|
|
November's LogNovember 1, 2002 We decide to have Halloween trick or treating for the kids today as the sun is shining and that has been an anomaly as of late. The kids were dressed in costume and chauffeured around by Bill (Pirate Bill) on Mandorla. Then we all headed to the beach for snacks, drinks and fun. We were ready and an hour later the adults went a shore and traded rum drink recipes and appetizers. Liz got her lips sunburned and now these are cracking, no smiling from her. Most of the fishing was necessary as I am trying to breaking in our new motor the right way. That means doubling the amount of oil and only running it at lower rpms for the first 10 hours. I cheated and got our dinghy to plane for the very first time. Speed, ahhhhhh! November 2, 2001 Today was laid back and fishing was the activity of choice. Catching was limited. We did bring home two red snappers. The red snapper look just like rockfish of the northwest except these have two large teeth on both the lower and upper jaw. Liz and I fixed the shade/rain fly as it got ripped in the rain/wind when we went to David. Another gray day. We had planned to leave to go to the Secas today, but according to the net, it is already raining there. Allan goes fishing and ties flies and I read. Lescagot, another boat in the anchorage with two children on board invites the anchorage for trivial pursuit.
November 3, 2002 Fishing with Ruck produced two red snappers and I caught a little shit that was smaller than my lure. I released it and might as well trolled with my toe. We did come over to Siren’s Song for dinner. Lindy made a great salad and Ruck sautéed the red snapper. Life is great. Siren’s Song is a Brewer 43. Ted Brewer is from the northwest, maybe from Canada. He has produced some great boats. Theirs is wonderful with a large cockpit, a pilothouse and an inside area around their galley. They have a nice v-berth and a large quarter berth, plus oodles of storage. Nice boat! November 4, 2002 Liz and I motored ashore to burn garbage. The cruising vessels build a hot fire and then burn our paper and plastic. My Boy Scout skills are still honed finely and our fire was hopping. I wish we had brought hot dogs. The garbage was two weeks of packaging and contained in two small bags. We have gotten pretty economical on our garbage. After burning we met Ricky on our boat and he had caught a Dog Snapper that weighted about 5 pounds. Unfortunately Rickey’s two-year-old daughter, Kayla opened the oven later and let the cat eat one of the filets. We headed over to Lescargot for Cowboy coffee and watched Kayla and her brother Odin climb the rigging. They are more agile than I could be and they were giving me stomach acid, watching this two-year-old climbing up over 15 feet on their mizzen mast and then skinning down the stainless tube of their boom gallows holding on to a halyard. We upped anchor and headed to the Seca Islands. This is about 20 miles southeast of us. Mandorla, Moonshadow and we headed out about 11:30. There was no wind but we need to charge our batteries. Sirens Song and Lescargot headed to Boca Chica to catch a van that heads to David for provisioning. Ruck is getting us 10 more gallons of gas as our new engine burns much more than the 2 hp. Just as Moonshadow arrived they caught a 17-20 pound yellow fin tuna. I am real jealous and I am starting to believe that I have fisherman’s block, similar to writer block. Just as we were leaving Gamez Island, Question with Andy and Gail on board called from the Seca’s. We were overjoyed as we hadn’t seen them for 4 months. They are heading home to San Diego and selling the boat, moving back to Arizona and having human babies. They have 3 dogs on board and these are their babies as of now. Once we anchored we met Andy and Gail on shore, as the dogs needed a run. There is a coconut and banana plantation on the island of Cavada. Cavada is 1.75 miles long stretching from the southeast to the northwest. There are several freshwater streams on the island and we were told that there is a wild lime tree on one of the small islets. After our walk Liz and I had a nice dinner and a martini and hit the bed at 9pm.
November 5, 2002 Liz and I left the boat at 6:30 to go fishing. This was the first time that Liz went fishing in the morning. She really likes her sleep. Well off to circumnavigate Cavada and we caught no fish. We did see a small whale and saw the ruggedness of the western side of this island. The Seca’s are composed of 5 islands and 15-20 islets. It really looks like great fishing water, but I have fisherman’s block and need to get rid of this soon. I have tried out our tiller extension and fished at the same time. I have had several strikes, but not fish. We are having a sushi party on Moonshadow this evening. They caught the big fish (Yellow fin Tuna) and Question, Mandorla and Slainte are meeting on Moonshadow for a bunch of tuna and hors d'oeuvre. We are about to leave, as the lightening is getting closer. We motor bank and find Slainte nearly on the rocks/reef. About 10 minutes we are on the reef and do some evasive action. We are now behind Question and I take up some anchor and Liz motors forward to reduce the strain on the windlass. Question (Andy and Gail) and us are in constant contact and the tide is still falling. It is about 8 pm and the tide should fall until 10 pm. We are now in 12 feet of water and I believe the fide will fall another 6 feet. We are cutting it close. This is also cruising. What are you doing tonight?
November 6, 2002 Yesterday started with our saying goodbye to Gail and Andy on Question. They are heading back to San Diego and quit cruising and go to work. I had downloaded weather charts for them and while they were at our boat we crushed some more coral. We put in our anchor and found deep water. We are moving just as soon as Question leaves and we will re-anchor by Mandorla and Moonshadow. About 10 am Liz and I head into a little stream that has freshwater. We washed clothes and took a bath. Fresh clear and clean water running off of some rocks in to a pool. I was great. I dropped Liz back to the boat to hang up the clothing and I joined Stephan on Moonshadow in we in our dinghies decided to pick up this huge stream of plastic. Plastic shoes, water bottles, oil bottles and many fishing floats. The three boats at first thought this flotilla of plastic was a huge fisherman’s net. After an hour Stephan and our dinghy was full of garbage. Stephan suggested we head to this high spot of sand and have a fire to burn this garbage and a large deposit that was around this knoll. I grabbed Scott and Kathleen from Mandorla and we corralled the land plastic and the miscellaneous shoes. There were over 150 bottles and other plastic and Styrofoam pieces and another 55 plastic shoes with 29 being left shoes and 26 being right. Stephan arrived and we built a bonfire and within 1.5 hours the huge mega pile of plastic was gone. The driftwood continued to burn to the sand and the land and hermit crabs continued on their chaotic and random wonderings. I felt good to collect the garbage and also gave me pause to the realization of the immense amount of plastic we have produced. As a prelude to dinner we had two thunder and lightening cells pass about 4 miles from us. Dinner was pasta covered with white sauce and chicken and broccoli thrown in. It was great. Since I have very little sleep last night I headed of to the v-berth at 8pm.
November 7, 2002 Each day has a beginning and an end. Today was sad as I still have fisherman’s block. Bill and I fish for about 1.75 hours and no strikes. The morning was wonderful, the sky was very blue and water took on an oily appearance. Still no fish. I woke this morning and had had 6.5 hours of sleep and it was 2:30 am. I downloaded the digital camera pictures and wrote in the log. I set up the computer to download weather charts and finished my book, “Jupiter’s Bones.” After doing the net Liz and I relaxed and headed to shore for another freshwater bath. Aaaah, the things we take for granted. This morning and yesterday a boat called, “Whatever” checked in on the net and have been traveling from Ecuador to the Seca’s. The Seca’s are where we are anchored. Well about 3pm they headed into the anchorage and we had an impromptu cocktail hour. Scott and Alison gave everyone two pounds of fresh Dorado and yellow fin tuna and a CD that is their “boat card.” They have lived for about 6 years in Ballard, about 15 blocks from our house in Seattle. Small world as always. We are ending this evening with fresh Dorado, garlic, fresh (10 days in the frig) green beans and maybe a bottle of wine. White or Red the choices we must make, hummmmm, Chilean, Italian or ??. Wish me luck for conquering the fisherman’s block blight. November 8, 2002 Today fisherman’s block was overcome. Ruck and I caught three large Ceros. I was great and tastie. We had a suchi dinner on the beach and it was great. November 9, 2002 Another great day and I caught a beautiful yellow tail tuna. We lost several lures but the tuna was wonderful. During the afternoon we had something that makes people wonder. I will share an interesting occurrence with you. Today the girls went to the beach to get haircuts. Stephan found floating 20 pounds of pure cocaine. It is still on the beach and high tide should remove tonight between $6 hundred thousand and $1.5 million dollars of stuff. It was interesting as the stuff was packaged in neoprene then each individual packet was taped and then wrapped in neoprene and then taped. The fish will be a bit goofy tonight. It is interesting to watch others as that kind of dope does appear to most people. Some people are very wary, some dip their finger, and some wonder about the money and other have other thoughts. Not only the product but also the immense value amazed me. The sea has reclaimed the stuff and the world is the same. Too bad we couldn’t of gotten a reward. November 10, 200 I finally rose from the v-berth and lowered the dinghy. I am picking up Ruck from Siren’s Song and he was still asleep. I fly-fished and caught two tuna (Bonita and turn them loose) and next time I will bring a glove. The fly reels really spin as the tunas dive. At about 10:30 am Scott on Whatever came over to work on our charging system. I had a lot of small leaks and therefore the alternator couldn’t get the batteries up to 14+ volts. We are charging very well and life is good. Liz and I had felt pretty good about just getting 30 amps but now when the batteries are low we are getting 90 amps. Wooo Baby. Scott also worked on Mandorla’s charging system and engine. Bill is feeling great. Now the best part of the day began before I went to bed as Sandy from Portland had sent me the Washington State Cougar scores of beating Oregon. The Cougs are have a dream season. The next week they are off and then play Washington and then UCLA. College football is the best sport for me. Gooooooooooooo Cougs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 11, 2002 Today was a lay around day and we got much read. I played computer games, thanks to Tom Perham. Shrimpers came into the anchorage and fixed some of their rig. Jackie went over and bargained for shrimp. We had a very menacing storm march towards us but as of 10:30 the lightening went to the north of us. November 12, 2002 We headed to the Contreras Island, about 14 miles to the east. We didn’t catch any fish, but after we anchored I headed out towards the point and catch two Rainbow Runners and several Jack Carvalle’s. November 14, 2002 Jackie and Stephan are now on a fast track to reach Panama City to order new batteries. Moonshadow and Mandorla took off for Bahia Honda and Liz and I were left alone. We took advantage of the calm and quite day as we repaired our rain and sunshade and I scrubbed the hull. Our shade rips and we put webbing to take the load and this should work better. The hull was very dirty with slime on the water line and rust streaks down form the stainless steel (definitely a misnomer). Slainte looks clean and spiffy. About 3 pm Whatever and Siren’s Song came over from the Seca’s. November 15, 2002 The boys (Ruck, Allan and Scott) went fishing. We were amazed at how little we caught. We had on 3 fish and boated a small tuna. I hooked two of the fish on my fly rod, after watching me with the fly rod I don’t believe that either Scott or Ruck will be converted away from the much more efficient spinning reels. We did the net and took a great bath. I wished we were staying in these islands longer. The stream had a great pool and the water was quite cold. All of sudden we were not alone. Siren’s Song, two shrimp boats and a fishing panga were all waiting for a turn at the stream. We headed out and traveled the 20 miles. Just before turning into the Bahia Honda a squall was ahead of us with mucho lightening. Slainte decided to make circles and we entered the bay after an hour of stalling. We had caught two fish, a Dorado and a yellow fin tuna. Both of them I lost as I was careless in boating them, one the line on the lure broke and the other I tore the lip off. Oh well, Siren’s Song has told us that the shrimpers gave him a twenty-five pound snapper and 20 pounds of shrimp so we maybe having a feast. November 16, 2002 I slept in and woke about 7:30 and fished for about 50 minutes before the net. Both Domingo and his son Kennedy had visited Slainte and Liz was getting our vegetables purchased. Because our Spanish is so bad, we missed that Kennedy was asking us for a ride to the pueblo. Both Domingo and Kennedy arrived in their own dugouts. Mandorla later called us and helped us understand that Kennedy would like a ride as oppose to paddling the 2 miles. Later we went ashore and picked up Kennedy and in 15 minutes we were in the island that had the town. We left our dinghy in front of the church and we visited the tiendas that Kennedy favored. I bought some bottled Atlas beer in 8 ounce bottles and now need to return to the town for our deposit. Liz bought a hunk of cow that had been mooing several hours ago. As we finished we got a tour of the school, which is on the top of the hill (about 150 high), which is covered with pine trees. There are seven classrooms and a total of 125 students from first to seventh grade. Liz and I made a donation and received 10 cucumbers from the school’s master’s garden. Later we visited several homes, one which the father was butchering a turtle. The flesh is very red and looks very much like a cow only slimier. This town is quiet poor and most folks are living day to day on rice and bean and what they catch. There are several farms that grow vegetables and we saw some sheet on the hillsides. There is one bar in the pueblo and most of the customers we’re under 30 and very drunk. On our way back I offered Kennedy a beer and he said he used to be one of the boys and doesn’t drink any longer. We dropped Kennedy off and we’re invited up to his house. The structure is made of cement blocks, a tin roof and very clean. We met Olivia his wife of 5 years and his son Kennedy and daughter Melanie. With broken Spanish we traded stories of why we don’t have kids and when the third is coming. Kennedy took me back and offered several plants. One was a grass that when soaked in water and poured in milk was a stomach laxative. The other was a cilantro plant and I will bring back our pot to harvest this. Later after welcoming Siren’s Song and Whatever, I returned with Scott from Mandorla (so he could play with the kids) and Olivia and I potted the cilantro. In the 40 minutes that I hung around watching Scott and talking (well sort of) to Olivia I really came to appreciate Kennedy and Olivia’s life. Two very happy people that have avoided some of the pitfalls and were planning carefully. November 17, 2002 This morning is a lay-day as we decide to rush to Balboa and have Thanksgiving at the Yacht Club. I am wondering if having turkey is worth the 5-day push. This is moving about 40 miles a day and then on big push from Punta Mala to the Las Perlas Islands. This portion is about 90 miles that cross the busy exit for Panama Canal traffic going north. November 18, 2002 We are hanging out in Bahia Honda and the surrounding area is very jungle like. There are two cement block home behind us. Domingo and his son Kennedy live there. Domingo and Kennedy come to our boat and we trade for vegetables. As we get to know Domingo he has put two daughters through college at ??????. Kennedy and Liz and I get to know each other as we took Kennedy to the Pueblo the next day. He was very helpful and showed us a lot of the Pueblo that we wouldn’t of see. We appreciated his kindness and he invited us to his house and we met Olivia his wife and Kennedy and Melanie their son and daughter. We were touched by his generosity and were surprised that he saw our plants (basil, rosemary and aloa) growing on the boat an offered us a Cilantro plant. At one the pueble we watched a local butcher a turtle, I thought we were going to get a piece of turtle and at the time I didn't know what I would of done. On one hand it would be interesting to taste it and then I might of been concerned since they are endangered. Well we didn't get a chance to decide, as they didn't offer and we I didn't ask for a piece. November 19, 2002 We had all the shrimp and fish three nights ago. We all (18 of us) fit on Reliance as it was raining 4 inches an hour. That really fills the water tanks. The sauce on the red snapper was a lemon sauce and it was great. The sauce on the shrimp was also lemon based and I don't know how it tasted, but with a snow shovel amount,14 people took care of all of them. Liz says that the shrimp down here are much sweeter than what you have in Seattle. Now for the type of wine, hummmm hummmmm, well any thing works, especially if it comes in a box. Concha y Tora, a Chilean company produces whites and reds in a box for about $1.75 per liter. The same company does very good wines as well but they are from $5 to $15 per bottle (750 ml). Quantity can overcome quality. Actually the only reason we are going to Panama City is to reprovision on box wine. November 20, 2002 Today we were on the move and are now behind Isla Santa Catalina, Panama, about 20 miles east of Bahia Honda and about 4 miles from Gulfo de Montijo. We are traveling with Mandorla, and La Ventosa (a trimaran with a main hull and two others, training wheels). Also but at another anchorage Reliance is traveling in the same direction. Sven on Reliance is a piece of work. The biggest bigot I have met, but he would give you the shirt off his back (as long as your white). He fought for the Algerians, he is German, been bayoneted in the face, shot in 4 places and the French will not let him on their soil. I also know from him that passing a kidney stone is worst than all the other bodily damage he has experienced. Sven also made their 50' sailboat from scratch. His wife is a wonderful baker and they have their two grown daughters on board. November 21, 2002 Today we anchored we had cocktails on Mandorla. We brought the ice and tonic, Mandorla the vodka, La Ventose brought crackers, blue cheese and garlic and we had toasted good friends and Panama, the untouched and beautiful region. It is about 4:30 am and there is a meteor shower occurring. We have a full moon but the meteors can still be seen. Liz is back asleep and she has inherited the Hales sawing logs at night skills. Hope as is well and we will fill you in as we go north for the first time as we round Punta Mala and head to Panama City. I also caught a 25lb Dorado or Maui Maui, and this morning Liz caught a beautiful yellow fin tuna. Right now as I email Liz is filleting her first fish naked (so as not to get blood on her, hummmmmm, hell - she is always naked). Last night we had a all you can eat sushi party for 5 and we still have 8 pounds left. Box wine gets better and better. The boxed wine is from a Chilean company by Concha y Tora, it is better than the Gato Blanco/Tino in the bottles. November 22, 2002 We left Guanico where in spite of a healthily wind was blowing we were calmly anchored in about 20 feet of cloudy water. Temperature 87.5. We left to head to Punta Mala and catch the incoming tide that off set the curling current that enters the southeast portion of the Panama Bay and circulates counterclockwise back out to Punta Mala. If a boater doesn’t catch the incoming tide they will buck a 3 knot current. In our case our top speed is 5.5 knots and then take away 3 knots we don’t move far. We have 90 miles to travel and it will take about 17 hours at 5.5 knot/hour or 36 hours at 2.5 knots. Remember we aren’t just sitting and watch the moon and sun, we are in a washing machine and saving 19 hours is a bit deal. We averaged 4.1 knot over 23 hours and it was a long time. November 23, 2002 This morning was brought to us with a beautiful moon and still 25 knots of wind. The waves are quite large and some of these pushed our bow many feet off wind as easily as we push a handkerchief across a table. It was a bumpy road. Liz and I are trading off on shifts on about 2 hour. This gave us about an hour of sleep and we faired reasonably well. We have finished one of the tougher passages as we crossed Punta Mala, Panama to the Las Perlas islands. We cross the major straits that the north and west bound traffic from the Panama Canal passes. We saw via radar about 15 ships and Liz flirted with a seaman and got weather. He forecast was shit. We had over the 23 hours with winds on our nose of 22-33 knots and gusts in the low 40's. The seaman's forecast was for winds of 15 knots or less. I have been watching a cold front slowly drift southwards; well I am felling the effects. The waves were very close together and we were grateful to anchor behind Isla San Jose, one of the Las Perlas islands. The wind is still blowing about 22 knots, but we are calm and we are cleaning the boat. After we anchored we spent about 2 hours cleaning up the mess. We are fairly seasoned but when a blow like last night occurs it shows us our flaws. Several things got loose last night, including 15 eggs, the spinnaker pole, a gasoline can with gas in it, what a lovely smell and we took a lot of saltwater thru the closed portholes. yuck! Our "Panama Guide" sat in a pool of saltwater and is attempting to come apart. This is the bible, but poorly organized and we are taking tender care of it. We are going to mess around in these islands for 3 days and hit Panama City (45 miles to the north) for Thanksgiving at the Pedro Miguel Yacht Club. November 24th 2002 I wanted to sail to another anchorage but nobody was up for that, so we stayed anchored and Liz and I went exploring. Another sailboat, a ketch, Flying Cloud with Boggie and Carol on board anchored about 500 yards to the east of us. They have been living on their boat for 23 years and have started their second cruise seven years ago. The boat is an Explorer 45 with a central cockpit. Oh would it be nice to have an open comfortable cockpit. They are headed to Ecuador and want to have boat work done there, as it is much cheaper to get thing done in Ecuador. Bill and I play football with Scott on the beach. Scott had some much sand on him it was surprising that he could move. November 25th 2002 Today was a banner day. We set sail and sailed competitively for 5 hours and covered 15 miles. There were three tacks and we steadily gained on Mandorla, a Passport 40. We shouldn’t of been about to do that. He is Slainte with a older design and heavier and we were towing a dinghy with the motor. We caught them and after 40 minutes of trying to slip through their wind shadow and dirty air we left ‘em in the our wake. Slainte really pointed we and made us proud. We slipped in a nice cove and the three of us had hors d'oeuvre on Mandorla and watch the sun set. Liz found in our cupboards smoked oysters, little herring, parmesan cheese and crackers and oh was them good. Liz had been saving a vacuumed packed smoke chicken. The small things in life are superb. We spoke to another vessel that we have been hearing on the nets. It is Ernin, Virginia and Warren; they are from Newberg, Oregon. Small world. We leave tomorrow and head to Panama City. We have Moonshadow’s lat/longs and it is about 40 miles to the anchorage. We expect that will take about 8 hours, at 5 knot per hour. November 26th, 2002 We leave the anchorage about 8am and take a slow motor out of the Las Perlas as there are under water reefs all around us. It is high tide and we want to make sure that we don’t accidentally cross one. The charts for this area are not totally accurate, so we have to beware. We arrive in Panama City about 3pm and what a beautiful sight. We lost count on the big ships waiting for the canal at about 40. Then there is this big city with a skyline that looks like Miami or New York City. Huge and it is hard to believe we are this far from home, having arrived by our own initiative on our boat. When we dropped anchor, La Vantosa and Mandorla came over to enjoy the skyline and talk about how far we had come. November 27th 2002 We awake in a rolly anchorage in front of the city, but are excited to be here. Today, we need to nit the markets and get food, laundry and money. We have been out for a little over month since we were at a supermarket or real outdoor market. But we have eaten well, fished well and generally enjoyed. We find great shopping, laundry and a wonderful taxi driver that takes us all over town to find what we need. Then back to the dinghy to take the provisions to the boat. We arrive at the boat, totally soaked from the waves, but we had the groceries and laundry in dry bags, so we just rinsed our selves off and we were good as new. November 28, 2002 Today is Thanksgiving! We are bringing mashed potatoes and stuffing to the party at Pedral Miguel. Allan has spent the morning putting line on a reel for our friend’s son Scott on Mandorla. Then Allan helped another cruiser copy some charts on CD’s before we head to the dock to take the van to dinner. We arrive at the Yacht Club and find it to be very funky and nice. There are about 50 cruisers and locals enjoying 4 huge turkeys (125 lbs) with all the trimmings. The club supplied the beer and pop and fun was had by all. We arrive back at the dock at 9 pm and had a wet ride out to the boat. November 29, 2002 Allan is helping our friends Starform through the canal today. Jackie and Steve on Moonshadow picked him up at 4:45 in the am to go to the boat to head through the canal. Today, I am checking us into the country. It does not go as smoothly as I had hoped as we are short of some stamps that we apparently needed that we did not get. Then I spent 3 hours talking to our credit union trying to figure out why we are not able to use our ATM card for cash. They do not have a clue. They suggest an advance on our credit card, but the banks are closed til Tuesday. I make it back to the boat in time to check in with Allan on the SSB to find out that their passage is going to take two day. The evening is uneventful, but windy. Starform’s canal passage had several oops, one we didn’t meet the advisor at the right buoy, the advisory was a putz, and we had to spend the night in the lake. Lyn’s food was fantastic and we played Mexican Train (with dominos) and swam and bathed in lake Gatun. Both Reg and I had to sleep in the cockpit and it rain and the cushions were damn hard. The lock up and down over the two days was easy. We locked up center tied and locked down tie to the sidewall. The weather on the Colon side was gray and windy. It was great seeing Paul and Alison on Espresso, Steve and Marilyn on Spray Venture and Bobbie on Baquiano. The bus ride was good and we had a movie in English. The trip was good but long and it was good to get back to our boat and Liz. November 30, 2002 This morning, I decide to clean the boat inside and out since I have it to myself. I talk to Allan on the Panama Pacific Net and get an update as to how all is going. They hopefully will be through by 6 and them back to the boat by 8 or so. We had three thunderstorms, with winds in the low 30s most of the afternoon. The good news is the boat is clean of salt water and I took full advantage with scrub brushes and detergent to clean the topsides and hull. We had several very close strikes of lightening and the bay was extremely rocky. Imagine a child’s rocking horse and the motion continues for 4 hours. Allan arrives after 8:30 and is tired. They stayed on Starform and got a ride to the Colon Yacht Club from Paul from Espresso. They then caught a taxi to go about a half mile and then boarded the express bus. Two hours later and another taxi from the bus station to Flamenco and a dinghy ride home, Allan, Stephan and Jackie were home. November 31, 2002 Hung out, caught up on my sleep and swam in the pool and had dinner at TGI Friday’s.
|