I only spent two days in the Galapagos last time I was there, what the hell was I thinking?
This time I will have a dive compressor, dive gear, and underwater camera.
I’m spending my evenings pouring over charts and pilot data trying to find the most interesting and secluded path across the Pacific. I want to explore off the beaten track and if I can afford to put a system together make my own charts as I travel so i can share it with others.
Kiribati and the Palmyra Atoll are on my list. The Nature Conservancy owns Palmyra and I’m trying to get permission to do some extensive filming there. If I can pull it off I’m going to get an underwater housing with my HD SLR camera package and do something special for my next film.
Anyway, I’m off to make some food.
Tomorrow evening I’ve been invited to a dinner party at my friend Binnies house and was instructed to wear a jacket & tie :) I’m in charge of making the bread, pretty easy for me.
I’ll be talking about boats in my next video and I’m going to teach you guys how to make bread.
The first step in autonomy is learning how to take care of yourself and take “personal responsibility”. I want to get lots of emails hearing about bread making. After that we will graduate to wine and beer making ;)
Cheers everyone.
Peace, Love, and coconuts
Sail far, dream large, and live slow!
Alex
Published in Alex Dorsey
Hey Bud,
Long time no talk.
If you havent already, read “And the Sea Will Tell” By Vincent Bugliosi. You might change yer mind about Palmyra.
Creepy place!!:)
Tony
Why is it creepy? was it a fictional thing?
Hey Alex, Vincent Bugliosi was also the prosecuter in the Manson trials, and he wrote this(And the sea will tell), some years after, as these events transpired around August 1974. I think what Tony E meant by creepy was Mr. Bugliosi’s very dark tone, descibing how they had no fishing gear, had no diving equipment or the ability to survive on this island. He basically portrays Buck Walker(the convicted killer), as a fugative low life, who would do anything to further his own survival. For instance, He mentions all the sharks in the lagoon! Oh no! Well, everybody I know consider black-tips as pretty harmless, but you get the idea. Buck Walker and his girlfreind Stephanie Stearns, bought a wood sailboat in Hawaii and she sailed it to Palmyra with no help from him, as he was seasick the whole time. She used dead reckoning and a I think a sextant, which by itself was pretty impressive. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to go there! Stewart
Of all the stops on our carb cruise the best seem to be the ones other cruisers said to pass by.
I’m getting excited about the Pacific crossing. I was up till two am last night on the internet and pouring over charts. I’ll have to cross the ITCZ three times but it is what it is :) I’m going to cross much slower and I’m looking at visiting Cocos before Galapagos. I’ll post a route in a few days, WAYYYYYY off the beaten path :) I’ll need sat phone minutes so I can post blogs, pictures will be impossible without a BGAN system but I can post pictures and videos…, well, I don’t know when but if I can at least get text updates that will be cool :)
Alex:
You crack me up… The juices are flowing. Your childlike ways are rockin’ again. Cool. Keep it up and remember the way.
All’s well up here in SW Florida. Winter is settling in with the fronts coming down every 7 days or so. Winds are good, the phone is starting to ring and I’ve picked up a couple of short charters.
I found a good source for green coconuts up here and have a shipment coming in today. Tourists love it when you crack a coconut and let ’em drink the “magic” water. Damn that stuff is so good for you.
Hey when you are in Miami, are you going to have a day or two to come to the west coast and have a beer? It would be good to see you again.
In any case, keep up the video projects and stay in touch.
Capt. Paul
s/v Panacea
“WE may all get older…But we all don’t have to grow up”
Capt Paul.
It doesn’t look like I can take the job working on the ship for three weeks, bummer, would have been about 5k. So I don’t think I’ll be visiting Florida after all. They don’t have drug testing facilities in Panama and I don’t think they will take me on without one. I must admit I’m a bit put off by taking a drug test, I’d come up 100% clean for sure, but what a nasty practice! Talk about an invasion of privacy.
Wow, big Scottish party last night! Lots of haggis, Scottish dancing, red wine, and Scottish whiskey! I didn’t wake up until 11:00 and kind of wish I hadn’t! I must say I do have some really nice friends here.
It’s going to be a slow day :(
Peace, Love, and Tylenol!
hey alex check out 2009 panama to hilo via cocos and palmyra
http://www.mahina.com/expeditionupdates.html
Alex,
You can go to a lab in Miami and pay for your own drug test. Its about $150 and results take 1 or 2 days to get back, thats a small investment and it would give you time for a couple of beers with your friend! Its not about invading your privacy, its about insurance liability and good ol frivolous lawsuits – USA Style!
Hey Alex, I found this interesting tidbit about Palmyra on the nature conservancy’s website:
“1816
A Spanish pirate ship, the Esperanza,loaded with plunder from the Incan temples, wrecks on the atoll reefs. The crew allegedly buries the treasure beneath a palm grove before setting out on three fabricated rafts. Two of the rafts are never seen again. The remainiing raft is rescued by an American whaling vessel. The sole survivor of the raft soon dies after sharing the fate of his ship.”
Kinda makes you wonder why everyone seems to want this particular atoll!! Also, since 2009, visitiing yachts may visit with prior permission.
Stewart