I hope everyone had a really wonderful holiday this year. I still prefer white Christmases, even after all these many years in my beloved California and now in the tropics. I have spent the last four Christmases as follows; 2010-Ensenada, Mexico 2011-La Cruz, Mexico 2012-Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, and 2013-Isla Espiritu Santo, Panama. Who knows where I will be next year?
We had what is called a "pavi-pollo." I have no idea what it really is - the locals told me it was a cross between a chicken and a turkey. It looked like either the world's biggest chicken or the world's smallest turkey. It did taste like a turkey-ish chicken, and came out beautifully if I do say so myself. The gravy was world class. By the way, "pavo" is Spanish for turkey while "pollo" is of course Spanish for chicken. Our friends came for dinner and it was really really nice to have them as guests. They have been in Ecuador for several months, so it is great to reconnect and catch up.
There were about ten boats here for awhile, and we were invited for little soirees on two of them. One of them is a large catamaran with ten people on it - and that includes six kids under eight years old. They are all siblings, too. They have an older sister who is like a junior mother to them, and it is wonderful to see everyone getting along so well. The kids are fearless in the water, and really know how to handle themselves on the boat. The parents are home schooling them, and there is a grandmother and uncle aboard as well. We have met a bunch of boats with kids on them, and the kids all seem really well adjusted, smart, and friendly. I have been impressed. It seems like a good life for a kid.
I have been really reflective lately, because it is the end of the year and I always use this as a time to think about stuff that happened during the last year, what went right, what went wrong, what I want to change, what I want to stay the same. All and all, things have gone well this year and it has been a good year, boat repairs notwithstanding. Mike and I were talking about how there are some things that used to send us into tizzies, and now we do them without any drama or even thinking about it. Things like anchoring are now second nature. If the boat gets turned around when there is no wind, we can easily fix it. Reefing the sails is nothing to us. I am at the helm all the time, no problem.
I miss everyone especially at this time of year. Maybe someday I will be able to time it so I can spend a Christmas with family somewhere. Too bad everyone is spread out geographically. That makes it hard to plan so as to see everyone, without spending the gnp of a small country to fly around the US. However, where there is a will there is a way, however cliched that may be, so if I want to do it bad enough I will come up with something. However, visitors are always welcome!
Ever since I saw it, I have been trying to get that Mickelson 50 footer out of my mind, to no avail. I want that boat. Even Mike wants it. We are trying to talk ourselves out of even considering getting a bigger boat. But it was really something, a fabulous boat in every way that we could tell, and we want it. I love this boat, and I feel guilty towards Magda Jean for even considering this. The only good thing is that we could not do anything about it for at least a year, and so that prevents any precipitous actions, at least I hope so. It gives us time to think about what we really want to do. After all, we have just gotten MJ right where we want her, and I hate to think of starting all over again - but I do have a year to ruminate about this, so get ready, the whining and fussing and obsessing will not stop any time soon.
Although I am not using it now, I am really enjoying playing with my new Galaxy computer - it is a notebook, and all you have to do is touch the screen or swish your finger over it to get it to do things. However, it has a small keyboard, and for lots of hardcore typing, this traditional laptop works better. At least until I get used to using the new one.
Well, I had better get going and start getting things together for supper later on. We are having soup made from the mystery bird (I would love to see one running around the barnyard) with dumplings. The soup also came out wonderful, and that has not always been the case with making soup out of the spent turkey carcass. It seems like a lot of cooking things came together this year - a million ways to cook fish, never failing bread, new vegetables, and now the soup. Now all I have to do is not get fat.
"Happy happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!" (Charles Dickens)
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Saturday, December 28, 2013
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Flip Floppers
So okay, we are not in Costa Rica. Nor are we on the way. We are back in Panama City. As usual, we didn't even come close to following our carefully laid plans. There were (as usual) a number of really really good reasons for changing plans. They are as follows:
1. I already described our immigration problems, with a horribly out of date zarpe (zahr pay) the document that tells the place you arrive where you last left. It is a requirement and they won't let you in without it. Ours was six months old, and said we were going to Ecuador. We were told horror stories about people being refused entry because of dated or otherwise deficient paperwork, and we had no desire to have problems like that. We heard that Costa Rica was one of the most difficult. We were told that the age of the zarpe could be a problem even in Ecuador. So we were in the position of having checked out of the country but never actually leaving. We decided the only thing to do was to return to Panama City, turn ourselves in (so to speak) and pay whatever penalty for being in the country for six months without doing anything about it. So yesterday we took care of that. It turned out to be no problem at all. We had a big story all planned (with much input from other cruisers) but there were very few questions. It turns out that our cruising permit (which allows the boat to be in the country) was still valid, so they just updated our info and charged us nothing. Then we headed off to immigration (to make it okay for us to be in the country) and that was even easier. We only had to pay $210, which is less than we paid originally. We didn't even get scolded, and when asked, I just said we had left for Ecuador but never made it due to boat problems. So now all is well and I feel like a complete nitwit for allowing this to happen. Never again!
2. Our alternator (the device that allows the engine to charge the batteries that give us light and water pressure and stuff like that) stopped working, and we need a new one. Of course Mike wants a bigger and better one, and he also wants the old one rebuilt so we have a spare. The engine is fine without it, and between the solar and the wind power, as well as the Honda generator (if all else fails) we can make all the power we need until the new one can be located. It is not a problem, but needs to be solved and Panama City is a great place to solve problems like this.
3. We have been like babies with our days and nights mixed up in the sense that we have been here in the bad season rather than the good season, which is just starting. Additionally, the good season for sailing to Ecuador will begin this spring. We love the islands here, and after dodging lightning all summer, it would be wonderful to enjoy them without the fear. After all, there have been at least five boats that I know of for sure that were hit this summer. Every time there was a huge crack of thunder that shook the boat in a horribly concussive manner, I felt like a cat that had just used up another life. We vowed never to spend another lightning season in this area, so if we stay here and enjoy the dry season, we will be on track for Ecuador in March.
4. The islands here are wonderful and we have barely begun to explore them. There is an area south towards Colombia with rivers to explore - so we do not want to leave yet.
There you have it. These are our plans as of today.
Things are pretty good here. We bought two new computers - these little Galaxy things that are really amazing. They were our Christmas presents to ourselves. There are a number of boats spending Christmas at one of our favorite anchorages, and we plan to join them. I was thinking about where I have had the last Christmases - one in Cabo San Lucas, one in Puerto Vallarta, and one in Guatemala. We are just starting to realize we have been at this for three years! While there have certainly been the proverbial ups and downs, I would not trade this life for anything. I do miss my family, especially my son, but there are plans in the works to visit in May and June, and in the future I want to plan for more visits home. So that will end things for today - it is time for the SSB radio net. Feliz Navidad!
"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family." (Jim Butcher)
1. I already described our immigration problems, with a horribly out of date zarpe (zahr pay) the document that tells the place you arrive where you last left. It is a requirement and they won't let you in without it. Ours was six months old, and said we were going to Ecuador. We were told horror stories about people being refused entry because of dated or otherwise deficient paperwork, and we had no desire to have problems like that. We heard that Costa Rica was one of the most difficult. We were told that the age of the zarpe could be a problem even in Ecuador. So we were in the position of having checked out of the country but never actually leaving. We decided the only thing to do was to return to Panama City, turn ourselves in (so to speak) and pay whatever penalty for being in the country for six months without doing anything about it. So yesterday we took care of that. It turned out to be no problem at all. We had a big story all planned (with much input from other cruisers) but there were very few questions. It turns out that our cruising permit (which allows the boat to be in the country) was still valid, so they just updated our info and charged us nothing. Then we headed off to immigration (to make it okay for us to be in the country) and that was even easier. We only had to pay $210, which is less than we paid originally. We didn't even get scolded, and when asked, I just said we had left for Ecuador but never made it due to boat problems. So now all is well and I feel like a complete nitwit for allowing this to happen. Never again!
2. Our alternator (the device that allows the engine to charge the batteries that give us light and water pressure and stuff like that) stopped working, and we need a new one. Of course Mike wants a bigger and better one, and he also wants the old one rebuilt so we have a spare. The engine is fine without it, and between the solar and the wind power, as well as the Honda generator (if all else fails) we can make all the power we need until the new one can be located. It is not a problem, but needs to be solved and Panama City is a great place to solve problems like this.
3. We have been like babies with our days and nights mixed up in the sense that we have been here in the bad season rather than the good season, which is just starting. Additionally, the good season for sailing to Ecuador will begin this spring. We love the islands here, and after dodging lightning all summer, it would be wonderful to enjoy them without the fear. After all, there have been at least five boats that I know of for sure that were hit this summer. Every time there was a huge crack of thunder that shook the boat in a horribly concussive manner, I felt like a cat that had just used up another life. We vowed never to spend another lightning season in this area, so if we stay here and enjoy the dry season, we will be on track for Ecuador in March.
4. The islands here are wonderful and we have barely begun to explore them. There is an area south towards Colombia with rivers to explore - so we do not want to leave yet.
There you have it. These are our plans as of today.
Things are pretty good here. We bought two new computers - these little Galaxy things that are really amazing. They were our Christmas presents to ourselves. There are a number of boats spending Christmas at one of our favorite anchorages, and we plan to join them. I was thinking about where I have had the last Christmases - one in Cabo San Lucas, one in Puerto Vallarta, and one in Guatemala. We are just starting to realize we have been at this for three years! While there have certainly been the proverbial ups and downs, I would not trade this life for anything. I do miss my family, especially my son, but there are plans in the works to visit in May and June, and in the future I want to plan for more visits home. So that will end things for today - it is time for the SSB radio net. Feliz Navidad!
"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family." (Jim Butcher)
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Costa Rica Bound
Tomorrow we leave Isla Espiritu Santo and begin our voyage towards Costa Rica. I am not sure how long it will take us - to be honest, I have not even checked the mileage. We know our general route, and that will do for now. Tonight we will likely get on the chart plotter and play around wit our course, and then I will have a better idea of how far it is. OK, I just asked Mike and he said it is about 460 miles from here to the part of Costa Rica we are going to. So if we averaged four knots per hour, it will take us 115 hours, or four and three quarter days. Of course it is likely to take at least two days longer because we will not average 4 knots an hour. The winds have been very light for several weeks now, and that is not likely to change. There are some squalls and small areas of tropical disturbances that will move us faster than four knots, but those will be short lived, usually less than three to four hours. So I am guessing about six days at sea. I am looking forward to it. I have missed my night watches, seeing the sun come up and listening to Mike snore from the cabin. I always feel really, really good when I have the helm and Mike is sleeping peacefully. It has taken us a long time to get to the point where he can really relax and sleep while we are underway, and not have to constantly worry if things are going ok on deck.
We have caught a ton of fish on this stay here at Espiritu Santo and have eaten fish almost every other day, as well as pickling four jars of it for later on. Mike loves it and told his mom it tastes like wine herring snacks. He says I make it even better than that. It is great to snack on, like sardines or smoked oysters. I especially love smoked oysters, and if there is an open can of them, I will eat them all, without a care for anyone else in the room. I like them that much. Actually, my favorite seafood of all time is clams. Steamed clams in garlic butter and white wine. With hot crusty bread to sop up the left over sauce. With a cold beer.
Right now there is laundry drying, bedding airing, and Mike is cleaning the side of the hull. I finished the breakfast dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and did some preparation for leaving tomorrow, mostly battening things down. I have never really had a problem with anything coming loose and flying around causing problems, but no matter how I try, there is always something that will end up on the floor. Nothing that matters or makes a problem, but I am looking forward to the day when I finally get it right.
Tomorrow we are heading out, but we will be stopping overnight about 16 miles from here to meet another boat. This is actually a better jumping off point to begin the Costa Rica voyage than where we are. When leaving the bay, you have to go way south and then shoot around a point, and head west before you can begin the northwest direction to Costa Rica. The point we have to go around in the infamous Punta Mala that gave us difficulties when we first came down to Panama from El Salvador. That was the first and only time that high seas and winds caused us to turn back and try again another day. This time we are coming the other way around, and we have been told that if we reach the entrance to the Bay of Panama about 35 miles off of Punta Mala on an outgoing tide, the tide and currents will give you a real boost going around the point. So that is what we are shooting for, and the other anchorage is a straight shot to that area. Plus, one of the other controllers on the Panama Pacific Net (the SSB radio net I help with) whom we have never met in person (only on the radio) invited us to come over there and meet them before we leave. So we are going to do that, and I am looking forward to it. I am really enjoying the net, especially now that people are actually starting to move around and check in with us. I was told it was a good way to get to know people and to help out the cruising community. And I was told correctly.
So anyway, that is about it for now. We are going to do some more fishing today, as soon as the tide comes in, and hopefully we can catch enough for us and to give some to our new friends tomorrow. Last night I cooked a fish whole (except for the head, the frying pan would not hold it head and all) for the first time, and it came out great. I stuffed the fish with onions, and lightly floured it with seasoned flour, then fried it. It came right off the bone, no problems. Oh - we found out that some friends from El Salvador will be in the same area of Costa Rica that we will be in at the same time, so we are looking forward to seeing them as w That happens a lot out here - you meet someone in Mexico and then three years later run into them in Panama or someplace else. You usually remember the boat name and say "Hey! You're Sunny Days! We met you in Mexico!" It is a lot of fun. When we were in Guatemala, we ran into some people we had met almost two years before in Mazatlan.
The next post I write will be written underway!
"I was equal to the gods., except for the mortal part." (Euripides)
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We have caught a ton of fish on this stay here at Espiritu Santo and have eaten fish almost every other day, as well as pickling four jars of it for later on. Mike loves it and told his mom it tastes like wine herring snacks. He says I make it even better than that. It is great to snack on, like sardines or smoked oysters. I especially love smoked oysters, and if there is an open can of them, I will eat them all, without a care for anyone else in the room. I like them that much. Actually, my favorite seafood of all time is clams. Steamed clams in garlic butter and white wine. With hot crusty bread to sop up the left over sauce. With a cold beer.
Right now there is laundry drying, bedding airing, and Mike is cleaning the side of the hull. I finished the breakfast dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and did some preparation for leaving tomorrow, mostly battening things down. I have never really had a problem with anything coming loose and flying around causing problems, but no matter how I try, there is always something that will end up on the floor. Nothing that matters or makes a problem, but I am looking forward to the day when I finally get it right.
Tomorrow we are heading out, but we will be stopping overnight about 16 miles from here to meet another boat. This is actually a better jumping off point to begin the Costa Rica voyage than where we are. When leaving the bay, you have to go way south and then shoot around a point, and head west before you can begin the northwest direction to Costa Rica. The point we have to go around in the infamous Punta Mala that gave us difficulties when we first came down to Panama from El Salvador. That was the first and only time that high seas and winds caused us to turn back and try again another day. This time we are coming the other way around, and we have been told that if we reach the entrance to the Bay of Panama about 35 miles off of Punta Mala on an outgoing tide, the tide and currents will give you a real boost going around the point. So that is what we are shooting for, and the other anchorage is a straight shot to that area. Plus, one of the other controllers on the Panama Pacific Net (the SSB radio net I help with) whom we have never met in person (only on the radio) invited us to come over there and meet them before we leave. So we are going to do that, and I am looking forward to it. I am really enjoying the net, especially now that people are actually starting to move around and check in with us. I was told it was a good way to get to know people and to help out the cruising community. And I was told correctly.
So anyway, that is about it for now. We are going to do some more fishing today, as soon as the tide comes in, and hopefully we can catch enough for us and to give some to our new friends tomorrow. Last night I cooked a fish whole (except for the head, the frying pan would not hold it head and all) for the first time, and it came out great. I stuffed the fish with onions, and lightly floured it with seasoned flour, then fried it. It came right off the bone, no problems. Oh - we found out that some friends from El Salvador will be in the same area of Costa Rica that we will be in at the same time, so we are looking forward to seeing them as w That happens a lot out here - you meet someone in Mexico and then three years later run into them in Panama or someplace else. You usually remember the boat name and say "Hey! You're Sunny Days! We met you in Mexico!" It is a lot of fun. When we were in Guatemala, we ran into some people we had met almost two years before in Mazatlan.
The next post I write will be written underway!
"I was equal to the gods., except for the mortal part." (Euripides)
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Monday, December 2, 2013
Really, Really Hot
It is, even though the temperature in the cabin is only 90 degrees with 59% humidity. That shouldn't be so bad, but for some reason it is feels oppressive. There is absolutely no hint of a breeze, so the air is completely still and the water is as smooth as a bathtub. I think it is time for a swim.
We finally ran out of rain water so it is time to make water. The rainy season is officially over, so no use expecting more. It was fun while it lasted.
The alternator (the new one Mike put in) is still not charging properly, but Mike has a new idea. He was sort of discouraged, but I have yet to see anything he can't make work, assuming he has the necessary tools and all. He discovered something about doing something with the inverter, but has not yet tried it.
We saw another boat here yesterday and for the first time I am really jealous. It was a 50 foot Mickelson (or however that name is spelled) and is just amazing. I want it. There is a stern cabin with a huge bed, and so much more. It had an all wood interior like ours, with a big open deck despite the staysail - it is a cutter-rigged sloop. TO top it off, the people on the boat were awesome and we were sorry they could only stay a day, they have a schedule to keep. It is great to meet people you really like and feel like you click with, so I am going to try and maintain contact. We gave them all the fish we caught yesterday afternoon - and then went out and caught two more, so they stopped feeling bad about us giving them all our fish. We are picking most of it, as it makes great snacks while underway. There is one large filet left that I will fix for dinner. Two or three days ago we caught several more, gave some to another boat, and then Mike fixed it with garlic and lime and it was so good I thought I might die. Both of us are getting really good at fixing fish in a variety of ways.
We are slowly but surely getting ready to leave for Costa Rica - hopefully in about four days, if all goes as planned. Both of us are looking forward to getting underway being at sea for several days, all that goes with that, even the night watches.
I am feeling absolutely slothful, so I am going to end this for now, and jump into the water.
"Plough deep, while Sluggards sleep; and you shall have Corn to sell and to keep." (Benjamin Franklin)
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We finally ran out of rain water so it is time to make water. The rainy season is officially over, so no use expecting more. It was fun while it lasted.
The alternator (the new one Mike put in) is still not charging properly, but Mike has a new idea. He was sort of discouraged, but I have yet to see anything he can't make work, assuming he has the necessary tools and all. He discovered something about doing something with the inverter, but has not yet tried it.
We saw another boat here yesterday and for the first time I am really jealous. It was a 50 foot Mickelson (or however that name is spelled) and is just amazing. I want it. There is a stern cabin with a huge bed, and so much more. It had an all wood interior like ours, with a big open deck despite the staysail - it is a cutter-rigged sloop. TO top it off, the people on the boat were awesome and we were sorry they could only stay a day, they have a schedule to keep. It is great to meet people you really like and feel like you click with, so I am going to try and maintain contact. We gave them all the fish we caught yesterday afternoon - and then went out and caught two more, so they stopped feeling bad about us giving them all our fish. We are picking most of it, as it makes great snacks while underway. There is one large filet left that I will fix for dinner. Two or three days ago we caught several more, gave some to another boat, and then Mike fixed it with garlic and lime and it was so good I thought I might die. Both of us are getting really good at fixing fish in a variety of ways.
We are slowly but surely getting ready to leave for Costa Rica - hopefully in about four days, if all goes as planned. Both of us are looking forward to getting underway being at sea for several days, all that goes with that, even the night watches.
I am feeling absolutely slothful, so I am going to end this for now, and jump into the water.
"Plough deep, while Sluggards sleep; and you shall have Corn to sell and to keep." (Benjamin Franklin)
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Thursday, November 28, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving
I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving Day. I plan to spend mine fishing as soon as it cools down a bit - it is super hot right now, and the sun is just beating down. It is a beautiful day here as usual.
By the way, the engine problem did turn out to be the alternator. Mike took it out, and when we turned the engine on, the noise was completely gone. He then replaced it with a spare we bought in Mazatlan a couple of years ago. It turned out that it did not fit exactly - one used 3/16 inch bolts while another used 1/4 inch bolts. Really? Why is it that nothing ever seems to work with anything else? I have spent many hours so frustrated over the lack of a screw or bolt necessary for project completion that I have almost been in tears. I mean, think about it - we go into a store that has nothing but screws, bolts, and the like. There are rows and rows of little bins - all sizes, shapes, different kinds of metal, and on and on. But guess what? They will never have the kind we need. They will have everything else, but not that. For want of a nail a kingdom was lost, and all that, I know. But it never fails. Anyway, this time, however, Mike figured out how to make do and got the replacement alternator installed, although it took all day, and I felt bad for him, being folded up like a fan in that hot little engine room. So we tested it, and it seems to work generally, except it is not charging as much as it should be. I think it is a bad connection, and if Mike fools around with it for awhile, I am willing to bet he gets it working fine. As it is, it will not cause us to slink back to Panama City for repairs. I am proud of his mechanical abilities as always, and frankly a bit awe stricken. I consider myself to be pretty smart and accomplished, but I have to admit my particular talents are useless out here. Mike has never changed an alternator before, nor has he done a quarter of the things he has done on this boat. He could charge people to deal with their refrigeration systems if he wanted to, he has learned that much. The only thing he really doesn't do is hard core diesel engine repair, but I think that is not because he can't, but because he does not have all the necessary tools.
On this particular Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for my friends and family, for the fact that I don't have to work for a living, and for having the opportunity to do this - to travel by sea, in my own boat, with nothing forcing my hand into action but my own desires and nature.
"He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea." (Henry David Thoreau)
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By the way, the engine problem did turn out to be the alternator. Mike took it out, and when we turned the engine on, the noise was completely gone. He then replaced it with a spare we bought in Mazatlan a couple of years ago. It turned out that it did not fit exactly - one used 3/16 inch bolts while another used 1/4 inch bolts. Really? Why is it that nothing ever seems to work with anything else? I have spent many hours so frustrated over the lack of a screw or bolt necessary for project completion that I have almost been in tears. I mean, think about it - we go into a store that has nothing but screws, bolts, and the like. There are rows and rows of little bins - all sizes, shapes, different kinds of metal, and on and on. But guess what? They will never have the kind we need. They will have everything else, but not that. For want of a nail a kingdom was lost, and all that, I know. But it never fails. Anyway, this time, however, Mike figured out how to make do and got the replacement alternator installed, although it took all day, and I felt bad for him, being folded up like a fan in that hot little engine room. So we tested it, and it seems to work generally, except it is not charging as much as it should be. I think it is a bad connection, and if Mike fools around with it for awhile, I am willing to bet he gets it working fine. As it is, it will not cause us to slink back to Panama City for repairs. I am proud of his mechanical abilities as always, and frankly a bit awe stricken. I consider myself to be pretty smart and accomplished, but I have to admit my particular talents are useless out here. Mike has never changed an alternator before, nor has he done a quarter of the things he has done on this boat. He could charge people to deal with their refrigeration systems if he wanted to, he has learned that much. The only thing he really doesn't do is hard core diesel engine repair, but I think that is not because he can't, but because he does not have all the necessary tools.
On this particular Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for my friends and family, for the fact that I don't have to work for a living, and for having the opportunity to do this - to travel by sea, in my own boat, with nothing forcing my hand into action but my own desires and nature.
"He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea." (Henry David Thoreau)
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Happy Thanksgiving
I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving Day. I plan to spend mine fishing as soon as it cools down a bit - it is super hot right now, and the sun is just beating down. It is a beautiful day here as usual.
By the way, the engine problem did turn out to be the alternator. Mike took it out, and when we turned the engine on, the noise was completely gone. He then replaced it with a spare we bought in Mazatlan a couple of years ago. It turned out that it did not fit exactly - one used 3/16 inch bolts while another used 1/4 inch bolts. Really? Why is it that nothing ever seems to work with anything else? I have spent many hours so frustrated over the lack of a screw or bolt necessary for project completion that I have almost been in tears. I mean, think about it - we go into a store that has nothing but screws, bolts, and the like. There are rows and rows of little bins - all sizes, shapes, different kinds of metal, and on and on. But guess what? They will never have the kind we need. They will have everything else, but not that. For want of a nail a kingdom was lost, and all that, I know. But it never fails. Anyway, this time, however, Mike figured out how to make do and got the replacement alternator installed, although it took all day, and I felt bad for him, being folded up like a fan in that hot little engine room. So we tested it, and it seems to work generally, except it is not charging as much as it should be. I think it is a bad connection, and if Mike fools around with it for awhile, I am willing to bet he gets it working fine. As it is, it will not cause us to slink back to Panama City for repairs. I am proud of his mechanical abilities as always, and frankly a bit awe stricken. I consider myself to be pretty smart and accomplished, but I have to admit my particular talents are useless out here. Mike has never changed an alternator before, nor has he done a quarter of the things he has done on this boat. He could charge people to deal with their refrigeration systems if he wanted to, he has learned that much. The only thing he really doesn't do is hard core diesel engine repair, but I think that is not because he can't, but because he does not have all the necessary tools.
On this particular Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for my friends and family, for the fact that I don't have to work for a living, and for having the opportunity to do this - to travel by sea, in my own boat, with nothing forcing my hand into action but my own desires and nature.
"He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea." (Henry David Thoreau)
----------
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By the way, the engine problem did turn out to be the alternator. Mike took it out, and when we turned the engine on, the noise was completely gone. He then replaced it with a spare we bought in Mazatlan a couple of years ago. It turned out that it did not fit exactly - one used 3/16 inch bolts while another used 1/4 inch bolts. Really? Why is it that nothing ever seems to work with anything else? I have spent many hours so frustrated over the lack of a screw or bolt necessary for project completion that I have almost been in tears. I mean, think about it - we go into a store that has nothing but screws, bolts, and the like. There are rows and rows of little bins - all sizes, shapes, different kinds of metal, and on and on. But guess what? They will never have the kind we need. They will have everything else, but not that. For want of a nail a kingdom was lost, and all that, I know. But it never fails. Anyway, this time, however, Mike figured out how to make do and got the replacement alternator installed, although it took all day, and I felt bad for him, being folded up like a fan in that hot little engine room. So we tested it, and it seems to work generally, except it is not charging as much as it should be. I think it is a bad connection, and if Mike fools around with it for awhile, I am willing to bet he gets it working fine. As it is, it will not cause us to slink back to Panama City for repairs. I am proud of his mechanical abilities as always, and frankly a bit awe stricken. I consider myself to be pretty smart and accomplished, but I have to admit my particular talents are useless out here. Mike has never changed an alternator before, nor has he done a quarter of the things he has done on this boat. He could charge people to deal with their refrigeration systems if he wanted to, he has learned that much. The only thing he really doesn't do is hard core diesel engine repair, but I think that is not because he can't, but because he does not have all the necessary tools.
On this particular Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for my friends and family, for the fact that I don't have to work for a living, and for having the opportunity to do this - to travel by sea, in my own boat, with nothing forcing my hand into action but my own desires and nature.
"He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea." (Henry David Thoreau)
----------
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Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Isla Espiritu Santo Redux
(Note) There is a possibility that the post entitled "Easing Out of Panama" either posted twice or out of sequence.)
We are currently anchored off Espiritu Santo, our Panamanian home as far as I am concerned. We were alone when we got here three days ago, but now have two other boats here with us. It is just as beautiful here as ever, and I am glad to be back. Again, I understand why we have stayed here so long, and will likely have to fight the urge to stay even longer than we have planned.
Today we sort of re-upholstered the seat that serves as a cover for the life raft that lives in the cockpit. The old cover was disintegrating, so we put a new piece of vinyl over it. We will never be hired as upholsterers, but for a hand made job, it is not bad and will serve the purpose well. It goes nicely with our hand-sewn bimini top. We might as well keep the homespun theme going! Tomorrow we plan to relace some isinglass in the dodger. We really need to replace the whole dodger, but right now is not a good time. We can fix the really messed up part, and that will do until we have a professional re-do all our canvas.
Between here and Mogo Mogo, where we spent two days after leaving Panama City, we caught a nice sierra, and he has been feeding us for two days now. Tonight is the last of the ceviche. It was fantastic - for those interested, the recipe can be found in "The Joy of Cooking", and they spell it "seviche." Awesome recipe! DO not forget the green olives! We skip the part about letting the fish sit in the citrus by itself until ready to serve, and simply put all the ingredients together at once and let it sit for at least 3-4 hours in the fridge before eating. It is better the next day, if you can wait that long.
Since I am posting this via SSB radio, I am not sure what I have reported previously and I can't check. And since I have practically no short term memory any more, I may repeat myself. Bear with me. We had to motor all the way from Panama City to Mogo Mogo, but we got to do some actual sailing between Mogo Mogo and Espiritu Santo. It didn't last but a couple of hours, and our progress was slow, but it felt great to feel the wind pull the boat along and not hear any engine noise. The engine is not working properly in that it is not sounding right, but all the gauges indicate that the oil pressure is fine, there are no problems with over heating, so we plan to use it as little as we can until we get to Costa Rica and can have it checked out. We could go back to Panama City, but heaven knows it is time to move on!
We have had a little rain since we have left the city, but not enough to do more than make it crystal clear how dirty one's boat can get anchored off a large city - dust, dirt and God knows what in the air. One more decent rain and the deck should look nice again. When we get to Costa Rica and the marina, I plan to take advantage of the dockside water hose and give this boat a good washing and waxing.
Anyway, there is not a lot of real news to report here in the islands in Panama Bay - just observing the periodic bird and fish drama, watching the clouds gather and then dissipate, listening to thunder and lightning and being really happy it is at a safe distance, and being really grateful I get to be here and see all this before something happens to it, like development, or losing the beaches to rising sea levels, or whatever can happen. There is talk that Panama might slip back into dictatorship, but I try real hard not to have any involvement whatsoever in local politics in other countries, regardless of my personal sympathies - which are always based on people I have come to care about. I just hope everything will be okay. There is an election coming up in May, and I have been told things always get tense when this occurs. Of course none of this ever effects tourists, but when you spend a lot of time somewhere and get to know and care for people, it is hard not to want to involve oneself. I guess that is just human nature.
So that will be it for now. It is starting to rain, and I need to help Mike close up the overhead hatches. I still love it when it rains, I never take it for granted. Too many years in the Southern California desert, I guess.
"If you smile at me I will understand because that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language" (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)
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We are currently anchored off Espiritu Santo, our Panamanian home as far as I am concerned. We were alone when we got here three days ago, but now have two other boats here with us. It is just as beautiful here as ever, and I am glad to be back. Again, I understand why we have stayed here so long, and will likely have to fight the urge to stay even longer than we have planned.
Today we sort of re-upholstered the seat that serves as a cover for the life raft that lives in the cockpit. The old cover was disintegrating, so we put a new piece of vinyl over it. We will never be hired as upholsterers, but for a hand made job, it is not bad and will serve the purpose well. It goes nicely with our hand-sewn bimini top. We might as well keep the homespun theme going! Tomorrow we plan to relace some isinglass in the dodger. We really need to replace the whole dodger, but right now is not a good time. We can fix the really messed up part, and that will do until we have a professional re-do all our canvas.
Between here and Mogo Mogo, where we spent two days after leaving Panama City, we caught a nice sierra, and he has been feeding us for two days now. Tonight is the last of the ceviche. It was fantastic - for those interested, the recipe can be found in "The Joy of Cooking", and they spell it "seviche." Awesome recipe! DO not forget the green olives! We skip the part about letting the fish sit in the citrus by itself until ready to serve, and simply put all the ingredients together at once and let it sit for at least 3-4 hours in the fridge before eating. It is better the next day, if you can wait that long.
Since I am posting this via SSB radio, I am not sure what I have reported previously and I can't check. And since I have practically no short term memory any more, I may repeat myself. Bear with me. We had to motor all the way from Panama City to Mogo Mogo, but we got to do some actual sailing between Mogo Mogo and Espiritu Santo. It didn't last but a couple of hours, and our progress was slow, but it felt great to feel the wind pull the boat along and not hear any engine noise. The engine is not working properly in that it is not sounding right, but all the gauges indicate that the oil pressure is fine, there are no problems with over heating, so we plan to use it as little as we can until we get to Costa Rica and can have it checked out. We could go back to Panama City, but heaven knows it is time to move on!
We have had a little rain since we have left the city, but not enough to do more than make it crystal clear how dirty one's boat can get anchored off a large city - dust, dirt and God knows what in the air. One more decent rain and the deck should look nice again. When we get to Costa Rica and the marina, I plan to take advantage of the dockside water hose and give this boat a good washing and waxing.
Anyway, there is not a lot of real news to report here in the islands in Panama Bay - just observing the periodic bird and fish drama, watching the clouds gather and then dissipate, listening to thunder and lightning and being really happy it is at a safe distance, and being really grateful I get to be here and see all this before something happens to it, like development, or losing the beaches to rising sea levels, or whatever can happen. There is talk that Panama might slip back into dictatorship, but I try real hard not to have any involvement whatsoever in local politics in other countries, regardless of my personal sympathies - which are always based on people I have come to care about. I just hope everything will be okay. There is an election coming up in May, and I have been told things always get tense when this occurs. Of course none of this ever effects tourists, but when you spend a lot of time somewhere and get to know and care for people, it is hard not to want to involve oneself. I guess that is just human nature.
So that will be it for now. It is starting to rain, and I need to help Mike close up the overhead hatches. I still love it when it rains, I never take it for granted. Too many years in the Southern California desert, I guess.
"If you smile at me I will understand because that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language" (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)
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Chores, Fish, and Island Living
We finished the isinglass replacement yesterday, and my fingers are sore from poking myself with the big needles that are used with the awl. It looks great, and but for the light colored thread on the maroon canvas, no one would know without looking close that we did it by hand. I guess it isn't really isinglass, rather it is thick plastic, but too bad, that is what I call it and I am not sure why, except for that line in the song from Oklahoma! about the surrey with the fringe on top - "with isinglass curtains that can roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather." I have based a lot of opinions on things I have heard in songs, and often it has helped me. I can always remember the civil wars years because of the verses in "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". I know that President Garfield was shot by a man named Charlie Giteau, because of a Johnny Cash song. And of course we all know that Jesse James was shot by "the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard." But I digress.
It absolutely poured rain early this morning - I woke up because one of the hatches is right over my face, so I wake up right away of it starts raining. The deck is now sparkling clean. Today the plan is to (gulp) test the engine to see if the bad sound is coming from the large alternator. Mike says if that is the case, no big problem. We can run the engine no problem without that alternator, and we do have a spare (if it fits). We have a generator to charge the batteries if needs be, and he says it is not hard to remove an alternator. So we are really, really hoping Mike is right and the alternator has gone bad. We had trouble with it about a year and a half ago not charging properly, but Mike cleaned all the connections and it started working fine again. So maybe that is the problem. The engine itself seems to run just fine even with the noise - there is no overheating, the gauges look fine, the oil pressure is normal. Wish us luck!
I am pleased because I now have two other people helping me with the Panama Pacific SSB net. I have been doing it by myself for several months, and I had only one other person for several months before that. I don't remember if I already described what the net is, but here goes again anyway. They have these cruiser's nets on the SSB radio. They meet at different times, for different locations. People can go on the radio and report their positions, describe what weather they are experiencing, get info on weather from other people out there and people with access to weather and conditions information, see what other people out there are up to, keep in touch with others, and a host of other things. The Panama Pacific net handles boats from southernmost Mexico all the way to Ecuador and the Galapagos. I have talked to people underway from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. It is fun, but it got a little wearing doing every single day. But now I think I will only have two to three days a week, and I am pleased with that. I liked doing the net because I got to meet a lot of people and felt like I was doing a service to the cruising community. I still do.
So other than that, there is not a whole lot of news to report. As usual, it is beautiful here. We saw a lot of fish drama yesterday - several pretty big fish jumping out of the water like skipping stones, obviously being chased by something even bigger. The jumpers would have been a perfect size for us. Some panga guys came around day before yesterday selling lobsters, but they looked awfully small, so we chose to pass.
By they way, our fumigation efforts were not for naught - although we have not had a roach problem since the original gassing and follow up, we would continue to see them periodically. This last time we have not seen one now for several days. The ones we saw a few days after the bombing did not look very healthy, sort of staggering and very easy to kill. Then there were none. I am not kidding myself - they are still there somewhere, but in their last throes. We will win this war, and are now winning all the battles as well. It also seems to be getting a little less humid as the season changes from the rainy season to the dry season - I know this because I am cleaning up less mold.
No traditional Thanksgiving for us - I tried to find a turkey breast or leg or something, because our oven is not big enough for a turkey, and we could not deal well with a whole turkey anyway. But all the store had were large whole turkeys. But that is ok - I have not had a real one for three years now. Same with Christmas. I am hoping we will make it to Costa Rica by Christmas, but who knows. I guess it doesn't really matter. My carefully thought out plan for the next year is shot anyway - I am not sure why I continue to make plans that we never follow through on. We are even considering spending another year here in Central America - we do like it that much. I think Mike never wants to leave these islands.
There is a radio station in Panama City (that we can pick up out here) that is in English and is dedicated to the expat community here. It is fun to listen to, and right now they have started playing a lot of Christmas carols. For that matter, so do the regular Panamanian stations, and the other day I heard "Jingle Bell Rock" sung in Spanish. Wild. But I do like hearing "Silent Night" in German and "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Latin. They just seem to be supposed to be sung that way. Too bad I lost my cassette tape of the Neville Brothers doing Christmas songs - there was a solo by Aaron Neville of "Ave Maria" that was incredibly beautiful.
Well, Mike is up now and we need to start thinking about this engine thing - we need to get it over with and know one way or the other what is up with the engine. Right now we get to relax with our morning coffee, and plan the day. As usual. Oh Oh, Mike just disappeared into the engine compartment!
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." (Aldo Leopold)
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It absolutely poured rain early this morning - I woke up because one of the hatches is right over my face, so I wake up right away of it starts raining. The deck is now sparkling clean. Today the plan is to (gulp) test the engine to see if the bad sound is coming from the large alternator. Mike says if that is the case, no big problem. We can run the engine no problem without that alternator, and we do have a spare (if it fits). We have a generator to charge the batteries if needs be, and he says it is not hard to remove an alternator. So we are really, really hoping Mike is right and the alternator has gone bad. We had trouble with it about a year and a half ago not charging properly, but Mike cleaned all the connections and it started working fine again. So maybe that is the problem. The engine itself seems to run just fine even with the noise - there is no overheating, the gauges look fine, the oil pressure is normal. Wish us luck!
I am pleased because I now have two other people helping me with the Panama Pacific SSB net. I have been doing it by myself for several months, and I had only one other person for several months before that. I don't remember if I already described what the net is, but here goes again anyway. They have these cruiser's nets on the SSB radio. They meet at different times, for different locations. People can go on the radio and report their positions, describe what weather they are experiencing, get info on weather from other people out there and people with access to weather and conditions information, see what other people out there are up to, keep in touch with others, and a host of other things. The Panama Pacific net handles boats from southernmost Mexico all the way to Ecuador and the Galapagos. I have talked to people underway from the Galapagos to the Marquesas. It is fun, but it got a little wearing doing every single day. But now I think I will only have two to three days a week, and I am pleased with that. I liked doing the net because I got to meet a lot of people and felt like I was doing a service to the cruising community. I still do.
So other than that, there is not a whole lot of news to report. As usual, it is beautiful here. We saw a lot of fish drama yesterday - several pretty big fish jumping out of the water like skipping stones, obviously being chased by something even bigger. The jumpers would have been a perfect size for us. Some panga guys came around day before yesterday selling lobsters, but they looked awfully small, so we chose to pass.
By they way, our fumigation efforts were not for naught - although we have not had a roach problem since the original gassing and follow up, we would continue to see them periodically. This last time we have not seen one now for several days. The ones we saw a few days after the bombing did not look very healthy, sort of staggering and very easy to kill. Then there were none. I am not kidding myself - they are still there somewhere, but in their last throes. We will win this war, and are now winning all the battles as well. It also seems to be getting a little less humid as the season changes from the rainy season to the dry season - I know this because I am cleaning up less mold.
No traditional Thanksgiving for us - I tried to find a turkey breast or leg or something, because our oven is not big enough for a turkey, and we could not deal well with a whole turkey anyway. But all the store had were large whole turkeys. But that is ok - I have not had a real one for three years now. Same with Christmas. I am hoping we will make it to Costa Rica by Christmas, but who knows. I guess it doesn't really matter. My carefully thought out plan for the next year is shot anyway - I am not sure why I continue to make plans that we never follow through on. We are even considering spending another year here in Central America - we do like it that much. I think Mike never wants to leave these islands.
There is a radio station in Panama City (that we can pick up out here) that is in English and is dedicated to the expat community here. It is fun to listen to, and right now they have started playing a lot of Christmas carols. For that matter, so do the regular Panamanian stations, and the other day I heard "Jingle Bell Rock" sung in Spanish. Wild. But I do like hearing "Silent Night" in German and "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Latin. They just seem to be supposed to be sung that way. Too bad I lost my cassette tape of the Neville Brothers doing Christmas songs - there was a solo by Aaron Neville of "Ave Maria" that was incredibly beautiful.
Well, Mike is up now and we need to start thinking about this engine thing - we need to get it over with and know one way or the other what is up with the engine. Right now we get to relax with our morning coffee, and plan the day. As usual. Oh Oh, Mike just disappeared into the engine compartment!
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." (Aldo Leopold)
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Saturday, November 23, 2013
Easing out of Panama
We have been really busy the last few weeks - getting everything ready to head out. We (mike)fixed all the things that were broken, as well as a few things that weren't, but were heading for it. The boat is in great shape. We spent the last couple of days provisioning - we must have enough stuff on this boat to feed us for six months if we fished and played our cards right. We still need to get fresh vegetables, but plan to do that the day before we leave.
I am eager to get out of here. First of all, I do not have the temperament to be an illegal alien. It is nerve wracking for me. Any kind of a truly criminal lifestyle is something I could never tolerate. My nerves won't take it. Another reason is that it is simply time to move on. I am eager to see Costa Rica, as well as being eager to get out to sea again. I miss it. I was up really early this morning, early enough to see the aftermath of the early sunrise. It made me realize I miss my late night/early morning watches, when I pass the time by guessing exactly when I will see the first glimpse of the actual sun rising over the horizon. The colors are amazingly beautiful, with the water turning from pink to lilac and finally to blue.
it has also gotten even hotter and more humid and I am sick to death of cleaning mold off every surface. It isn't hard to do, but it is a pain to keep doing it over and over again. I was happy to discover that nothing was hurting the clothing in the hanging lockers and shelves - I had visions of everything we don't wear often being totally ruined by mold and/or mildew. Thank goodness that did not come to pass - although I suppose it would have been a good excuse to buy new clothes.
In fact, one of the things I do miss about not living a regular life on land is buying and wearing cute clothing and shoes. I once had over 45 pairs of shoes, with a large proportion of them being variations of the black pump theme. Now I wear crocs and flip flops, if any shoes at all. I have a pair of hiking boots, which I avoid at all costs because I now hate heavy things on my feet. I also have a pair of Keen water sandals, that are pretty heavy duty and are worn for things like hikes where you have to do through water. Which happens a lot here in the tropical jungles. I did keep one pair of black open-toes ankle strapped heels, because they go well with the one good dress I brought. I never want to wear anything nice, even when we leave the boat to go out. It is so damn hot and humid that anything nice is ruined from sweat the first time I wear it. I am waiting to go back to the states to wear some of the gorgeous blouses I bought in Maya Land.
So what else is new? Really, not a lot. We just live sort of day to day, getting things done and trying not to sweat to death. Every time I wipe the sweat from my face so I am not blinded by all the water flowing down, I remember how in junior high in Wisconsin, it was a terrible insult to walk up to someone and say "Sweat much"? Or to call someone a "sweat." Not a "sweathog" - that came later with the TV show, but just a "sweat." Now if someone asked me that I would tell them they had no idea what sweating really was until they spent some time down here with me. Sometimes I feel water dripping on my feet and I realize it is running off my face as I lean over cleaning something or putting something away. But the funny thing is, it doesn't bother me like it used to. Not really. I never thought this would happen, but it has. I think I could handle bikram yoga now.
So the plan is to leave sometime next week. We want to do one more load of laundry, and say good bye to all our friends here. We have to go to the produce market. And there will likely be a few things that crop up requiring a trip to some store or other. We are having some friends over to the boat tomorrow evening - they have the same kind of boat as Magda Jean is, a Valiant 40. Theirs is about ten years older than ours is, and there are some design differences, but it is the same boat all right. We Valiant owners are a special breed, all right.
Anyway, I had better get going. Time to do something around this boat. Guess what - I just heard thunder. That must mean the daily rain shower is on its way. Hopefully we can skip the lightning this time.
"Oh but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." (Bob Dylan)
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I am eager to get out of here. First of all, I do not have the temperament to be an illegal alien. It is nerve wracking for me. Any kind of a truly criminal lifestyle is something I could never tolerate. My nerves won't take it. Another reason is that it is simply time to move on. I am eager to see Costa Rica, as well as being eager to get out to sea again. I miss it. I was up really early this morning, early enough to see the aftermath of the early sunrise. It made me realize I miss my late night/early morning watches, when I pass the time by guessing exactly when I will see the first glimpse of the actual sun rising over the horizon. The colors are amazingly beautiful, with the water turning from pink to lilac and finally to blue.
it has also gotten even hotter and more humid and I am sick to death of cleaning mold off every surface. It isn't hard to do, but it is a pain to keep doing it over and over again. I was happy to discover that nothing was hurting the clothing in the hanging lockers and shelves - I had visions of everything we don't wear often being totally ruined by mold and/or mildew. Thank goodness that did not come to pass - although I suppose it would have been a good excuse to buy new clothes.
In fact, one of the things I do miss about not living a regular life on land is buying and wearing cute clothing and shoes. I once had over 45 pairs of shoes, with a large proportion of them being variations of the black pump theme. Now I wear crocs and flip flops, if any shoes at all. I have a pair of hiking boots, which I avoid at all costs because I now hate heavy things on my feet. I also have a pair of Keen water sandals, that are pretty heavy duty and are worn for things like hikes where you have to do through water. Which happens a lot here in the tropical jungles. I did keep one pair of black open-toes ankle strapped heels, because they go well with the one good dress I brought. I never want to wear anything nice, even when we leave the boat to go out. It is so damn hot and humid that anything nice is ruined from sweat the first time I wear it. I am waiting to go back to the states to wear some of the gorgeous blouses I bought in Maya Land.
So what else is new? Really, not a lot. We just live sort of day to day, getting things done and trying not to sweat to death. Every time I wipe the sweat from my face so I am not blinded by all the water flowing down, I remember how in junior high in Wisconsin, it was a terrible insult to walk up to someone and say "Sweat much"? Or to call someone a "sweat." Not a "sweathog" - that came later with the TV show, but just a "sweat." Now if someone asked me that I would tell them they had no idea what sweating really was until they spent some time down here with me. Sometimes I feel water dripping on my feet and I realize it is running off my face as I lean over cleaning something or putting something away. But the funny thing is, it doesn't bother me like it used to. Not really. I never thought this would happen, but it has. I think I could handle bikram yoga now.
So the plan is to leave sometime next week. We want to do one more load of laundry, and say good bye to all our friends here. We have to go to the produce market. And there will likely be a few things that crop up requiring a trip to some store or other. We are having some friends over to the boat tomorrow evening - they have the same kind of boat as Magda Jean is, a Valiant 40. Theirs is about ten years older than ours is, and there are some design differences, but it is the same boat all right. We Valiant owners are a special breed, all right.
Anyway, I had better get going. Time to do something around this boat. Guess what - I just heard thunder. That must mean the daily rain shower is on its way. Hopefully we can skip the lightning this time.
"Oh but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." (Bob Dylan)
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
The Watery Route to Costa Rica Has Begun - Hopefully!
Yes, that's right. We finally left Panama City yesterday and are now anchored at Islas Chapera and Mogo Mogo. We had a wonderful trip here - until we hit something. As best as we can tell, it was a tangle of plastic and tree branches and that sort of thing. We were able to back up the engine and get some of it off, but there is still something there and we need to dive under the boat today and see what is up. There was definitely a problem - the engine acted weird, and there was a leak in the area where the shaft to the propeller goes through the hull. Mike managed with an incredible amount of trouble to fix it as soon as we were safely anchored. It was almost impossible to get to - he was twisted up like a pretzel while I held the flashlight and dripped sweat all over everywhere. It also took a new tool we didn't even know we had, but Mike remembered seeing it and wondering what it was for. Anyway, I am hoping against hope there is nothing wrong with the engine. I DO NOT want to have to go back to Panama City for repairs - we have been there long enough and I want to move on. However, we are still close to PC and if things have gone seriously south with the engine, we might have to. I am hoping that at worst we can wait until we get to Costa Rica. There is a haul out facility where we plan to stay.
Other than possible engine problems (too depressing to dwell on now) everything is great. The islands are wonderful and I am glad to be back. Our plan is to spend a week or so here, and catch some fish to beef up our stores. We plan to smoke it and pickle it. I haven't fished for a while now and I miss it. Both Mike and I have decided to give up sport fishing, as we have caught enough big fancy fish and now concentrate only on catching what we want to eat. But I have to keep reminding myself when I get greedy for a really big fish. I just want the photo op, and that is certainly NOT a good reason to kill a fish that is so big you can't eat it all.
I really enjoyed Panama City, but it is time to move on. We will likely stop by again when we go to Ecuador. Of course the timeline I have been going on and on about is completely shot. Except for two family events in May and June in the US that I will be going to no matter what happens with this boat, and hopefully a visit from a dear friend in July, I am going to stop making anything but the vaguest of plans. We never do what we tell everyone we are going to. Not purposely, but things just come up and then everything gets thrown out of whack. I am not unhappy about it, it is just something that happens in the cruising life, for lack of a better term. I think it has taken these three years on the move to learn that lesson. I knew better than to make any really firm plans - for example, planning to be somewhere on a certain date. A lot of people get into trouble trying to adhere to a strict schedule. That is when people roll the dice and take chances with weather they really shouldn't take, and were they not on that strict schedule, it is likely they would choose to change their departure time. So be it.
As I write this, we are the only boat here in the anchorage. There is a military station nearby, but all we can see of it is an antenna, never any people. Their boats seem to go a different direction instead of right through the anchorage. So I can skinny dip if I want to. (A side note: there are some definite advantages to skinny dipping over wearing a bathing suit. First, it feels better. Second, there are no wet bathing suits to dry. Both are good reasons, especially the first. I have never been a person who feels comfortable running around naked, but when it is this private and this nice, and it feels so good, why not indulge myself? That was probably TMI, but again, so be it. But it is gorgeous here. The water is clear, the islands are green, the sand is a lovely golden, and the fish are jumping all around the boat. I had my coffee in the cockpit as the sun was coming up. It can't get much better!
"True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do." Victor Hugo
Other than possible engine problems (too depressing to dwell on now) everything is great. The islands are wonderful and I am glad to be back. Our plan is to spend a week or so here, and catch some fish to beef up our stores. We plan to smoke it and pickle it. I haven't fished for a while now and I miss it. Both Mike and I have decided to give up sport fishing, as we have caught enough big fancy fish and now concentrate only on catching what we want to eat. But I have to keep reminding myself when I get greedy for a really big fish. I just want the photo op, and that is certainly NOT a good reason to kill a fish that is so big you can't eat it all.
I really enjoyed Panama City, but it is time to move on. We will likely stop by again when we go to Ecuador. Of course the timeline I have been going on and on about is completely shot. Except for two family events in May and June in the US that I will be going to no matter what happens with this boat, and hopefully a visit from a dear friend in July, I am going to stop making anything but the vaguest of plans. We never do what we tell everyone we are going to. Not purposely, but things just come up and then everything gets thrown out of whack. I am not unhappy about it, it is just something that happens in the cruising life, for lack of a better term. I think it has taken these three years on the move to learn that lesson. I knew better than to make any really firm plans - for example, planning to be somewhere on a certain date. A lot of people get into trouble trying to adhere to a strict schedule. That is when people roll the dice and take chances with weather they really shouldn't take, and were they not on that strict schedule, it is likely they would choose to change their departure time. So be it.
As I write this, we are the only boat here in the anchorage. There is a military station nearby, but all we can see of it is an antenna, never any people. Their boats seem to go a different direction instead of right through the anchorage. So I can skinny dip if I want to. (A side note: there are some definite advantages to skinny dipping over wearing a bathing suit. First, it feels better. Second, there are no wet bathing suits to dry. Both are good reasons, especially the first. I have never been a person who feels comfortable running around naked, but when it is this private and this nice, and it feels so good, why not indulge myself? That was probably TMI, but again, so be it. But it is gorgeous here. The water is clear, the islands are green, the sand is a lovely golden, and the fish are jumping all around the boat. I had my coffee in the cockpit as the sun was coming up. It can't get much better!
"True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do." Victor Hugo
Monday, November 4, 2013
Time for a Change
Things here are generally fine. We have been doing a lot of the never-ceasing boat chores that keep popping up - as I noted before, the water maker is fixed. We have installed a new battery bank, and we are praying that Mike has the fridge fixed. That is a tricky job, and it can get unbearable exp0ensive and time consuming if you have to start ordering parts and whatnot from the US. Tomorrow we are bombing the boat once again for bugs, and staying overnight in a hotel. We really have pretty much licked the roaches, but we do see one every now and then, and even one roach is too many roaches as far as I am concerned. I figure we just keep putting out the poison, and every now and then bombing the place, and we will have a complete victory. I NEVER EVER want to deal with a problem like we had before, never, never, ever again.
While we are in the hotel, we will get our last big load of laundry done before we leave Panama City, especially the sheets and towels. We will use the hotel internet to download some more movies to watch. When we return to the boat Thursday morning, we will be ready to provision the boat and then head out. Much as I like it here, it is time for a change. And as I previously stated, we have immigration issues.
I am actually pretty ashamed of this situation, and although I don't think we'd get in too much trouble over it - likely a fine of some sort - I am not real comfortable and want to get the hell out of Dodge. Here is what happened: We checked out of Panama on June 27, planning to head to Ecuador. We stopped in the Las Perlas Islands, where we became entranced and just didn't leave. Weeks turned unto months, and finally we ran out of food and stuff and had to return to Panama City to get more provisions. OK, that sounds good. Again we head out, only to again get caught up in the Perlas. Then - we started to have problems with the water maker and the fridge. The shipping of the water maker was a huge hassle, with it taking a month and a half to get here. So here we are, in November, 5 months after formally leaving the country. And to top it off, when we originally left, we planned to go to Ecuador. So our zarpe (an exit document) says we are heading to Ecuador as of five months ago! What a mess! We kept putting off checking back into the country because we figured it would only be another week or so, and we didn't want to pay all the check in money for such a short time. Oh well - we will see what happens. It makes me nervous, I have no temperament for any kind of real crime. So I am an illegal alien. For real. I will never do anything like this again.
Otherwise, there is not a lot of news, really. Every time I sit down to write a post, I start playing on the internet, or playing solitaire. Lazy, so lazy. But things are good, we are happy and well, and hopefully we will be heading out soon - to Costa Rica and the insane luxury of a well-appointed marina.
"Parenting is the greatest of the hum-a-few-bars-and-I'll-fake-it skills." (Stephen King)
While we are in the hotel, we will get our last big load of laundry done before we leave Panama City, especially the sheets and towels. We will use the hotel internet to download some more movies to watch. When we return to the boat Thursday morning, we will be ready to provision the boat and then head out. Much as I like it here, it is time for a change. And as I previously stated, we have immigration issues.
I am actually pretty ashamed of this situation, and although I don't think we'd get in too much trouble over it - likely a fine of some sort - I am not real comfortable and want to get the hell out of Dodge. Here is what happened: We checked out of Panama on June 27, planning to head to Ecuador. We stopped in the Las Perlas Islands, where we became entranced and just didn't leave. Weeks turned unto months, and finally we ran out of food and stuff and had to return to Panama City to get more provisions. OK, that sounds good. Again we head out, only to again get caught up in the Perlas. Then - we started to have problems with the water maker and the fridge. The shipping of the water maker was a huge hassle, with it taking a month and a half to get here. So here we are, in November, 5 months after formally leaving the country. And to top it off, when we originally left, we planned to go to Ecuador. So our zarpe (an exit document) says we are heading to Ecuador as of five months ago! What a mess! We kept putting off checking back into the country because we figured it would only be another week or so, and we didn't want to pay all the check in money for such a short time. Oh well - we will see what happens. It makes me nervous, I have no temperament for any kind of real crime. So I am an illegal alien. For real. I will never do anything like this again.
Otherwise, there is not a lot of news, really. Every time I sit down to write a post, I start playing on the internet, or playing solitaire. Lazy, so lazy. But things are good, we are happy and well, and hopefully we will be heading out soon - to Costa Rica and the insane luxury of a well-appointed marina.
"Parenting is the greatest of the hum-a-few-bars-and-I'll-fake-it skills." (Stephen King)
Friday, October 25, 2013
Fixing Things
Fixing things is what we have been doing for the past couple of weeks. It is a never ending part of living on a cruising sailboat. Things just break, or wear out, or corrode, or you discover that after three years of use, they were not put together correctly in the first place. Thank goodness Mike can fix things.
First thing we needed to fix was (again!) the water maker. The main pump stopped working. The company we bought it from graciously sent a replacement, which UPS promptly sent flying back and forth between California (where it is built) and Florida (where our shipping agent is located). It went back and forth three times without being properly delivered. No one knows why. The UPS tracking page was cryptic. Finally, after almost a month in transit, it was delivered. The odd thing was, there was another package mailed at the same time from the same shipper, that arrived in Miami with no problems. Anyway, Mike got it installed, so we have a water maker again. Of course we have not needed it because it has been raining a lot, so we are drinking rain water.
After that was handled, Mike turned his attention to the fridge, which has a leak somewhere. He bought all this fairly expensive fridge-fixing equipment, and had at it. He took out a piece of copper piping, and replaced it. Sounds easy but it was not - he had to use a braising iron and stuff like that. It seems to be working fine now but Mike is not satisfied - he wants to tear the whole system out and put it back together in a slightly different way. Big job - but he wants to do it, so who am I to stop him?
Mike also decided that we needed a new battery bank, so he arranged to have that happen as well. The plan is for the switch to occur on Wednesday of next week. Then we should be free to return to the islands for a week or so, and finally on to Costa Rica! I am looking forward to a change of scene, and we plan to stay at a full service marina, with a pool and all that good stuff.
So we have been busy here, and it has also been raining a lot, so we have not left the boat and done much. My kindle needs some new books. I did re-read both "This Side of Paradise" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" both of which I loved of course. Before that, I read some Booker T. Washington ("Up From Slavery") and then a bunch of silly stuff I got on the kindle for free. I have some stuff I can re-read, of course, but I need something new. Time to take it up to the little mini-mart, where if I buy a beer I can use their wireless for free. The kind we have on the boat works with a stick, which can't be used by the kindle. It needs what I refer to as "free range wireless."
I love it when it rains, even though it means we are stuck on the boat as who wants to take a dinghy ride through choppy waves and rain. Not fun. But I like it. It sounds nice, and I feel snug and safe within the little wooden cabin. Especially with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, depending on the time of day. I like to look across at all the other boats, and see how a curtain of rain blocks my view of the shore. The birds and hunkered down, but the fish are still jumping and doing what they do. There is a school of thought that says fishing is best right after a rain.
Anyway, not a really exciting post, I realize. But things are not always that exciting. I did have to go to the dentist, and I hope things are better, at least it does not hurt now. My experiences with medicine and dentistry since I have left the US have all been good.
This is it for today. Have a great day!
"I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place." (Anne Tyler)
First thing we needed to fix was (again!) the water maker. The main pump stopped working. The company we bought it from graciously sent a replacement, which UPS promptly sent flying back and forth between California (where it is built) and Florida (where our shipping agent is located). It went back and forth three times without being properly delivered. No one knows why. The UPS tracking page was cryptic. Finally, after almost a month in transit, it was delivered. The odd thing was, there was another package mailed at the same time from the same shipper, that arrived in Miami with no problems. Anyway, Mike got it installed, so we have a water maker again. Of course we have not needed it because it has been raining a lot, so we are drinking rain water.
After that was handled, Mike turned his attention to the fridge, which has a leak somewhere. He bought all this fairly expensive fridge-fixing equipment, and had at it. He took out a piece of copper piping, and replaced it. Sounds easy but it was not - he had to use a braising iron and stuff like that. It seems to be working fine now but Mike is not satisfied - he wants to tear the whole system out and put it back together in a slightly different way. Big job - but he wants to do it, so who am I to stop him?
Mike also decided that we needed a new battery bank, so he arranged to have that happen as well. The plan is for the switch to occur on Wednesday of next week. Then we should be free to return to the islands for a week or so, and finally on to Costa Rica! I am looking forward to a change of scene, and we plan to stay at a full service marina, with a pool and all that good stuff.
So we have been busy here, and it has also been raining a lot, so we have not left the boat and done much. My kindle needs some new books. I did re-read both "This Side of Paradise" and "The Beautiful and the Damned" both of which I loved of course. Before that, I read some Booker T. Washington ("Up From Slavery") and then a bunch of silly stuff I got on the kindle for free. I have some stuff I can re-read, of course, but I need something new. Time to take it up to the little mini-mart, where if I buy a beer I can use their wireless for free. The kind we have on the boat works with a stick, which can't be used by the kindle. It needs what I refer to as "free range wireless."
I love it when it rains, even though it means we are stuck on the boat as who wants to take a dinghy ride through choppy waves and rain. Not fun. But I like it. It sounds nice, and I feel snug and safe within the little wooden cabin. Especially with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, depending on the time of day. I like to look across at all the other boats, and see how a curtain of rain blocks my view of the shore. The birds and hunkered down, but the fish are still jumping and doing what they do. There is a school of thought that says fishing is best right after a rain.
Anyway, not a really exciting post, I realize. But things are not always that exciting. I did have to go to the dentist, and I hope things are better, at least it does not hurt now. My experiences with medicine and dentistry since I have left the US have all been good.
This is it for today. Have a great day!
"I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place." (Anne Tyler)
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Costs of Things and So On
We are in Panama City, and have been for a couple of weeks now. In that time, I have visited two doctors and a dentist. The doctors were seen because my elbow swelled up with a sac of fluid on it, and I went to a GP who referred me to an orthopedist. The orthopedist told me I could have it drained, but it was likely to go away by itself. Having no desire to be cut on, and experiencing no pain whatsoever, I elected to wait and see, and lo and behold it IS going away, just like he said it would. Total cost for both appointments: $110.00. Then I got a REALLY bad toothache and had to see a dentist. He ended up removing an old filling (probably the oldest one I still have that hasn't turned into a root canal ), got rid of some decay, and refilled the tooth. He also fixed this denture I have that never fit right. All of that for a whopping $60.00. And all three offices were clean, there was no waiting time, and the equipment is exactly the same as that used by my doctors and dentists in the US. Since I left the US almost three years ago, I have seen doctors in Mexico and dentists in El Salvador, and now both here. I have had no problems with getting affordable, good care down here.
Our replacement water pump has traveled many miles to get here. It was "returned to sender"' no less than two separate times, for reasons only UPS can fathom. I can't even blame it on international shipping issues, because it never even makes it to the address of our shipper in Miami. Two packages were originally sent, both to the exact same address. One made it without a hitch, and the other has been traveling from San Diego to Florida (once making it as far as Fort Lauderdale before it was turned back) since early September. It finally arrived in Miami, and our shipper has promised to deliver tomorrow. I sure hope so, but I now have no faith and will not believe it until I see it
The day before yesterday I finally cooked the jack cravalle the way I learned in El Salvador, from our friend and landlord Santos's mother. Although I have eaten hers several times and found it delicious, and followed her around like a tail for an entire morning taking notes on the process, I had not yet made it myself. I was worried I would not be able to turn that awful tasting fish into something good. Well, the recipe is accurate and the dish was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I am going to make empanadas out of it, and those will be to die for.
We have to eat up as much of our frozen food as we can, because Mike needs to fix the fridge. He spent a small fortune and bought some equipment just for that purpose. It is the sort of thing we may \not need to use often, but if he can fix the fridge ourselves, it makes us that much more self sufficient. Besides, it is hard to find someone to work on these boat fridges, and when you do find someone, it is very expensive. And other people need help periodically, and Mike could pick up some extra change if he wanted to. But I know him and he would fix stuff for free. He has already determined the fridge has a leak, and knows approximately where it is, and I believe he will fix it. Once that is done, and the water maker is back up to snuff, we will go back to the islands and then off to Costa Rica. Or at least that is the plan so far.
Otherwise, we have been simply getting things done, visiting medical personnel, and just kind of winding up our stay here in Panama. I am looking forward to seeing a new place, but I really like it here and feel like I could stay here happily. So who knows? No pressure, no schedule.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Our replacement water pump has traveled many miles to get here. It was "returned to sender"' no less than two separate times, for reasons only UPS can fathom. I can't even blame it on international shipping issues, because it never even makes it to the address of our shipper in Miami. Two packages were originally sent, both to the exact same address. One made it without a hitch, and the other has been traveling from San Diego to Florida (once making it as far as Fort Lauderdale before it was turned back) since early September. It finally arrived in Miami, and our shipper has promised to deliver tomorrow. I sure hope so, but I now have no faith and will not believe it until I see it
The day before yesterday I finally cooked the jack cravalle the way I learned in El Salvador, from our friend and landlord Santos's mother. Although I have eaten hers several times and found it delicious, and followed her around like a tail for an entire morning taking notes on the process, I had not yet made it myself. I was worried I would not be able to turn that awful tasting fish into something good. Well, the recipe is accurate and the dish was delicious. Absolutely delicious. I am going to make empanadas out of it, and those will be to die for.
We have to eat up as much of our frozen food as we can, because Mike needs to fix the fridge. He spent a small fortune and bought some equipment just for that purpose. It is the sort of thing we may \not need to use often, but if he can fix the fridge ourselves, it makes us that much more self sufficient. Besides, it is hard to find someone to work on these boat fridges, and when you do find someone, it is very expensive. And other people need help periodically, and Mike could pick up some extra change if he wanted to. But I know him and he would fix stuff for free. He has already determined the fridge has a leak, and knows approximately where it is, and I believe he will fix it. Once that is done, and the water maker is back up to snuff, we will go back to the islands and then off to Costa Rica. Or at least that is the plan so far.
Otherwise, we have been simply getting things done, visiting medical personnel, and just kind of winding up our stay here in Panama. I am looking forward to seeing a new place, but I really like it here and feel like I could stay here happily. So who knows? No pressure, no schedule.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't." (Eleanor Roosevelt)
Saturday, September 21, 2013
On Tipping and Such
Since we've been on this adventure, I have been at loggerheads with some of my fellow cruisers over the issue of tipping and paying for things in general. I have been told in no uncertain terms that I pay too much for things and I tip too much. Some people have actually gotten a teeny bit belligerent about it. I have no intentions to change my ways, but I find this issue interesting.
I pay what I think the item or service is worth to me. I hate to haggle, finding it unseemly. If the price is more than I want to pay, I simply leave the store. Now sometimes they come running after me with a new price, and if that price is right, I will pay it. But I rarely ever object to the price being asked, because it is way less than I would pay at home, and I think everyone needs to make a living. If I think the handbag I want to buy is worth the ten dollars they are asking, I will happily pay it. I am not going to try and argue a few bucks away. I hate dealing with money anyway, except to spend it. It makes me nervous. I still have not entirely gotten over being happy and relieved when the ATM actually coughs up my cash, even though it has been years since I have been in any financial straits. Anyway, it is my money and I can spend it as I please.
The other issue is tipping. I have been told that my "over tipping" is bad because (a)the recipients will not respect me and (b)it will spoil the recipients, who will then expect everyone to tip the way I do. ReallY? Those are the stupidest arguments I have ever heard.
First, I was a waitress who depended on tips to supplement my minimum wage salary. When I got a big tip, I NEVER sneered at the tipper. Far from it. I instead was deeply happy and would hustle to make sure they were seated in my station when they came in the next time, and I gave them the best service I possibly could. And I certainly did not expect that the next customer would do the same thing. Sure, some people always seemed to tip better than others. Elderly people were notoriously bad tippers, although they would hand you your fifty cents with a big smile, and I always thought it was because they still believed fifty cents was a good amount. They were not being cheap, but having lived through the Great Depression, things looked different to them. Bartenders were awesome tippers - because they themselves often depend on tipping. But I did not expect every customer I had to be the same. Some elderly people were wonderful tippers and some bartenders were cheapskates. But never did I think one big tip meant I was going to get the same thing every time. I do not think people down here think any differently. I will never accept the argument that I am "spoiling" the people. They aren't children.
Now cruisers in general have a reputation for being cheap and trying to spend as little money as they possibly can. Many of them are living off of savings, and can only cruise as long as that holds out. Then they have to return to the US or Canada and work again and save another cruising kitty. I can understand wanting that to last as long as possible, but that is not my situation - I have a pension. All I have to do is live within my means. But all the people who provide services for us are simply trying to earn a living, and if I can afford what they are charging and feel the value for the money is there, I am not going to haggle just because I can.
OK, that is off my chest. If I want to take my money and throw it in the street, it is my business and no one else's.
Yesterday we went fishing and I caught four fish - a small sierra (we had it for breakfast today, it was fabulous), a small snapper (given to friends on another boat), a large needle fish (given to friends on a different boat), and finally a big (8-9 lbs) golden trevally. That one we kept, as it will make four meals for us. Some of it has been frozen, and some of it will be eaten tonight and tomorrow. The fish today (the sierra, aka Spanish Mackerel, not to be confused with the cat food quality mackerel) was merely gutted, the head and tail removed, and then cooked whole on a baking sheet on the grill. Mike put some seasonings in the body cavity, and it was so tender that it literally fell of the bones, leaving a whole fish skeleton on the serving plate. We call it Pescado Rogelio, after our friend Rogelio in El Salvador who taught Mike to cook them like that. Mike, his friend Ron, and Rogelio would take the dinghy out into the mangrove jungle, use a big net, and catch and cook fish right on the beach. With the skin on, you cook one side of the fish, then turn it over and cook the other side. It is amazingly good, and there is little to no waste, as there is when you filet a fish. Plus since it is cooked outside on the grill (a special boat grill that attaches to the stern rail and has its own little propane tank attached) the cabin does not get hot. We also cooked the homemade corn tortillas on the same baking sheet on the grill for the same reason, as well as the fact you can cook more tortillas at once on the grill than I can on the stove, so less propane is used and less heat generated. And today, it is HOT. There is no breeze at all, and I am abjectly grateful that someone somewhere decided to invent fans. (An aside here. I have historically had real difficulties with heat. Now, it is no big deal to have the cabin at 85 degrees. It is actually 90 degrees in here now, and bearable with my fan going. I would never have tolerated that in San Diego, and there is was a dry heat. Here it is humid. I guess that is called becoming acclimatized.) So the fishing was really fun, and it felt good going to our neighbor boats here in the anchorage with my catch. They both seemed pretty happy about it.
We have not had anymore rain since we were able to fill the tanks, which is surprising because this is supposed to be the rainy season here, with rain supposed to come almost every day. That is why there are so few cruisers in Panama this time of year. But for every day it does not rain, it IS a day with no chance of being struck by lightning. We have only heard of one actual injury to someone whose boat was struck, and it was a very minor injury (no medical treatment necessary) but the damage to the boats is unreal. It often ruins the engine and the entire electrical system. And a lot of cruisers do not carry insurance. We do, so if something happened, we would not face financial ruin, but it would be an enormous hassle and I do not want it to happen. I went my whole life without meeting anyone whose dwelling was struck by lightning, and now I personally know at least six boats that have suffered through this, and heard of many more. It was not something I ever thought much about before.
We are out of beer, but have plenty of wine so we won't suffer. I am sorry to tell the following to anyone reading this who may be an oenophile, but we put our cabernet and our pinot noir and all our other wines in the refrigerator. I realize this may be some kind of sacrilege, but so be it. We are also getting low on coffee, and I think I can hold out one more week. When the coffee goes, we must head to Panama City. But we found out that our water maker parts have been resent to the agent in Miami yesterday, which means it will be there in a few days. After it gets there, I figure another week to arrive here in Panama. Then off to Costa Rica, unless something else happens to make us change our plans. Hopefully that will not happen, as I am getting ready for a change. It has been wonderful here, but it is time for something new.
So that is pretty much it for now. Mike is taking an afternoon nap, and I am going to read a book. Cheers!
"The man who is wise does not defend himself with lies. Liars are never believed, forsooth - even when liars tell the truth." (Aesop)
P.S. Buffy, if you read this, can you send me an email at wdf5496@sailmail.com? I lost your email address . . .
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I pay what I think the item or service is worth to me. I hate to haggle, finding it unseemly. If the price is more than I want to pay, I simply leave the store. Now sometimes they come running after me with a new price, and if that price is right, I will pay it. But I rarely ever object to the price being asked, because it is way less than I would pay at home, and I think everyone needs to make a living. If I think the handbag I want to buy is worth the ten dollars they are asking, I will happily pay it. I am not going to try and argue a few bucks away. I hate dealing with money anyway, except to spend it. It makes me nervous. I still have not entirely gotten over being happy and relieved when the ATM actually coughs up my cash, even though it has been years since I have been in any financial straits. Anyway, it is my money and I can spend it as I please.
The other issue is tipping. I have been told that my "over tipping" is bad because (a)the recipients will not respect me and (b)it will spoil the recipients, who will then expect everyone to tip the way I do. ReallY? Those are the stupidest arguments I have ever heard.
First, I was a waitress who depended on tips to supplement my minimum wage salary. When I got a big tip, I NEVER sneered at the tipper. Far from it. I instead was deeply happy and would hustle to make sure they were seated in my station when they came in the next time, and I gave them the best service I possibly could. And I certainly did not expect that the next customer would do the same thing. Sure, some people always seemed to tip better than others. Elderly people were notoriously bad tippers, although they would hand you your fifty cents with a big smile, and I always thought it was because they still believed fifty cents was a good amount. They were not being cheap, but having lived through the Great Depression, things looked different to them. Bartenders were awesome tippers - because they themselves often depend on tipping. But I did not expect every customer I had to be the same. Some elderly people were wonderful tippers and some bartenders were cheapskates. But never did I think one big tip meant I was going to get the same thing every time. I do not think people down here think any differently. I will never accept the argument that I am "spoiling" the people. They aren't children.
Now cruisers in general have a reputation for being cheap and trying to spend as little money as they possibly can. Many of them are living off of savings, and can only cruise as long as that holds out. Then they have to return to the US or Canada and work again and save another cruising kitty. I can understand wanting that to last as long as possible, but that is not my situation - I have a pension. All I have to do is live within my means. But all the people who provide services for us are simply trying to earn a living, and if I can afford what they are charging and feel the value for the money is there, I am not going to haggle just because I can.
OK, that is off my chest. If I want to take my money and throw it in the street, it is my business and no one else's.
Yesterday we went fishing and I caught four fish - a small sierra (we had it for breakfast today, it was fabulous), a small snapper (given to friends on another boat), a large needle fish (given to friends on a different boat), and finally a big (8-9 lbs) golden trevally. That one we kept, as it will make four meals for us. Some of it has been frozen, and some of it will be eaten tonight and tomorrow. The fish today (the sierra, aka Spanish Mackerel, not to be confused with the cat food quality mackerel) was merely gutted, the head and tail removed, and then cooked whole on a baking sheet on the grill. Mike put some seasonings in the body cavity, and it was so tender that it literally fell of the bones, leaving a whole fish skeleton on the serving plate. We call it Pescado Rogelio, after our friend Rogelio in El Salvador who taught Mike to cook them like that. Mike, his friend Ron, and Rogelio would take the dinghy out into the mangrove jungle, use a big net, and catch and cook fish right on the beach. With the skin on, you cook one side of the fish, then turn it over and cook the other side. It is amazingly good, and there is little to no waste, as there is when you filet a fish. Plus since it is cooked outside on the grill (a special boat grill that attaches to the stern rail and has its own little propane tank attached) the cabin does not get hot. We also cooked the homemade corn tortillas on the same baking sheet on the grill for the same reason, as well as the fact you can cook more tortillas at once on the grill than I can on the stove, so less propane is used and less heat generated. And today, it is HOT. There is no breeze at all, and I am abjectly grateful that someone somewhere decided to invent fans. (An aside here. I have historically had real difficulties with heat. Now, it is no big deal to have the cabin at 85 degrees. It is actually 90 degrees in here now, and bearable with my fan going. I would never have tolerated that in San Diego, and there is was a dry heat. Here it is humid. I guess that is called becoming acclimatized.) So the fishing was really fun, and it felt good going to our neighbor boats here in the anchorage with my catch. They both seemed pretty happy about it.
We have not had anymore rain since we were able to fill the tanks, which is surprising because this is supposed to be the rainy season here, with rain supposed to come almost every day. That is why there are so few cruisers in Panama this time of year. But for every day it does not rain, it IS a day with no chance of being struck by lightning. We have only heard of one actual injury to someone whose boat was struck, and it was a very minor injury (no medical treatment necessary) but the damage to the boats is unreal. It often ruins the engine and the entire electrical system. And a lot of cruisers do not carry insurance. We do, so if something happened, we would not face financial ruin, but it would be an enormous hassle and I do not want it to happen. I went my whole life without meeting anyone whose dwelling was struck by lightning, and now I personally know at least six boats that have suffered through this, and heard of many more. It was not something I ever thought much about before.
We are out of beer, but have plenty of wine so we won't suffer. I am sorry to tell the following to anyone reading this who may be an oenophile, but we put our cabernet and our pinot noir and all our other wines in the refrigerator. I realize this may be some kind of sacrilege, but so be it. We are also getting low on coffee, and I think I can hold out one more week. When the coffee goes, we must head to Panama City. But we found out that our water maker parts have been resent to the agent in Miami yesterday, which means it will be there in a few days. After it gets there, I figure another week to arrive here in Panama. Then off to Costa Rica, unless something else happens to make us change our plans. Hopefully that will not happen, as I am getting ready for a change. It has been wonderful here, but it is time for something new.
So that is pretty much it for now. Mike is taking an afternoon nap, and I am going to read a book. Cheers!
"The man who is wise does not defend himself with lies. Liars are never believed, forsooth - even when liars tell the truth." (Aesop)
P.S. Buffy, if you read this, can you send me an email at wdf5496@sailmail.com? I lost your email address . . .
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Thursday, September 19, 2013
More About Life In Panama
We have been back to Isla Espiritu Santo for about a week and a half now. We left Pedro Gonzalez after a wonderful couple of weeks there - it is a great little town, with friendly people and a couple of pretty good places to get vegetables. And once the people figure out that vegetables are what you are looking for, they seem to get them. I asked the store owner if he had eggs, and he said yes. Then he disappeared for about twenty minutes, appearing again with a dozen eggs. I have a feeling he went door to door collecting whatever anyone was willing to spare. All the eggs down here are brown eggs, which I like best anyway. (No real reason, I think they are more fun. My mom agreed with that, and after all, she is the one who taught me about brown eggs and other eggs as well. The color of the eggs depends on what kind of chickens laid them. Brown eggs are laid by Rhode island Reds.) This town also participates in one of the big sports in small town Panama - chicken fighting. All of the fighting chickens have leashes on their legs, giving them the run of the yard, but no more. Other chickens just roam everywhere. "Free range" has a really different meaning here - it means the chicken gets to fend for itself. The fighting chickens are big, beautiful roosters. I have not seen a chicken fight and likely won't. I feel bad that I would even consider a thing like that just out of curiosity. After all, I would never see a dog fight - so what's the difference? I guess because I have never petted or otherwise interacted with a chicken. Not an excuse!
Everything here is fine, except for the fact the shipping of our water maker replacement parts went south. We had two packages coming - one with the important parts and one with some extra gear oil and pickling solution (which is for when you are not using the water maker. You "pickle" it with some chemicals so there is no bacterial growth in the membrane). Of course the oil and pickling solution arrived just fine, and for some unknown UPS- related reason, the parts were returned to sender rather than being sent to out shipping agent in Miami. Great. They were re-sent yesterday(thank you Cruise RO!)and hopefully we should have them within two weeks. When we are notified by our agent, we will head back to Panama City, then on to Costa Rica. Hopefully!
It remains just awesome here. We finally got a big enough rain to fill the water tanks, so we got to take real showers and do laundry, which was starting to pile up. That was a really good feeling. We have been catching fish pretty much every time we go out, so our meat supply from our last trip to Panama City is holding out nicely. The nice part is that we catch enough to give fish to the other boat in the anchorage - their dinghy, until yesterday, was out of service so they couldn't fish. (It had holes and needed patching. It is fixed now.) It was a great rain, by the way - lots of water but the lightning was at least six miles off. That is the kind we like - close enough to be entertaining, but not close enough to hit us.
Yesterday, after the monumental laundry doing (which really isn't much by regular standards - about a machine load. But since we use a five gallon bucket and a plunger as an agitator, that one machine load is about five bucket loads. It doesn't sound like much, but I have a new respect for anyone who has to do all their laundry by hand, including sheets and towels.) we went on a dinghy ride up a river that empties out here. You can only go up it at high tide, and because it rained and because there is a full moon, we have larger than normal tides. Therefore, we got to go further up than usual. It was amazing, mangroves everywhere and more birds than you can imagine - parrots, herons, egrets, kingfishers greater and lesser and the list goes on. Once we got into the river, we turned off the outboard and paddled. If we were super quiet, we were able to get within ten to twenty feet of the birds before they flew off.
Our anchorage is between an island and the mainland, but there is a smaller island between us and the mainland. The small island is heavily jungled, so all we have done is to poke around a bit on the shoreline. When I say heavily jungled (which I am not sure is really a word) I mean so dense there is no way to get through it, even with a machete. It is an impenetrable wall of vines, trees, and green growth of all sorts. Even with a machete, you would be out there for hours and only clear a few feet of ingress. So anyway, it was on this small island that we saw, sliding into the water looking right at us, a seven foot alligator. We had heard they were around, but hadn't seen one. It did not seem shy, either - it looked right at us and I swear it made eye contact. But before I could get the camera ready, it slid into the water and only its eyes were visible. Then it submerged and we got the hell out of Dodge. After all, although our dinghy has a hard bottom, its sides are inflatable and that thing looked like it could take a leg if it was so inclined. Plus it did not look as though it was missing any meals. This is the first time we have seen them on our own. We saw them in Guatemala and Belize, when we were on guided river trips to the otherwise inaccessible Maya ruins there. They really are pretty sinister looking.
Except for the pesky water maker issue, things are good and the boat is in good shape. We are getting low on coffee and beer, so it is possible our trip to Panama City may be sooner than we think. I (we) can certainly live without beer, but coffee is a whole different matter. I have taken to drinking tea in the morning so as to save the coffee until Mike gets up. I think that is only fair, and I like tea a lot. In fact, I was a tea drinker rather than a coffee drinker until I moved to Seattle. My first coffee drinking experience was this: I was working at an emergency shelter program, and we had a really small office. It was an unusually hot day, and my co-worker offered to get us a couple of iced lattes. I didn't know what a latte was, but I was interested in anything that was iced. So when she asked me if I wanted a regular or a double, I said a double. I figured it would be bigger, and I was really hot and thirsty. Plus I didn't want to admit I had no idea what a latte was. When she arrived, I was delighted to discover how delicious coffee could be! But then the caffeine hit, and I was almost crawling up the walls. I told my friend "People pay a lot of money for chemicals that do not work as well as this does!" And from then on I was a coffee drinker. I went from having to have it with real half and half, then worked down to whole milk, 2%, and finally skim. Now I drink it black, because I did not like the milk they served in Yucatan and Guatemala.
The coffee in this part of the world is wonderful - IF you can find it for sale. Guatemala, no problem. But in El Salvador, they export all the really good stuff (I was told Starbuck's buys the lion's share of Salvadoran coffee). They do sell their good stuff locally here at the fancier grocery stores. I would really like to buy the beans and try roasting them myself. I saw some for sale in El Salvador at the big market, but MIke wouldn't let me buy it because the beans were broken and looked old. I think he was right, although I was disappointed at the time and accused him of being a buzz kill, a label he wears with equanimity.
Speaking of grocery stores, the one we shop at is called Riba Smith. It is more expensive, but has a great selection of stuff, including things like dry salami and proscuitto. We discovered they have two more outlets and tried a different one the last time we were here, but saw no real difference. Then our cab driver, Roosevelt, told us there was another one, but said we would not like it because it was more expensive. As he put it, "It is where the Arab people and the Chinese people and the Jewish people shop. It is for the rich people." I am going to make him take us to that one. He is always trying to save money for us, directing us to places with lower prices, which is usually a really good thing. But this time I want to go all out. Besides, I like the food Arabs and Chinese eat, and I am hoping to find tahini and hoisin sauce and stuff like that.
In my earlier post about culinary week, I forgot to mention that I am now a pizza cook. I take the bread dough and after the first rising, use it for pizza. I can take the dough and flop it around my fists just like they do in the restaurants, albeit more slowly and awkwardly. I can't throw it up and catch it (and we have a VERY low ceiling for that sort of thing anyway). But our pizza is almost as good as restaurant pizza, and better than most of the frozen kinds. I can make my own with no cheese, which is also a good thing. Mike wants to have pizza about three times per month, and I have gotten myself on a bread making schedule of making two loaves about once a week, with the second loaf put in the freezer until it is time to eat it. I discovered the hard way that homemade bread gets stale way faster than store bought. Plus this environment, while great for making bread, is not good for keeping it due to the humidity that caused mold to grow on everything.
Anyway, I must get going as it is time for me to turn on the SSB radio and handle the Panama Pacific Net. As usual, life is good her in Panama.
"The eyes of others are our prisons, their thoughts our cages." (Virginia Woolf)
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Everything here is fine, except for the fact the shipping of our water maker replacement parts went south. We had two packages coming - one with the important parts and one with some extra gear oil and pickling solution (which is for when you are not using the water maker. You "pickle" it with some chemicals so there is no bacterial growth in the membrane). Of course the oil and pickling solution arrived just fine, and for some unknown UPS- related reason, the parts were returned to sender rather than being sent to out shipping agent in Miami. Great. They were re-sent yesterday(thank you Cruise RO!)and hopefully we should have them within two weeks. When we are notified by our agent, we will head back to Panama City, then on to Costa Rica. Hopefully!
It remains just awesome here. We finally got a big enough rain to fill the water tanks, so we got to take real showers and do laundry, which was starting to pile up. That was a really good feeling. We have been catching fish pretty much every time we go out, so our meat supply from our last trip to Panama City is holding out nicely. The nice part is that we catch enough to give fish to the other boat in the anchorage - their dinghy, until yesterday, was out of service so they couldn't fish. (It had holes and needed patching. It is fixed now.) It was a great rain, by the way - lots of water but the lightning was at least six miles off. That is the kind we like - close enough to be entertaining, but not close enough to hit us.
Yesterday, after the monumental laundry doing (which really isn't much by regular standards - about a machine load. But since we use a five gallon bucket and a plunger as an agitator, that one machine load is about five bucket loads. It doesn't sound like much, but I have a new respect for anyone who has to do all their laundry by hand, including sheets and towels.) we went on a dinghy ride up a river that empties out here. You can only go up it at high tide, and because it rained and because there is a full moon, we have larger than normal tides. Therefore, we got to go further up than usual. It was amazing, mangroves everywhere and more birds than you can imagine - parrots, herons, egrets, kingfishers greater and lesser and the list goes on. Once we got into the river, we turned off the outboard and paddled. If we were super quiet, we were able to get within ten to twenty feet of the birds before they flew off.
Our anchorage is between an island and the mainland, but there is a smaller island between us and the mainland. The small island is heavily jungled, so all we have done is to poke around a bit on the shoreline. When I say heavily jungled (which I am not sure is really a word) I mean so dense there is no way to get through it, even with a machete. It is an impenetrable wall of vines, trees, and green growth of all sorts. Even with a machete, you would be out there for hours and only clear a few feet of ingress. So anyway, it was on this small island that we saw, sliding into the water looking right at us, a seven foot alligator. We had heard they were around, but hadn't seen one. It did not seem shy, either - it looked right at us and I swear it made eye contact. But before I could get the camera ready, it slid into the water and only its eyes were visible. Then it submerged and we got the hell out of Dodge. After all, although our dinghy has a hard bottom, its sides are inflatable and that thing looked like it could take a leg if it was so inclined. Plus it did not look as though it was missing any meals. This is the first time we have seen them on our own. We saw them in Guatemala and Belize, when we were on guided river trips to the otherwise inaccessible Maya ruins there. They really are pretty sinister looking.
Except for the pesky water maker issue, things are good and the boat is in good shape. We are getting low on coffee and beer, so it is possible our trip to Panama City may be sooner than we think. I (we) can certainly live without beer, but coffee is a whole different matter. I have taken to drinking tea in the morning so as to save the coffee until Mike gets up. I think that is only fair, and I like tea a lot. In fact, I was a tea drinker rather than a coffee drinker until I moved to Seattle. My first coffee drinking experience was this: I was working at an emergency shelter program, and we had a really small office. It was an unusually hot day, and my co-worker offered to get us a couple of iced lattes. I didn't know what a latte was, but I was interested in anything that was iced. So when she asked me if I wanted a regular or a double, I said a double. I figured it would be bigger, and I was really hot and thirsty. Plus I didn't want to admit I had no idea what a latte was. When she arrived, I was delighted to discover how delicious coffee could be! But then the caffeine hit, and I was almost crawling up the walls. I told my friend "People pay a lot of money for chemicals that do not work as well as this does!" And from then on I was a coffee drinker. I went from having to have it with real half and half, then worked down to whole milk, 2%, and finally skim. Now I drink it black, because I did not like the milk they served in Yucatan and Guatemala.
The coffee in this part of the world is wonderful - IF you can find it for sale. Guatemala, no problem. But in El Salvador, they export all the really good stuff (I was told Starbuck's buys the lion's share of Salvadoran coffee). They do sell their good stuff locally here at the fancier grocery stores. I would really like to buy the beans and try roasting them myself. I saw some for sale in El Salvador at the big market, but MIke wouldn't let me buy it because the beans were broken and looked old. I think he was right, although I was disappointed at the time and accused him of being a buzz kill, a label he wears with equanimity.
Speaking of grocery stores, the one we shop at is called Riba Smith. It is more expensive, but has a great selection of stuff, including things like dry salami and proscuitto. We discovered they have two more outlets and tried a different one the last time we were here, but saw no real difference. Then our cab driver, Roosevelt, told us there was another one, but said we would not like it because it was more expensive. As he put it, "It is where the Arab people and the Chinese people and the Jewish people shop. It is for the rich people." I am going to make him take us to that one. He is always trying to save money for us, directing us to places with lower prices, which is usually a really good thing. But this time I want to go all out. Besides, I like the food Arabs and Chinese eat, and I am hoping to find tahini and hoisin sauce and stuff like that.
In my earlier post about culinary week, I forgot to mention that I am now a pizza cook. I take the bread dough and after the first rising, use it for pizza. I can take the dough and flop it around my fists just like they do in the restaurants, albeit more slowly and awkwardly. I can't throw it up and catch it (and we have a VERY low ceiling for that sort of thing anyway). But our pizza is almost as good as restaurant pizza, and better than most of the frozen kinds. I can make my own with no cheese, which is also a good thing. Mike wants to have pizza about three times per month, and I have gotten myself on a bread making schedule of making two loaves about once a week, with the second loaf put in the freezer until it is time to eat it. I discovered the hard way that homemade bread gets stale way faster than store bought. Plus this environment, while great for making bread, is not good for keeping it due to the humidity that caused mold to grow on everything.
Anyway, I must get going as it is time for me to turn on the SSB radio and handle the Panama Pacific Net. As usual, life is good her in Panama.
"The eyes of others are our prisons, their thoughts our cages." (Virginia Woolf)
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Thursday, September 5, 2013
Culinary Week on Magda Jean
We spent most of the last week experimenting with new foods, and delighting in eating things with fewer steps between where ever it comes from to our plates. For one meal, we had fish sandwiches with fish we caught, bread we baked, and mayo we made from scratch. yes you heard me, FROM SCRATCH. We will never buy Hellman's/Best Foods again. Who knew that mayo could be more than just white gloppy stuff in a jar? Then we learned to make coconut rice, which included making coconut milk from the coconut meat. Again, a roaring success. I have learned a ton of different ways to cook fish, and also how to use local fruits effectively. Papaya can be eaten green if you treat it like potatoes or squash. Mango can replace carrots in bean soup.
I don't post too often these days because I don't want to gloat about how awesome my life is now. I mean it. What can I say except this: I spend my days watching fish and birds, swimming, fishing, visiting with great friends on another boat, and also spending time with the local people in the village we are currently anchored in front of. (I know that is the wrong way to end a sentence. Sorry.) A couple days ago we went into town, and stopped to watch the locals play pool. There are three little tiny stores in town, two of which are run out of people's houses. The selection is limited, but if you pay attention to deliveries, you can keep stocked up reasonably well on produce, and of course, beer. There is also one bar, and a pool hall. The night we were there, a fishing boat had pulled in, and these guys must have done well, because they were buying beer for everyone in town, including Mike and I and our friends. We got pretty drunk, to tell the truth, but had a wonderful time, just being part of the scene.
We have also done some exploring by both dinghy and walking around the island(s). If there are no paths, it is almost impossible to get through the undergrowth unless one literally wants to chop through with a machete, just like in the movies. It sounds really jungle-ish too, with lots of bird and bug sounds. Mammals are usually pretty quiet in the forest, where birds and bugs seem to yowl just because they can. There is always something to listen to. We have found more agates that we could imagine possible in one place. They are good quality too, not simply plentiful.
Sometimes being in the so-called "Third World", or the more contemporary term "developing nation" is hard for me. I tend to romanticize everything, but animals do not have it too good here. There are too many dogs here on this little island in this tiny little village. They are all skinny, poorly tended if at all, and most are suffering from a serious case of mange. There is no concept of spaying or neutering. It is heartbreaking, but there is little to nothing that I can do about it, other than alienating the local people. Mike says we should load up on Frontline, worm medicine, and mange treatment the next time we are in Panama City, and then surreptitiously treat each dog we can get our hands on without getting bitten. He is only half kidding. I have seen no indication the dogs are packing up to cause trouble, so that is a good thing, but I think it is due to lack of energy more than anything else. In town, there are free range chickens - but here, free range means they scrounge for whatever they can get - and at one point I noticed that along with all those free ranging chickens, everyone seemed to have a huge, gorgeous rooster tied up outside their house. It took me a bit longer to realize that these are fighting roosters, as chicken fighting is huge here in Latin America. I have not been to a chicken fight, and probably won't if I have a choice about it. The cats are skinny but seem to be in better shape than the dogs are. Every raccoon I have seen is fat, as are the agoutis.
So here I am, and things could not be better. We are awaiting the new water maker parts, and as soon as we are notified they have hit Panama City, we are off to pick them up. Then our plan (our ever changing plan) is to head north to Costa Rica, leaving by early October or whenever conditions are right for it. Carpe Diem.
"No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes and equal distance into the world within." (Lillian Smith)
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I don't post too often these days because I don't want to gloat about how awesome my life is now. I mean it. What can I say except this: I spend my days watching fish and birds, swimming, fishing, visiting with great friends on another boat, and also spending time with the local people in the village we are currently anchored in front of. (I know that is the wrong way to end a sentence. Sorry.) A couple days ago we went into town, and stopped to watch the locals play pool. There are three little tiny stores in town, two of which are run out of people's houses. The selection is limited, but if you pay attention to deliveries, you can keep stocked up reasonably well on produce, and of course, beer. There is also one bar, and a pool hall. The night we were there, a fishing boat had pulled in, and these guys must have done well, because they were buying beer for everyone in town, including Mike and I and our friends. We got pretty drunk, to tell the truth, but had a wonderful time, just being part of the scene.
We have also done some exploring by both dinghy and walking around the island(s). If there are no paths, it is almost impossible to get through the undergrowth unless one literally wants to chop through with a machete, just like in the movies. It sounds really jungle-ish too, with lots of bird and bug sounds. Mammals are usually pretty quiet in the forest, where birds and bugs seem to yowl just because they can. There is always something to listen to. We have found more agates that we could imagine possible in one place. They are good quality too, not simply plentiful.
Sometimes being in the so-called "Third World", or the more contemporary term "developing nation" is hard for me. I tend to romanticize everything, but animals do not have it too good here. There are too many dogs here on this little island in this tiny little village. They are all skinny, poorly tended if at all, and most are suffering from a serious case of mange. There is no concept of spaying or neutering. It is heartbreaking, but there is little to nothing that I can do about it, other than alienating the local people. Mike says we should load up on Frontline, worm medicine, and mange treatment the next time we are in Panama City, and then surreptitiously treat each dog we can get our hands on without getting bitten. He is only half kidding. I have seen no indication the dogs are packing up to cause trouble, so that is a good thing, but I think it is due to lack of energy more than anything else. In town, there are free range chickens - but here, free range means they scrounge for whatever they can get - and at one point I noticed that along with all those free ranging chickens, everyone seemed to have a huge, gorgeous rooster tied up outside their house. It took me a bit longer to realize that these are fighting roosters, as chicken fighting is huge here in Latin America. I have not been to a chicken fight, and probably won't if I have a choice about it. The cats are skinny but seem to be in better shape than the dogs are. Every raccoon I have seen is fat, as are the agoutis.
So here I am, and things could not be better. We are awaiting the new water maker parts, and as soon as we are notified they have hit Panama City, we are off to pick them up. Then our plan (our ever changing plan) is to head north to Costa Rica, leaving by early October or whenever conditions are right for it. Carpe Diem.
"No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes and equal distance into the world within." (Lillian Smith)
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Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Whale Tale
We heard the scariest thing yesterday. Another boat came into our anchorage yesterday, and they had been anchored previously at Espiritu Santo. That is where we were before we came here to Pedro Gonzalez. While we were at Espiritu Santo, we became good friends with the couple on a boat called "Ohh Baby", who remained at Espiritu Santo after we left. We are planning to go back there before all here is said and done. Anyway, one of the delights at that anchorage is the fact that whales spend a lot of time there, and at times come pretty close to the boats.
But it can be a problem. Here is what we found out happened after we left. A mother whale and her baby came very close to Ohh Baby, playing around. Our friends came out to watch, and all of a sudden the mother whale's fin got tangled up somehow in the anchor chain. One of our friends injured her foot (we do not know how badly, but she appears to be recovering without medical intervention), the bow sprit on the end of the boat was bent, and the boat itself was in danger of capsize until the whale untangled itself and took off. All of us out here are a bit shaken, and it reinforced the notion that while they are awesome creatures and seeing and experiencing them is a marvel, they can be dangerous. I guess I am better off watching them from a safe distance.
Otherwise, things are nice and calm. We were able to top off our water tanks the other day when it rained hard, so the fact our water maker is out of commission has not been and likely will not be a hardship. We were able to make arrangements to have new parts shipped to Panama City, and all will soon be well. The water maker company could not have been more helpful, and agreed without even being asked to replace the problem parts at no cost to us. One cannot ask for more than that. I still love this water maker and would recommend it to anyone. I think we just got a bad pump - perhaps it is a Monday Morning part - meaning that someone came in hung over on the assembly line and things did not go well that day. Sort of like how a car can be a lemon, even though all other cars of that same make are just fine. So now we just wait, and when we get notification of arrival, we will head into Panama City and pick it up. We can re-provision at the same time, and the timing should be perfect. After that, in early October, the plan is to head for Costa Rica. Of course there is always the chance we could change our plans.
Last night we were having dinner on another friend's boat and both of us were discussing our future plans. They are alternating between going to Costa Rica or Ecuador. It struck me that we were discussing crossing international boundaries the same way I might discuss whether I was going to go to Escondido or Chula Vista. Really, thinking about sailing to another country now seems like the normal course of things.
Today we had planned to go fishing, but Mike is not feeling well, so he is taking a nap. If he perks up after his nap, we will still go. I am not broken hearted because it is really hot out, without any cooling breeze whatsoever. It would be nice to get some fish, we have eaten up the last of what we had caught previously.
This morning one of the locals, Alejandro, came by in a small canoe, selling fruit. We bought several huge avocados and a papaya. He had limes but we have plenty of those (and they are the most aromatic limes I have ever had). Then he traded us two more huge avocados for a cold can of juice. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Now I have to learn how to deal with a papaya, i.e. when to cut into it, how to store it, etc. I have eaten it plenty of times, but always in a restaurant. I used to not like papaya - it tasted a bit like vomit to me, because of the papain (an enzyme that can be used to tenderize meat) in it. But the papayas down here have less of that flavor than do the ones from Hawaii. That tasted can also be reduced by squeezing fresh lime over it. I am glad I like them because they are very good for you. And they do bulk up a fruit salad. We got a big hand of bananas the other day, some of which are now ripe, and if we put the papaya and bananas together with our mangoes, we will have a rocking fruit salad. I am looking forward to that!
I have cut down on my beer drinking - I am losing weight nicely and do not want to change that. Plus, I sleep better if I am not half drunk when I go to bed. But a cold beer at times cannot be beat.
Anyway, I think I have babbled on long enough today. Time to go for a swim.
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, fine your eternity in each moment." (Henry David Thoreau)
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But it can be a problem. Here is what we found out happened after we left. A mother whale and her baby came very close to Ohh Baby, playing around. Our friends came out to watch, and all of a sudden the mother whale's fin got tangled up somehow in the anchor chain. One of our friends injured her foot (we do not know how badly, but she appears to be recovering without medical intervention), the bow sprit on the end of the boat was bent, and the boat itself was in danger of capsize until the whale untangled itself and took off. All of us out here are a bit shaken, and it reinforced the notion that while they are awesome creatures and seeing and experiencing them is a marvel, they can be dangerous. I guess I am better off watching them from a safe distance.
Otherwise, things are nice and calm. We were able to top off our water tanks the other day when it rained hard, so the fact our water maker is out of commission has not been and likely will not be a hardship. We were able to make arrangements to have new parts shipped to Panama City, and all will soon be well. The water maker company could not have been more helpful, and agreed without even being asked to replace the problem parts at no cost to us. One cannot ask for more than that. I still love this water maker and would recommend it to anyone. I think we just got a bad pump - perhaps it is a Monday Morning part - meaning that someone came in hung over on the assembly line and things did not go well that day. Sort of like how a car can be a lemon, even though all other cars of that same make are just fine. So now we just wait, and when we get notification of arrival, we will head into Panama City and pick it up. We can re-provision at the same time, and the timing should be perfect. After that, in early October, the plan is to head for Costa Rica. Of course there is always the chance we could change our plans.
Last night we were having dinner on another friend's boat and both of us were discussing our future plans. They are alternating between going to Costa Rica or Ecuador. It struck me that we were discussing crossing international boundaries the same way I might discuss whether I was going to go to Escondido or Chula Vista. Really, thinking about sailing to another country now seems like the normal course of things.
Today we had planned to go fishing, but Mike is not feeling well, so he is taking a nap. If he perks up after his nap, we will still go. I am not broken hearted because it is really hot out, without any cooling breeze whatsoever. It would be nice to get some fish, we have eaten up the last of what we had caught previously.
This morning one of the locals, Alejandro, came by in a small canoe, selling fruit. We bought several huge avocados and a papaya. He had limes but we have plenty of those (and they are the most aromatic limes I have ever had). Then he traded us two more huge avocados for a cold can of juice. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Now I have to learn how to deal with a papaya, i.e. when to cut into it, how to store it, etc. I have eaten it plenty of times, but always in a restaurant. I used to not like papaya - it tasted a bit like vomit to me, because of the papain (an enzyme that can be used to tenderize meat) in it. But the papayas down here have less of that flavor than do the ones from Hawaii. That tasted can also be reduced by squeezing fresh lime over it. I am glad I like them because they are very good for you. And they do bulk up a fruit salad. We got a big hand of bananas the other day, some of which are now ripe, and if we put the papaya and bananas together with our mangoes, we will have a rocking fruit salad. I am looking forward to that!
I have cut down on my beer drinking - I am losing weight nicely and do not want to change that. Plus, I sleep better if I am not half drunk when I go to bed. But a cold beer at times cannot be beat.
Anyway, I think I have babbled on long enough today. Time to go for a swim.
"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, fine your eternity in each moment." (Henry David Thoreau)
----------
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Sunday, August 25, 2013
I Am Still Alive and Doing Quite Well
What can I say? When you are living the lazy tropical lifestyle you neglect whatever you can get away with. Actually, that is not quite accurate - it is just that time passes so fast that before you know it, a month has gone by and you have done nothing but swim, fish, visit with friends, do boat chores, and just generally enjoy the slow pace of things.
We are still cruising the Las Perlas Islands here in Panama. We left Panama City of June 27th or so, with every intention of sailing on down to Ecuador. But a stop in these islands convinced us we could not leave here. It is amazing here - as clean and remote as the Sea of Cortez, but with jungle instead of desert. We have gathered wild mangoes, noni fruit, papaya, and have caught a ton of fish. It enabled us to take what was basically two weeks worth of provisions and stretched it out for over a month. We spent all of July just lounging around the islands, and returned to Panama City early this month for three days, during which we re-provisioned with an eye to spending more time out here. The things you run out of is mostly fresh produce, as it does not keep well, and our refrigerator is pretty small.
We spent most of the time since my last post at Isla Espiritu Santo, where there is only one little village about a half hour dinghy ride away. You can get beer, eggs, and some produce. There is another slightly bigger village about the same distance in a different direction, but it is harder to get to as the landing for the dinghy is harder to manage. You have to time that one carefully with the tides, because when the tide is low, there are what seems like acres of mud flats. That means you have to drag your dinghy back to the water across all this muck, and nobody wants to do that. So timing is everything there. Plus if you get there on the wrong day, there won't be anything to buy. Deliveries come in by water, and usually only once per week.
I love going into these little villages. Everyone is friendly, and they like having company. There are only adults and small children in the villages, as the teenagers go to the mainland for school. The little kids are shy at first, but they warm up fast. You don't have to seek things out, rather, just go to the store, buy a beer, and hang around the store. Pretty soon everyone comes up with whatever they have to sell - for example, the last time we went to town, we went home with potatoes (still with the dirt on them) and avocados.
Right now we are anchored at a new island, named Isla Pedro Gonzalez. When we went ashore to explore around, we found it to be an absolute treasure trove of agates. I have never seen so many different kinds of agates in one place in my life, and we have been hunting agates since we got together 15 years ago. It was simply amazing. We had not even parked the dinghy when I looked down into the (crystal clear) water and said "This entire island must be made of agate." While we explored around, I found a small fresh water stream and took a wonderful fresh water bath.
These islands are so verdant they remind me of the Pacific Northwest, as long as one does not analyze the foliage too closely. We have also gathered coconuts. Mike made me a scraper for the coconut meat out of an agate shaped like the dish of a spoon by using a drill and arrowhead manufacturing techniques to make a scalloped edge. I am proud of it. I feel like a real pioneer. We have had fish barbecues on the beach with other boats, and dug pits to burn garbage. I am looking forward to trying a Hawaiian oven - digging a pit, using hot rocks and banana leaves to cook the food beneath the sand.
The only problem with all of this is that we checked out of the country when we thought we were on our way to Ecuador, so now we are illegal aliens here. I am not too worried about it - the only place we would possibly run into trouble would be Panama City, and as long as we keep our heads down there should be no trouble. When we went into the city, we went in on Friday afternoon and were gone again by Monday morning. The immigration people are not out and about on weekends.
The weather here is always interesting. We are in and out of what is called the ITCZ (inter tropical convergence zone) which means very unsettled weather. We have horrendous thunder and lightning storms. One night there were three boats in this anchorage (one of them being us) when we were awakened in the night by cracks of thunder so loud and close that they literally shook the entire boat. The lightning was blinding when it hit. In the morning, one of the boats had been hit by lightning and all of their electronics, their engine, and just about everything you can think of was ruined. Even their big foresail was ruined with tons of little burn holes. I feel really bad for them - they have no insurance. We also heard that another of our friends, still anchored in Panama City, were also hit, although I don't know how badly they were damaged. It is bad for them because they are trying to sell their boat and return to shore living. We are insured, but I am still hoping it does not happen to us. Catamarans seem to be particularly susceptible to strikes - maybe it is their wider profile. I have no idea. I used to hold that the tallest mast would be the target, but the cats seem to get it worse mast height, regardless of . I don't love the storms like I used to. There is actual danger you don't have in a house, it seems to me anyway.
Tonight Mike is cooking chicken on the grill, with baked potatoes and corn and red peppers. I am looking forward to it. We haven't fished for a few days because I will not let us fish until we are done with a previous catch. I found a recipe for pickled fish and then bought myself some pumpernickel bread (I was amazed that I found it in Panama City but they do have a large expat community that means lots of European and American stuff is available) to enjoy it with. I am also going to try making gravlax, which is a sort of salted fish eaten in Norway or Sweden. Both that and pickling are a good way to keep the fish if you get one that is too big to eat up at one or two meals. But trust me - I have learned many different ways to cook fish.
Another thing about being here in the islands is the almost daily sightings of whales. They jump, slap their tails, blow, and generally cavort around in the water. We keep a safe distance, but they are wonderful to watch. The mothers have the babies practicing the things whales need to do, and it is great fun to watch. The sound they make when a big one throws himself out of the water and then slams down is almost concussive. We can sometimes here them blowing from down in the cabin and then we run up to look. Combined with all the different sea birds, and the other fish that are always jumping out of the water in an entertaining manner, there is never an occasion for boredom.
So that is what I am up to these days. We have no plans to go anywhere else for the next month or so, except for the fact that the motor for the water maker went south again, so we will have to go to the city when the new motor and pump arrive. We will not die of thirst in the meantime, because we catch rainwater. All we need is a good rainstorm. And there are plenty of them.
"It isn't bragging if you can really do it." (Dizzy Dean)
----------
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We are still cruising the Las Perlas Islands here in Panama. We left Panama City of June 27th or so, with every intention of sailing on down to Ecuador. But a stop in these islands convinced us we could not leave here. It is amazing here - as clean and remote as the Sea of Cortez, but with jungle instead of desert. We have gathered wild mangoes, noni fruit, papaya, and have caught a ton of fish. It enabled us to take what was basically two weeks worth of provisions and stretched it out for over a month. We spent all of July just lounging around the islands, and returned to Panama City early this month for three days, during which we re-provisioned with an eye to spending more time out here. The things you run out of is mostly fresh produce, as it does not keep well, and our refrigerator is pretty small.
We spent most of the time since my last post at Isla Espiritu Santo, where there is only one little village about a half hour dinghy ride away. You can get beer, eggs, and some produce. There is another slightly bigger village about the same distance in a different direction, but it is harder to get to as the landing for the dinghy is harder to manage. You have to time that one carefully with the tides, because when the tide is low, there are what seems like acres of mud flats. That means you have to drag your dinghy back to the water across all this muck, and nobody wants to do that. So timing is everything there. Plus if you get there on the wrong day, there won't be anything to buy. Deliveries come in by water, and usually only once per week.
I love going into these little villages. Everyone is friendly, and they like having company. There are only adults and small children in the villages, as the teenagers go to the mainland for school. The little kids are shy at first, but they warm up fast. You don't have to seek things out, rather, just go to the store, buy a beer, and hang around the store. Pretty soon everyone comes up with whatever they have to sell - for example, the last time we went to town, we went home with potatoes (still with the dirt on them) and avocados.
Right now we are anchored at a new island, named Isla Pedro Gonzalez. When we went ashore to explore around, we found it to be an absolute treasure trove of agates. I have never seen so many different kinds of agates in one place in my life, and we have been hunting agates since we got together 15 years ago. It was simply amazing. We had not even parked the dinghy when I looked down into the (crystal clear) water and said "This entire island must be made of agate." While we explored around, I found a small fresh water stream and took a wonderful fresh water bath.
These islands are so verdant they remind me of the Pacific Northwest, as long as one does not analyze the foliage too closely. We have also gathered coconuts. Mike made me a scraper for the coconut meat out of an agate shaped like the dish of a spoon by using a drill and arrowhead manufacturing techniques to make a scalloped edge. I am proud of it. I feel like a real pioneer. We have had fish barbecues on the beach with other boats, and dug pits to burn garbage. I am looking forward to trying a Hawaiian oven - digging a pit, using hot rocks and banana leaves to cook the food beneath the sand.
The only problem with all of this is that we checked out of the country when we thought we were on our way to Ecuador, so now we are illegal aliens here. I am not too worried about it - the only place we would possibly run into trouble would be Panama City, and as long as we keep our heads down there should be no trouble. When we went into the city, we went in on Friday afternoon and were gone again by Monday morning. The immigration people are not out and about on weekends.
The weather here is always interesting. We are in and out of what is called the ITCZ (inter tropical convergence zone) which means very unsettled weather. We have horrendous thunder and lightning storms. One night there were three boats in this anchorage (one of them being us) when we were awakened in the night by cracks of thunder so loud and close that they literally shook the entire boat. The lightning was blinding when it hit. In the morning, one of the boats had been hit by lightning and all of their electronics, their engine, and just about everything you can think of was ruined. Even their big foresail was ruined with tons of little burn holes. I feel really bad for them - they have no insurance. We also heard that another of our friends, still anchored in Panama City, were also hit, although I don't know how badly they were damaged. It is bad for them because they are trying to sell their boat and return to shore living. We are insured, but I am still hoping it does not happen to us. Catamarans seem to be particularly susceptible to strikes - maybe it is their wider profile. I have no idea. I used to hold that the tallest mast would be the target, but the cats seem to get it worse mast height, regardless of . I don't love the storms like I used to. There is actual danger you don't have in a house, it seems to me anyway.
Tonight Mike is cooking chicken on the grill, with baked potatoes and corn and red peppers. I am looking forward to it. We haven't fished for a few days because I will not let us fish until we are done with a previous catch. I found a recipe for pickled fish and then bought myself some pumpernickel bread (I was amazed that I found it in Panama City but they do have a large expat community that means lots of European and American stuff is available) to enjoy it with. I am also going to try making gravlax, which is a sort of salted fish eaten in Norway or Sweden. Both that and pickling are a good way to keep the fish if you get one that is too big to eat up at one or two meals. But trust me - I have learned many different ways to cook fish.
Another thing about being here in the islands is the almost daily sightings of whales. They jump, slap their tails, blow, and generally cavort around in the water. We keep a safe distance, but they are wonderful to watch. The mothers have the babies practicing the things whales need to do, and it is great fun to watch. The sound they make when a big one throws himself out of the water and then slams down is almost concussive. We can sometimes here them blowing from down in the cabin and then we run up to look. Combined with all the different sea birds, and the other fish that are always jumping out of the water in an entertaining manner, there is never an occasion for boredom.
So that is what I am up to these days. We have no plans to go anywhere else for the next month or so, except for the fact that the motor for the water maker went south again, so we will have to go to the city when the new motor and pump arrive. We will not die of thirst in the meantime, because we catch rainwater. All we need is a good rainstorm. And there are plenty of them.
"It isn't bragging if you can really do it." (Dizzy Dean)
----------
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Questions and Answers
One thing that happens when you start making changes in your travel plans is that you start questioning what it is you are doing here in the first place. That might be a bit too sweeping - but it is something that happens to me. People come out here sailing for varying lengths of time, and for different reasons. Some plan to make it a full time life style, others do not. Some are part timers some are full timers. Then there are people like us, who really have no idea how long they plan to stay in this lifestyle. The usual answer you get is "as long as its fun" or "until the money runs out" or "until our health gives out." I always add "until I find myself some place I can't bear to leave." Lots of people stop sailing around when they find that place. A lot of people change to part timers or stop altogether when grand kids come along.
Anyway, I am not giving up this lifestyle anytime soon. But I do sometimes question how I am doing it. Am I working my way around the world? Am I just sort of drifting with no planned just seeing where th current takes us? Is it a matter of seeing as much of a country as I can or do I want to get to know one place really well? How long do I want to spend out traveling with limited personal visits to my family when I know that the further away I get, the more difficult it will be to do that? These are the sort of things I spend time thinking about.
I know that being able to live "without a schedule" is important to me, yet at the same time I am most comfortable with some sort of structure to my days. I want to see the whole world, see everything, but also realize that the world IS as big as "they" say, and I am going to have to have limits somewhere. I like staying places long enough to really get to know them, to see how people live day to day lives, an to meet someone who is not in the service or more accurately the tourist industry if at all possible. That sort of thing means you need to stay put for awhile. So it has been a year here a year there. Some places got skipped for various reasons. I do know this - I can't bring myself to move along every few months. I like the way we are doing it, even if it means it takes us another ten years to get around the world.
The things we are experiencing here in this archipelago are truly wonderful. Yesterday I caught two big fish - a 10 lb sierra and an 8 lb pargo. The pargo will be frozen and we ate half the sierra last night with one of our neighbors (a young guy from Germany single handing his way on a 27 foot boat) and need to eat the other half of it tonight -sierra does not freeze or otherwise keep well. It has to eaten at once. The pargo will freeze nicely. We have enough fish so I have banned fishing until we use what we have. It would just be greedy to keep on going. We are going into Panama City this weekend (leaving Thursday) to restock on groceries and replace one of these dying computers. My list, which I began last week, has grown exponentially since then, but this means we can stay out here for a longer period of time. Being anchored out here in the middle of nowhere has real financial advantages -there is no where to send money even if you wanted to, so the money just sits in the bank. Of course we will take a chunk of that to replace the computer. And something always come up, but as long as we just come into town once a month we can't really go wrong as long as the boat holds together (The big "if" in sailing). And life out here is great. I never get bored, because even just looking around the anchorage is always interesting. The Kindle makes it possible to have an unlimited supply of reading matter, and our solar and (intermittent, it does not work most of the time for unknown reasons) wind power make it possible for us to listen to music or watch movies any time we want to as they generate plenty of power, even when it is not real sunny. Our neighbors here are great - both the "permanent" ones who anchor here for months, and the transients who stop for a few day as they tour the area. We have enough of a social life but not too much. Mike has become more sanguine about the possibility of lightning, remembering that we have good insurance and that having to replace the entire electronic system could have its advantages, especially when it is paid for with insurance. We know that because that is exactly what happened to a friend of ours. But I think that pretty much guarantees that we will not be struck. So we are happy we decided to stay here, even if it does mean that we will likely lose touch with some cruisers we have been with off and on since Mexico. That is sort of sad but it is just what happens when you move around a lot. I want to do things our way, which is not necessarily what all the other cruisers do at any given time. But I also know that any truly meaningful relationship can be maintained across many years and miles. I have the friends to prove that.
So on that note, I will sign off for today. Might be time for a dinghy ride into the mangroves.
"The average newcomer to the ever-growing ranks of yachtsmen comes equipped with only a slight knowledge of rope work and most of it wrong. From his boyhood days in Troop C of the Boy Scouts, he can only remember the clove hitch, the square or reef knot, and the sheepshank. the first will always be useful,the second has but one use, that of turning in a reef, and the sheepshank he will never need if he lives to be one hundred." (Hervey Garrett Smith, "The Marlinspike Sailor")
----------
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Anyway, I am not giving up this lifestyle anytime soon. But I do sometimes question how I am doing it. Am I working my way around the world? Am I just sort of drifting with no planned just seeing where th current takes us? Is it a matter of seeing as much of a country as I can or do I want to get to know one place really well? How long do I want to spend out traveling with limited personal visits to my family when I know that the further away I get, the more difficult it will be to do that? These are the sort of things I spend time thinking about.
I know that being able to live "without a schedule" is important to me, yet at the same time I am most comfortable with some sort of structure to my days. I want to see the whole world, see everything, but also realize that the world IS as big as "they" say, and I am going to have to have limits somewhere. I like staying places long enough to really get to know them, to see how people live day to day lives, an to meet someone who is not in the service or more accurately the tourist industry if at all possible. That sort of thing means you need to stay put for awhile. So it has been a year here a year there. Some places got skipped for various reasons. I do know this - I can't bring myself to move along every few months. I like the way we are doing it, even if it means it takes us another ten years to get around the world.
The things we are experiencing here in this archipelago are truly wonderful. Yesterday I caught two big fish - a 10 lb sierra and an 8 lb pargo. The pargo will be frozen and we ate half the sierra last night with one of our neighbors (a young guy from Germany single handing his way on a 27 foot boat) and need to eat the other half of it tonight -sierra does not freeze or otherwise keep well. It has to eaten at once. The pargo will freeze nicely. We have enough fish so I have banned fishing until we use what we have. It would just be greedy to keep on going. We are going into Panama City this weekend (leaving Thursday) to restock on groceries and replace one of these dying computers. My list, which I began last week, has grown exponentially since then, but this means we can stay out here for a longer period of time. Being anchored out here in the middle of nowhere has real financial advantages -there is no where to send money even if you wanted to, so the money just sits in the bank. Of course we will take a chunk of that to replace the computer. And something always come up, but as long as we just come into town once a month we can't really go wrong as long as the boat holds together (The big "if" in sailing). And life out here is great. I never get bored, because even just looking around the anchorage is always interesting. The Kindle makes it possible to have an unlimited supply of reading matter, and our solar and (intermittent, it does not work most of the time for unknown reasons) wind power make it possible for us to listen to music or watch movies any time we want to as they generate plenty of power, even when it is not real sunny. Our neighbors here are great - both the "permanent" ones who anchor here for months, and the transients who stop for a few day as they tour the area. We have enough of a social life but not too much. Mike has become more sanguine about the possibility of lightning, remembering that we have good insurance and that having to replace the entire electronic system could have its advantages, especially when it is paid for with insurance. We know that because that is exactly what happened to a friend of ours. But I think that pretty much guarantees that we will not be struck. So we are happy we decided to stay here, even if it does mean that we will likely lose touch with some cruisers we have been with off and on since Mexico. That is sort of sad but it is just what happens when you move around a lot. I want to do things our way, which is not necessarily what all the other cruisers do at any given time. But I also know that any truly meaningful relationship can be maintained across many years and miles. I have the friends to prove that.
So on that note, I will sign off for today. Might be time for a dinghy ride into the mangroves.
"The average newcomer to the ever-growing ranks of yachtsmen comes equipped with only a slight knowledge of rope work and most of it wrong. From his boyhood days in Troop C of the Boy Scouts, he can only remember the clove hitch, the square or reef knot, and the sheepshank. the first will always be useful,the second has but one use, that of turning in a reef, and the sheepshank he will never need if he lives to be one hundred." (Hervey Garrett Smith, "The Marlinspike Sailor")
----------
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Saturday, July 27, 2013
Buenos Dias!
The time passes so peacefully here in the island chain, making it really easy to let things slide, especially things like this blog. I write post after post in my head while I am fishing, or processing fish, or cooking and cleaning, or swimming, or hiking or some other such pastime, but I never transfer any of that awesome stuff to screen. So everyone is stuck with what I put down here after I drag myself to the computer.
Our plans have been completely discarded, at least until we change our minds again. At this point, w ave decided to spend another month to six weeks here in this archipelago. We are going into Panama City this weekend for provisions and a new computer. THen back out here, and in mid September we will start watching the weather for a trip north to Costa Rica. Although we had planned to go to Ecuador, and we still do, I decided that I want to spend at least a year in South America. We also want to be at Easter Island in early February (for a festival). If we went this year, we would have only about six months in South America. Not enough. We did not stop in Costa Rica on the way down, nor did we visit Nicaragua. This is a good chance to do that. We are also really enjoying it here, and want to spend more time in the islands. So this would have us leaving for Ecuador from Costa Rica in December or January, which is a better time to make the trip, weather and conditions-wise. Then we have a year there before we leave for Easter Island. Perfect timing.
It has been a great time here. We have seen whales, all kinds of birds, and caught new fish. We took a dinghy trip with another boat here and went up a river in the evening, not getting out until it was dark. Again, a really amazing experience. We meandered through the mangroves, watching the vegetation change as the water lost its salinity. We heard strange bird and insect sounds, especially after it got dark. THe jungle, especially at night, is very noisy, especially the bugs. Or what sounds like squabbling raccoons. If you wake up in the middle of the night, there is always something to listen to. The other boat here with us has taught us all kinds of things, like smoking the fish over a fire pit on the beach. They have been great company, spending really good times together but having enough alone time as well. It is a good balance, and you don't always get that. Other boats have come and gone, and it is always fun to meet everyone. Some of these people I have talked to on the radio, and I like meeting them in real life. We also had a picnic/fish barbecue with another boat, who had relatives visiting them. I made a pasta salad and everyone seemed to like it. It was great fun to watch new people fall in love with a place that is special for me.
One interesting thing I must tell you about is the programming on the short wave (SSB) radio. Besides being a way to communicate with other vessels (like on the cruiser's net) and to send emails or make blog postings, you can also listen to programs on it and get weather reports. You can listen to the BBC, the CBC (Canada), and even Radio Kuwait and Radio China. We also got Radio Havana one day, but it was in French so we couldn't understand it. All of these are in English. What we cannot listen to is Voice of America, or any US stations. The US no longer maintains a presence on the short wave radio. The best is Radio China. They do international news, with an emphasis on China. They only report, and there is no opinion or editorializing. They also have general interest programs, and movie and music reviews. It is interesting. Radio Kuwait has an international news show for an hour every day. Again, just reporting, no commentary. Mike says that the US used to have a presence on the short wave, with news regularly each day and other programs, too. But now, nothing. It is a real bummer - so Radio China it is. They also have Chinese lessons. It seems to be a very hard language to learn. I know I haven't learned anything that has stuck with me yet.
As of today, we have been out here for a month. Since we only provisioned for a three week trip to Ecuador, we have been running out of things. We did take two dinghy trips into these two small villages, and were able to get beer, onions, and eggs. we bought lobsters from some panga fisherman most of which went to the barbecue. At one village, the boat that took us there introduced us to the locals, and we spent the day visiting and drinking beer. This other boat has been spending time here for years, and knows everything there is to know about the area and how to sail it. They sail without an engine, making them Mike's idols. The guy is from Newfoundland and the woman is from Sweden. I have also learned how to cook read in the pressure cooker. (I tried it a long time ago and just ended up with a mess in the pressure cooker. Now I know where I went wrong.) Speaking of which, the pressure cooker is now my favorite method of cooking. And of course one pot meals make life easier on the boat.
Well, I am really starting to ramble on, like that is anything new. Mike and I have been spending a lot of time re-evaluating and trying to block out our next moves. We'll see what happens next.
"Concern for man himself and his safety must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations. (Albert Einstein)
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Our plans have been completely discarded, at least until we change our minds again. At this point, w ave decided to spend another month to six weeks here in this archipelago. We are going into Panama City this weekend for provisions and a new computer. THen back out here, and in mid September we will start watching the weather for a trip north to Costa Rica. Although we had planned to go to Ecuador, and we still do, I decided that I want to spend at least a year in South America. We also want to be at Easter Island in early February (for a festival). If we went this year, we would have only about six months in South America. Not enough. We did not stop in Costa Rica on the way down, nor did we visit Nicaragua. This is a good chance to do that. We are also really enjoying it here, and want to spend more time in the islands. So this would have us leaving for Ecuador from Costa Rica in December or January, which is a better time to make the trip, weather and conditions-wise. Then we have a year there before we leave for Easter Island. Perfect timing.
It has been a great time here. We have seen whales, all kinds of birds, and caught new fish. We took a dinghy trip with another boat here and went up a river in the evening, not getting out until it was dark. Again, a really amazing experience. We meandered through the mangroves, watching the vegetation change as the water lost its salinity. We heard strange bird and insect sounds, especially after it got dark. THe jungle, especially at night, is very noisy, especially the bugs. Or what sounds like squabbling raccoons. If you wake up in the middle of the night, there is always something to listen to. The other boat here with us has taught us all kinds of things, like smoking the fish over a fire pit on the beach. They have been great company, spending really good times together but having enough alone time as well. It is a good balance, and you don't always get that. Other boats have come and gone, and it is always fun to meet everyone. Some of these people I have talked to on the radio, and I like meeting them in real life. We also had a picnic/fish barbecue with another boat, who had relatives visiting them. I made a pasta salad and everyone seemed to like it. It was great fun to watch new people fall in love with a place that is special for me.
One interesting thing I must tell you about is the programming on the short wave (SSB) radio. Besides being a way to communicate with other vessels (like on the cruiser's net) and to send emails or make blog postings, you can also listen to programs on it and get weather reports. You can listen to the BBC, the CBC (Canada), and even Radio Kuwait and Radio China. We also got Radio Havana one day, but it was in French so we couldn't understand it. All of these are in English. What we cannot listen to is Voice of America, or any US stations. The US no longer maintains a presence on the short wave radio. The best is Radio China. They do international news, with an emphasis on China. They only report, and there is no opinion or editorializing. They also have general interest programs, and movie and music reviews. It is interesting. Radio Kuwait has an international news show for an hour every day. Again, just reporting, no commentary. Mike says that the US used to have a presence on the short wave, with news regularly each day and other programs, too. But now, nothing. It is a real bummer - so Radio China it is. They also have Chinese lessons. It seems to be a very hard language to learn. I know I haven't learned anything that has stuck with me yet.
As of today, we have been out here for a month. Since we only provisioned for a three week trip to Ecuador, we have been running out of things. We did take two dinghy trips into these two small villages, and were able to get beer, onions, and eggs. we bought lobsters from some panga fisherman most of which went to the barbecue. At one village, the boat that took us there introduced us to the locals, and we spent the day visiting and drinking beer. This other boat has been spending time here for years, and knows everything there is to know about the area and how to sail it. They sail without an engine, making them Mike's idols. The guy is from Newfoundland and the woman is from Sweden. I have also learned how to cook read in the pressure cooker. (I tried it a long time ago and just ended up with a mess in the pressure cooker. Now I know where I went wrong.) Speaking of which, the pressure cooker is now my favorite method of cooking. And of course one pot meals make life easier on the boat.
Well, I am really starting to ramble on, like that is anything new. Mike and I have been spending a lot of time re-evaluating and trying to block out our next moves. We'll see what happens next.
"Concern for man himself and his safety must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations. (Albert Einstein)
----------
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