Legacy: Transoceanic Expedition 2005

After having left the Panama Canal and the dozens of anchored boats waiting at Colón to pass through to the Pacific, we set our course northward through the waters of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We have traveled almost 400 miles since then and, except for yesterday, when we had, at some moments, waves higher … Read more

We get to Panama and go directly to the dock where the Ranger is. Our colleagues from the expedition are there waiting to make the crew substitution, filling the fuel tanks and generally preparing the boat to cross the Panama Canal. Throughout the day we watch the fish in whose company we are waiting. Dozens … Read more

After a week with only Coiba’s blue waters and the deep green of its forest in sight it is a shock to come to a city. The capital of Panama is a battalion of skyscrapers standing guard along the bay – a city as surely as New York. There are no fish on land, but … Read more

At perfect noon we are sitting on damp wooden benches atop a hill on Coiba with thirty uniformed police. One by one they stride to the podium at the front of the open air hall, give an extravagant salute, and accept a diploma rolled in bamboo from the Vice Governor of the Province of Veraguas. … Read more

It is late in the afternoon, the sun is about to set, and after a morning of diving, filming and interviews on land everyone is – briefly – back on the boat. The compressor is rattling away on the stern deck, filling tanks. It’s deafening. Thankfully it won’t be long until the tanks are ready … Read more

These are skills I never thought I would need: the ability to drop an empty bucket over the side of a ship and have it hit the water at the perfect angle to immediately fill, so it can be pulled hand over hand back over the rail and poured over a head full of shampoo; … Read more

La Isla de Coiba is the largest island in the Central American Pacific – approximately three times the size of Manhattan, or twenty times larger than Coco´s – and only 12 miles off the coast of Panama. It is the site of the Central Pacific´s most extensive coral reef system; a feeding and calving ground … Read more

We’re back in Golfito for a few days to restock, shower, and get information about Cocos Island out to the wider world. Today we held a joint Oceana/MarViva press conference at the MarViva base. A bus brought the audience of journalists and cameramen from San Jose. Xavier told the story of Cocos, which by now … Read more

Back on the water again. Each morning I wake up at 6, forget I´m sleeping in a bunk and bang my head when I sit up. It was hard to leave Cocos but good to be moving, and there is much ahead. Yesterday we passed a sea turtle. It is the first I´ve seen and … Read more

We left Cocos. We sailed northeast with the island behind us, gorgeous, streaming water as if it had just lifted itself from the sea. The clouds pile above it. On the way out we pass another longliner coming in. This is the second we’ve seen since we’ve been at the island. The first had pled … Read more