90 - Sailing new waters

We made it!!!  After sailing 3700 miles in 27 days (and 4 hours) from the fuel dock in Panama City, we dropped our anchor in the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva in the Marquesan Islands of French Polynesia. Our passage while admittedly long, was about a week faster than both boats who were sort of traveling with us.  

Leaving Panama, our first obstacle was getting across the Bay of Panama which is notorious for its seemingly constant lightning storms. While we certainly encountered our fair share of both lightning and squalls, we thankfully made it through the area unscathed.  

A bonus of sailing in this area, however, is that it’s also a common whale migration route and, within just a few minutes of starting out, we were so excited to be greeted by a small group of whales broaching the surface and slapping their tails in the water.  Sadly, this was the only whale sighting of our entire trip but we enjoyed what we got.

Whale sighting

Upon successfully navigating the Bay of Panama. next up on our journey was the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) or commonly referred to as “The Doldrums.”  For all recorded history, this roughly 250-mile-wide area has at best, frustrated and at worst, devastated sailors traversing this area. The ITCZ circles the globe near the equator and gets its name from the convergence of the northern and southern trade winds who seemingly try to negate each other.  Every boat we know who's traveled through this area either had some difficulty or were forced to completely change their plans.  Sturdeee (the catamaran we befriended and helped cross through the Panama Canal) hit something, severely damaged their rudder, and were forced abort the trip to turn back to Panama.  Several other boats either had to motor for days or were forced to detour to the Galapagos Islands (at great expense) for repairs.  Another boat in our group reported that they were dismasted and forced to detour to the Galapagos where they were able to get fuel delivered before they could motor back to Panama.  Thankfully, no one was hurt and they were able to safely return to Panama.

We now know that we were very fortunate in our crossing.  While we thankfully did have wind throughout most of the ITCZ zone, the wind was directly on our nose thus forcing us to tack (change our heading and thus our sails) several times and we often found ourselves going almost opposite to our desired direction. One boat, who left almost a week before us, was forced to motor for several days just to get through the zone and, the boat who left a week after us, experienced much of the same head winds that we did and really did have to sail in the wrong direction for many hours (adding on several days to their crossing). So, considering the troubles of our fellow sailors, we apparently got off pretty easy – although admittedly, at the time it didn’t seem so.  I guess the winds, as with most things, just comes down to the luck of the draw!

After about 5 days of uncomfortable weather and beating into the wind in our attempt to sail south, we finally managed to reach about 2 degrees of latitude (2 degrees north of the equator) where it seemed someone flipped a switch as almost instantly, the wind shifted and the fun began.  While, we still encountered storms, had wave heights of up to 10 feet and wind speeds of 30 or more, once we finally managed to catch the trade winds and picked up the pacific currents, our heavy boat (she weighs about 60,000 pounds) got her groove and kept her passengers moderately comfortable and dry. On ocean passages, we normally hope to cover 100-150 miles in each 24-hour period.  On this passage, we had many days in which we sailed over 200 miles and on our best day, we covered 250 miles!

Sailors have a tradition of calling those who’ve not yet crossed the equator “Pollywogs” and give the title of “Shellbacks” to those who have.  Many of the boats who crossed before us even set up complicated ceremonies for this occasion - one boat spent 6 hours writing the boat's name "Kapo Rico" on the equator by motoring the path.  On our 17^th day of passage at 2am, we marked our accomplishment simply with an offering of rum to both Neptune and Poseidon (to make sure we covered all our bases) as we crossed from the northern hemisphere to the southern.  Just so you know, contrary to what we were told, the toilet doesn’t change to flush counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere (yes, we checked) but, nevertheless, we were proud of our newly minted “Shellback" ranking!

 

In addition to lots of reading, our entertainment during the crossing was initially marveling at and later chasing away the many Boobies who use passing boats for a perch (which we were cool with) and then a toilet (which we were not).  Our other distraction was the daily counting (we had 28 one morning) and removing the various flying fish and squids who landed on the boat during the night.  One a couple of occasions, we were heard them flopping and were able to rescue but most were long dead by the time we were able to get to them.   I wanted to plan for a calamari lunch one morning but a Google search suggested that they turn bad quickly and we decided open ocean wasn't the best place to be if we got food poisoning.  

With the help of incredible starlit nights of clear skies devoid of any moonlight to nights of moonshine so bright you could almost read by it, the discomfort of rough waves and storms were quickly replaced in our memories of the passage.  While sadly I don’t have a camera capable of showing the starlit nights where we could clearly see the Milky Way, I did take catch the sunrises, sunsets, moonrises, and moonsets and even caught one rainbow! 

Put any group of sailors together and the talk will invariably lead to complaints about everything that can and does go wrong and with a passage like this one bad weather and things breaking top the list.  While we experienced a variety of sailing conditions from ugly storms to very confused seas, we too had many glorious days that allowed us to truly remember what we love about sailing. However, we certainly weren’t without incidents and did have several things break along the way, but thankfully Pedro, was able to fix or work around all of them including repairing our auto pilot while we tried to hold the boat "steady" in 6-8-foot seas.     

In addition to his Mr. Fix-it skills, Pedro also managed to catch us several fish along the way.  Within a day or two of our passage, he reeled in a nice Mahi-Mahi and then a few days later a delicious skipjack tuna.  Aboard our boat, our rule is to catch a fish and eat said fish before trying to catch another.  So, we enjoyed meals (mostly ceviche and sashimi) for the next several days and then my fisherman put his line back in the water.  He caught several small Mahi-Mahi which we decided to throw back before he reeled in a large Wahoo which was so big we enjoyed it for several days and then put the rest in our freezer.  Next, he reeled in an even bigger skipjack tuna which we again enjoyed for several days and were also able to freeze some.  However, while the ocean does give, it also takes as we lost 9 fishing lures to fish who were apparently way too big for our 30-pound test line.  Pedro thinks in all fairness we should have used 80-pound test but we are both at odds as to how we could bring such huge fish aboard (the last tuna took over an hour to bring in and it probably only weighed about 35 pounds).  While we were warned to bring lots of fishing lures, we’ve warned friends who are coming next year to bring even more.

While this was a long passage - our longest to date - and at times grew taxing, overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the sail.  However, we were beyond ecstatic to pull into Fatu Hiva and be reunited with Dan and Alison who sailed their boat Equus over several months before.  While we’d seen them a couple of times since on land, we’d not sailed with them since we both left Greece in 2022.  As soon as we dropped our anchor and started settling in, Herve and family from Kapo Rico (they arrived a couple of months before), dinghied over to deliver some local pamplemousse (grapefruit).  It was a perfect way to end our first Pacific crossing.

The next morning, we decided to hike to a nearby waterfall.  While the roundtrip was only about 4 miles, it is extremely steep hills, which, combined with walking through the woods and over rocks, emphasized how out of shape we were.  However, once we saw the gorgeous waterfall and felt the cool fresh water, we loved it so much that we summoned up enough energy to walk back the next day too.  On the way back, we found a hollowed tree and tried to recreate our London group telephone booth picture.  We thought we were funny anyway!

While back in Panama, Dan and Alison were asked to buy some grinding blades for a local wood and stone carver named Sopi who lives in Fatu Hiva.  They were told (and we saw first-hand) that items such as this are very difficult and extremely expensive to source locally.  We had no trouble finding his house (the first person we asked pointed us in the right direction) and quickly became friends with Sopi and his wife Lea.  He was grateful to get the blades and offered us bananas, papaya, pamplemousse, rosemary and basil (all growing in his yard).  In addition, we arranged for Sopi and Lea to host a traditional Marquesan pig roast for the 4 of us plus the crew of 4 from another boat -s/v Pele- who arrived just a few days after us.  The feast was amazing and it was the perfect introduction to the Marquesan culture.

Now don't get the wrong idea.  Our time on Fatu Hiva wasn't all fun and games (well, for most of us anyway).  As we were arriving, once again, we discovered that our anchor windlass wasn't working.  Thankfully we were able to use our second anchor.  However, once we got settled, Pedro had to again take the first windlass apart and (with the help of Herve from Kapo Rico) repair it again.  Turns out it was a loose connection inside the motor and apparently defective from the manufacturer. Additionally, I had the bright idea for Alison to come cook her famous crepes to use up a few of our new bananas (hey, I sliced the bananas for her) and Dan had to go to the top of our mast do a repair that I tried but couldn't do.   

As there was no local immigration office, we enjoyed a week in beautiful Fatu Hiva and then had a great, albeit sporty, sail (winds over 20knots) over to the larger island of Hiva Oa to officially check-in to French Polynesia.  This second island stop was almost culture shock.  It’s much larger and more populated and while it was wonderful to shop a bit in the larger stores, we didn’t enjoy the huge amount of traffic passing us as we walked the 2 miles into town each day.  However, as our reward, we treated ourselves to a local beer and freshly baked Pain au Chocolat while overlooking the beach.  On our last day there, we were awoken early morning as the island's cruise and cargo supply ship arrived in port.  That was interesting to see.  In all fairness, we only spent a few days here as we wanted to meet back up with Dan and Alison so I think we’ll go back while we’re in the area and give the island a second chance.

Leaving Hiva Oa, with the winds in the perfect direction and the day sunny, we decided to take the long way on our sail to our next island of Tahuata.  For most of us, sailing starts to become a way to get from A to B and we often forget we actually like to sail. So, we decided that a few extra hours of "fun" sailing was exactly what we needed.

Much like Fatu Hiva, Tahuata is very small with beautiful harbors however, the people were even more friendly and welcoming.  On our first day there, Pedro and I were walking by a house where the wife had just left her yard and was walking into town.  She saw us, and told us to wait - as she spoke French thankfully it was only one word so I caught what she said.  We waited while her husband picked some bananas off his tree to hand to us. They joined us as we continued walking back towards town. We talked with them a bit in my bad French and his thankfully very decent English.  Next thing we know, he takes us a bit off the main road and we soon walked past his aunt Tehina's house who invited us in and put wonderful gardenia leis on both of us.  She thankfully spoke fluent English so we had a wonderful chat. It turns out, she runs a hotel/restaurant (seating is her front porch) and had some overnight guests we met.  She's American but has lived in Australia most of her life and he's from the UK and both were marine biologists studying the manta rays here in the Marquesa’s.  It was completely fascinating learning from these two and hearing about the island from Tehina who also invited us to attend service at the church on Sunday morning.  

The church service was delightful. While they spoke and sang in their native language and we couldn’t understand anything they said, we all loved the service and marveled at the singing.  What made the singing even more special was that they sang in 2-part harmony with the men singing one part and the women the other.  The last song of the service was sung by all for the children who belted out the song with immense pleasure.  After church, we met a few locals and bought some pastries.  We went back into "town" that evening for an amazing dinner at Tehina’s house/restaurant making it a completely perfect day!

Just to make sure, we weren’t having too much fun, the next day, we decided to walk the other village for lunch not really realizing that it was 8km each way with constant up and down hills.  We somehow made it there but found the restaurant we wanted to visit was closed so settled for hamburgers and fries at a smaller place.  As we’re heading back to the boat and really realizing how out of shape we were, we were so grateful when about 1/2 way home, the pastor from the church offered us a ride back.  We agreed that there is no way we would have made it home before dark.

Now, exhausted but happy, we were dinghying back to the boats and were flagged down by a fellow cruiser who told us that we'd drug our anchor and run into Equus.  Several other cruisers had thankfully tied both boats together to keep us from hitting and put out an extra anchor on our boat. Thanks to these cruisers, we only suffered a little surface damage to Equus and the stainless bars around the gate opening of the starboard side of our boat got slightly dented and bent.  The other boats were rightly worried that we could have drug so much that the boat would end up on the massive rocks lining the harbor.  We immediately moved the boat and reset the anchor, but Pedro slept in the cockpit all night just to watch.    I took this picture from our chart plotter to show how much our boat swung around overnight ("X" marks the anchor and squiggly lines our track) and while it was a bit stressful, thankfully our anchor held.

Anchor reset and boat seemingly happy, we again decided to have some fun.  Those same rocks that surround the harbor and threatened the boat, are home to a beautiful array of colorful fish which we were able to see with just our snorkel gear by jumping right off the back of the boat.  Another gift from the bay, were several coconuts I found floating in the water after a heavy wind went through.  I brought several back to the back and made Pedro cut them open.  It turns out this is a lot harder than it looks – for Pedro at least – but I was so excited to get both the coconut water and the meat which, whatever I didn’t eat outright, we turned into everything from coconut encrusted wahoo to coconut bread, coconut milk, and cookies.  It was amazing!

As our next island stop was about a 13-hour sail away and there is only 12 hours of daylight in this area, we left Tahuata right at sunset, had a mostly wonderful overnight sail with moonlight for the first few hours and dropped anchor in Nuku Hiva arriving just after sunrise (we don’t like to arrive at night in unfamiliar anchorages).  As I type this, we’re still in the anchorage at Nuku Hiva exploring the island and marveling in the dockside farmer’s market with fresh vegetables that they have most days and enjoying hiking all around us (well that’s a stretch as I realize how out of shape, I am with all these hills, but the views are amazing and I am getting better).  But I’ll fill you in on that next time.

Until next post!

 

 

89 - Welcome to the Pacific Ocean

We did it!  We traversed the Panama Canal and are now sailing in the Pacific Ocean.  While I’ll admit that the hardest part is still ahead of us with a 3700-mile 30-day passage to the French Polynesian islands, we’re excited to at least get this far. 

For the past 2 months, the boat’s been comfortably berthed in Shelter Bay Marina in Colon, Panama while the boat got a few needed repairs and some maintenance and the humans enjoyed the comforts of marina life and the wonderful cruising community of the marina.  Within a couple of days of our arrival, we had the boat pulled out of the water to get the bottom repainted (the job we got done in Maryland last summer was not holding up) and a few other needed repairs completed.  Everything was moving along and we assumed we’d only stay for a few days and move on.  That was before we learned that it would take 6-8 weeks to get our long-term visas for French Polynesia.  Admittedly, we’d not given this any thought until we started talking to Dan and Alison (s/v Equus) and to our fellow cruisers in the marina.  The 118 islands which make up French Polynesia are scattered across a vast area of the Pacific Ocean (roughly the size of western Europe).  And as with western Europe, non-EU residents are only allowed to stay 90 days without special visas.  In this case, the 90 days also includes the time it takes to sail from island to island and that did not seem like enough time for us to enjoy them (most of our friends also agreed).  So, we decided to settle in, apply for our special long-term visas, get to know more of our neighbors and explore the area.

Since we now had a bit of a wait, we started thinking about how to fill our time.  The cruiser community in this marina is spectacular and we quickly made many friends.  One of the fun and helpful things a lot of people do is offer to help other boats who are transiting the canal.  Each boat is required to have 4 crew plus the captain so were excited when Ian and Drofn (Dee) aboard Sturdeee (a beautiful Lagoon 450 catamaran) asked us to be a part of their crew.  Not only were we happy to get the experience, but we now had the perfect transport to take us over to Panama City where we had an appointment for our visa application later that week.

After our thankfully uneventful canal crossing experience, we left Sturdeee at her anchorage and grabbed a taxi over to the Casco Viejo (Old Town section of Panama City) where we'd booked an apartment for the next 4 nights. Originally built by the Spanish, it became the hub for the French during their attempt to build the canal and the charming architecture reminded us of New Orleans. The area, full of restaurants and roof-top bars was so walkable that we clocked 5-10 miles of walking daily.

With our visa appointment complete, our time in Panama City was over so we headed back to the marina in Colon. We’d only been back on the boat for a couple of days when we got a call from Sturdeee telling us that they’d hit something just 2 days into their Pacific crossing damaging their rudder and forcing them to head back to Panama.  After assessing the damage and working with their insurance company, they decided that the best and safest option was to come back to Shelter Bay Marina where they could have repairs done and possibly order a new rudder.  So, that meant a return transit back through the canal and we were happy to help.  While not such a joyous occasion this time (and it cost them another $3500), we all made the best of it and enjoyed seeing the canal again this time from the opposite direction as we headed back north.  Sadly, Sturdeee’ s repairs would likely be several months so Ian and Dee decided to leave the boat and head back home to the UK for the summer to regroup.

Back on our boat again, we were waiting for a new compressor for our freezer and having no idea when the repair men would show up, we decided against taking the boat anywhere. So, we started talking about land excursions.  Most of our friends in Panama arrived from the Caribbean and made stops in Cartagena, Columbia and all reported that they loved it.  So, rather than fight the wind to get there by boat (and not knowing when they would show up to repair our freezer, we booked 3 one-way (less than 1 hour each) flights to get us to Cartagena, the inland mountain city of Medellin and then back to Panama City.  

Cartagena's (officially Cartagena de Indias to differentiate it from Cartagena, Spain) main attraction to tourists is its beautiful old walled city. I am just guessing but I’d say this comprises an area of approximately ¼ miles in diameter so it is super walkable.  For our 3-day visit, we booked an apartment in a gorgeous old building located right in the middle of the walled city and thoroughly enjoyed hours of simply meandering.   Just a few blocks walk away was another section of town called Getsemani. This area has made its reputation as the artsy and party area of town.  They have side streets lined with murals and artists selling prints on almost every corner.  Every other corner seems to be a restaurant or simply and enterprising local who has set tables out in the street in front of their house to sell really good mojitos and Cuba libras. Again, we loved just walking around managed to find several restaurants, bars, and a great brewery.

  

Deciding to get away from the adorable but touristy areas, we put on our walking shoes and walked about 2 miles to the city’s central market.  This was eye opening.  Reminiscent of the souks in Morocco but with a definite Latin American feel, this market was gigantic and had everything from electronics, to clothing, to fruits and vegetables, freshly caught seafood, prepared food and even a whole pig.  We spent a couple of hours just walking through the various sections and taking it all in.  We bought the most amazing Arepas (I think it had a pound of cheese in it) from a street vendor for about $1.   If we'd been able to, I would have bought a dozen and brought them home.

On our way home, we passed the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas which we’d seen from our rental apartment.  This massive fort is almost 400 years old and very impressive. However, as we’d already been walking for hours and were thinking about the mojitos and cuba libras, we opted to just appreciate it from the outside rather than take a guided tour.  Overall, I have to say, we loved Cartagena and found the people to be very friendly and helpful.  Plus, the food was fabulous!

We took so many pictures in Cartagena, that I decided to just put a link here:   Cartegena

Alas, our time was up so we headed back to the airport for our short flight to Medellin.  We chose Medellin strictly on recommendations from other cruisers in our marina who all spoke highly of the city.   Located in the Andes Mountains and nicknamed the “City of Eternal Spring” due to its temperate climate, the city, weather, and views did not disappoint.  We again rented an apartment (with a pool and hot tub) for our stay.  While I was honestly a bit disappointed that we were in a new and touristy area (it was super clean and safe albeit a bit boring to us), our apartment was only about a 25-minute walk (lots of hills mind you) to the metro line so we could get anywhere easily.   Not only does the metro include traditional elevated subway lines but they also have the Metrocable - a gondola system – that’s included in your nominal fare.  We took the cable cars to the end of the line for fabulous views of the city. 

Next, we went back down and headed over to the famous Comuna 13. The city of Medellin is comprised of 16 Comunas that were initially areas where people simply built their houses on city slopes out of whatever material they could find and even today, many of the houses appear to be hastily built into the side of the mountain and one on top of the other.    Comuna 13 however, has reinvented itself and is now home to an artsy and party area with great views, outdoor escalators and lots of restaurants and bars.  We spent hours exploring and loved walking around it.

Hoping back on the subway, we headed downtown to visit Plaza Botero.  Botero was a famous Columbian artist.  There is a plaza near the city center where 23 of the artists statues are located.  Collectively these are nicknamed “Las Gorditas” or “The Fatties.”    I finally realized that I didn't need pictures of all of them but it was fun to see them.  

Again, we found the people of Medellin to be amazing.  Our first day there, Pedro wasn’t feeling great and needed to catch up on a bit of work, so I decided to go check out the downtown area.  As I got a bit turned around and couldn’t find the metro station I stopped and asked a lady to point me the metro (my Spanish was limited to “Metro?” but she shook her ahead affirmative and started walking that way so I followed her.  She helped me get a metro card and explained how to refill it.  Her name is Policarpa and, thanks again to Google Translate and WhatsApp, we spent the next hour conversing about our lives, she explained to me how to get to the Metrocable and told me where to find “The Fatties.”  On our last day in town, she met us at the metro station near her house where we met her mother, daughter, son, and sister, saw the new store that she'd just opened and had lunch nearby.  We were almost tearful as we had to leave for the airport.  She told me that I was her first friend from abroad and we promised to keep in touch.  Pedro and I agreed that whenever we talk about what we liked about a place, most of the time, it’s the people we meet that make it memorable!

Back in Panama, go figure, our freezer is still not fixed and our visas still not issued (we knew visas probably wouldn’t be ready but the freezer was supposed to be).  So, again based on advice from fellow cruisers, we decided to rent a car and take a quick road trip to El Valle de Anton.  This quaint little town is located in the crater of an extinct volcano and is home to several well-known hiking trails.  The hiking, while much more difficult than I expected, rewarded us with stunning views and great exercise.  We'd again rented an Airbnb walking to distance from town and the famed "La India Dormida" hike (there is a mountain range on the top that resemble a sleeping Indian woman).  To top it off, the owners of the house (they lived downstairs) have a friendly cat who visited with us whenever we were home.

Woo hoo!!!! Back on the boat, our freezer was repaired and we got the call that our visas were ready to be picked up.  To top it all off, we were able to schedule our canal passage later that week (we were told it could take a couple of weeks to schedule) which was gave our friend Doug just enough time to fly in to help us and still get back in time for a family trip to Italy. 

To cross the canal in a pleasure boat, you are required to hire an advisor who travels with you the entire time through the locks and Lake Gatun.  Additionally, you need 4 line handlers and, of course, El Capitan.  So, with Doug and me, we still needed two more bodies.  Thankfully, our dear friends from the marina Mark and Amy volunteered to help.  With one last run to the grocery, our pantry, refrigerator, and freezer were at capacity and we were ready to head out.

We were advised to meet our advisor (they arrive by boat and jump onto yours – the first few times we experienced this I couldn’t imagine how the boats wouldn’t damage each other but the boat captains’ skills are amazing) at 4pm and head for the first lock thereafter.  Well, the advisor arrived a bit later and our scheduled time was moved back so we entered the Gatun Locks just after dark but accompanied by a full moon.  Depending on the number of boats going through, often your boat will be rafted (tied beside) another boat or even two boats.  As we were in the low season, we went through alone (well, except huge ship that took up ¾ of the lock leaving just enough room for us to squeeze in behind them).  The locks are thankfully well lit.  With 5 of us having already been through before so knowing what to expect, Doug being a very fast learner and Captain Pedro’s amazing skill, we operated like a well-oiled machine.  In no time, we were secured, the locks closed, we rose up 30 feet, moved ahead to the second section for the same procedure with another 30 feet and repeated a third time.   We waived goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean and headed to a mooring spot for the night in Lake Gatun.

The next morning, our new advisor (they do not spend the night with the boats) arrived and we set off for the 5-hour trip across Lake Gatun.  This lake (which was the largest man-made lake in the world when it was created in 1913) supplies the necessary water to operate the locks.  The beautiful scenery and wildlife made the trip enjoyable.  For the last 2 locks, we were told that there is party boat who would tie off to the wall and we would raft up to them.  Again, thanks to the amazing skills of Captain Pedro, we tied off and untied from this boat a total of 5 times between the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks without a hitch.  We made friends with the partiers on the other boat and exchanged photos so we were able to get a few extra good pictures plus, back in Kentucky, Fred and Beth were able to download live video feeds of the last 2 locks and sent us some cool screenshots.  At last, after dropping back 90 feet, we were officially in the Pacific Ocean.

We dropped anchor for the night, sent Mark and Amy back to our old marina and put Doug in a cab back to NY for his flight out the next day.   Thanks to our amazing crew, we were ready for our next adventure.

However, we apparently got a bit too cocky because the next day as we went to pull up the anchor to start our Pacific Ocean passage, our windlass (the wench that pulls the anchor out of the water) stopped working.  Thankfully, we were in a safe anchorage and even more thankfully, Pedro is amazing and figured out that the relay for it had blown.  No problem, we’ll just get a new one.  Ha!  We visited and called 6 local stores and no one had one in stock but they could "probably" get one in a couple of weeks.  Disappointed that our voyage was being delayed (and not believing that they would get it in 2 weeks), we pulled up Amazon.  We found the part, shipped it through Miami to local a freight company and had it in Panama in 4 days!  Deciding to make the best of our wait (we never dreamed we get the part in 4 days), we started thinking of things to do while we waited.  Mark and Amy along with our other dear friends Jude and Chris rented a car to make a road trip from our old marina for an afternoon visit. Another day, we visited the nearby Smithsonian owned Punta Culebra nature center.   It was great.  They have wonderful wildlife exhibits including a critically endangered Panamanian golden frog, a great buttery exhibit (there were tons of the them but it was difficult to get them to stay still for pictures) and sloths living in the wild.  While we couldn’t get the sloths (nicknamed Lazy Bears by locals) to wake up much – we were told they are nocturnal – we were excited to at least catch glimpses of them.

Pedro had our windlass repaired, I got one last load of laundry done and bought a few more fresh groceries and were able to take off with just a one-week delay.  As I type this, we’re on day 19 with about 8-10 more days to go.  The sailing early on was a bit rough (in all fairness the area we sailed through - the ITCZ - is typically nicknamed “the doldrums” because there is usually several days (most people reported up to a week) with no wind at all.  So, we were happy to at least have wind even though it was often too strong, accompanied by squalls and from the wrong direction.  After the first 4 or 5 days, it was like someone flipped a switch.  We had mostly good wind, a lot of sunshine and a wonderful current that helped move us along nicely. We crossed the equator a couple of days ago and are so grateful that we've had more absolutely gorgeous sailing days than not.  

While the hardest part of this lifestyle is leaving behind the people we meet along the way who in a very short time become entrenched in our lives, the other great part is the idea that we'll meet up again. We’re so excited to meet up with our friends Dan and Alison aboard S/V Equus who are already in the French Polynesian islands of The Marquesas but we’ll tell you about that next time.

Until next post!