Category: Position Reports

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: 2016/03/28 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

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

AIRMAIL YOTREPS
IDENT: N6ABC
TIME: 2016/03/22 19:47
LATITUDE: 08-34.90N
LONGITUDE: 079-01.54W
COURSE: 095T
SPEED: 1.5
COMMENT: Beach House – ANCHORED – Isla Chapera – Las Perlas Islands – Panama

Well, we finally have more or less begun the trip across the YUUGE Pacific. Only about 7500-8000 miles to go. We covered 35 today!
So in the spirit of \”Break a Leg\” (as they say in Hollywood for good luck), we broke a dozen eggs, scratched a teflon pan, drowned a camera and had a pissy gal at the fuel dock just before we left. We were able to use the smelly water from the Las Perlas anchorage to mostly wash the boat while we made nice water in the open sea.

The \”speed\” you see above is the current in this anchorage. We\’re in 31 feet of water at high tide anchored between Isla Chapera and Mogu Mogu. We\’ll only be in 15 feet of water in about 6 hours! A building left by the filming of \”Survivor\” is here and there seems to be a few nice beaches. A nice breeze is blowing and it\’s calm. Two local day boats are here and we\’re anchored near our Canadian friends, Kyle and Shelley on \”Blowin\’ Bubbles\”. As you can discern from the name – they\’re divers.

We\’re off the internet until we at least get to the Galapagos which should be within 10-16 days depending.
That\’s all for now, use our boat emails to keep in touch. Nikki\’s new boat email is: nicolaw(AT)sailmail.com. Mine is WDB5638(AT)sailmail.com
KIT,
Scott and Nikki