Author: kerrizane

April 16th, 2016 (written August 1st, 2016)

Dear Friends and Family,

Very exciting for us, we\’ve had 200 NEW SUBSCRIBERS, this month alone!

We\’re writing this 3 months after we were in the Galapagos as we haven\’t had descent internet or I\’ve been in recovery from my hand injury….more on that when we catch up to Tahiti!  This post will mostly be about the great engine debacle and may seem a bit more dower than normal. Sorry for that, it won\’t last even until the next post (out very shortly), I promise!

For mostly the good times, see the more extensive companion PHOTO GALLERY by clicking the link here:  Santa Cruz Island – The Galapagos Islands

We left San Cristobal Island for the day trip to Santa Cruz Island a distance of about 40 miles. We had been nursing our engines along since we discovered they were both leaking oil at the back of the crankshafts when we were half way to the Galapagos from Panama. We we\’re given the advice to push them a bit too possibly aid in the \”breaking in\” process from our new rings just installed when we were in Shelter Bay on the Caribbean side.

What this proved was that things were not good!  The port engine about half way across suddenly just lost all oil pressure.  As such, we turned the engine off immediately hoping to avoid serious damage. It\’s nice to have two engines \”just in case\” and this was where that adage really paid off. We had no wind and would have had to wait over night at least to sail into Santa Cruz rather than just limp along for another 3 hours on one engine, which we did, to get there before dark. As I\’d been to Santa Cruz back in 2009, I knew that the anchorage was usually awful (bouncy and rolly) and also it\’s very crowded with two major reef systems making entry without an engine a more than a harrowing experience.

Soon after we arrived, our agent came aboard and brought along Edwardo Gallardo, the local mechanic.  This experience also did not turn out well.  We made the mistake of not getting an \”hourly rate\”, but he wouldn\’t give us one.  We we\’re more or less stuck in that he was the \”Yanmar Dealer\” and really the only diesel mechanic available.  He insisted on removing the engine to take it to his shop, which though difficult in an anchorage was do-able.

After removing key parts, we used the boom with a block and tackle and also our electric main halyard winch to bring the engine out of the boat and then carefully put it in a water taxi.  You\’ll see the photos in the companion PHOTO GALLERY. It was needless to say, a bit of an ordeal.

The next day, Edwardo opened up the engine and declared \”all was well\”, that we hadn\’t damaged anything when the oil pressure went to zero and everything appeared to be as it should. I turned it off so fast when it happened (less than 20 seconds), I was quite sure no additional damage had been done.

The symptoms we\’d had in addition to the leaking oil at the crankshaft was an extremely high crank case pressure – yes in both engines. To alleviate this, Nikki\’s old dear friend Ken Dickinson from Norfolk, (East of England) had emailed me and suggested to remove the oil filler cap and this indeed did lower the crank case pressure significantly. What I didn\’t know and Ken of course could not confirm without seeing the engines, but suspected was, that the cylinders had been improperly prepared to accept the new rings. It turns out they should have had the cylinders bored out which measurements would have confirmed, but this was not done in Panama (or by Gallardo in the Galapagos).

The long and the short of this was, that all he did was charge me an indecent amount of money and replaced the oil seal on the crank shaft. This clearly was a band aid.  He also (in the boat), replaced the starboard engine oil seal and then promptly left for Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida taking his family on a vacation that I paid for!

So as the old Spanish saying goes, \”Vaya con Dios\” (Go with God). He went by air, we went by sea and two hours after we would leave San Cristobal for Santa Cruz, both seals failed again. There would be no point in going back as we wouldn\’t see Edwardo for at least two weeks. He would have told us this was a \”new problem\” and just generally pee me off more than I already was.

We made the decision to limp on to Isla Isabela which would be our last stop in the Galapagos.

Now I\’ll digress and give you some of the nice details about our travels on Santa Cruz, most of which you will get by seeing the photos at the link above.

Nikki is always good spirited and never lets the Universe get her down. I scream at the Universe and just get over it. She\’s certain I\’m mad, but it\’s really my way of just getting over the frustrations. It\’s never aimed at her and once done, it\’s basically out of my system. You might say I\’ve been known to bay at the moon!…:-)

After having spent now about $12,000.00 USD between Panama and the Galapagos, our engines were barely usable where before we did anything, their only symptom was low oil pressure and we were incompletely burning the fuel. It needed to be fixed, but could have waited till we got to Australia.  The odd thing about this season is that everything I\’ve done to proactively prevent an issue has backfired.  You\’ll hear some more of those tid bits as we catch up on the blog. I\’m sure the price tag (it would literally triple in Tahiti!!) lets you feel \”my pain\”…:-)

In that spirit, Nikki and I did some wonderful touring of a private Tortoise Reserve, the Charles Darwin Center and took a day trip to the Island of Baltra just north of Santa Cruz with a tour group.

Enjoy the photos in the accompanying PHOTO GALLERY again, you can link to them here: Photo Gallery – Santa Cruz Island – The Galapagos Islands

I\’m going through the next set of photos at Isla Isabela and our trip across the Pacific to the Marquesas and we\’ll be posting more very soon!

KIT (Keep in touch)

Scott and Nikki – currently in Papeete Tahiti.

 

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.