Other Cruisers

One thing that I don't seem to do is get a lot of pictures of the other cruisers, many of whom have been such an important part of our journey. And as we travel further south, the number of cruisers is dwindling, till now there are only a handful, maybe 8-10 boats around, that are still on their way to Panama or Ecuador. One couple that we've clearly grown to like very much is Bruce and Marianne on GALLIVANT. We've been buddy-boating off and on since we left Nicaragua about a month ago, and here in Coco, they invited us over for sunset drinks one night. I brought my camera and got a few shots of their boat.

As I gather it, Bruce and Marianne have been cruising off and on for about 6 years. Marianne is from Australia and Bruce is mainly from the state of Washington. Bruce has a long history of building houses. He built his first house at the age of 16, and he still has it! They have since built many houses and some apartment complexes. Remotely managing these allows them to live the cruising lifestyle.

Their Tayana 42 is a very seaworthy and comfortable boat. They've done a lot to keep it in the great condition it's in, including a full repower (new engine) and hundreds of small personal touches as well. They gave us a brief tour of the boat as we had cocktails. Did I mention that Marianne makes the BEST dips?! As we whiled away the gorgeous sunset, we all told a bit about ourselves and got into some funny stories, none funnier than Bruce's story about the Gorillas.

Bruce and Marianne were in Zaire one time and went on this pygmy-guided expedition to see some Gorillas. Bruce and Marianne and the other guests lined up to take pictures of this gorilla troupe about 200 yards away. While they're snapping their pictures, the dominant male of the group starts charging towards the tourists. Well, Bruce has his eye glued to the camera viewfinder and is thinking things like "wow what great shots" as this gorilla quickly closes the gap. When the gorilla is only about 100 FEET away, Bruce looks around to the other tourists and his wife, but they are GONE! He looks behind him and sees them all high-tailing it up the hill, leaving him all alone with this Gorilla bearing down on him. The way he tells it is SO hilarious. Bruce said "you've never anyone run so fast" as he attempted to put some distance between him and the charging, large, agressive, male gorilla. Finally, the gorilla stopped (once the last tourist had finally been run off!) and began pounding his chest as if to say "ha ha ha GOT YOU darned tourists!", like he does this every day. We were all in tears as Bruce told us this story.

So you see, Bruce and Marianne are examples of the kind of great people we are meeting while cruising, and their boat, GALLIVANT, an example of the well-cared for vessels that are obviously so well loved.

Another such example is DELFIN SOLO, pictured below, which arrived in Coco later that week with Tahsin and Rengin aboard. We'd gotten to know them in Huatulco and Barillas and its always a pleasure when a boat with people you know and like pulls into port.

Visiting other Cruisers in Coco