While the "Jewish problem" and politics seem to be the overwhelming
interest in the past few days I thought I'd post Peter's last e-mail
for any who might still have an interest in Cruising.

Peter is on the way through the canal and by now is camping out on the
west coast of Panama, somewhere.


Hi Bruce,

Five years ago, when I was in Cartagena, Spain, there was an old
French boat along the dock from us who I got on with very well.
Sebastian the father spoke good English which is just as well as my
French is and was abominable as I find it extremely difficult to talk
through my nose. Perhaps if I had a French nose such as De Gaul had it
might be easier. The two children, then aged 6 and 8 only spoke French
but used to come onto my boat and watch videos and I ate meals a lot
on theirs. When we needed a translator we used Patrice, a
single-hander Frenchman who was next to me. Patrice and I also got
along well and talked together a lot.

Sebastian asked me then to take photos of the kids and burn him a cd
as they had a computer but no digital camera. I still have the photos.
The kids were very photogenic and when I first met the boy, he was so
pretty that I thought he was a girl. He soon put me straight.

My family had left and could not take Piccolo the 'amster (hamster as
the French can't speak properly) back to Australia so I gave him to
the kids for their birthday.

Well, they are here now. I thought I had seen the boy somewhere before
as he still has long honey blond hair when he was riding his two
wheeled skateboard around the other day. Lancelot, will be 13 later
this month but says, like all kids, that he is 13 now. Isobelle is now
11 years old and is turning into a very beautiful young girl. Piccolo
died two years later in Senegal and was buried beneath a tree there
with due ceremony.

The kids now speak reasonable English and also Portuguese as they
spent some time in Brazil where their parents Sebastian and Oceoine
bought a house and started a business with a partner dealing in wood.

It was so nice to meet them again. The kids are still small enough to
pick up and squeeze hug - several times. For some reason many of the
Americans do not like the French so I made the point of taking the
children by the hands and introducing them to those Americans I am
friendly with and introducing Sebastian as well. I have taken some
photos and Sebastian now has email and wants to keep in touch. They
were really nice to me at Cartagena after my family went back to
Sydney. I often wondered what happened to them.

They are going through the canal in early March and it is a pity that
I have to go through tomorrow as Sebastian and I got along well. He
said that Patrice, the French single hander next to me in Cartagena is
in Belize and is heading here and would like to catch up again with me
now that he knows where I am. Sebastian said that when I left
Cartagena they and Patrice were worried about me as I had never single
handed before and it was mid winter with rough weather and high seas.

Unfortunately Sebastian is going tonight on another French boat to act
as a line handler on a canal transit and won't be back until tomorrow
night when I go.

I shall post some photos of them on Myspace when I get to Panama city.

Isn't it such a wonderful and delightful small world. It was so
wonderful to meet up with them. Lancelot said that he thought it was
me but wasn't sure.

BTW, he has the name Lancelot as his father liked Sir Walter Scott's
novel 'Ivanhoe'.

I go through the Panama canal tomorrow night. I unfortunately had to
have 4 Americans as line handlers as no other New Zealanders or
Malaysians were available. They are a couple who I have traveled with
over the last month through the San Blas, Steve and Heather from 'Last
Resort' who only work 7 months of the year in the States as fire
fighters (Steve flys a helicopter and Heather is his boss) and two New
Yorkers who I first met in Colombia. We communicate well together if I
talk and listen slowly.

Also BTW, you are free to post anything I write to the newsgroup but
it is probably of little interest to them anyway thouigh it is
definitely cruising.

cheers
Peter

Cheers,

Bruce