October 30, 2012
Hi All,
We hope all is well with everyone….are you tired of the election campaign yet??? Come on down to Panama and you can join a hot group of protesters as they try to get the government to repel a bad law allowing the government to sell some city property in Colon….well, the people are supposed to get the money but no one trusts the government to pass along the monies….yikes!!
The last official update we were in Aruba preparing to leave for Cartagena. We did send a brief update when we made it to Coco Banderas in San Blas Panama completing our 3 year circumnavigation of the Caribbean….yea!! Leaving Aruba was a little hectic. We left the Barcadere dock in Aruba at about 2:00 pm…..we were there for 2.5 hours to check out and take on 700 gallons of duty free fuel ($3.37 vs $4.14/gal). The delivery truck was an hour+ late….ugh!!! In order to pay for the fuel you have to make a deposit in a bank to Valero the day before…..nothing like putting cash into an unknown account in a third world country……it worked out ok for us but since we have learned not ok for another cruiser.
The passage that night got very STRESSFUL….here is how I wrote about it in my Captain’s log:
3:30 am Thursday 8/9: John on watch and I’m very sleepy – 2 cups of coffee, 2 cups of tea, 2 glasses of diet coke and a big butterfinger – and I just want to sleep….so writing my log!!!
– wow o wow….what an evening…..when we were in Panama in 2009 we know or heard about 8 boats being hit by lightning. Well, last night Mr Lightning gave us a big Hello, remember me greeting, I’m BACK!!!!! After a delicious dinner of fresh grilled Mahi, sliced tomatoes and sautèed fresh spinach the clouds turned ominous….uh oh, we are in for a dark and stormy night w/o the rum:((((. For the next 5+ hours….yes, as in PLUS FIVE HOURS…… we had bolt lightning hitting the water, bolt lightning in the sky, lightning flashes every 1-2 sec….yikes!!! We placed every loose electronic item in the microwave or oven, powered down all nonessential items, dodged as many of the squalls as we could but at one point our 6 mile radar screen was completely filled with rain……arghhhhhhh!!! It is times like this I am in just awe of the power of mother nature, as well as being extremely PUCKERED!! Right now as I type this we are surrounded once again by lightning flashes…..no rain on the radar and the lightning seems to be way in the distance so I’ve enjoyed the show for a while….just hope it stays away!!!!
We thoroughly enjoyed Cartagena and so glad we decided to go there. We enjoyed our stay at Club de Pesca and met several very friendly and fun members of this private yacht club, especially Lee Miles and Pachi Roman. We took many tours, saw several forts, churches, museums, ate some very good and interesting food……and left pretty exhausted from our 9 day nonstop tour…..and oh yeah….we leave with some very nice emeralds thanks to Lee Miles at Mr Emerald.
But, the weather was HOT, HOT and then more HOT with HUMIDITY….wow, now we know why most cruisers only go there in the winter months w/the NE trade winds blowing to cool things off and drive some of the humidity away. And unfortunately, the “hawkers” have gotten really bad….some of the worst in all of the Caribbean….on par w/St Lucia….very aggressive and basically selling junk. The locals and local merchants are very concerned but no one seems to be able to do anything, but it already has hurt tourism in some areas.
The passage to San Blas was thankfully uneventful….We did catch one huge Mahi…..had to be 40″+……we fought him for a good 10-15 minutes…..nice and easy….I was not going to lose this guy as @ first I thought it was a tuna…..so as we get it close, we see it is a beautiful Mahi and Kathy says….we have a freezer full of Mahi, let it go…..ah geez…..so we tire it out some more, of course, it jumps about 15 times and goes deep a few times…..but he gets tired and I bring him close to get the hook out……man was he huge!!!!!
We anchored off the Kuna village of Ailigandi, in the eastern/central San Blas. There have been a lot of Kuna’s come by in their ulus but no one has stopped to sell seafood or molas….whoa, that was different!!!
Kathy asked…..how many miles have we come since Georgetown Grenada….well, we have traveled 1078 nm in 41 days (since July 10)…..as Kathy said….no wonder we are so tired…..we must slow this pace down….and so we did in San Blas!!!!
We arrived in Coco Bandera in the San Blas islands on 8/22/2012 at the exact same spot we left on 11/2/2009!!!! We appropriately celebrated the monumental achievement for us with champagne and a delicious steak dinner with a really superb bottle of wine:)))))
Just the facts ma’am:
– 2 years 10 months
– traveled 7601 nm; can you believe that…..we both thought it was much less; about what we will do next year crossing the Pacific to New Zealand
– 1079 engine hours
– 2033 GEN hours: yes it is very HOT in the Caribe…..TG for AC!!!!
– 24 countries
We loved our 7 weeks in San Blas….we mainly kept going back to the same favorite spots…..Coco Banderas, East Lemons and the Swimming Pool in the East Holandes. Lobsters are still very cheap, $4-5/lb, crabs $3-5/per and $1/conch cleaned. Of course, we froze many conch to preserve the shell and were not always successful getting all the meat out:(((((
David and Dana as well as Wayne and Sharon visited us which made the time very special. Good food, good times, excellent snorkeling, lot’s or reading/relaxing and of course, lot’s of dominoes…..Dana, has Rick found out yet????:))))))
We so thoroughly enjoyed these beautiful islands with the so peaceful and friendly native Kuna Indians. And indeed, Kathy bought way too many Mola’s….well, she might disagree a bit:)))))) But, San Blas is changing rapidly, we think. The Panamanian gov’t really wants to open up San Blas to tourism and the Kuna have been pressured to put up small hostels on many of the islands. Also, they have completed Green Turtle Cay marina, so that means lots of sportfishers dock there and come into SB every weekend with their loud music and racing dinghies. It’s all the wealthy Panamanians…..Some even fly in by helicopter while their crew bring the boat here. During the week, things seem to go back to normal and everyone breathes easy…..but by the next Friday, the parade begins all over again. Don’t get me wrong…..SB is still a most special place and we’ve truly enjoyed our time here…..The snorkeling is still awesome and the crab, conch, and lobbies plentiful and cheap! And, because of the hostels, the islands and beaches are much cleaner. But, alas, it is changing as all things do…..time to move on to new adventures!!!!
From the San Blas Islands we headed for a week in the Chagres river…..but before we get there this happened: what seemed like every alarm on the boat went off…..jump down to the control panel, throttle back, finally see the Cummins high temp alarm light…..turn off squealing alarm…..WTH…..think, now think, what could cause this….WATER….go check the exhaust and no water is coming out…..shut off the Cummins and startup the Yanmar get home….have we told you how much we love out brave little Yanmar…..lifesaver!!!!
Make a long story short, we diverted to Linton about 10 miles away and it turned out to be a broken shaft in the seawater pump….WTH…..this pump is only 600 hours old. We do carry a spare so a few hours later we are up and running….LIG!!
We made it to the Chagres river…..this is the river that the Canal damned to keep Gatun Lake full which is the water the Canal uses to raise/lower the boats. Anchored in the river is like being in the middle of a jungle/rainforest…..jungle noises everywhere…..howler monkeys, parrots, toucans, lot’s of other critters and we even saw a Harpie eagle albeit from a distance!!
We then went into Shelter Bay Marina to start our long list of boat projects and preparation for our Pacific Crossing next February/March. But, we did just come back from an 11 day road trip….through the Azuero Peninsula (Abuelo rum distillery) and up into the mountains of Chiriqui (stayed in a very remote lodge in Volcan National Park that put the rustic in rustic elegance:)))), toured the Kotowa specialalty coffee plantation in Boquete (who knew there are 23 varieties of Arabica trees???) and got caught by the protests and riots in Panama City/Colon…..oh joy!!!!
We now have about 6 weeks of boat projects/cleaning/storing/planning et al to get ready for the crossing. We haul out next week to get the bottom painted…..oh joy! We will go back to CA for 3+ weeks in December then back to SB for New Year’s. We hope to transit the Canal on 1/6…..Mark and Roseanne are coming to join us for the transit. Then we will take 2 weeks to do the final provisioning/prep in Panama City and leave for Galapagos around 1/20. We will spend about 5-6 weeks in the Galapagos and plan to leave for the Marquesas 3/2-9 with Les and Rose joining us late February. The Crossing will take ~20 days!!
Well….at least that is the PLAN for now and we will see how reality actually turns out to be!!!!
We sure hope everyone is doing fine and those on the east coast survived Sandy. Drop us a line sometime and let us hear how you are doing…..we’d love to hear from you!!! Hey, how about them WORLD SERIES CHAMPION GIANTS:)))))))
John and Kathy
Mystic Moon
Shelter Bay Marina Fort Sherman Panama
