We’re catching up on Ship’s Blog’s and Photo Galleries while we are awaiting the installation of our NEW ENGINES which arrived from Australia yesterday. Hopefully they will clear customs and be installed by the end of next week! We’ll be updating the main blog and photo galleries while we’re here! Enjoy!
April 6th, 2016 (-6 on UTC)
Dear Friends and Family,
First, I’d like to share this cover photo taken by the aerial drone of Joel Penaloza on the island of Providencia, Columbia!
Beach House Completes the Circle:
36, 617 nautical miles.
This is the distance “Beach House” has sailed since the last time we were here on May 9th, 2009. We arrived on April 2nd, 2016. Six years, 10 months and 24 days from our last time here. We’ve sailed a total of 46,183 nautical miles since “Beach House” was launched ion April 15th, 2004.
Circumnavigation complete – finally, a life’s dream achieved. Needless to say, it’s been bittersweet. We drank a toast of lovely Veuve Clicquot Champagne (Remember, “Beach House” was born in France!) to the most wonderful person I’d ever known – Cindy Stolnitz for getting me here and the most wonderful person today in my life – Nikki Woodrow for getting me back.
I may write a Ship’s Blog on “Reflections on a Life’s Dream”. A post that comes to me in the hours of not quite awake and often when gazing at the stars on watch on a clear night sailing across the ocean. Stand by for that one.
We arrived at the far East end of the Island of San Cristobal around 9 a.m and knew we’d be in around noon. We emailed our agent, “Bolivar” (whom I used the first time we were here) and prepared for the Big Officials event that we were sure would be happening soon. Bolivar arrived via shore boat and gave us some of our necessary papers. I asked him if Customs/Immigration/The Park People/ The Port Captain The Divers and Agriculture would be coming aboard? He said, no, not too worry. It’s all taken care of. He then informed me that our “fumigation permit” from Panama was no longer valid as a “new rule” went into effect on April 1st. As such, I’d get to pay another 100.00 and have the boat sprayed. I asked when that would happen and he said, “sometime today”. The day lingered and about 4 p.m. – The Universe showed up!
The divers hit the water as all the other officials stepped aboard. So much for the “not too worry” factor.
The two big deals here were the Agriculture official and the Divers.
First, divers go under your boat to see if it’s clean. Yes this is ridiculous as commercial vessels arriving here clearly are rarely clean. What they are hoping to keep out of the islands that aren’t here, I’m not sure and they didn’t say. Fortunately, I’d been warned about this and had cleaned the bottom of the boat very well two days before we’d left the Las Perlas in Panama. As such, the diver gave us the “all clean” and that hurdle had been jumped. The Agriculture guy went through the boat with a fine tooth comb. He wanted to know everything about our rubbish and rubbish policies! (how we handled it) and was particularly interested to see if he could find any bugs. He finally found a small dead moth under our toaster oven where upon he vacuumed it up in a tube to be taken off to the lab and be examined. Yes folks, this is what it’s come too here!
After a half an hour of going through every door, cabinet the refrigerator and freezer (he missed a freezer btw!), he said we were fine, but he couldn’t approve our fumigation permit from Panama. They then pulled out what looked like the gun from “Ghost Busters”.
He said that the materials used in Panama were not sufficient for what they needed here (never told me why btw!) and they’d have to fumigate.
Well, by this time, the Port Captain/Customs/Immigration/Divers and Park People were getting in the shore boat to leave, but I was left with Captain Ghost Buster, his gun and his assistant who turned out to be the diver.
They allowed all windows, hatches and doors to remain open, but shot the big smoke into the saloon and we all coughed our way aboard the shore boat being told not to return for at least 2 ½ hours.
Neither Nikki or I were too pleased about this.
When we returned, there was an oily film all over the couch cushions, the galley counters and the floors. Nikki went on a cleaning tirade. She would have none of this. After about an hour, all was back in order. The next day we spoke to the boat next door who told us they did not pass the bottom inspection. Why? They had some “slime coat” (meaningless) but it showed up particularly well on their white anti-fouling paint.
They were told they had to go 20 miles outside the Park and clean their bottom or not stop in the Galapagos. As we had entered the area, we had seen them sailing off for the supposed bottom cleaning. I will not tell you in the blog how this was resolved. If you want to know, email me…..:-)
Long story short, we’d passed the “Third Degree” and were admitted.
The next day was Sunday and Nikki and I had a good sleep and got “Beach House” all cleaned up from the trip. I still had two boating concerns: Our possible oil leak on both engines, a truly potential “issue”.
Despite our having the engines rebuilt in Shelter Bay, we seemed to have developed an oil leak (which we’d never had) on both engines. The oil seemed to be coming out of the bell housing where the transmission mounts to the power take off (crankshaft). We can’t see it of course, but this sounded a bit ominous. We suspect that when the compression from the rebuild was increased, it may have stressed the crankshaft seals, which were not replaced. This could be for several reasons, in any event, the next truly qualified mechanic is 4000 miles West of here in Tahiti! As such, we’ll invest in oil futures and keep an eye on it. I’m going through about 1 qt. of oil on the port engine every 20 hours of so of operation. We’ll keep you posted on this.
The other issue was fairly minor with our back up water maker. After a few emails and such, I was able to determine (yet again!) another electrical connection was the culprit; it’s now fixed and we’re making freshwater like crazy. We can actually make almost 50 gallons an hour of beautiful great tasting water. This is the first time both units have worked at the same time since we left Guatemala.
Yesterday, we had our agent Bolivar arrange for a tour taxi for us and topped off the fuel. He overcharges greatly for his fuel service. Word to the wise following in our wake – find another method. I just got lazy, but that’s life.
There is only so much to do on San Cristobal. 85% of the island is essentially off limits –a UNESCO DOUBLE World Heritage Site. Double as in – land and underwater. (All of the 18 Galapagos Islands fall into this category). There is one road, very well maintained as the islands get all sorts of funding from the UN and the outside world.
We took the hike up the extinct volcano here, saw the three windmills that add to their diesel power grid. Normally, wind power is essentially useless, but in remote areas with consistent wind they have some value. Hopefully, the local birds aren’t endangered – normally a huge problem with wind power.
We went to a lovely beach and the big deal here is the Tortoise Breeding center for the San Cristobal Tortoise. There were apparently at one time 100,000 of these animals in the Galapagos and they were nearly hunted to extinction by the original sailing ships that came here. There are only 150 tortoises in the breeding center though there is a large population on the northeast side of the island completely inaccessible to people.
When the ships of old arrived, they first introduced rats and cats, both of which predate the tortoise’s eggs. Next, the sailors of old would literally store the tortoise’s upside down on the decks of their ships and keep them that way for up to one year as a source of fresh meat. They have no defenses against simply being carted away.
Of the original 11 species, 3 are indeed extinct.
Lastly, for this first of three islands (the only three that private boats are allowed to visit are San Cristobal, Santa Cruz and Isabela), we have experienced the close cousins of the California Sea Lion.
The Sea Lions here, (known in Spanish as Sea Wolves), are genetically related to the California Sea Lion. No one knows exactly how they got here; but what characters. They of course, like in many places seek to take over your boat! Especially catamarans, which have easy, access steps. Believe me, they are cute, but can bite and smell mostly like dead fish – not my favorite smell.
We have to create elaborate ways to keep them out and the various boats have similar variations on the theme. When first here, in 2009, I used heavy water jugs. That didn’t work so well. Now we’re using our boat fenders and boogy boards – still having mixed reviews. It’s amazing how they can jump up and do so – so quietly, we don’t often realize they’re aboard.
For now, we’ll sign off and tomorrow or the next day be off to the awful anchorage at Santa Cruz Island about 45 miles away.
KIT (Keep in touch),
Scott and Nikki – San Cristobal Island, The Galapagos Islands.
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/04/07 22:10
LATITUDE: 00-44.89S
LONGITUDE: 090-18.60W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 10
WIND_DIR: ESE
CLOUDS: 10%
VISIBILITY: 20
BARO: 1006.9
AIR_TEMP: 33.3C
COMMENT: Beach House ANCHORED – Isla Santa Cruz; We\’ll be here awhile…..
We\’ll the day started off bad and got worse. We first couldn\’t get our anchor off the bottom as it was wrapped around and then pinned between two
boulders in two different locations. Without SCUBA, I\’d still be there. Well, maybe that would have been okay? Half way here, the port engine oil leak went catastrophic on us and the oil pressure went to ZERO. I turned it off within 30 seconds, but who knows what damage has been done?
We limped into Santa Cruz on one engine (good thing we had two or we\’d still be drifting out there!), anchored and were immediately met by Eduardo and his daughter (who spoke perfect English). Eduardo will take the engine apart tomorrow and see what parts we need. They will take 8 days from Miami, the duty is 80%! He\’ll also have to have the CAM shaft sent to Ecuador (4 day turn around) while we\’re waiting for parts to have it inspected and checked for damage by a shop that does it.
As such, thank goodness this anchorage so far is WAY better than it was the last time I was here. Looks like we\’ll get to see all of Santa Cruz and do some day trips as well.
Okay, we\’ll cry in our beers for the moment, but best get this fixed NOW. Depending on what he finds tomorrow, he may have to check the starboard side as well? It had the same issue, but very minor and it may have even stopped?
We\’ll post a normal Ship\’s Blog regarding our time in San Cristobal, arrival and completion of our circumnavigation as soon as we can get internet.
KIT all!
Scott and Nikki
Santa Cruz Island – Academy Bay – The Galapagos Islands
Dear Friends and Family,
Last we left you on the primary Ship’s Blog, we had left Panama City, Panama for the Las Perlas Islands of Panama about 30-50 miles off the coast.
We were still “teething” having to have replaced our main battery system and still having a few generator issues. We finally were able to get off the coast on March 21st and head out to join new friends Shelley and Kyle on s/v “Blowin’ Bubbles”. We first me Shelley and Kyle in Cozumel last season where they were both teaching SCUBA diving for a local resort.
The tides in Panama are the largest we’ve seen all around the world which included one spring tide of 28 feet! The Las Perlas fortunately were only a tame 12-15 feet! There are plenty of places you could anchor at high tide and find yourself in the mud at low tide if you aren’t careful. We joined “Bubbles” at Isla Chapera and finally had a calm anchorage for the first time since we’d left the canal. The anchorage along the Pacific side of the canal is one big wake after another, pretty much all day and night!
Though we didn’t go ashore, we could see the facilities where the television show “Survivor” was filmed some years ago. The facilities are now part of the Panamanian Navy. The next day, we both decided to go over to Isla Cantadora which is the main tourist area for the Las Perlas. We again fortunately found calm anchorage and the four of us went ashore to have a look around and dinner. There is an airfield here and some quite upmarket homes and hotels. The Easter Week crowd would be arriving in a few days so we wanted to be in and out before they got here – jet skis and all, turning the place into a local Miami Beach for the week. The dinner was fine, the company great and we decided we’d head more south the next day to Isla Canas which was an anchorage “Bubbles” had previously been too and enjoyed. A bit tricky getting into and out of anywhere down here with fast moving currents and fairly extreme tides. Kyle had waypoints from his first visit and his extensive study of the local guidebooks was a great asset. Thank You Kyle!
The cove was calm and we took a long dinghy ride ashore to the cove where the locals lived at “Ensenada”. We enjoyed a brief walk around the very small village and asked a bit about the local pearl diving (Nikki always loves a pearl!) and finally returned to the boats for a lovely evening. Friends Chuck and Linda from “Jacaranda” had written some really thorough blogs on this area and they were quite helpful as well.
Kyle, Sheley and Nikki went for a nice hike the next day while I again had to wrestle with the generator. This is where our satellite phone really saved us, as I was able to call the US representative in Houston who helped me troubleshoot the issue. Turns out that one of our electrical connections, though intact, was still loose. We accidently discovered this while doing tests with our volt/ohm meter under the direction of Robert Conner from AER in Houston. Thank You Robert!
The next day, we said our goodbyes and Shelley and Kyle headed north to meet their old employers from Cozumel and would head back to Panama City to provision and pick up a friend for their very, very long planned sail from Panama City to the Marquesas! This is about 4000 miles and will most likely take them around a month. “Bubbles”, like many boats this season have been put off by the outrageous fees the Galapagos Islands are getting. When I was there last in 2009 with Cindy, the total fees were about 350.00 USD. Now, they will be 1450.00 USD. The truth is, the Galapagos really doesn’t want small boats at all.
They want us to fly in, stay in a hotel, take a cruise, etc. More on this in the next blog! Approximately 50% of the boats this season are skipping the Galapagos due to costs.
As “Bubbles” headed north, we headed south around noon on the 28th of March and wanted to take a look at the wreck of the world’s first commercial submarine. For more information on this fascinating relic, see the following link: Submarine Explorer
The submarine was used in the Las Perlas in the mid 1800’s to harvest the local pearls. Decompression sickness was then unknown (and It’s cause) and after several incidents, the submarine was abandoned on Isla Telmo in 1869. The wreck is visible at low tide and was believed by locals to be a Japanese Submarine that washed ashore in WW2. This of course was well before you could “JFGI” it!…:-)))
We wanted to keep moving, as we’d be at sea for the next 5 days or so. As such, we mostly did a “drive by” and took some photos. The tide was right, but the current was indeed starting to really move, so off we went.
Our first night, we did get to sail and received an email by long distance sailing friend, Jeanne Socrates, to avoid “Mother Ships” which in the past had a bit of a nasty reputation for playing pirate. We hadn’t heard of any issues on the Pacific side, but did stay clear of the one and only large fishing vessel we saw on night one.
The good news is, the Pacific isn’t “Pirate Country” once away from the coast of the America’s and even then, quite rare.
The next two days was generally calm and we alternated between motoring and sailing when the winds were cooperative. The Gulf of Panama is at the far Eastern end of the Pacific Ocean’s Inter Tropical Convergence Zone and as such is a notorious “wind hole”. This is where the North and South Pacific Trade winds converge and is often humid, hot, rainy and squally. For reasons unknown, we haven’t seen a drop of rain in weeks and this continued all the way to the Galapagos.
As we completed our second day, we tried to stop at the far-flung and rarely visited, Columbian Island of Malpelo. Malpelo is a national park and the reviews about getting to stop here were mixed. Technically, you need a permit from the Columbian Park Service and there is only one mooring that can be used. The island is so steep at the shore (everything is straight up) that even 100 feet from the island it’s too deep to anchor. Depths are mostly 150 feet or more right off “the beach”. Despite the winds being calm, the long rolling swell would make short work of any vessel that “tapped” up against the island. We knew were not likely to get to stop when we saw the 150 foot supply vessel on the mooring. We hailed and asked, but they said no way. The island looked like King Kong could have lived there with it’s stark steep sides (no jungle…:-).
This island is a “big animal” shark divers/manta ray/whale shark paradise. When the dive boats come out, they stay on the one mooring and take their guests to one of the approximately 10 offshore pinnacles here that are right next to the island. The Hammerhead and Galapagos Shark sightings are apparently nonstop and in certain seasons, silky sharks and many other species too. The area is pristine, the water clarity amazing which is in direct contrast to the West Coast of Panama.
The Park Rangers are here for a good reason too. Some years back, factory fishing vessels came in and one event “finned” over 2000 sharks.
The Rangers have no boat, but keep watch and would report any illegal taking of sharks to the government. From there, I have no idea how they could track down the perpetrators unless they went into Columbian waters.
As we were denied entry, we decided to just take a quick sail completely around the island. The island is only 3/4ths of a mile long and perhaps 1/4th of a mile wide. This was pretty cool and quite interesting.
We saw the Park Rangers in their house way up on the hill and could just imagine the hike! They waved, so did we.
It’s a rare place to visit or even get to see, so we still enjoyed the experience despite the fact we couldn’t stop.
We had about three more days to go to cover the 875 nautical miles from Panama to The Galapagos, so off we went. The biggest feature of the trip was how calm it was and how many Panama Canal inbound and outbound vessels we encountered. In two cases, we were on virtual collision courses.
The strangest vessel we saw was our last day at sea, m/v “Galea” – a 975 foot LPG ship. The 10 tanks are full of extremely cold liquefied petroleum gas. These ships are safe as the fuel is so cold, but you do indeed want to make sure the refrigeration equipment is working well.
We arrived in the Galapagos on April 2nd, 2016.
This is where by any and all metrics; “Beach House” had completed her circumnavigation. More on that in the next Ship’s Blog which will be posted within the next few days…..
Keep in touch,
Scott and Nikki – now in Wreck Bay – San Cristobal Island, The Galapagos.
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/04/02 19:26
LATITUDE: 00-53.76S
LONGITUDE: 089-36.72W
MARINE: NO
WIND_SPEED: 5
WIND_DIR: NW
CLOUDS: 70%
VISIBILITY: 12
BARO: 1011.2
AIR_TEMP: 33.3C
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Wreck Bay, San Cristobal Island – Galapagos Islands….
We just anchored at exactly 5 days into the trip. 40 hours of motoring (correction from before).
Many memories here….Bitter sweet.
Circumnavigation Complete \”point to point\”… Much more soon.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2016/04/01 13:07
LATITUDE: 01-14.85N
LONGITUDE: 086-45.25W
COURSE: 233T
SPEED: 8.3
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 11
WIND_DIR: SE
WAVE_HT: 0.0M
WAVE_PER: 0
SWELL_DIR: S
SWELL_HT: 2.5M
SWELL_PER: 8
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 12
BARO: 1012.1
AIR_TEMP: 29.
SEA_TEMP: 20.6C
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Galapagos Islands; Day 4- 176 nm
We sailed most of the last 24 hours but the wind went too south, so we\’re motoring for now. It\’s predicted to go back to the SE where we can sail again
but it may get too light. In any event, we should be at Wreck Bay, San Cristobal Island the Galapagos by tomorrow afternoon and we\’ll do a full report there. The big assist on this trip has been the strong current – up to 2.5 knots pushing in the right direction for the most part.
Last night when we were rolling up our mainsail, the \”down haul\” line cover again came undone from my repair and it\’s jammed so I can\’t fully lower the main till I replace the line which I\’ll do with Nikki\’s help when she\’s up and about. No big worries however. A bit more of a concern is our oil leaks.
I\’m pretty sure it\’s just the oil pan screws which need to be tightened, but we\’ll see when we get into port. We\’ve gone through a gallon of oil on the port engine and less on the starboard engine. There is no gasket and a \”form a gasket\” type material was used. It may be leaking?
Oh the joys of dealing with engine oil!….:-) We keep an eye on it and every several hours turn the engine off, let them cool and check and fill oil as necessary.
All is well, it\’s just normal stuff for a long distance boat.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/03/30 13:28
LATITUDE: 03-58.24N
LONGITUDE: 081-41.16W
COURSE: 239T
SPEED: 6.6
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 5
WIND_DIR: NE
WAVE_HT: 0.0M
WAVE_PER: 0
SWELL_DIR: NNW
SWELL_HT: 1.0M
SWELL_PER: 6
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 12
COMMENT: Beach House – ABEAM – Malpelo Island; Day 2 – 126 nm
A note to our Facebook followers….So you know, we cannot receive Facebook \”at sea\”, but know lots of comments are being left our notification system – thanks. We now have over 450 email subscribers and over 250 Facebook followers.
The best way to contact us directly is:
Nikki is at: nicolaw(AT)sailmail.com
Scott is at: WDB5638(AT)sailmail.com
We have satellite email, but NO internet. We remote post via satellite. Our \”on board\” emails cannot take any attachments.
We arrived at 0630 local time and the first thing I thought is that King Kong must live here. No jungle, just a stark barren (but beautiful in it\’s own way) rock. It\’s about 3000 (1Km) feet long and just under 1000 feet high (300 meters). The top looks like (but I don\’t think is) a volcano like looking dome. There are roughly 10 nearby pinnacles sticking out of the water like needles to a height of about 40-80 feet.
We hailed and received three different radio voices. One female and they were merely acknowledging our presence and intended route. Eventually, they told us we could not stop without a permit, but we suspect the real reason was that their supply vessel was here on the one and only mooring on the east side of the island. Going ashore would be most daunting! There is a gantry about 40 feet above the water that extends out about 80 feet and I suspect either a gangway is temporarily lowered or a bucket seat is deployed or maybe even a rope ladder! The cliffs are absolutely sheer.
As such, we said hello and thanks and did a circumnavigation of the island which took about 45 minutes. You could easily see the appeal here for the dive crowd as they would use the mooring and do large dinghy diving off the pinnacles. Apparently, the shark action here is world class.
This was a lark anyway and only added a total of 30 miles to the entire trip. I\’ve just topped up the fuel tanks and we\’ve plenty left. If the wind doesn\’t appear, we can motor the entire way with fuel left over. We\’ve 535 miles to go which should take at this speed about 3 days. We should arrive at San Cristobal Island, Galapagos on Saturday morning. For those who have followed us a long time, that will be where \”Beach House\” crosses her own wake and completes her world circumnavigation. Bitter sweet and I\’ll have a blog on it soon after our arrival.
Motoring along,
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
YOTREPS: YES
TIME: 2016/03/29 17:04
LATITUDE: 05-45.51N
LONGITUDE: 080-33.15W
COURSE: 226T
SPEED: 6.8
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 15
WIND_DIR: NNE
WAVE_HT: 0.2M
WAVE_PER: 6
SWELL_DIR: NNE
SWELL_HT: 1.0M
SWELL_PER: 6
CLOUDS: 50%
VISIBILITY: 12
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Malpelo Island (Columbia) to Galapagos Isles (Ecuador) – Day 1 – 191 nautical miles. Total distance to Galapagos, approx. 875 nm.
We had some real \”breeze\” last night – 18-25 knots from directly behind us. Add the strong current running with us (up to 2.5 knots) out of the Gulf of Panama and despite being reefed and only using the staysail last night, we covered 191 nautical miles. A great first days run. We are currently, 120 miles NE of Malpelo Island which we expect to be at tomorrow in the morning. If the winds are light (as we expect), we may ask permission to stay a day or even two on their mooring buoy if it\’s available and come ashore. If the winds become favorable, we may pass.
This is a remote Columbian Navy outpost which primarily keeps claim to the island and poachers away. There was once a massacre of sharks here numbering over 2000 – just for their fins.
There are 1-2 commercially operated recreational dive boats that do come here for the \”big animal\” encounters. There is apparently nowhere to anchor as the cliffs are steep and deep. The island is only one mile long, quite barren looking from the photos and has some outlying rocks to the north. As such, if we stop, it will have to be on the Navy\’s mooring which is apparently, mostly available. Of course we will ask permission and it\’s requested that all vessels transiting within 20 nm of the island call them via VHF Radio.
For the Google Earth savvy amongst you, Malpelo Island is at: 03 degrees 59 minutes North x 081 degrees 36 minutes West.
It\’s a nice day out here, but like much of the Pacific side of Panama, it\’s very hazy. We are after all in the ITCZ! Despite this. Not a hint of rain so far and I should be reminded to be careful what I ask for! Much cooler out here than the coast.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/03/28 19:00
LATITUDE: 08-12.41N
LONGITUDE: 078-54.17W
COURSE: 213T
SPEED: 6.8
COMMENT: Beach House – En Route – Malpelo Island? to Galapagos Islands. We\’re currently ABEAM Punta Cocos at the southern tip of Isla del Rey, Las Perlas Islands. Just went by the 150 year old wreck of the world\’s first commercial submarine). Once used in the pearling industry here.
We\’ve spent several days in the Eastern Las Perlas Islands awaiting a \”weather window\”. There was a great one a week ago, but alas
it appears one is not to be found. So rather than burn fuel waiting for a window, we\’ll burn fuel and head where we want to go. We\’ve over 8000 sailing miles this season to go to get to Sydney on time for the Christmas/New Years celebrations (with our families)2017! Yes…we are taking the long road home.
Now, we\’re about as far away from OZ as we can be in the Pacific and in the far Eastern side of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) and it\’s hot/muggy and windlass here. It\’s where the Northern and Southern Trade winds meet for those of you who want to know! At least we don\’t have thunderstorms which this area and to the north and south of are famous for in the summers. The winds are anything from North to South – East to West at 20 knots (in the night from Panama south) to zero just about everywhere else. We\’ve plenty of fuel and are updating our weather every six hours looking for a breath. The seas are flat.
We\’re headed in the direction of Malpelo Island which is SW of us exactly 300 nautical miles. It should take us about 2 days to get there at 7 knots (if we can maintain this speed!). We might try and stop if the weather window improves for the last (then) 500 miles to the Galapagos Islands.
Malpelo is stark and only a mile long. The Columbian Navy keeps an outpost there and the main attraction is \”big animal\” diving. Galapagos and Hammerhead sharks are reported to be in relatively shallow water and everywhere! I doubt I\’ll do a dive as Nik isn\’t into sharks (yet…:-)) and it may require a permit which we don\’t have. There is NO anchorage there and if the Navy says it\’s okay, we could tie up to one of their supply ship mooring buoys. We\’ll see.
The wind and current look more favorable in the direction of Malpelo and essentially, it\’s right on the way.
It will mostly be a long motor slog till we get near the Galapagos. We\’re planning on doing only about 100-120 miles/day. We\’re topped up with fuel, but still might NEED to do some sailing which we hope to do starting tonight with the diurnal wind coming south out of the Gulf of Panama.
Getting close to \”tying the knot\”. Where we\’re headed….I\’ve already been.
KIT,
Scott and Nikki (making a great pizza!)
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/03/24 18:47
LATITUDE: 08-25.56N
LONGITUDE: 078-51.18W
COURSE: 164T
SPEED: 1.0
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Espiritu Santo (West Side) Las Perlas Islands – Panama
Yesterday, we awoke to yet another generator \”teethe\”. After using our new Sat Phone to speak with the company in \”Houston – we have a problem\”, we were able to discern (almost by accident) a bad electrical connection. Mico disaster averted after a several hour testing procedure. We are currently tagging along with s/v \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\” and picked up the hook for the short 3 miles to Isla Contadora – departing the \”Survivor Island\” (Isla Chapera). Contadora has lots of hidden billionaire homes and is otherwise a quaint small town with several small restaurants and an airfield. The anchorage turned out to be lovely and we had a nice meal ashore. As this is Easter Week, Contadora will soon be a zoo!
Today, we upped anchor and marked our mainsail furling system on our new boom vang. A block promptly broke, cut a line but all is reparable and spares are handy. We tried to sail, but winds were too light. We\’re now anchored it yet another rip roaring current river due to the large spring tides. It\’s only 15 feet here at Espiritu Santo. Again note the \”speed\” is actually our current here at the anchorage.
An aside about this group of islands is that Manuel Noriega, the former dictator of Panama owned one and it legendarily according to my ex-mother-in-law, was the site of burred gold from a sunken tall ship that came from San Francisco over 120 years ago. The relative who was searching for it, was possibly murdered for the gold and it\’s a long story. But these are the very islands she told us about many times.
Looking for a weather window to head off toward the Galapagos Islands!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki