February 28 – April 04, 2026; 20932 nm and 2571 days after departure from La Rochelle

Fortunately nothing extraordinary happened while staying in Cartagena. I don’t know about you, but nowadays I’m very happy when nothing happens. There are so many scary things going on in the world, that we just hope for boring news. Every morning when sipping our coffees in the cockpit, we try to understand the unbelievable and unfortunately very dangerous nonsense some of the world’s leaders do recently. We discuss it back and forth, get frustrated and hope that all will get better asap. Unfortunately well knowing that our wish probably won’t come true any time soon. Sorry, I hope that doesn’t sound too pessimistic. Yet sometimes it just feels strange living the normal daily life when the world seems to collapse thanks to some stupid crazy guys who are unfortunately in charge. It looks, that humans can be very cruel and self-destructive.
Still, life goes on despite of what is happening in the world, right? Therefore we enjoyed the luxury of staying in a big town. We did fancy things like e.g. sitting in cafes eating ice cream, drinking freshly made lemonade, relishing “croissants amande” and cappuccino. Even if it sounds like it, but we were not completely only visiting Cartagena for our culinary satisfaction. We wanted a Shinrix vaccination. It’s a vaccine for prevention of shingles. Since we had seen our Australian friend Adrian extremely suffering from shingles for months (yes months ,plural!unbelievable), we wanted to get that shot. As a reminder we had met Adrian and Marianna in Cuba and had spent almost three months together. The whole time he was in pain and could hardly do anything. It was horrifying to see how much he was suffering. The slightest breath of wind on his skin had put tears in his eyes because of his terrible pain. Enough reason for us to avoid such a situation with a simple vaccination. And so we did. We ordered the vaccine at “el Centro de Salud San Vicente” and a week later we already got the shot. Easy peasy! Oh and yes, we know we need a second shot which we will get in Germany in summer.

Another reason we had done the visa run to Cartagena was Reina the sewing lady. I had asked her to make alterations on some of my clothes which I might wear at the wedding as well as sewing simple outfits from some fabric I had bought back in Mexico. Even more exciting, Jana also had asked Reina to make her a dress which she might wear at the “Standesamt”, the registry office. Even though Reina is a very good seamstress she needed some regular pushes to get her work done. Therefore I spent a few hours at her little sewing studio to make sure she was working on our projects. But I didn’t mind as it challenged my brain by being forced to speak Spanish and I liked watching them sewing and picking up ideas. Who knows, maybe I start a new career as a seamstress one day😁. And anyway Reina and her helper were really entertaining, we had a lot of laughs, even if mostly at my expenses. Apart from that we didn’t do anything exciting and yet the time was passing fast. Some strolls in the old city centre, some at Boca Grande, some grocery shopping and three weeks were gone. Yet plenty of time to satisfy our big-city cravings. Slowly those cravings were turned around in the desire for a nice cooling dive into crystal clear water. You can probably imagine, Cartagena waters were not very inviting to jump in!

It was Friday the 13th of March when we decided to leave Cartagena, heading back to San Blas. After a quick visit ashore to print out our exit Zarpe we lifted the anchor heading to our first stop Islas Rosarios, 20 nm away. Even if I might repeat myself, but I’m once again pretty sure sailors do have guardian angels! ‘Cause only thanks to Norbert’s sudden intuition to check the engine, we were literally saved from loosing our engine. What? Yes! By chance he checked on the engine and saw that water was in the bilge. Not good at all. We were about 45 min out of the bay of Cartagena when Norbert realised that the hose between the heat exchanger and expansion pot was broken. All the cooling water was already in the bilge and not running through the heat exchanger anymore. Without water, no cooling. Without cooling the engine would have overheated and then just broken down. How lucky were we? For sure someone made Norbert look at the engine so we could save it and a loooooooot of money. We turned around and headed back to the city. Of course Norbert filling in water making sure the engine wouldn’t overheat. Once back, Norbert went ashore to get a new hose. Already in the first shop he got lucky and found a fitting one. Meanwhile I had cleaned the bilge so he could immediately attach the new hose. Only two hours later -very happy and relieved- we were again on our way. I can tell you that was a delay we were more than willing to have done – I don’t want to imagine what would have happened if Norbert hadn’t seen the water in the bilge…

As much as we enjoyed the amenities of the big city the less we liked the associated dirt. The beautiful weather along with many exhaust fumes resulted in a lot of dust and dirt. Without rain but with salty air the dirt was able to settle nicely everywhere. What ever I touched I had the feeling I got filthy. The inside of some curtains didn’t look white anymore they were black!!! Ok, Norbert wouldn’t agree with that and say I’d be exaggerating extremely, BUT to ME it felt like it! So, however differently we perceived this dirt we agreed that our stay at Isla Rosario was dedicated to one task. Cleaning up Altimate! It took us two days for the full clean up but that included washing cushion covers, curtains, cleaning walls, cupboards… and hull cleaning from barnacles. Or short: everything. A lot of work but it felt very good afterwards. Ain’t it nice when you actually can see the results of your work? I love that! Norbert, by the way, does agree on that.
With a nice clean Altimate we left the Rosarios, had an overnight stop at Tintipan and headed to Isla Fuerte.(The feature pick was taken there.) Here we wanted to stay a few days to enjoy the pretty island. Unfortunately the swell came into the anchorage from the north which made the usually calm bay rather rolly. Not nice. We weren’t in the mood of a rolly stay so decided to move on. Our next stop was Sapzurro. The 90nm distance required an overnight sail and made us leave in the afternoon to have plenty of time to arrive in daylight. So, to take advantage of our time in the morning and to avoid being shaken up at the anchorage, we went ashore. It was nice stretching the legs and walking through the nice nature of Isla Fuerte. We visited the little town, said hello to the walking tree again and just enjoyed the many chickens and donkeys which were almost everywhere on that island. When our legs had enough exercise and slowly got tired, we got back to our dinghy. It was tied up -like last time we had been here- at the beautiful Eco lodge with the very friendly staff. As we still had time we treated ourselves to a refreshing cool freshly made limonada as well as to a delicious lunch. That was a perfect! When back on Altimate we were ready to move on with a satisfied tummy and exhausted legs.

The sail was great and much faster than we had expected. The wind direction and speed was different than forecasted. Luckily in our favour which let us arrive already in the morning of the next day. And here we were again in beautiful Sapzurro. Once again we immersed ourselves in the peaceful nature of Sapzurro. Everything was as it was supposed to be until I realised that I didn’t see any mangoes at the trees. Even though if you might remember, Sapzurro was full of mangoes trees. Back in 2023 there were mangoes everywhere and I was collecting those delicious fruits like crazy. This time I was hoping to get some early mangoes as it was not yet harvest time, but there were none! We couldn’t find any single mango at the trees. That was strange! On our last day we had dinner at Linas restaurant and I asked her what happened to the mangoes. She said that the mean storm in February, which had also caused the bad weather when Natalie and Martin were visiting us, had destroyed all mangoes and avocados in the bay. I have no idea how that could happen but we could see or better not see the result. However it was very sad and annoying for the people in Sapzurro. Well I guess it could have been worse with the storm. At least nobody got hurt.
Two days before my big birthday we checked in at Obaldia. Victor, the Port Captain greeted us again with a handshake and welcomed us back to Panamá. I wish all the port captains were as friendly as he is. Like always the check in was fast and we were soon heading further. My wish for my birthday was to stay at the beautiful and remote bay of Escoses. Surrounded by mangroves and a gorgeous view to the beauty of the mainland. Yeah well what can I say. The northerly swell which had already caused the rolling atmosphere at Isla Fuerte did the same in Escoses. We had been here before and spent a few days in super calm water but this time it was a nightmare. Both of us couldn’t sleep. I was up at 4:30 in the morning preparing coffee and waiting for the sun to rise so we could move on. The good thing was we knew the area and needed only an hour to get to Suledup, an anchorage south of Caledonia. A safe and 100% rolly free anchorage. Yeah!

I think we arrived at Suledup already at 7:30 in the morning. Two other boats were there already, which is rather unusual in those areas of the San Blas. Sometime in the later morning the couple from one of the boats came by to say hello. Nice dutch guys which wanted to have drink with us so I invited them for my birthday the next day. Luckily we had 5 apples left so I made a delicious apple cake for my birthday. Yvonne and Koen were fun to talk to and we enjoyed their company. Like I wished I had a nice and quiet birthday- maybe age-appropriate? I prefer to say place-appropriate 😁. We spent 5 lazy Days in Suledup before we moved on. We were hoping to stay at some outer islands to explore their reefs but the swell didn’t support our idea. When anchored we got pushed around so we kept going again to sheltered mangrove anchorages. Our stops were Golandrina, Snug harbour and already after 5 more days we were back in Esnasdup. Well, the good thing was we were again able to get veggies and fruits. Yeah!