Author: Fenton Krupp

A few weeks ago, we hiked the tallest mountain in Panama, Volcan Baru. We did the whole hike in one day, on foot, no cheating. The peak is at 3,475 meters, and we started around 2000 something meters. Besides going up (and down) about a kilometer, we also hiked about 14 km from the bottom of the trail to the peak.

We started a day before we got to the peak ago, waking up at 11:00pm so we could drive about 2 hours to get to the bottom to start hiking at 1:00am, which would get us up the mountain with enough time to see sunrise, around 6:30am. Normally going to sleep around 8 would be difficult for me, but the fact the fact that we did a three hour hike earlier that day made it slightly easier. This advantage was canceled out by the intense heat we had due to a lack of wind on the boat. So after about half an hour of tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. After talking with everyone else the next day though, it seems I was the one of the lucky ones. Some people couldn’t sleep at all, be it nerves or heat.

Anyhow, we all got up and ready, and we drove to the foot of the mountain. The first thing I felt as soon as we got out of the car was that it was COLD! I wore zip-offs (what they lack in style they make up for in functionality), a long-sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and a windbreaker. We were dressed warmly as we’d learned that the peak would be close to freezing, which is like a 50 degree difference from the boat. We also had flashlights, because when you hike at night, it’s dark. The beginning of the hike was nice; we all had energy, we (I, at least) were excited, and the hike started off pretty mildly. We saw a 1km marker and cheered. We were well on our way. Heidi and I saw a little mouse. It was cute. Everything was going nicely until about 2km later.

At the (first) 3km sign, we noticed that the sign said we had 10.5km left to the top. This wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t think that the hike was less than 8km, and we were almost halfway. Unfortunately, our day (night) just got a lot harder. We thought we were making really good time, but realized that if we wanted to get to the peak for sunrise, we would have to push harder uphill.

It’s hard to describe our hours we spent toiling through the dark. They were hard, and we had to take breaks with some regularity. If we stopped for too long though, we’d get cold, so we just had to push through. We barely saw anybody else, save for a few people whizzing by us in cars. The dirt road/path (it was more of a road) was dusty and rocky, so any slip would kick up dust and displace rocks, and cars made it look like Tatooine during a dust storm.

After five and a half brutal hours, going back and forth on thinking we would make it on time or not, we made it to a scenic vista, just below the peak. We all collapsed on to rocks where we could see the sunrise, and waited a few minutes for the sun to peak up and start the day (for the not insane people who don’t wake up at 11:00pm). It was pretty. Maybe that’s understating. I tried to take a picture but to get the full picture, you have to hike for hours and collapse on top of that mountain for yourself. I’d recommend it, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Once the sun was up, some of us had some snacks, and then we pushed on to the tippy toppy peak which was the official highest point in Panama. You gotta go all the way when you only have about 30 minutes left, right? We got to the top, took some photos, admired the beauty, saw lots of clouds, and then started to think about going down. Before we did though, we stopped again to eat some more and rest a bit. With the sun up, I wasn’t even cold, and I just about fell asleep up there. Unluckily for me, we still had a whole 13.5km down, starting around 8am.

In theory, it should take about half the time to go down as it did to go up. Our ascent took about 5.5 hours, so down should be between 2 and 3 hours. I thought we’d get to the bottom around 11, 12 if we really messed up. We quickly realized that down wasn’t nearly as easy as expected. We all had achy feet, were sleep-deprived, and ready to go home, but the hike wasn’t ready for us to leave. I swear that mountain grew an extra kilometer or two on the way down. We pushed and stopped and saw a white-nosed coati (kinda like a racoon who runs around during the day instead of the night). He charged Heidi when she turned a corner. It was hilarious. I took some selfies with him. We finally got back to the car around 1:30, bringing our descent to 6.5 hours, LONGER than uphill!! How is that even fair?!

Still, we all felt really accomplished at the end. We hiked over 23 miles, blistered our feet, and slept soundly that night. Well, it was still a bit hot, but I was exhausted. We felt even more accomplished after signing in to the ranger logbook, because we saw that a group that started two hours ahead of us only beat us by about half an hour to the peak. So, ultimately, I felt like we’d done a good job, especially considering none of us are in superb shape right now. Nobody died, and we all made it to the top. That’s a win for me.

If anyone is interesting in hiking Volcan Baru, I’d advise you to know that we saw distance markers at 1km, 2km, 3km, 4km, 4.5km (the stretch between 4 and 4.5 is brutal uphill, and feels like a lot more that 0.5km), 6km, 7.5km, 9km, 10km, 11.5km and then a 12.3km right before the top. Budgeting six hours to ascend might have been a bit easier, but five and half isn’t that bad if you don’t mind pushing yourself. The loose rocks make the going slippery sometimes, and the dust gets everywhere and makes you dirty, but that’s more of an annoyance. Well-fitting shoes and early detection and treatment of blisters will make your recovery time quicker, so you can get back to hiking quicker (if you still want to after this one). If you want to see the top but don’t want to hike, you could take a car, but where’s the fun in that?

Until next time,

Fenton

On January 25th, we started our journey through the Panama canal. This was exceptionally exciting for me for two reasons. First, I’d never been through a lock of any kind before, and while the Panama Canal’s locks are about the same size as the rest of my boat mates have through, they’re still really impressive feats of engineering. Secondly, it’s kinda cool to be in places that we read about in history. Sure, in school I learned that thousands of people worked on the canal (and died) and it took immense amounts of manpower to build, but it’s entirely different to be actually there, holding the lines, fighting the wind and current.

As part of our transit procedures, we were assigned an adviser who joined our boat before we rafted up with the other boats and went through the locks. I thought our adviser, Carlos, was hilarious and very helpful, and I’m glad we got to go through the first half with him. I’m even more glad that we kept his accident record at zero, because even though I wanted our transit to be exciting, I’d rather not spend it in the hospital.

Getting ready to go through the locks was about as much of an adventure as going through the locks themselves. We got to the entrance to them around 7pm, so it was already dark out. The canal had lights, but we had to raft up (attach ourselves) to another boat, which had yet another boat on its other side. The rafting difficulty was compounded by the fact that our advisers spoke primarily Spanish, the boat in the middle spoke primarily French, and we spoke primarily English.  After the three of us were all connected, we headed into the first lock.

Since we had a boat on our port (left, facing the bow) side, we only needed to attach lines to side of the canal on our starboard (right, facing the bow) side. This was accomplished pretty simply; workers on the side of the canal threw lines that had a monkey’s fist (a knot that gives a line weight, so it can be thrown) at our boat, we caught them (after a try or two), attached them to our lines, which we held on to, and the worker pulled the line back to the side of the canal. Once they had our lines, they could walk with it alongside the lock until we were at the point where it was attached to the top of the lock. We worked in teams of two to pull in slack as we went up so that the boat farthest from us wouldn’t slam into the opposite wall.

Lucy and I were on the stern, and we had to continually pull the line in and secure it so that we’d stay relatively in the middle of the lock (i.e. not smashing into anything). In the locks, we were fighting the wind as we went up, which made pulling in really difficult. As we went on, we gained more experience and the locks got progressively easier.

The locks were successfully crossed after about two hours, and we had a scenic view of the ocean all the way at the bottom of the ocean. It was really cool seeing the drop off, knowing that we were just down there. I don’t think I’ll ever fully grasp engineering or physics, but I’m really grateful that it works so well.

We spent the night in the man-made Gatun Lake, on a floating plastic mooring thingy that clanked against us all night. Since I had the berth this week, I got a front-row seat to hearing the noise. Sufficient to say, I’m definitely looking forward to sleeping in the Pacific. Willie got to sleep inside last night, not for the noise but rather crocodiles. The lake is a common place for them, and while Willie is fierce, I’m sure he slept better inside.

That was our first day in the canal. Stay tuned for the (very exciting) part two soon!

Santa Marta is a vibrant city full of delicious food and color. We’ve taken to having fried pastries in the mornings for breakfast. From my understanding, these are terrible for your health. But they’re all different. So far we’ve had some that taste like egg rolls, some that are filled with beef, some filled with cheese, some filled with egg, and some with potatoes. I think they’re really tasty. But then again, fried food tastes better than cereal (for the first week at least)

Yesterday, we went to the Museo del Oro (Museum of the Gold for all our non-Spanish speaking friends) which was a very educational experience. The museum is in a historical building in the old town of Santa Marta, and it’s set up well. Though I’ve never been particularly receptive to museums, I think I learned at least a bit from this one. The exhibits contained a lot of artifacts from the history of Santa Marta and pre-Hispanic culture of Colombia and the history of the museum.

Pretty Pots

This is a caiman (an alligatorid crocodilian)

We also went to the dentist today. I think one of our other crew members is going to write about that one though, so I won’t spoil the surprise. Make sure to keep an eye on the blog to see it as soon as it hits the press! Until next time!

-Fenton

Hey everyone! Yesterday we arrived in Colombia after stopping by Curaçao and Aruba on our way out of Bonaire. While I enjoyed both the C and A of the ABC’s, Bonaire’s diving and atmosphere made it the top letter in my opinion. In fairness to the other two, we spent a lot more time in Bonaire. All three islands are highly worth a visit in my opinion. Just make sure to go with your parents if you’re under 18 and headed to Curaçao.

Our passage was quite smooth. We caught a few fish (I’m sure my other boat mates would be able to tell you much better than I) and had some excellent stargazing. Sally and I agreed to take the hard night shift, from 10:00pm to 1:00am, so our stars weren’t quite as spectacular as our less hardy 7:00pm to 10:00pm compatriots, but nevertheless we all had an enjoyable experience looking up at the sky. We also had a few dolphins swimming in front of our bow for a little bit (which I’m told is very normal. How cool is that?) that were only notable for the fact that they were quite large. Regardless, our passage was smooth and if anything, a bit boring. (Which is just what you want in a passage.)

Colombia is a pretty gorgeous country based on what I’ve seen of it so far. The people of Santa Marta have all been friendly to me and earlier today I witnessed some of the best dancing I’ve ever seen in my life. While walking around downtown, we saw a group of local break dancers who bent in ways that should not be humanly possible.

I also had a blue cheese and bacon burger, which, while not particularly Colombian, tasted delicious. I honestly don’t know the last time I had bacon. That meal, combined with WiFi and showers from the marina make Colombia seem like paradise. Something I never noticed was how different people get when they have constant internet access versus not. A part of me preferred not having to worry about life back in the States and the rest of the world, but then again, I do love cat videos.

It is also with great pleasure that I announce we are eagerly working on a brand new YouTube channel to better show our lives aboard SV Love & Luck. I hope everybody is looking forward to new content as we explore this new method of sharing our adventures. Stay tuned to our blog to see more information about our channel as we get closer to releasing it and videos to the public. In the meantime, keep viewing, commenting, and sharing on our blog. We love to hear from everybody and would love to keep growing. Until next time!

Fenton

Hi! As most of you are aware, we’re currently moored in Bonaire, the lovely Dutch Caribbean island that makes up the B in the ABC islands. Our passage from Carriacou was one of relative ease – we did some fishing, some steering, and some delicious cooking. And lots of sleep. I’m glad my first passage went smoothly (both in terms of waves and overall.)

Since we’ve been in Bonaire, we’ve been lucky enough to participate in several of the activities that distinguish Bonaire as a unique and exciting places. Among these are scuba diving and windsurfing. The entire coast of the island is filled with dive sites, but you could go even 30 feet behind our boat and see some super cool reefs and drop-offs, not to mention the countless fish (including cowfish!)

I like diving a great deal, and our hours spent reading and training for our certification have definitely paid off. It’s nice to be on a purely leisure dive, as opposed to our training dives where we practiced scuba skills in addition to looking at the pretty fish. We saw all sorts of fish and coral that I am not at all qualified to talk about other than the fact that I thought it was very pretty. One of my favorite types of fish is the cowfish. Some of them have two lil horns above their eyes so they look like swimming beef. They’re pretty adorable.

We’ve also had the pleasure of snorkeling all over the island, which has been fantastic. You don’t even need to dive to enjoy the water here. Through snorkeling, we’ve seen hundreds of remarkably colorful parrotfish. They range in size, but the one characteristic they all share is their scales all sparkle brilliantly with colors that remind one of a parrot. They do not have feathers like a parrot. The naming is merely for the colors.

We’ve also been windsurfing since being in Bonaire which is a great first place to windsurf considering how many international champions call Bonaire their home. The island has a shallow, sheltered bay that is ideal for beginners and experts alike. I (of course) fell off the windsurfer after being on the board for about two seconds. To some, that might be a discouraging start, but I laughed it off and hopped back on. Over the two hours I went from knowing barely anything about sailing to knowing a little more than barely anything about sailing. It wasn’t very windy, but I believe our conditions were ideal for learning to windsurf.

Happy Halloween everybody! I hope you have a spooky day!

Hey everyone! I wrote this a while ago about Carriacou. Although we’re now in Bonaire after a successful passage, I think you guys would enjoy reading it. 

A few days ago, we moved our boat to the quiet Tyrell Bay of Carriacou. After all the excitement from Carnival in Grenada and all the kid boats we met, our latest anchorage feels remarkably sleepy. Although it’s different here, I definitely still enjoy it. And the peace and quiet is a nice change for a little bit.

There’s a fairly sizable reef in Tyrell Bay that makes for wonderful snorkeling. The maximum depth is about 12 feet, so it’s quite easy to get to the bottom to get a closer look at some interesting coral or a long abandoned motor. You’ve got to be careful of sea urchins though – the floor is like a minefield of big pokey black sea urchins, which twitch around and make awfully scary noises. They’re pretty easy to avoid, as long as you watch where you’re swimming.

Within the past few days, Sally and I have been on some adventures in search of some critters to consume. Sally spotted some lobsters which we tried to catch (with Boat Dad’s help), but they evaded us with relative ease. The only ones we netted were too small to bring home. A day after we saw lobsters, I spotted a gang of about five lionfish! Lionfish are an invasive and deadly species to Grenada and Carriacou, and as such, we’re allowed to kill them on sight.

Along with Boat Dad, Sally and I set out to spear the lionfish for both our own nourishment and to rid the ocean of some roaring bad guys. You get the mane idea, yeah? Whenever we spot something that looks tasty, I tread water above the thing and Sally swims back to the boat to get the spear or Boat Dad. Either way, I always seem to be stuck treading water. The most recent time, I suggested that I swim back, but Sally (correctly) stated that she would be faster. So, I waited for her.

With Boat Dad and Sally (and a spear) catching the lionfish was simple work. Boat Dad stabbed the biggest lionfish pretty good, but he swam deeper into the reef, out of range. Two of his friends were not so lucky, and they were soon vanquished and returned without glory to our boat to be prepared for an appetizer. Fun fact: fried lionfish is actually pretty good. Someone even claimed it tasted like lobster!

After our fish catching adventures, we went on to the island with a boat friend for a fantastic supper. If you’re ever in Carriacou, I would highly recommend going to a restaurant run by a woman named Mavis, who operates the restaurant with her husband and children. She’s friendly, and makes delicious fried chicken with spices that make KFC seem like dirt. So far, my post-Grenada adventures have been splendid, and I’m sure they’re only going to get splendid-er. Until next time!

~Fenton