We decided to complain about the hardships of the round-the-world trip a little bit. It took a long time to discuss whether this should be done. On the one hand, why complain? On the other, someone may watch our footage and conclude that it is sheer paradise. So listen to the voyagers’ complaints and, who knows, maybe you’ll give some advice.

It all started when we left the Caribbean Islands, blown over with a steady trade wind of the Atlantic, and got in a whirl. It occurs at the place where these trade winds slow down when they reach America, either coming to a calm or bringing thunderstorms. The day temperature’s about 40ºC, the night one’s 30ºC. It’s hot to sleep inside and wet outside. During the passage from Columbia we got caught by a night thunderstorm. The thing you see used to hold the mast. To those who understand, it’s a stay attachment. The stainless pintle is 16 mm in diameter (as that of the thumb). Finally, we got off with a fright and tied the mast with a string. Haha.

Hence, we couldn’t sail, or else we would have lost the mast. So we used the engine that began to boil. We saw no other reasons than the temperature of the water overboard that was close to 30ºC. Therefore, instead of the cooling fluid that boiled away we poured rainwater and made quick runs. The heat made the course-line computer glitch. We took it out of the case and attached a fan from a battery charger. When it was too hot, we sprayed some drops of spirit on the fan. That helped cool something but only for a short while.

Actually, the electrics couldn’t make out how the temperature could be 40ºC, the humidity 100%, and salt all around? So not long ago we had to conduct fire drills, as there was a real short circuit with smoke and crash.

Thank God, the GLONASS system kept running but we couldn’t see it any longer. We knew that it was operating by the fact that the yacht knew exactly as before where it was and where it headed. But, unfortunately, we could no longer see those nice pictures from the satellite. It’s all the fault of a 500-ruble COM-USB adapter (if you are in the subject), which allowed the computer to display the yacht navigation so that we could see what was going on. The Windows error message kindly said that the system failed to identify the device. We reinstalled the drivers but it didn’t help. Neither did contact cleaning.

For greater effect, it should be said that the locals are light-fingered and they still remember old man Drake and captain Morgan.

They had cunning faces, called us gringo and merrily talked to each other in their language. Therefore, a loaded gun’s hanging by the stairs. However, to tell the truth, there was no precedent so far.

Yet, all those were technical problems that we could solve. The major surprise awaited us on the hospitable shores of Panama. Well, Panama had nothing to do with that. The country pleased us, especially with the fact that $15 a day is enough for two to live in clover. The problem was that we had only 250 bucks left in cash. The rest was on the Russian Savings Bank cards. The Mastercard and Visa cards started behaving strangely already in Columbia. We managed to withdraw some cash by chance only once in a town that we passed on the way to Cartgena. Sometimes one, sometimes the other card worked in a shop. More often neither of them did. In Panama, both of them failed totally. Visiting of the personal account on the bank’s website confirmed our worst apprehensions – the two bank cards were blocked. Although we didn’t do that and nobody notified us of that. Thank God, the money was safe and sound. But how could we get them? Yandex search engine answered our question about how to unblock the cards with optimism that in the best case you guys should wait for two months. And that wasn’t the case, for we were there and the Savings Bank’s far away. Anyway, it’s impossible to pass the Panama Canal having $250. So the question to you, dear friends, is the following, does anybody happen to have an acquaintance in the Savings Bank? So that we could somehow get our money? Our son Kirill represents us in Moscow and is authorized to conduct deposit operations.

Looking forward to your reply.