Canouan

CANOUAN

Canouan is a small island in the heart of the Grenadines. The island is browner then the other islands we have been to. They are suffering from drought. Wile we were here it rained just a little at night, the locals are hoping for a lot more. As we walked through the small town we encountered chickens and goats walking down the streets. One bank one police station and a few small stores is all it has to offer.

There is a new development on the northern part of the island that is gated with guards at the entry. Locales and visitors need to ask permission to enter. It is said that Trump is running a casino and is offering luxury apartments, a resort and private air strip here. We were tempted but stayed away.

We met up with Off Line the boater friends that we really like here. Jake is painting a picture of the “ugliest island.” He is an artist and I saw the painting before it was finished, it was really quite good. Carol and I did some snorkeling and swimming. Then off we both went to Union Island.

THE SEA OF CORTEZ

THE SEA OF CORTEZ

Arriving in the (sea) brought a rush of emotions flooding our very souls. A great accomplishment that didn’t come easily. After two years of sailing “we were almost home!” With the end of each day we find ourselves getting closer and closer to our destination. Both having deep feelings of emotions but in very different ways. We saver each day to its fullest.

This season since we were in Panama Pearl Islands. Everywhere we traveled the seas temperature has been really cold and the water was dark green, so dark that you couldn’t even see a foot below the surface. We stayed aboard the whole time. The (sea) was a welcoming sight. The (sea) is so beautiful; the water is light blue and the temperature inviting. We saw more whales, dolphins and jumping rays then in any other country.

We feel so fortunate to have our deer friends Royce and Pam (R-Dreamz) sailing with us. They have spent a lot of time here in the (sea) before, and know all the prime spots. We spend our days in the water. We hunt lobster and gather clams and scallops. The snorkeling is increasable. Most of the Islands are only a day sail away from each other. When we sailed early in the mornings pods of dolphins would come swim right next to the boat and play around for awhile. It’s so awesome.

These are the places that we stayed alone the way to San Carlos:

BALANDRA: A pretty cove, with a mushroom rock that cursers have their pictures taken in front of. There is also a bronze statue for divers to explore.

ISLA PARTIDA: We anchored in Caleta Partida Cove. The best anchorage in the Sea of Cortez Islands as far as protection from the sea and weather. Great rock scallops.



PUNTA EVARISTO: Nice anchorage. Good dinghy trips.

BAHIA AGUA VERDE: Beautiful place, we stayed here the longest. Has a little fishing village, known for making goat cheese. We paid the most ever for cerveza then anywhere else. “When you’re out your out!” This is where we found the most lobster. Lots of snorkeling at Solitaria Rock.

PUNTA SAN COSME: This place has a seasonal hot spring behind the NW end of the beach. You can use it as a big hot tub. Lots of places to explore with your dinghy including caves. This is where the trawler boat (The Cat’s meow) sunk. R-Dreamz was here when it happened, and played a big part in the rescue.

PERTO ESCONDIDO: (Hidden Port) is the vortex of cruising, fishing, diving and RV-ing in this region. We moored in the waiting room located outside of the marina. The marina was excellent really cruiser friendly, you could even do your own laundry yourself! We saw tons of jumping rays all around our boat every day. If you are planning on coming here plan on spending a lot of money on transportation, because the town of Loreto is 20 driving miles away without any amenities in between.

LORETO: Loreto is the largest town N of La Paz on the Baja side. I really enjoyed this town, because of its size and feeling of safety. We were fortunate to have R-Dreamz with us, they know a few locales that drove us around and showed us all the hot spots with free food at happy-hour. You can only day anchor here because it’s not a sheltered area.

SAN JUANICO: Great snorkeling on the reefs. We found lobster. There is a cruisers shrine under a tree on the beach. This is where cruisers have for many years put the name of their boats on something and hang it in the tree. We write Mystique on a piece of driftwood.

BAHIA CONCEPCION: This is a huge place it would take you a number of years returning here to get to visit all of the anchorages. We stayed in Santispacy and Bahia Coyote. Here we gathered so many clams and scallops that we couldn’t eat all of them while we were there. So we ended up throwing some back into the sea. This was our 1st big gathering spree it was so much fun.

ISLA SAN MARCOS: As we approached Sweet Pea Cove, we saw a large pod of whales. We could see them really good but couldn’t get them on film. There was lots of Rays jumping all around us. I loved this place. Lots of dinghy exploring with caves and nice small beaches. This is our last stop before making the crossing over to the mainland side and right into San Carlos Bay.

Now I’m getting really excited to get home. I really miss my family a lot. I think Carl is getting depressed; he would stay out here forever if he could. Getting back to reality is not something he looks forward to. The last night he stayed up all night staring at the stars and listening to the waves. I slept like a baby. I know that we can come back here in the fall; it’s not that far away. So this is the end of this journey but just the beginning of all the things we can do with our boat and all the new adventures that are to come.

LA PAZ

(THE PEACE)

More than 1,000 pleasure boaters spend many months and even years home-ported in La Paz. There are four marinas and large anchorages. La Paz is the capitol city pop. 190,000 plus and has the largest harbor in the Baja California Sur. La Paz lies about 150 sea miles from Los Cabos, 130 sea miles S of Loreto. It’s across on the Baja California side of the Sea of Cortez. Mazatlan was on the mainland of the Mexican Coast. We made good time crossing over, considering that we had to steer the whole way. There will only be one move long crossing left on this trip and that will be when we make the crossing back over to the mainland again to San Carlos.

We stayed in the Marina De La Paz for a few days. We met a lot of nice cruisers. We went into town a couple of times did some shopping and had dinner. Compared to the other large cities that we have been to in Mexico we thought that the landscape here was real plain and nothing really spectacular about it. We were kind of disappointed in away. Although the cruiser network here is awesome and the place was full of cruisers considering the economy. We are real excited to get under way to sail through the Sea of Cortez islands. We can swim now and the water is real clear.

MAZATLAN

There is no shortage of things to do in this beautiful port city known as “The Pearl of the Pacific.” The city itself is a lot smaller in size then Puerto Vallarta but is cherished by all cruisers that find their way to the pearl of the pacific. Cruisers stay here for years without venturing back out to sea. Mazatlan is the transitional area between the desert and the moister tropical forest area of the southern part of Mexico. The desert is only a short distance north to the Sea of Cortez.

We met up with Shadow at Marina Mazatlan. It sure was good to see Bill and Martha again. Martha found about twenty plus ferial cats on the docks. Of course she fed them every night and started a collection to have them spayed and neutered. Some cruisers thought it was a good idea and others were opposed. She had a hard time understanding why some people didn’t support her efforts. “I feel sorry for the babies” was her replay. She has a large heart and I think she should become a veterinarian.

Carl and Royce did some trouble shooting with our auto pilot while we were at the marina. It appeared that we might have problems with the prop. This really scared us. We checked out the emergency tiller and it wouldn’t turn, it was frozen! The emergency tiller is what you use if your steering would happen to fail. We decided to have the boat pulled out of the water and have a mechanic check things out, things that we couldn’t reach while Mystique remained in the water. We were so lucky a boat just left the hard and was put into the water that day. There was space for us right away. Carl had the boat hauled out while the girls went to old town shopping. Good news, the prop is fine. Bad news, Mystiques steering cables need to be totally taken out and replaced with new cable. The cables need to be ordered from Hunter in the US. This could take weeks, so we decided to sail the rest of the way home without them. Of course, the mechanic said that we will be able to make it just fine. The cables will be tight but will remain strong. If the steering would happen to go out the emergency tiller would become easy to steer. I guess our whole problem is rusty steering cables that are too tight for auto to move the wheel back and forth. We wish we found that out before we bought the boat!
We enjoyed Mazatlan a lot. We only stayed for a week, because we are getting very excited to reach the Sea of Cortez. It will take us two days and one night to reach Baja California heading toward La Paz. It’s a dream come true for us! It’s been a two year voyage and it’s so hard to believe we are so close. Again, mixed emotions good and bad about reaching our destination.

ISLA ISABELA
Jacques Cousteau came to this island about 30 years to film the rare Frigate birds nesting and some pristine underwater habitat. The whole island is made up from volcanic material and now is a National wildlife Preserve for all the Frigate and Booby birds that nest all over the island. See the picture of the Las Monas a strange looking volcanic figure. Volunteers come to this isolated island to study the birds during nesting season. They stay in the small cabins on the beach.

CHACALA BAY
Chacala Bay is 21 miles S of San Blas, MX. This was our 1st stop as we left Puerto Vallarta. After meeting up with R Dreams again in Puerto Vallarta we agreed to buddy boat all the way home to San Carlos together. Royce and Pam are really nice people, we really enjoy being with them and are looking forward to the trip.

Chacala Bay is about a half mile long, lined with mature coco palms and about a dozen palapa cantinas. The lower hills are topped with green trees. This area was a former plantation. Now upper class Mexicans live and play in this area. Our stay was so rolly that we were happy to get underway in the morning.

PUERTO VALLARTA

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on our anniversary. We had a good dinner Peter joined us from Waltzing Metillda. The restaurant had parrots that you could pick up and hold they were so friendly. We stayed in La Cruz anchored in the bay for a few days. Carl was referred to a guy to fix the auto pilot that had an office in Nuevo Vallarta. So we rented a slip at Marina Nuevo Vallarta.

The marina was nothing great and wasn’t really pretty, but the people that lived on the docks were totally special! The price was cheap so we stayed there while they looked at our auto pilot. Like we said before it’s not the place but the people that make the place, a place that you will never forget. This was that kind of a place. Most of the boats on the docks were there for years, and had no intention of leaving soon. These were real cruisers that arrived here decided that this was a real paradise and just stayed here for years. Bob and Tikka took us in under their wings right off. They introduced us to their friends, took us to Taco Saturday, to a BBQ on Sunday and took us to the local hang-out for live music and pool, they were great people and they had a car!

The city is huge and really spread out. We loved Old Town the best. Tons of shopping, sand figures on the beach and a bar on every corner. I got to shop and Carl got his beer, can’t ask for much more than that.

It was really nice to be at a marina for awhile so we could clean the boat with fresh water, do laundry and just chill. Carl had two different guys look at auto. Neither one fixed it! So we head out steering again, a little up-set but we will get over it. Once we set the sails and the wind blew through our hair, we surly couldn’t complain. Life is good. (It’s good to be us!) Now we are heading to Mazatlan to meet up with Bill and Martha (Shadow.) Royce and Pam (R-Dreams) are going to buddy boat with us all the way to San Carlos. They don’t mind letting us stop at night to rest. They understand what it’s like not to have auto pilot, they also had to sail 600 miles without one. Bill just keeps on truckin saying we will see you there. Not half as much fun for us without auto! Maybe someone in the USA can make him work again like the guy that finally fixed our generator.

Mexico

THE GOLDEN COAST OF MEXICO

The golden coast is from Cabo Corrientes to Manzanillo. In this area you can sail day trips and anchor by night. This makes it really nice for us while our auto pilot is still on vacation. There are pleasant bays and some really rolling and rough bays to sleep in. We have to take what we can get.

We went ashore in Tenacatita, for the jungle river tour. You can take your own dinghy down the river. It takes about 3 hours round trip. Lots of different birds live in the mangroves. Small crocodiles climb out of the water to sun on the branches. Strange red crabs are everywhere. At the end of the river you reach a beach called Playa Escolleras. All the locales hang out there on the weekends. Carl’s kind of place, lots of palapas, cantinas and cold cerveza.

The anchorages are starting to have other boats in them now, we don’t feel so alone. It’s just nice to be able to talk to other cruisers every now and then. We are planning on stopping in Puerto Vallarta to have the auto pilot worked on. Wish us luck!

ZIHUATANEJO
MEXICO

Zihuatanejo is about 184 miles SE of Manzanillo, 110 miles NW of Acapulco. Well known to cruisers as Z-what or Z-town. This area is a turnaround point for most cruisers that cruise the Mexican coastline. The ones that want to avoid the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Papagayo winds do not go any further then Z-town.

We arrived late into the season, not many cruisers were around. The surf on the beaches was high at the time. The locals would sit on the beach laughing at the cruisers trying to get to shore in their dinghies. It was like riding a surf board. If you got hit by a wave before you landed on the beach you were doomed. Cruisers were thrown out and dinghies turned over in the water. It was an awful sight some got hurt pretty badly. I’m lucky; Carl can control our dinghy pretty well, when he’s not drunk!

On shore Z-town is a tourists dream, tons of shops and cantinas. In the bay there is a great anchorage. Good snorkeling and scuba diving off Sacramento Reef. It’s a great place to visit, I would return if I get the chance.

I’m not going to write much about Acapulco because we just spent the night there and didn’t go ashore. The fog was real thick and there was a strange smell in the air. So even my pictures didn’t turn out good. It’s real expensive to stay at a marina in Acapulco, so we were going to take a bus back to Acapulco from Z-town to see the divers and see some sights, but it never happened. Maybe next time.

HUATULCO MEXICO
CHAHUE
Huatulco means: Place where the wood is adored. Legends says 2,000 years ago, the apostle St. Thomas floated ashore atop a gnarled tree shaped like a cross, set it into the main beach sand and taught the locals to worship it, and they did for 15 centuries.

We stayed here for a week at Chahue Marina. Bill and Martha from Shadow are here also. Carl worked on the auto pilot day and night, until he hated the sight of the thing. In these small towns in Mexico you can’t just go to a boat store and buy boat parts or even order those in on hopes that they would arrive.

Huatulco has about 15 miles of bays with tiny coves to explore. Cruise ships dock in the middle of Huatulco bay. Anchoring of any other vessels is prohibited. Town is clean and very touristy. Martha and I did a lot of shopping while the men drank Corona at the bar. NO Minimo, minimo here!

Being in Mexico all the stores, banks and Pemex gas station names are very familiar we get the feeling that we are getting closer to home. We feel a since of accomplishment arriving in Mexico, but they are mixed feelings. Do we hurry to get home or do we still stop and smell the roses? We are still filled with a sense of adventure, wanting the moment to go on forever; the sound of the sea rushing under the boat; the feel of the wind on our backs and the spray of the water all around us. We say let’s find some rosés.

GOLFO DE TEHUANTEPEC
PUERTO MADERO MEXICO

We finally got a good enough weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Our plans were to buddy boat with a couple that we met in Panama, Bill and Martha sailing on the Shadow Cat. Heading from Barillas, El Salvador to Huatulco, Mexico. It should take five days to cross the Tehuantepec. We sailed close to each other and talked back and forth on the VHF quite often; we had a great time. Carl and Bill caught lots of fish, Martha caught a few too.

Carl had a feeling that the weather was changing. The Tehuantepec winds are so strong that they can blow a sailboat off course a 100 miles in a blink of an eye. Sailors call the winds the “Tehuana Peckers.” A Mega Yacht approached and passed us by; Carl hailed them on the VHF radio. He asked them for an up-date on the weather. The yacht was very happy to help him out they were also on their way to Huatulco. They told Carl that the weather was changing and we wouldn’t make the crossing going the speed that a sailboat goes. Mega Yachts can go so much faster than us, this was a 150 foot Mega Yacht and they were in a hurry to beat the winds.
This left us no other choice then to stop in Puerto Madero, Mexico to wait for another weather window. Puerto Madero is not a place that cruisers normally stop, because it’s been said that the Port Captain is not friendly to cruisers. He goes out of his way to make things hard for you to check into the country. Martha speaks Spanish; she helped us out a lot. The Mexican Navy was waiting when we anchored our boats. They boarded each sailboat, we were second. The Navy boat was about 20 foot long with six men and a dog aboard. Only two men and the dog came aboard our boat. The men only spoke Spanish. I showed them our boat paperwork and answered his questions with my poor Spanish and hand signals. The men were very friendly. Carl showed the guy and the dog around with no problems. When they were done they left and waved good bye. Next we had to go to the Port Captains office, we found that they had a new Port Captain and he was really nice even spoke a little English. I guess that we lucked out the only problem we had was that we had to get a taxi to take us to the airport to go to immigration, then take a bus to a bank to pay their fees then back to the Port Captain to show him our receipts. Other ports make it a lot easier for cruisers to check into the Countries and don’t have dogs and the Navy board your boats.

It was really nice being with Bill and Martha; she spoke her Spanish and I spoke my English helping each other say things right in the opposite language. Martha is from Columbia she tried so hard to get us the best deals on everything by saying “minimo,minimo, quanto”. She always gets it “cheaper” she would say. We got to be really close friends. She loves animals, when she saw a stray she had to stop and help out everyone that she saw. Buying food giving them water even meds if they were hurt or had ticks. She would always say “I feel sorry for the babies.” Bill was a good friend to Carl teaching him how to fish, helping him make hand lines to fish with. Bill always offered advice about fishing and boating. People are what cruising is all about. The various types and characters make up just how much a particular place is either enjoyed, or not. Cruisers are an odd lot. We travel for the sake of travel itself. We wander the face of the earth in search, not for a better place, but for a new adventure, a look at something we haven’t seen before.

We ended up waiting three days for another weather window, seeing other cruisers stop in the bay to get out of the winds just as we did.
After the check-in process was finished, Puerto Madero was a nice place to visit. The locals were really nice and the town was big enough to shop for food, fuel and get everything we needed.
When we got underway again the Gulf of Tehuantepec was very calm we made the rest of the way through without any weather problems. The last night of the crossing our auto pilot besides he wanted to take a permanent vacation and just quit steering for us. Any cruiser out there understands how much we need auto pilot! Auto is a much needed crew member. Now our watches went to two on two off all night long. With auto you can read go to the bathroom walk around without your stuck at the wheel your whole shift. What a drag.

GOLFO DE TEHUANTEPEC
PUERTO MADERO MEXICO

We finally got a good enough weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Our plans were to buddy boat with a couple that we met in Panama, Bill and Martha sailing on the Shadow Cat. Heading from Barillas, El Salvador to Huatulco, Mexico. It should take five days to cross the Tehuantepec. We sailed close to each other and talked back and forth on the VHF quite often; we had a great time. Carl and Bill caught lots of fish, Martha caught a few too.

Carl had a feeling that the weather was changing. The Tehuantepec winds are so strong that they can blow a sailboat off course a 100 miles in a blink of an eye. Sailors call the winds the “Tehuana Peckers.” A Mega Yacht approached and passed us by; Carl hailed them on the VHF radio. He asked them for an up-date on the weather. The yacht was very happy to help him out they were also on their way to Huatulco. They told Carl that the weather was changing and we wouldn’t make the crossing going the speed that a sailboat goes. Mega Yachts can go so much faster than us, this was a 150 foot Mega Yacht and they were in a hurry to beat the winds.
This left us no other choice then to stop in Puerto Madero, Mexico to wait for another weather window. Puerto Madero is not a place that cruisers normally stop, because it’s been said that the Port Captain is not friendly to cruisers. He goes out of his way to make things hard for you to check into the country. Martha speaks Spanish; she helped us out a lot. The Mexican Navy was waiting when we anchored our boats. They boarded each sailboat, we were second. The Navy boat was about 20 foot long with six men and a dog aboard. Only two men and the dog came aboard our boat. The men only spoke Spanish. I showed them our boat paperwork and answered his questions with my poor Spanish and hand signals. The men were very friendly. Carl showed the guy and the dog around with no problems. When they were done they left and waved good bye. Next we had to go to the Port Captains office, we found that they had a new Port Captain and he was really nice even spoke a little English. I guess that we lucked out the only problem we had was that we had to get a taxi to take us to the airport to go to immigration, then take a bus to a bank to pay their fees then back to the Port Captain to show him our receipts. Other ports make it a lot easier for cruisers to check into the Countries and don’t have dogs and the Navy board your boats.

It was really nice being with Bill and Martha; she spoke her Spanish and I spoke my English helping each other say things right in the opposite language. Martha is from Columbia she tried so hard to get us the best deals on everything by saying “minimo,minimo, quanto”. She always gets it “cheaper” she would say. We got to be really close friends. She loves animals, when she saw a stray she had to stop and help out everyone that she saw. Buying food giving them water even meds if they were hurt or had ticks. She would always say “I feel sorry for the babies.” Bill was a good friend to Carl teaching him how to fish, helping him make hand lines to fish with. Bill always offered advice about fishing and boating. People are what cruising is all about. The various types and characters make up just how much a particular place is either enjoyed, or not. Cruisers are an odd lot. We travel for the sake of travel itself. We wander the face of the earth in search, not for a better place, but for a new adventure, a look at something we haven’t seen before.

We ended up waiting three days for another weather window, seeing other cruisers stop in the bay to get out of the winds just as we did.
After the check-in process was finished, Puerto Madero was a nice place to visit. The locals were really nice and the town was big enough to shop for food, fuel and get everything we needed.
When we got underway again the Gulf of Tehuantepec was very calm we made the rest of the way through without any weather problems. The last night of the crossing our auto pilot besides he wanted to take a permanent vacation and just quit steering for us. Any cruiser out there understands how much we need auto pilot! Auto is a much needed crew member. Now our watches went to two on two off all night long. With auto you can read go to the bathroom walk around without your stuck at the wheel your whole shift. What a drag.

El Salvador

El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and has the third largest economy, but growth has been minimal in the last few years. Over 6.9 million live in El Salvador and almost 1\3 rd of the population is younger than 15. Many of the people appear European due to the brutal repression of indigenous people many years ago and the lack of Afro-Caribbean influence. Despite their past and the wars, most travelers find Salvadorans are the best part of their visit. They are hard working and very proud of their country’s parks, volcanoes and beaches. El Salvador’s currency is in US dollars. El Salvador’s national food is the fresh pupusas. They are made of masa balls filled with beans, cheese, chicken, pork, or fish then carefully shaped into a tortilla and grilled then served with tomato sauce and cabbage. They were great and only cost about .30 cents each.

We stayed at Barillas Marina in a protected lagoon. Approaching the entrance we had to call ahead to let the Marina know that we were coming, because they have to send out a pilot to guide your boat safely through the 10 mile long channel. We took the marinas bus into San Salvador to go to the market and to a grocery store. The market was overwhelming at first very 3rd world, a little dirty and very crowded. The people were all very nice and appreciated our business. The grocery store was nicely equipped but inside they had 5ft speakers playing real loud music down every other isle.

The next day we had a guard walk us to these locals house that the man has about 50 monkeys living in the trees on his property. He calls out the friendly monkeys names and they come down to meet you, for a piece of banana of course. They were so cute. Most of the cruisers come to visit the monkeys and bring the family food or some clothing because they live so far away from town. It was a real nice experience.

At the marina we net up with two cruisers that we met before in Panama and were heading north also. In this part of Central America when heading north to Mexico we have to watch out for the Tehuantepec winds. People have to wait for a good weather window to pass the Tehuantepec. We now have a good window for the next week or so so we will be leaving for Mexico April 2nd 2009.

NICARAGUA

Spanish is the language spoken here and the currency is the Cordoba, the exchange rate is about 20 to one US dollar. This makes it very affordable to stay for awhile. The people are really friendly and you feel really safe. Nicaragua has more population on the west coast than on the Caribbean side of the country. There is a lot of untouched land here. Heading from Costa Rica we met up with the well known Papagallo winds. They sneak up on you while you’re sailing along doing about 10 to 15 knots. Along come the Papagallo winds hitting you from the north at about 30+ knots all at once. So we had to motor most of the way and keep the sails reefed in. No sailing at night!

Our first port of entry was San Juan del Sur. The bay was always getting the Papagallo wind going through it so it was really hard to take your dinghy to shore without getting really wet. When we entered the bay we noticed a familiar sailboat anchored in the bay. Viking Heart, the rope handlers that we had through the canal, Les & Lea are crewing for Viking Heart. A great reunion it was, we toured the town together. This part of our trip is really lonely most of all the cruisers are heading to Panama. Seeing Les & Lea was really a great treat.
San Juan del Sur is a small Surf town. Lots of young Americans were all over the place, backpackers staying in the hostels having a great time. The streets were dirt or cobblestone. Property is still affordable here. The new government is stable no wars since the 80’s. I really enjoyed our stay and would come back to San Juan del Sur.

The next few stops in Nicaragua were just to sleep, sometimes that was even hard because of the Papagallo wind. We picked Puesta del Sol to exit Nicaragua. There is a nice little Marina called Marina Puesta del Sol. We stayed a few nights at the marina to get some sleep use the Internet and do some laundry. We had to wash the boat because there was so much ocean salt all over with dried in dirt the winds blew in. The marina was real small I think there were only about 10 boats there all together. The ones that were traveling were all going south. The Resort is truly beautiful and the people were great.

Our next stop will be El Salvador it will take us about two days to get there from here. We have decided not to go into Guatemala because they charge too much to enter the country and they mostly cater to the mega yachts. Then we will head toward Mexico.

Costa Rica

We are now in Golfito Costa Rica; the vegetation is mostly the same as in Panama. In the morning we hear Howler monkeys and birds singing, it’s truly beautiful. It feels a lot hotter than in Panama. I guess it’s because there is no breeze in this bay. By 9 in the morning you start to sweat on the boat. Unlike Panama Costa Rica caters to the cruisers. Right on the waterfront in the bay is a place called Tierra Y Mar Yacht Services (owned by former cruisers Tim & Katie) Tierra Y Mar is their old boats name. They have a nice dock for our dinghies, (hard to find in Panama) Whey welcome you as you arrive offering a cool breeze open area to sit and visit or watch TV, showers, beer, Internet, book exchange and laundry service. The place is a cruisers dream. On the top floor in the sitting room they offer paints and their walls so if you want to, you can leave your boats name along with the others that have passed this way. We saw three boats names that we met in Panama. I think that really cool.

The check-in process into the country is fairly complicated, we needed to take a taxi to four different places including the Capitania de Puerto oficina and provide copies of all our documents for the boat at each place. Sailor had no problems thank god. Everyone uses taxis they are all red so you can identify them easily. They are everywhere. The Republic of Costa Rica (pop. 4075,261) about 28% of its land is preserved in national parks, wildlife refuges, wetlands and biosphere reserves, so eco-tourism is one of its biggest industries.

Panama Canal

PANAMA CANAL

When we arrived in Panama we stayed @ Shelter Bay Marina, located in Colon on the Atlantic side. Dick and Terry flew home from Colon. We will miss you. We met a lot of real nice people on the docks. Georgio & Irene from Argo have been through the canal several times. They showed us how to save money by not hireling an agent. The paperwork was fairly easy. We saved $ 600.00 doing the canal paperwork ourselves. Our crossing date is Jan 10, 2009. Ed Barlow one of our friends from CO. flew down to cross the canal with us. He was really great fun. We really enjoyed his company. Lea & Less joined us as line handlers. Thanks for all your help.

Crossing the canal from the Atlantic side takes two days. You are given a time to cross by the advisor; he then boards your boat and helps with instructions to stay safe. There were tires tied along side of our boat with black trash bags wrapped around them to protect our boat. We were tied up to a smaller boat. Cheryl was at the helm Carl, Ed, Lea and Less were the rope handlers. We had to provide all the food and drinks for the crew for both days. Cheryl had to pull the smaller boat into the locks and hold them both still while the line handlers tightened the ropes to keep the boats in the center of the locks. The lock doors are closed and the water enters the lock, lifting us to the next level. There were men on the sides of the locks that walked along side of the boat carrying the ropes to the next lock. There are three locks on each side of the lake. The Gatun Lake is about 35 miles long so we anchored for the night and the advisor left us and a new one showed up the next morning for the rest of the crossing. We had excellent crew no problems at all, real nice advisors. It surely was a chance of a lifetime to experience the Panama Canal. Beautiful jungle views from the lake. Monkeys wake you up in the morning. It was quite the experience. Thanks so much to all that helped out to make this a successful journey.

San Blas Panama

San Blas Islands

The San Blas Islands are a countless number of small beautiful islands, located about 70 miles east of Panama on the Atlantic side. Some islands are habited by the Kuna people, and some uninhabited. The Comarca de San Blas or, Kuna Yale, appears little changed from the times before the Spanish Conquista, a result of the tenacity of the Kuna people. In 1938 the government of Panama granted the Kuna leaders almost autonomous rule in the officially recognized Comarca de San Blas. The traditional hierarchy of tribal leaders on national and village levels has provided the cohesion that makes the 55,000 Kuna one of the strongest nations among indigenous Americans. Most all Kuna people live on the offshore islands, and do all their farming and hunting on the main land also retrieve their drinking water from the streams. The dense jungle on the main land is over whelmed with mosquitoes therefore making it unsafe for living full time.

We sailed from Columbia right to the San Blas Islands just before Christmas. Dick and Terri were still with us. The Kuna are a matriarchal society – women are the traders and hold most financial power. Kuna women create and sell unique “molas” 3 to 5 layers of fabric panels with appliqué and embroidery. When a sailboat arrives at one of these small Kuna islands, the island’s women see you coming and prepare their merchandise then board their small dug-out canoes. They are there waiting as you set anchor. Then they approach your vessel hopping to sell their molas, wrap around skirts and their bead work. In order to visit an island you are required to visit the congreso hut to ask permission from the chiefs before entering. When we arrived there were two chiefs one real old laying in a hammock and one younger. The older one granted us permission and charged us $10.00 US to anchor in the anchorage. This island was named Mormake Tupu (shirt makers) they say that they make the best molas in the San Blas.
We hired a guide to take us onto the mainland to the rainforest jungle for a hike to the waterfalls. We have been to a number of rainforests before but never in the jungle. I saw my first Hollering monkeys. On the path we saw farmers carrying heavy crops on a pole over their shoulders.

Our guide invited us to Mormake Tupu Island for Christmas day. The Kuna people hold a big celebration in the Congreso hut. They all dress up in their tribal outfits and sing and dance. They pass around a calabash bowl filled with homemade wine. The chiefs pass out the wine to the people. They also roll their own cigarettes and put them in a large bowls. Everyone smokes and drinks for celebrations only. Carl wore his Santa suit and gave candy to the island kids. We ate Christmas dinner, chicken and rice for $15.00 US for 4 people. It was a great Christmas, one we won’t forget. Thank you, Dick & Terri for sharing this special event with us.

Colombia

Colombia
(a non-planned stop)

The start of our 5 day 5 night journey from Aruba to Panama was great. We all lounged around in the cockpit, ate 3 course dinners. Nice winds low seas. Mystique had the wind and the current behind her, pushing us 6 to 7 knots. Much like our last passages to Bonaire and Aruba. The second night the seas picked up a little and the winds were about 10 to 15 knots. Nothing to worry about, but still started to get a little rough inside the cabin. By the next morning the winds picked up to 30 to 35 knots and the seas were 10 to 15 feet waves. Everything inside the cabin started to roll back and forth. Things that stayed in place before began to fly around the cabin. Even the fruit was rolling from one side of the boat to the other. Sailor had no safe place to go to be safe. I went down below to try to secure things a bit and safe Sailor. I was tossed from side to side like a rag doll. I was smashed agents the master berths door and it split down the middle. I have the bruises to show for that one!

Carl and Dick were at the helm, and taking over all the watches, they couldn’t move anything the way the sails were set was the way they would have to stay. We were reaching 13 knots of speed without anyway to slow us down. A captain really don’t want to be moving at that speed under these conditions. After hours of this rough weather our autopilot would no longer take the strain and quit. Carl & Dick had to steer the boat by hand the rest of the way. Carl besides to go inland. We were approaching Colombia. Carl viewed the charts and found the closest city was Saint Marta. It took us about 10 hours to get into Santa Marta. The conditions remained the same.
As we approached the mainland it was starting to get dark. Captain Carl called over the VHF “is there anyone in Santa Marta that speaks English?” Optimistic a sailboat in the anchorage answered him back, then guided us safely into the anchorage right next to their boat. The anchorage was well sheltered from the wind and the waves. It was so peaceful that we all prayed to thank God we were safe and then fell deeply asleep.

The next morning we could see the shore. Large skyscrapers lined the shore line. A white sandy beach lay ahead. The whole beach was filled with people on Holiday. There was a inflatable Christmas tree on the beach music was playing, people swimming and paddling little boats all around. They all were so happy. What a place to end up, without any idea where we were going! We couldn’t have planned it better.

This really wasn’t an anchorage, Optimistic and Mystique were the only sailboats in the bay. The people all waved at us and didn’t seam to mind that we were there. We visited Optimistic and found out that they too had to come into Santa Marta to get out of the weather. They arrived at 2:00am not knowing where to go. They had 50 knots of wind as they came into the shelter of this bay. Both boats decided to leave together to go to Cartagena Colombia. It was a overnight crossing. We still had strong winds and high seas, but not nothing like we had before. Dick & Carl fixed the steering, so autopilot worked again. All is well!

Cartagena:

Cartagena is known as the last stop when heading to the San Blas Islands of Panama. They cater to the cruisers and have Marinas and dinghy docks. This mainland also has skyscrapers all along the shoreline with mountains in the background, there was even snow on the top of the highest peak. We went ashore and ate the local cuisine. It was very good and not to expensive. We took a taxi into the Old Town. There was lots of shopping. Terri & I had a blast shopping in all the different shops. There was a beautiful flower district with lots of Christmas shoppers. We really enjoyed the firm ground wile we were there.

The next day we headed out for the San Blas Islands. Seas were low and wind were 15 to 22 knots. Autopilot still working well. I made sure to put everything in the cabin away safely. Nothing hit the floor, no more bruises. Kind of a rough sail but nothing like before. We reached San Blas in 30 hours. Crew is fine just tired.

Colombia

Colombia

Colombia
(a non-planned stop)
The start of our 5 day 5 night journey from Aruba to Panama was great. We all lounged around in the cockpit, ate 3 course dinners. Nice winds low seas. Mystique had the wind and the current behind her, pushing us 6 to 7 knots. Much like our last passages to Bonaire and Aruba. The second night the seas picked up a little and the winds were about 10 to 15 knots. Nothing to worry about, but still started to get a little rough inside the cabin. By the next morning the winds picked up to 30 to 35 knots and the seas were 10 to 15 feet waves. Everything inside the cabin started to roll back and forth. Things that stayed in place before began to fly around the cabin. Even the fruit was rolling from one side of the boat to the other. Sailor had no safe place to go to be safe. I went down below to try to secure things a bit and safe Sailor. I was tossed from side to side like a rag doll. I was smashed agents the master berths door and it split down the middle. I have the bruises to show for that one!
Carl and Dick were at the helm, and taking over all the watches, they couldn’t move anything the way the sails were set was the way they would have to stay. We were reaching 13 knots of speed without anyway to slow us down. A captain really don’t want to be moving at that speed under these conditions. After hours of this rough weather our autopilot would no longer take the strain and quit. Carl & Dick had to steer the boat by hand the rest of the way. Carl besides to go inland. We were approaching Colombia. Carl viewed the charts and found the closest city was Saint Marta. It took us about 10 hours to get into Santa Marta. The conditions remained the same.
As we approached the mainland it was starting to get dark. Captain Carl called over the VHF “is there anyone in Santa Marta that speaks English?” Optimistic a sailboat in the anchorage answered him back, then guided us safely into the anchorage right next to their boat. The anchorage was well sheltered from the wind and the waves. It was so peaceful that we all prayed to thank God we were safe and then fell deeply asleep.
The next morning we could see the shore. Large skyscrapers lined the shore line. A white sandy beach lay ahead. The whole beach was filled with people on Holiday. There was a inflatable Christmas tree on the beach music was playing, people swimming and paddling little boats all around. They all were so happy. What a place to end up, without any idea where we were going! We couldn’t have planned it better.
This really wasn’t an anchorage, Optimistic and Mystique were the only sailboats in the bay. The people all waved at us and didn’t seam to mind that we were there. We visited Optimistic and found out that they too had to come into Santa Marta to get out of the weather. They arrived at 2:00am not knowing where to go. They had 50 knots of wind as they came into the shelter of this bay. Both boats decided to leave together to go to Cartagena Colombia. It was a overnight crossing. We still had strong winds and high seas, but not nothing like we had before. Dick & Carl fixed the steering, so autopilot worked again. All is well!
Cartagena:
Cartagena is known as the last stop when heading to the San Blas Islands of Panama. They cater to the cruisers and have Marinas and dinghy docks. This mainland also has skyscrapers all along the shoreline with mountains in the background, there was even snow on the top of the highest peak. We went ashore and ate the local cuisine. It was very good and not to expensive. We took a taxi into the Old Town. There was lots of shopping. Terri & I had a blast shopping in all the different shops. There was a beautiful flower district with lots of Christmas shoppers. We really enjoyed the firm ground wile we were there.
The next day we headed out for the San Blas Islands. Seas were low and wind were 15 to 22 knots. Autopilot still working well. I made sure to put everything in the cabin away safely. Nothing hit the floor, no more bruises. Kind of a rough sail but nothing like before. We reached San Blas in 30 hours. Crew is fine just tired.