Category: Ella posts


Panama to Providencia, Colombia by Ella

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November 20, 2012

Panama to Providencia

By Ella Modesitt

We left the Kuna Yala islands early in the morning, sailing over to Puerto Lindo.   On the way we caught a Blackfin Tuna.  We had sushi that night!

Climbing the jib, I’m 19 feet off the sea!!

It was fun to be on the mainland again, we heard lots and lots and lots and lots of birds and monkeys.  Monkeys talked from three different places surrounding us.   “whhooo, whooo, heee, whoooo” the howler monkeys screamed from troop to troop.  Monkeys make really loud howls when it is about to rain.  They made a racket and then it rained.  We went on a dinghy expedition to some islands and there was a house that the monkeys had taken over.  A monkey swung from the porch into the house!  It was really funny.

His face looked like a tiger with whiskers all over, a tail that was longer than him and really long arms and legs.  When I climb up the halyard line hand over hand I pretend a monkey is climbing with me.  We can climb together.

Our family was hanging out up front on

Camels in the jungle??

Rivers2Seas.  Chase and I were playing pirate

games.  And then, mom said “Is that a camel over there?”  I said, “ahh mommy, camels live in the hot desert.”  It’s hot here but it’s hotter in the desert because there is no water.  We looked through the binoculars and saw that it was really a camel with one hump.  I think the camel took a wrong turn.

The star!

So we were walking through town and I see my name on the store right there.  “La recuerdo de ella,” which means the the memory of ella (her).  The houses were made out of concrete and very colorful.  All sorts of colors, my favorite was a bright pink house.  Chases’ and

mommys’ favorite was a green house the color of a green apple.  Daddy’s favorite was the orange house.

Portobello was our next anchorage.  The museum told us about lots and lots of pirates.  It

one of the cool forts here

was attacked seven times by pirates like Henry Morgan.  Hiking to the fort, we had to cross and itsy bitsy plank that went over the moat.  Inside there were bunches of canons pointed out to sea to hit ships.  I’m glad that they didn’t sink Rivers2Seas.  We went to four different forts.  One fort we had to hike and hike all the way up the hill.  I know why they built the fort up so high because the pirates would get so tired climbing up that they would turn around.

From Portobello we sailed to Colon, which is where the Panama Canal is located.  We couldn’t go to town because people were fighting and shooting because they were mad at the government.  We went swimming in the pool at the marina instead and walked through the jungle.  Monkeys threw poop at us!  We ran for it.  I’m glad they didn’t hit us.  Chase found a turtle and we all yelled, “Turtle! Turtle!”

We had a tea party in the marina lawn with mommy, Liz, Sue and me.  It was really pretty and we played I spy.  I even got to do the last one, which was really hard.  It was the tea, which was brown.  Winston, Sue’s teddy bear, and Tianna, Aurora, Barbie and Cindy Loo Who all came to the tea party too.  We ate some yummy cake.

When we were leaving, I was sad because we wouldn’t see Sue and Andy on Spruce for a long time.  They are heading to the Pacific and we are heading north.  We sailed for two nights and two days straight.

Sailing we put up the jib and the main and we sailed for a long, long time.  My dad caught a medium sized Mahi Mahi – yummy!  I see mostly waves and blank for ever.   We were in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the ocean.  My dad said that we were 150 miles from land.  Chase and I played silly games together.  Mom and dad watched out for reefs and boats.  At night, Chase and I went to sleep in the salon with the table down for a big bed.  Mom and dad took night watches.  Daddy goes up for half the night and then mom for half the night and then dad for half the night and then mom for half the night.  It’s not so easy sailing all night.

In the morning I said “where’s land?”  I wasn’t looking the other way and it was right

Land Ho!!!

there!  I saw big green fluffy mountains.  It felt good to see land.  I realized that we had found Never Land.  I took out my all about fairy instruction book and looked at the map and saw that it was Never Land.  The split in the mountain was Pixie Hollow, and I thought I saw a little lake that was mermaid lagoon, the cave was captain hooks treasure cave, two big mountains and Never Never peak all assured me that this was Never Land.  We anchored in the Cove.  Good thing that Captain Hook was not there.

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Colombia to Panama by Ella Modesitt

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October 25, 2012

Colombia to Panama

By Ella P. Modesitt

Leaving the dock from Santa Marta, Colombia I felt really really weird.  I was back on the sea and it was really wobbly.  It was almost too wobbly for my brother, he fell down and got a big puffy fat lip and bruised his gums and blood all over.   There was lots of blood.   Lots.  Boo hoo.

Just one of the big ships

When we went sailing, we went all night long and when I woke up I was in Cartagena, Colombia.  I saw lots of huge buildings all around.  When we left the next morning there was this huge ship that honked at us.  HOOOOOOONK!  He was not happy with us, because we were a little boat in his way.  There were forts on both sides that are so old.  Cannons used to work there to protect the forts and sink ships.  I’m glad they didn’t sink us.

As we sailed along, my dad caught a big Mahi Mahi.  It was huge – an inch bigger than me!  I’m seven years old so he was pretty big.  The Mahi Mahi was so entirely strong that he took the whole fishing pole off the boat and it sank to the bottom.  This was the cool fishing rod that we traded a kayak for with our friends on Bikini.  Well, we still had a line onto the fishing rod from another YoYo fishing line.  We reeled the line in from that fishing line slowly so that we could catch the fishing rod.  We didn’t lose it after all.  And we also got the Mahi Mahi.  When mom was filleting it, dad was washing off all the blood.  A shark smelled it and swam right under the boat.  And my mom was scared and didn’t want to stand in the water like she usually does.  The Mahi Mahi accidentally slipped out of her hands and into the water.  BooHoo.  My dad didn’t want to jump in the water after it because there was a big mean shark in the water.  We caught five other fish so that was good.

I saw land and yelled, “Land ho!”  We were in Puerto Obaldia, Panama.  I saw a baby

Land Ho!!!

dolphin swimming with its’ mama as we were getting close to the land.  We anchored Rivers2Seas.   Then, we went swimming as a family.

Chase and me played with some other kids in town on the playground.  Alan, Arturo and Alejandra played and swung on the swings with me.  Later, we walked around town. We played tag.   It was a pretty cool town.  There were lots and lots of cool people and really cool houses.  Some of them were huts and some plain.  Some houses were made out of wood and some from bricks and rocks and stuff.  The roofs were made out of thatch palm fronds.

I liked the main square because so many people were there.  One bench had “love” written on it, which I liked.  People were walking around, some with babies and some with kids.  There were lots of kids there.  People were playing soccer, volleyball, bingo and running around.  I swung and a little girl pushed me and my little brother too.  I liked them a lot.  Some were pretty and some had ragged clothes because they were really poor.

“Other than wanting to throw up, dinner was good.”

We had dinner there, which was pretty good, except for the chicken foot, which was pretty bad.  The chicken foot was fried and still had the claws on it.  If I had to eat that I would have thrown up for reals.  Other than wanting to throw up dinner was good.

Panama is pretty beautiful; there are coconut trees, banana trees and horses walking down the beach.  “HeeHaw” says one of the donkeys on shore.  People in dugout canoes fish all around us.  This is my 22nd country and it’s my favorite.

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Bonaire to Colombia – by Ella Modesitt

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May 17, 2012

Ella Modesitt

By Ella Modesitt

In Bonaire, I went SCUBA diving with my dad.  It was fun.  We went under two boats – the dinghy and

I’m a Mermaid!

Rivers2Seas.  I saw so many fish, there must have been 100 of them.  I liked it because we could be under the water together.  My dad and I shared the same tank.  I felt totally like a mermaid.  I moved my legs like a mermaid too.

We saw a parade.  There were people with really pretty dresses.  One little girl gave me and my brother a piece of candy.  They were dancing in their fancy dresses.  The music was really loud so that everyone could hear.  I think a little too loud.

I liked the colorful buildings

We sailed to Curacao.  Daddy went to customs all day long.  I played with a little French girl on our boat.  We played hide and seek with Chase.  I did not understand a single word she said.  She didn’t want to go home.  Chase and I played on the best park yet.  It wasn’t broken or torn or rusted.  Chase and I got ice cream.  We went to customs and looked at all the houses.  They were all sorts of colors.

On the passage to Santa Marta, Colombia in the night there was lots and lots and lots of lightning.  We all had to go down into one room so if the mast was hit by lightning we wouldn’t be killed or injured.  We put on wetsuits that were really hot and read some books.  Chase was throwing up.  There was lots of rain.  I did not see any cats and dogs.   I didn’t really sleep – it was too hard.

We were close to land but before we got there lightning came again.  We read some more of my Mermaid book.

Rivers2Seas is now tied up at a dock in Santa Marta Colombia.  I have sailed a super duper long way.  I have been to 21 countries so far.  My favorite country was Bonaire or maybe Saba or…all of them.

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