Bubasian

Bubas is a Lagoon 440 catamaran. It was purchased in Fort Lauderdale and is making her way home to an area near Brisbane, Australia. The owner and his partner have been aboard up until now, I believe, but they are stepping off for the Pacific passage.

The crew taking her to Tahiti consists of Jean, a very experienced French skipper, Else (along for the ride), his partner, Oly (Oliver), a 25 year old skipper-level sailor from the UK, and me. Jean only speaks a little bit of English and Else doesn't speak any.

I believe we are going straight to Tahiti. I'm waiting on more details about any possible stops before (Marquesas maybe/hopefully) and our estimated passage time. It'll be somewhere in the ballpark of 25 days.

I will be joining the boat on the afternoon of the 15th for a morning departure on the 16th. Not a lot of get-to-know-ya time!!

I'm also waiting on word as to whether or not we'll have sailmail or some other similar application that will allow me to send brief updates at sea.

If we stop in the Marquesas, I may get off there. It's a little less crazy than Tahiti, so I've heard, and one of the highlights of French Polynesia so says a friend of mine. If I'm still in a good mood, I'll find another boat and see if I can keep hopping west.

It's been an agonizing few days, waiting for word on whether or not this passage was going to happen, and I know some of you have suffered right along with me. Your emails and IMs of "any word yet?" have been very cute. In this adventure I've undertaken, "desperate" is not a good place to make decisions from. Then again, when you're there, you don't feel like you have a lot of options. The good news is, this is a new, safe boat that the owner cares very much about it reaching its destination. The 2 professional skippers aboard will do everything in their power to see that that happens.

1.5 days left to kill here in Panama City. At least now that I'm sorted I can venture a little further away from the hostel. (Casa de Carmen is an EXCELLENT hostel, btw, should you ever find yourself here.)