Green around the gills

So, after a recommendation and a lot of research we decided to go with ‘Fritz the Cat’ to Cartagena. A good size catamaran with a slightly bonkers Austrian captain. Things didn’t start of the best as we met a couple of friends who also planned to do the trip and started exchanging horror stories that we had heard about too many people and not enough beds.

After a three hour totally bonkers jeep ride we finally got to the ocean, the jeep ride involved the steepest hills we have ever seen a car go up and driving through a river. We then paid some Kuna people (local tribe) to take us by boat out to the awaiting catamaran and the crazy Fritz. I was feeling decidedly dodgy.

Greeted by Captain Fritz we discovered we were sharing our boat ride with 2 Swiss girls Alex and Gabrielle, YouJin from Korea, 8 Australians with 8 litres of rum, Luis a Colombian ex-tiger trainer, Fritz and his much younger Kurdish girlfriend and her friend. Gio and I are allocated the ‘honey moon’ suite, which we wish we had a photo of – a very small bed with a mirror running the length of it!! It takes quite some acrobatics to climb in to and squeeze in to the gap between the bed and the ceiling!



After some discussion concerning my illness, Fritz diagnosed me with kidney stones after a jab in the kidney but seemed to think I will be fine, we decided to go for the more traditional antibiotic route just in case.



Fritz lived up to his nutso reputation and we were all entertained by his unique trumpet playing approach to playing host, we spent a lovely couple of days around the San Blas islands, snorkelling, laying on deserted beaches and buying lobsters and souvenirs from the local Kunas.

One of the cute Kuna kids enjoying lunch on board.

It was a pleasure getting to know Luis, one of the crew.

Luis is Colombian and only speaks Spanish which was excellent practise for us, we enjoyed learning all new words about tigers and the circus as Luis told us about his job for the last five years working with white tigers and a sunglass wearing chimp – no, we couldn’t quite believe it either!

After leaving the San Blas islands the journey took a bit of a turn for the worse.

The GPS and the auto pilot failed which meant a fair amount of swearing from Fritz and everyone taking it in turns to steer the boat constantly, turns out YouJin is excellent at doing this with his feet! The sea became ‘very confused’ according to Fritz, Gio and I would just call it rough – with big swells and lots of waves! After a rough and very very hot first night at sea we wake to find we have run out of water and the sea is too rough to pump any from the reserve tank. Mmm it was destined to be a long ride. The day at sea was long and boring as it was too rough to do anything but hold on tight. The second night was almost comical. As it was so hot we slept sitting at the back of the boat and both Gio and I, in turns, managed to get caught by giant waves coming over the top of the boat and absolutely drenching us. So we decide the safe option is the sauna that is our room. About an hour later Gio woke up to hear water swishing and gushing in around us. Something was wrong – water was coming in through the light fittings and everywhere else possible. A little panicked we reported in to Fritz who was more concerned about the GPS continuing to fail! He did however manage to solve the issue, almost being swept over board in the process. So the next 8 hours were spent attempting to sleep between people on the floor and in any tiny vaguely dry space, occasionally exchanging worried glances with people as big waves hit.

Finally, finally, finally Luis guided me up to the front of the cat and to the wonderful sight of the sun rising over Cartagena. Phew (and that’s being polite).