This Ship’s Blog will be a little different. We’ll let the photos and captions tell the story…… After a new set of batteries and working out the final teething issues (we hope) – We’ll be off to the Las Perlas Islands of Panama on the 22nd of March. Shortly thereafter, off to the mysterious island of Malpelo and then the Galapagos!
Thanks to all of you who “live blogged” along with us and sent us screen captures (several of which are in this gallery).
Enjoy and KIT (keep in touch)!
Scott and Nikki
Pacific Puddle Jump – Class of 2016 from Shelter Bay, Colon – Panama. These are the owners and crews of vessels who would soon transit the canal for their journey’s across the Pacific. There was also a smaller group who were already through the canal who would have a party the next day. Other similar groups would be leaving from Mexico and California. Nikki ready to go from the Caribbean to the Pacific Mike and Beth Lonnes joined us and here Nikki an Beth are ready to go Our first “Advisor” Dalton and Mike as we ready to enter Gatun Locks for our trip from the Caribbean to Gatun Lake The last northbound vessel of the day is on the left and our “ship mate’ – Chembulk Minneapolis ready to enter the first lock at Gatun. s/v “Free Wheel” a 55 foot monohull would be our “raft tie” to starboard with Magnus at the helm. s/v “Kristiane” from Australia with Paddy at the helm would be our “raft tie” to port. Making the raft before we entered the first lock. Beach House would be in control as we were the “biggest” boat, though not the longest. I would be responsible for helm and propulsion throughout the transit of each lock. I can still here Dalton saying, “Follow that Ship”.
Note the car bridge is still down as an ambulance suddenly had priority over us. It was lifted to allow us to enter within 5 minutes.Many of the locks were double doors. This one was a single, closing behind us at the first step up. Each step up was 27 feet and there would be three levels into Gatun Lake. Doors closing – our first lock and the excitement was palpable. The “unlock” is supposed to be potentially the most difficult as we are not only getting a mix of salt and fresh water, but Chembulk Minneapolis is using her engine to move through each confined lock. Think Warring Blender! It was getting dark as we started, but completely dark as we finished. We spent the night in Gatun Lake. Chembulk Minneapolis continued on her transit which would take her a total of about 8 hours. For us, a two day affair as we cannot keep up with the big ships on the 40 mile transit to the next set of locks at Pedro Miguel. The sunrise was spectacular. Here we have “Free Wheel” and “Kristiane’ tied together with a rubberized mooring buoy between them. The next day, we were joined by our new advisor, Roy. He and professional line handler Eric were great. The big ships move fast in Gatun Lake for the 40 miles transit from Pedro Miguel to the Gatun Locks. We stopped to wait for our friends and our new ship mate who was 12 miles behind us. This is Gamboa and you can see an ungainly car carrying ship on the left with “Titan” on the right. The crane, Titan, was built by the Germans in WW2 and was then the largest in the world. They used it for making U Boats! Panama bought it in the late 1960’s and use if for canal maintenance right up through the present time. They bought if from the German government for 1 dollar! Club Fed – Panamanian Style. This is where the deposed dictator, Manuel Noriega is spending his last days. Right on the Panama Canal. It’s a former U.S. Military prison. After navigating the very narrow “Galliard (aka: Culebra) Cut”, we finally came to the Centennial Bridge. This opened in 2000 and was a huge traffic buster for the Panamanians. The cut is so narrow that ships cannot pass each other for the better part of 8 miles. As such, the canal traffic more or less moves one direction or the other about half the time each day. The Brain Trust: Getting ready to enter the locks at Pedro Miguel. These locks have two steps down and are about 1 mile before the final step down into the Pacific at Miraflores. Here you can see how it’s done. The small boats only go through in the first trip of the day and usually 4 or less at a time. The guys on the sides, throw monkeys fists at the end of small lines (for weight) and our guys tie off to then with a big loop. They pull them back and just set them on the big bollards (cleats). The crews on the boats adjust the lines, not the guys on the sides. Cowgirl on a boat! Nikki relaxes (rare on this transit) while the guys handle the lines. Nikki was working non stop most of the time. Pedro Miguel Locks. We got here so far ahead of our “ship” that we had time to sit in the canal lock for over an hour by ourselves. A unique view of Pedro Miguel Locks. Mike and I were brainstorming that the view from “on high” would look quite cool. So, in the bosun’s chair I went and Mike hauled me to the top of the mast. Roy cringed a bit….:-) And the view from the top was well worth the ride!
“Kristiane” on the left, “Beach House” in the middle and “Free Wheel” on the rightHere from the top of the mast, you can see the double door system on each side of the control room. That’s me at the top I’m so trendy – my first “selfie”. I might add, a fairly unique one. Cap Ines – a Panamax Vessel. This ship is a container ship and is the absolute maximum size of the current canal. 105 feet wide and 880 feet (more or less long). She’s a moving city. Our ship, “Berkay N”, finally arrived! She sure looks small next to Cap Ines. Note the “Mules” (Electric trains) and cables tied off to the ship. The Mules are only used to center a vessel and keep them off the walls. They are locked to their tracks and manned. They can hear the Pilots, but cannot speak back to avoid confusion. They communicate with lights and bells only back to the Pilot abroad the vessel. In case you want a high paying job btw, the Pilots can make up to $400,000 USD/per year! They are in negotiations for up to $500,000! Nice job, if you can get it. Down we go at Pedro Miguel. This lock was only two steps down and is about one mile from here to the final locks on the Pacific side at Pedro Miguel. Note the cutouts in the wall on the center left. These are outdated cleats originally built when the canal was new. They are no longer used. Nikki waiting for the doors to open. Note the double doors. Originally, these were powered by small electric motors but now are powered by hydraulic rams which can be seen outboard up high on each door. The doors are actually held closed by the water pressure. The doors fold back flush to the walls so the Panamax vessels don’t rip them off the walls! The canals are essentially gravity fed and yes, some freshwater from the lake is lost on every opening. However, the lake is constantly overflowing into the ocean over a spillway and a dam, so this water would be lost anyway. Currently however, there is a drought and the spillways are turned off. The spillways were built at an engineered level to support the lakes constant depth to idealize the locks usage. “Cap (Cape) Ines” is a true moving city with up to 2500 containers. Each container is charged at about 80.00 each. As such, it cost Cap Ines about $200,000.00 USD for this transit. The canal nets about 5 million USD/day. A cruise ship at 140.00/passenger could cost up to $500,000.00 per transit! “Cap (Cape) Ines” is a true moving city with up to 2500 containers. Each container is charged at about 80.00 each. As such, it cost Cap Ines about $200,000.00 USD for this transit. The canal nets about 5 million USD/day. A cruise ship at 140.00/passenger could cost up to $500,000.00 per transit! A reverse view from the Miraflores Camera. Many of you wonderful friends and family sent us screen shots. Thank you all!. Here you see us in the same place as the previous photo with Cap Ines on our left – photo right. “Bekay N” trailing in the distance. Entering Miraflores from the Web Cam ahead of “Berkay N”. Nice and tight shot of the three of us rafted. For our line handler it had been an easy trip. The next lock would change that! (3 steps to the Pacific and the middle one is a doozy). Miraflores Visitors center. You can see all the folks watching the ships (and sailboats) come and go. The Web Cam is on the pole in the upper right off the building. Our advisor called ahead to make sure the camera was aimed at us – cool! MULES! in waiting. We were in just ahead of our Panamax friend – Cap Ines. He had 8 mules connected and you wouldn’t want to put anything like a part of your body between Cap Ines and the sides of the canal. It’s that tight! “Cap Ines” is YUUGE (as it is now popularly written). Look at the perspective of this vessel next to the guys on the dock. We had some time while waiting for “Berkay N” so we hammed a bit for the WebCam while waiting. Mike and Beth. Beth took more photos than I did and Mike ran the GoPro which made a cool time lapse video of the entire trip. I hope to post it soon!!!! Chill time before the last two locks. As we entered the second step of three, Advisor Roy said that due to the salt/fresh water mix in this part of the canal, we could expect a strong current from astern. This causes loss of steerageway and the micro excitement began! At first, I could handle it by literally backing the raft up. Paddy remained calm to port. (I wouldn’t have been!). Then a line handler not to be named, failed to tighten a stern line and we almost had a fiberglass sandwich with “Kristiane” threatening to be scraped off the wall. Believe me, you don’t want to touch that wall while moving in a piece of plastic. Our line handler Eric, quickly put a big fender between Kristiana and the wall averting disaster. And we were only 1000 feet from the end of the trip! Webcam from outside the locks caught us entering the Pacific. The first time Beach House has been here in four years. Our view: This is the last step down and much calmer than the one before it. Beach House returns to the Pacific Ocean. This lock is the highest at 50 feet. The reason is that there can be 28 foot tides on the Pacific side. These are the biggest tides we’ve seen anywhere in the world. In Australia, we had 18 foot tides in Mackay and Darwin. Passing the “Bridge of the America’s” into Balboa with Panama City off to our left. The traffic flows 24/7/365 at the Panama Canal. This dredge is non stop. It continuously makes sure that minimum depth is assured for the big ships. Free Wheel heads toward the anchorage. Beth documented the trip extremely well. Goodbye Roy! The pilot boats themselves are almost as big as we are. Here Roy gets to go home every night and await the next small boats. He told us a story that he actually went on a French 18 footer once. They ran out of gas in Lake Gatun as the “skipper” was told he only needed 5 gallons for the 55 mile trip!… Our agent, whose name was also Roy, came to collect our rented lines and fenders as well as Eric who he hires out as a line handler. Eric and Roy (our agent) were great and we’d use them again in a minute. Frank Gehry designed this “Bio Diversity” Museum that is on the Amador corridor adjacent to the canal in Balboa. The hill you see is called “Ancon” and is the highest point in Panama City. Great view and named for the first official vessel to transit the canal i 1914. A celebratory bottle of Verve Cliquot was shared for our successful transit and return to the Pacific Ocean. Sunrise at the anchorage at La Playita. This anchorage is not really as nice as the photo. The water is dirty,, the tides are extreme and the constant ship traffic causes more than a few crash and bangs. The boat in the photo is “Alcyane”, a fellow California Yacht Club member from Marina del Rey.
We left Portobelo in the rain and squalls for the short journey to the north entrance of the Panama Canal. As we were only 17 miles away, we started seeing AIS targets on our chart plotter immediately – eventually counting up to 99 large commercial vessels – mostly at anchor.
For those who don\’t recall, AIS is our automatic identification system which shows up vessels who have it on our chart plotter. It\’s much like a transponder in an airplane. All commercial vessels over a certain size are required to have this device. Small boats like us can have it voluntarily.
Note all the LARGE RED ICONS on the left screen. They\’re all the \”Heavy Metal\” we had to watch out for. The Red graphics on the right are the numerous rain squalls that were upon us which we can see on our radar. The X is the entrance, the line to it\’s left is the East Breakwater.
Between the Rain and Fog and over 100 large Ships, entering the narrow entrance to the Panama Canal would be exciting! Note the narrow entrance of the breakwater on our bow as we approach. Shelter Bay is at the top on the end of the peninsula.
As we approached the fairly narrow entrance to the North side breakwater, we were in essentially rain/fog conditions. As such, I turned on our lights and sound signals for limited visibility. As soon as we entered the breakwater, we made a right turn and paralleled the wall till we came to Shelter Bay about 1/2 mile inside. There\’s a few reefs to avoid, but as you can imagine, the navigation aids here are in perfect shape. Shelter Bay was originally a U.S. Military base (Fort Sherman) during WW1 through the time the US turned the Canal Zone back over to the Panamanian Government in the late 1970\’s.
Nikki on watch while we were dodging the rain squalls. For awhile, we had all Fog Signals and Lights on as we couldn\’t see the entrance to the Panama Canal.Finally, the rain and fog cleared and you can see what we had to watch out for. Thank goodness for modern electronics.
We wanted to make sure we were able to get a good slip at Shelter Bay Marina and to do so, we had to beat in the \”World ARC\”.
The World ARC is an 18 month, round the world rally which usually gets about 30-35 boats (to start) and invades anywhere they arrive.
This would be the third time I\’ll be lapped by the rally. The first time was in 2010, with Cindy in French Polynesia. Then Nikki and I met them in Cocos and Christmas Islands off the Northwest coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean in 2012. Here in 2016, would be the third time at Shelter Bay. To see more on the World ARC, click this link: World ARC Rally
Shelter from the Storm – Shelter Bay, Fort Sherman – Colon, Panama Canal on the North (Caribbean) side. Beach House – awnings up on the left of the photo.
We were lucky and got a slip right in the center of the action in front of the main facility and restaurant. The docks are in excellent shape, the electricity is good and we\’re able to run our air conditioning in the 90-95 degree heat! As many of you know who have been following us this season, Miss Piggy (aka: Beach House) has had quite a few things go awry. While here, we need to get both water makers up to speed (yet again), both engines will get new rings and bearings and too many little details to list. In fact, it got to be so much in terms of parts, that Nikki took a quick trip back to Florida for a week to pick up 140 pounds worth of boat parts and take care of lots of little things for us back in the US. Mike and Beth would still be bringing another entire suit case when they arrive in March.
We met with Greg Van Wyck, a Canadian ex-pat and retired Aircraft Mechanic/Engineer. Greg goes by \”The Engine Whisperer\” and it is a well deserved moniker. He has literally taken both our engines apart and is changing the rings and bearings. Apparently, I babied the engines a bit too much and used synthetic oil on them too soon. As such, the rings never \”broke in\” and we\’ve been getting unburned fuel and some oil burning (blow by). When Greg took the engines apart, he said they looked brand new and told me that for the next 500 hours I\’m to use standard 15W-40 diesel engine oil. Duly noted….:-)
We had leaky rings and low compression. Why? Because apparently I babied the engines too much when they were new. The insides looked new according to our brilliant mechanic Greg Van Wyck. Once rebuilt, they purred perfect and no more oil leaks!Engine \”Head\”. After a bit of clean up from the unburnt fuel (low compression), all was put back in order.Of course, Captain Boat Boy had to get into the action as well. Here I\’m fixing the smaller of our two water makers in the starboard forward locker.Speaking of water….Do you think we cut it a bit close on our arrival from the San Blas Islands? That\’s QUARTS by the way (actually liters), not Gallons!
Our generator was also \”dead\”. Turns out we had three separate issues, none to do with the engine itself. Two broken cables, a bad exhaust temperature probe and some capacitor issues which effected our voltage.
On my birthday, January 25th, Nikki took me to Panama City for a few days. We went via the Panama Canal Railway which more or less parallels the canal. The ride was a little over an hour from Colon, but it takes that long to get into town as most trips require us to wait for the ships to enter or exit the locks. We then drive over a lowered bridge. The wait is typically 20 minutes to an hour. The traffic is backed up for a mile as here, ships have the right of way! The canal operates 24/7/365 and takes in 5 million US Dollars per day. Nice if you can get the work.
We\’d up spending 7 very busy weeks on this side of the Canal and have made a \”recky\” into Panama City as well.
Ah, it rolls around again. This would be number 62 for me. Nikki made a great Cheesecake (my favorite). YUM!
As we write, it\’s now the 3rd week of February and we\’re awaiting friends Mike and Beth Lonnes who will be here within the next few weeks to transit the canal. If it all works out well, I\’ll be able to email everyone the approximate time and weblink to the Miraflores Locks and for those of you with an interest, can watch us in real time transit the canal sometime between on the 8th of March. We\’ll definitely update you for that event. In addition, if you\’ve a keen interest in the building of the Panama Canal and it\’s history, check out this book, \”Path Between the Seas\” by David McCullough – click Amazon link here: \”The Path Between the Seas\” by David McCullough
I leave you with some shots of the Panama Canal in action!
Doors to Gatun Lake. This is the original canal built 102 years ago!. There are two sets of doors side by side.These are the \”New Canal\” Doors looking north toward the Caribbean Sea. The NEW canal will take SUPER TANKERS up to 125 feet in width. These doors slide in from the side and are much more efficient. Despite the statements about, \”We\’ll be open in a few more months\”. Think at least two more years. Gatun Lake is behind me in this photo and they haven\’t broken into the lake as yet.The NEW canal looking toward Gatun Lake. Despite the perspective, it\’s quite a bit wider than the original canal.New LOCK PONDS. These will fill and un-fill with water when the lock is opening and filling. These ponds are designed to be environmentally more friendly as it will keep more fresh water in the lake and let in less salt water. The actual canal is parallel and to the left in this photo.
For my birthday, Nikki took me on the train to Panama City for the weekend and we got a tasty tour of what was to come. The difference between the two sides of the canal is as different as the two seas! The Pacific side is much more metropolitan and looks like a mini Miami Beach.
Arriving in Panama City by the train. These tracks also bring containers back and forth to save money for the smaller vessels.
Get this! The average container ship is charged 150,000.00 to 350,000.00 US Dollars per transit!!!
Passenger Ships are charged up to 500.000.00 US Dollars per trip! YIKES! Our fees all up are $2,125.00. Glad we aren\’t that big.
I leave you with a photo of the modern Panama City and we\’ll tell you all about it in a future Ship\’s Blog.
Yep, that shiny building on the far right is where we stayed. The Trump Ocean Club. Make no assumptions. It\’s just a very nice hotel.
Our friends Mike and Beth Lonnes are \”in country\” and will be here on the 5th of March. We\’ll be doing the \”Pacific Puddle Jump Party\” on the 6th and transit the canal to the Pacific Ocean on the 7th of March into Gatun Lake through the Gatun Locks. We\’ll stay the night and finish our transit on the 8th of March going through in quick succession; the Pedro Miguel and finally Miraflores Locks. We hope to \”live blog\” while going through the canal and when we get to the final Miraflores Locks, let all who are interested link in to see us as we transit to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 4 years on the LIVE WEBCAM….. We\’ll send a web post out trying to give you as solid a time as we can when we make the jump.
Stand by and KIT,
Scott and Nikki – Shelter Bay Marina, North(Caribbean)side of the Panama Canal.
TIME: 2016/01/15 21:10
LATITUDE: 09-22.08N
LONGITUDE: 079-57.08W
COMMENT: Beach House – DOCKED – Shelter Bay Marina, North entrance to the Panama Canal…..
We arrived from Portobelo in the rain. Shelter Bay will be our home for about 4-6 weeks while we fix all the
teething issues and get ready to cross the Pacific to Australia!
Friends Mike and Beth Lonnes will join us for the 24 hour transit of the canal! (It only takes about 6 hours, but we stay
in Gatun Lake overnight as all the small boats do.
We wish we had more time and not so many boat teething issues, as clearly staying in the San Blas Islands would be good for the soul!
With all the various little problems discovered in our 1000 mile (can you believe it?) shakedown cruise and no water maker for the moment, we decided to head toward Shelter Bay and the Panama Canal. A nice stop off en route would be the old port city of Portobelo about 50 miles to our west. What a history this place has.
Looking northeast to main town of Portobello from the southern fortress. Beach House is in the center of the photo, just above the palm tree.
This city was straight out of the “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Portobelo became a very important port on the \”Spanish Main\” (see link here: Spanish Main) and sailors from Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake and Henry Morgan all were here. Francis Drake was buried in a lead coffin just outside the harbor – exact location unknown! Most of the Spanish gold and silver that came from South and southern Central America passed through Portobello. To find more about Portobelo, click on the following link: Portobello, Colon – Panama
Drakes Rock – This is the entrance to Portobello and named for where it is believed Sir Francis Drake was buried at sea in a lead coffin.
Once the Panama Canal was built in 1904, the city of Portobelo lost its’ economic importance. Despite being only 20 miles from Colon (Columbus) on the north shore of the canal and its’ status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it’s well off the beaten path. Today only a population of around 4,000 people live here.
The people are mostly locals with a smattering of ex-pats, all of who remind you of escapists from a Jimmy Buffet song. We had plenty of room to anchor and were in the company of around 40 boats, many of which looked like they were semi-permanent residents. The city is in general disrepair, built amongst the ruins of the old fort.
\”Captain Jack\’s will get you high tonight\” – Billy Joel. This was THE local hangout. Jack is an American ex-pat who just sort of threw out his anchor here after sailing around the world.
The natural harbor is quite large and has two walled fortifications on each side. The entrance is fairly narrow and should have been easy for the defenders to protect. Despite this natural advantage, many Pirates were able to take over and sack the city on multiple occasions. See link to Captain Morgan’s sack of Portobelo here: Captain Morgan\’s sack of Portobelo
Looking toward the entrance to the northwest. Drake\’s rock would be just outside to the right. You can see how narrow the bay is and how easy it should have been to protect the town. But alas, that\’s what makes history. The canon and fortifications of the southern fortress looking toward town and the northern fortress.
We also visited a famous local Church of the Black Christ, which on October 21st every year, swells the cities population into the 10’s of thousands. This statue is famous because of the mystery it’s shrouded in. It is perhaps the most important Christian shrine in Panama. The statue, found by fisherman was created in Spain and washed ashore around 1658 – presumably from a lost ship at sea.
The legendary wood statue of the \”Black Christ\” – Cristo de Negro. To see more about the statue and its’ legend, click on the links below:
With one night in the anchorage and anxious to get settled into Shelter Bay, we’d go the final 20 miles tomorrow and get down to the serious “fixits” Miss Piggy (aka: Beach House) would require. The list just keeps getting bigger and we’ve a very long way to go!
Nikki just loves a canoe. This was the place we tied the dinghy up to wander the ruins of the old southern fortress.
We’ll next write you from the north side of the Panama Canal – Shelter Bay Marina.
The home of the Pirates of the Caribbean. Much of the Gold and Silver that made it\’s way to Europe, passed through here.
Sir Francis Drake was buried at sea, just outside this beautiful natural harbor.
We\’ll do a bit of exploring the old Spanish Forts and check out the earthy local scene.
We last left you in Isla Providencia, Columbia as we were about to set sail for the San Blas Islands of Panama.
No matter how we timed our departure, it would be a two day, two night sail to Isla Povenier in San Blas. The first 6 hours were a bit too close to the wind, but finally, the wind backed and we sailed pretty much the rest of the way. One of the things we would have to watch out for, was the possibility of heavy ship traffic heading into and out of the Panama Canal. We were surprised at how little we actually saw.
We arrived at first light and anchored off the small airstrip, which could handle nothing bigger than a large Cessna. We watched the local flight use every bit of the runway to land and most of it to take off!
Our first discovery was that there was no way to get any cash in the San Blas and as such we couldn’t check in with Customs and Immigration at the airfield. Panama is quite pricey at $365.00 USD for two people, the boat and the small local Guna Yala Council fee. Given our water shortage due to both water makers being out of service, we would have to make our stay in the San Blas shorter than we would have liked. Many cruisers spend weeks or even months in this 40 mile by 15 mile area with hundreds of small islands.
A local \”Ula\”. The Guna Yala\’s main method of inter-island transportation. Note the colorful \”Mola\” blouses worn by the locals..
The people of the San Blas are known as the Guna Yala (also: Kuna Yala). They are truly an anachronism to the modern world. They are one of the few peoples of Central America who staunchly refused Christianity. They have a very interesting language. Their society is based on a matriarchal structure. The Guna Yala\’s religious beliefs include village Shamans and they are known for being very superstitious. There are three male chiefs of various geographical areas and one Big Chief for the entire people, but home life is ruled by the women.
Few speak English and few even speak Spanish. There are about 50,000 Guna Yalan people in Eastern Panama. Their Grandparents fought against the Panamanian government and were declared an independent autonomous region in 1925. They seem to have a high natural resistance to disease and are known for extremely long lives. In the jungles of Panama, which were heavily subject to Malaria and Yellow Fever – killing tens of thousands of Westerners – the Guna Yala have evolved to stand up to much of what the ancient tropical jungles could throw at them.
When the Christian Missionary’s arrived, they taught the Guna Yala the art of applique. The Guna didn’t adapt to Christianity but really adapted to the art of making Mola cloth. See the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mola_(art_form)
In the boating crowd, it’s an absolute must to buy some Mola Cloth from the Guna Yala. Two of the most famous Mola artists are “Lisa” who is a transvestite and Venancio who is a “Master Mola Maker”.
We didn’t meet Lisa, but she is not unusual amongst the Guna Yala. In many cultures (Tonga comes to mind), if there are too many male children, one is chosen to help in traditional female roles. Amongst the Guna Yala, a matriarchal society, there is no stigma to sexual orientation.
It\’s actually unusual for men to make Mola cloth, but Venancio has been doing so for 35 years.
Nikki and I chose this one after looking at several dozen. It\’s quite intricate and has several layers of hand stitched appliqué
As we were low on cash, we opted to buy an expensive Mola, but were limited to one!
The Islands of the San Blas are very much like the Tuamotus of the South Pacific. Everything here is owned by someone. This includes all the land and ocean surrounding the islands. This includes the fish, the lobster, the conch and the coconuts. As such, technically we need permission to go ashore, but we actually saw few people to on shore to ask. The one small island we did go ashore at was called “Otub” and it’s tiny little neighbor “Little Otub”. There was a sign welcoming visitors in English and French. Quite interestingly, not in Spanish.
Welcome to Ortub Island. There was no one here till the evening when we saw lights from the locals.Nikki taking in the Palm Tree seat. We\’re on the northeast side of Ortub Island. Little Ortub is on the left.Here we are on \”Ortub Island\” in the San Blas. Beach House is anchored just in the lee of \”Little Ortub\”
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We took some photos, investigated what were clearly transient huts (not permanent homes) where we imagine the owners come to tend their coconuts and perhaps fish. Lobster and Conch abound in the region. At night, we did see what appeared to be Guna Yala ashore. Interestingly, it is not allowed for non Guna Yalan’s to be ashore at night. As well, they strongly discourage intermarriage and any outside influence on their culture.
There were two different huts on the island. Both in great disrepair. Despite this, they seemed to both be used at night.\”Little Ortub\” Island. You could walk across this little piece of heaven in about 10 seconds in one direction and 15 seconds in the other. A classic little oasis in the San Blas Islands of Panama
Water was getting low and knowing we had lots of boat projects to work on, we headed toward our next destination – Portbelo and on to the Panama Canal.
AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/01/11 11:32
LATITUDE: 11-28.47N
LONGITUDE: 079-58.57W
COURSE: 140T
SPEED: 6.8
MARINE: YES
WIND_SPEED: 12
WIND_DIR: NE
WAVE_HT: 0.2M
WAVE_PER: 6
SWELL_DIR: E
SWELL_HT: 1.5M
SWELL_PER: 6
CLOUDS: 30%
VISIBILITY: 15
BARO: 1025.1
TREND: 1
AIR_TEMP: 27.8C
COMMENT: Beach House – EN Route – Isla Providencia to San Blas Islands, Panama
HOUSE KEEPING NOTE:
As yet, Ken our web guru hasn\’t had time to figure out how to send only the \”Ship\’s Blog\” to the website for general distribution.
The original purpose of sending this mini blog along with the \”Ship\’s Position Reports\” was to give those interested the more detailed look inside the voyage and for some of you to always know where we are for safety.
What I\’m going to to for now, is NOT post these directly to the site to avoid overloading those who just want the \”Ship\’s Blog\”. They will still be picked up by Ship Trak and Yotreps and our position Icon will be seen on the top tab of the website under \”Track Me\”.
We\’re still having a bit of an issue with the \”Winlink\” tracking system, but expect to have that bug out before we leave Panama.
When I get to the next \”internet cafe\”, I\’ll post them directly and they will not be resent to you via FaceBook or Email.
***BTW, all the funny numbers and brackets you see in the subject line above tell me how to post this to what sections automatically via remote email. Just ignore it
Mini Update:
We left Providencia yesterday morning after having left the day before! The winds were not right, so we turned around and waited a day enjoying a leisurely motor inside the reef back to Santa Catalina Harbor.
We motored the first 6 hours of our 265 nm trip to the SEast toward San Blas. This puts us a bit into the sea and not as comfy as we\’d like,
but the sea is fairly calm and the winds on the beam, so not too bad. We\’re about 1/2 way now and expect landfall on the morning of the
12th (tomorrow). Our one (of 3) charging sources is working to keep the house batteries up – thank goodness for triple redundancy.
I\’ll keep this one short and let you all know when we\’re anchored up tomorrow.
Starting to see lots of Panama Canal traffic. The radar and AIS (automatic identification system) equipment are more than helpful!
KIT,
Scott and Nikki
![\"Ah,](https://magenta-hare-762553.hostingersite.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Scott-Does-Birthday-number-62-101-400x600.jpg\")
Ah, it rolls around again. This would be number 62 for me. Nikki made a great Cheesecake (my favorite). YUM!
Nikki and I chose this one after looking at several dozen. It\’s quite intricate and has several layers of hand stitched appliqué
