Log of Yacht Jacana

Trip To Cauchero

2011-12-08T12:40:00.001-05:00


Split Hill - entrance to Cauchero


If Knot Why Knot


Shelley - The Helms person

In September, we decided to be really daring and go spend some time at Cauchero, an anchorage situated about 10 miles form Bocas. It is a beautiful cove (on the mainland) with few people and many howler monkeys. Near the anchorage is the small island where Sher had her home until Wild Bill Cortez murdered her. (That is another story, well covered in the Panama press.) Along with us were Tisha Baby, If Knot Why Knot, Sea Feather, Diva and Tara Vana.


Sher's Island

Pat on her throne

We spent several days there, relaxing on and around the boat. We did not do much swimming, as the water was well-populated with jellyfish. We did explore a river.


The Cacao Bean


Up the River


Tara Vana dressed for the sun


Tisha Baby as Indiana Jones

About 10am, we headed out with 5 dinghies to explore this river (name unknown). River is a bit of a misnomer, as it was only about 10 feet wide and perhaps 2 feet deep. This meant slow going, in order to keep from banging into the bank. It was also tricky avoiding the various submerged hazards, notably logs. We managed to get about a half mile in before our outboard encountered one of the sunken logs, which caused the outboard to kick up when the prop hit it. That was OK, as the motor is supposed to do this, Unfortunately, in hitting the log, we 'spun the prop', which means the outer shell of the prop was broken loose from the shaft connecting it to the motor. The effect of this was to allow the prop to slip at anything much over idle. Oh well, we didn't want to go fast anyway.


We disturbed a Sloth

    The jungle was very close to the riverbank, with trees, bushes growing very thickly. The majority of the flora was mangrove. These are great land-builders, as they are salt-tolerant and can grow in seawater. They grow very densely, and as a result, there is little air or sound movement and it is an eerie place to be. There are many cacao bushes (cocoa is made from the beans) with ripe beans hanging on them. The meat on the individual beans in a pod are tasty, and I wanted one. As we went back, we came upon one hanging over the river, about 6 feet above the river. So I stood up in the dinghy and plucked it. Its stem was resistant and parted with a snap, allowing the branch to spring back. Unfortunately, in doing this, a cloud of spiders was ejected into the air all around and over us. What seemed like hundreds of spiders (probably more like 10-20, but who was counting) landed on the dinghy and all over us. After the panic removal, we took our cacao bean and went home. We had noticed that there were spiders all over the edge of the river, all very beige, ranging from 1/4 inch across to more than 3 inches. They seemed to be docile and non-aggressive, probably a good thing.
    On our way back to Bocas, we stopped at an outboard repair shop to get it fixed. The repairman did not have a prop, but took the bad one and screwed pins into it to hold it. This is a quick, inexpensive fix, but leaves the motor vulnerable, since if you again hit the prop on something, the pins will not allow the prop to 'spin', but instead does much damage to the transmission on the outboard. So, after we got back to Bocas, we ordered a new prop. The pinned one went into 'spares'.
    A note about howler monkeys. They weigh about 40 lb., are reclusive and are said to be the loudest animal in the world. The video clip is mainly for their calls. The monkeys are about a mile away from the camera. I have heard howlers up to 2 or 3 miles away.

Listen to the howler monkeys

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Even Closer To Leaving

2011-12-07T16:18:00.001-05:00

We may never get out of Bocas!!! I don't want to believe it, but so far, our efforts to escape have been futile. It seems as if declaring that we are ready to go gives rise to something else failing which keeps us here. It is to the point that when we say we are planning to leave, we are greeted with laughter. But we have been having some fun also.

Mangroves

Our "African Queen"

We heard about a cave here on Bastimentos Is. After asking around, we found a man who would take us to the cave and guide us through. We went about a mile from the marina to a river which we

Cave owners house


Entrance to the cave

followed for a bit, coming to the land-owners dock. We then walked to the cave entrance and all waded in.

It was cool, and the water varied from knee-deep to chest-deep, and in one place we had to duck under water to get through. There were lots of bats living there, who were mildly perturbed that we had invaded their lair. The guide said he had been 3 hours into the cave and not found the end. we walked in about an hour before turning around. It was very interesting. The stalactites and stalagmites are only starting to form. When they gain more definition, it will probably be an awesome sight.

Entering the cave

It is wet

It is dark

The next problem was that the water-maker quit working. We troubleshot it and decided to try a seal kit. That all went in ok, but still no water. After a couple of hours on the phone with Katadyn, We ordered the special seal kit, this being for the parts marked 'factor repair only'. Still no water. Ok, the only thing left is the membrane kit, which costs $700. We are awaiting that now. In the process of working on the water-maker, I noticed that the raw water pump on the generator was leaking slightly. Better safe than sorry, we ordered a seal kit for it and put it in. These seals are a little tricky and old ham-hands screwed it up putting it in. It leaked badly. This caused two actions. First, we went back to the marina for electricity and second, we ordered another seal kit. It arrived and I put it in. It works beautifully when running, but when not running, it drips. It acts like there is some scoring which is causing the leak. It is not bad, but requires closing the sea-cock when stopping the generator and opening it again to run it. Seeing a big opportunity to forget to open the sea-cock, we decided to order a complete pump and keep the slightly leaking one as a spare.


Spider in the cave

    At some point we realized the wind-charger was no longer turning until a full gale was blowing. I went up the mast and poured some WD-40 into it, being rewarded with a lot of rust coming out with the excess oil. But it now works properly. Have to talk to the vendor about this.
    Then our visas were about to expire, and the whole immigration policy in Panama is murky. If you talk to one immigration officer, a tourist visa is only good for 90 days. Another will tell you it is good for 6 months, and a third said that it is good for a year. Then there is the maritimo visa, specifically for sailors. It is good for either 3 or 6 months, but must be validated every month. This visa is not free, and reputedly not honored in San Blas. Anyway, to renew ours, we went to Costa Rica for 3 days. It is about 60 miles up the coast to Puerto Viejo, the usual destination for this process. I'll talk about it in another blog.
    The other major task we are doing is to try to dry out the boat a little. There are some spots which leak badly when it rains. I did a big caulking job on the most obvious source. the inside of the toe-rail. It helped some but now we need to do the outside of the rail. This involves removing old caulking and any rotten wood, and forcing a bead into the joint-line. I have been planning to do this for a while, but the rains have set in and I need the joint area dry to caulk it. It now rains almost every day, sometimes for several hours, and everything is pretty soaked.
    We did have a great Thanksgiving dinner at the marina. It was pot-luck, with one boat (Peking) supplying the turkey. About 20 people turned out and the food was magnificent!!! I waddled back to the boat afterward and collapsed.
    While we were in Ft Lauderdale, a friend took our 2-Tb external hard drive and loaded up a bunch of movies on it. Since we returned, I have been madly organizing them, ripping, compressing and converting all to .AVI format, which is the most compact format that our DVD player will read. We now have about 500 movies on the drive, and almost another 1000 still on DVDs. Eventually, all the DVDs will be ripped to the hard drive and we will have much more storage space. We want to be able to connect the computer to the TV, but it is an old TV and the connection is not trivial.
    In other news, Wild Bill (the serial killer) has been back in town. The police brought him back to do a walk-through of the crimes. It is also rumored that Noriega will shortly be back in Panama to stand trial and serve a long, long time in prison here.


Jacana from the top of the mast

By the way, we hope to leave for San Blas in a couple of weeks.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

About Ready To Leave (we hope)

2010-12-12T10:59:00.001-05:00

    The days keep passing and we are still in Bocas del Toro. Yesterday was Bocas Day, with marching bands from mid-morning until late at night. I think every school in the province was represented. We did not attend this year, as we were trying to get some projects finished. These are pretty well done now, and we are getting hungry to go sailing.
    In September we started trying to organize all our needed activities in Florida, dr. visits, parts delivery, friends and the threatened interview with VA. When the interview date was set, it was in late October, well out of our time frame. We talked to them, were told the date couldn't be moved up, and the next day got a call that there was a slot on the Saturday we would be in Florida. Yahoo!
    Visiting friends was good. We met David and Bill's new dog, Liloo. She is a beaut. We met up with Gary and Louise from Lulu. They were waiting for a freighter to arrive and transport their boat to Europe, and we used the time to show them a few of our favorite eateries in the area. They seemed to like them all. Gary was particularly impressed with Ritters ice cream shop. He kept wanting to go back there for another serving. Louise even relented and had some. Other places in this list were Pho Hua (a Vietnamese soup house), Catfish Dewey's (fish, what else?), a new Philippino restaurant our Dr told us about. We wanted to include a few others, but there just wasn't time.
    The VA appointment was in Gainsville, and when we looked for a motel room, found out that there were few rooms and the cheapest was $150/night! After getting up off the floor, we realized that the Univ. of Kentucky was in town that weekend to play the Gators. So, we stayed in Ocala, about 20 miles away. The interview was at a VA facility dedicated to disability claims, and what a letdown - it only took 15 minutes! Ocala is a nice town with a culture that actually walks around the central park on a Saturday evening.
    After that 5-hour drive, we had to head back up to Okechobee (3-hr drive) to Galley Maid for parts for our anchor windlass. They moved the entire company out of Palm Beach to the middle of rural Florida. They are very friendly and helpful people. Unfortunately, it turned out that some of the advice and some of the parts were incorrect, but that story comes later, or perhaps some other time.
    We then proceded to shop till we dropped, buying food items we can't get 'out there', and all those boat parts we have decided we cannot do without. Thank God for Port Supply.
    Having run out of time and money and baggage allowance, we checked out of the motel and headed back. Unfortunately, the telescoping handle for the deck-brush would not fit in our suitcase, and good ole TSA wasn't buying the idea that it had been pressed into service as a walking stick, so it had to be abandoned. The agent at Spirit check-in had some trouble with the factthat we had no ticket out of Panama, and our cruising permit (and accompanying letter from the marina) was not within her experience, so we stood at check-in for 30-minutes while she called Panama to check on us. She came back and said all was ok, and for enduring the wait she upgraded us to the bigger seats in the front of the plane. They are really the way to go!!!
    When we got to Panama City, we re-packed to put most of the heavy stuff in the big suitcase, which we shipped via air-freight, much cheaper.
    We have decided that trips back to the states are to be avoided if at all possible. There is too much traffic, too many people, things cost too much and we do not like being away from our boat.
    Well, the delays keep hitting. While servicing the engine, I noticed that the raw-water pump had a slow drip from the seal on its shaft. We removed the pump and got out the seal kit we had purchased in Houston. The pump is in two parts, the pump proper, made of bronze, and the base, made of cast iron, which mounts to the engine. The base has a bolt which clamps a collar around the bronze part. Unfortunately, when we had the pump rebuilt in Texas, a stainless bolt was used on the collar without any anti-sieze compound. The inevitable happened: the bolt corrosively welded itself to the base and we could not get it out (except for shearing both ends off. We enlisted the aid of our local engine mechanic, Jeff, to remove it. He worked on it for the better part of two days and the collar finally broke. Some sailors off the Coast Guard cutter in port attempted to repair it using some exotic glue from their stores, but this did not work. After hunting around for a new one (the internet is so useful) we found and ordered one at a reasonable price. It is amazing how much the word 'marine' on something inflates the price. It should arrive next week.
    While all this was happening, a friend noticed some possible cracks on two of our chain-plates. (For the uninitiated, chain-plates are the steel pieces that attach to the hull and keep the cables that go to the top of the mast tight so the mast stays where it is supposed to be.) We examined all the plates and found no other cracks. On the better-safe-than-sorry principle, we ordered six new plates. These have to be fabricated from stainless steel, are expensive and heavy to ship. Oh yes,they had to be made in the US, as the quality of stainless in Central America is variable. They will take about 4-weeks to make and should arrive shortly after Christmas.
    We have now quit looking for anything else to fix for a while. We came in to Bocas on 1 June 2009, with an intended stay of about 2 weeks. It has now become a year and a half and counting. The problem is that the trade winds are about to set in for the winter, making a trip to Cartegena, Colombia problematic, and possibly the same for the San Blas islands (They are both east of here). The timing would be perfect for a transit of the canal and a voyage across the Pacific, except we have several big-ticket item we need before doing that. These include a life raft, a spinnaker and a self-steering unit. We have planned on acquiring them slowly, as bargains appear. The other alternative is to head north to Jamaica and the eastern Caribbean islands, which is still a possibility. We shall see.
   As always, the picture site is at {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Still In Bocas del Toro

2010-06-01T12:43:00.004-05:00

It's official, We procrastinate! We were firmly convinced that the next blog would be about our travels to San Blas or Cartegena or Timbuktu or some other exotic destination. This has not happened, yet.

The plan was to leave in mid-February. That got slipped to the end of March when we were confronted with running the generator for 6 hours a day and we realized we needed a wind charger and a new refrigerator. Actually, we had known we needed a new fridge, but had planned to build one. Then we found exactly what we wanted in a drop-in model (a Vitrifrigo, mad in Italy), and at a price we could afford. Unfortunately the US importer was out of stock and the next shipment from Italy would not arrive until mid-March, which slipped our departure to sometime in late May. This means that the 3 month visit to Bocas del Toro will wind up being a 1 year stay!

Returning from one of the trips to the Zapatillas, We moved from the marina to the anchorage, and planned on staying out there for the remainder of our time here, but thinking about all the running hours we would be clocking on the generator, up to 6-hours a day, made the savings in slip rental and electricity not all that good. So after a week, we came back to our slip at the marina.

The great part of not having plans is that you have plenty of time for anything you want to do, which is not the case when you 'have to be there by that date'. This attitude of deadlines eventually makes you forget or just not do something that really should have been done and the result is an equipment failure or not enough filters or fan belts or rice, and that can lead to really bad results.

Anyway, we finally got the refrigerator and installed it and it is a little beauty! It runs on very little power (40 watts) and, with drawers rather than a door or top hatch, is easy to access the food. Other than a little pushing required to get it in the hatch, it all went in smoothly. We did have to remodel the galley a little for it, moving a bulkhead over a few inches and moving the pantry to the space under the companionway stairs (where the ice maker used to be). The varnishing for this is almost finished.

Then came the wind-charger. We had purchased a Mallard, which had good energy numbers, but we decided that it was too big for the boat, and being designed for land use, it probably would not stand up to the marine environment for long. So, after shopping around we settled on a Kiss generator. They are well made, use mainly off-the-shelf parts and are considered one of the quietest brands on the market. To insure quiet running, you have to balance the blades. This is done by removing small bits of metal-foil tape stuck on the blades until all blades weigh the same, a process that takes about an hour. We then mounted the charger on the mizzen mast, just above the radar scanner. (Editors note: Mounting the charger entails me winching Russ up the mizzen mast in the bosun's chair and Russ working up in the air about 20 feet as he installs the wiring, mount and charger.) We have not been out of the marina to really test it, but so far it pleases us.

About 6 weeks ago, our dinghy decided it had had enough and started coming apart at the seams, faster than we could repair it. We gave it last rites and shopped around for a replacement. We negotiated with Apex for one, as they are made in Costa Rica and are fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately, transporting it here started getting complicated. Then Marine Warehouse, an importer and freight forwarder here in Panama, came up with a solution: a 9 foot AB brand dinghy which they had in the warehouse in Panama City. They are made in Venezuela and have an excellent reputation. We got it and are very happy with it. Now we have to make chaps, or a cover for it to protect it from the ravages of the tropical sun.

As a result of all this, we are now (again) about ready to get out of here, at least for a while. We have worked on and modified so many systems that we have to do some short 2 to 3 day trips to insure that everything is working right, as well as seeing if we still know how to sail the boat. If all goes well, we are thinking of heading for San Blas in 2 to 3 weeks. We will probably return here in a month or so, as Cartegena is an upwind slog at this time of year, to be avoided if possible.

We have enjoyed Bocas immensely and have made many friends during our time here. But, we are basically cruisers, and it is time to move on and enjoy another place and make some more friends.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Adventures In Panama

2010-02-02T12:21:00.008-05:00

It has been about six months since we have made a blog entry. Much has happened, but we are still right here in the marina. We hope this will change shortly, as we need to get moving. But first, our adventures here.
We have achieved several projects while here, upgrading the freezer to a 12-volt model, purchasing and installing a water maker, making 'chaps' for the dinghy and repairing the dinghy. We had hoped to upgrade the refrigerator and put in a wind charger, but these may have to wait for some other port. We also put in another circuit-breaker panel, which has alleviated some of the congestion in running wires under the walk-through!
In July, we went to David to have physicals and get Russ's pacemaker checked. David has a good clinic (Mae Lewis Clinic) and a good doctor (Dra. Lucy). That went well, and was followed by a trip to Boquete, up in the mountains. We stayed at Hotel Marita, in the hills above town. It is a beautiful place and ideal for a rest. Then in September, Russ caught a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to get his prescriptions renewed, This was necessary,as the scripts had expired and Aetna insurance was not receptive to new ones written by Panamanian doctors. During the doctors visit, she noted that my PSA (prostate serum antigen) reading was up a bit (from about 2 to a little over 3) and suggested I see the urologist in the clinic to check it out. Dr. Shrivastava (the urologist) did his thing with the finger and told me there was a lump and I needed a biopsy. I was scheduled to leave in two days, and was hesitant to reorganize the flights. After Shelley and I talked it over, it was obvious that I had to stay an extra week for the test. The following Monday evening the doctor and I had a phone conversation at 10:30pm (my flight was Tuesday morning), and yes the biopsy showed I had cancer, that it was fairly advanced and I needed to come back and have it taken care of.
So, Off I flew back to Panama with my hundred pounds of parts and supplies for the boat. The earliest opening for surgery was December 8, so we spent the next two months trying to stay focused on working on the boat and ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The operation went well and I was discharged the next day. The operation is called "Robotic Radical Prostatectomy" and is done by a robot. The surgeon sits at a console with a joy-stick and foot-pedals. I spent December convalescing in Ft. Lauderdale. In January, the doctor cleared us to return home. I will have to get my PSA checked periodically, but I appear to be a cancer survivor.
If there is a good aspect to all this, it is that the US Government has decided that there is a presumed relationship between Agent Orange and prostate cancer, and since I was in Viet Nam during the time it was being used, I am eligible for a disability allowance. The custom is to declare the patient 100% disabled for some period, and then adjust the level based on the level of recovery. This works out to about 6-months at 100% and then probably 30-40% permanent disability. We are not completely sure what all this means yet, but it includes a monthly tax-free payment. There may also be free medicines and possibly access to PX and Commissary facilities.
During all this, we were assisted and supported by some really great friends, like Roger and Carin who put me up for the first trip, Carlos and Diana who loaned us a car for the second trip, David and Bilito who invited us over to watch football games on their huge TV and our friends in Bocas del Toro marina who took care of Jacana and were always there for us. It is unbelievable just how close the cruising community is.
When we returned to Panama, we were forced to spend a few extra days in Panama City, due to maintenance on the Bocas runway, so we did some sightseeing, taking in Abernathy's (the ships chandler), the old town (where the presidential palace is), and out on the causeway, pigging out on some really great food.
So, now we are in the process of disconnecting from the marina and doing some cruising around this fantastic estuary. It has been a lot of fun here, with memorable times spent with great people, but there are a lot of places we want to go, which are less than a day away. We are still thinking on upgrading the refrigerator, as the present one is a real power hog, requiring lots and lots of generator time. We hope to be out of the marina by mid-February. Most of our cruising buddies are starting their way north and east from Cartegena, Colombia. It is getting too late to go to Colombia now, as the trades are setting in and it becomes a long upwind slog to get there. We still want to go to San Blas, and will spend possibly one or two months there.
As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Islas de Colombia

2009-07-12T18:12:00.006-05:00

The islands of Colombia are a group of islands, islets and reefs lying off the east coast of Nicaragua. They are not really part of Colombia, which is several hundred miles to the south. This is the country where the pirates and privateers hung out (as opposed to being hanged out). Morgan made his home port at Providencia. We visited Providencia, San Andreas, isla Bolivar and Albuquerque reef. There are a couple more reefs in the group, but they are frequented by drug transporters, and consequently by the Navy (and a few of their friends), and are not recommended for stopovers.

It was nice to arrive at Providencia after a hard motor-sail from the Hobbies. We left early and wanted to arrive in plenty of light, as there are a couple of reefs/shoals to be avoided when entering the harbor. Providencia is a small town on the islands of Providencia and Santa Catalina. The population is about 5,500 people. Both here and at San Andreas, you must use an agent to clear in and out, which adds a bit to the cost, but makes the process very easy. After we anchored, we hailed Mr. Bush on the VHF, who told us to come to the dinghy dock the next morning and he would meet us. He walked us through immigration and took us to his office (pointing out on the way the places we would want to visit - good restaurant, grocery stores, hardware store,...) where the customs and port captain officers finished our processing. It all took about an hour and was easy.

Everyone knows everyone on the island and a friend or cousin is available to help with anything you need, from transport to propane to sighseeing - well, you get the point. We were all amazed at the number of really georgeous women on the island. There were basically none who were just average. The men are also very attractive.

After several weeks off on our own, it was nice to ease back into civilization here, with a slow paced easy lifestyle. The Friday after we arrived, the town decided to have a party on the dock for the cruisers. When we went in to the dinghy dock (built mainly for the cruisers) there were several dance groups, mainly kids performing traditional dances, followed by a short speech by someone, and disco dancing. Enter Roland. Roland is maybee-rasta, but veerrry cool. He was passing out cards to his restaurant, and I sicced him on Gilda, Shelley's sister. Over much protestation, he got her out dancing several dances. He then proceeded to dance with just about every woman there. A few days later, we went to his restaurant (it is actually a pretty rough-n-ready beach resort he has been building for several years) for dinner - beautiful food.

One Saturday, we went down to the south end of the island for a horse race. It was a major event on the island, held on a beach in a weekend area for the locals. We had a big lunch (fried fish,salad, chips, umm) and watched the bookies take bets. Then there was a shout, and before we could get our camera up, the two horses in the race were by and at the finish line. Then the parties started.

Another day, we climbed a rock formation just outside downtown, locally called Morgan's Ass. Quite a climb! Another day, Richard and Pam on Tisha Baby invited the gang (Jim and Sharon on Pelican's Flight, Annette and Bob on Tempest and Jay and Barb on Jupiter's Smile) to sail around the island. Tisha Baby is a catamaran and draws very little water, so is ideal for dancing through reefs. Another day, we went snorkeling around the point from the anchorage, in an area where some cannons are submerged just offshore.

After a few weeks, we dragged ourselves (minus Gilda who had flown to Panama to meet her partner, Peter, and continue their holiday) away from this delightful place and headed south to San Andreas. This place is totally different from Providencia. San Andreas is a tourist mecca, mainly for Colombians, but also some gringos. And, of course, the cruisers. This is a good place to re-provision and eat in a few restaurants, having been in short supply of them for a while.

We lasted two weeks before we all decided that the weather was right and we had sufficient waypoints for Cayos Bolivar. So we set off, still motor-sailing, since the wind was either non-existant or in our faces. And besides, we wanted to arrive in good light for picking our way through the reefs and not grounding and anchoring tightly.

Bolivar consists of several islands, one with an active fishing camp and one with some unoccupied camps. There is also a light one one island with four or five tenders, whom we did not visit. We did go to one small island which had a statue of Maria Riena del Mar, who is probably also The Virgin Mary dedicated to two men who had been lost in a shipwreck. We snorkeled, we walked around one of the islands, we swam and generally lazed around for a week or so, till the weather was right for Albuquerque Reef, some 30 miles southerly.

Getting in to Albuquerque reef takes about an hour. We managed to get off the route and grounded briefly, but made it ok to the anchorage. Here the anchorage is in the center of a ringing reef, between two islands. You are pretty well protected from the easterlies, but southerly gets a bit choppy. Again, there was much swimming, snorkeling, and lazing about. The water here is perhaps the clearest I have ever seen. You can see the bottom at 85 feet and make out the fish at 65 feet. There is a Colombian Navy post on one of the islands, about six men, and they ask that you check in with them when you arrive. You have to go ashore to check in, since they have no boat. There are lots of places to snorkel, one of them being fifty feet from where you are anchored. We stayed there for about a week, just looking at the water, the islands, the fish, the clouds,... Finally, the weather was right, and might not be that way again for a couple of weeks, so we all (except for Tisha Baby who had left a day before) hoisted our anchors and headed for Panama, about thirty hours away.

The trip to Panama was great. We motor-sailed most of the day, as the wind was a little farther south than forecast. Overnight the sea went flat with no wind, so we pulled down the sails and motored. The next morning the wind came back up a bit, so we put up the sails and motor-sailed for a while. About 11 am, a dolphin showed up, and suddenly, from every direction, dolphins were coming toward the boat, from up to a half-mile away. They were jumping clear out of the water, as if to get a better look at us as they came. In total, about forty dolphins showed up, and began swimming in the bow wave, perhaps ten at a time. They would trade places with others who were swimming nearby, rolling on their sides and looking at us. We were up in the bow, watching back. This went on non-stop for perhaps 45 minutes. We finally went back to the cockpit to sit down, and within a minute, they were all gone. It was as if the whole performance had been for our mutual benefit, and when we left, so did they.

About this time, the wind came around so we could sail. We shut off the engine and had a beautiful reach in 20 kts for about three hours, at which point we were at the Bocas del Toro channel outer marker. We motored in the well-marked channel and anchored for the night at Starfish Beach off Bocas del Drago. The scenery is fabulous and reminds me of islands in the South Pacific - low-lying hills with clouds sitting in the valleys between, with the hill-tops peaking through the clouds and everything getting hazy as the hills recede into the distance.

The next morning we motored on in to the anchorage next to the marina and proceded with clearing in. Another voyage completed. After a week in the anchorage, we tied up in the marina, being docked for the first time in four months.We plan to be here for about three months, while we take care of several chores and projects. Then we will be off to San Blas and more remote anchorages.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

It's All About the Boobies

2009-05-15T09:57:00.002-05:00

Leaving Guanaja was uplifting. We were looking forward to a passage to clear our heads from the clutter of ports and people and way too many parties. We motor-sailed out and prepared for the continued growl of the engine, as the wind showed no signs of the expected shift to the north so we could sail.

This continued through the day and into the evening, when the seas started building. We reefed down and took our seasick meds in anticipation of a rough night. It came as anticipated. The wind built to about 30kts and the seas were up to 10-14 feet. Gilda was in the v-berth (roughest spot in the boat) riding it out. When morning came, we had no breakage and were only about 10 miles behind the other boats. We bypassed the Vivarillos and went directly on to the Hobbies, arriving early afternoon.

The Hobbies are very remote, very basic and extremely beautiful. They are comprised of two small islands (3-4 acres each) and a reef with good protection to weather from the east. There are two fish-camps, one on each island. The near island has two people on it, no power and lots of Boobies. The two are Jose Angel (about 19) and Jimmie (about 30). They have been there fishing for eight months. They, and the two guys (George and Charmin) on the other island bring us fish to trade for beer and cigarettes (or food) and are really nice people. Jose Angel and Jimmie have six dogs on the island, who are very playful and loving. It is an excellent place to lose a few days or weeks, fishing, snorkeling and sitting.
We seem to keep finding these incredible places to stay, each better than the last. Where will it end? Will it end? Must it end?

All the testosterone-types go out spearing fish which they proudly bring home for the communal feast. I really have to get a spear so I can join in... Oh wait, we haven't even tried a line in the water while we are on passage! I suspect I have a few grades to advance through before I would be allowed a real spear!!!! The fish is really good, though.

This seems like a rather short entry for such a profound interlude. We spent about three weeks there, and fervently wished it could go on and on. But in spite of being really, really special (am I gushing too much?), eventually Paco the wonder weather dog barked "GO", and we all went, headed for --- Providencia.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

The Bay Islands of Honduras

2009-05-15T08:09:00.004-05:00

I was going to name this blog "Going to Roatan", but nothing really special happened on the way. Oh, I suppose the night we spent in Puerto Cortes was interesting. Puerto Cortes is the biggest container port in Central America, according to the guide books, and is a very pretty anchorage. We dropped the hook (that is sailor talk for anchoring) next to a wreck (a 200ft freighter probably beached by hurricane Mitch) that the local kids use for their swim/dive platform. And we listened to the navy trainees chants as they jogged along the beach.

And I suppose it is worth mentioning the next night, which we spent at Puerto Escondido, thirty miles west of Puerto Cortes. It is a small cove, about 1/2 mile in diameter, with a narrow entry between rocks just awash on either side. Once in, it is quiet, the silence broken only by the howler monkeys on the hillside.

And how could I not mention East Harbor in Utila. We went there to anchor overnight before sailing on into French Harbor on Roatan, but the next morning we ran into 20 knot headwinds and 10 ft seas that we were regularly burying the bow in and turned back after a half hour to return to East Harbor until the weather improved. East Harbor exists for the dive industry and the entertainment of divers when they aren't diving. Saturday night lasts until getting close to Sunday morning.

As I said, nothing really special. Now we are in French Harbor, on Roatan. Our sailing friends who have been here have told us what Roatan was like. "Really good shopping." "Protected harbor." "Good diving/snorkling." "Friendly people." The problem is, THE BLOODY IDIOTS DIDN'T TELL US IT WAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE WE HAVE EVER BEEN TO. Here starteth the travelog. We are anchored in about 20 ft of the clearest water we have seen in years, a half mile from a resort where we can dock our dinghy, pick up a rental car, catch a taxi and connect to the internet. About a mile the other way is a dock we can tie up to, which is near the supermarket, a bank, petrol station and a fast-food house. Town is a half mile walk up the road and chandleries are a taxi ride down the highway. The island is beautiful, everything you would want a tropical island to be. A friend was talking to an ex-pat living here who has an anteater for a pet, we met a Honduran lady who has two iguanas she has raised from babies. We have had the local snapper and the grouper, and both are fantastic - delicate flavour and tender. The shrimp and lobster are supposed to be quite good.

When we arrived, our HF radio (read long range) was waiting for us, duly delivered by Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck. I didn't even come close to the installation time of three days it took Bryan to install the same equipment on his boat, but it is now installed and working and we are getting good signal reports. Unfortunately that project (and quite a bit of sitting in the cockpit staring around) has used sufficient time that we can't get any more projects done before Gilda (Shelley's sister) arrives for a spell. This happens in four days. We don't know what to expect, as Gilda has not been on a boat, particularly a sailboat and a cruiser, and her response to such a different way of life could be interesting.

----000---- (time passing)

Well, we have now been in French Harbor, Roatan long enough that we are considered the old hands here. Gilda arrived on time after much confusion. The airline had changed her flight and didn't inform her of this until she arrived at the airport to leave. The change meant more time in the air, and less time in the hotel room in Houston.

She spends much of her time in the water or under the fan. We have reassured her that it really isn't that hot, but I am not sure she belives us. We walked around town with her and went to the Iguana farm and all the things tourists do. We have also been educating her as fast as we can on how to cope with life on a boat. We want to go to Cayos Cochinas for a day to let her see what sailing is all about.

Pelican's Flight and Tempest arrived from West End. Big reunion.

After sitting around French Harbor waiting foe Gilda to get well (bacterial infection and worms) and for parts to arrive (once again, I ordered stainless tubing and got stainless pipe), we mounted the solar panels so we could get extra energy into the batteries, and headed East. First was a 2-day stop at Jonesville bight, witha trip to the Hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Kitchen had closed, so we had beers. Then it was off to Port Royal. While there, we went to Mango Creek for dinner. Food was excellent, scenery as good and the hosts welcoming. They live in Durango! The trip back from the restaurant was a little hairy, as the wind had come up and we were anchored at the other end of the harbor. We all got wet.

The next day it was off to Guanaja and El bight (good anchorage). Bonacca is the main town there, built on an island in the harbor. The island is 10 acres and Bonacca has 10,000 people - crowded. There are no streets, only paths that wind around - sort of like a rabbit warren. There are some good diving reefs and one day the bunch of us went snorkeling on the North side of the island at Michael (or Michael's) Rock. Good snorkel, but still a bit chilly for me. Shelley loved it.

We stayed at Guanaja for a few days, waiting for a weather window. We finally checked out and headed for the Hobbies, 150 miles to the east with Tisha Baby, Jupiter's Smile, Pelican's Flight and Tempest.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Leaving The Rio

2009-01-25T10:16:00.004-05:00

Along about New Years, we finally decided that we had dawdled enough and it was really time to get packed up and go to Honduras. We had given up on putting up the solar panels (we could not get 1" stainless tubing). and converting the freezer was too daunting to complete before we had to leave. So we started stowing stuff and doing final checks on equipment.

That is when the generator malfunctioned. It would run for about 10 minutes and quit. We then had to wait 5 minutes before re-starting it. Most unsatisfactory. Friends chimed in with their fixes for the same type of problem, and it became clear that the fault was probably in the logic for the control relays. (Note to self: when the turn signals fail, do not start by checking the switch, the wiring and the flasher unit. Start by checking the bulb.) After two days of troubleshooting some arcane circuits and 4 relay boxes, I finally realized that Shelley had been saying all along that the exhaust looked wrong. So, I put my hand over the exhaust and, lo and behold, there was no water coming out. In order to cool the exhaust and to partially muffle the noise, sea-water from the cooling system is injected into the exhaust and it is all expelled together. There was no water being injected, which meant the sea-water cooling on the generator was not working, and it was overheating. The logic circuits were operating properly and shutting the system down when it got too hot. I pulled the sea-water pump and found that there were no blades left on the pump impeller. Replacing the impeller and cleaning the heat exchange unit fixed the whole problem, and it only took 4 days!!

We were then packed and ready. The problem now was the weather. There were strong trade winds blowing. Trade winds begin setting in this time of year, and blow from East to West, right from where we were going. So we sat, waiting for a weather window. In this case, this is when a cold front comes out of Texas and creates a northerly (blowing from the North) wind pattern. These fronts bring rain, cold and pretty strong winds. What we were looking for was the tail end of one of these fronts, while the North wind was collapsing and before the trades built again. Finally, on Saturday the 17th, we had a front stalled over southern Mexico. This was perfect, as it would keep the window open longer. Sunday was the day!!

Sunday morning we got up at 7:30 and got ready to go. We had just started our morning cup of tea, when there was a loud bang and something heavy hit our boat. We raced up on deck to see one of the Tijax employees racing out of the marina in her launcha, obviously out of control. The manager jumped in the marina launcha. caught up with her and helped her get it under control. She had little experience driving a launcha, and had sat on the left side of the outboard rather than the right. This means you are using the wrong hand to control the motor and all the motions are backward. When she twisted the throttle to slow down, she accelerated instead! Her boat was damaged, with a big chunk out of the bow and a crack in the stem. Fortunately, she had hit a solid piece of steel which attaches to the side stays and there was little damage to Jacana, with the exception of a big paint smear on the side. Had she hit a foot lower, it would probably have put a hole in the hull. At any rate, leaving Sunday was out. The marina spent several hours rubbing out the hull and polishing the area of the damage.

Complicating things was Miela, the resort cat, who is very loving and attentive and definitely a lap-cat. She had been pretty much living on the boat and working very hard to be adopted. It was ever so hard to put her ashore when we untied, but she belonged to the marina, she is 14 years old and she is deaf. When I picked her up for the last time to carry her to the dock was the only time she ever used her claws on me. She knew exactly what was happening. We miss her and will miss her.

Monday morning we managed to leave. We motored down the river to El Golfete and Texan Bay Marina. This is a beautiful little bay just before the river enters the canyon. It is quiet, isolated and very down-home. Run by Mike and Sherry, it is a nice place to decompress for anywhere from a day to 10 years. We managed to only stay one night (there was some discussion about this) and head for Livingston Tuesday morning.

We had alerted Raul (paperwork agent) and he had all our paperwork ready for us to exit. We decided to have lunch and I was keen to try a specialty dish available in Livingston called Tepezquintle, which is a small rodent, also known as a Paca (something like an Agouti) . It might possibly be endangered, but is available in the restaurants and I was determined to try it. Needless to say, I was disappointed. The meat was something like beef roast, but with less flavor and more stringiness. Ok, I tried it. We were then off across the sand bar at the entrance to the river. Pelican's Flight went out first and made it ok, followed ever so carefully by us. We did not touch the bottom, but Destiny behind us (deeper draft) grounded and had to be pulled through ($50 for the tow). We continued 10 miles to a bight just south of Cabo Tres Puntas for the night. We were on the road again.

End of Days - on the Rio

2008-12-05T14:34:00.008-05:00

OK, it is time for another entry. A lot has happened and, at the same time, very little has happened.

We have been to Frontera 112 times, under the bridge 20 times, across the bridge perhaps 10 times, and to Gutemala City and Antigua - once. We have been here for 6 months and seen very little of Guatemala. I regret that, but possibly we will have to come back for the parts we missed. We did go to Guatemala City once, to see a cardiologist, and spent a few days in Antigua. We found Antigua to be a beautiful town in a gorgeous setting. One problem with it is that all the buildings look the same, and I kept getting lost. We had intended to use Antigua as a base to explore the Western part of the country (Lake Atitlan, Mt Pacaya, the market at Chichicastenango) but we got sick and spent most of our time there in bed. We also talked about going to Tikal, but we are both a little ruined out. Perhaps we will go to Copan in Honduras.

What we have done in the six months on the river is meet a lot of really great people (I won't name you, as you would get all squirrelly), learn a little Spanish, done a little work on the boat and relax a whole lot. We have never been in a reasonably timeless place and had no time constraints on us. As a result, there are a couple of months we cannot account for, and if we do not focus on getting the boat ready and getting out of here, there could easily be a few more. It is an idyllic way to live, and very addictive.

But, we want to move on and see some more of the Caribbean and the world, and that means focusing on the chores at hand. We were going to wait until we got to Honduras and haul Jacana in La Ceiba, but a price comparison showed a $0.30 difference here, so we had the haul-out done at Don Abel's. We got the bottom painted with two coats of ablative anti-foul, the prop pounded back into shape after that grounding in Belize, put in the keel-cooler for the new Frigoboat refrigeration unit and had a couple of dings on the keel and skeg repaired. We were very pleased with the work and the 48-hour turnaround time. While we were out of the water, we stayed at Nutria Marina, a small back-packers resort near the boatyard. It is run by Becky, a lady from New Zealand and Australia, who is making a name for herself as a hotel manager. In her words, she can "chew the leg off a chair", and we had a couple of pleasant evenings talking with her. While we were there, she managed to get an indian pipe band named Sol Latino to do a short concert one afternoon. We had seen them at Cafe La Pena in Antigua, and enjoyed their music enough that we bought one of their CDs.

Frontera and Relleno, now known as Rio Dulce town, is a frontier community. A lot of people wear guns, and some use them to settle arguments. It is reported that there were more than 20 murders in town during October, a lot for a town of perhaps 5,000 people. As far as we know, all of these 20 were locals. Cruisers are generally excepted from this violence with one notable exception while we have been here (newspaper article). More and more cruisers are discovering the Rio, and we suspect that the area will soon be forced to become a little less wild and a little more organized as a result. That will probably be a good thing, for both the cruisers and the locals, but I for one will miss it. There are too few frontier towns left.

From here, we plan to go (in a couple of weeks) to the Bay Islands in Honduras and do some more work on Jacana. We want to put our solar panels on, get the wind-charger mounted, complete the conversion of the refrigeration system and buy/install a SSB radio. We hope we can get that completed before Shelley's sister, Gilda, arrives in mid-February for an extended visit. After she arrives, we may go back to Belize, or come back to the Rio for a visit. Our desire is to be in Panama by about July. This will give us protection from Hurricanes, and the San Blas islands are a great cruising ground. After that, we really don't have any firm plans. Cruising is truly an exercise in Carpe Diem, since you don't know where you will go next, or what the day will bring. I do know that if I don't get moving, this day will be gone and my chores will not be done.

Let's see, what were those chores anyway?

Belize - Rio Dulce.............Voyage End

2008-06-22T13:46:00.005-05:00

We are now on the last leg of the journey. An easy 35 mile day with fair winds and low current was a great way to get to Guatemala. We left No Name Point about 1000 hrs and about noon the wind began to pick up enough that we could shut off the motor. There was a slight vibration from the prop and we didn't want to tax the transmission any more than necessary. And besides, it is a sailboat.

We arrived off Livingston about 1530 and got some instructions on crossing the sand bar at the mouth of the river. "Go to the buoy and head for the red roofed building". There about 20 red roofed buildings!!! We touched once or twice as we crossed, but made it OK. Since there was an offshore wind pushing the river back, the harbor was a bit bouncy, but we got the anchor set just above the fuel dock. By the time we finished anchoring, the customs boat had arrived. Four officials came aboard, Port Captain, Customs, Immigration and a doctor. We gave them the papers they needed, customs had a quick look around the cabin, and they left, saying welcome to Guatemala.

We were going to take the dinghy in, but quickly decided that it was much too rough to put the motor on it, so we flagged down a family passing by and got a ride in their panga. The standard fee for this is 30 Quetzals or about 4 dollars. Unfortunately, the smallest bill we had was a $20 Belize note, worth $10. They seemed quite happy with it. We went to the clearance agents office where we signed a couple more forms. The agent told us where the bank was and to hurry back as 1700 was approaching. We had picked up a self-appointed guide/information source named Carlos who escorted us to the bank, pointed out a good seafood restaurant and took us back to the agent. He returned a few minutes after we arrived with all our paperwork completed and our passports stamped. We paid him $150 and received 90-day visas and 3-month clearance for the boat. I am still not sure why there is a distinction between the durations.

We went back to the boat, relaxed for a while and took the dinghy in to the dock. Carlos was there to watch it for us while we ate. We asked him what he did for a living. "I'm a hustler. I hustle tourists." The meal at the Happy Fish was very good, a Garifuna seafood soup called Tapada. Livingston had no road access, very narrow streets, almost no sidewalks and looks like a Disney theme park to me. It really is a nice little town.

Friday morning we were about ready to weigh the anchor, when this dinghy came out of the canyon mouth. Shelley looked at it and said that she recognized those feet. Sure enough, Bryan had come all the way down to help pilot us back up. The motor up the river took almost 5 hours, against the 2 kt current of the river. As we entered the canyon, I was reminded of a passage from the guide book. In a few moments we entered the Rio Dulce. On each side, rising perpendicularly from three to four hundred feet, was a wall of living green. Trees grew from the waters edge, long tendrils descended to the water, as if to drink and carry life to the trunks that bore them. It was, as its name imports, a Rio Dulce, a fairy scene of Titan land, combining exquisite beauty with colossal grandeur. As we advanced the passage turned, and in a few minutes we lost sight of the sea, and were enclosed on all sides by a forest wall, but the river, although showing no passage, still invited us onward. This was written by John Lloyd Stevens in 1841.

As we progressed up the river, we would be treated to a beautiful scene, and then come around a bend and be presented by an even more awesome view. This went on for almost the entire trip. It is the sort of place where it is difficult to take a bad picture. Finally at just past 1400, we arrived at Frontera (which has been officially renamed Rio Dulce town) and our journey's end. Bryan went on ahead to direct us in to our slip. Most slips here are med-moors, where you back into the dock and drop an anchor about 30-40 feet out to keep the bow pointed directly away from the dock. Shelley did a magnificent job of backing Jacana in while I managed the lines and anchor. We shut off the engine, I had a rather large rum and we went swimming in the marina pool.

What followed was about a week of sleeping, resting, relaxing, and in general, recovering from a month-long voyage of 1344 nautical miles. We had not realized just how fatigued we were, but sleeping 12-15 hrs a day seemed quite proper.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Isla Mujeres - Belize

2008-06-19T11:23:00.004-05:00

On June 8, we decided that the weather window wasn't going to get any better for a while, so into a 10-15kt easterly and 4-6ft seas, we headed out the cut and toward Belize. One of the unfortunate things about the easterly trades is they are generally accompanied by seas in the same direction, and since we were sailing south, we had beam seas. This is not a comfortable sail. The weather forecast was wrong -we had SE 15-20kt wind with 6-8ft seas which put green water over the bow and at times over the Bimini top. We also had a 2 kt north-running current to deal with. After we got nearly to Cozumel, we moved toward the mainland to minimize the current and not enter the area where the sea started feeling the bottom and get rough. We motor-sailed for most of Thursday and Thursday evening, until the wind came around on the beam about 2000 and we were able to sail on a good reach throughout the night. Friday morning we reached the cut into San Pedro. Unfortunately, the yellow marker buoy was gone (a victim of Arthur, probably) and there were 6ft seas. We took one look at this and turned south for Long Cay entrance. This cut is wide, deep and easy to navigate. We then sailed up to Caye Caulker and dropped anchor. We were accompanied in by Silver Lining (Wally and Marcie), a 47 ft Leopard Catamaran. We all went to Rosie's for lunch/dinner. The next morning we woke up and found that our anchor job was not as good as we had thought. We had dragged and were about a mile offshore. We were still in 7-9 ft of water. We picked up the anchor, motored back in and set it again, this time more firmly and we set an anchor watch on the GPS (if you move over the set distance from where you set it, an alarm on the GPS goes off so you can do something about it. Silver Lining invited us over for coffee, but we could not get the outboard started. Wally came over and (with my help) disassembled the fuel system and cleaned it. We put it back together and it started first pull. We stayed there through the weekend, leaving Tuesday, June 10. The water in northern Belize is all pretty skinny and you spend a fair bit of your time with 2-3 ft or less of water under the keel. We got lost and were passing the wrong cay. We managed to get turned around with only a small panic and no grounding. We sailed most of the way, arriving at Middle Long Cay about 5pm. It is a nice anchorage, very protected. We left early the next day, as we had about 60 miles to do and did not want to arrive at an anchorage in poor light. We finally got to Palmetto Cay which is described as a good anchorage in 15 ft. As we made the turn around the north side, we went hard aground on a coral garden. We worked the boat and managed to turn enough to fall off the head we were on and got out of there. We motored down to our alternate anchorage, No Name Point. We were later told it was good water further in, but we were freaked out by the coral and did not go clear in. As a result we had a bit of a rolly night. Thursday morning we dove on the hull to inspect, and found only a couple of scratches on the rudder and keel. The prop, however was a different story. Two of the blades were bent up some. This caused some vibration and a slight reduction in our speed, but the transmission seems OK. We didn't get the chance to do any snorkeling or diving while we were there, but perhaps next time.

As always, the picture site is {PICTURES} and the map is at {MAP}.

Isla Mujeres

2008-06-16T11:40:00.002-05:00

When we cleared in at Progresso, we were told we did not need an Importate, the document that shows you have registered your boat with the government and can legally navigate Mexican waters for 10 years. Jose at the marina said that we did need it, as we would be in Mexico more than 10 days and we could have our boat impounded if we didn't get it. so we took the ferry to Porto Juarez (next to Cancun) and went to the Port Captain's office. They wanted our stamped copy of the crew list. "Progresso didn't give us one." "They should have. We will call Progresso and talk with them. Come back in an hour." We had lunch and went back. "Progresso made a mistake. They should have given you the form." "Ok, can you stamp it?" "No, only Progresso can do that." "We have to go back to Progresso?" "No, they will fax it over." So we wait?" "It may take a while to fax it, so come back Monday." Four days to fax one page?

So we went to Chichen Itza on Sunday. Apart from being one of the seven wonders of the modern world, it is a beautiful place. You cannot see it all in one day, as it covers 5 square miles. The bus takes 4 hours to get there. Here are the pictures of Itza {pictures}. there is not really much you can say about the place except Wow and Incredible.

Monday we went back to Port Captain. The fax had arrived and we paid our money and got our Importate. We then hunted down a marine supply store, trying to replace a winch handle which had gone overboard. Finally found it, but they had very little for sailboats and handles was not included. So, on to Wal-Mart. It is just like every other Wal-mart, except for the cafeteria, which has great food. We bought the place out and headed back to the boat.

Wen we first arrived at Isla Mujeres, the sky was full of helicopters flying into the Navy base. They were bringing tents and generators and air conditioners in for the big festivities on Sunday when President Calderon would be there (for about 20 minutes). We missed it all.

Tom had turned us on to a brand of Cuban rum called Havana Club which is really good. His fiancee (Elizabeth) bought me a bottle for 135 pesos. We went to the shop a couple of days later to get more and the price to us was 450 pesos. So we asked Elizabeth to get another. The price was now 145pesos to her.

We finally got the weather window we had been waiting for, and on Thursday (June 5) we headed south for Belize.

Progresso - Isla Mujeres

2008-06-16T11:12:00.003-05:00

Ok, we have stayed in Progresso long enough, and it is time to head on. So we left the marina and motored for two days until we got around the corner and into Isla Contoy, arriving about 2230. We anchored and went to bed. The next morning we awoke to a beautiful island - a nature preserve - surrounded by turtles. There must have been a hundred of them feeding and mating. We are talking 4ft long turtles here, possibly leatherbacks or loggerheads. then we pulled up the anchor and headed for Isla Mujeres. We arrived at Marina Paraiso about 1400. Tom (owner) and several others were on hand to assist us in getting tied up. Our adventures while in Isla Mujeres take up too much space for this entry, so it will be in its own episode.

Seabrook to Progresso

2008-05-31T10:46:00.009-05:00

On a sunny day in the month of May, we set out for Isla - Isla Mujeres, that is; the first leg on our odyssey to Rio Dulce. John was there to help, as well as Phil and Renee. We had supplies and food stored until we were well and truly at the waterline. We got Jacana backed out ok, but when I put her in forward and started out, the engine started binding. We quickly tied up to the end of the dock and started looking at things. John and I came to the conclusion that the new packing in the stuffing box was not completely settled in. After a few minutes of forward and reverse running, it seemed to settle down, so we went through the whole good-bye thing again (a couple of people who shall remain unidentified started getting tearful) and headed out. We ran the engine down the bay to test the engine and drive train (it seemed fine). We exited the bay at about 3pm and set our course for Mexico. We had reasonable north wind, but remembering Bryan's admonition not to spend any more time than necessary in the Gulf, we motored in addition to putting up all our sail. We were whizzing. We went on our 2-hour on, 2-hour off watch schedule and settled down into passage mode. Sunday, the wind was lighter but we still progressed. By Monday morning, there was no wind and the sea was glassy calm. Ok, so we motored on. About this time the radar quit working - a nuisance, but not critical. The calm lasted for two days, until Wednesday mid-morning when the south-easterly swell began to build. By afternoon it was up to about 6 feet. This was no problem, but it would get worse. At about sunset, the wind began to build from the south and the seas began to get higher. By midnight we had 40kts of wind in our face and 10-12ft seas, also in our face. We kept the main up with three reefs in for stability and motored on. By dawn it was still pounding and we were still about 125mi north of Isla Mujeres. We ran the fuel consumption numbers and realized that with this storm and the expected 2kt current as we entered the Yucatan Channel, we did not have enough fuel to make it. After some examination of possibilities, we decided a right turn was in order, so we could sail to Progresso on the north coast of Yucatan. We had a beautiful beam reach and arrived Friday morning in Yucalpeten where we cleared into Mexico and checked into the marina. We promptly collapsed into a deep sleep for several hours.
Progresso is a remote, minimally developed community which is in the process of being discovered. It's primary economy is fishing, with a small tourism industry starting. A cruise boat calls occasionally, and many people in Merida (big city 25mi south) have second homes there. On the Malecon (beach front street) are a number of excellent restaurants. We found that it would be very easy to forget to leave there, but we had places to go.

2008-04-22T10:55:00.001-05:00

Well, the time has come to get ready to go again. Much has happened since we returned from Harvest moon. The winter months have come and gone, with many improvements/upgrades to both us and the boat.
Where to start... We finally decided on the roller furling we wanted for our jib. It is a Facnor and was installed by StixNRigging. It went on quickly, except for one part that they had to come back and add later - a spacer near the bottom which keeps the foil from banging against the forestay. It is really a nice furler, very smooth operation. One unexpected hitch was that the industry has standardized on the luff-tape size (#6). This is the piece on the front of the jib that attaches the sail to the furler. The luff-tape on the jib was a #7 which would not fit in the groove. Off to the sail maker with the jib and now it fits beautifully.
Bryan spent about 6 hours sitting on the top of the mast putting in some upgrades there. We now have a fantastic LED anchor/nav light combo, a new VHF antenna and a windex at the top, in addition to a couple of steps, so that sitting up there in the bosun's chair is not quite so uncomfortable. We had intended to install a wind instrument (anemometer and direction sensor), but the costs kept mounting and when it hit $800, we decided a wet finger would work just as well.
Shelley sewed up the stack-pack for the main sail, with a few improvements over the one on the mizzen. We still have some changes, but those are for when we have time. They look very sharp and dress the boat up nicely.
We have purchased two solar panels (Kyocera 130 watt models), but may not have time to get them mounted prior to leaving (more on that in a moment). We bought a new inverter/charger (Xantrex 2500 watt) and have it almost completed. That should be on-line Friday. And today we are ordering the wind charger. We decided on a Mallard 800. That also will not be installed until later.
The doctors looked us over, pronounced Shelley well and fit and ready to go. I, on the other hand had a small problem. My low pulse rate was a concern to the cardiologist. An angiogram showed that my major arteries were pink and clean (a good thing), but my pulse rate was too low for him, so I am now the proud possessor of a pacemaker, bringing my pulse up to normal and giving me more energy than I have had for years. We are now awaiting the cardio's approval to leave.
This brings us to where we are going. We expect to leave in the first half of May, for Isla Mujeres, Belize and Rio Dulce in Guatemala. If there is no space in Rio Dulce, we will go on to San Blas Islands in Panama. Wherever we wind up, we will probably stay until the end of the hurricane season. Needless to say, we are getting pretty excited about going. This will really be the first offshore voyage with just Shelley and I aboard. We may be traveling with Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck, if we leave soon enough. Otherwise we will catch up with them in Mexico or Belize. We will miss the many friends we have made here in Seabrook, but onward calls to us, more and more strongly every day.

Harvest Moon Regatta

2008-01-18T15:56:00.000-05:00

After a good party on Wednesday evening (10/24/2007) to celebrate Russ's birthday (never mind which one), we left the marina Thursday Morning at 9am for the slog down Galveston Bay for the start of the Harvest Moon Regatta. As there were over 250 boats in the race, the channel from Kemah and Seabrook to Galveston was pretty congested! "We" were Russ and Shelley, joined by Georgie and Paul Sage. Due to the congestion, we quickly lost track of Pearl S. Buck, who were starting in another group.
Our group was slated to start at 1420. We got out of the bay and headed for the start line. After much hunting and looking, we found the line, but we were about 15-minutes early, so we turned and sailed back into the collection of boats waiting for their start. Unfortunately, we sailed to far and by the time we turned around and got back to the start line, we were 8-minutes late and our group had gone. In a 30-hour race, 8-minutes is not a lot, so we weren't worried. Besides, it is a fun race, isn't it
The spinnaker group was the next after us to start, and they passed us rather quickly, at least most of them did. The race was accompanied by Elissa, a tall ship from Galveston.

The wind held through the afternoon and evening, and Jacana was doing well for a heavy cruiser (Morgan's are not known for their speed). Unfortunately, somewhere about 0800 Friday the wind started dropping and by noon, we were being passed by anything that moved. A little later, we linked up with Pearl S. Buck (somehow we had gotten ahead of them) and, after doing the numbers, realized there was no way we could finish before the 1300-Saturday close time for the race. So we cranked up the engine and motor-sailed slowly toward Port Aransas so as to arrive after sunrise Saturday. Somewhere, we missed on our calculations, and there we were in the channel at 0530 with fishing boats, yachts, work boats and anything else that floated. What a mess!! We were following Pearl through the channel and as the sun rose on us, we realized that somewhere we had locked onto the wrong boat during the night and Pearl was already tied up at city dock, sound asleep. They had arrived at about 0300. We decided to continue on to Island Moorings Marina, about 8 miles further down the ICW, where we had reservations. The main problem with this was that the North wind had sucked most of the water out of the ICW and the canal into the marina, and at low tide, there was barely enough water for our 5'-4" draft. As we left the ICW into the channel to the marina, we ran aground. We called for BoatUS for a tow, and were told we were 5th in line, so we settled back, made a cup of tea and watched several other boats get in line to get towed off the sand. At about 1100, the tow-boat showed up and dragged us through the shallow water - We grounded 7 times before they cast us off and we slowly and carefully motored on (we grounded one more time, but were able to get ourselves off) into the marina.

We got tied up and settled in, and then caught the van to city marina where the party was being set up. We caught up with Brian, Clint, Carol, Star and Glen who had gotten their beauty sleep and were in party mode.

We had a walk around town, sightseeing and had a bite to eat. Then it was time to party! There were about 1500-2000 people there, most being crews from the race. The boats tied up at City Marina made up a small city. Bacardi, a major sponsor, backed up a truck full of rum and started pouring. In addition, it was almost Halloween, and many were dressed up in costumes. The food was great, the bands were good and the sound was terrible. Lots of fun was had by all.

There was some confusion about the prizes, but Noble Lady finally got theirs.

We partied on and finally went home about 1am. The next morning we went back to see the remains at ground zero. The cleanup was in progress, and Russ had the distinction of getting the last drink.

We had planned to sail on down to Brownsville, but consensus held that it would be better to rent a car and drive down. For the next week we toured the Rio Grand valley, MacAllen, Reynosa Mexico, and any number of birding spots (did I mention that Georgie and Paul are avid birders - by avid, I mean they are tickers).

We finally decided to wend our way back up the ICW, with the Sages birding and us sightseeing. The "ditch" is quite a place for touristing, including the locks at the Brazos and Colorado rivers.

North of Port OConnor, there is a bit of the ICW that is closed and you must take an alternate route. Unfortunately, the old route is still on the charts, so the markers are still in place. We were advised to turn around by a boat which had been aground for a couple of days. We finally arrived back in Seabrook on Sunday (11/4) at about 1800. Bryan was waiting to tie us up. We considered the trip a magnificent success, and we had a great crew. Hats off to Georgie and Paul.

For all the photos of the race, {click here}. For pictures of the Rio Grande Valley and birding, {click here}.

Taking Jacana from Marathon to Seabrook

2007-11-13T17:33:00.000-05:00

Russ left Marathon driving the SUV to Seabrook. The trip took two days, arriving early Wednesday afternoon. Stayed the night on Pearl S. Buck (Bryan was in Denver) and flew back to Miami early Thursday, arriving 11am. Got the car rented, picked up Bryan who arrived at 2:30pm and we proceeded to get lost trying to find our way to the road south. Got to Marathon about 6pm. For the next three days we finished up the critical items on the todo list, madly deferring those items that could wait. Sunday, the 9th, we left for Seabrook. Naturally, it started pouring shortly and continued for 4 hours. Just as it started, we snagged a lobster pot and Russ had to go in the water to free it. Fortunately, we had been motoring and the sails were down. Motor-sailed, passing Key West about 0100hours. Way too many lights in NW passage.
The wind filled from the East and we finally sailed, dodging storms. For the next couple of days we motor-sailed, dodging storms (max 40kts and 8-10 ft seas). At one point a lightening bolt struck about 100 ft away. The wind from the West made for a boring ride.

One afternoon Russ was on watch with everyone else asleep. Suddenly a little finch or canary landed on his toe and sat there for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately the camera was below, out of reach. The canary finally flew off, perhaps in search of an oil rig. Bryan encountered a freighter (at night naturally) with confused lights, and no response to VHF call. Also tangled with a shrimper, with no-one on the bridge. He almost ran us down before we could get out of his way.

Finally on Friday we got some decent wind and had a good sail the last 100nm with a brilliant sail up Galveston Bay, arriving at Seabrook about 8pm. We immediately went to Chili's for a good dinner. The meal consumated two days of nonstop talking about food. This seems to be a normal pattern. All in all, it was a good voyage, and with the exception of one piece of hose, the boat performed well, as did the crew. Shelley notes that she was sick for the first few days.

Good-bye Monty

2007-09-23T12:19:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have to make some hard choices. When we returned from Galveston, we sat down and had a serious talk about Monty and his future. It has become more obvious as time goes on that he is not a sailor-cat. We both love him dearly, but we felt that keeping him on board was not the best option for him. He hates the sound of the motor, does not like the boat moving, and generally would rather have some dirt to play in. We approached Jodie, a friend in Marathon about taking him, but she has a very territorial cat and that would not have worked.
We talked to the people at the facility where we were boarding him, and one of the technicians had taken a liking to him (actually everyone on the staff loved him) and was willing to adopt him. So Monty is once again a shore person and the forward head no longer smells of catbox. It has also cut down on the amount of hair in the boat.
lt was very empty on the boat for a few days, and we were sad at the decision, but it was for the best.
Now we are closer to being ready for some serious cruising.

Good-bye Monty, we will always love you.

Galveston part 2

2007-09-23T12:03:00.001-05:00

After a while, even being in a nice marina in a good port can get tirsome, especially if you have other things you want to do, like getting your own boat ready for sea and moving it to Seabrook. So, after two plus weeks, we filled up the water and fuel tanks, filled up on ice and left Bradenton for Texas, Shelley and Russ crewing on Pearl S. Buck and Roy and Ken on Black Pearl.
We buddy-boated for a couple of days, following the route Roy gave us, along the coast from New Orleans West. As we approached New Orleans the number of offshore rigs started increasing. On the third day, we were separated from Black Pearl by a storm. We later contacted them through a relay by a platform. They were about 10 miles behind us. We said we would wait for them at the next way-point, but Ken said for us to go on and they would also. This basically meant we were no longer buddy-boating. This did not set too well with us, but there was not much we could do about it, so we steamed on. It seemed that we hit the traffic zones (fairways) at midnight (New Orleans, Lake Charles, Beaumont). Off New Orleans, we came close to a freighter who had almost no lights on. We missed it by 1/4 mile or less.
The number of oil platforms in the Gulf is almost incomprehensible. We have heard numbers in the 5000 region, but that seems low. At one point we could see almost 100 rigs, pump stations and well-heads at one time. Most of them are well-lit, but a few leave a bit to be desired. Drifting through a field with 30-40 well-heads (perhaps a piece of pipe sticking up 50 feet out of the water with a small platform on top to house the light and a foghorn) is very surreal, sort of like creeping through the cemetary in th middle of the night.
The wind was either very light, or from the wrong direction, so the motor was running most of the time. We had a few heavy storms (35kt, 6 ft seas), usually on Bryan's watch. Running the motor so much was eating away at our fuel, so we decided to bear off to about 200 T so we could sail without losing ground. We did this for about 6 hours, and after recalculating our consumption and stores, decided we had enough to make it at least to the bay entrance, so off we went.
There were a lot of boats in the external anchorage, waiting for space to tie up at a dock. We threaded our way through them and into Galveston Bay. This is one busy piece of water, with lots of shipping up and down the ICW and more going in and out of the bay for distant ports.
We finally made it to the marina (with an escort for the last bit from John and Linus) at about sundown, got tied up at the slip and went for some food (the last act of a voyage always seems to be going for a good meal.
Pictures of this leg are at (click here for our pictures).

Galveston - Part 1

2007-09-20T15:57:00.000-05:00

Georgie had problems: a husband on chemotherapy in Galveston, a boat in an expensive marina in Key West apparantly abandoned after some mechanical problems and no way of getting the boat back to Galveston. Enter Bryan, John, Shelley and Russ. We went with Georgie to see how bad Black Pearl was. Well, the cracked chainplates were tool-marks, the air-conditioner had been removed and the generator probably would have worked if the belt had been on. We fixed the problems and went back the following day and sailed her back to Marathon, to allow last-minute preps to be done. By now, Shelley and I are crewing on Black Pearl and John and Bryan will crew Pearl S. Buck. We spend a week in Marathon, tidying up Pearl S. Buck, replacing weak or vulnurable parts on Black Pearl and getting as much done on Jacana as we can, with an eye on our own departure.
Finally on July 7th, we leave. Or rather we didn't, really. It's bad luck to start a voyage on a Friday, so we went through the Boot Key Harbor bridge and anchored for an early departure (on Saturday). The breakfast burritos were great, Georgie. Motored to Key West, due to no wind or wrong wind. Pulled into Key West fuel dock, topped up with fuel, John ran to get spare belts and a heat exchanger cap. He didn't get the cap. Had dinner and left, right into a headwind. Motored about 250nm, with the current building in our faces, until we were only making about 2 knots. After three days of this, we decided we had to get more fuel, and the best place was Tampa. So in we roared to the Twin Dolphins Marina in Bradenton. Several things happen now: 1)Engine problems and the mechanic from Hell 2)John leaves to return to Galveston 3) Roy and Ken are brought in to deliver Black Pearl 4)Shelley and Russ move to Pearl S. Buck to crew.
Bradenton was very nice: air-conditioning, good food, good marina (thanks Charlie and Pam)and the swimming pool, along with the trip to Sarasota and the Ringling museums (thanks Faith).
But several museums, restaurants and free days later, it had been two weeks, leading to a mechanic's bill for $5K, and we had seen enough of Bradenton, so off we went to the Gulf of Mexico. The pictures for this trip are at (click here for our pictures).

A trip to Belize

2007-06-28T20:13:00.000-05:00

One evening Bryan came over for sundowners. At some point (I am still not sure just when) the topic of Angel's Wings impending voyage to Belize and the lack of crew for the voyage came up. Bryan had decided to sign on, and said,"Why don't you go?" Well, we chorused, we have all this work to do on Jacana, and then there is the cat, and we would love to go, but we just can't. Yeah, right. Next morning the three of us went to Angel's wings to talk to Mike and Gail, and look over the boat. Angel's Wings is a 39ft Allied Mistress ketch. Gail will fly in to Belize after the boat gets there - she does not do blue-water sailing and Mike was not into single-handing a 650-mile trip. Mike has some experience at sailing, but (like Shelley and I) no offshore time. Bryan has a fair bit of both. Anyway, at about 3pm on June 8th, we filled up with fuel and water and headed south from Marathon - after going back to the fuel dock to retrieve Shelley, who had gone to the bathroom and missed headcount - straight into the tail end of a storm. For the next day we had 25-30 knot winds and 6-8ft seas as we crossed the gulfstream. Lots of rocking and rolling. Mike and Shelley immediately succumbed to sea-sickness and crashed, leaving Bryan and I to run the boat. We had planned to convoy with Good Dreams, but OH! Thomas (that is another story) had to stay in Marathon to sign his divorce papers.

Saturday afternoon we saw Cuba, and turned right, staying about 4-5 mi offshore. We passed by Havana at about 6pm, and longed to go into the harbor, but that is a big no-no, so on we went. By this time the weather had eased, Shelley had recovered, and Mike was better, as long as he kept his eyes on the horizon. The winds dropped off that night to the point we had to motor-sail to keep up the schedule Mike needed/wanted. We finally turned the corner on Cuba's east coast (Cabo San Marco) on the 11th and turned south. We wanted to get back across the Gulfstream before it pinched in Yucatan Channel and speeded up.

We sailed and motor-sailed for 3 days, until we sighted Ambergris Cay at about 10am on the 14th. Then, in through the cut (very narrow hole between the rocks) and into San Pedro harbor. Mike went ashore to clear in and found out he only had filled out half the forms, so he made an appointment to come back with the whole crew at 4:30pm. San Pedro is a jumping dive town, with dive boats whizzing in and out of the harbor to go to the reef all day. About 2pm, we all went ashore and had big, greasy hamburgers, which we had been dreaming about. We then cleared in and went back to the boat. We stayed overnight, going in for much-needed fuel and water the next morning ($5.00/gal for diesel), then off to go around the south tip of Ambergris Cay, Stopping at Cay Caulker for a while.

It was the start of lobster season and a fest was on the next day. We were directed to Rose's Cafe where we had the most fantastic grilled lobster tail I have ever tasted, for $12. Cay Caulker is a little hippie community. There are a fair few Rastas there also. We talked a while to one, who offered us some Ganjh at $25/quarter oz. We declined. As we were leaving, the supply barge was in, carrying mainly beer. Then up the West side of Ambergris, feeling our way, as the water is a bit shallow. At a couple of points, we had 2 feet of water under the keel. The channel was marked in places by some palm trees someone had stuck in the sand. We pulled off the channel and anchored for the night, under five or so billion stars and no light bloom from anywhere. Magic!!! I should point out that the charts for Belize leave much to be desired.
They are not very detailed.

The next day we reached Corazol, where Mike will be the parson for the Remnant LDS (LDS is Latter Day Saints, which is an alias for Mormon, Remnant is a breakaway sect) church there. Corazol is pretty remote and economically disadvantaged. According to the locals, we were the first cruisers to have ever come there. An east wind made the boat pretty bouncy off the sea-wall, so Bryan, Shelley and I opted to stay at a hotel and explore the town.We found some pretty good food, and the Belizian rum is very good - maybe too good. Monday at noon, we boarded an air-conditioned bus and headed South for Ladyville, just outside of Belize City, and near the airport. We had been strongly advised not to go to Belize City if we could avoid it. Apparantly, it is pretty dangerous - more so than Columbia. We stayed overnight at a Chinese hotel (huge rooms, good prices, odd customs, and they make very strong drinks). Then, on Tuesday morning they shuttled us to the airport where we sat in semi-air-conditioning until the flight at noon. Bryan managed to get upgraded to Business class, and after a 1hr 45min flight we landed in Miami. We then rented a car and drove back through rush hour traffic, wondering just why we came back, to Marathon, arriving at about 9pm.

The pictures for this trip are at (click here for our pictures).

Now what?

2007-04-23T18:56:00.000-05:00

Ok, we now have the stove in - mostly. Still have to put the cabinetry around it so it looks like it belongs there. And we have located all the bits to protect the drawer above it from catching fire. It works beautifully, too. We can make tea very quickly. The composite propane tank is magic - being able to see how much fuel we have left is great!

I bought an inverter from another boat, since we have a 150-watt model which will not power the computer and accessories. The new one was a 400-watt version. Hooked it up and it overloaded. took it back to the lady I bought it from and we discussed the problem. Probably the wire is too small so the voltage drops and causes the overload. Traced the wiring down (the nav-station is now a rats-nest of wiring) and discovered that two cigarette lighter sockets (the common method of connecting 12-volt devices) and a vhf radio were on a small wire circuit. I am now in the process of upgrading this wiring circuit. The PO (previous owner) was really good at woodworking and cabinetry, but electrical stuff was not his forte (sorry Bob). That will get done tomorrow, I hope - as well as the CO monitor. When you burn propane in a boat, you have to be alert for leaks in the fuel lines and also for a build-up of carbon monoxide, produced by burning propane. Both are heavier than air, and tend to settle to the bottom of the boat, and will kill you if they collect. therefore, you watch out for them with sniffer devices - much more humane than using a canary.

Which leads to the next big project - adding batteries. We have enough batteries to last a day, if we are carefull. What we want is enough to last 2-3 days, even if we are not carefull. After we get that, we will add some automatic charging devices (wind-chargers and solar panels) so we don't have to run the engine or generator very much to keep the batteries full or electrons. then we can start adding things that use lots of electrons and still not have to use lots of diesel fuel to keep things running.

We had our first overnight guest on the boat this weekend - Rayetta. She came down Friday with lots of reservations about such things as sea-sickness etc., and left thinking about how she and Nick could get a boat and work from it in the keys. It is an addictive life-style.

More musings when I finish my nap. Life is all too tiring.

The Trouble With Tribbles (Paradise)

2007-04-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

There is a saying that cruising is fixing boats in exotic locations. It is a pretty accurate description, since there is always an upgrade you want to do or something that needs fixing. Always! And it is not like there is not enough time to do these chores. There is plenty of time. And this is where the problem starts. I am finding that, more and more, I can spend several days doing what should take 2-3 hours. Here is an example.
We are converting the stove from an electric to a propane system. The propane locker (propane needs to be in a compartment that vents overboard and not into the boat) is already there, so all that is needed is to run a hose and a pair of wires from the locker to the galley, mount the regulator and shutoff solenoid in the locker, run wires from the galley to the power distribution board in the engine room, install a switch in the galley to control the solenoid, pull out the old stove and install the new one and hook everything up. This should take about 2 days, one to swap out the stoves and one for everything else. So far, I have gotten most of the work except swapping the stoves done, and it has only taken me 7 days. I get up bright and early (well bright, at 8am). This gives me enough time to make a cup of tea before the harbor VHF radio net at 9. It finishes by 9:45 and I am ready to go. Oh, we need to get ice, which requires a run to the marina office in the dinghy. So, 10:15 and I am ready to go. Oops, when we got the assortment of wire connectors, there were no blue butt-splices (Oh, knock it off. We already told that joke) and no spade connectors. Off to West Marine to get some. No I don't want the box of 100 for $40, I want the small box. Why do the male spade connectors come 4 per box, and the female ones 5 per box? While we are out, let's get some milk. Back to the boat and ready to go and it is 11:30. Since we did not eat breakfast, let's have an early lunch. Ok, 12:15 and I am ready to go. I empty the three lockers I need to run the hose and wire through, get them both strung where I want them (losing the skin off of three knuckles and sweating off 2 pounds getting them through the engine room because it is very close in there and we have just shut down the generator) and realize that I cannot hang them up out of sight, because the only places I have to attach the clips to are the hull and the deck. Needless to say, both locations are frowned on for screwing lots of clips to. So it is into the dinghy and back to the marina. Home depot has the adhesive pads for cable ties I need. Back to the boat. It is now 2:30 and I am tired, so I relax in the cockpit for just a few minutes to cool off and recuperate. Actually, the wind is making too much noise, so I will just lay down in the aft cabin for a few minutes. Woah! How did it get to be 4pm so fast? Mail is in at the marina, so we have to go in and see if that parcel with parts for the head (toilet) have arrived. They haven't. Well, at 4:30, the light is not good enough to see into all the crevices where I need to secure the hose, so I will wait till tomorrow for that.
I put my tools away (so we can walk through the cabin) and it is time for a sundowner to celebrate all the work I have gotten done today and the fact that we are living in paradise, and besides Diver Dan has showed up with several bushels of fresh oysters from Apalachicola and there is a shucking party at the marina, which takes priority over the rope-splicing seminar - they are only offering pizza.
At this rate, I calculate we will get the current list of projects done in about 4 years. Then we can start enjoying paradise. What do you mean, there is a leak in the deck over the starboard locker? And we need to install...
A friend said that things start to break faster when he is doing repairs, and at the rate he is going, the boat should sink in 2 weeks.
Oh well, the view from the cockpit is fantastic and a pod of dolphins just swam by and said hello. Maybe it is worth it.

Fast Friends

2007-02-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

A phenomenon occurs among cruisers which makes for great joy, and sometimes great sadness, but mainly joy. This phenomenon is that when you meet other cruisers, you may only be in close contact with them for a short while, and if you do not want to be lonely as you cruise, you form strong friendships quickly. The down part is that you miss these friends more when you go your separate ways, perhaps never to meet again.
Case in point. We met Dan and Laura (Barely Twisted) at the Las Olas marina moorings in Ft. Lauderdale. They were on their way to The Bahamas and we were on our way to the Keys, but in the four or five days we shared at the mooring field, we became very close. We showed them around Ft. Lauderdale, they helped us with some problems (they bought a dinghy we needed to get rid of) and Laura did a beautiful sketch of Jacana (including Monty standing on the bow). The flowers she left on the deck were beautiful, and we missed them as they motored out for their passage to Bimini. Have fun on the sailing grounds, Dan & Laura, and we hope we meet up again for another dinner.

The Crew From Sailorman

2007-02-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

Chuck is the boss. Dave knows all the used parts. Bill is down in the dungeon of new parts. Terry sort of runs around keeping it all together. And The Black Pearl is the store cat, who sort of adopted the place. Sailorman is known all up and down the coast as the place to get parts for your mark-1 widget which hasn't been made in 15 years. They also have good prices on new stuff and a lot of consignment gear. Wandering around the store is worth the price of coming to Ft. Lauderdale. There is an indian family sitting around outside, a butler that vibrates just inside the door and tons of really useless junk that is too neat to throw away. There is also a beautiful parrot who's name I never learned.

We got our propane system (well most of it) there, and after much negotiating and shmoozing with Chuck, our new dinghy at a price we couldn't turn down. We always get a good feeling when we go there. Well, almost always... (Don't read the rest if you don't like sad endings.)

We went in to finalize the deal on the dinghy, and The Black Pearl was not at his food bowl. I should tell you that the Pearl is old, tired, can't see well and generally sleeps or eats. Not much moving about. We asked where he was and were told that he was at the vet. When we asked for more information, they said he had been in a fight with something the night before and was hurt pretty bad. We were in and out during the day and kept asking for updates. Finally, Chuck's wife returned with him. He did not look well. Must be the drugs.

We went back in the next morning to get our paperwork on the dinghy, and immediately noticed that his bed was gone. They had taken him to another vet and found out that his leg was broken, his hip crushed and his skull had been punctured. They had put him down. Needless to say, everyone was saddened.

Consider this an obituary for a friend. The Black Pearl is no more. Amen.

The Colors of Sailing

2007-01-16T18:13:00.000-05:00

A few months ago we were living in a quite normal four-bedroom house. It had standard-size doors, normal proportions to the counters, window-sills and rooms. The doorknobs were a familiar size and position. The furniture had dimensions which were ingrained in our minds from years of use. We then moved aboard our boat and all those dimensions and relationships changed! The doorways are narrower, the overhead isn't the same and isn't always the same, and things stick out where we don't expect them to. As a result, we are now decorated with the colors of sailing - namely black and blue, with many of the older marks fading to lovely shades of sickly green, pale yellow and purple. Most have gone beyond the stage of pain, and are merely a remembrance of not allowing sufficient space to get around the foot of the stairs (stubbed toes), the drop of four inches in the overhead where the companionway goes under the cockpit seat (bumps on the head), or the engine-room door which malevolently swings closed over my calves just before I try to stand up. One of my more memorable marks is on my upper arm, yielding sergeant stripes. Shelley says hers are more private. I have also decided I am sick of fiddles (those clever little pieces of wood on the edge of counters, tables and shelves, designed to keep things from sliding off when the boat leans), as they are invariably in the exact place I want to rest my forearms. Also, there are those clever little devices used to latch cabinet doors closed. You push your finger through a hole in the door and there is a little fastener you have to pull in order to open the door. The problem is, the little latch is usually placed in such a way that releasing it and pulling the door bends your finger in a novel and generally painful direction. You quickly become adept in doing a little dance to rotate your body so that your finger is repositioned such that the joint bends the way the door dictates. I have also learned not to work on the engine before meals. Working on the engine invariably involves working on something on the other side of the engine. This involves lying on the top of the engine and leaning head down to reach what ever it is you need to fiddle with. Five minutes of this is guaranteed to eliminate any thoughts of appetite you might have had. It is also not recommended not to do this just after a meal either. We are acclimating though. We can now get from the deck into the cockpit, ducking low to avoid the top of the Bimini cover (a canvas awning stretched over the cockpit to yield shade and protection from the weather) without falling or looking like a rodeo clown. The problem is that the supports which hold up the Bimini are just out of easy reach and at the wrong angle to support you as you do this transition. It is something you have to experience to understand. We have also become proficient in getting from the ladder into the dinghy and the reverse. Initially, you spend a fair bit of time doing the splits with one foot in the dinghy and the other clinging to the ladder with your center of balance over neither. This results in the dinghy rapidly moving away from the boat and thoughts of a sudden swim becoming prominent. You rapidly develop prehensile toes. Boating is so much fun. You should try it.

Unexpected Results

2007-01-05T19:41:00.000-05:00

It is odd how good things come from unexpected sources. Two miles north of Jensen Bridge, our engine alarm went off and the oil pressure went to zero. After racing to the engine room to discover that the oil had repositioned itself from in the engine to just below the engine, we shut everything down, drifted off the ICW and dropped anchor. After determining that (a) we could not see why it had done this, and (b) that we had no more oil anyway, we called for a tow. The cause (determined several days later, when we could get a mechanic out to the boat) was a pinhole leak in one of the oil lines. Anyway, the towboat operator, Captain Pat, brought us to Port Salerno and Manatee Pocket to anchor until New Years was over and the mechanic could come. Ok, we thought - another little seaside village in Florida. WOW!!! This is a beautiful little village that we would not have experienced. We have met some great people, had a great dinner at King Neptune's and watched the most amazing glass-blowing I have ever seen. Port Salerno is a combination of very rich retirees, not-so-rich retirees, working fishermen and a small tourist segment chartering fishing trips and wildlife sightseeing voyages. We have just about concluded the work we have to do before leaving (putting in a new depth sounder is about the last task), and we have noticed that we are starting to make excuses not to leave just yet. I suspect it will be much that way wherever we go. We are also tempted to put in at every port along the way to avoid missing out on another such place. Life is good.

An attempt to leave

2006-12-27T19:14:00.000-05:00

Ok, so cruising is not all a bowl of cherries. We knew that going in. Case in point: backing out of our slip this morning in attempt to leave for points south. As we backed out, the wind and the current caught the boat and we managed to hit two boats. Mimimal damage, except to our egos. So we motored over to the dock by the dockmaster's office to make an incident report. When I came back from filling out the report, Shelley had noticed oil on the pedistal (where the steering wheel is). We looked at it , and it soon became apparant that we had a leak in the hydraulic steering system. This is not a good thing when you are starting out on a cruise!! We checked back in at the marina (no longer for free) and removed the steering box. After several consultations and phone calls with several possible repair people, we boxed the thing up and sent it off to a repairman in North Carolina. It may be back by Saturday. We will also look into purchasing a used one from the local marine liquidator store. It is a good thing to have a spare one of. As a result of all the adrenalin and exertion, we are completely worn out this evening. Ah, the carefree life of the cruising sailor! I must re-read that passage from The Wind In The Willows.

Re-Naming Ceremony and Sail Test

2006-12-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24^th, 2006 – One of those magical sailing days, the ones you want to write about and tell all your friends, so they will be envious of you…

It was a beautiful Florida day, the type of day you want to bottle and drink later. We woke to some commotion on the deck, we could hear strange male voices talking about a fish or something and wished they would go away and stick their heads in a bucket of bait. I got up and went up into the cockpit for awhile taking in the cool morning breeze. I looked over the side and saw a manatee floating right next to our boat. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, Russ come out and see this! We gazed at the hulking grey mass as he/she just floated there and blew a few bubbles now and then from both ends! He/she would languidly raise it’s head a few inches above the water and breathe the sweet Florida air that we were also breathing and then just continue to float. This went on for a few minutes, while Russ raced down into the cabin to grab his camera and take some pictures. Monty was very interested. He/she had about 3 scars on his/her back and some notches taken out of it’s tail. Manatee tails are in a horizontal plane rather than the Dugong whose tail is in the vertical plane. I am sure there are other differences. Manatees are threatened in Florida especially by boaters as they spend so much time near the surface of the water and get hit by speeding boat props. You see navigational signs along the ICW (IntraCoastal Waterway) in Florida, warning of Manatee Go Slow areas. People are also asked not to feed them or give them fresh water. They will latch onto a garden hose for the water and become unafraid of humans.

We decided it was calm enough to go for a sail and test the new Mainsail. It may have been too calm…I started up the engine to warm it up, stowed everything below and slowly backed out of the slip and made our way out of the marina and into the ICW (now you know what that means). It was wonderful to be untied from the dock and finally out on the water. Ft. Pierce bay is huge and I slowly motored into a turning basin, so Russ could hoist the sails. The new main looked gorgeous in the morning sunlight and gently undulated in the breeze. I turned off the engine and waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing, then we started to go backwards! There was not enough wind to launch a new born blowfly. Darn, drat, fudge. Well the mainsail hardware worked well. We started up the steel sail again and continued on our way. We went as far as the inlet into the ocean and back again, around the bay and under a bridge. Going under bridges is fun. You know how high your mast is, 54ft, you know how high the bridge is, 64ft, you hope those 2 numbers are correct and you go for it. I wish I was Catholic, so I could cross myself.

Russ had applied the new name to the back of the boat the day before and it was time for the re-naming ceremony. I wrote the old name on a piece of paper and found the rum. We stood on the stern and I scrunched the piece of paper up and I threw it into the ocean. Russ had put the boat in reverse and we slowly drifted back over the name. Then we drank a shot from the rum bottle and a shot went into ocean. I then invoked the names of all the Gods of the Sea that I could think of: Neptune, Poseidon, Davie Jones, the Sirens and the evil Christmas Turkey. I pronounced that Saturday’s Child was no more and recited the following prayer,

“Oh mighty and great ruler of the seas and oceans, to whom all ships and we who venture upon your vast domain are required to pay homage, implore you in your graciousness to take unto your records and recollection this worthy vessel hereafter and for all time known as Jacana, guarding her with your mighty arm and trident and ensuring her of safe and rapid passage throughout her journeys within your realm.

In appreciation of your munificence, dispensation and in honor of your greatness, we offer these libations to your majesty and your court.

I name this boat Jacana and fair winds to her and to all who sail in her.”

Sounds and Smells

2006-12-13T10:29:00.000-05:00

We had Christmas drinks on Sandy Hook the other night. The resulting hangover from that is not the subject of this entry, but part of the conversation is. Alise described the awareness of your boat in two questions: "What's that noise?" and "What's that smell?". That really is the core of living on a boat. You wake from a sound sleep, wondering what that rattle is. Twenty minutes later you are back in bed, having figured out that a rope had loosened and was hitting the mast. It took a fair while the other night to determine that the clicking we were hearing was nothing more than shrimp. Or, you come back aboard and something smells different. This could be as simple as having left the cat food can open on the counter, or as complex as the holding tank leaking. You pray this never happens, but know that sometime, it probably will. In a perfect world, preventive maintenance will always keep you ahead of having to hang upside down with your head poked down in some obscure bilge trying to figure out how to fix that leak. It isn't a perfect world, and there a lot of obscure bilges. And the leaks almost always occur when the sea is less than serene. Right now, everything sounds and smells right. That makes me happy. Actually, that would be a good name for a boat - Sounds and Smells.

Getting Settled

2006-12-05T10:33:00.000-05:00

We are now a little over half-way moved aboard. Most of the clothes and galley equipment is stored, leaving the tools, dive gear and some other things. We have become notorious in the marina with our discards. There is an area set aside for usable discards, and some of the livaboards have started keeping an eye open for when we make a deposit. As we store stuff, we are finding more and more stowage spaces. The PO told us that other people have commented on how much storage this boat has in comparison to theirs. The radar scanner has been reinstalled, and worked for a short while before reverting to the original error. I worked on the wiring for a while before giving up in frustration with no improvement. We may call in a tech to fix this problem. We are also considering a new, better radar. It has been grey and forbidding for a couple of days, with 30kt winds yesterday. We soldier on, but the output noticably slowed down. Perhaps today we can make more gains. In addition, the crud I have been combatting for two weeks has now pretty much disappeared, which will help. Also, we have ordered the new main sail (it will be ready in three weeks) and the jib is being restitched. The UV protection strip had come a little loose in places and we wanted to make sure it was in good shape before leaving. We are making progress, albeit at a slower rate than we had envisioned.

Moving Aboard

2006-11-24T17:30:00.000-05:00

We moved onto the boat (I have to start referring to it as her) Monday followed by some of the coldest November weather I can remember in Florida. It has been getting down to the mid-thirties for the past few days, thanks to a big low off the East coast. It is starting to warm up now, and the doona (OZ for down quilt) will not be needed quite so much for a while. Combine that with an attack of the crud (probably caused by major letdown after many months of intense work getting here) and our moving aboard has not been that much of a high point. It has still been a high, just dampened somewhat by severe lack of energy.
We are not sure where we are going to store all the stuff in the locker. We are beginning to accept the fact that much of it may have to go. We shall see over the next few days.
The registration tags are on hold for a while. It seems the DMV needs the same paperwork needed to re-document it with the USCG, and that has been mailed off already. We will talk to CG next week to see if we can get a receipt for the application so we can get our tags from the DMV.

What am I doing here?

2006-11-17T09:03:00.000-05:00

Almost there. Today is Shelley's last day at work, which causes us both some pause. Ohmigod! No more income! That is a huge boat. How do we do all that maintenance? Yada-yada-yada. Then the anxiety passes and we get back to the myriad of chores to get through to Monday and the actual purchase. I am getting tired of saying good-by. I had forgotten how draining that is. Perhaps we know too many people.
Shelley is getting accolades from everyone at work. She did not realize just how important she was to those she worked with. It has been very uplifting for her.
We really hope that Monty takes to sea-life. We looked at one boat whose cat never did. When they start the engine, the cat starts looking for a place to throw up. Monty is a survivor though, so the prognosis is good.
We were talking last night and agreed that, while we are really wired at having to operate at a high level so we can get everything done, surprisingly, we are not terribly excited. We are not having any trouble sleeping or eating, which is reassuring. Sometimes, paraphrasing an old Alka Seltzer ad, "I can't believe we did the whole thing".

Come on Monday!!!

Monty

2006-11-10T11:43:00.000-05:00

It was suggested that we should include some details of the crew. I will start with a short note about Monty, the ship's cat (and probably the skipper). Monty wandered in one day and informed us that we were now his people, and by the way, could we do something about his tail. A trip to the vet to repair several puncture wounds (tooth-shaped), and he settled in comfortably, thank-you-very-much. We had been watching the Westminster dog show on tv, and decided that if those dogs could have such high-falutin' names, so could our cat. So, he was named Champion New-World Montego Ypsilanti, or Monty to his friends. He has never been on a boat, and we hope this will not be a problem. Oh yes, his eyes don't really glow.

First Thoughts

2006-11-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

After several months of looking and searching, we found our boat. She is a 1981 Morgan 462 ketch (the boat with the bathtub), currently residing in Fort Pierce, Florida. The survey turned up only minor problems, the price was right, and we take posession on 20 November. Then we have to cram all our belongings (now housed in a 5X10 ft storage unit into her various nooks and crannies. Then we must attend to correcting the important problems (the main needs replacing, the brain for the autopilot is gone, a couple of lines need replacing) and the upgrades we feel are necessary (replace the electric stove with a propane system, replace the rv fridge with a proper built-in chest, install some solar panels), get comfortable with all her systems and finally learn how to sail her. Although we both have sailing experience, this is a bigger boat than we are used to, and we have never sailed a ketch. The next few weeks should be interesting! We will be in Ft. Pierce for perhaps a month, and then work our way south to Marathon for the winter. After that, we shall see.