Waiting for a Weather Window

That's what we call it when we are sitting somewhere, ready to leave, but prevented from doing so by bad weather ahead of us. We are anchored at a place in the middle of Panama called Ensenada Naranjo. I have no idea why it is called that because there are no oranges that I can see and nothing colored orange, either. (Naranjo means orange in Spanish.)

Over the past few days, we have encountered some weather issues. Our original plan when leaving Isla Jicaron was to stop here. But when we were sailing towards here, we ended up in a squall that was blowing so hard from this very direction that we were prevented from entering. (We also learned that collecting rainwater during a squall is a good idea, but not necessarily when you are underway. We took a wave over the bow when the water tanks were open and now our water has a bit of salt water in it. It isn't enough to make it undrinkable, in fact I can't even taste it. But Mike checked with our water checking device and discovered it. So from now on our collecting rain will be limited to when the boat is not moving.) So we decided to just keep on sailing directly for the Bay of Panama. That also was not to be.

In order to enter the Bay of Panama, one has to sail around something called Punta Mala, which means Bad Point and trust me, it is aptly named. We were unable to even get close to it, as the wind and waves were against us, blowing so hard and kicking up such high seas that even with our engine we could not make any headway. It was like running in place, or swimming laps in one of those current pools. As we were struggling with it, a boat came from the direction we were trying to go. They had the wind and waves in their favor, but were still getting beat up. They called us on the radio and told us it was only going to get worse the further we went. So we turned tail and headed back the way we came. After an entire day of sailing, we ended up here after all. This time the weather allowed us to enter. It is a nice anchorage, and well protected from the waves and swells. It isn't strong winds that cause most of the problem in anchorages, it is the waves or swells. Wind makes noise and makes things uncomfortable, but waves and swells that are too big will cause the anchor to come unset and then you will drift. Usually into rocks. That is what happened with our second anchorage here in Panama, Isla Montuosa. The swells were so large the boat was rocking rather violently from side to side, making it impossible for us to even lie in bed without rolling around. And the anchorage itself was surrounded by large rocky reefs, and if we had come loose, there was a good chance we could be driven onto the rocks.

So here we sit. We got on the SSB radio and downloaded some weather information that indicates this current pattern of high winds and swells is not going to lie down until Monday. Funny, we are only about 24 miles from the problem area, but there is nothing here. It would be so tempting to give it another try, but we know better. We might be able to leave late Sunday afternoon, we will just have to keep checking the weather reports. It is pointless to go out, wasting our time, energy, emotional well-being, not to mention diesel fuel, just to have to turn back again. When you have to do that, you end up losing days of time. It is frustrating, but there is nothing to be done about it. We are using the time to good advantage - we went through our food cupboards again and cleaned and cleaned, making sure there were no open packages of food that the roaches could live off. You would be surprised how often the packages just come undone - a problem with third world groceries. But I think we are winning the battle - between us and our geckos, we will keep fighting until the end. I have never hated anything so much as I hate those roaches. I mean it.

While we were sailing along on our way to this anchorage, we had fishing poles out, trolling along. We know when a fish hits because Mike sets the lines so they make a clicking noise as the line spools out. SO here we were, eating dinner in the cockpit, enjoying a nice evening, when all of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever, the entire fishing pole AND the rod holder itself flew off the boat and disappeared into the water. It happened so fast and so hard that it left the boat before even spooling any line. The metal rod holder was sheared off. We can only imagine the size of the fish that took the pole. Too bad, it was an expensive pole and Torino reel. We do have more poles and reels, so it is not the end of the world. I am pretty glad we didn't have to deal with that fish!

THere are two other boats here in the anchorage with us. One of them has three men from Chile on it. We met them last night and shared the last of our beer with them. I felt like that was a good way to use up the last of it, rather than hoarding it and rationing it. We had a great visit. Two of them did not speak any English, but Carlos did, and between his English and my Spanish we were able to communicate no problem by just mixing the languages. Later that evening they came by again and invited us to dinner, but we had already eaten, unfortunately for us! But they had been spear fishing and gave us a fish, which MIke promptly cleaned and filleted and will be our dinner tonight. We are not sure what kind of a fish it is - maybe some variety of trigger fish, which we ate in Mexico in the Sea of Cortez.

As I was sitting here writing this, we heard a dinghy pulling up, and there were our new friends with another fish for us! This looks like a tuna variety or a jack of some sort - I guess we have two nights worth of dinner now!!!!

We discovered a new way to shower to save water. We wet ourselves down in the shower, then turn off the water and soap and shampoo up. Then, covered with soap and shampoo, we run from the bathroom to the cockpit and then jump into the ocean and rinse off. THen we get back in the shower for a quick fresh water rinse. It does save a lot of water, as rinsing the soap off is what uses the most. Especially with hair as long and thick as mine. Plus it is fun.

I do have one thing to ask here: If either of my sisters reads this, would you please send me an email at WDF5496@sailmail.com? I didn't bother to write down your email addresses, just having them in the google gmail address book, which is inaccessible to me as I have no internet and just work off the SSB radio. I have a favor I need to ask, so I am hoping to hear from one of you. Thank you in advance!

So that is it for today. Although we have plenty to do here to keep ourselves busy, I am hoping that the weather data we are looking at is right and we will be able to head out Monday. Once we get past Punta Mala, it is only a day or so to the Panama City area. Then we can start to fix the stuff that has crapped out on us. I am so tired of things breaking and so is Mike. But that is a post for another day.

(No quote for today, I am too lazy to look one up.)

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