Just upon leaving Colombia, Gaylyn developed a very high fever and ended up fasting. They had no choice about leaving because their allocated days were up. That left Thomas to do most of the sailing and Gaylyn just did one night watch each night. The seas around the entrance to Santa Marta had a reputation for being nasty, with small choppy waves, but the wind, wave and weather gods were smiling on the crew and had a calm departure. Once away from shore, they could see the snow capped mountains of one branch of the Andes. They checked the water temperature at 32 degrees Celsius, the air was 28 and there in the short distance away, was snow.  They didn’t expect to see such a sight and certainly not at their next destination – Jamaica.

Thankfully, the passage was rather uneventful. They arrived in Port Antonio on the northern side of Jamaica after a four-day passage. The crew were ready for some peaceful sleep before heading off to explore. The local disco had other ideas and from midnight until 4 in the morning, loud music with hysterical screams from an over-enthusiastic DJ every 15 seconds, filled the air. No song went on for longer than a minute at a time. Plans to leave the marina as soon as possible were set. But, not until Thomas had received an ear-full from a disgruntled American sailor warning of the perils of sailing around Jamaica after he was boarded at night by machine carrying, darkly dressed coast guard members who weren’t obviously identified. If these public servants were the only cause for alarm, the crew of Qi were certainly reassured that things would be fine.  

As it turned out, Qi only encountered one other boat when they finally left the harbour. On board Qi was their friend Kiki and a young Swiss lad who had befriended Thomas and had asked to join them until Kingston Town. With visitor and hitchhiker on board, Qi set off clockwise to the other side of the island. On one of their first stops, Thomas chose an anchorage near a coast guard station. It was said to be a safe place. It didn’t take long before the local members were arming up and entering their transportation – a smugglers boat that they had confiscated and now used. Eleven members boarded Qi at once. Some went downstairs and others questioned the captain. Gaylyn made them iced tea, which in the hot sun, went down a treat. Downstairs conversations of cricket and basketball, Jamaican sport stars, was lifting laughter to the deck. On deck, Thomas was describing the comments from the American sailor and they sheepishly admitted that it might have been them. This encounter with the coast guard would be the first of five visits. Each taking their turn to have a look downstairs and have a refreshing glass of iced tea.

Snorkelling and staying in amongst the beautiful islands was a joy. Thomas and Ellis, the young Swiss fellow, spotted a large shark whilst snorkelling and followed it for a time, mistaking it for reef shark, but at the same time curious to see why it was so huge. After discussing this sighting with a local fisherman, they discovered that it was actually a tiger shark that was known in the area. Definitively, not to be followed in the future.  

Kingston Town was an interesting place and one particular story tickled the crew’s funny bone. During the big earthquake of 1907 one fellow, of no particular talent, asked god to save him. Everyone else was probably doing the same, but on this occasion, God’s kindness shone upon him and he was spat back out amongst the tumultuous waves and earth. Adhering to a promise that this man made at this moment, he continued his life spouting the grace of god and sharing his miraculous tale. Warped houses and army buildings were fun to explore in the ruins. Ellis left the crew and continued his Jamaican adventure on land. Qi headed beyond shark infested waters towards Black River – which was infested with crocodiles.

As the crew went on shore in the dinghy, they were met by a plastic crocodile on the dock of the river tours. They decided on the spot, that they would take a tour the next day and just went for a brief walk. But, not before Gaylyn exclaimed, “Let’s put the dinghy next to the crocodile and get a photo of it guarding the boat. That would be cool!”. Thomas didn’t want to dock where there was a commercial venture happening and steered clear. The next day, Kiki and Gaylyn took a taxi to a local waterfall and lounged around for the day, while the captain returned to the boat for maintenance. The crocodile hadn’t been put out yet so they still didn’t get their photo. Upon their return, Gaylyn and Kiki went over to the river tour operation to book in for the afternoon trip. The crocodile was there with its mouth open in the sun. “Come on Kiki, let’s put our head in the crocodile’s mouth for a photo”. Gaylyn eagerly announced. “Na, I don’t wanna. I’ll just put my hand in,” was Kiki’s response as they waltzed towards it. Just then the crocodile’s head went from side to side. Looking around, Gaylyn accused a man standing there for doing that, (with a remote control you see). He just shrugged. Kiki and Gaylyn moved closer to the target and the crocodile closed its mouth and swang around to look in their direction. Ok. That was the wakeup call. This was a real croc that just looked like plastic.  

Laughing hysterically at their blunder and sharing their plan for the photos, the guy went inside while other tourists shared in the joke. In the meantime, Thomas was coming towards them in the dinghy to pick them up, and just like a good fellow, was lining up to land near the croc to get that photo that his darling was wanting. Seeing this blunder, Gaylyn was swinging her arms about and jumping in an effort to ward him off. This failed and Thomas got so close that the croc realised the threat and leaped into the water in front of him and under the dinghy. The look on Thomas’ face was priceless. He tied up the dinghy and joined in the fits of laughter from the crowd. In the meantime, the proprietor of the establishment, a large local lady, came out throwing her arms around yelling how these stupid women were going to destroy the tourism industry of Jamaica by getting their heads bitten off. Crying and laughing too much to tell her the plan was off, she threw her arms up in contempt and went back inside. The crew couldn’t look at each other for a week without bursting into a fit of laughter.

Once the crew had sailed around to ‘Bloody Bay’, so named after a massacre, Kiki left to return to Germany and a new guest arrived, Carmen from Germany. More adventures were had including swimming in luminous water, jumping off the cliff at Rick’s Café, visiting driftwood bars and waiting for Thomas’ sister, Dagmar to arrive for the journey to Panama.   

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