P A N A M A
In February of 2020, I had the opportunity to sail aboard Diatomée in Bocas Del Toro with my dear friends Alex Voyer and Marianne Aventurier. They had just sailed from Mexico and had a couple of weeks of rest before we continued to Zapatillas, Bastimentos, Isla Escudo de Veraguas and Marina Shelter Bay. They would then continue by crossing the canal to start their journey sailing the Pacific to French Polynesia. It was so nice to spend time with them again. Enric Gener (27mm) and I had sailed with them in 2018 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as the first artists to join the expedition. Just like the first experience, my love for the ocean deepened and I learned so much about sailing and free diving. I’m very grateful for the experience to be close to the ocean.
Diatomée is a sailboat owned by the multi-talented couple Alex Voyer and Marianne Aventurier. They have been sailing for two years and aim to travel from the poles to the tropics with the goal of raising awareness of the marine environment through the eyes of scientists, children, athletes and artists who join the expeditions. “The idea is to invite personalities with a particular attachment to water, to create a collective to develop projects rich in challenges, education and artistic creations.” - Marianne Aventurier
Both Alex and Marianne are really strong swimmers. They have been a part of a swim club in Paris for many years. That’s actually how they met and fell in love. Marianne swam every morning around the boat doing laps. She’s quite fearless and will swim anywhere at any time. One morning she swam quite far and spotted a pod of dolphins.
Alex was always fixing something on the boat. 10% is sailing and 90% is maintaining things. A fuse blew in the microwave, so he was looking for a possible makeshift replacement until we were back on land.
Alex and Marianne didn’t have any experience sailing before they bought the boat. They learned it all on their own by reading and being hands-on in a short period of time. It was their dream to sail and be close to the ocean. They’ve become great sailors.
I made a friend with a baby Jack fish which was one of the highlights of the trip. It swam with me for an hour even against strong currents. Every time I’d look down and think it was gone, it would pop back up and surprise me as if yelling, “Here I am!”.
At the first anchoring after leaving the main island Colón, we stopped at a beach where there was a lot of garbage from the tours during the day. We spent a few hours clearing the main areas of garbage. We found anything from beer cans, shoes, toothbrushes, sunglasses and lighters. It was mostly all plastic.
We were in Panama at the hottest time of the year. These are views from a beach on Colón island in Bocas del Drago. We set out to find Starfish Beach known for the incredible amount of starfish, but were told most of the starfish were gone. Sadly, tourists kept picking them up out of the water for pictures and killed them.
L’Orphie (Garfish) were hunting around the boat at night. They’re incredibly fast swimmers and skilled hunters.
