Isla Chapera

We left Isla Espiritu Santo day before yesterday and sailed here to Chapera - which is right across from Isla Mogo Mogo. We have been here before, and often stay here on our way to and from Panama City. It is close to the city, which means that since it is a weekend, there are a lot of local boats out here having fun over the weekend. Lots of small sport fishing boats, nice motor yachts, and the like. They are all loaded with water toys like jet skis and that sort of thing. It is a lot of fun to watch other people having fun, in fact, it is almost as much fun as doing it oneself. I love to see people when they are having a great time. It makes me feel good.

We sailed all the way here - the winds were certainly strong enough, but not too strong. Of course they were going sort of the wrong direction, so we had to "beat" our way there. A "beat" is when you are sailing to windward and the waves and/or the current is going the wrong way as well. It is not impossible, and our boat does a great job sailing to wind, but it is never really comfortable. I thought we did a good job, and I will never fail to be amazed at sailing itself - the way a boat weighing over a ton or more can be moved only by the wind, with no motor or anything like that. We were doing up to almost seven knots at times, which is almost our hull speed. (Hull speed is the speed at which a boat reaches it's top potential speed. It is determined by a calculation I do not understand, but which considers the hull length as part of the equation.) It was a lot of fun. When we got here, we were granted the most amazing sunset ever - I have seen plenty with more dramatic colors, but this was a huge coral colored sun ball, just hovering above the horizon, then dropping down.

Last night we had dinner on our friends' boat, and then spent the evening telling stories and getting to know each other better. One of the beat parts of living like this has been the people we have met along the way. Everyone has a story, and each story is different. It seems like most of us who make the decision to live like this have spent a lot of time thinking and acting outside the box for most of their lives. (For the record, I hate the phrases "thinking outside the box" and "coloring outside the lines." They do, however, illustrate what I mean and I can't think of anything better right now.)

Right now I am experiencing the down side of the weekenders - they drive their dinghies and jet skis at breakneck speeds through the anchorage and cause all the anchored boats to roll around. It has taken me three times as long as it should to type this sentence, as I keep making typos as I rock around all over the seat here at the nav station.

I am reading a really really good, but heartbreaking book. It is called "Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital" by Shari Fink. It is about the problems at a New Orleans hospital during and after Hurricane Katrina. I hope I am never in a situation like that one, that is all I can say. It is so easy to sit back after something like that and Monday morning quarterback the whole thing. I don't know what kinds of decisions I would have made. It seems like (at this point in the book) that the people who ended up in trouble were the only ones who were willing to hang on and try to deal with things while others ran away for their own safety, and the big bosses (who of course are never on site when everything goes to hell, and in the Tom Clancy novels they are referred to as "REMFS", which stands for "rear echelon motherfuckers." It fits quite well, I think.) did nothing except to dodge the issue when things were acute, and then blamed the foot soldiers for everything that went wrong. I have cried just reading sections out loud to Mike, and I remember being so sad when it all happened, watching all that Katrina coverage on CNN, and just thinking that it seemed as though I was living in a third world country that could not take care of itself. I don't ever remember feeling as bad as that over something that didn't really touch me, it to me was sadder and harder to deal with than was 9-11. Anyway, I highly recommend the book. You will not be able to put it down, and it will change you in some way.

OK, enough. I am still happily living in paradise here in Panama, with clear water, lots of great fish, birds, bugs, and fish eating bats that fly around the boat at night. Until I got to Central America, I had no idea there was such a creature as a fish eating bat, but I now see them every night. I like bats anyway, and these are especially interesting. We will be here for another day or so, then into Panama City to take care of some things and to re-provision. We are out of beer (gasp!) and most of our fresh veggies, with only root veggies and onions remaining. It is Saturday today, and I suppose we will leave here Monday, weather permitting.

So this is it for now. My plan for the rest of the day (it is just after noon) is to take a swim, do some straightening up in the cabin, and plan a nice dinner. Do you think I can handle it? I think so!

"DOn't find fault, find a remedy." (Henry Ford)

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