January 31- February 28, 2026; 20646 nm and 2536 days after departure from La Rochelle

Wait, wait, wait, don’t blame me! I did’t event that thought! There is a saying going around in the sailor community that says: “Visitors are like fish- they start to smell after three days.” Oops! What? Actually it was Natalie who told us the first time about that saying. Therefore we were all aware of potentially upcoming odores. But thanks to Natalie, who is always straight forward, that topic was brought up. So just in case we all agreed to immediately address any unpleasantries. That was awesome and felt already very good! Like that we all knew if some party was fed up of whatever reason, we could just tell and we could part. Honest and relaxing. I know that sounds a bit weird as Natalie and Martin are highly valued and long-time friends (and sailors), still friendship can be challenging on a boat. And on top of all that, talking about it confirmed our friendship! At least in my humble opinion. Now, I can assure we had a brilliant time despite the outstandingly bad weather conditions. Our visitors always smelled delicious. When do you guys come back? We miss you!

Indeed, our poor guests had managed to pick the worst weather we had ever experienced in the San Blas. Actually, I can’t remember ever having such shitty weather anywhere in the Caribbean! Even though I tried to persuade Zeus to be merciful by always eating the rest of my plate (at least in Germany that is what parents tell their kids to do to get nice weather) but obviously it didn’t help. A strong low pressure system coming from the east coast of the US presented unusual winds from west. Bringing not only strong winds and big waves but also plenty of dark clouds which loved to get rid of their heavy humid load. Frankly, I think we had to be thankful that Natalie and Martin made it to Altimate at all that Sunday. Because just before they arrived we got the message that due to heavy weather conditions the Guna Congresso cancelled the lancha trips from Cartí to the islands for the next two days for safety reasons. So you can imagine we were more than happy welcoming the two safe and sound aboard Altimate. Maybe I should have thanked Zeus for that, too? Can’t be bad, can it? Thank you Zeus!!!

What a lovely situation. Instead of sitting in the cockpit sweating like crazy and annoyingly taking a swim every 15 min, we were blessed to sit inside, squeezed together and let the showers pass. Wasn’t that great? No harm from mean and dangerous sun rays. Their skin was very well protected. Actually a perfect start to get their white winter skin adapted. If I think about it, we did a good job! We took care of their health, didn’t we?
Our original plan to show them all the nice snorkel spots we had recently discovered was for the time being not possible. It looked as if the weather would stay bad for quite some time. So instead of island hopping and snorkelling we did a lot of talking and eating. Fortunately in between rain showers we managed to go ashore for half an hour so our guests could get a first impression of the San Blas. More was not really possible as Esnasdup did not have much to offer. Martin didn’t care about the weather and still jumped in the water to have a little swim workout. Dianne the single handed friend of Debbie, which we had met a few days before, haled us via VHF/WhatsApp for help. She happened to be at Esnasdup too but felt uncomfortable at her anchorage. As the winds were so strong she preferred to ask for another pair of hands to find a better holding spot. Of course we were happy to help! I send the boys over so she even got two pairs of additional hands. The boys were happy to have a task and Natalie and I kept talking😁. As a reward for their good deed and because we had so much time I made lemon amaretti biscotti. They turned out really nice and were gone almost immediately.

After two nights despite the crazy weather, we decided to move on to a nicer island. Because Natalie and Martin were sailors themselves, we could just sail without worrying they might get scared or sick or whatever. They knew we had very strong winds and that we had to go close haul to reach Sibadup. (Our lately favourite island.) A rough sail through higher waves but with the possibility to run fast. We were all excited to change location and were indeed treated with a great and fast sail.
Sibadup -even in not perfect weather- still looked amazing. Its surrounding waters with the different shades of blue and turquoise had put a big smile on our visitors faces. Here we were hoping to take them to our favourite snorkel spot right at the outer reef. But the weather forced us to wait for that fun part. The wind was still blowing and the current was extreme. Just swimming the length of Altimate required all our strength. Or to be honest, I hardly managed to walk-swim the 12 metres. Yes we were again anchored in only 1,5m depth so we could actually walk around the boat. That was cool but the current was unbelievable super strong. Absolutely crazy!
A good thing Martin was always in workout mood. He pushed us to go ashore and persuaded us to join him doing some yoga. (If not, we probably all would have gained a few pounds just eating.) That was not only fun for us but also for the Guna family living there. They laughed about our not so professional moves and copied a few positions without any difficulties. Due to their life style they were all just super fit. (They do not need workouts! I’m a bit jealous.) Even though we couldn’t do much the days passed by quick. Actually, because we were not moving as planned, Natalie and Martin got to see our normal daily life and not only our having-visitors-life. Next to chatting about old times and everything, we repaired little jobs, cleaned areas which were always at the end of the to-do-list, bought veggies from a veggie boat, got fish from Gunas, gathered together at the island with some sailor friends or just played volleyball. A normal day in the San Blas.

Well, unfortunately the snorkelling at the outer reef turned out to be impossible even after a few days. The current was still extremely strong. Swimming against it was like high-performance swimming – way too intense and dangerous. On top of that, waves were breaking over the reef which made the water bubbly and the visibility bad. So we just did a drift snorkel back to Altimate. That was relaxing and our friends got to see at least a ray. Yeah! The second attempt, a day later, was not much better. So instead of struggling there and not seeing anything we went to another inner reef. Here the water was calm and swimming easy. Our dear friends enjoyed that reef very much. Being surrounded by little fish, already made them happy. No big fish needed to have a great experience. I guess we were already a bit spoiled after so many month in the San Blas. Why didn’t we think of trying to snorkel there earlier??? Too much expectation from our side I guess.
Thanks to the weather which kept staying miserable a lot of little things got done on Altimate. Natalie liked to crochet and fixed all my broken potholder. Oh and I do have a lot! I hate doing that and was therefore veeeeery grateful. Martin looked after our stainless steel and let it shine again. As well in the mornings we suddenly had a coffee machine. Oh it was so nice – still laying in bed – hearing Natalie heating up the water and grinding the beans. We were spoiled! Preparing food, cooking, making a mess in our pantry – no problem at all. If you have Natalie and Martin aboard they take care of everything and even ask for more jobs. One day we tried to make yoghurt directly in a milk carton. Taka Tuka had told us about it and we wanted to try it as well. You just put some yoghurt in the box to the milk and let it sit for hours in the sun. We wanted that too! Well, we tried but didn’t think it through as we were actually sailing again. I had stupidly put the box underneath our spray hood to give it a warm place. Didn’t think about the movement of the boat and bam! The whole carton flew down into our salon. Yeahhhh the box hit our sink before landing on the floor and managed to spread the half made yoghurt everywhere. It was a big sour stinky mess. But hey not to worry. Natalie was aboard! She jumped up, by now she knew where the rags were and immediately started to clean. Ain’t that cool? I need to mention: of course I jumped in only seconds later and together we cleaned up the mess.

After 6 days at Sibadup we moved on to the pool. There we had dinner at Ibins, said hello to Debbie and had a stroll around the island. Debbie agreed that snorkelling in the pool was as well not satisfying these days. So we hopped to Green island the next day hoping for better snorkel conditions. We found a spot where the visibility was ok and a few fish were saying hello. The one big highlight was that Norbert had found black nike sport trousers in his seize on the bottom of the sea. They only needed a freshwater wash and were ready to use. The new way of shopping in San Blas. When coming back from the short shopping snorkel I had asked Natalie why she never seemed to dive headfirst into the water. She didn’t know and thought it was probably because she just hadn’t done it since she was a girl. Somehow that started a dive competition between Natalie and Martin. Wow! It turned out Natalie was a gymnast with perfect technical execution in headfirst diving. While we (Im glad I was not being pictured) would jump in with legs spread, arms and hands just somehow wobbling in front of our heads, Natalie jumped in one straight line. Arms, hands, legs, body and feet in perfect stretch. Who would have know? See for yourself.

Unfortunately there time was already running out. Only two days were left before they would be picked up in the afternoon in Niugnudup. To have a last try of a nice snorkel we headed to Waisaladup and anchored close to the reef. Here we were lucky. The sun was merciful and frequently emerged from its hiding behind the clouds. That improved the visibility and we all could finally enjoy a pretty dive. The last evening had suddenly appeared and we sadly had to face the fact that we had to part already the next day. As we were only 6nm away from Niugnundup Natalie and Martin wanted to take the last possibility to snorkel before heading there. A last breakfast, a last reef snorkel and then we were off to Nuignudup. Even though the snorkelling was unfortunately not the best while they were visiting us, al least the sailing was always great. And so it was on our last sailing day together. As the sail was fast we still had a couple of hours until they would be picked up. Enough time to pack the bags and enjoying a last lunch together. And then the lancha came. See you guys hopefully very soon!!!

Slowly time was due for another visa run to Cartagena. The 3 month weren’t quite over yet, but we were in the mood for a city again. Also our still valid cruising permit in Colombia would run out on the 24th of March. Therefore we decided to head to Cartagena to have enough time. But before we left, we picked up a delivery in Esnasdup, said goodbye to Debbie and had a last volleybeer at the pool. The wind was looking favourable and so we moved on comparably fast. With stops only in Achutupo, Puerto Perme and Cholon, we made it in one week to Cartagena. The weather was great that time of the year. Since we arrived we hadn’t seen one drop of rain let alone lightning or thunder. The temperature was pleasant especially at night as it cooled nicely down. We even liked to use a blanket. Perfect! Just in case someone wants to visit Cartagena and not sweat like sitting in a sauna, I would highly recommend the month of February and March to visit.