Just a quick update. I picked up a job working for Quantum Sails in their loft here in the marina. It's a fun job and I'm learning a skill that I can use to make money no matter where I cruise in the future. It covers the beer tabs and takes away my need to hit up the ATM machine so I can't complain.
I'm taking off today and making the short trip over to Yost Van Dyke in the BVI's. It's about 20 miles away and home of Foxy's, the famous bar down here. www.foxysbar.com I'll be there for New Years, then back to St. Thomas to work some more. There'll be about 4000 people on this small remote island and I hear the anchorage becomes a parking lot, with some boats "rafting" to others since there's no room to drop anchor. With that said, I'm taking off early to hopefully set up shop w/o difficulty.
Everyone have a great New Year!
Dan
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
St Thomas Update
I pulled anchor on Thanksgiving and left Venezuela, heading for St. Thomas. My plan was that if I missed St Thomas, I’d go to Puerto Rico for a few days, then head east to St Thomas. On the day I left, winds and swell were coming from the NE and I made my first mistake, I continued NE towards St Thomas. My boat got rocked for about 20 hours and I was not covering much ground. Looking at the chart plotters reminded me of when I was a kid and how I felt when we used to drive cross country camping. After a day, you’d look at a map of the US and realize you only went a ½ inch or perhaps an inch. After 20 hours, I only made 65 miles. At that point, I turned east and decided to grab as much East as I could, then head north…hopefully with a better angle on the wind and seas. It worked and half way in to the 2nd day, I made my turn north.
I had 2 days of great sailing, never touching the engine. I will say though that it was a hard sail, a lot of crashing and blue water over the bow and rails. The winds change velocity pretty quickly. One minute you have 15 kts, then, within a few seconds, it hits 30! Rails get buried and you can wash your hands in the ocean while it goes past the cockpit. Pretty scary but fun! Anyway, my only scare was when I went down below on the 2nd day and had 2 inches of water on the floor! It was all on the port side since I was heeled over and I immediately went into troubleshooting/survival mode.
First, I tasted the water to see what it was….salt, fresh or fuel. It was salt water…not good! I previously closed my thru-hulls forward before I left. They’re for the head, sink drain and saltwater intake. So, I knew water was not coming in there. I also noted the bilge pump was not going off, even when I turned it on manually, it was dry. Ok…now what? Water was not rising but I will admit I looked at my ditch bag and Ephirb and mentally rehearsed a plan just in case something gave. It didn’t and I manually pumped the water out and all was good. A few hours later, I had water again! I found out that although my boat floats, it’s not completely waterproof topside. Like I said before I had blue water coming over the bow and had my rails in the water. When this happened, salt water snuck in around the toe rails (I guess) and got into the cabin. It’s the only thing that it could possibly be. I pumped the water out immediately, then tested my theory by trimming in the sails and turning to a beam reach (wind perpendicular to the boat). Rails went into the water immediately. I held the course for a few minutes, then eased the sheets. Sure enough, water down below. Although not what you want, I was relieved to say the least!
Outside of that, the passage was pretty good until about 100 miles out. My jib (front sail) is a big 130 and in anything above 20kts, I’m way over powered. Well, I had about 20 the entire trip and just prayed the sail would hold together. About a year ago, I hand-stitched some repairs and was watching the repairs closely throughout the passage. They held but unfortunately, the halyard snapped and the sail went limp. I was having some pretty large seas picking me up and literally putting me down wherever they chose. I should rephrase that….dropping me would be more appropriate. After what felt like a 5 foot free-fall, the boat crashed and the halyard snapped. The halyard is the line that holds the sail up at the top of the mast. I thought about using my spinnaker halyard as a back-up but the seas were pretty rough and I’d need to drop the jib and attach the new line. I didn’t feel like going forward and playing around so I simply fired up the engine and motor-sailed with just the main for the last 100 miles. It worked out good as I needed to charge the batteries and make some water anyway.
My first day’s error pushed out my arrival time and when passing St Croix, I knew that I’d be arriving at St. Thomas at about 2 in the morning. I dropped the revs but still arrived before sunrise. The approach is pretty simple but I don’t like going in to new ports at night so with that said, I spent 6 hours bobbing around outside of St Thomas waiting for sunrise. It was a beautiful night so I drank tea and stared at the stars. The only place that had better stars than that night was Kirkwood’s parking lot in the winter. Anyway, the sun came up and I entered the harbor and dropped anchor.
I checked in and it hit me that after 15 months, I’m back on US (sort of) soil! Pretty cool, plus they take dollars and speak English here! I treated myself to a few drinks and some chicken fingers. After 4 days at sea with nothing but Ramon, oatmeal and Tuna fish sandwiches, I was ready for some real food. Today I’m cleaning up the boat, tomorrow, I’ll start the job search. There’s a small marina here but I will most likely change anchorages and make my way around to Brenner or Redhook Bay. They have a lot more boat facilities that hopefully need some help. More later!
Dan
I had 2 days of great sailing, never touching the engine. I will say though that it was a hard sail, a lot of crashing and blue water over the bow and rails. The winds change velocity pretty quickly. One minute you have 15 kts, then, within a few seconds, it hits 30! Rails get buried and you can wash your hands in the ocean while it goes past the cockpit. Pretty scary but fun! Anyway, my only scare was when I went down below on the 2nd day and had 2 inches of water on the floor! It was all on the port side since I was heeled over and I immediately went into troubleshooting/survival mode.
First, I tasted the water to see what it was….salt, fresh or fuel. It was salt water…not good! I previously closed my thru-hulls forward before I left. They’re for the head, sink drain and saltwater intake. So, I knew water was not coming in there. I also noted the bilge pump was not going off, even when I turned it on manually, it was dry. Ok…now what? Water was not rising but I will admit I looked at my ditch bag and Ephirb and mentally rehearsed a plan just in case something gave. It didn’t and I manually pumped the water out and all was good. A few hours later, I had water again! I found out that although my boat floats, it’s not completely waterproof topside. Like I said before I had blue water coming over the bow and had my rails in the water. When this happened, salt water snuck in around the toe rails (I guess) and got into the cabin. It’s the only thing that it could possibly be. I pumped the water out immediately, then tested my theory by trimming in the sails and turning to a beam reach (wind perpendicular to the boat). Rails went into the water immediately. I held the course for a few minutes, then eased the sheets. Sure enough, water down below. Although not what you want, I was relieved to say the least!
Outside of that, the passage was pretty good until about 100 miles out. My jib (front sail) is a big 130 and in anything above 20kts, I’m way over powered. Well, I had about 20 the entire trip and just prayed the sail would hold together. About a year ago, I hand-stitched some repairs and was watching the repairs closely throughout the passage. They held but unfortunately, the halyard snapped and the sail went limp. I was having some pretty large seas picking me up and literally putting me down wherever they chose. I should rephrase that….dropping me would be more appropriate. After what felt like a 5 foot free-fall, the boat crashed and the halyard snapped. The halyard is the line that holds the sail up at the top of the mast. I thought about using my spinnaker halyard as a back-up but the seas were pretty rough and I’d need to drop the jib and attach the new line. I didn’t feel like going forward and playing around so I simply fired up the engine and motor-sailed with just the main for the last 100 miles. It worked out good as I needed to charge the batteries and make some water anyway.
My first day’s error pushed out my arrival time and when passing St Croix, I knew that I’d be arriving at St. Thomas at about 2 in the morning. I dropped the revs but still arrived before sunrise. The approach is pretty simple but I don’t like going in to new ports at night so with that said, I spent 6 hours bobbing around outside of St Thomas waiting for sunrise. It was a beautiful night so I drank tea and stared at the stars. The only place that had better stars than that night was Kirkwood’s parking lot in the winter. Anyway, the sun came up and I entered the harbor and dropped anchor.
I checked in and it hit me that after 15 months, I’m back on US (sort of) soil! Pretty cool, plus they take dollars and speak English here! I treated myself to a few drinks and some chicken fingers. After 4 days at sea with nothing but Ramon, oatmeal and Tuna fish sandwiches, I was ready for some real food. Today I’m cleaning up the boat, tomorrow, I’ll start the job search. There’s a small marina here but I will most likely change anchorages and make my way around to Brenner or Redhook Bay. They have a lot more boat facilities that hopefully need some help. More later!
Dan
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Bon Aire Update
It’s been a little since my last update. Out of the “ABC’s” (Aruba, Bon Aire and Curacao), Bon Aire is by far my favorite. It’s a huge marine park so anchoring is illegal. Mooring balls are available for $10/day right off the beach. I’m in about 10 feet of water and can watch fish all day from my boat. Had a turtle and a spotted ray swim by the other day.
Bon Aire is known for diving but I was more interested in kite-surfing…a little more my speed. Unfortunately, they only had wind-surfing so I signed up for some dive lessons. After 2.5 days, I am now a certified diver. Had a great time learning and it’s pretty simple. The hardest part was going down to 60’ and watching huge snappers swim by and not shooting them! Like I said, it’s a marine park, thus no spear-fishing. Those snappers had no idea how close they came……
I met some crew on one of the mega yachts here and scored an invite to a BBQ. Got the tour and learned quickly that the current owners bought this boat from Tiger Woods! It was pretty cool throwing down beers and shrimp knowing that Tiger sat at the same table…..let alone thinking what he did in the living room with his wife!
Ketching Up and I are waiting for a weather window to form for our departure. They’re off to St. Kitts, I’m off to find a job in St. Martin. It’ll be a 4 day sail and I’m far enough East that it should be a beam reach the whole time. Unfortunately, the wind and swell are both out of the ENE thus, pretty much on the nose. Their additional crew member came in today so as soon as the weather shifts, we’ll be off. The good news is that the crew brought down my camera so photos will start appearing shortly.
That’s it for now, hope everyone is doing well in the States,
Dan
Bon Aire is known for diving but I was more interested in kite-surfing…a little more my speed. Unfortunately, they only had wind-surfing so I signed up for some dive lessons. After 2.5 days, I am now a certified diver. Had a great time learning and it’s pretty simple. The hardest part was going down to 60’ and watching huge snappers swim by and not shooting them! Like I said, it’s a marine park, thus no spear-fishing. Those snappers had no idea how close they came……
I met some crew on one of the mega yachts here and scored an invite to a BBQ. Got the tour and learned quickly that the current owners bought this boat from Tiger Woods! It was pretty cool throwing down beers and shrimp knowing that Tiger sat at the same table…..let alone thinking what he did in the living room with his wife!
Ketching Up and I are waiting for a weather window to form for our departure. They’re off to St. Kitts, I’m off to find a job in St. Martin. It’ll be a 4 day sail and I’m far enough East that it should be a beam reach the whole time. Unfortunately, the wind and swell are both out of the ENE thus, pretty much on the nose. Their additional crew member came in today so as soon as the weather shifts, we’ll be off. The good news is that the crew brought down my camera so photos will start appearing shortly.
That’s it for now, hope everyone is doing well in the States,
Dan
Monday, October 20, 2008
Colombia to Aruba Passage
I woke up at 6am to help a friend do some varnish work on his boat. He mentioned a weather window that just opened for Aruba. Colombia to Aruba is a “beat”, nearly 400 miles against the wind and current. It’s rated as one of the top 5 worst passages to do. I was thinking about heading to Jamaica/Cuba just to eliminate this sail. However, with the recent hurricane that passed through, the winds changed and so did the current. We had a window of about 2 days before normal weather patterns resumed.
At noon, I was having a beer with some friends and they informed me they were going to take the window and leave. I decided at that point I’d better do the same as windows like this don’t happen too often. I contacted immigration, got my Zarpe, topped off diesel, hit the grocery store and had the bottom of the boat cleaned. At 5pm, I was pulling anchor, setting out for possibly the worse sail I’ll ever do.
Everything was going fine until 2am the first night. My autopilot, recently fixed after the lightening strike, went on the blink. I started to hand-steer and thought about my options. I have a “wind vane” that can steer my boat if the wind is right but knowing that I’d be motoring most of the way with little to no wind, I knew that I’d be steering by hand most of the way. 350 miles by hand, doing about 5 miles an hour makes for a long, long 3 days. I called the other 2 boats that I was traveling with and informed them of my situation. At that point, I decided to go for it. Getting my autopilot fixed in Colombia was not an option, thus I’d need to go back to Colon. If I did that, I’d never make the Eastern Caribbean this year. So, with that said, I grabbed my ankles and decided to proceed. In the meantime, I was working desperately on the autopilot. 4am, after disconnecting everything and power cycling the thing, it came back online! I was back in business and had a beer to celebrate.
The next night, about 3am, the engine died. I figured it was bad fuel (water or air in the lines). I quickly set the sails and was able to maintain my course surprisingly well. I decided to wait until sunrise to tackle the engine. Reason….give the engine time to cool as well as gain some natural light from the sun. I once again called the other two boats and told them I may be sailing the whole way which would turn a 3 day trip into a 6-7 day trip (but at least I wouldn’t be hand-steering!). At 7am, after being up for 48hrs straight, I changed all filters and bled the engine. I couldn’t get the fuel to the filter so I completely removed the bleed screw. I just sat there and watched, waiting for diesel to appear. Finally, it spouted out. I went to put the screw back in and dropped it! It went..plunk plunk splash….right into the bilge. On some boats, you can retrieve items from the bilge. On my boat, it’s a one-way trip…nothing returns. Now I did it. It’s a British engine so I new the threads would be metric. I dug through all my bolts and screws and found one! I took some measurements and dug out the hacksaw. In 15 minutes, I had a new screw and was back in business. I was able to bleed out the engine and fire her up. Time for another beer!
That afternoon, a little bird flew down below. I chased him out 3 times but failed to see him go in the final time. I went down below and found bird crap all over my settee! I threw a towel over the little sh!t and gave him a proper burial at sea. About an hour later, a big dove like looking bird was catching a ride on my bimini. He too left a mark so I chased him off. He returned to my dodger without my knowledge and shortly thereafter, I had a nice steamer fall on my shoulder. He too joined his friend in a proper sea burial. Basically, I just grabbed him with my hand and threw him as hard as I could into the ocean. The world is down 2 birds but Dan is only 90 miles out of Aruba. That’s when the weather window closed.
We had about 20kts on the nose and I was making about 3nm/hour. Basically, turtles were waving to me as they passed me. I got into Aruba around 4pm, checked into the country, dropped the anchor and had cocktails on a friend’s boat. I was out by 8pm, didn’t wake up until 10am the next day. From here, I’m off to Bon Aire, then going to make the last, long passage up to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, basically as far East as I can sail.
Finally, I woke up this morning and my batteries were surprisingly low. I’ve been having fridge issues but thought I had the leak fixed in Colombia. I guess not. It ran all day and night and couldn’t maintain temperature. I’m heading out to the boat now to see if I can find the leak. In the meantime, it’s a bag of ice and a cooler to hold me over. Note to self: Next boat, save some more cash and buy a newer boat!
Dan
At noon, I was having a beer with some friends and they informed me they were going to take the window and leave. I decided at that point I’d better do the same as windows like this don’t happen too often. I contacted immigration, got my Zarpe, topped off diesel, hit the grocery store and had the bottom of the boat cleaned. At 5pm, I was pulling anchor, setting out for possibly the worse sail I’ll ever do.
Everything was going fine until 2am the first night. My autopilot, recently fixed after the lightening strike, went on the blink. I started to hand-steer and thought about my options. I have a “wind vane” that can steer my boat if the wind is right but knowing that I’d be motoring most of the way with little to no wind, I knew that I’d be steering by hand most of the way. 350 miles by hand, doing about 5 miles an hour makes for a long, long 3 days. I called the other 2 boats that I was traveling with and informed them of my situation. At that point, I decided to go for it. Getting my autopilot fixed in Colombia was not an option, thus I’d need to go back to Colon. If I did that, I’d never make the Eastern Caribbean this year. So, with that said, I grabbed my ankles and decided to proceed. In the meantime, I was working desperately on the autopilot. 4am, after disconnecting everything and power cycling the thing, it came back online! I was back in business and had a beer to celebrate.
The next night, about 3am, the engine died. I figured it was bad fuel (water or air in the lines). I quickly set the sails and was able to maintain my course surprisingly well. I decided to wait until sunrise to tackle the engine. Reason….give the engine time to cool as well as gain some natural light from the sun. I once again called the other two boats and told them I may be sailing the whole way which would turn a 3 day trip into a 6-7 day trip (but at least I wouldn’t be hand-steering!). At 7am, after being up for 48hrs straight, I changed all filters and bled the engine. I couldn’t get the fuel to the filter so I completely removed the bleed screw. I just sat there and watched, waiting for diesel to appear. Finally, it spouted out. I went to put the screw back in and dropped it! It went..plunk plunk splash….right into the bilge. On some boats, you can retrieve items from the bilge. On my boat, it’s a one-way trip…nothing returns. Now I did it. It’s a British engine so I new the threads would be metric. I dug through all my bolts and screws and found one! I took some measurements and dug out the hacksaw. In 15 minutes, I had a new screw and was back in business. I was able to bleed out the engine and fire her up. Time for another beer!
That afternoon, a little bird flew down below. I chased him out 3 times but failed to see him go in the final time. I went down below and found bird crap all over my settee! I threw a towel over the little sh!t and gave him a proper burial at sea. About an hour later, a big dove like looking bird was catching a ride on my bimini. He too left a mark so I chased him off. He returned to my dodger without my knowledge and shortly thereafter, I had a nice steamer fall on my shoulder. He too joined his friend in a proper sea burial. Basically, I just grabbed him with my hand and threw him as hard as I could into the ocean. The world is down 2 birds but Dan is only 90 miles out of Aruba. That’s when the weather window closed.
We had about 20kts on the nose and I was making about 3nm/hour. Basically, turtles were waving to me as they passed me. I got into Aruba around 4pm, checked into the country, dropped the anchor and had cocktails on a friend’s boat. I was out by 8pm, didn’t wake up until 10am the next day. From here, I’m off to Bon Aire, then going to make the last, long passage up to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, basically as far East as I can sail.
Finally, I woke up this morning and my batteries were surprisingly low. I’ve been having fridge issues but thought I had the leak fixed in Colombia. I guess not. It ran all day and night and couldn’t maintain temperature. I’m heading out to the boat now to see if I can find the leak. In the meantime, it’s a bag of ice and a cooler to hold me over. Note to self: Next boat, save some more cash and buy a newer boat!
Dan
Friday, October 3, 2008
Colombia
After a few weeks in the San Blas, it is time to go. If Erin was still on board, I certainly could have hung out in the San Blas for a lot longer! It was beautiful but a bit quiet for only one person on the boat. Dave on m/v Jenny and I plan on buddy boating over to Colombia but before we do, we’ll get some snorkeling and spear fishing in.
Spear fishing…my new addiction! Dave and I ran into another cruiser who spear-fished for just about his whole life. We went out with him for the morning and I nailed my first fish! Sharks were around so you had to be a little cautious. They’re not any harm to you but if you’re holding a dead fish in your hand underwater, well…..enough said. You keep the dinghy near by and if you get one, you get the fish up and into the boat as quickly as possible. I was down around 30 feet and a brown grouper swam right at me. I held my breath (joke) and pulled the trigger. Got him right behind the gills. It was so violent but fun, only wish he was a little bigger!
Dave and I threw him on the grill that night and I found my new favorite fish to eat. White, flakey…perfect with a little lime and a cold beer. We pulled anchor on the 29th and decided it was time to make the 200 mile passage to Colombia.
Colombia, back in the day, was known for pirates and violence. In the past 5 years, it cleaned up (well at least Cartegena) and is now a favorite stop for cruisers. From there, boats hop off to one of 3 main destinations: The ABC Islands, Jamaica or back towards the Canal and up to Bocas del Toro and then Belize/etc. I plan on the ABC route but just like I’ve been running it for the last year, I’ll decide when I get there. I really need to start planning on how I’m going to leave this lifestyle. Although I have another season of cruising, I need to decide where to bring my boat for the next hurricane season. At that point, I’ll most likely be selling her and with today’s market in the US, not sure if that’ll be the spot. A lot of Europeans are buying boats in the Caribbean and taking them across the Atlantic, making the most of the Euro and low dollar. We’ll see…tomorrow’s a different day.
It’s 1:00am and I’m about 60nm’s out from Colombia. My ETA is about 9am. We plan on anchoring outside of Cartagena, scoping out some local anchorages that cruisers retreat to when they want to get away from the city. Plus, you don’t swim inside the bay so many take their boats out once every 2 weeks to swim and clean the bottom. Anyway, I’m going back topside to have a look. I lost my radar during the lightening strike and I’m truly missing it. Dave gave me a 2hr head start this morning, leaving him about 5 miles ahead of me now. He’s been giving me updates on the SSB regarding traffic as my VHF doesn’t’ reach out that far. Lost that antennae as well during the storm. Hopefully, I can fix that in Cartagena but I have a feeling the radar may need to wait until I get somewhere that carries such items. Anyway, I’ll write more later!
Dan
Spear fishing…my new addiction! Dave and I ran into another cruiser who spear-fished for just about his whole life. We went out with him for the morning and I nailed my first fish! Sharks were around so you had to be a little cautious. They’re not any harm to you but if you’re holding a dead fish in your hand underwater, well…..enough said. You keep the dinghy near by and if you get one, you get the fish up and into the boat as quickly as possible. I was down around 30 feet and a brown grouper swam right at me. I held my breath (joke) and pulled the trigger. Got him right behind the gills. It was so violent but fun, only wish he was a little bigger!
Dave and I threw him on the grill that night and I found my new favorite fish to eat. White, flakey…perfect with a little lime and a cold beer. We pulled anchor on the 29th and decided it was time to make the 200 mile passage to Colombia.
Colombia, back in the day, was known for pirates and violence. In the past 5 years, it cleaned up (well at least Cartegena) and is now a favorite stop for cruisers. From there, boats hop off to one of 3 main destinations: The ABC Islands, Jamaica or back towards the Canal and up to Bocas del Toro and then Belize/etc. I plan on the ABC route but just like I’ve been running it for the last year, I’ll decide when I get there. I really need to start planning on how I’m going to leave this lifestyle. Although I have another season of cruising, I need to decide where to bring my boat for the next hurricane season. At that point, I’ll most likely be selling her and with today’s market in the US, not sure if that’ll be the spot. A lot of Europeans are buying boats in the Caribbean and taking them across the Atlantic, making the most of the Euro and low dollar. We’ll see…tomorrow’s a different day.
It’s 1:00am and I’m about 60nm’s out from Colombia. My ETA is about 9am. We plan on anchoring outside of Cartagena, scoping out some local anchorages that cruisers retreat to when they want to get away from the city. Plus, you don’t swim inside the bay so many take their boats out once every 2 weeks to swim and clean the bottom. Anyway, I’m going back topside to have a look. I lost my radar during the lightening strike and I’m truly missing it. Dave gave me a 2hr head start this morning, leaving him about 5 miles ahead of me now. He’s been giving me updates on the SSB regarding traffic as my VHF doesn’t’ reach out that far. Lost that antennae as well during the storm. Hopefully, I can fix that in Cartagena but I have a feeling the radar may need to wait until I get somewhere that carries such items. Anyway, I’ll write more later!
Dan
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Panama Canal, in the Caribbean
As all of you know, my parents flew down for the transit. I asked my dad to write this update for the blog and unfortunately for me, he did. Please do not expect anything this well written or lengthy from me on future updates, it's not going to happen. Enjoy!
*********************
Ginny and I returned home Friday from our visit with Dan and Erin on Dan’s boat, Spirit. While we were onboard there was plenty of time for talking and one of the subjects that arose was his blog. Being the leader that he is, he delegated the job of recording our visit for his blog. Since he wasn’t present for all the things we did, I guess that is only fair. Our flight to Panama was uneventful, punctuated with meeting several Panamanians along the way who extolled the virtues of their home country. Warm, outgoing and helpful, one even gave us her home number to call in case we needed assistance while in Panama City. Additionally, Rosie Lazar, mother of one of my favorite people, Kim Keely, gave us her brother’s number in Panama City so he could be of assistance if needed. Armed with these allies, we were prepared! After clearing customs, Dan was there to meet us and escort us to the marina. Boarding his dingy, it was ¼ mile ride to where Spirit was on anchor. There we met Erin who had been on board since mid June. Time was to prove Erin a skilled sailor, gracious hostess (at least as possible space constraints would allow) and a true asset to Spirit. Unfortunately, she’ll be returning home to South Dakota soon. Spirit still was suffering damages from the recent lightening strike. Several days were spent on provisioning for a long sail, repairs and general maintenance. While on anchor, it was rather breezy with almost constant chop. Apparently, this was as rough as it had been since Spirit had arrived in Panama City. We felt so honored! On the day we were scheduled to enter the canal, we awoke early to a rising wind and a rolling sea. Leaving the anchorage, we had to round a point in order to enter the canal. There we meet 6’ swells coming from several directions. All of a sudden, Dan’s solar shower, filled with water and weighing about 50lbs was lifted overboard by the wind and quickly disappeared. When a loop in the rolling seas failed to find it, it was decided to continue on into the limited shelter provided by the canal entrance. Reporting in to the command center, we were told we would be passing through the locks with a tanker, a sport fishing boat and a pilot boat. Unfortunately, the fishing boat was 3 hours behind schedule and we were doomed to circle the entire time awaiting their arrival. Finally, they appeared on the scene, our advisor provided by the canal boarded Spirit and we were told to follow our fellow travelers into the lock. There are a series of three locks that lift you about 160’ into the lake that carries you across the country. The first one went fine. However, the wind had arisen and the tanker had trouble maneuvering into the second set of locks. This necessitated another tug to guide him and the result was an additional 1 1/2 hours spent due to our fellow transients. The major concern here was that if you don’t transit in your allotted time, a 50% penalty will be assigned to your crossing fees. For a boat the size of Spirit, the charge is about $850. For a tanker, it is around $225,000. When we finally entered the lake, the crossing was uneventful. The scenery was lush rain forest, clear water and the occasional tanker in transit. There are only two seasons in Panama – wet and dry. Right now is the wet season. However, we had less rain than usual. Speculation was that the hurricanes to the north were pulling moisture from the tropics. Every day was in the mid 80s. To put it another way, tropical Panama is cooler than Philly, although more humid. Evening found us tied to a buoy near the eastern locks, howler monkeys sounding off in the jungle and clear fresh water for swimming. Unfortunately, our advisor informed us that the lake was full of alligators and if we decided to go swimming, less of us would exit the lake than entered it. Thus our fresh water bath was delivered via a bucket instead by swimming. After a night that was not characterized by rolling seas for a change, we awoke to a perfect morning. The advisor the previous night had told us we would be the first boat to exit the lake. What he neglected to mention was that every tanker in the western hemisphere would enter the lake before we would be allowed to exit. Around 11:30 our new advisor boarded to take us through the down locks. He casually asked us if we enjoyed swimming in the lake as it was one of his favorite places for scuba diving. Further questioning revealed there had only been one case of alligator attacks (20 years ago) and the lake’s residents were afraid of humans. Down locking found us ahead of another tanker with a pilot boat powered by three engines. Actually, it was powered by one as the other two were broken and he was leaving the lake for repairs. As you may guess, he was having problems maneuvering with his power coming form the side of his stern. After a period of trial and error, he finally was secured to the side of the canal and we came along side and tied to him. Perhaps now would be a good time to explain locking techniques. Each boat the size of Spirit needs at least four line handlers who control the ropes that hold you to either the side of the locks or fellow boats passing through. Supposedly, they should know what they are doing. As a result, Dan also had Bruce and Marion on board who were experienced cruisers, interested in a canal crossing. Their travels over the years have taken them to places about which the rest of us can only dream. I won’t attempt to relate their travels but theirs is a book waiting to be written. Technique called for the pilot boat to tie to the canal side, looping a 1” line around a cleat on the boat. As the water was released (about 1’/minute), the line handlers on the pilot carefully release their lines at a rate that secures their boat to the canal wall. The handlers on Spirit secure their lines to the pilot boat and as the water goes down, Spirit follows, attached to the pilot. Between the boats tires are tied as well as inflatable bladders that act as fenders so there is no damage from boats touching each other. Well, that is how it is supposed to work! Once the pilot boat was secured, the first down lock was uneventful. Unfortunately, there were two more to transit. Tying to the second lock, we began our descent. After going down about 10’, we saw the stern of the pilot swinging away from the wall and we were headed toward the opposite side. Yelling to them as to what was happening, we heard their crew shouting to shut the water valves. At that point the bow of the pilot began to rise out of the water, pulling Spirit under it’s port side. With the bow about 3’ out of the water, the 1” line that had fouled on their snubbing cleat suddenly snapped, dropping the pilot onto Spirit’s fenders, missing the starboard side by a few inches and pushing Spirit down into the water. It was so fast that it was hard to see but it was a foot or more lower than normal. Coming back up, we quickly looked for damages and were relieved to see that we came through unscathed – except for racing hearts! From there our down locking was uneventful and we headed out the channel with Shelter Bay as our destination. Before leaving Spirit, Dan forced our advisor to get on the phone to see if Spirit would be penalized for not clearing the canal in time. Because the delays were beyond Spirit’s control, Dan was assured he would not be assessed a penalty. Now he’ll have to see if the promise is reflected on his bank account. After weaving through a forest of tankers at anchor, we arrived at Shelter Bay Marina. The highlight was the most high tech showers I have ever seen. A garden hose with a nozzle would have been appreciated. All I can say is there is a picture of the showers when we get our pictures posted. Somewhere in our travels someone defined cruising as the act of repairing you boat in beautiful locales. After changing the filters on Spirit’s fuel lines, the following morning we departed Shelter Bay after enjoying a quiet night. When Balboa crossed Panama to find the Pacific, he named it as such because it was peaceful. Based on my observations, I can only assume that Balboa must have also found something in addition to tobacco to smoke. The Pacific side was windy, had the lightning storms that struck Spirit and 16’ tides. The Atlantic had 2’ tides, gentle winds and the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, just as we cleared the jetty at Shelter Bay, Spirit’s engine shut down. Raising the sails, we sailed to the edge of the channel, dropped anchor and Dan became a mechanic. Over an hour later after bleeding the fuel line, Dan emerged from under the bow, Spirit fired up and we were on our way. Clearing the shipping lanes, Dan and Erin hoisted the sails and we were finally able to experience the joys of sailing. Traveling at 7.4 knots without diesel fumes and the chugging of the engine, we began to understand the lyrics from Jimmy Buffett. With flying fish skimming the water at our side and the bluest water we’ve ever seen, only a cold pina colada could improve the day. Just before sunset we arrived at Isla Grande, dropped anchor near a friend from Dan’s travels down the Mexican coast and finally relaxed. The next two days were spent snorkeling, resting and visiting ashore. Every night we had been serenaded by the choruses of howler monkeys in the jungle. Using the dingy, we motored to a nearby island where we had been told we would see some spider monkeys. I may be wrong but the two that greeted us were so photogenic I suspect they had been put there by Kodak. If you check our pictures, there is footage of Dan sharing the dock with his new friend. Leaving Isla Grande, we truly entered the San Blas Islands after a day’s travel. Frequently, schools of dolphins cruised next to our bow until they became bored with entertaining us. We trailed a fishing lure behind us in hopes that it would attract some interest. The first strike resulted in a north bound fish snapping our south bound line before we could get to the pole. An hour later we were luckier when a 3’ barracuda struck. After an entertaining fight, Dan gaffed the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. The only thing that would have been better would have been for it to be a better eating fish. The end of the day found us dropping anchor at the Kuna Indian island of El Porvenir. Words fail me as I try to describe the beauty of this island. As we arrived we were met by Indians in dugout canoes made by burning out the center of logs and then hewing the sides into shape. The women were selling molas, sewn fabric in designs of birds, monkeys, etc. The men were supposedly were selling fish, lobsters, etc. However, they had none with them and it seemed they just wanted to greet us. Having spent 5 years in Mexico, Erin was extremely fluent in Spanish and a godsend when we needed her skills. I suspect you have probably seen the San Blas Islands. The Corona Beer ads showing people relaxing on the low lying, palm covered beaches had to be filmed here. As we entered the anchorage, I was on the bow, watching for coral on the bottom that could damage Spirit. Suddenly, there it was and I asked Dan for the depth. 42’ down and it looked like it was just below the surface. Jacques Cousteau would have loved it! This is the island we were flying from so we could return to Panama City for our return flight. If Cousteau would have liked the water, Indiana Jones would have loved the island. A runway of broken concrete! A one story blue hotel with 4 rooms. A terminal with a concrete floor and thatched roof. A one story control tower that didn’t work because lightning had hit it and they hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. It wasn’t needed though because there are only two flights a day. The only air traffic here was frigate birds and pelicans. The day after arriving we sailed to a nearby island for snorkeling. 100 yds long, like most of the islands there was an Indian family living in a thatched house that may have been 10’ X 5’. The water here is very deep or very shallow. Coral reefs are just below the surface but 10’ away the water may be 70’ deep. The sides of the island drop away from the surface but are covered with enough marine life to illustrate a library of biology books. Everywhere are fish of every color, shape and size. Myriad varieties of coral, sponges, sea fans and anemones illustrate all the phyla I discussed while teaching. The wreck offshore was populated by schools of squid. Crabs hid in any place that offered shelter. What I would have given for a scuba tank instead of a snorkel! Returning to El Porvenir, our last night was not too restful as a late arriving boat seemed to be captained by college students who knew little about anchoring and, thus, we were concerned about swinging into them if the wind changed during the night. The next morning our flight out was scheduled for 6:30 so it was up bright and early. Taking the dingy over to the island we struck up a conversation with the only English speaking passenger. We were somewhat taken aback when he asked if we were the owners of the boat that sank. As it turned out, a Colombian family who was also flying out, had been on their 62’ boat traveling at 17 knots at night when they struck something in the water, possibly a container that had fallen off a ship. After several hours their boat sank and they were rescued. Before we could gather any more information about the sinking, the two planes arrived, roaring to a stop at the end of the abbreviated runway and came to rest in the grass. Scurrying out, the Kunas became ground control, ticket agents, luggage handlers and any other position that needed filled. Unfortunately, they were so short that they couldn’t get up into the cargo hold. At that point I lifted a Kuna into the plane so he could stow cargo. There were more passengers than there were seats on our plane so the over flow headed for the second plane. I assumed that since ours was filled we would head to Panama City. Roaring down to the end of the runway our pilot made a u-turn without stopping and roared back up the runway. We didn’t take off as much as we just drove off the end of the field. Climbing into the air I was able to catch Spirit in the video I was shooting. Once airborne we continued down the coast which I thought was unusual as I knew Panama City required crossing over the country. Suddenly, we went into what could only be called a power dive and swooped down onto another landing strip that made our first one look like Heathrow! After skidding to a stop, a few people exited and a few more got on as our pilot leisurely smoked a cigarette while standing in the grass that served as a tarmac. Now I’m not a smoker but after that landing I could have been persuaded. Now we head to P.C! WRONG! Two more take offs and landings from postage stamps and finally we turn inland. I won’t say the airline was rustic, but the in-flight movie consisted of the co-pilot passing around pictures of his children. Arriving in Panama City we called Tony who we had reserved as our driver. Since we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3:00, we thought we’d have Tony give us a tour and take us up into the rain forest. Tony, on the other hand, had reserved the day for a regular customer who periodically came to the mainland from her home in the Perla Islands. Since she was a regular customer and we were one and done, he offered to take us to the mall to kill time until she was done shopping. Arriving there, we found that the mall didn’t open for another hour. That is how the Kinkeads became porters for Jenny from the islands. As it was, it worked out well as we got to see another side of Panama City, getting an insider’s tour without paying for it. At 1:00 we went to our hotel, checked in, took a shower with all the water we wanted, slept on a bed that didn’t move and actually flushed toilet paper down. No, Dan is not so cheap that he recycles toilet paper – the plumbing can clog on a boat sewer system. The only regret that we have from the trip was that there was no opportunity to fit in a visit with Rosie Lazar’s brother. We called him from the hotel and it was obvious he would have been a gracious host. I know we missed an event that would have been a highlight of the trip. Also at the hotel we saw something that we had anticipated but had not seen on the entire trip – a mosquito! 5:30 a.m. found us at the airport for an uneventful flight to Miami. Since we had an eight hour layover, we took a three hour tour of Miami to kill some time. Arriving in Baltimore, we were in our hotel for a good night’s sleep by 11:30. ### As I sit here with my computer, wide screen tv showing today’s football games and a pile of newspapers waiting to be read, it is hard to imagine that a few days ago we were floating in tropical waters surrounded by indians living as their ancestors lived for hundreds of years. Take your pick as to which is a more civilized lifestyle. It was great seeing Dan who we hadn’t seen since December. We are often asked about when he’ll return to the real world. That may be where he is now but I suspect he is closer to the end of his odyssey than the beginning. It was also wonderful meeting Erin, a confident and capable young woman who is wise beyond her years. We just wish she could stay aboard instead of returning home. I assume Dan will be pasting his rebuttal on his web site, http://whereiskinkead.blogspot.com whenever he has email access. Hopefully, he will also have some of our pictures.
*********************
Ginny and I returned home Friday from our visit with Dan and Erin on Dan’s boat, Spirit. While we were onboard there was plenty of time for talking and one of the subjects that arose was his blog. Being the leader that he is, he delegated the job of recording our visit for his blog. Since he wasn’t present for all the things we did, I guess that is only fair. Our flight to Panama was uneventful, punctuated with meeting several Panamanians along the way who extolled the virtues of their home country. Warm, outgoing and helpful, one even gave us her home number to call in case we needed assistance while in Panama City. Additionally, Rosie Lazar, mother of one of my favorite people, Kim Keely, gave us her brother’s number in Panama City so he could be of assistance if needed. Armed with these allies, we were prepared! After clearing customs, Dan was there to meet us and escort us to the marina. Boarding his dingy, it was ¼ mile ride to where Spirit was on anchor. There we met Erin who had been on board since mid June. Time was to prove Erin a skilled sailor, gracious hostess (at least as possible space constraints would allow) and a true asset to Spirit. Unfortunately, she’ll be returning home to South Dakota soon. Spirit still was suffering damages from the recent lightening strike. Several days were spent on provisioning for a long sail, repairs and general maintenance. While on anchor, it was rather breezy with almost constant chop. Apparently, this was as rough as it had been since Spirit had arrived in Panama City. We felt so honored! On the day we were scheduled to enter the canal, we awoke early to a rising wind and a rolling sea. Leaving the anchorage, we had to round a point in order to enter the canal. There we meet 6’ swells coming from several directions. All of a sudden, Dan’s solar shower, filled with water and weighing about 50lbs was lifted overboard by the wind and quickly disappeared. When a loop in the rolling seas failed to find it, it was decided to continue on into the limited shelter provided by the canal entrance. Reporting in to the command center, we were told we would be passing through the locks with a tanker, a sport fishing boat and a pilot boat. Unfortunately, the fishing boat was 3 hours behind schedule and we were doomed to circle the entire time awaiting their arrival. Finally, they appeared on the scene, our advisor provided by the canal boarded Spirit and we were told to follow our fellow travelers into the lock. There are a series of three locks that lift you about 160’ into the lake that carries you across the country. The first one went fine. However, the wind had arisen and the tanker had trouble maneuvering into the second set of locks. This necessitated another tug to guide him and the result was an additional 1 1/2 hours spent due to our fellow transients. The major concern here was that if you don’t transit in your allotted time, a 50% penalty will be assigned to your crossing fees. For a boat the size of Spirit, the charge is about $850. For a tanker, it is around $225,000. When we finally entered the lake, the crossing was uneventful. The scenery was lush rain forest, clear water and the occasional tanker in transit. There are only two seasons in Panama – wet and dry. Right now is the wet season. However, we had less rain than usual. Speculation was that the hurricanes to the north were pulling moisture from the tropics. Every day was in the mid 80s. To put it another way, tropical Panama is cooler than Philly, although more humid. Evening found us tied to a buoy near the eastern locks, howler monkeys sounding off in the jungle and clear fresh water for swimming. Unfortunately, our advisor informed us that the lake was full of alligators and if we decided to go swimming, less of us would exit the lake than entered it. Thus our fresh water bath was delivered via a bucket instead by swimming. After a night that was not characterized by rolling seas for a change, we awoke to a perfect morning. The advisor the previous night had told us we would be the first boat to exit the lake. What he neglected to mention was that every tanker in the western hemisphere would enter the lake before we would be allowed to exit. Around 11:30 our new advisor boarded to take us through the down locks. He casually asked us if we enjoyed swimming in the lake as it was one of his favorite places for scuba diving. Further questioning revealed there had only been one case of alligator attacks (20 years ago) and the lake’s residents were afraid of humans. Down locking found us ahead of another tanker with a pilot boat powered by three engines. Actually, it was powered by one as the other two were broken and he was leaving the lake for repairs. As you may guess, he was having problems maneuvering with his power coming form the side of his stern. After a period of trial and error, he finally was secured to the side of the canal and we came along side and tied to him. Perhaps now would be a good time to explain locking techniques. Each boat the size of Spirit needs at least four line handlers who control the ropes that hold you to either the side of the locks or fellow boats passing through. Supposedly, they should know what they are doing. As a result, Dan also had Bruce and Marion on board who were experienced cruisers, interested in a canal crossing. Their travels over the years have taken them to places about which the rest of us can only dream. I won’t attempt to relate their travels but theirs is a book waiting to be written. Technique called for the pilot boat to tie to the canal side, looping a 1” line around a cleat on the boat. As the water was released (about 1’/minute), the line handlers on the pilot carefully release their lines at a rate that secures their boat to the canal wall. The handlers on Spirit secure their lines to the pilot boat and as the water goes down, Spirit follows, attached to the pilot. Between the boats tires are tied as well as inflatable bladders that act as fenders so there is no damage from boats touching each other. Well, that is how it is supposed to work! Once the pilot boat was secured, the first down lock was uneventful. Unfortunately, there were two more to transit. Tying to the second lock, we began our descent. After going down about 10’, we saw the stern of the pilot swinging away from the wall and we were headed toward the opposite side. Yelling to them as to what was happening, we heard their crew shouting to shut the water valves. At that point the bow of the pilot began to rise out of the water, pulling Spirit under it’s port side. With the bow about 3’ out of the water, the 1” line that had fouled on their snubbing cleat suddenly snapped, dropping the pilot onto Spirit’s fenders, missing the starboard side by a few inches and pushing Spirit down into the water. It was so fast that it was hard to see but it was a foot or more lower than normal. Coming back up, we quickly looked for damages and were relieved to see that we came through unscathed – except for racing hearts! From there our down locking was uneventful and we headed out the channel with Shelter Bay as our destination. Before leaving Spirit, Dan forced our advisor to get on the phone to see if Spirit would be penalized for not clearing the canal in time. Because the delays were beyond Spirit’s control, Dan was assured he would not be assessed a penalty. Now he’ll have to see if the promise is reflected on his bank account. After weaving through a forest of tankers at anchor, we arrived at Shelter Bay Marina. The highlight was the most high tech showers I have ever seen. A garden hose with a nozzle would have been appreciated. All I can say is there is a picture of the showers when we get our pictures posted. Somewhere in our travels someone defined cruising as the act of repairing you boat in beautiful locales. After changing the filters on Spirit’s fuel lines, the following morning we departed Shelter Bay after enjoying a quiet night. When Balboa crossed Panama to find the Pacific, he named it as such because it was peaceful. Based on my observations, I can only assume that Balboa must have also found something in addition to tobacco to smoke. The Pacific side was windy, had the lightning storms that struck Spirit and 16’ tides. The Atlantic had 2’ tides, gentle winds and the clearest water I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, just as we cleared the jetty at Shelter Bay, Spirit’s engine shut down. Raising the sails, we sailed to the edge of the channel, dropped anchor and Dan became a mechanic. Over an hour later after bleeding the fuel line, Dan emerged from under the bow, Spirit fired up and we were on our way. Clearing the shipping lanes, Dan and Erin hoisted the sails and we were finally able to experience the joys of sailing. Traveling at 7.4 knots without diesel fumes and the chugging of the engine, we began to understand the lyrics from Jimmy Buffett. With flying fish skimming the water at our side and the bluest water we’ve ever seen, only a cold pina colada could improve the day. Just before sunset we arrived at Isla Grande, dropped anchor near a friend from Dan’s travels down the Mexican coast and finally relaxed. The next two days were spent snorkeling, resting and visiting ashore. Every night we had been serenaded by the choruses of howler monkeys in the jungle. Using the dingy, we motored to a nearby island where we had been told we would see some spider monkeys. I may be wrong but the two that greeted us were so photogenic I suspect they had been put there by Kodak. If you check our pictures, there is footage of Dan sharing the dock with his new friend. Leaving Isla Grande, we truly entered the San Blas Islands after a day’s travel. Frequently, schools of dolphins cruised next to our bow until they became bored with entertaining us. We trailed a fishing lure behind us in hopes that it would attract some interest. The first strike resulted in a north bound fish snapping our south bound line before we could get to the pole. An hour later we were luckier when a 3’ barracuda struck. After an entertaining fight, Dan gaffed the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. The only thing that would have been better would have been for it to be a better eating fish. The end of the day found us dropping anchor at the Kuna Indian island of El Porvenir. Words fail me as I try to describe the beauty of this island. As we arrived we were met by Indians in dugout canoes made by burning out the center of logs and then hewing the sides into shape. The women were selling molas, sewn fabric in designs of birds, monkeys, etc. The men were supposedly were selling fish, lobsters, etc. However, they had none with them and it seemed they just wanted to greet us. Having spent 5 years in Mexico, Erin was extremely fluent in Spanish and a godsend when we needed her skills. I suspect you have probably seen the San Blas Islands. The Corona Beer ads showing people relaxing on the low lying, palm covered beaches had to be filmed here. As we entered the anchorage, I was on the bow, watching for coral on the bottom that could damage Spirit. Suddenly, there it was and I asked Dan for the depth. 42’ down and it looked like it was just below the surface. Jacques Cousteau would have loved it! This is the island we were flying from so we could return to Panama City for our return flight. If Cousteau would have liked the water, Indiana Jones would have loved the island. A runway of broken concrete! A one story blue hotel with 4 rooms. A terminal with a concrete floor and thatched roof. A one story control tower that didn’t work because lightning had hit it and they hadn’t gotten around to fixing it. It wasn’t needed though because there are only two flights a day. The only air traffic here was frigate birds and pelicans. The day after arriving we sailed to a nearby island for snorkeling. 100 yds long, like most of the islands there was an Indian family living in a thatched house that may have been 10’ X 5’. The water here is very deep or very shallow. Coral reefs are just below the surface but 10’ away the water may be 70’ deep. The sides of the island drop away from the surface but are covered with enough marine life to illustrate a library of biology books. Everywhere are fish of every color, shape and size. Myriad varieties of coral, sponges, sea fans and anemones illustrate all the phyla I discussed while teaching. The wreck offshore was populated by schools of squid. Crabs hid in any place that offered shelter. What I would have given for a scuba tank instead of a snorkel! Returning to El Porvenir, our last night was not too restful as a late arriving boat seemed to be captained by college students who knew little about anchoring and, thus, we were concerned about swinging into them if the wind changed during the night. The next morning our flight out was scheduled for 6:30 so it was up bright and early. Taking the dingy over to the island we struck up a conversation with the only English speaking passenger. We were somewhat taken aback when he asked if we were the owners of the boat that sank. As it turned out, a Colombian family who was also flying out, had been on their 62’ boat traveling at 17 knots at night when they struck something in the water, possibly a container that had fallen off a ship. After several hours their boat sank and they were rescued. Before we could gather any more information about the sinking, the two planes arrived, roaring to a stop at the end of the abbreviated runway and came to rest in the grass. Scurrying out, the Kunas became ground control, ticket agents, luggage handlers and any other position that needed filled. Unfortunately, they were so short that they couldn’t get up into the cargo hold. At that point I lifted a Kuna into the plane so he could stow cargo. There were more passengers than there were seats on our plane so the over flow headed for the second plane. I assumed that since ours was filled we would head to Panama City. Roaring down to the end of the runway our pilot made a u-turn without stopping and roared back up the runway. We didn’t take off as much as we just drove off the end of the field. Climbing into the air I was able to catch Spirit in the video I was shooting. Once airborne we continued down the coast which I thought was unusual as I knew Panama City required crossing over the country. Suddenly, we went into what could only be called a power dive and swooped down onto another landing strip that made our first one look like Heathrow! After skidding to a stop, a few people exited and a few more got on as our pilot leisurely smoked a cigarette while standing in the grass that served as a tarmac. Now I’m not a smoker but after that landing I could have been persuaded. Now we head to P.C! WRONG! Two more take offs and landings from postage stamps and finally we turn inland. I won’t say the airline was rustic, but the in-flight movie consisted of the co-pilot passing around pictures of his children. Arriving in Panama City we called Tony who we had reserved as our driver. Since we couldn’t check into our hotel until 3:00, we thought we’d have Tony give us a tour and take us up into the rain forest. Tony, on the other hand, had reserved the day for a regular customer who periodically came to the mainland from her home in the Perla Islands. Since she was a regular customer and we were one and done, he offered to take us to the mall to kill time until she was done shopping. Arriving there, we found that the mall didn’t open for another hour. That is how the Kinkeads became porters for Jenny from the islands. As it was, it worked out well as we got to see another side of Panama City, getting an insider’s tour without paying for it. At 1:00 we went to our hotel, checked in, took a shower with all the water we wanted, slept on a bed that didn’t move and actually flushed toilet paper down. No, Dan is not so cheap that he recycles toilet paper – the plumbing can clog on a boat sewer system. The only regret that we have from the trip was that there was no opportunity to fit in a visit with Rosie Lazar’s brother. We called him from the hotel and it was obvious he would have been a gracious host. I know we missed an event that would have been a highlight of the trip. Also at the hotel we saw something that we had anticipated but had not seen on the entire trip – a mosquito! 5:30 a.m. found us at the airport for an uneventful flight to Miami. Since we had an eight hour layover, we took a three hour tour of Miami to kill some time. Arriving in Baltimore, we were in our hotel for a good night’s sleep by 11:30. ### As I sit here with my computer, wide screen tv showing today’s football games and a pile of newspapers waiting to be read, it is hard to imagine that a few days ago we were floating in tropical waters surrounded by indians living as their ancestors lived for hundreds of years. Take your pick as to which is a more civilized lifestyle. It was great seeing Dan who we hadn’t seen since December. We are often asked about when he’ll return to the real world. That may be where he is now but I suspect he is closer to the end of his odyssey than the beginning. It was also wonderful meeting Erin, a confident and capable young woman who is wise beyond her years. We just wish she could stay aboard instead of returning home. I assume Dan will be pasting his rebuttal on his web site, http://whereiskinkead.blogspot.com whenever he has email access. Hopefully, he will also have some of our pictures.
Friday, September 5, 2008
In the Carribean!
We made it through with no damage! It took 2 days due to delays by other vessels but we made it. We're in Shelter Bay Marina on the other side and plan on leaving today for Isla Grande. We'll meet up w/ m/v Jenny there for a day or so, then head to the San Blas Islands. From there, my parents will fly back home. I'll write more later but need to get the boat ready to leave this morning. Just wanted to let everyone know that we made it. I'm posting 2 pics that my buddy Mark got from the webcams. I have a few more from my little brother and will post them later. Gotta run, have a 25 mile hop to do this afternoon,
Dan
Dan
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Panama Canal Transit, 9/3!
Well,
We got the autopilot fixed and decided to keep our plan and go through the Canal on 9/3. The radar is still out and I lost my wind indicator/speed instruments but can still navigate. Here's a link to the site where you can watch live webcams as we go through. Should be at the first set of locks betwen 8:30 and 11am. More later!
Dan
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
We got the autopilot fixed and decided to keep our plan and go through the Canal on 9/3. The radar is still out and I lost my wind indicator/speed instruments but can still navigate. Here's a link to the site where you can watch live webcams as we go through. Should be at the first set of locks betwen 8:30 and 11am. More later!
Dan
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Lightening Strike
We just got the engine fixed and were planning on sailing to the Perla's for a few days to test out the work. The day before we left, we had a severe lightening storm. Erin was in town shopping however I was on the boat. It was so loud and close, I was literally ducking every time it cracked. I had everything unplugged and all the breakers turned off. I also had all portables stowed in the oven (they say to do this but I believe that if you get a direct hit, it doesn't matter where you put the stuff).
Anyway, one bolt hit nearby and scared the crap out of me. Afterwards, I could hear the electricity in the air by the electronics. It was making a light humming noise. After the storm and a few choice words, I began testing the systems. The only thing I could find was that I couldn't transmit on the VHF. Not a big problem as I have 2 others on board.
We woke up the next morning and were just about the haul anchor when I turned on the auto-pilot. Guess what else is on the same breaker as the VHF....the autopilot and radar. Both are currently out. I have power to the auto pilot but it's giving me an error message. The radar is completely dead. All this just one week before my parents arrive and 10 days before our scheduled canal transit.
We have 2 names that should be able to help us and will be seeing them first thing tomorrow morning. I can do w/o the radar for now but I need the auto pilot. No way I'm hand-steering to Colombia!
Anyway, one bolt hit nearby and scared the crap out of me. Afterwards, I could hear the electricity in the air by the electronics. It was making a light humming noise. After the storm and a few choice words, I began testing the systems. The only thing I could find was that I couldn't transmit on the VHF. Not a big problem as I have 2 others on board.
We woke up the next morning and were just about the haul anchor when I turned on the auto-pilot. Guess what else is on the same breaker as the VHF....the autopilot and radar. Both are currently out. I have power to the auto pilot but it's giving me an error message. The radar is completely dead. All this just one week before my parents arrive and 10 days before our scheduled canal transit.
We have 2 names that should be able to help us and will be seeing them first thing tomorrow morning. I can do w/o the radar for now but I need the auto pilot. No way I'm hand-steering to Colombia!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Panama City
We're anchored just off Panama City, about 4 miles from the Canal. The city is great, with Dunkin Doughnuts and Bennigans! A real treat after coming down the coast where finding anything fresh was a treat. The front seal on my engine went again so I had that fixed right away. The good news is that it was about 1/3 of what I paid in Mazatlan. I can also get hauled out for $100 so I'm thinking about getting my bottom painted before I leave. It doesn't need it yet but if I get it done now, I won't need to do it later.
We did a canal transit last week on a friend's boat, M/V Jenny. Dave and Mary asked us to come as line handlers. The best part is that we learned a lot so we're that much better prepared to bring Spirit through. It rained for 2 hours in the morning but outside of that, it was a great trip. Unfortunately, after spending 48hours on a Nordhavn 46, it makes it hard to come back to Spirit. My clothes were wet so Dave simply put them in the dryer for a few minutes! It was also nice to be able to sit in/on the bridge and turn on the defroster and windshield wipers when it poured. Unfortunately, Dave enjoyed that while I was out on the bow working lines and getting soaked, We had a blast and I truly can't wait to captain my own boat through the canal. Parents arrive on the 1st, we'll probably go through on the 3rd. I'll shoot everyone an email so that you can watch us on the webcams as we go though.
Going to keep this one short. Hosted a Bloody Mary party on my boat yesterday so I'm still recovering! More later,
Dan
We did a canal transit last week on a friend's boat, M/V Jenny. Dave and Mary asked us to come as line handlers. The best part is that we learned a lot so we're that much better prepared to bring Spirit through. It rained for 2 hours in the morning but outside of that, it was a great trip. Unfortunately, after spending 48hours on a Nordhavn 46, it makes it hard to come back to Spirit. My clothes were wet so Dave simply put them in the dryer for a few minutes! It was also nice to be able to sit in/on the bridge and turn on the defroster and windshield wipers when it poured. Unfortunately, Dave enjoyed that while I was out on the bow working lines and getting soaked, We had a blast and I truly can't wait to captain my own boat through the canal. Parents arrive on the 1st, we'll probably go through on the 3rd. I'll shoot everyone an email so that you can watch us on the webcams as we go though.
Going to keep this one short. Hosted a Bloody Mary party on my boat yesterday so I'm still recovering! More later,
Dan
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Panama Canal, right around the corner
Well, we made it to Naranjo, then over to Benoa where we staged to make our passage to Panama City. We need to round Punto Malo (Bad Point) which as it’s name suggests, can be sketchy. Strong rip tides, currents and heavy boat traffic going in and out of the Bay of Panama make it scary to say the least. Once we arrive, we’ll check into the country and do some much needed provisioning. We are down to pasta, Raman and a few canned goods. Provisioning was very hard in Panama, with little to no stores or tiendas. The good note is that although we couldn’t find any beers to buy (all in bottles and the bars won’t sell them), they only cost .50 a piece….nice!
We just left Benao and rounded Punta Malo. We’re heading to Isla Tabago, then on to Panama City. My parents just booked their flights; they’ll be arriving on 9/1, returning on the 11th. We’ll be going through the canal sometime during that window. In the meantime, my front seals on the engine (previously replaced in Mazatlan to the tune of $1000 are leaking again. I’ll have them replaced and perhaps pull the engine for a complete overhaul before my parents arrive. It’ll give me some time to test the work in the Perla’s for a week or so before heading to the Caribbean. Looking forward to the San Blas and Colombia. Hope this email finds everyone well! Start saving some money for the holidays, it would be great to have some visitors in the Caribbean for the holidays!
Dan
We just left Benao and rounded Punta Malo. We’re heading to Isla Tabago, then on to Panama City. My parents just booked their flights; they’ll be arriving on 9/1, returning on the 11th. We’ll be going through the canal sometime during that window. In the meantime, my front seals on the engine (previously replaced in Mazatlan to the tune of $1000 are leaking again. I’ll have them replaced and perhaps pull the engine for a complete overhaul before my parents arrive. It’ll give me some time to test the work in the Perla’s for a week or so before heading to the Caribbean. Looking forward to the San Blas and Colombia. Hope this email finds everyone well! Start saving some money for the holidays, it would be great to have some visitors in the Caribbean for the holidays!
Dan
Panama!
We left Golfito, last port in Costa Rica, on July 10 (ish). We had an overnight run down the coast to the first anchorage in Panama. Actually, we could have gone to Isla Partida in one day but it’s a national park and they charge $25/day just to anchor. Needless to say, that translates to a case of beer/day to anchor, thus we kept going. We had a rough sail, against swell and wind the entire way down, arriving in the Seca Islands exhausted. After a tall rum and coke, we crashed for 13 hours straight.
The anchorage was beautiful, well protected. Some gringo put in a “5 star” resort there consisting of 5-7 yurts. These yurts are more than just tents…air conditioning, power, water, full kitchens, big decks with views, etc. Two of them were located on their own islands, thus you had total privacy. Of course, they also installed their own air field on the island as well. The book says we couldn’t go on shore but of course, we did. We roamed around and explored and never got a visit from the live on site security guard.
After the tour, I tackled cleaning up the stern of the boat. When you run an engine that burns and leaks as much oil as mine, the stern of the boat slowly turns black. If you keep up with it every stop, it’s not bad. If you let it go for 3-4 months (like me), it a full day job of floating in the water and scrubbing with WD40, fiberglass cleaner and wax and laundry detergent (yes, this breaks down oil better than anything). Next, I’ll begin cleaning and waxing the hull, probably breaking it up in quarters to make it easier. While I was outside, Erin was inside scrubbing the cabin sole, galley and head (that’s the floor, kitchen and bathroom for all you land-lubbers).
We’re now anchored over in Bahia Muertos, heading to Bahia Honda tomorrow. There we can get some basic provisions (bread and beer) and plan our route south. Once we turn the corner and head into Panama Bay (where the Canal, it’ll be against wind and current, not a fun run. That will be our last overnight before going through the Canal.
The plan is to spend a few weeks exploring the Perla Islands before going through the Canal. My parents plan on flying down the last week of Aug, first week of Sept to go through with us. Also, Timo will moor his boat in the Perlas and help us go through as well. There’s a lot of prep work to do on the boat beforehand (remove solar panels, bimini and perhaps some welding). Not sure on the welding yet, will need to wait to see what the pilot says about the position of my cleats and guides. Anyway, we’ll need 4 strong line handlers, thus I plan on using Erin, Dad and Timo. I know a lot of other boats going through around the same time so I’m hoping I can pick up one of my friends from along the way.
From the Canal, I plan on cruising the San Blas Islands, then making my way to Cartagene, Colombia. From there, I need to decide to either beat my way towards Bonaire or head up and try to reach for the BVI’s via Dominican Republic and/or Puerto Rico. From there, I’ll be ok and can pinch my way down the islands, probably ending up in Trinidad for a haul out and new paint job some time in March timeframe. From there, I may sail my boat back to the states and put her on the market. Love the boat but I eventually need to go back to work sooner or later….not looking forward to that at all.
The anchorage was beautiful, well protected. Some gringo put in a “5 star” resort there consisting of 5-7 yurts. These yurts are more than just tents…air conditioning, power, water, full kitchens, big decks with views, etc. Two of them were located on their own islands, thus you had total privacy. Of course, they also installed their own air field on the island as well. The book says we couldn’t go on shore but of course, we did. We roamed around and explored and never got a visit from the live on site security guard.
After the tour, I tackled cleaning up the stern of the boat. When you run an engine that burns and leaks as much oil as mine, the stern of the boat slowly turns black. If you keep up with it every stop, it’s not bad. If you let it go for 3-4 months (like me), it a full day job of floating in the water and scrubbing with WD40, fiberglass cleaner and wax and laundry detergent (yes, this breaks down oil better than anything). Next, I’ll begin cleaning and waxing the hull, probably breaking it up in quarters to make it easier. While I was outside, Erin was inside scrubbing the cabin sole, galley and head (that’s the floor, kitchen and bathroom for all you land-lubbers).
We’re now anchored over in Bahia Muertos, heading to Bahia Honda tomorrow. There we can get some basic provisions (bread and beer) and plan our route south. Once we turn the corner and head into Panama Bay (where the Canal, it’ll be against wind and current, not a fun run. That will be our last overnight before going through the Canal.
The plan is to spend a few weeks exploring the Perla Islands before going through the Canal. My parents plan on flying down the last week of Aug, first week of Sept to go through with us. Also, Timo will moor his boat in the Perlas and help us go through as well. There’s a lot of prep work to do on the boat beforehand (remove solar panels, bimini and perhaps some welding). Not sure on the welding yet, will need to wait to see what the pilot says about the position of my cleats and guides. Anyway, we’ll need 4 strong line handlers, thus I plan on using Erin, Dad and Timo. I know a lot of other boats going through around the same time so I’m hoping I can pick up one of my friends from along the way.
From the Canal, I plan on cruising the San Blas Islands, then making my way to Cartagene, Colombia. From there, I need to decide to either beat my way towards Bonaire or head up and try to reach for the BVI’s via Dominican Republic and/or Puerto Rico. From there, I’ll be ok and can pinch my way down the islands, probably ending up in Trinidad for a haul out and new paint job some time in March timeframe. From there, I may sail my boat back to the states and put her on the market. Love the boat but I eventually need to go back to work sooner or later….not looking forward to that at all.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Golfita, last stop before Panama!
We stayed in Puntarenas 3 days longer than expected. I had a battery die in my bank so I had to replace both on that side. 2 batteries = $400…..not fun. The next morning, we woke to dead batteries. Both banks were at zero, 0, zilch. We tried to track the source but couldn’t find it. I borrowed a generator from Timo and began the process of charging up the system, 10amps at a time. After troubleshooting for another day, we called it quits and took off. So far, everything is working however the solar can’t quite keep up w/ the fridge. It rains a lot and with the fridge working hard to keep all the beers cold, we’re forced to run the engine from time to time to assist the panels. Small price to pay for cold beer.
We headed out and made it to our first anchorage, Leona. Nice anchorage but not much there. I put the dinghy in the water and quickly discovered my outboard wouldn’t start. No problem, I can row. We spent 2 nights there, then pulled anchor and did an 85nm passage down to Drakes Bay (where Sir Francis Drake landed back in the 1500’s or something like that).
It was a gorgeous bay but a little exposed. We rolled pretty good each night but had no problem sleeping. Unfortunately, it’s a shallow bay, thus we anchored rather far offshore. Not a problem except for the fact that my outboard still didn’t work. I’m slowly becoming a pretty solid rower (if that’s even a word), a skill that I really could do without. Drake’s was a great little town, quads, dirt bikes, walking and horses were the forms of transportation. I think we met just about everyone in the 3 days we were there. Great people, very nice and a lot of fun. We booked a walking tour with one of the guides we met at the bar, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
We arrived on the beach the following morning at 7:30 to meet our tour guide. We were told to bring some sneakers or hiking boots and a snack. We were also warned that we’d get soaked. This was an understatement to say the least. We hiked for about 7 miles through the forest, arriving at a waterfall by noon. We all jumped in, fully clothed (not my choice…). We then strapped on some life jackets and jumped into the river. We floated for a few miles down river, heading out towards the ocean. It was such a cool feeling to be floating through the rainforest in Costa Rica, knowing that we’ll hit the ocean soon enough. After about 1.5hrs, the river dumped into the ocean. We got out, had lunch, waded across the river, and began the 5 mile hike home. Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride w/ a panga, thus cutting 3 miles off the trip.
We left Drake’s 3 days ago and arrived in Golfito on the 2nd. Long passage, leaving Drakes at 3am and arriving at 6pm the following day. The following morning, we attempted to move but the engine wouldn’t fire! Now I had a dead diesel and outboard.....what more can go wrong????? After checking filters, bleeding the system, and everything else I could think of, we gave up for the day. The next morning, I learned that when I asked Erin to kill the engine, she never pushed the kill knob back down. After sailing by myself for so long, I never thought of not pushing it back down after killing the engine. My mistake, just pissed at myself for not checking it first! This morning we bled the system and fired up the engine. The good news is that I cleaned the air filter and she runs better than ever (so far).
We then tackled the outboard. I had 2 guys on my boat working on her. We pulled the carb, cleaned everything (which looked good from the get go) and put it back together. After some new, clean fuel and 2 pulls, she too fired right up! What a great 4th of July! I’m now sitting on the front porch of the yacht club drinking a $1 beer and watching the rain.
“Land and Sea” is a cruiser’s club run by a gringo couple. Beers are in the fridge. Put your name on the chalkboard and if you grab a beer, put a slash next to your name. When you’re ready to leave, count the slashes and settle up w/ the owners. For $4/day, you get use of a dinghy dock, showers, internet and kitchen. Not too bad and just a really cool system. Erin just did paper/rock/scissors to see who showers next. Today, they’re throwing a big 4th of July party here. Basically, the owners and buying and prepping and at the end, we’ll add up the receipts and divide by the total people present…pretty laid back.
We plan on heading up into the bay for some snorkeling and relaxing “on the hook”. We’ll return here, provision and head south. Panama is right around the corner, about 40 miles from here. Still can’t believe that I’m sailing from Costa Rica to Panama next week…kind of weird but exciting!
We headed out and made it to our first anchorage, Leona. Nice anchorage but not much there. I put the dinghy in the water and quickly discovered my outboard wouldn’t start. No problem, I can row. We spent 2 nights there, then pulled anchor and did an 85nm passage down to Drakes Bay (where Sir Francis Drake landed back in the 1500’s or something like that).
It was a gorgeous bay but a little exposed. We rolled pretty good each night but had no problem sleeping. Unfortunately, it’s a shallow bay, thus we anchored rather far offshore. Not a problem except for the fact that my outboard still didn’t work. I’m slowly becoming a pretty solid rower (if that’s even a word), a skill that I really could do without. Drake’s was a great little town, quads, dirt bikes, walking and horses were the forms of transportation. I think we met just about everyone in the 3 days we were there. Great people, very nice and a lot of fun. We booked a walking tour with one of the guides we met at the bar, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.
We arrived on the beach the following morning at 7:30 to meet our tour guide. We were told to bring some sneakers or hiking boots and a snack. We were also warned that we’d get soaked. This was an understatement to say the least. We hiked for about 7 miles through the forest, arriving at a waterfall by noon. We all jumped in, fully clothed (not my choice…). We then strapped on some life jackets and jumped into the river. We floated for a few miles down river, heading out towards the ocean. It was such a cool feeling to be floating through the rainforest in Costa Rica, knowing that we’ll hit the ocean soon enough. After about 1.5hrs, the river dumped into the ocean. We got out, had lunch, waded across the river, and began the 5 mile hike home. Luckily, we were able to hitch a ride w/ a panga, thus cutting 3 miles off the trip.
We left Drake’s 3 days ago and arrived in Golfito on the 2nd. Long passage, leaving Drakes at 3am and arriving at 6pm the following day. The following morning, we attempted to move but the engine wouldn’t fire! Now I had a dead diesel and outboard.....what more can go wrong????? After checking filters, bleeding the system, and everything else I could think of, we gave up for the day. The next morning, I learned that when I asked Erin to kill the engine, she never pushed the kill knob back down. After sailing by myself for so long, I never thought of not pushing it back down after killing the engine. My mistake, just pissed at myself for not checking it first! This morning we bled the system and fired up the engine. The good news is that I cleaned the air filter and she runs better than ever (so far).
We then tackled the outboard. I had 2 guys on my boat working on her. We pulled the carb, cleaned everything (which looked good from the get go) and put it back together. After some new, clean fuel and 2 pulls, she too fired right up! What a great 4th of July! I’m now sitting on the front porch of the yacht club drinking a $1 beer and watching the rain.
“Land and Sea” is a cruiser’s club run by a gringo couple. Beers are in the fridge. Put your name on the chalkboard and if you grab a beer, put a slash next to your name. When you’re ready to leave, count the slashes and settle up w/ the owners. For $4/day, you get use of a dinghy dock, showers, internet and kitchen. Not too bad and just a really cool system. Erin just did paper/rock/scissors to see who showers next. Today, they’re throwing a big 4th of July party here. Basically, the owners and buying and prepping and at the end, we’ll add up the receipts and divide by the total people present…pretty laid back.
We plan on heading up into the bay for some snorkeling and relaxing “on the hook”. We’ll return here, provision and head south. Panama is right around the corner, about 40 miles from here. Still can’t believe that I’m sailing from Costa Rica to Panama next week…kind of weird but exciting!
Monteverde National Park/Erin Arrives
I met Erin in Monteverde on Friday the 13th (go figure) This was my first trip away from my boat so it felt really good to explore on land a bit. I took the bus, hungover, and after 3 hours and a big bottle of water, I realized there were no restrooms on board. Needless to say the last ½ was spent in discomfort. Once I arrived, I found the hostile where we were to meet but she took off to see a Frog Farm or something. We eventually met up and had a blast. We hiked about 7-8 miles through the rainforest on the following day. The pics do not do it justice. It literally felt like another world and the sounds just went off.
We returned to the hostile exhausted and crashed pretty hard. I woke up in the middle of the night and literally screamed. While sleeping, I heard cars outside my window and forgot where I was at. I jumped up thinking my anchored dragged and I was washed up on some beach or something. Pretty sad but funny at the same time.
On day two, we went to the 2nd most active volcano in the world. We spent the afternoon hiking down to a waterfall and swam for a bit. In the evening, we took a tour out to a remote road where we were promised we would see a lava flow. We did indeed see lava but it was only a little speck at the top of the volcano. It poured rain so we drank the equivalent of Costa Rica moonshine….”Four Feathers”. After getting a little tipsy, we hopped into a river heated from the local springs. It was in the high 80’s but after a few “Four Feathers”, who knows…….
We’re still in Puntarenas, planning on working South on Saturday. We’re ready to go now but we’re up in a canal and need to wait for a high tide to take us out. Right now, the tides are at 4am and 3:30pm. Our next anchorage is about 20 miles south so if we took the afternoon tide out, we wouldn’t make it by dark. Saturday, the morning high tide is at 5:30 so we’ll take that one. More later!
Dan
We returned to the hostile exhausted and crashed pretty hard. I woke up in the middle of the night and literally screamed. While sleeping, I heard cars outside my window and forgot where I was at. I jumped up thinking my anchored dragged and I was washed up on some beach or something. Pretty sad but funny at the same time.
On day two, we went to the 2nd most active volcano in the world. We spent the afternoon hiking down to a waterfall and swam for a bit. In the evening, we took a tour out to a remote road where we were promised we would see a lava flow. We did indeed see lava but it was only a little speck at the top of the volcano. It poured rain so we drank the equivalent of Costa Rica moonshine….”Four Feathers”. After getting a little tipsy, we hopped into a river heated from the local springs. It was in the high 80’s but after a few “Four Feathers”, who knows…….
We’re still in Puntarenas, planning on working South on Saturday. We’re ready to go now but we’re up in a canal and need to wait for a high tide to take us out. Right now, the tides are at 4am and 3:30pm. Our next anchorage is about 20 miles south so if we took the afternoon tide out, we wouldn’t make it by dark. Saturday, the morning high tide is at 5:30 so we’ll take that one. More later!
Dan
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Costa Rica
We’ve been working our way south in Costa Rica, on my way to Puntarenes to pick up Erin. We met in Mazatlan through a mutual friend from La Paz. She loves sailing and has proven skills in the galley so I’m truly looking forward to having her on board. We’ll sail the local islands for a little and work our way south to Ecuador. From there, I plan on sailing back north to transit the Panama Canal in August.
On the way south from Bahia de Panama, we saw a squal up ahead of us. I rolled up the jib and closed the hatches, expecting the normal mid-afternoon storm. Normally, they last about 15 minutes and bring a bunch of rain with wind gusts in the low to mid 20’s. This one looked a little different as it approached. Timo and I had a short conversation on the VHF and prepared for the storm. Behind us, another boat that we’ve been cruising with was prepping for the same storm. All 3 of us got blind-sided to say the least.
I didn’t grab too many pics but I did take a video. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t do the storm justice. We clocked a gust of 59 with sustained winds (lasting 4 or more seconds) at 55. The boat did well and outside of my solar panels flying up. I need to replace the braces with a system that I can lash down in storm conditions; I’ll probably tackle that in Puntarenas. The dinghy and jerry cans stayed on board however at times, I could see the dinghy trying to fly away in the gusts. Swells were about 10-12 feet, coming from every direction. I buried the bow several times and took on some “blue” water. The cockpit stayed pretty dry except for some spray coming off the waves as they crashed over the bow. I was happy to test the boat in a storm that only lasted for about an hour but truly hope that I don’t need to go through that again. The only error I made is that I didn’t put in a reef early enough. I was able to “spill” the wind out of the top 1/3 of the sail, thus I essentially had a double reef in but if flogged near the top. I normally don’t need to reef the main as it doesn’t generate too much power on my boat (a good and bad thing I guess). Going forward, I’ll probably just reef no matter how bad I think the storm may be.
Outside of that, I’m having a great time down here. Looking forward to exploring some of the islands just south of us, more later!
On the way south from Bahia de Panama, we saw a squal up ahead of us. I rolled up the jib and closed the hatches, expecting the normal mid-afternoon storm. Normally, they last about 15 minutes and bring a bunch of rain with wind gusts in the low to mid 20’s. This one looked a little different as it approached. Timo and I had a short conversation on the VHF and prepared for the storm. Behind us, another boat that we’ve been cruising with was prepping for the same storm. All 3 of us got blind-sided to say the least.
I didn’t grab too many pics but I did take a video. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t do the storm justice. We clocked a gust of 59 with sustained winds (lasting 4 or more seconds) at 55. The boat did well and outside of my solar panels flying up. I need to replace the braces with a system that I can lash down in storm conditions; I’ll probably tackle that in Puntarenas. The dinghy and jerry cans stayed on board however at times, I could see the dinghy trying to fly away in the gusts. Swells were about 10-12 feet, coming from every direction. I buried the bow several times and took on some “blue” water. The cockpit stayed pretty dry except for some spray coming off the waves as they crashed over the bow. I was happy to test the boat in a storm that only lasted for about an hour but truly hope that I don’t need to go through that again. The only error I made is that I didn’t put in a reef early enough. I was able to “spill” the wind out of the top 1/3 of the sail, thus I essentially had a double reef in but if flogged near the top. I normally don’t need to reef the main as it doesn’t generate too much power on my boat (a good and bad thing I guess). Going forward, I’ll probably just reef no matter how bad I think the storm may be.
Outside of that, I’m having a great time down here. Looking forward to exploring some of the islands just south of us, more later!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
El Salvador
After 2 weeks, we're ready to move on. We plan on leaving Tuesday, the 13th. El Salvador is a great country (from what I've seen) and I'll be sorry to leave it. We organized a provision run to San Salvador for Friday, looking forward to seeing "the city". There's a big sand bar we need to cross to get out of here so we need to pull anchor at 9:30 to make high, slack tide. We have a 200 plus mile run down to Costa Rica but I can't wait to see CR. The first couple anchorages supposedly have some of the best fishing and snorkeling in the country..time will tell! The one thing I learned from my visit in El Salvador is that $1 beers are no more less expensive than $4 beers. You just drink 4x as many, thus you're even after each day.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Mexico to El Salvador
We left Huatuco at about 1pm, next stop is www.bahiadelsolelsalvador.com. Should take about 5 days or so. We had mild winds but a strong current so we made good time this afternoon. Speed over ground was about 6kts in 7kts of wind. Timo had his engine on, I sailed the whole day. Tonight we approach the Tehuantepec. This bay is known for its winds. Weather forecasts can change and just when you think you’ll have a nice night, it can blow 50kts. We left Mexico with about 6 other boats today. Whenever a weather window opens, a mass exodus occurs. Many boats will cut straight across the bay. Advantage: A little shorter but a lot more exposed. Sailing with “one foot on the beach” gives a lot better protection from swells and any storms that may crop up but it is quite a bit longer.
We decided to error on the side of caution and stick close to the beach. It’s about an 8hr difference in the trip but I think it’s the right decision.
Last night, I had a few beers at a bar and downloaded the movie “The Bucket List” from www.watchtvsitcoms.com. You can get it free and I highly recommend it. There was a line in there when the two of them were looking at the stars and he said “Stars, now that was one of God’s good ones”. Sitting out here tonight with a full moon, gazing at the stars (yes, they’re bright even w/ the moon) makes me tend to agree. I was listening to my Kenny Chesney and just truly enjoying the sunset. I doubt the novelty of watching a sunset under sail or gazing at the stars while at sea will ever get old. Kenny Chesney’s songs sum it up pretty well.
Anyway, it’s about 8:30 so I’m going down below to see what I’ll cook up for dinner. The seas are mellowing out so perhaps I’ll cook something up. We’re motoring along now as the winds died but I have a great seat up on the bow, out of earshot (and smell) of the engine!
Well, we made it to El Salvador! 5 days at sea and about 480 miles. I used about 40 gallons of diesel the entire trip, actually had 30 left over. This is big as diesel is $4.50/gallon down here. Beers are $1 so if I drink enough, I can actually break even on the fuel. Bahia del Sol is nice and the people are very nice. They claim it’s a 5-star resort but I think that’s by El Salvador’s standards. In the States, I’d put this around a 2 to 3 star. The people make it a 4 star though.
Spent 2 nights in a slip but I’m moving to a mooring ball this afternoon. The current rips in here and since I’ll be here for 2-3 weeks, I don’t want to worry too much about anchors dragging when I’m not on board. More updates later, check out the pic of the 3 ½ foot Dorado (mahi mahi) I caught on the way down, fed me for 3 days!
We decided to error on the side of caution and stick close to the beach. It’s about an 8hr difference in the trip but I think it’s the right decision.
Last night, I had a few beers at a bar and downloaded the movie “The Bucket List” from www.watchtvsitcoms.com. You can get it free and I highly recommend it. There was a line in there when the two of them were looking at the stars and he said “Stars, now that was one of God’s good ones”. Sitting out here tonight with a full moon, gazing at the stars (yes, they’re bright even w/ the moon) makes me tend to agree. I was listening to my Kenny Chesney and just truly enjoying the sunset. I doubt the novelty of watching a sunset under sail or gazing at the stars while at sea will ever get old. Kenny Chesney’s songs sum it up pretty well.
Anyway, it’s about 8:30 so I’m going down below to see what I’ll cook up for dinner. The seas are mellowing out so perhaps I’ll cook something up. We’re motoring along now as the winds died but I have a great seat up on the bow, out of earshot (and smell) of the engine!
Well, we made it to El Salvador! 5 days at sea and about 480 miles. I used about 40 gallons of diesel the entire trip, actually had 30 left over. This is big as diesel is $4.50/gallon down here. Beers are $1 so if I drink enough, I can actually break even on the fuel. Bahia del Sol is nice and the people are very nice. They claim it’s a 5-star resort but I think that’s by El Salvador’s standards. In the States, I’d put this around a 2 to 3 star. The people make it a 4 star though.
Spent 2 nights in a slip but I’m moving to a mooring ball this afternoon. The current rips in here and since I’ll be here for 2-3 weeks, I don’t want to worry too much about anchors dragging when I’m not on board. More updates later, check out the pic of the 3 ½ foot Dorado (mahi mahi) I caught on the way down, fed me for 3 days!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
In Huatuco, last stop in Mexico
We’ve been in Huatuco now for about a week and it looks like our weather window for the passage to El Salvador just opened. We need to cross a 200 mile bay where winds can pick up to 70mph in about 20minutes. They have dedicated weather stations down here specifically to aid cruisers in passages. Looks like we’ll be leaving Wednesday night, arriving in the “bay of winds” Thursday morning. We’ll have about 48hrs in the bay until we get to the other side. From there its skip Guatemala and on to El Salvador. Should arrive sometime around Tuesday. Since we don’t have enough fuel to motor the whole way, we’ll be sailing a large portion of the trip, thus it may take longer or perhaps less time to make the passage. To date, this will be the longest for me but once in El Salvador, beers are $1, thus we may stay there for a month or soJ.
After talking to some friends down here, I am leaning on going through the Canal. A couple of reasons why:
1. It’s the Canal, what a story that would be……
2. They speak English on the other side (tired of fighting my way through translations even though it has not been really that bad).
3. The water. Clear with visibility down to 100 feet.
4. My boat was made in Florida, thus it should be easier to find a buyer if I choose to sell her. Not sure on this yet, I kind of like what I’m doing.
5. Employment. Should be pretty easy to live on my boat and pick up a job at one of the resorts/bars along the water to put some money back into the pocket.
6. It’s that or the S. Pacific and I’ve seen enough women from Tonga to know that I don’t want to go there by myself! I’ll save that trip for when I have a partner on board who wants to spend 27 days straight on the open ocean with a guy like me!
With that said, I’ll sign off. My next update should (better be) from El Salvador! Adios Mexico!
Trip to Acapulco
Well, it’s 4:45am on 4/2 and we’re motor sailing down to Alcapulco. We plan on heading in to town for dinner, then getting to bed early. Tomorrow, we’ll head to Puerto Angel, then Hautulco. From there, it’s across the Tehuantepec, probably the most dangerous passage to make. The winds there can blow 60 knts but if you plan your departure right, it’s a “breeze”.
Got a fresh cup of coffee and been thinking about the trip so far. La Paz to Mazatlan, down to San Blas, Chemela and Tennekitecca (sp?) and Barra de Navidad. From there, down to Zijuantenejo. It’s been nothing short of amazing. Tonight, we got passed by Nexus, a Nord’Havn 47 ….a very expensive trawler. We spoke on the radio and after about an hour, I think he has me talked into going through the Canal over to the other side. Sounds like a lot of fun but our plans keep changing. They refer to that down here as “going where the wind takes you”. For me, it’s more about doing something that you’ll never forget, that’s originally why I wanted to cross the Pacific to the West. Going through the Canal would be pretty cool to say the least.
Anyway, we’re going to run into him in Huatuco and grab some beers and pick his brain. Right now, we’re heading to El Salvador, looking forward to spending some time at Bahia del Sol (www.bahiadelsolelsalvador.com) . A cruiser friendly hotel that allows you to use all their facilities and tie to a mooring ball for 5 bucks a day. On top of that, it’s a $1 for a local beer….what more do you want?
Anyway, the moon is out and the sun is about to come up so it’s time to get my fishing junk in the water. I kicked down for a new reel and so far, it’s paid off. I landed a Dorado (mahi mahi) and a Bonita yesterday. Kept the Dorado and filleted it, that’ll be dinner tonight. Hoping to catch a Yellow Tail this morning for some nice cerviche and meat for the rest of the week!
Got a fresh cup of coffee and been thinking about the trip so far. La Paz to Mazatlan, down to San Blas, Chemela and Tennekitecca (sp?) and Barra de Navidad. From there, down to Zijuantenejo. It’s been nothing short of amazing. Tonight, we got passed by Nexus, a Nord’Havn 47 ….a very expensive trawler. We spoke on the radio and after about an hour, I think he has me talked into going through the Canal over to the other side. Sounds like a lot of fun but our plans keep changing. They refer to that down here as “going where the wind takes you”. For me, it’s more about doing something that you’ll never forget, that’s originally why I wanted to cross the Pacific to the West. Going through the Canal would be pretty cool to say the least.
Anyway, we’re going to run into him in Huatuco and grab some beers and pick his brain. Right now, we’re heading to El Salvador, looking forward to spending some time at Bahia del Sol (www.bahiadelsolelsalvador.com) . A cruiser friendly hotel that allows you to use all their facilities and tie to a mooring ball for 5 bucks a day. On top of that, it’s a $1 for a local beer….what more do you want?
Anyway, the moon is out and the sun is about to come up so it’s time to get my fishing junk in the water. I kicked down for a new reel and so far, it’s paid off. I landed a Dorado (mahi mahi) and a Bonita yesterday. Kept the Dorado and filleted it, that’ll be dinner tonight. Hoping to catch a Yellow Tail this morning for some nice cerviche and meat for the rest of the week!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Updates from Zijuantenejo
My stay in this town is wrapping up and I'm sad to go but it's time. The trip down here was great but as usual, little to no wind. Erin, a good friend of mine from Mazatlan, joined me for the passage from Barra to Ztown. Unfortunately, we were suppose to stop in Buffadero Bluffs but the swells killed that plan, thus we did over 200 miles straight. Erin was a great addition and hope that she joins me further along in the trip.
Timo and I originally planned on heading over to the S. Pacific but some finances came into play and we thought it better to keep working south this year. The S. Pacific or the Canal is on the radar for next spring. We're heading south on Saturday, next stop Acapulco! From there, we'll hit one or two more stops before leaving Mexico.
Some great friends from CA just left, the Miller's were here for a week. The entire family for 7 days...Kate, Christine and Steve! They told me they had a blast but I'm not sure if Christine will be returning. I took her to the local market and let's just say she didn't enjoy the environment too much. No one got sick and we had a blast. Zip lining through the trees, sailing for 2 days, hooking up w/a 30lb yellow fin tuna (but after a 45min fight, we lost it at the boat!) and an amazing Easter dinner with a view overlooking the Bay. We couldn't have asked for a better week (except for the market visit).
Anyway, I'll try to add some more stories/pics but that's it for now. Hope this update finds everyone well!
Dan
Timo and I originally planned on heading over to the S. Pacific but some finances came into play and we thought it better to keep working south this year. The S. Pacific or the Canal is on the radar for next spring. We're heading south on Saturday, next stop Acapulco! From there, we'll hit one or two more stops before leaving Mexico.
Some great friends from CA just left, the Miller's were here for a week. The entire family for 7 days...Kate, Christine and Steve! They told me they had a blast but I'm not sure if Christine will be returning. I took her to the local market and let's just say she didn't enjoy the environment too much. No one got sick and we had a blast. Zip lining through the trees, sailing for 2 days, hooking up w/a 30lb yellow fin tuna (but after a 45min fight, we lost it at the boat!) and an amazing Easter dinner with a view overlooking the Bay. We couldn't have asked for a better week (except for the market visit).
Anyway, I'll try to add some more stories/pics but that's it for now. Hope this update finds everyone well!
Dan
Monday, March 3, 2008
Crew Needed!!
The first week of April. Zihuantenejo to the French Polynesian....appox. 3000 miles or 25 days. Sailing experience preferred however negotiable if you look good in a bikini. Seriously, if anyone wants to join me for this leg, it'll be a great trip that you'll never forget...for the best or worse of it!
Barra de Navidad
Hello from Barra, been here for about a week so far and love it. Small little town with a lot of gringos (big surfing town). Plan on leaving on the 7th for Manzanillo, then south to Buffadera Bluffs and Zihuantenejo! I've been bad about taking pics so I'll see what I can do over the next couple of days. Outside of that, got the engine running and I'm ready to go. Just need to replace the valve gasket today and I should be done.
The big news is that I just committed with some friends to head to the French Polynesian the first week of April. 3000 miles, appx. 25 days at sea. More to come on that but I'm pretty excited (and scared!).
The big news is that I just committed with some friends to head to the French Polynesian the first week of April. 3000 miles, appx. 25 days at sea. More to come on that but I'm pretty excited (and scared!).
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Engine is fixed, heading South!
The engine is fixed and I’m underway. The front seals went, thus it was leaking oil all over the place. $1000 later, the seals were replaced and the raw water pump rebuilt. I headed out of Maz on 2/13, buddy boating with a friend named Temo. He has sailed around the world and is currently single-handling a 27 footer. We headed out around 11am with beautiful weather. I checked the engine about 2 hours into the trip and found it puking oil all over! I turned around and limped back into the marina, mostly with sail power. After looking at it, it appears the mechanic forgot to tighten a screw on the valve cover. It was fixed in an hour and I decided to go catch Temo.
Our plan was to depart Mazatlan and head for San Blas (Longfellow wrote a poem about the bells there or something….). It would be about a 26hr passage, first true single handling I’ve done. About 2am, my auto-pilot alarm went off stating I was off course. After checking everything, I found that I had no propulsion! Temo was about 4hrs ahead of me. I gave him a shout on the radio and told him to hold tight. I went below and checked the transmission and engine, everything appeared perfect. I then looked down into the water and saw white water as I throttled up but I didn’t go anywhere. My biggest fear….I lost the prop! I grabbed the big flood light and immediately identified the problem....I ran through a fishing net that had no buoys, lights or boats around. Just a couple floats on the line. I eventually found the two fishermen in their Panga about 300yrds away. I hit them w/ the search light and woke them up. After 10 minutes, they arrived and we cut the net. Luckily, it was just snagged on my skeg and not wrapped around the prop/shaft.
About 2 hours later, same thing! I didn’t panic; I simply looked for the Panga. Unfortunately for them, they were gone. I guess they dropped their nets in the middle of the ocean and went back to the shore! Highly illegal btw. Well, they’ll have a surprise in the morning. I grabbed my boat hook and cut the line myself. No fish for them……
That was about 4am. We sailed into San Blas around 3:30 pm on 2/14…about a 28hr trip. We spent 3 days there, and then headed out. PV is pretty expensive and hard to find an anchorage so we made the decision to bypass PV and head south. This trip will be about the same length but it’ll put us on the north end of what’s called the Mexican Riviera. From Chamela south, there are beautiful anchorages all the way down to Zijuantenejo, with each anchorage being appx. 4-12hrs apart….nice!!
Well, that’s all for now. The engine is purring (although a little bit of white smoke in the exhaust. It’s not overheating and oil pressure is good so I’m going with it). I’ll be hopping down the coast for the next 3 weeks, ending up in Zijuantenejo ready to party with The Millers (Steve/Christine/Kate) for 10 days). More later!
Dan
Our plan was to depart Mazatlan and head for San Blas (Longfellow wrote a poem about the bells there or something….). It would be about a 26hr passage, first true single handling I’ve done. About 2am, my auto-pilot alarm went off stating I was off course. After checking everything, I found that I had no propulsion! Temo was about 4hrs ahead of me. I gave him a shout on the radio and told him to hold tight. I went below and checked the transmission and engine, everything appeared perfect. I then looked down into the water and saw white water as I throttled up but I didn’t go anywhere. My biggest fear….I lost the prop! I grabbed the big flood light and immediately identified the problem....I ran through a fishing net that had no buoys, lights or boats around. Just a couple floats on the line. I eventually found the two fishermen in their Panga about 300yrds away. I hit them w/ the search light and woke them up. After 10 minutes, they arrived and we cut the net. Luckily, it was just snagged on my skeg and not wrapped around the prop/shaft.
About 2 hours later, same thing! I didn’t panic; I simply looked for the Panga. Unfortunately for them, they were gone. I guess they dropped their nets in the middle of the ocean and went back to the shore! Highly illegal btw. Well, they’ll have a surprise in the morning. I grabbed my boat hook and cut the line myself. No fish for them……
That was about 4am. We sailed into San Blas around 3:30 pm on 2/14…about a 28hr trip. We spent 3 days there, and then headed out. PV is pretty expensive and hard to find an anchorage so we made the decision to bypass PV and head south. This trip will be about the same length but it’ll put us on the north end of what’s called the Mexican Riviera. From Chamela south, there are beautiful anchorages all the way down to Zijuantenejo, with each anchorage being appx. 4-12hrs apart….nice!!
Well, that’s all for now. The engine is purring (although a little bit of white smoke in the exhaust. It’s not overheating and oil pressure is good so I’m going with it). I’ll be hopping down the coast for the next 3 weeks, ending up in Zijuantenejo ready to party with The Millers (Steve/Christine/Kate) for 10 days). More later!
Dan
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Carnival
Carnival will be an annual trip from here on out! I had an amazing time. Bands played non-stop with dancing and drinking till morning. This went on for 5 straight days! I never experienced a party where everyone was having such a good time. Parents, kids, teen-agers....everyone was dancing and laughing. Everyday when I got out of bed (around 1pm), I was gently reminded that I'm not so young anymore and I shouldn't try to compete with the mexicans down here....gringos will never win when it comes to partying and dancing but I'd like to think I gave them a run for their money.
Boat update: When I arrived from La Paz, I burned a lot of oil. Well....I came to find out that I didn't burn it, it leaked into my bilge. I had some guys take a look at it and the front seals are bad. I'm currently back in the marina getting the work done. I had to dismantle my kitchen and sinks and literally remove the cabinets to allow room for the mechanics to work. We're going on the 2nd full day and they hope to have it wrapped up shortly. Once finished, I'll take it on a test sail back down to Old Harbor south of Maz. If all is well, I'll turn around, head back out and point South to San Blas and PV. I plan on staying there for a few days, then logging some serious miles to get to Zijuantenjo by mid March. From there...who knows.
I'll be posting some pics from Carnival in the next day or so. Hope this email finds everyone well!
Dan
Boat update: When I arrived from La Paz, I burned a lot of oil. Well....I came to find out that I didn't burn it, it leaked into my bilge. I had some guys take a look at it and the front seals are bad. I'm currently back in the marina getting the work done. I had to dismantle my kitchen and sinks and literally remove the cabinets to allow room for the mechanics to work. We're going on the 2nd full day and they hope to have it wrapped up shortly. Once finished, I'll take it on a test sail back down to Old Harbor south of Maz. If all is well, I'll turn around, head back out and point South to San Blas and PV. I plan on staying there for a few days, then logging some serious miles to get to Zijuantenjo by mid March. From there...who knows.
I'll be posting some pics from Carnival in the next day or so. Hope this email finds everyone well!
Dan
Friday, January 11, 2008
Mazatlan Lighthouse Tour
After a few days in Mazatlan Marina, I already miss the water! The boat is cleaned up and I’m starting to explore the city. Spent yesterday walking around and scoping out my new home. There’s a free anchorage just below where the cruise ships come in. For $3/day, you get access to a dinghy dock, showers and bathrooms. After looking at the showers/restrooms, I think I’ll be showering on board. If not, jumping in the water will most likely do a better job than those showers. The anchorage also boasts a sewage treatment plant across the street. With the right winds, it truly smells like shit. But hey, the price is right. I’ll be there through Carnival, then heading South.
I posted some pics of the day’s walk, including views from the lighthouse. It’s said to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and second to only Gibraltar in the world. After hiking it, I’d tend to agree. The fog reminded me of SF but the smell of sewage quickly brought me back to Mexico. With the aroma in the air, perhaps I won't even need to shower.....?
My walk ended with a stop at Sr. Frog’s Bar and Grill. I’ve seen signs and stores all over Mazatlan and had to check it out. What started out as a quick beer, turned into a 5hr ordeal. I had a good time watching Gringo’s get hammered at 4 in the afternoon. I figured everyone in the joint had 1 week of vacation and they planned to take advantage of every hour. I watched and laughed at them for a few hours, then quickly found myself meshing pretty easily with the crowd. We all had a great time but I was home in bed before 10. Bars don't get going until 11 so in the future, I may need to re-evaluate the 4pm start time....
I posted some pics of the day’s walk, including views from the lighthouse. It’s said to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and second to only Gibraltar in the world. After hiking it, I’d tend to agree. The fog reminded me of SF but the smell of sewage quickly brought me back to Mexico. With the aroma in the air, perhaps I won't even need to shower.....?
My walk ended with a stop at Sr. Frog’s Bar and Grill. I’ve seen signs and stores all over Mazatlan and had to check it out. What started out as a quick beer, turned into a 5hr ordeal. I had a good time watching Gringo’s get hammered at 4 in the afternoon. I figured everyone in the joint had 1 week of vacation and they planned to take advantage of every hour. I watched and laughed at them for a few hours, then quickly found myself meshing pretty easily with the crowd. We all had a great time but I was home in bed before 10. Bars don't get going until 11 so in the future, I may need to re-evaluate the 4pm start time....
Monday, January 7, 2008
La Paz to Mazatlan
After 3 months in La Paz, I was ready to make my first true passage over to Mazatlan. Total distance is about 220 miles, thus doing 5-7kts leads to a 40-50hr trip. I planned on 48hrs at 5-6kts and found out I was way off! We left La Paz around 8:30am on the 3rd and sailed into Mazatlan around 12am on the 5th. The winds were good the first 20hrs and we were able to cut the engine and enjoy a nice sail. Leaving La Paz, we had some porpoises (not sure what the plural is nor do I care) and a whale join us. I tried to get some pics but the water was rough and it happened way too fast. After my shift on the first night (3am), Rick came up and the winds died. We rolled in the jib and motored the rest of the way.
Coming into a new harbor at night is difficult and a bit scary; attempting to go into Marina Mazatlan for the first time at night is just stupid. With that said we anchored off of Deer Island just off the beach, had a celebratory beer and crashed hard. We woke up the next morning and decided that after 48hrs on the water, we didn’t have enough! We set the sails and headed south along the city front. We had an amazing sail with perfect winds. We headed out around Deer Island and motored into the Marina. Just to the south of Deer Island we noticed some rocks. We checked our GPS and paper charts and didn’t see them marked anywhere. There was a shoal but no rocks. We gave it a wide berth the night before (due to the shoal) but after looking at our course on GPS, we were a bit too close for comfort. Eyeballing it, we missed them by 20-30 yards! Lesson learned I guess or rather hope.
Rick and Fran had to leave the next day so we took advantage of the night. We grabbed some much needed showers, had a few cocktails on the boat, and then took the bus into town. We had dinner and enjoyed some margs. After losing the ability to speak, it took some time to learn the buses stop running at 10pm. We found a cab (more like one of those VW “things” in the 70’s) and made it back to the Marina before midnight.
Rick and Fran caught their flight and I cleaned up the boat. They were great crew and I already miss Fran’s cleaning. Hopefully, they’ll join me on another passage in the future.
I’m getting all my paperwork done including a visa that will allow me to work down here if I wanted to. I’m also getting my import permit on my boat, thus I’ll finally be “legal” in Mexico. Tomorrow, I start exploring Mazatlan. It’s a lot different from La Paz, with more English speaking natives and more nightlife! It's how I pictured (and wanted) Mexico to be!
More later, Dan
Coming into a new harbor at night is difficult and a bit scary; attempting to go into Marina Mazatlan for the first time at night is just stupid. With that said we anchored off of Deer Island just off the beach, had a celebratory beer and crashed hard. We woke up the next morning and decided that after 48hrs on the water, we didn’t have enough! We set the sails and headed south along the city front. We had an amazing sail with perfect winds. We headed out around Deer Island and motored into the Marina. Just to the south of Deer Island we noticed some rocks. We checked our GPS and paper charts and didn’t see them marked anywhere. There was a shoal but no rocks. We gave it a wide berth the night before (due to the shoal) but after looking at our course on GPS, we were a bit too close for comfort. Eyeballing it, we missed them by 20-30 yards! Lesson learned I guess or rather hope.
Rick and Fran had to leave the next day so we took advantage of the night. We grabbed some much needed showers, had a few cocktails on the boat, and then took the bus into town. We had dinner and enjoyed some margs. After losing the ability to speak, it took some time to learn the buses stop running at 10pm. We found a cab (more like one of those VW “things” in the 70’s) and made it back to the Marina before midnight.
Rick and Fran caught their flight and I cleaned up the boat. They were great crew and I already miss Fran’s cleaning. Hopefully, they’ll join me on another passage in the future.
I’m getting all my paperwork done including a visa that will allow me to work down here if I wanted to. I’m also getting my import permit on my boat, thus I’ll finally be “legal” in Mexico. Tomorrow, I start exploring Mazatlan. It’s a lot different from La Paz, with more English speaking natives and more nightlife! It's how I pictured (and wanted) Mexico to be!
More later, Dan
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Mazatlan, here I come!
Sorry, I've been pretty bad about keeping this thing up to date. My parents came in for 10 days in December and we had a blast. Spent about 50% of the time in port, 50% out on the water. Pics are posted in the upper left of this blog.
Since their departure, I've been getting the boat ready to get out of here. On 1/3, I make my first true "passage" over to Mazatlan. The length is about 210 miles and will require us to be at sea for 2 nights or appx. 50 hours. We'll be departing around 8am on 1/3, thus arriving (hopefully) in Mazatlan around 8am on 1/5. My friends from OCSC sailing, Rick and Fran, will be flying down for the trip. I'm not only excited to sail with them again, but also very thankful to have some other competent crew/sailors on board for the voyage.
I'll be sure to add more about the trip over once we arrive, more later!
Dan
Since their departure, I've been getting the boat ready to get out of here. On 1/3, I make my first true "passage" over to Mazatlan. The length is about 210 miles and will require us to be at sea for 2 nights or appx. 50 hours. We'll be departing around 8am on 1/3, thus arriving (hopefully) in Mazatlan around 8am on 1/5. My friends from OCSC sailing, Rick and Fran, will be flying down for the trip. I'm not only excited to sail with them again, but also very thankful to have some other competent crew/sailors on board for the voyage.
I'll be sure to add more about the trip over once we arrive, more later!
Dan
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