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Captain´s Diary #8, 8/27/02, by Paul Harmon

Chris, Rebekka and I jumped on a motorboat around 11:00 am to catch up with the Qala Yampu. I had received a call from Alexei earlier saying that they had already reached La Isla del Sol and made the turn into El Lago Mayor. This was huge news! This was supposed to take 2 days. They did it in 10 hours!

We joined them around 2:00 pm. The first thing I noticed was that the sails were not set correctly, not as full or efficient as they should be, but yet the sails were moving the boat well. I jumped on board and we made a few adjustments, and the sails were soon full and beautiful. This is not a criticism. This is what I expected. Nevertheless, this group of 4 took the boat through the section of the trip that scared everybody away, and in a fraction of the time expected. Whatever the superstition was, or is, Qala Yampu's magic is stronger.

We continued to sail past La Isla del la Luna. As darkness fell, we could see the light from the lighthouse marking the entrance to the Strait of Tiquina way off in the distance. The others had a long night and day. My energy was very high, so I steered the boat as the others went to sleep. Somewhere around 3:00 or 4:00 am, the wind shifted and died. We were going to have to anchor. The sailors from Copa protested. They said the water was way too deep and an anchor would never hold. They claimed the water was about 1500 feet. We explained to them that we had very accurate, detailed maps of the lake, and knew the water to be about 500 feet. They insisted that we have the motorboat tow us to the safety of a beach. They had a tough time accepting that we would not receive such assistance from the motorboat unless we were in an absolute emergency situation. They felt it to be an emergency. The fear in their eyes was obvious. We dropped the anchor and the rope continued for what seemed to be forever. Guess what...the anchor held beautifully! Everybody went back to sleep.

The lake was a dead calm around 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, and even 11:00 am. The Copa sailors made several attempts to row in the dead calm. It is very difficult to move this now 21 ton boat and stone with 4 oars. It is not worth the effort when winds are on their way. I told the sailors numerous times that around 12:00 noon we would get a strong wind at our back that would last for the rest of the day. They hesitantly put the oars down and waited. Then they would pick them up again. They wanted that triple pay. Finally I had the motorboat driver take them into Tiquina for a good meal. They could rejoin us when they finished. Chris and Rebekka went as well to film from the cliffs above.

As the motorboat drove off, Kenji, Alexei and I took turns taking ice baths in the icy waters of Titicaca. I will not even try to describe how cold it is, but you will let out screams upon hitting the water that you never knew your body cold make.

Noon came, and just like a clock, the winds began to blow. Minute by minute the winds increased in intensity, directly behind us, sending us on a perfect course for the Strait. Now things got interesting. It was Sunday afternoon, perhaps the busiest day of traffic in the Strait. This is where the ferries take the cars, vans, buses, and people across that are traveling to and from Copacabana. As we approached the Strait in one of our fastest sails yet, there were no less than 6 barges and 4 motorboats directly ahead of us. It was as if we were in a giant game of "Frogger" on expert level. As we closed in, some barges veered, others halted, others sped up, as we cruised through with no problems at all. People were snapping photos from all directions. Some motorboats brought others for a closer look. Many of the locals that I had met when we were making our boat improvements here were on the shore shouting congrats. It was an amazing feeling! We cruised through the Strait in a matter of minutes.

On the other side of the Strait we veered Southeast between the islands of Suriqui and Taquira towards Santa Rosa, hugging the boarder between Peru and Bolivia. Rebekka, Chris, and the Copa sailors rejoined us. Now the waters were white-capping, and Lake Titicaca was now an ocean. We sailed all the way across to the shore near Santa Rosa, where we anchored in shallow waters surrounded by live totora. We decided to wait until morning to sail just around the corner into Santa Rosa. We had made it in less than 2 days!