Sampson Boat Covideo
Plans change, and boats break - sailing alone in the Caribbean
28 March 2026 · 22 min · 342K views · San Blas Islands
Solo sailor steers Tanley Ho through Caribbean seas under blue sky
What this video covers
Leo Goolden announces a major itinerary change aboard Tally Ho, the 1910 gaff cutter, while sailing solo in the San Blas Islands (Guna Yala) off Panama's Caribbean coast.▶ 0:00 The original plan — depart western Canada in summer 2025, reach the UK in summer 2026, and prepare for the 2027 Fastnet Race — is abandoned as unsustainable.▶ 5:23 After roughly six to seven months and passage through the Panama Canal, Goolden concludes that the pace is incompatible with content production and boat maintenance on a vessel requiring constant attention.▶ 5:53 The new plan extends the voyage by a year, keeping the 2027 Fastnet as the deadline.▶ 6:26 Two technical problems are forcing a haulout at Linton Bay marina: a depth sounder transducer that has nearly stopped functioning, and a navigation mismatch between TimeZero (chart plotter on the chart-table PC, linked to the boat's GPS) and Navionics (phone/iPad, using device GPS), which showed incorrect position and contributed to a reef strike that removed paint from the keel timber.▶ 14:00 Antifouling paint over a year old, with bare patches at plank seams, adds urgency — exposed wood risks teredo shipworm damage.▶ 15:17 Goolden also covers solo anchoring and sailing on and off the anchor under sail without the engine, and describes Guna Yala's cruising conditions: shallow reefs, limited chart detail, and the autonomous indigenous governance requiring a courtesy Guna Yala flag.▶ 10:55
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