📚💙Coming up next week in Vancouver BC 🇨🇦- Weds January 14, 19:00: Fifty #Sailing Destinations in Seas Less Travelled. Photo: perhaps the least travelled sea of all, these days? Isla la Tortuga, #Venezuela. www.bluewatercruising.org/events/Event...

With #Venezuela dominating the news, I can't help recalling happier times and one of the most wonderful experiences of our travels: three days by motorised dugout to the foot of Angel Falls (the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall). This was our first glimpse.

Evening at anchor - Glenthorne Passage, Prevost Island BC - with the sun setting over Saltspring.

Ar anchor on a winter's afternoon; Otter Bay, North Pender Island BC 🇨🇦

Mark Carney turns off geolocation on phone just in case

"Oh I'd like to roll to Rio Some day before I'm old!" (Rudyard Kipling). s/v Bosun Bird hits #Sailing Today magazine (February 2026 edition)

A freighter - bound for Seattle or Vancouver - heads north up Haro Strait, between the 🇺🇸 San Juan Islands (L) and the 🇨🇦 Gulf Islands (R). Peaks of the Olympic Mountains visible in the far distance. The view after a stiff climb up Mt Norman, on Pender Island.

#Sailing along the southern shore of Pender Island, in BC's Gulf Islands 🇨🇦, we have a fine view south over Moresby Island to Hurricane Ridge, on the Olympic Peninsula 🇺🇸. It's 50 miles away, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Sailing slowly through Plumper Sound, in BC's Gulf Islands on a grey, chilly day, we're met with this unmistakable sight. There are only some 70+ Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcas) so it's always a privilege to see one up close (his/her choice, not ours!). One of a pod of 3

Late afternoon at Winter Cove, Saturna Island🇨🇦. Calm, chilly days in the Gulf Islands and the bays are deserted; but the nights are long...

We're out on the water for a few days in BC's Gulf Islands. It's about 3 deg C and Mount Baker (3286m - across the border in 🇺🇸) has a fresh coating of snow.

El Hormiguero (the Anthill), one of the many little-visited Mayan sites near Xpujil 🇲🇽 (i.e. we were alone here). So named b/c of the many tunnels dug by clandestine treasure-hunters. A fine serpent's maw of an entry way; excavated only in the 1980s.

Either the electronic signs on the Tren Maya 🇲🇽 have a few issues, or we're going a lot slower than I thought.🫤

"Rediscovered" only in 1931, the Mayan city of Calakmul is one of the least visited major sites in the Yucatan. At its peak in the 7th century CE, it had 50,000 inhabitants; you get the feeling the jungle could quickly return any time...🇲🇽

Glyphs at the great Mayan site, Calakmul 🇲🇽. Similar in some ways to Japanese kanji, about 90 per cent of surviving glyphs have now been interpreted but much scholarship remains disputed.

We're atop one of the pyramids at the ancient Mayan site of Calakmul 🇲🇽. 40km to the south (at 11 o'clock in this image) are the even larger pyramids of El Mirador 🇬🇹. This section of the Yucatan jungle was the set for the Yavin IV rebel base in the Star Wars movies.

Vital but risky - the ERRs in today's #Sudan. "If you’re a humanitarian in Sudan now, it is very dangerous. Neutrality, being impartial, is dangerous. Each side thinks you should swear allegiance to them.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Hanging around, in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve 🇲🇽, Yucatán spider monkeys - considered to be "facing high extinction risk" due to deforestation.

Feeling the winter blues? Escape to Wide and Starry Skies..... Coming up in the New Year - Wednesday January 14, Vancouver BC 🇨🇦. #Sailing #Booksky www.bluewatercruising.org/events/Event...

Today we have the ruins of Xpujil (late classic Maya period, 600 - 900CE) to ourselves; riding the Tren Maya 🇲🇽.

Just a few sleepy locals on board as we take the Tren Maya into the heart of the Yucatan jungle. headed for Xpujil 🇲🇽

Campeche 🇲🇽 by night; on the Tren Maya

Local specialties on sale on the waterfront, Campeche 🇲🇽. Marquesitas = large wafers wrapped around jam/other fillings; Elote = corn cob.

In downtown Campeche (Tren Maya 🇲🇽)

The jade Mask of Calakmul, 1200 years old. Designed to guide the Mayan ruler of this great city through the afterlife; discovered in 1984 and now on display in Campeche 🇲🇽.

A vendor of huipiles (traditional Mayan blouses) takes a break, night-time Campeche 🇲🇽.

Arriving aboard the Tren Maya🇲🇽 at the walled city of Campeche, which every Pirate of the Caribbean once had a go at sacking.

Making a stop on the Tren Maya 🇲🇽, at the ruins of Edzna, inhabited between 400 BCE and 1500 CE. If you've found Chichen Itza overcrowded, try a few off-piste sites like this (maybe ten people here...).

Taking the Tren Maya 🇲🇽 for the two-hour run from Merida to Campeche. Signage is bilingual: Tsiimin K'aak literally means Fire Horse in Mayan.

#Sudan, the UK and Colombian mercenaries. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Riding the Tren Maya, 🇲🇽. I'm detecting a certain underlying theme in Mexican art...🫤

Riding the Tren Maya. One of the joys of 🇲🇽 travel: free musical performances laid on at night in town squares, always with local/traditional music & dances. And the pride taken in them (this in Merida's Plaza de la Independencia)

Riding the Tren Maya, 🇲🇽. The facade of Merida's oldest building, built for Spanish conquistador Francisco de Montejo in 1542; his descendants lived here until a few years ago. Note what he has underfoot...🫤

Riding the 1500km Tren Maya in 🇲🇽's Yucatan. Modern, clean stations & trains; friendly staff (all military on secondment) but will it catch on? Prices compete with buses (but are 2x for foreigners). Thing is, buses are also fast, modern - and go to city centres @seatsixtyone.bsky.social

Riding the Tren Maya, Merida 🇲🇽: a Catrina "Day of the Dead" figure, ubiquitous at the end of the year.

Riding the Tren Maya 🇲🇽; in Merida's main square.

Riding the Tren Maya in 🇲🇽's Yucatan; and meeting some of the locals.

Riding the Tren Maya, Yucatan 🇲🇽. If you get away from over-hyped Chichen Itza (6000 visitors daily), you can still feel like one of the 19th C Europeans who first stumbled on the great Maya cities in the jungle. We were two of only six visitors at Ek Balam on this day.

Riding the Tren Maya. Chairs at the dining table, Casa de los Venados, Valladolid, Yucatan 🇲🇽

Riding the Tren Maya. In Valladolid, Yucatan 🇲🇽

Riding the Tren Maya: folk art in Valladolid, Yucatan 🇲🇽

Recently back from a few days riding the brand-new Tren Maya - a 1500km loop in 🇲🇽's Yucatan. European-style comfort/speed, from drawing board to reality in six years: impressive. More pix over the next few days. @seatsixtyone.bsky.social

📚💙It's not quite the NYT bestsellers' list...but Under Wide & Starry Skies is getting there! (Amazon today)

A rare good news story from #SouthSudan www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Telling the #Sudan and #Darfur story to the Victoria 🇨🇦 chapter of the Canadian International Council (CIC). Great to see so many young people in attendance (even though the venue was The Sticky Wicket - a pub 😀)

📚💙Looking for a Christmas gift for a fellow globetrotter? Under Wide and Starry Skies should check the "exotic" box...And if you're wondering if it's actually any good, peruse these extracts and reviews: www.bosunbird.com/under-wide-a...

It's been raining heavily all morning on Saltspring Island BC 🇨🇦. These two guys have showed up by our deck and have so far been waiting two hours for an invitation to come in...😀

📚💙If you aren't there already, it's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts! If your loved one likes to dream of distant and sunny places as winter sets in - try this. Review from San Francisco's Latitude 38 #sailing magazine. www.latitude38.com/issues/decem...

📚💙If you happen to be in the vicinity of Salt Spring Island 🇨🇦this Saturday December 6, come along! One of the destinations I'll be highlighting is in what may be the Least Travelled sea of all today: Om Dom (Crocodile Island), Blue Nile, #Sudan.

An honour to participate in this very well-attended forum at Harvard, only hours after the latest disastrous turn of events in #Sudan (fall of Babanusa to RSF). And to meet so many concerned students & community members. Note: event starts at the 10m 40s mark. www.youtube.com/live/Y9E3z3g...