I grew up in Wisconsin, where big summer thunderstorms happened on a regular basis. And I always loved them. I loved the booming, and the flashes of light that lit up the entire night. Sometimes I'd get up with my dad and we would go and sit in the garage and just watch the storm. My youngest sister was afraid of them, and arranged a deal with my middle sister that when youngest sister got scared, she would knock on the wall and middle sister would come in her room and sleep. But I was the only one who woke up with the knocking, so I'd go in there. I never minded. I just wanted her to love the violent weather like I did. (As far as I know, she no longer fears thunderstorms and at one point handled my son, who is terrified of them to this day, with admirable aplomb.)
My husband is another story. He has on two occasions been so close to a lightning strike that he was knocked down. That would sour me a bit. But things have changed completely and now when I hear distant thunder or see distant lightning, my stomach flips and all reason flies out the door. See, getting struck by lightning in a boat is no laughing matter. It has happened to several people we know. All of your electronics get fried, and we are talking maybe ten thousand dollars if you have a nice system like we do. I know, I know, we do have insurance for this sort of thing, and we know from our acquaintances that insurance is very good about this stuff. Nevertheless,I have no desire to undergo that drama. Anyway, this whole rant is based on the fact we had a thunderstorm last night, filling me with anxiety and impeding my already fragile sleep patterns. However there is a bright side to it - thunderstorms are usually accompanied by heavy rain, so we did get to add to our water tanks. And everyone knows I love drinking rainwater. So we deal with it. Not that there is any choice in the matter.
Anyway, I will catch up on what I have been up to for the last few days. After leaving Isla Parida, we sailed for about a day to another island about which we heard marvelous things. It is tiny, and out of the way, not being visited by very many cruisers. I heard about it after putting out a call on the radio for any suggestions about anything really special that should not be missed. So we set off, and motored most of the 30 miles or so because there was no wind. (We hate motoring and feel like it is cheating.) The is;and itself was beautiful, verdant and jungle-y. There was a little camp of some sort on the shore. We sat in the cockpit and had a beer, admiring the scenery and planning to take a dinghy expedition the next day. The anchorage was a bit rolly, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. We were anchored in sort of a slot between two rocky reefs. We had dinner, went to bed, and a few hours later were almost hurtled out of our bed by the boat rocking violently from side to side. I had to jump up and start moving things around as things in the cupboards were banging away. Keep in mind we had just been underway and I had things battened down pretty well already. So we went back to bed, but it just got worse. Finally, at midnight, Mike decides that we need to get out of there. I agreed. Of course, getting underway with a rocking boat and in the dark is stressful and no fun. But we did it, and the ride while underway was much more comfortable than being in the anchorage. Plus there was no worry our anchor would break loose and we would go onto the rocks. So we sailed until we were well out to sea and then out the boat into a heave to (a way of sort of stopping the boat by making the sails and rudder work against each other) and went to sleep.
We then came to our next recommended stop, Isla Jicaron. Again, an incredibly beautiful island with no one on it. The anchorage was fine, so we stayed for two days. The island itself is covered in such heavy jungle we could not have hiked it without using our machetes to cut our way through. So we walked along the beach area, picking five fine coconuts for ourselves. We brought them back to the boat, and Mike hacked them open with his machete. This is a difficult job - you have to hack through inches of tough husk before you get to the nut itself, and we discovered something in the husks stains the decks. It sort of looks like blood stains, actually, and I know about that because of cleaning fish on board. But it was awesome to pick, process and eat our own cocos. A word to the wary, however, coconuts and their milk appear to have mild laxative qualities. Today we plan on leaving here and sailing about 50 miles to another anchorage, a place called Ensenada Naranja. It is on the mainland, right before you round a big scary point into the Bay of Panama, wherein lies Panama City. We need to get there as our depth sounder decided to stop working, and that is not a good thing. We can get it fixed (or replace it) in Panama City. We would have preferred going straight from here to Panama City, a multi day sail, but the weather is going to get dicey adn we want to hole up in a protected anchorage and wait for the blow to be over, rather than getting beat up in heavy seas and winds.
I have also been put in charge of using the cruiser nets on the SSB radio. I am getting good at it, and yesterday I had to help relay information between a sailboat and the net control. (Net control is the person who is organizing the net.) They could not hear each other but I could hear both of them. That happens a lot, and because we have a really good radio, we can hear almost everyone even when they can't hear each other. At first I was intimidated, but now I am really enjoying it. I am even thinking about getting a ham license, if I could pass the test. I have a book to study, but it isn't exactly the sort of thing I am good at, understanding the technical stuff. I hope I can learn it. I like talking on the radio, and maybe after some more practice I will try my hand at net control.
So anyway, that is it for now. Just another day in paradise.
"Our interest is on the dangerous edge of things." (Robert Browning)
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