Sergio Davi, the 65-year-old Italian adventurer, just transited the Panama Canal on his 10,000 mile expedition from Sicily to Los Angeles on a 36-foot RIB.
It took Davi 8 hours and 30 minutes, mostly at night, to travel 49-nm across the canal. He was joined by Stefano Germani, the financial manager of the Italian tech company I-Tronik. Davi needed extra help on board to help with the radio and lines once inside the canal.
Davi started his epic expedition on Dec. 15 in Palermo, hoping to reach L.A. in about 100 days. His schedule was set back when he tested positive for COVID-19 in Grand Canary and had to self-quarantine for a while.
He then crossed the Atlantic in six days, arriving in French Guyana on Feb.10. Since then, he’s skirted the coast of South America, up to the Caribbean, with brief stops at Port of Spain and Curacao before a longer stay in Cartagena, Colombia.
There, he had a full-boat checkup, with a tune-up of the twin Suzuki DF300B outboards and the suite of Simrad electronics, which includes a chart plotter, autopilot, radar and AIS. The RIB, named Aretusa Explorer, is a Nuova Jolly Prince.
Then he had to spend more than a week at the Shelter Bay Marina, on the Atlantic entry to the canal, for paperwork and authorization.
Now that he’s in the Pacific, Davi has about 3,000 nm more to reach Los Angeles.
A professional yacht captain, Davi has crossed the Atlantic several times. In 2019, he cruised on a similar Nuova Jolly RIB from Palermo to New York. Read more:
https://www.ciuriciurimare.com/avventure/ocean-to-ocean-rib-adventure-2021-22/
