It's fly season and if there is one creature I hate above almost all else, it is the common fly. And they are coming in by the droves, and since no one in Costa Rica seems to believe in screens, we fight flys all day long if the door is open. And the door is always open. That means lots and lots of flys in the house.
Now I am grateful that we don't seem to have the "circling flys" that we had in San Diego. That is when about 10 of them decide to simply fly around and around in circles. Not too fast, not too slow, no apparent agenda but to simply circle in the air. I hate them especially because they are very hard to kill. They never land on anything. I would get so frustrated that I would wildly start swinging the fly swatter through the air which is a waste of time and energy because everyone knows it is almost impossible to kill a fly on the wing.
Lately Mike and I have taken turns going on these fly kill sprees. I've killed 11 during one session, and I have killed two at a time, no small feat. Diego the dog does not care for the swinging fly swatter, but since he isn't making any moves to kill the flys himself, he will just have to learn to deal with it.
Flys - a scourge of life
Destroy the serenity
Of a quiet day
There! That's my fly hate haiku. I am too lazy to write a sonnet. I suppose the answer is to find someone who can make screen doors. It can't be that hard. I bet Mike could do it if he wanted to. But he has enough projects.
Things have been going fine around here, though construction of our pizza oven and patio are at a standstill - we were told there is stuff being held up in customs - I say go deal with it and get my crap so we can get on with it. Customs can be very hard to deal with, I know from personal experience. So while I am sympathetic, I do think something needs to be done, like a personal visit to the office. That sort of thing often works.
It is still dry season here, and one of the interesting things about the dry season is the explosion of flowering trees. There are all colors and it is amazing, especially since the landscape is otherwise a bit dry looking. We have several in the yard. And we have another tree - lengua de gato - that is covered with little white flowers. These little white flowers are going to turn into these blue berries that every animal and bird love to eat. Hopefully Diego will not chase them away yapping infernally. One can only hope, anyway.
Today is a quiet day, and all I can hear are the birds and the bugs. Mike and Diego are taking midday naps. Life is still good.
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." (Mahatma Gandhi)
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Monday, April 2, 2018
Monday: Just Another Day to A Happy Retiree
I think I am going to fret about something here. But its private, so maybe not. I guess I'll have to think about it. Sorry for that.
We have been steadily at the house since we got back from the states and I am glad about it. I feel pretty well settled in for now at least. We have some things we have to take care of here - like getting on the list to have high speed internet and to get one of our cars registered.
The internet thing will involve visiting the ICE (ee-say) office and getting on some list. ICE is the electricity entity for Costa Rica. I have no idea if it is going to be difficult or not. We already went once but were turned away because we didn't have our corporation papers with us. (Side note: in Costa Rica,, foreigners set up corporations to do business. Our bank account is in our corporation's name, for example. Some people put all their cars and real estate in the corporation, but we haven't done that.) So now we have to go back, this time with our papers. We'll see. I want this internet if for no other reason than I can have Netflix.
The car registration is more intense than it is in the US. You have to have your car inspected, and if it does not pass inspection, you can't get it registered and can't drive it. It is called "reteve" (reh TEH vay). They check your brakes, and a bunch of other things that I can't remember. They check the tires. So we plan to take our car t our mechanic and make sure it will pass, and fix anything that needs fixing. Then we'll make an appointment with the reteve people and get that done. We have two cars and we already did it for our other (newer, nicer) car. It seems like a hassle, but it runs quite smoothly and it helps keep crappy cars off the road. It is always nice to get that sort of thing out of the way. The only thing hanging over my head at this point is taxes!!!
Now that I have bored everyone including myself silly, there is not lot going on around here. The weather has been awesome, with beautiful clear skies, lots of wind, and temperatures barely exceeding 80 degrees F. Mike and I have taken to having our coffee on the back porch and just gazing to the mountains in the far distance. This is the season to burn the sugar cane fields, so we can see little fires dotting the horizon. In the daytime we can only see the smoke, but at night we can see the flames. We are above that fray so we don't have to breathe in all the smoke, but because it is at pretty much the same level as the fires, the wind blows ashes all over it. They are sort of sticky and we definitely have to use the power washer rather than just hosing off the deck.
Also right now we are having our outside remodeled, sort of. We are adding a large covered patio that will house an outdoor kitchen. The pizza oven is going to be the first thing built, and we have to search for just the right grill to be added. We want a smoker and a cook top as well as the grill and the pizza oven. I already make really good pizza if I do say so myself, and the new oven will make it better. This is all Phase One - Phase Two will include a pool. And I still want desperately to buy the lot next to us. Plus I want to buy this farm I have had my eye on - the price keeps dropping. The sellers are apparently heirs who really need to sell it.
(I certainly do not need a farm. I know this. I would never be willing to do the hard work - in fact, I'd be looking for someone to sharecrop it. But I don't think I'll be buying that farm soon, no matter how much I want it. It's completely irrational. I still want to go look at it, but I won't because it would not be fair to the seller.)
Anyway, there is a lot of construction noise going on, which is not always fun, but they are making great progress. I don't know how long it will be before we move into Phase Two after the completion of Phase One. It is completely overwhelming for me, thank goodness for Mike. Plus I am NOT comfortable with the amount of money we are spending. Mike says we are fine, and I trust him because he is sensible about money and handles it all. I could handle it of course, but he wouldn't be able to not constantly kibbutz, which would bug the crap out of me, so I let him do it. I have certain things that have to be met or I get too nervous, and he has shown me that those fears are groundless. Nevertheless, I have PTSD about money things, and as long as he says things are okay, I am going to believe it. That is how much faith I have in Mike. While I may get furious with him at times, I do trust him with stuff like money (and whether or not an outfit "works"). There, that is what I was alluding to in my first paragraph. Yes, I am nervous about money. It is hard for me to spend money. It is hard for me to talk about money. I don't even like to think about it, really. I want the taxes done and not hanging over my head. I hate this time of year because it is time to think about money. You can't get away from it. And you know what makes it all so totally stupid? Our taxes are easy. No problems. But I still hate it. Not good for my mental health, always precarious under the best of situations, ha ha ha.
Next week I think we are going to go down to the boat so Mike can get to work on all the things we bought for it in San Diego. And he plans to pretty much rewire the whole boat so he will finally have the electrical system of his dreams. I will have to stand there and hand him tools and stuff. Maybe he won't need help and Diego and I can go to the swimming pool. But one good thing is that we decided to get a portable air conditioner so when he has to spend a lot of time working inside. We had one of these a few years back and it makes things a lot better. We only used the old one (and will use the new one) when we are at the dock. And I don't want to let it make us go soft. I am proud of the fact that we can be happy and comfortable even when the cabin is like 90 degrees F. As long as I have a fan on me, I can handle it.
Well, I think I should wind this up as I am really beginning to babble. Life is pretty good.
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." (Benjamin Franklin)
We have been steadily at the house since we got back from the states and I am glad about it. I feel pretty well settled in for now at least. We have some things we have to take care of here - like getting on the list to have high speed internet and to get one of our cars registered.
The internet thing will involve visiting the ICE (ee-say) office and getting on some list. ICE is the electricity entity for Costa Rica. I have no idea if it is going to be difficult or not. We already went once but were turned away because we didn't have our corporation papers with us. (Side note: in Costa Rica,, foreigners set up corporations to do business. Our bank account is in our corporation's name, for example. Some people put all their cars and real estate in the corporation, but we haven't done that.) So now we have to go back, this time with our papers. We'll see. I want this internet if for no other reason than I can have Netflix.
The car registration is more intense than it is in the US. You have to have your car inspected, and if it does not pass inspection, you can't get it registered and can't drive it. It is called "reteve" (reh TEH vay). They check your brakes, and a bunch of other things that I can't remember. They check the tires. So we plan to take our car t our mechanic and make sure it will pass, and fix anything that needs fixing. Then we'll make an appointment with the reteve people and get that done. We have two cars and we already did it for our other (newer, nicer) car. It seems like a hassle, but it runs quite smoothly and it helps keep crappy cars off the road. It is always nice to get that sort of thing out of the way. The only thing hanging over my head at this point is taxes!!!
Now that I have bored everyone including myself silly, there is not lot going on around here. The weather has been awesome, with beautiful clear skies, lots of wind, and temperatures barely exceeding 80 degrees F. Mike and I have taken to having our coffee on the back porch and just gazing to the mountains in the far distance. This is the season to burn the sugar cane fields, so we can see little fires dotting the horizon. In the daytime we can only see the smoke, but at night we can see the flames. We are above that fray so we don't have to breathe in all the smoke, but because it is at pretty much the same level as the fires, the wind blows ashes all over it. They are sort of sticky and we definitely have to use the power washer rather than just hosing off the deck.
Also right now we are having our outside remodeled, sort of. We are adding a large covered patio that will house an outdoor kitchen. The pizza oven is going to be the first thing built, and we have to search for just the right grill to be added. We want a smoker and a cook top as well as the grill and the pizza oven. I already make really good pizza if I do say so myself, and the new oven will make it better. This is all Phase One - Phase Two will include a pool. And I still want desperately to buy the lot next to us. Plus I want to buy this farm I have had my eye on - the price keeps dropping. The sellers are apparently heirs who really need to sell it.
(I certainly do not need a farm. I know this. I would never be willing to do the hard work - in fact, I'd be looking for someone to sharecrop it. But I don't think I'll be buying that farm soon, no matter how much I want it. It's completely irrational. I still want to go look at it, but I won't because it would not be fair to the seller.)
Anyway, there is a lot of construction noise going on, which is not always fun, but they are making great progress. I don't know how long it will be before we move into Phase Two after the completion of Phase One. It is completely overwhelming for me, thank goodness for Mike. Plus I am NOT comfortable with the amount of money we are spending. Mike says we are fine, and I trust him because he is sensible about money and handles it all. I could handle it of course, but he wouldn't be able to not constantly kibbutz, which would bug the crap out of me, so I let him do it. I have certain things that have to be met or I get too nervous, and he has shown me that those fears are groundless. Nevertheless, I have PTSD about money things, and as long as he says things are okay, I am going to believe it. That is how much faith I have in Mike. While I may get furious with him at times, I do trust him with stuff like money (and whether or not an outfit "works"). There, that is what I was alluding to in my first paragraph. Yes, I am nervous about money. It is hard for me to spend money. It is hard for me to talk about money. I don't even like to think about it, really. I want the taxes done and not hanging over my head. I hate this time of year because it is time to think about money. You can't get away from it. And you know what makes it all so totally stupid? Our taxes are easy. No problems. But I still hate it. Not good for my mental health, always precarious under the best of situations, ha ha ha.
Next week I think we are going to go down to the boat so Mike can get to work on all the things we bought for it in San Diego. And he plans to pretty much rewire the whole boat so he will finally have the electrical system of his dreams. I will have to stand there and hand him tools and stuff. Maybe he won't need help and Diego and I can go to the swimming pool. But one good thing is that we decided to get a portable air conditioner so when he has to spend a lot of time working inside. We had one of these a few years back and it makes things a lot better. We only used the old one (and will use the new one) when we are at the dock. And I don't want to let it make us go soft. I am proud of the fact that we can be happy and comfortable even when the cabin is like 90 degrees F. As long as I have a fan on me, I can handle it.
Well, I think I should wind this up as I am really beginning to babble. Life is pretty good.
"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones." (Benjamin Franklin)
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Home is Where the Bed Is
We just got back from a trip to the US. We usually do it once a year, and try to make it correspond to a visa run. We got to see my son and his fiance (my future daughter-in-law) but of course there was not enough time - we made the trip without much advance planning (well to be honest pretty much no advance planning) - but we did get some really good visits in and I am so delighted Danielle will be part of my family. I also spent time with my aunt and my cousins. It was also a great visit, and something that does not happen very often. We have not always been real close, but I love my extended family very much.
Going back to San Diego is getting strange. It does not feel like home anymore, which is okay since it's not. It is somewhere I used to live, albeit somewhere I lived for a long time. I really loved San Diego, and i still do. it just isn't home. The US isn't home. It is just a really easy place to get stuff it is hard to get down here. And the food is really really good and you get a lot of it. Too good and too much. This time I made an effort to limit my intake and did not gain any weight, at least not that I noticed. Nothing that fit me when I left did not fit when I got back, and such has not always been the case. Once when we went to San Diego, Wisconsin, and Arkansas and came back fat as hogs. It was horrible, but fun while it lasted.
I am always glad to get back HOME - what ever I am calling home at the time. HOME is an interesting concept to me. I call every place I am sleeping "home" while I am sleeping there. My hotel room is home, my tent is home, and my boat is home.
My boat, of course, was the only real HOME for seven years. Where ever it was, that was where home was. My stuff was there. my bed was there. I knew all about everything there. Even when I knew nothing about the area we were anchored/moored/docked in, it was still home. It still is - especially if I am going straight to the boat instead of the house after a trip. Nothing felt/feels better than unpacking and stashing the suitcases away, then surveying my tiny domain and feeling like an empress. The fish around the boat - those are MY fish. The birds that most people consider to be pests because they hang around the boats and make messes - MY birds. I don't even really mind cleaning up their messes and dealing with their nest building. They are part of my little empire.
Then we got this house. Now I am like Eleanor of Aquitaine - I have to travel between my domains. I never thought I would own a house again. And I never thought I'd do it in Costa Rica. But I did and here I am, sitting at the table in my kitchen writing this post. I have a cup of coffee and I can see my orchid tree with its gorgeous pink and magenta flowers. (Side note: In Costa Rica, some of the most beautiful flowering trees flame out brightest in the dry season. I didn't expect that, but then I have a lot to learn about the tropics. So the flowering trees stand out even more in the dry season because there are fewer leaves on the trees. Just branches of flowers. The leaves start to appear when the flowers fall off. While the temperature doesn't change much, you can still tell a real change in seasons just by watching the flora change.
My dad used to bitch about California, saying that there was no "weather", and his tone left no doubt in my mind that "no weather" was in some way indicative of a place less character-building, less challenging. Something like that. I have no idea what he'd say about this place. I think he'd like the boat, and if he were alive he might like to have a sailing vacation with us. My mom would like it here at the house, because it is up in the mountains and nice and cool. If she were alive, she could live with us (we might build her a little house of her own on the property) and take care of the chickens we (c)(w)ould get. I don't know if she would be much help with the garden. I don't see enjoying the boat - too hot even with the fans. And frankly, i just never thought she was that much of a water person when it came to boats. She liked water-related activities, like fishing and beach-walking and water-watching, but that seemed to be it.
I am losing my mind sometimes over being so lucky. Almost every day I think to myself "How did this happen?" "How did I manage this?" It seems like some huge mistake might have been made and I was accidentally given someone else's future and the mistake will eventually need to be rectified. Not really, but that thought is ever present. I have had that feeling in some form about some thing pretty much my whole life. Even though it has never come true.
So enough for today. I am trying to figure out what this blog will be now that Life Aboard the Magda Jean is only part time. Hell, let's be honest - I am trying to figure out what my life is going to be now.
Signed, Always at the Crossroads
"Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another." (Juvenal)
Going back to San Diego is getting strange. It does not feel like home anymore, which is okay since it's not. It is somewhere I used to live, albeit somewhere I lived for a long time. I really loved San Diego, and i still do. it just isn't home. The US isn't home. It is just a really easy place to get stuff it is hard to get down here. And the food is really really good and you get a lot of it. Too good and too much. This time I made an effort to limit my intake and did not gain any weight, at least not that I noticed. Nothing that fit me when I left did not fit when I got back, and such has not always been the case. Once when we went to San Diego, Wisconsin, and Arkansas and came back fat as hogs. It was horrible, but fun while it lasted.
I am always glad to get back HOME - what ever I am calling home at the time. HOME is an interesting concept to me. I call every place I am sleeping "home" while I am sleeping there. My hotel room is home, my tent is home, and my boat is home.
My boat, of course, was the only real HOME for seven years. Where ever it was, that was where home was. My stuff was there. my bed was there. I knew all about everything there. Even when I knew nothing about the area we were anchored/moored/docked in, it was still home. It still is - especially if I am going straight to the boat instead of the house after a trip. Nothing felt/feels better than unpacking and stashing the suitcases away, then surveying my tiny domain and feeling like an empress. The fish around the boat - those are MY fish. The birds that most people consider to be pests because they hang around the boats and make messes - MY birds. I don't even really mind cleaning up their messes and dealing with their nest building. They are part of my little empire.
Then we got this house. Now I am like Eleanor of Aquitaine - I have to travel between my domains. I never thought I would own a house again. And I never thought I'd do it in Costa Rica. But I did and here I am, sitting at the table in my kitchen writing this post. I have a cup of coffee and I can see my orchid tree with its gorgeous pink and magenta flowers. (Side note: In Costa Rica, some of the most beautiful flowering trees flame out brightest in the dry season. I didn't expect that, but then I have a lot to learn about the tropics. So the flowering trees stand out even more in the dry season because there are fewer leaves on the trees. Just branches of flowers. The leaves start to appear when the flowers fall off. While the temperature doesn't change much, you can still tell a real change in seasons just by watching the flora change.
My dad used to bitch about California, saying that there was no "weather", and his tone left no doubt in my mind that "no weather" was in some way indicative of a place less character-building, less challenging. Something like that. I have no idea what he'd say about this place. I think he'd like the boat, and if he were alive he might like to have a sailing vacation with us. My mom would like it here at the house, because it is up in the mountains and nice and cool. If she were alive, she could live with us (we might build her a little house of her own on the property) and take care of the chickens we (c)(w)ould get. I don't know if she would be much help with the garden. I don't see enjoying the boat - too hot even with the fans. And frankly, i just never thought she was that much of a water person when it came to boats. She liked water-related activities, like fishing and beach-walking and water-watching, but that seemed to be it.
I am losing my mind sometimes over being so lucky. Almost every day I think to myself "How did this happen?" "How did I manage this?" It seems like some huge mistake might have been made and I was accidentally given someone else's future and the mistake will eventually need to be rectified. Not really, but that thought is ever present. I have had that feeling in some form about some thing pretty much my whole life. Even though it has never come true.
So enough for today. I am trying to figure out what this blog will be now that Life Aboard the Magda Jean is only part time. Hell, let's be honest - I am trying to figure out what my life is going to be now.
Signed, Always at the Crossroads
"Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another." (Juvenal)
Sunday, March 11, 2018
To Date
We have been living here in Costa Rica ever since, then. It will be three years in July.
We haven't just been sitting around the house though.
We spent two weeks last summer in Newfoundland, with our good friend Wayne. We met Wayne in Bolivia, and we've been visiting back and forth and meeting in different places for about four years now. He lives in St. John's, and as a restaurateur (among his many other talents) took us to all the best places there. And the food was awesome. I also learned to eat some local delicacies. Cod cheeks are delicious other than one little part that is sort of slimy. Then I had this fish and potato dish that was wonderful food in thee "comfort food" genre. I just wish I could remember the name - it was kind of a funny name that sounded like it should have something to do with beer, but it doesn't. I also had these little salted fish that were a snacky sort of thing - a bit too salty for me. I also had cloudberry jam (called bakeapple but it has no apples.) We had other berries as well - crowberries are the ones that I can remember now. It was all wonderful.
It is also breath-takingly gorgeous up there. It is all rocks and ocean and these strange little pools that pop up everywhere. We took a boat ride and saw whales and puffins. I have never seen a puffin before, and though I have seen a lot of whales at different times while sailing, these were pretty spectacular as there were lots of them all around us. It was a very rugged, rough seeming place nature-wise, and the people are wonderfully friendly. When we told people we were really enjoying ourselves and wanted to return, they all said "Don't come in the winter!" No problem there - Mike absolutely won't go anywhere cold. I would be kind of curious. After all, I am from Wisconsin.
Then at Christmas, we met up with Wayne and two other friends and spent the New Year in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. We rented a nice house with a pool and a great view - it was a good time. We spent New Year's Eve literally drinking and dancing on the beach along with a ton of other people. Mike and I not only stayed up past midnight, but we stayed up until like 3 am. We even (or at least I did) took a swim in the pool after we got back from the beach celebrations.
Besides all of that, we have been enjoying the boat. Like we planned, when we start craving hot weather and the beach, we make the 2 hour drive to the marina. We've been going out for day sails, or spending the night at a nearby anchorage. And believe me, the boat adventures have not been over.
I know that some of you (those who don't sail) wonder why we are always making repairs to the boat or having things broken down. I do not blame you for thinking that. As I know I have said before, it's the constant breakdowns that would drive me away from sailing. But the marine environment is hard on everything. So everything breaks eventually, and when you own a boat like Magda Jean, you must resign yourself to this reality. It doesn't matter if the boat is 30 years old or brand new. We all have these problems.
Anyway, we decided that this year we would get the cosmetic work done on the boat we have never ever done - painting the hull. It was always in need of a new paint job, and it was further messed up when we were in a marina in Mexico - the name and most of the paint rubbed off one side because of the way they tied us up. Further, when we changed the name of the boat when we got her, the style and color of the lettering we chose at that time turned out to be one of those things that looked way better in our heads than in actuality. So we decided to renew the name as well.
The marina where the work is to be done is south of us, in the Gulf of Nicoya. We figured it would be a two day sail, more or less, depending on circumstances, of course. We were really excited about getting underway - it had been awhile since we undertook a multi-day sail. So we headed off with optimism and high hopes (I know that is probably redundant but I don't care).
We sailed down the coast at a wonderful speed - way faster than usual and a comfortable ride as well. Everything went well until we hit the mouth of the gulf. Because of water pouring out of the gulf into the ocean, our speed dropped. And we also lost our wind. So we decided to turn on the engine and motor sail.
That was going very well - until it wasn't. Of course the engine crapped out on us. Right where it is most needed, too. Mike worked and worked on it, and although he pretty well guessed what was wrong and that it would not be a hard fix. Well that is all well and good - but we still had to get to the marina. It was only 50 miles away, across the mouth of the gulf. I swear we could almost see it. But with what wind there was being unfavorable, it took us two solid days to sail that 50 miles. You have no idea how tedious that gets. You know it is going to be like that, but speaking only for myself, it is torture going back and forth, back and forth, feeling hopeful that you have finally passed some landmark you've been staring at all night, only to have it appear again, making it look as though you have made no progress at all. And sometimes it's true - you have made no progress at all. Hence 48 hours to go 50 miles.
But just as we started to approach the harbor entrance, the wind picked up and we were able to sail proudly to the breakwater, where we did need assistance to get into our slip.
The boat was hauled, and the work done was fabulous. We took everything down to the gel coat, and redid it all. The bottom not only got new paint, it got a new barrier coat. The stripes are now bright and jaunty. The name is on the stern instead of the sides, and is now easier to read and much better looking. It took a month and a half, but it was worth it. The shipyard is no south-of-the-border-bargain, but the prices were fair and they came in under estimate, which trust me never ever happens.
After the boat was splashed, the engine guys came to visit. They agreed with Mike the problem was with the fuel system, and we did all kinds of things to the system, sine I am not a mechanic that is the best explanation you are going to get. After they finished, the engine was working beautifully, better than it had in years.
While the boat was being painted, we stayed in a rented condo in Manuel Antonio, nearby the marina. Again, this is an area we had not explored too much. We loved it - lots of animals and birds (macaws right outside the windows) and the beaches there are really nice. I liked renting an umbrella and chair, since I need to be out of the sun as much as possible and I liked the part that the guys handling the rentals would also go get you a beer. The surf was gentle, an the next time I go I am going to make a complete fool of myself by taking a surfing lesson.
We left the marina with some regret, as it was really fun there and no more expensive than where we are. But it is further from the house, has more lightning, and the sailing is not as good due to the way the winds are. Now understand they treat us really really good at our current marina. But the new place was really hopping and we'd have more company, and you can walk to town for dinner and beer, or choose from the myriad of places right there at the marina. Food for thought, any way.
One important thing to know is that part of our engine problems are due to under use. Mike always wants to sail, no matter how slowly, so the engine never really gets to operate under what they call a full load. We decided we should actually motor for much of the trip so as to give the engine a work out.
We motored along nicely, enjoying the beautiful day, watching seabirds, spotting turtles, all that sort of thing. It was my birthday, and my only wish was to be underway. So that night I went to lay down for awhile, while Mike was at the helm. I was sleeping peacefully until I awoke when the engine stopped and Mike called me. "I need you to put up the sails! The engine crapped out!" I got up and I do not mind telling you I was seriously pissed. Mike kept apologizing, and I kept telling him it was not his fault. He screwed around with engine, and again determined that this was not a big deal, he could fix it himself, but not until we got to the marina.
So again we found ourselves trying to sail out of the Gulf of Nicoya, with its strange, arbitrary currents (at least as far as I m concerned) and, of course, pretty much no wind. When you have no wind and no engine, you have no steerage and just have to drift around, using the sails as best as you can to keep the boat moving forward. It is hell, truthfully. The winds flick around to all directions, requiring tack after tack. You have to go up on deck and pull the headsails round manually because the wind is not strong enough to push the sail around. I get panicky and anxious because I can't control the boat, and that is no fun, I hate feeling like that. Plus that means Mike doesn't get much if any sleep, since I can't always make the tacks by myself.
There are volumes and volumes written about storm handling tactics. But there is literally nothing telling you how to handle no wind, no current, and no engine. All you find are instructions to use a spinnaker, but you can only do that with the wind on your stern. We had the wind on either side of the nose.
One we worked our way out of the gulf, we finally hit the Papagayo winds. These are the same winds that pinned our ears back when we sailed up from Panama. This time, we welcomed them. We reefed back the headsail and put three reefs in the main and sailed beautifully along the coast and again right to the breakwater for the marina. Of course we then had to be helped to our slip.
So that pretty much brings this blog up to date. The boat is in the marina looking gorgeous, although Mike has not fixed the engine yet. We are planning a trip to the US starting Tuesday (it's Sunday today) and going to the 26th. We will see Steve and get boat parts, and are going to spend two days in my most favorite city anywhere, Ensenada, Mexico. I am almost more excited for that than anything else. We are also going to go to Temecula with Steve and Danielle (my future daughter-in-law) to look at wedding sites. They go to wineries up there all the time. I am really excited about that, too. Finally I am going to have a daughter! Girl things! Shopping! Lunches! Life could hardly be better!
"I detest all men; some because they are wicked and do evil, others because they tolerate the wicked." (Moliere)
We haven't just been sitting around the house though.
We spent two weeks last summer in Newfoundland, with our good friend Wayne. We met Wayne in Bolivia, and we've been visiting back and forth and meeting in different places for about four years now. He lives in St. John's, and as a restaurateur (among his many other talents) took us to all the best places there. And the food was awesome. I also learned to eat some local delicacies. Cod cheeks are delicious other than one little part that is sort of slimy. Then I had this fish and potato dish that was wonderful food in thee "comfort food" genre. I just wish I could remember the name - it was kind of a funny name that sounded like it should have something to do with beer, but it doesn't. I also had these little salted fish that were a snacky sort of thing - a bit too salty for me. I also had cloudberry jam (called bakeapple but it has no apples.) We had other berries as well - crowberries are the ones that I can remember now. It was all wonderful.
It is also breath-takingly gorgeous up there. It is all rocks and ocean and these strange little pools that pop up everywhere. We took a boat ride and saw whales and puffins. I have never seen a puffin before, and though I have seen a lot of whales at different times while sailing, these were pretty spectacular as there were lots of them all around us. It was a very rugged, rough seeming place nature-wise, and the people are wonderfully friendly. When we told people we were really enjoying ourselves and wanted to return, they all said "Don't come in the winter!" No problem there - Mike absolutely won't go anywhere cold. I would be kind of curious. After all, I am from Wisconsin.
Then at Christmas, we met up with Wayne and two other friends and spent the New Year in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. We rented a nice house with a pool and a great view - it was a good time. We spent New Year's Eve literally drinking and dancing on the beach along with a ton of other people. Mike and I not only stayed up past midnight, but we stayed up until like 3 am. We even (or at least I did) took a swim in the pool after we got back from the beach celebrations.
Besides all of that, we have been enjoying the boat. Like we planned, when we start craving hot weather and the beach, we make the 2 hour drive to the marina. We've been going out for day sails, or spending the night at a nearby anchorage. And believe me, the boat adventures have not been over.
I know that some of you (those who don't sail) wonder why we are always making repairs to the boat or having things broken down. I do not blame you for thinking that. As I know I have said before, it's the constant breakdowns that would drive me away from sailing. But the marine environment is hard on everything. So everything breaks eventually, and when you own a boat like Magda Jean, you must resign yourself to this reality. It doesn't matter if the boat is 30 years old or brand new. We all have these problems.
Anyway, we decided that this year we would get the cosmetic work done on the boat we have never ever done - painting the hull. It was always in need of a new paint job, and it was further messed up when we were in a marina in Mexico - the name and most of the paint rubbed off one side because of the way they tied us up. Further, when we changed the name of the boat when we got her, the style and color of the lettering we chose at that time turned out to be one of those things that looked way better in our heads than in actuality. So we decided to renew the name as well.
The marina where the work is to be done is south of us, in the Gulf of Nicoya. We figured it would be a two day sail, more or less, depending on circumstances, of course. We were really excited about getting underway - it had been awhile since we undertook a multi-day sail. So we headed off with optimism and high hopes (I know that is probably redundant but I don't care).
We sailed down the coast at a wonderful speed - way faster than usual and a comfortable ride as well. Everything went well until we hit the mouth of the gulf. Because of water pouring out of the gulf into the ocean, our speed dropped. And we also lost our wind. So we decided to turn on the engine and motor sail.
That was going very well - until it wasn't. Of course the engine crapped out on us. Right where it is most needed, too. Mike worked and worked on it, and although he pretty well guessed what was wrong and that it would not be a hard fix. Well that is all well and good - but we still had to get to the marina. It was only 50 miles away, across the mouth of the gulf. I swear we could almost see it. But with what wind there was being unfavorable, it took us two solid days to sail that 50 miles. You have no idea how tedious that gets. You know it is going to be like that, but speaking only for myself, it is torture going back and forth, back and forth, feeling hopeful that you have finally passed some landmark you've been staring at all night, only to have it appear again, making it look as though you have made no progress at all. And sometimes it's true - you have made no progress at all. Hence 48 hours to go 50 miles.
But just as we started to approach the harbor entrance, the wind picked up and we were able to sail proudly to the breakwater, where we did need assistance to get into our slip.
The boat was hauled, and the work done was fabulous. We took everything down to the gel coat, and redid it all. The bottom not only got new paint, it got a new barrier coat. The stripes are now bright and jaunty. The name is on the stern instead of the sides, and is now easier to read and much better looking. It took a month and a half, but it was worth it. The shipyard is no south-of-the-border-bargain, but the prices were fair and they came in under estimate, which trust me never ever happens.
After the boat was splashed, the engine guys came to visit. They agreed with Mike the problem was with the fuel system, and we did all kinds of things to the system, sine I am not a mechanic that is the best explanation you are going to get. After they finished, the engine was working beautifully, better than it had in years.
While the boat was being painted, we stayed in a rented condo in Manuel Antonio, nearby the marina. Again, this is an area we had not explored too much. We loved it - lots of animals and birds (macaws right outside the windows) and the beaches there are really nice. I liked renting an umbrella and chair, since I need to be out of the sun as much as possible and I liked the part that the guys handling the rentals would also go get you a beer. The surf was gentle, an the next time I go I am going to make a complete fool of myself by taking a surfing lesson.
We left the marina with some regret, as it was really fun there and no more expensive than where we are. But it is further from the house, has more lightning, and the sailing is not as good due to the way the winds are. Now understand they treat us really really good at our current marina. But the new place was really hopping and we'd have more company, and you can walk to town for dinner and beer, or choose from the myriad of places right there at the marina. Food for thought, any way.
One important thing to know is that part of our engine problems are due to under use. Mike always wants to sail, no matter how slowly, so the engine never really gets to operate under what they call a full load. We decided we should actually motor for much of the trip so as to give the engine a work out.
We motored along nicely, enjoying the beautiful day, watching seabirds, spotting turtles, all that sort of thing. It was my birthday, and my only wish was to be underway. So that night I went to lay down for awhile, while Mike was at the helm. I was sleeping peacefully until I awoke when the engine stopped and Mike called me. "I need you to put up the sails! The engine crapped out!" I got up and I do not mind telling you I was seriously pissed. Mike kept apologizing, and I kept telling him it was not his fault. He screwed around with engine, and again determined that this was not a big deal, he could fix it himself, but not until we got to the marina.
So again we found ourselves trying to sail out of the Gulf of Nicoya, with its strange, arbitrary currents (at least as far as I m concerned) and, of course, pretty much no wind. When you have no wind and no engine, you have no steerage and just have to drift around, using the sails as best as you can to keep the boat moving forward. It is hell, truthfully. The winds flick around to all directions, requiring tack after tack. You have to go up on deck and pull the headsails round manually because the wind is not strong enough to push the sail around. I get panicky and anxious because I can't control the boat, and that is no fun, I hate feeling like that. Plus that means Mike doesn't get much if any sleep, since I can't always make the tacks by myself.
There are volumes and volumes written about storm handling tactics. But there is literally nothing telling you how to handle no wind, no current, and no engine. All you find are instructions to use a spinnaker, but you can only do that with the wind on your stern. We had the wind on either side of the nose.
One we worked our way out of the gulf, we finally hit the Papagayo winds. These are the same winds that pinned our ears back when we sailed up from Panama. This time, we welcomed them. We reefed back the headsail and put three reefs in the main and sailed beautifully along the coast and again right to the breakwater for the marina. Of course we then had to be helped to our slip.
So that pretty much brings this blog up to date. The boat is in the marina looking gorgeous, although Mike has not fixed the engine yet. We are planning a trip to the US starting Tuesday (it's Sunday today) and going to the 26th. We will see Steve and get boat parts, and are going to spend two days in my most favorite city anywhere, Ensenada, Mexico. I am almost more excited for that than anything else. We are also going to go to Temecula with Steve and Danielle (my future daughter-in-law) to look at wedding sites. They go to wineries up there all the time. I am really excited about that, too. Finally I am going to have a daughter! Girl things! Shopping! Lunches! Life could hardly be better!
"I detest all men; some because they are wicked and do evil, others because they tolerate the wicked." (Moliere)
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Ch-ch-ch changes . . .
March 3, 2018
I am writing this from my house in Costa Rica. When I retired, we (Mike) swore we would never own real estate again. But as I noted in my last post, Mike started making noises about staying here. We both liked it and were getting more and more comfortable. We started to make friends. We found favorite beaches and rivers and jungle trails and birds and flowers and spent lots of time visiting them. We remained living onboard Magda Jean at Marina Papagayo, pretty much by ourselves but for the occaisional transient cruiser.
One day, while indulging my hobby of reading real estate ads, I found one of those too-good-to-be-true ads and showed it to Mike. Because it was so cheap and because it was in an area of Costa Rica we had yet to explore AND we needed to go to San Jose anyway and it was on the route . . . we made an appointment to see the place.
We did not buy the house. It was a wreck. Only one area was even close to being finished, which was the kitchen, half bath and a party area. It looked like a bachelor pad in the 70's - hideous red painted wood paneling, smoked glass cabinet covers and red cabinets, weird lighting, a huge pool table, and a very nice piano, wrapped in shrink wrap. The pool table's claim to fame was that it had been purchased from one of the members of Three Dog Night who needed the money for heroin. The seller assured me he had papers proving the pool table's "provenance." Regarding the piano, the seller told me proudly the "keys had never been unlocked." It looked like a really nice piano, but I pondered the: (1 availability of a piano tuner in Costa Rica, even San Jose; and 2) whether said piano tuner would be willing to drive several hours (a good part of it on dirt roads) to the house to tune said piano. I decided that even considering the pool-table -with-awesome-provenance and the never-unwrapped-piano, I would have to pass on the deal. Plus - the seller was really sketchy and I wouldn't buy a coconut from him.
After we got back to the boat, we decided that if we wanted to buy a house, we really needed to contact Mike's cousin. We didn't want to give up Magda Jean, but the idea of having a home base was appealing. We were still not sure what we wanted to do as far as cruising was concerned, and although living in the marina was fun, it was very hot and a little bit lonely. We were no longer a part of the cruising community - as much as we ever were really a part of it - yet we had no community on land. I don't think this was Mike's motivation - but I was feeling it. I did know he was the first to suggest taking this seriously, this idea of getting a place in land here in Costa Rica.
Rene, Mike's cousin, has been selling real estate in Costa Rica for 25 years. We decided we didn't need a beach home because we had the boat. Plus, it is very hot at the beach and we'd have to use AC all the time. We like the area around Lake Arenal. (Side note: I really preferred the Volcan Turrialba area, but that volcano is erupting so that turned out to be a bad idea.) Arenal is cool, the countryside is gorgeous, and although it is pretty rural, Costa Rica is not a big country and it doesn't take too terribly long to get to stores and things like that.
Rene emailed be a bunch of places in the area that matched what we said we wanted. I sorted through them, and was ble to eliminate two thirds of them, for various reasons. We then got together and discussed he ones left, and finally arrived at seven that we wanted to look at. I was pretty excited about it - I never thought I'd be buying house in a foreign country. Very very cool.
We looked at the most expensive place first - it was really out of our reach, we would have had to scramble a lot to raise the money. We next saw the cheapest place - too much work. When we got to the place we ended up buying, Mike jumped out of Rene's car and said "This is it!"
You would think things would end there, but things got really crazy. I almost don't believe it myself and I was there.
As the process to buy the house went on, emails flew quickly and furiously between us, Rene, the escrow agent, the sellers, and a couple of lawyers. Mike and I were happy how smoothly things were going. We transferred our down payment to the escrow with no trouble. Everything was pura vida, as it should be.
Eventually, it was time to make the transfer of the balance of the payment for the house to the escrow agent. A few days before we planned to transfer the money, the escrow agent sent new wiring instructions. We thought that was strange, since the new bank was in Eastern Europe. We aren't stupid, so we emailed Rene and the escrow agent. Rene thought it sounded weird, but then emailed us that it was the seller's choice. Since everyone had assured us that this was the way to go, we initiated the transfer.
A couple of weeks later, the escrow agent started sending me emails asking when the transfer would go through. I called our bank and was informed the transfer was complete, and gave me some confirmation numbers, which I provided to the escrow agent. He kept insisting there was something wrong with the transfer. I was getting irritated, so I gave up emails and called him. I told him, "look, it was your idea to send the money to Slovakia or where ever it was." He pauses a second and then said "I never did that." "Yes you did" I said, and I'll prove it. I'll send you the email." So I hung up the phone, called up the email and forwarded it, and then called him. I almost threw up when he said "I never sent that email."
You guessed it. It was a huge scam. The scammers infiltrated the email of either the agent or the escrow or the attorneys and as soon as the word "closing" came up, they sprang into action, and re-routed the money. The money was gone.
I called the bank - they were horrified and immediately put their security on it. I couldn't blame them - they only did what we told them too. After a few days, the bank told me there was no more they could do.
I called the FBI. After being told they could neither affirm or disaffirm whether the matter would be referred to an agent, I actually got a call back. The agent was awesome, and even though she told me I wsa pretty much SOL, I felt better. She told me they get calls about this sort of scam every day, in her office alone. She said the scammers were very good, and none of us involved were moronic rubes, which is what I was thinking about myself.
The sellers still wanted to sell us the house, and we had money in the bank from the first transfer for the down payment. We upped the down payment, and came up with an agreement that suited us all. The sellers still get to use the house six weeks each year, for the wind surfing season. We also got to know each other during this process, and are still good friends.
A day or so after signing all the related paperwork, we were eating lunch at a restaurant when my cell phone rang. That itself is rare, no one ever calls us. It was the bank in San Diego. The guy there told me "you are not going to believe this, and we didn't either, but your money came back. All of it." After I finished crying and thanking him for the good news, he told me the bank had no idea why it came back after all the time it was gone. It showed as though the account number was wrong or some bounce back like that. I called the sellers and the agent with the good news, but they wanted to keep our new deal in place, wihch was fine with us.
After this was all over, we all got together and compared the emails sent to and fro during the process. Each one of us had been hacked, with fake messages taking the place of real ones. They didn't make spelling or grammatical errors in the fake emails, and it was sort of beautiful how it all went down. I still have no idea how or why the money was returned. The escrow agent called the bank in Eastern Europe and complained bitterly because his name was on the fake account. My FBI agent told me they did reach out to contacts in the banking world there.
So in March 2016, we moved into our house. It was sold fully furnished, down to the last napkin and pillow case. (Luckily for us, the sellers had great taste.) We have an acre of land, with a front view of the lake and a back view overlooking the countryside, looking towards two volcanos. These views are incredible, and they change every day depending on the weather. Our backyard abuts a private 80 acre game preserve, of which we own a share. We are woken up every morning by howler monkeys, and toucans and arikaris are daily visitors. We also have coatis and agoutis, and beautifully colored squirrels. It is very windy up here (hence it is a wond surfer's paradise) and there is plenty of excitement during the rainy season.
So - that brings us up to one year ago. I am going to stop here, and will catch up to the present the next time I sit down to write this. Once that happens, my blog may take a new turn, since I am no longer a full time live aboard. We'll see.
"There is nothing so stable as change." (Bob Dylan
I am writing this from my house in Costa Rica. When I retired, we (Mike) swore we would never own real estate again. But as I noted in my last post, Mike started making noises about staying here. We both liked it and were getting more and more comfortable. We started to make friends. We found favorite beaches and rivers and jungle trails and birds and flowers and spent lots of time visiting them. We remained living onboard Magda Jean at Marina Papagayo, pretty much by ourselves but for the occaisional transient cruiser.
One day, while indulging my hobby of reading real estate ads, I found one of those too-good-to-be-true ads and showed it to Mike. Because it was so cheap and because it was in an area of Costa Rica we had yet to explore AND we needed to go to San Jose anyway and it was on the route . . . we made an appointment to see the place.
We did not buy the house. It was a wreck. Only one area was even close to being finished, which was the kitchen, half bath and a party area. It looked like a bachelor pad in the 70's - hideous red painted wood paneling, smoked glass cabinet covers and red cabinets, weird lighting, a huge pool table, and a very nice piano, wrapped in shrink wrap. The pool table's claim to fame was that it had been purchased from one of the members of Three Dog Night who needed the money for heroin. The seller assured me he had papers proving the pool table's "provenance." Regarding the piano, the seller told me proudly the "keys had never been unlocked." It looked like a really nice piano, but I pondered the: (1 availability of a piano tuner in Costa Rica, even San Jose; and 2) whether said piano tuner would be willing to drive several hours (a good part of it on dirt roads) to the house to tune said piano. I decided that even considering the pool-table -with-awesome-provenance and the never-unwrapped-piano, I would have to pass on the deal. Plus - the seller was really sketchy and I wouldn't buy a coconut from him.
After we got back to the boat, we decided that if we wanted to buy a house, we really needed to contact Mike's cousin. We didn't want to give up Magda Jean, but the idea of having a home base was appealing. We were still not sure what we wanted to do as far as cruising was concerned, and although living in the marina was fun, it was very hot and a little bit lonely. We were no longer a part of the cruising community - as much as we ever were really a part of it - yet we had no community on land. I don't think this was Mike's motivation - but I was feeling it. I did know he was the first to suggest taking this seriously, this idea of getting a place in land here in Costa Rica.
Rene, Mike's cousin, has been selling real estate in Costa Rica for 25 years. We decided we didn't need a beach home because we had the boat. Plus, it is very hot at the beach and we'd have to use AC all the time. We like the area around Lake Arenal. (Side note: I really preferred the Volcan Turrialba area, but that volcano is erupting so that turned out to be a bad idea.) Arenal is cool, the countryside is gorgeous, and although it is pretty rural, Costa Rica is not a big country and it doesn't take too terribly long to get to stores and things like that.
Rene emailed be a bunch of places in the area that matched what we said we wanted. I sorted through them, and was ble to eliminate two thirds of them, for various reasons. We then got together and discussed he ones left, and finally arrived at seven that we wanted to look at. I was pretty excited about it - I never thought I'd be buying house in a foreign country. Very very cool.
We looked at the most expensive place first - it was really out of our reach, we would have had to scramble a lot to raise the money. We next saw the cheapest place - too much work. When we got to the place we ended up buying, Mike jumped out of Rene's car and said "This is it!"
You would think things would end there, but things got really crazy. I almost don't believe it myself and I was there.
As the process to buy the house went on, emails flew quickly and furiously between us, Rene, the escrow agent, the sellers, and a couple of lawyers. Mike and I were happy how smoothly things were going. We transferred our down payment to the escrow with no trouble. Everything was pura vida, as it should be.
Eventually, it was time to make the transfer of the balance of the payment for the house to the escrow agent. A few days before we planned to transfer the money, the escrow agent sent new wiring instructions. We thought that was strange, since the new bank was in Eastern Europe. We aren't stupid, so we emailed Rene and the escrow agent. Rene thought it sounded weird, but then emailed us that it was the seller's choice. Since everyone had assured us that this was the way to go, we initiated the transfer.
A couple of weeks later, the escrow agent started sending me emails asking when the transfer would go through. I called our bank and was informed the transfer was complete, and gave me some confirmation numbers, which I provided to the escrow agent. He kept insisting there was something wrong with the transfer. I was getting irritated, so I gave up emails and called him. I told him, "look, it was your idea to send the money to Slovakia or where ever it was." He pauses a second and then said "I never did that." "Yes you did" I said, and I'll prove it. I'll send you the email." So I hung up the phone, called up the email and forwarded it, and then called him. I almost threw up when he said "I never sent that email."
You guessed it. It was a huge scam. The scammers infiltrated the email of either the agent or the escrow or the attorneys and as soon as the word "closing" came up, they sprang into action, and re-routed the money. The money was gone.
I called the bank - they were horrified and immediately put their security on it. I couldn't blame them - they only did what we told them too. After a few days, the bank told me there was no more they could do.
I called the FBI. After being told they could neither affirm or disaffirm whether the matter would be referred to an agent, I actually got a call back. The agent was awesome, and even though she told me I wsa pretty much SOL, I felt better. She told me they get calls about this sort of scam every day, in her office alone. She said the scammers were very good, and none of us involved were moronic rubes, which is what I was thinking about myself.
The sellers still wanted to sell us the house, and we had money in the bank from the first transfer for the down payment. We upped the down payment, and came up with an agreement that suited us all. The sellers still get to use the house six weeks each year, for the wind surfing season. We also got to know each other during this process, and are still good friends.
A day or so after signing all the related paperwork, we were eating lunch at a restaurant when my cell phone rang. That itself is rare, no one ever calls us. It was the bank in San Diego. The guy there told me "you are not going to believe this, and we didn't either, but your money came back. All of it." After I finished crying and thanking him for the good news, he told me the bank had no idea why it came back after all the time it was gone. It showed as though the account number was wrong or some bounce back like that. I called the sellers and the agent with the good news, but they wanted to keep our new deal in place, wihch was fine with us.
After this was all over, we all got together and compared the emails sent to and fro during the process. Each one of us had been hacked, with fake messages taking the place of real ones. They didn't make spelling or grammatical errors in the fake emails, and it was sort of beautiful how it all went down. I still have no idea how or why the money was returned. The escrow agent called the bank in Eastern Europe and complained bitterly because his name was on the fake account. My FBI agent told me they did reach out to contacts in the banking world there.
So in March 2016, we moved into our house. It was sold fully furnished, down to the last napkin and pillow case. (Luckily for us, the sellers had great taste.) We have an acre of land, with a front view of the lake and a back view overlooking the countryside, looking towards two volcanos. These views are incredible, and they change every day depending on the weather. Our backyard abuts a private 80 acre game preserve, of which we own a share. We are woken up every morning by howler monkeys, and toucans and arikaris are daily visitors. We also have coatis and agoutis, and beautifully colored squirrels. It is very windy up here (hence it is a wond surfer's paradise) and there is plenty of excitement during the rainy season.
So - that brings us up to one year ago. I am going to stop here, and will catch up to the present the next time I sit down to write this. Once that happens, my blog may take a new turn, since I am no longer a full time live aboard. We'll see.
"There is nothing so stable as change." (Bob Dylan
Monday, October 10, 2016
Vivienda La Pura Vida
Well, I am back. And I know it has been awhile since I wrote anything. And the only excuse is the usual - I am just plain lazy.
I just can't seem to get my act together to do this. Why? I have no idea. But I am super lazy, and I can think of no other explanation.
Anyway, we are back from another trip to the states. That makes three this year! This time we went to Wisconsin. The ostensible reason was to go to my nephew's wedding. And it was beautiful and I would not have misssed it for the world. It was outside, at the bride's farm. The weather was beautiful, and since the wedding was held over Labor Day, I am here to tell you that the weather in Wisconsin at that time can be nice like it was, or rainy, or cold. The fortunes smiled upon the bride and groom, and all went well. My sister Buffie and I used the occaision to go all out - we got our hair done, and I learned how to wear false eyelashes. Now I have wanted to do that for years. However, every time I tried in the past, I could not get them on properly. This time, with the aid of a magnifying mirror, I had no problem. But one has to have a magnifying mirror. I think I looked fantastic if I do say so myself. My other sister also knocked it out of the park with this polka-dotted skirt made out of some chiffon-like material, and a simple back top. Also a pair of the cutest ballet flats I have ever seen. So the Riley girls made their presence known!
Ok, enough of my vanity. But I rarely ever have the chance to get dressed up anymore. It is too hot here for one thing. Anything nice will be ruined the first time I wear it. If I don't spill on it (which Ican't blame on the weather), I will sweat it to death. So when given the chance, I am going to do it up for all it is worth.
I just can't seem to get my act together to do this. Why? I have no idea. But I am super lazy, and I can think of no other explanation.
Anyway, we are back from another trip to the states. That makes three this year! This time we went to Wisconsin. The ostensible reason was to go to my nephew's wedding. And it was beautiful and I would not have misssed it for the world. It was outside, at the bride's farm. The weather was beautiful, and since the wedding was held over Labor Day, I am here to tell you that the weather in Wisconsin at that time can be nice like it was, or rainy, or cold. The fortunes smiled upon the bride and groom, and all went well. My sister Buffie and I used the occaision to go all out - we got our hair done, and I learned how to wear false eyelashes. Now I have wanted to do that for years. However, every time I tried in the past, I could not get them on properly. This time, with the aid of a magnifying mirror, I had no problem. But one has to have a magnifying mirror. I think I looked fantastic if I do say so myself. My other sister also knocked it out of the park with this polka-dotted skirt made out of some chiffon-like material, and a simple back top. Also a pair of the cutest ballet flats I have ever seen. So the Riley girls made their presence known!
We have been wating for a very long tme now to get back out to sea. If only for a couple of days! But Mike is concerned about our anchor chain. We spent months at anchor, both in Ecuador and Panama, and that takes a toll on the chain. I personally thought it should last longer than two years, but Mike says no. There is a lot of rust on it, and he is afraid that if something exciting happens while we are at anchor with the wind or water or both, the chain could part. That would of course be disastrous. Not to mention we would lose our expensive anchor. So here we sit, while the chain is on order. We are supposed to get it at the end of the month, but since everything comes out of Miami, and Hurricane Matthew has just passed through, there may be a delay. I hope not. I am not, however, holdng my breath.
Since returning from the states, we have travelled some more around Costa Rica. As I have said before, this is an amazingly beautiul country. I don't even have words for it, and for me not to have words should show you all something. I am never at a loss for words. I have seen an anteater, which are much bigger than I though they woud be. They have gorgeous golden and brown fur. But they are mean. They have very long claws, and they can lash out quickly. Farmers don't like them because they can kill inquisitive dogs. The claws did look very long and curved, and they gleamed in the reflected light. We also saw a jaguarundi, which is simply a small panther. It was running across the road we were driving on. Unfortunately, it went by us too fast to get the camera out. So you will have to take my word for it. We have also seen more and more different kinds of birds. I could watch them for hours. My favorite are the motmots, which have strange tails and a lot of attitude. They are also very colorful. I just can't get enough of it.
I spend a lot of time just thinking about things. I also think that someday I may just crawl inside my head and not come out. I'm not sure what that would look like, but it has an appeal to me. It is part of the reason why I like my night watches. I break each hour up into 15 minute segments. I can easily keep myself amused for 15 minutes. If I do that four times, it will be time to make my log entries. I can drag that out for at least 10 or even 15 minutes, so you can see how it goes. I like to think about things without anyone interrupting me. It can get embarassing, because sometimes I get so deep ito it that I start talking out loud. Lots of the time I am not even aware that I am doing it. My mom used to tell me it was the first sign of insanity. But I only "answer" myself if I am playing two parts in my head. So I guess as long as I am aware of the cast of characters, I can keep on doing it as much as I want to.
Good news - I went to the dermatologist for a check up and she found absolutely no sogn of any cancer. She did use this little tube of something really cold to have at a couple spots, but they weren't cancer and the scars it left have already gone, so all is well on the health scene. I was getting sort of nervous for about a month before the exam, in spite of the fact I have followed all the instructions given to me after the first melanoma. I stay out of the sun, utilizing long sleeves, long pants, a hat, and sun screen. So I no longer have a beautiful tropical tan (at least by my standards) but I guess I will live longer. I have a cousin that died from melanoma, and I don't want that to happen to me.
That brings up another topic - health. I now spend quite a bit of time thinking about it. Despite all my mother's fussing, I have yet to contract either pneunomia or tuberculosis. When I was in college in Wisconsin, she was constantly telling me to be careful, not to catch a cold or it would turn into pneumonia and then to TB. Now she had to know it doesn't work that way, but it didn't stop her. In fact, I have enjoyed pretty robust good health. But sometimes I feel as though I am falling apart, piece by piece. Things just aren't as easy as they once were. When I had my shoulder fixed, the surgeon told me that he found osteoporosis and that I should be careful not to go breaking anything. Now I am very clumsy by nature, and I have always fallen, tripped, and otherwise knocked myself around a lot. I never had any ill effects from it - no sprains or broken bones. Just scrapes and bruises. But now I can't be so cavalier. I guess this is just part of the aging process. I still get surprized when I realize that I am 60 years old. I thought I'd be smarter by now.
But no one wants to read about someone whining about their health. Heck I knew I was getting old when I talked to one of my sisters and we spent at least 20 minutes discussing what medications we have to take and why.
Right now it is cloudy and hot and we are expecting rain. It is the rainy season here. We have only two seasons in the tropics - hot and rainy and hot and dry. Summer is the wet season and winter is the dry season. The dry season is the top time for tourists here. Here in the marina, in the northern part of the country, we are in the driest part of Costa Rica, where the tropical dry forests are found. I lived in San Diego long enough that it is still a big thrill when it rains. And I love the thnder and lightning as long as it isn't close to us. A couple of weeks ago we went up to the mountains and while we were there, they had a huge thunder and lightning storm. I laid on the bed in our awesome hotel room and watched the storm. It thundered and lightning-ed and the view over the mountains was incredible. It went on for several hours and buckets of rain fell. The dirt roads we had to take to get there were pretty messy the next day, but Mike is a superb four wheel driver, and we had no problems.
I am really happy we are not in the US for this election cycle. If only we get our absentee ballots in time!
Other than the chain issue, Magda Jean is in fine shape. I am getting eager to take her out and see what all our new sails can do. One of the ones we ordered did not come back as we wanted it to - we aren't sure what happened. Instead of the genoa we wanted replaced ( a genoa is a big foresail) we got a big Yankee. (A Yankee is a sail that is cut higher than a genoa.) But I have a feeling that we are going to like this new sail better. e will be using our staysail a lot more, and between the three sails (the main, the staysail and the yankee) we have a lot of different sail arrangements we can make. The yankee will also be easier and neater to furl up partway when we need to reef our our sails and decrease the sail area. I think we will do better in light air, and will find it easier and smoother to deal with the smaller sails when we need to tack. The genny could be hard to handle if the wind came up and caught us unawares. And I think we can sail with the yankee alone in higher winds. I like the look of it, especially in conjunction with the stay sail. Another thing - when we looked at the plans for the rig drawn up when the boat was first built, it appears to have had a yankee rather than a genoa. With the genoa, we could only use the staysail under very limited conditions. With the yankee, we will use it a lot more often. I think this new sail combination will cause the boat to be in better balance. The better the balance the better and smoother the sailing. Come on, chain!!! I am waiting for you!! But I have pointed out to Mike that there is no reason at all why we can't just take her out for the day, returning to the marina rather than anchoring out. He agrees, but it hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, I think it is time for me to wind this up. We won't be leaving Costa Rica any time soon, other than for visa renewals and a Christmas trip to Nicaragua with a frined from Newfoundland we met in Bolivia. Our current permit for the boat ends in July, but we can probably renew it if we want to. Or we can sail somewhere else for three months and then come back and start the whole thing over again. Who knows?
"It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick." (My Dad)
I spend a lot of time just thinking about things. I also think that someday I may just crawl inside my head and not come out. I'm not sure what that would look like, but it has an appeal to me. It is part of the reason why I like my night watches. I break each hour up into 15 minute segments. I can easily keep myself amused for 15 minutes. If I do that four times, it will be time to make my log entries. I can drag that out for at least 10 or even 15 minutes, so you can see how it goes. I like to think about things without anyone interrupting me. It can get embarassing, because sometimes I get so deep ito it that I start talking out loud. Lots of the time I am not even aware that I am doing it. My mom used to tell me it was the first sign of insanity. But I only "answer" myself if I am playing two parts in my head. So I guess as long as I am aware of the cast of characters, I can keep on doing it as much as I want to.
Good news - I went to the dermatologist for a check up and she found absolutely no sogn of any cancer. She did use this little tube of something really cold to have at a couple spots, but they weren't cancer and the scars it left have already gone, so all is well on the health scene. I was getting sort of nervous for about a month before the exam, in spite of the fact I have followed all the instructions given to me after the first melanoma. I stay out of the sun, utilizing long sleeves, long pants, a hat, and sun screen. So I no longer have a beautiful tropical tan (at least by my standards) but I guess I will live longer. I have a cousin that died from melanoma, and I don't want that to happen to me.
That brings up another topic - health. I now spend quite a bit of time thinking about it. Despite all my mother's fussing, I have yet to contract either pneunomia or tuberculosis. When I was in college in Wisconsin, she was constantly telling me to be careful, not to catch a cold or it would turn into pneumonia and then to TB. Now she had to know it doesn't work that way, but it didn't stop her. In fact, I have enjoyed pretty robust good health. But sometimes I feel as though I am falling apart, piece by piece. Things just aren't as easy as they once were. When I had my shoulder fixed, the surgeon told me that he found osteoporosis and that I should be careful not to go breaking anything. Now I am very clumsy by nature, and I have always fallen, tripped, and otherwise knocked myself around a lot. I never had any ill effects from it - no sprains or broken bones. Just scrapes and bruises. But now I can't be so cavalier. I guess this is just part of the aging process. I still get surprized when I realize that I am 60 years old. I thought I'd be smarter by now.
But no one wants to read about someone whining about their health. Heck I knew I was getting old when I talked to one of my sisters and we spent at least 20 minutes discussing what medications we have to take and why.
Right now it is cloudy and hot and we are expecting rain. It is the rainy season here. We have only two seasons in the tropics - hot and rainy and hot and dry. Summer is the wet season and winter is the dry season. The dry season is the top time for tourists here. Here in the marina, in the northern part of the country, we are in the driest part of Costa Rica, where the tropical dry forests are found. I lived in San Diego long enough that it is still a big thrill when it rains. And I love the thnder and lightning as long as it isn't close to us. A couple of weeks ago we went up to the mountains and while we were there, they had a huge thunder and lightning storm. I laid on the bed in our awesome hotel room and watched the storm. It thundered and lightning-ed and the view over the mountains was incredible. It went on for several hours and buckets of rain fell. The dirt roads we had to take to get there were pretty messy the next day, but Mike is a superb four wheel driver, and we had no problems.
I am really happy we are not in the US for this election cycle. If only we get our absentee ballots in time!
Other than the chain issue, Magda Jean is in fine shape. I am getting eager to take her out and see what all our new sails can do. One of the ones we ordered did not come back as we wanted it to - we aren't sure what happened. Instead of the genoa we wanted replaced ( a genoa is a big foresail) we got a big Yankee. (A Yankee is a sail that is cut higher than a genoa.) But I have a feeling that we are going to like this new sail better. e will be using our staysail a lot more, and between the three sails (the main, the staysail and the yankee) we have a lot of different sail arrangements we can make. The yankee will also be easier and neater to furl up partway when we need to reef our our sails and decrease the sail area. I think we will do better in light air, and will find it easier and smoother to deal with the smaller sails when we need to tack. The genny could be hard to handle if the wind came up and caught us unawares. And I think we can sail with the yankee alone in higher winds. I like the look of it, especially in conjunction with the stay sail. Another thing - when we looked at the plans for the rig drawn up when the boat was first built, it appears to have had a yankee rather than a genoa. With the genoa, we could only use the staysail under very limited conditions. With the yankee, we will use it a lot more often. I think this new sail combination will cause the boat to be in better balance. The better the balance the better and smoother the sailing. Come on, chain!!! I am waiting for you!! But I have pointed out to Mike that there is no reason at all why we can't just take her out for the day, returning to the marina rather than anchoring out. He agrees, but it hasn't happened yet.
Anyway, I think it is time for me to wind this up. We won't be leaving Costa Rica any time soon, other than for visa renewals and a Christmas trip to Nicaragua with a frined from Newfoundland we met in Bolivia. Our current permit for the boat ends in July, but we can probably renew it if we want to. Or we can sail somewhere else for three months and then come back and start the whole thing over again. Who knows?
"It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick." (My Dad)
Monday, May 2, 2016
A Long Time Coming
I know I have been totally remiss in not updating this blog more often. I am just lazy, no more, no less. We are in Costa Rica, basically living at the marina.
What have we been up to since the last post God-knows-how-many-months ago? A lot.
First, I had to have rotator cuff surgery. Everyone told me how painful it was ging to be, how hard and miserable the physical therapy would be, and so on. But guess what? Except for the first few days after surgery, there were no serious pain issues. I did have to keep my arm strapped tight to my torso for about a month. Then I just had a sling. I did have physical therapy, but I liked it. It felt great. There were times when it was uncomfortable, but otherwise it was not that big a deal. I now have a full range of motion on that side, and before the surgery I couldn't raise my arm to even make a pony tail. Mike had to do my hair!! Not good!! But I am pleased with the results.
It even caused us to make some new friends. One of my nurses was exceediingly kind to me, and we got to talking. About a week after the surgery, she and her husband came to visit us on the boat. We have since visited back and forth. We spent Christmas Eve at their house. They have been over here for swimming. And they are both heavily involved with horses. Antonio runs a stable, and Mike has been riding with him in some horse parades, called "topes." (toe-pays.) It is total immersion into Spanish as neither of them speak English.
Another fun thing was that my son, Steve, came to see us in September. It was a great time. (I hope he thought so too.) We spent several days at anchor and got some sailing in. He got to jump from the boat into clear water at an anchorage otherwise deserted except for us. He met some of our friends, and all in all we had a perfectly marvelous visit. I miss him terribly, and am glad to see he is doing very well and is happy.
My shoulder sidelined us from doing any sailing or much else for a couple of months. We decided to take a trip back to San Diego, to see Steve of course, but also to get some new stuff for the boat. We got new sails, and a bunch of other things. The bags coming home were really heavy, and we were worried about all the baggage overweight charges we'd have to pay. But then a small miracle happened. I discovered that we could fly first class for $100.00 more per person. And, we each got two free bags. Problem solved! The oeverweight charges would have been a lot more.
But there was more to this trip. We left Costa Rica with a good friend on his boat. He needed crew to go to Mexico with him, so we happily volunteered. He was in a hurry to get there, so we did motor most of the way. I will tell you this: watches are a lot easier with three people instead of just two.
We went with him as far as Puerto Chiapas (aka Puerto Maderas) and then caught a bus to San Cristobal de Colon, which is located in the mountains in the state of Chiapas. It is one of my favorite spots in Mexico. Mike bought me some beautiful amber jewelry. I love amber, and now have a nice collection. Most of my pieces have bugs in them that you can see.
After that, we took another bus to Oaxaca City, another favorite of mine. The food is to die for - I love mole (moe lay) and they have four different kinds at least. This is also where they regularly eat grasshoppers, known as chapalines. (chop a leen ays.) Mike of course ate a bunch of them, and even had a bag he snacked on. I have already tried them and felt no real need to chow down. They don't really taste like anything except what they are cooked in, which is usually a combination of chiles and lime. The crunchy ones are fine - sort of like croutons, but some of them are sort of squishy and I don't like that. So I left the bug eating to Mike this time. While we were there, we returned to a small town where they specialize in rug weaving, using wool they spin themselves, then using natural plant based dyes and hand looms. It is amazing to watch and Mike bought two gorgeous rugs for the floor in the cabin.
When we got back from San Diego, we were dying to go sailing and stretch out our new sails. We spent about a week getting ready, with plans to be out and about in the boat for a month or so. On the day before wwe planned to leave, Mike was going around the boat, checking to see that everything wasin sailing order. To our absolute horror, we (Mike) discovered there was a broken turnbuckle on our backstay.
For those who ae not familiar with sailboats, the back stay is one of the wires around the boat that connects from the mast to the boat itself. The job of these wires (cables, really) is to hold the mast up. The fact that this was broken meant that there was no way we were going sailing. No way, no how. Mike immediately rigged up some rope (lines - when a piece of rope is placed on a boat, it becomes a line. There is no such thing on a boat as a rope.) bypassing the broken turnbuckle to hold things in place. Theoretically, if a strong enough wind hit the boat from the wrong angle, it could result in the mast falling down. This is not very likely, but if we tried to sail her, it would be disasterous if it did happen. So we are marina bound again, at least until we go to Arkansas (for my mother in law's birthday) where we ordered our new one sent. As usual, we start our trip with almost empty bags and return with them bursting.
So right now we are just living in Costa Rica, and Mike has been making noises about wanting to stay here. I have always leaned towards Mexico, but I have to admit it is really nice here. Almost the whole country is like a preserve, or a national park, or something on that order. We have been to hotels in the mountains (we go up there sometimes to get out of the heat), and each time we go we seen new birds and animals. I have seen three different kinds of monkeys, agoutis, coatimundis, deer, and even a kinkajou. The squirrels are beautfully colored with stripes down their backs. Even here at the marina we can take a walk and see monkeys and all kinds of birds. I can't get enough of it.
We have no idea what we want to do next, or where we want to go. Mike is making noises about maybe staying here. Who knows? We have 15 months before we need to get the boat out of here, and we might be able to obtain another two years. One never knows. Mike and I have to leave for at least 72 hours as we can only get 90 day visas. We have usually taken the trip to Grenada, Nicaaragua, when the need to leave arises. Nicaragua is wonderful. It is a lot less expensive than it is here, which is always a nice change. We have plans to take a land trip to Panama, as there are parts we were unable to visit as we couldn't safely leave the boat unattended. There is a town called Bosquete (boes ket tay) up in the mountains that is supposed to be very nice. There are a lot of expats living there, or so we have heard.
Mary Ellen, I am sorry we didn't make it up to see you - we weren't there long enough and had to make the rounds of all the marine stores to get the stuff we needed. And for you if no one else, I will try and overcome my incredible laziness and work on keeping this blog up.
So for now, we are happily living in Costa Rica and loving every minute of it. Who knows what the future holds for Magda Jean and her intrepid crew of two? The present is just fine, thank you.
(Sorry, no quote this time.)
What have we been up to since the last post God-knows-how-many-months ago? A lot.
First, I had to have rotator cuff surgery. Everyone told me how painful it was ging to be, how hard and miserable the physical therapy would be, and so on. But guess what? Except for the first few days after surgery, there were no serious pain issues. I did have to keep my arm strapped tight to my torso for about a month. Then I just had a sling. I did have physical therapy, but I liked it. It felt great. There were times when it was uncomfortable, but otherwise it was not that big a deal. I now have a full range of motion on that side, and before the surgery I couldn't raise my arm to even make a pony tail. Mike had to do my hair!! Not good!! But I am pleased with the results.
It even caused us to make some new friends. One of my nurses was exceediingly kind to me, and we got to talking. About a week after the surgery, she and her husband came to visit us on the boat. We have since visited back and forth. We spent Christmas Eve at their house. They have been over here for swimming. And they are both heavily involved with horses. Antonio runs a stable, and Mike has been riding with him in some horse parades, called "topes." (toe-pays.) It is total immersion into Spanish as neither of them speak English.
Another fun thing was that my son, Steve, came to see us in September. It was a great time. (I hope he thought so too.) We spent several days at anchor and got some sailing in. He got to jump from the boat into clear water at an anchorage otherwise deserted except for us. He met some of our friends, and all in all we had a perfectly marvelous visit. I miss him terribly, and am glad to see he is doing very well and is happy.
My shoulder sidelined us from doing any sailing or much else for a couple of months. We decided to take a trip back to San Diego, to see Steve of course, but also to get some new stuff for the boat. We got new sails, and a bunch of other things. The bags coming home were really heavy, and we were worried about all the baggage overweight charges we'd have to pay. But then a small miracle happened. I discovered that we could fly first class for $100.00 more per person. And, we each got two free bags. Problem solved! The oeverweight charges would have been a lot more.
But there was more to this trip. We left Costa Rica with a good friend on his boat. He needed crew to go to Mexico with him, so we happily volunteered. He was in a hurry to get there, so we did motor most of the way. I will tell you this: watches are a lot easier with three people instead of just two.
We went with him as far as Puerto Chiapas (aka Puerto Maderas) and then caught a bus to San Cristobal de Colon, which is located in the mountains in the state of Chiapas. It is one of my favorite spots in Mexico. Mike bought me some beautiful amber jewelry. I love amber, and now have a nice collection. Most of my pieces have bugs in them that you can see.
After that, we took another bus to Oaxaca City, another favorite of mine. The food is to die for - I love mole (moe lay) and they have four different kinds at least. This is also where they regularly eat grasshoppers, known as chapalines. (chop a leen ays.) Mike of course ate a bunch of them, and even had a bag he snacked on. I have already tried them and felt no real need to chow down. They don't really taste like anything except what they are cooked in, which is usually a combination of chiles and lime. The crunchy ones are fine - sort of like croutons, but some of them are sort of squishy and I don't like that. So I left the bug eating to Mike this time. While we were there, we returned to a small town where they specialize in rug weaving, using wool they spin themselves, then using natural plant based dyes and hand looms. It is amazing to watch and Mike bought two gorgeous rugs for the floor in the cabin.
When we got back from San Diego, we were dying to go sailing and stretch out our new sails. We spent about a week getting ready, with plans to be out and about in the boat for a month or so. On the day before wwe planned to leave, Mike was going around the boat, checking to see that everything wasin sailing order. To our absolute horror, we (Mike) discovered there was a broken turnbuckle on our backstay.
For those who ae not familiar with sailboats, the back stay is one of the wires around the boat that connects from the mast to the boat itself. The job of these wires (cables, really) is to hold the mast up. The fact that this was broken meant that there was no way we were going sailing. No way, no how. Mike immediately rigged up some rope (lines - when a piece of rope is placed on a boat, it becomes a line. There is no such thing on a boat as a rope.) bypassing the broken turnbuckle to hold things in place. Theoretically, if a strong enough wind hit the boat from the wrong angle, it could result in the mast falling down. This is not very likely, but if we tried to sail her, it would be disasterous if it did happen. So we are marina bound again, at least until we go to Arkansas (for my mother in law's birthday) where we ordered our new one sent. As usual, we start our trip with almost empty bags and return with them bursting.
So right now we are just living in Costa Rica, and Mike has been making noises about wanting to stay here. I have always leaned towards Mexico, but I have to admit it is really nice here. Almost the whole country is like a preserve, or a national park, or something on that order. We have been to hotels in the mountains (we go up there sometimes to get out of the heat), and each time we go we seen new birds and animals. I have seen three different kinds of monkeys, agoutis, coatimundis, deer, and even a kinkajou. The squirrels are beautfully colored with stripes down their backs. Even here at the marina we can take a walk and see monkeys and all kinds of birds. I can't get enough of it.
We have no idea what we want to do next, or where we want to go. Mike is making noises about maybe staying here. Who knows? We have 15 months before we need to get the boat out of here, and we might be able to obtain another two years. One never knows. Mike and I have to leave for at least 72 hours as we can only get 90 day visas. We have usually taken the trip to Grenada, Nicaaragua, when the need to leave arises. Nicaragua is wonderful. It is a lot less expensive than it is here, which is always a nice change. We have plans to take a land trip to Panama, as there are parts we were unable to visit as we couldn't safely leave the boat unattended. There is a town called Bosquete (boes ket tay) up in the mountains that is supposed to be very nice. There are a lot of expats living there, or so we have heard.
Mary Ellen, I am sorry we didn't make it up to see you - we weren't there long enough and had to make the rounds of all the marine stores to get the stuff we needed. And for you if no one else, I will try and overcome my incredible laziness and work on keeping this blog up.
So for now, we are happily living in Costa Rica and loving every minute of it. Who knows what the future holds for Magda Jean and her intrepid crew of two? The present is just fine, thank you.
(Sorry, no quote this time.)
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Pura Vida
Well, we never made it to Nicaragua.
I re-read my last post and noted I had discussed the need to maybe have to stop in Costa Rica and wait out the winds. I also noted we were enjoying our sail, with the winds sort of pulsing up and down.
Things kept up like that - it was actually sort of fun. We kept reefing the sails down when the wind hit, and then letting them out again when it died down. Our first clue that something might be changing came when we noticed the wind was coming up faster and harder. We finally left the reef in even when the wind was down, although that made us go slower than we wanted to. But reefing the sails is difficult once the wind has already come up, and since the gusts were getting closer together and stronger we decided sacrificing speed for control was worth it. Of course eventually the winds, which gusted up to about 40 knots, with sustained winds in the 30s.
Along with the increased winds came the dreaded fetch. Fetch occurs when wind blows accross the water and stirs up waves. If the current and the wind are acting in opposition, giant waves can be the result. We did not have that, but the waves that did develop were large and choppy enough to constantly knock the boat off course, affecting the speed and making things generally uncomfortable. We should have been able to fly along under reefed sails in that kind of wind without too much problem, but the wave action caused our speed to drop to less than 2 knots. The only way to improve that situation was to head towards shore and hug the shore as much as possible. Since these were easterly winds, coming off the land, the water closest to shore was the calmest. So we turned on the engine and headed towards shore.
We sailed along for awhile, but after checking our weather information, it became apparent things were not going to get better any time soon. The further north we went, the worse it was going to get. And since we couldn't make any speed, it would be days of misery to work our way north. So I insisted we stop in Costa Rica. After studying our sailing guide books, we chose an anchorage and dropped anchor.
Now, a word as to why we didn't want to stop in Costa Rica. (I hope I am not repeating myself, but I am far too lazy to re-read my old posts and see if the issue had been addressed previously or not.) When we left El Salvador in 2012 or so, we discovered right after heading out to sea that our depth sounder was not working. We did not want to try and anchor without a depth sounder, so we bypassed Nicaragua and Costa Rica and went straight to Panama City, where we knew we could get it fixed. And additionally, most cruisers bitch constantly about Costa Rica. Most of the people we knew were either lukewarm about it or flat out dislked it. The major complaint is that Costa Rica is expensive. And it is true, it is not cheap here. It is a LOT more expensive than Mexico or Salvador, but less than the US, for the most part. Nothing crazy by our standards. The other complaint is that the officials are hard to deal with. Stories abound about people who have had to flee in the night after being threatened with boat confiscation for small infractions. The officials were described as hostile and uncooperative.
After sitting around for a few days on the boat, we started to talk about what we wanted to do. I admitted to being tired of feeling like I was always running away from something, like weather issues or immigation requirements. I didnt want to just give up the whole thing, but I wanted something to change.
It seemed to me we had reached a strange and difficult point. What to do next? We decided that if we wanted to cross the Pacific, the boat needed some major upgrades, startng with new sails. There are also a lot of little things to fix as well. And then once you get there, where do you go? There is Australia or new Zealand. Both are a long way from anything else. And the weather between Polynesia and those countries is starting to get more and more dicey, with no real storm season any more. And then where to go from there? After the burglary, I did not want to go back to Puerto Amistad in Ecuador. There wsa supposedly another place to go n Ecuador, but couldn't get any sensible information about it. It just seemed too overwhelming. I wanted to stop, regroup, and sort things out. I kept most of this to myself because I was not ready to have that converstion with Mike. I did not think he would react well to any suggestion we not keep moving on. But he did agree that we should check in to the country and take a rest at the marina here.
I was stoked about that. We reached the marina by email, and arranged for a slip. We found out that the check in services through the marina required the use of an agent and would cost about $750.00. Forget that! So we raised sail and went a bit closer up the coast to Playa de Cocos, the check in point. The next day, we went to the Port Captain at 9 am to begin the process. We had all our paperwork in order and the officials could not have been more pleasent. They were thorough, asking questions that no other country asks, but did not ask us for a cent. After that, we walked about three blocks to immigration. Again, everyone was wonderful and did not ask us for a dime. Then it was back to the Port Captain, and then we caught a bus for the airport at Liberia, to handle customs. The bus ride is about half an hour. We then went to customs, handed in our papers, and within another half and hour we were done. Even with a stop to get our phones set up with service and internet, we were all done by noon.
That gave us the right to stay here for 90 days. We really started to like it here. The marina turned out to be a marvelous place, with great services and amenities, like a work out room, a nice pool, and a laundremat. The bar also serves decent food. It costs us about $1300 per month to live here, including water and electricity. The marina is part of a big hotel and condo and really fancy home complex. We can hear howler monkeys, and the water in the marina itself is so clean and clear it seems like we are docked in a giant aquarium. The depth is about 25 feet, and we can usually see the bottom. None of the other boats here are liveaboards - most of them are fishing boats or huge catamarines with absentee owners. We are the only people actually living in the marina. It is kind of odd, but fun too.
We also rented a four wheel drive car. Costa Rica has good roads, but also has a lot of dirt roads and jeep trails. We have been exploring all over this area, and love it.
So here is what happened - Mike decided he loved it here and was in no hurry to leave. Of course I was in agreement. Then, while visiting with the marina manager, I discovered there was a way to keep the boat in the country for two years. Without gonig into a lot of details, it seemed to me that it would meet all our needs for the time being. We do have to live in the marina, but as long as we are paying our fees here, all we have to do is file a "float plan" with the marina and we can sail where ever we want to without all the usual formalities, which are a bit onerous here. And this is a great place to sail - it is easy to day hop from anchorage to anchorage, all within an easy day sail of or marina slip.
So we decided to stay here, for at least the next year or two. There is way less lightning here, although it remains an issue. But the risk is way less, especially here in Northern Costa Rica. The other really great thing about being here is that Mike has a cousin living here. They have not seen each other since they were children. She and her husband have lived here for 20 years. We have visited with them twice and we all get along well. There is also a very large expat population here, and we are finding it easy to make friends. And the Costa Ricans are wonderful - I cannot say enough. By the way, "Pura Vida" means "Pure Life" and is sort of a Costa Rican "aloha." That sort of tells it all, better than I ever could.
"Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best." (Jules Verne)
I re-read my last post and noted I had discussed the need to maybe have to stop in Costa Rica and wait out the winds. I also noted we were enjoying our sail, with the winds sort of pulsing up and down.
Things kept up like that - it was actually sort of fun. We kept reefing the sails down when the wind hit, and then letting them out again when it died down. Our first clue that something might be changing came when we noticed the wind was coming up faster and harder. We finally left the reef in even when the wind was down, although that made us go slower than we wanted to. But reefing the sails is difficult once the wind has already come up, and since the gusts were getting closer together and stronger we decided sacrificing speed for control was worth it. Of course eventually the winds, which gusted up to about 40 knots, with sustained winds in the 30s.
Along with the increased winds came the dreaded fetch. Fetch occurs when wind blows accross the water and stirs up waves. If the current and the wind are acting in opposition, giant waves can be the result. We did not have that, but the waves that did develop were large and choppy enough to constantly knock the boat off course, affecting the speed and making things generally uncomfortable. We should have been able to fly along under reefed sails in that kind of wind without too much problem, but the wave action caused our speed to drop to less than 2 knots. The only way to improve that situation was to head towards shore and hug the shore as much as possible. Since these were easterly winds, coming off the land, the water closest to shore was the calmest. So we turned on the engine and headed towards shore.
We sailed along for awhile, but after checking our weather information, it became apparent things were not going to get better any time soon. The further north we went, the worse it was going to get. And since we couldn't make any speed, it would be days of misery to work our way north. So I insisted we stop in Costa Rica. After studying our sailing guide books, we chose an anchorage and dropped anchor.
Now, a word as to why we didn't want to stop in Costa Rica. (I hope I am not repeating myself, but I am far too lazy to re-read my old posts and see if the issue had been addressed previously or not.) When we left El Salvador in 2012 or so, we discovered right after heading out to sea that our depth sounder was not working. We did not want to try and anchor without a depth sounder, so we bypassed Nicaragua and Costa Rica and went straight to Panama City, where we knew we could get it fixed. And additionally, most cruisers bitch constantly about Costa Rica. Most of the people we knew were either lukewarm about it or flat out dislked it. The major complaint is that Costa Rica is expensive. And it is true, it is not cheap here. It is a LOT more expensive than Mexico or Salvador, but less than the US, for the most part. Nothing crazy by our standards. The other complaint is that the officials are hard to deal with. Stories abound about people who have had to flee in the night after being threatened with boat confiscation for small infractions. The officials were described as hostile and uncooperative.
After sitting around for a few days on the boat, we started to talk about what we wanted to do. I admitted to being tired of feeling like I was always running away from something, like weather issues or immigation requirements. I didnt want to just give up the whole thing, but I wanted something to change.
It seemed to me we had reached a strange and difficult point. What to do next? We decided that if we wanted to cross the Pacific, the boat needed some major upgrades, startng with new sails. There are also a lot of little things to fix as well. And then once you get there, where do you go? There is Australia or new Zealand. Both are a long way from anything else. And the weather between Polynesia and those countries is starting to get more and more dicey, with no real storm season any more. And then where to go from there? After the burglary, I did not want to go back to Puerto Amistad in Ecuador. There wsa supposedly another place to go n Ecuador, but couldn't get any sensible information about it. It just seemed too overwhelming. I wanted to stop, regroup, and sort things out. I kept most of this to myself because I was not ready to have that converstion with Mike. I did not think he would react well to any suggestion we not keep moving on. But he did agree that we should check in to the country and take a rest at the marina here.
I was stoked about that. We reached the marina by email, and arranged for a slip. We found out that the check in services through the marina required the use of an agent and would cost about $750.00. Forget that! So we raised sail and went a bit closer up the coast to Playa de Cocos, the check in point. The next day, we went to the Port Captain at 9 am to begin the process. We had all our paperwork in order and the officials could not have been more pleasent. They were thorough, asking questions that no other country asks, but did not ask us for a cent. After that, we walked about three blocks to immigration. Again, everyone was wonderful and did not ask us for a dime. Then it was back to the Port Captain, and then we caught a bus for the airport at Liberia, to handle customs. The bus ride is about half an hour. We then went to customs, handed in our papers, and within another half and hour we were done. Even with a stop to get our phones set up with service and internet, we were all done by noon.
That gave us the right to stay here for 90 days. We really started to like it here. The marina turned out to be a marvelous place, with great services and amenities, like a work out room, a nice pool, and a laundremat. The bar also serves decent food. It costs us about $1300 per month to live here, including water and electricity. The marina is part of a big hotel and condo and really fancy home complex. We can hear howler monkeys, and the water in the marina itself is so clean and clear it seems like we are docked in a giant aquarium. The depth is about 25 feet, and we can usually see the bottom. None of the other boats here are liveaboards - most of them are fishing boats or huge catamarines with absentee owners. We are the only people actually living in the marina. It is kind of odd, but fun too.
We also rented a four wheel drive car. Costa Rica has good roads, but also has a lot of dirt roads and jeep trails. We have been exploring all over this area, and love it.
So here is what happened - Mike decided he loved it here and was in no hurry to leave. Of course I was in agreement. Then, while visiting with the marina manager, I discovered there was a way to keep the boat in the country for two years. Without gonig into a lot of details, it seemed to me that it would meet all our needs for the time being. We do have to live in the marina, but as long as we are paying our fees here, all we have to do is file a "float plan" with the marina and we can sail where ever we want to without all the usual formalities, which are a bit onerous here. And this is a great place to sail - it is easy to day hop from anchorage to anchorage, all within an easy day sail of or marina slip.
So we decided to stay here, for at least the next year or two. There is way less lightning here, although it remains an issue. But the risk is way less, especially here in Northern Costa Rica. The other really great thing about being here is that Mike has a cousin living here. They have not seen each other since they were children. She and her husband have lived here for 20 years. We have visited with them twice and we all get along well. There is also a very large expat population here, and we are finding it easy to make friends. And the Costa Ricans are wonderful - I cannot say enough. By the way, "Pura Vida" means "Pure Life" and is sort of a Costa Rican "aloha." That sort of tells it all, better than I ever could.
"Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best." (Jules Verne)
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Now Voyager
Right now I am sailing off the coast of Costa Rica, and it is gorgeous! We have had a pod of dolphins around us for a whole day now, including last night. We have seen jumping marlins, a Giant Pacific Ray, all sorts of interesting birds and butterflies, and a host of other sea life I am happy beyond belief to report that the lightning is noticeably decreasing as we get further north. The last couple of nights it has only been behind us, and not close enough to make us nervous in the least. That is not to say we are ompletely out of danger, but we have mitigated our risk somewhat.
As much as I love Panama, it was good to finally be able to put it behind us and get moving. It is very unusual for there to be such a lack of wind in the area. That is why we are a month behind - when I looked a over our logs, I realized that it too us over a month from the time we left Panama City until we finally cleared out of western Panama. We did get to see some beautiful new anchorages, and we have vowed to return on our way back and check them out again. Panama really does have something for everyone.
We are not planning to stop in Costa Rica other than to wait out the winds, and hopefully that will not be for more than a week. Then we will head on to our destination, Puesta del Sol in northern Nicaragua. We decided to go there after talking to some friends about it. Sine it sounded really nice, we decided since we had been to Salvador we should try some place new. If we don't like it, we can continue north. But I have wanted to check out Nicaragua, and I also want to have visited every country in Central America. We may seem to be inconsistent, but that is just the way we do things, changing our minds on the fly.
Everything is fine here with us Our food supplies are holding out just fine, and we are nowhere near running out of coffee, which would be the only thing we would really hate to do without. I don't want to jinx anything, but we also seem to be losing weight nicely. So no negativity here, and we are both simply enjoying the cruise. Today the wind keeps going up and down, in a pulsing sort of way. We think we are starting to feel some of the winds we will be avoiding later. They are called papagayo winds, and are caused by strong winds in the Caribbean blowing through a gap in the land area across and over Lake Nicaragua, in southern Nicaragua. This is something everyone out here has to deal with, as they used to occur solely in the winter, but now seem to blow almost all hear round No one can tell me there is no such thing as global climate change For proof, I can tell you that all the cruising route books are practically useless now, as the weather patterns are no longer reliable at all. There have already been three hurricanes in the Pacific, and that is way too many for this early in the season.
But enough of that. As I said before, we are fine and happy. Here is a little quote on what is required of a sailor
"And last on this short list, he must heal well Scrapes, gouges, bruises, cuts, sprains, strains, and occasionally burns appear as if miraculously, often without my knowing their cause; a kind of stigmata of the sea." (Webb Childs, "Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn.")
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As much as I love Panama, it was good to finally be able to put it behind us and get moving. It is very unusual for there to be such a lack of wind in the area. That is why we are a month behind - when I looked a over our logs, I realized that it too us over a month from the time we left Panama City until we finally cleared out of western Panama. We did get to see some beautiful new anchorages, and we have vowed to return on our way back and check them out again. Panama really does have something for everyone.
We are not planning to stop in Costa Rica other than to wait out the winds, and hopefully that will not be for more than a week. Then we will head on to our destination, Puesta del Sol in northern Nicaragua. We decided to go there after talking to some friends about it. Sine it sounded really nice, we decided since we had been to Salvador we should try some place new. If we don't like it, we can continue north. But I have wanted to check out Nicaragua, and I also want to have visited every country in Central America. We may seem to be inconsistent, but that is just the way we do things, changing our minds on the fly.
Everything is fine here with us Our food supplies are holding out just fine, and we are nowhere near running out of coffee, which would be the only thing we would really hate to do without. I don't want to jinx anything, but we also seem to be losing weight nicely. So no negativity here, and we are both simply enjoying the cruise. Today the wind keeps going up and down, in a pulsing sort of way. We think we are starting to feel some of the winds we will be avoiding later. They are called papagayo winds, and are caused by strong winds in the Caribbean blowing through a gap in the land area across and over Lake Nicaragua, in southern Nicaragua. This is something everyone out here has to deal with, as they used to occur solely in the winter, but now seem to blow almost all hear round No one can tell me there is no such thing as global climate change For proof, I can tell you that all the cruising route books are practically useless now, as the weather patterns are no longer reliable at all. There have already been three hurricanes in the Pacific, and that is way too many for this early in the season.
But enough of that. As I said before, we are fine and happy. Here is a little quote on what is required of a sailor
"And last on this short list, he must heal well Scrapes, gouges, bruises, cuts, sprains, strains, and occasionally burns appear as if miraculously, often without my knowing their cause; a kind of stigmata of the sea." (Webb Childs, "Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn.")
----------
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Saturday, June 13, 2015
A Slow Progress
We continue our way on towards either Salvador or Nicaragua, but I think we have decided on Nicaragua. We haven't been there yet, and the facilities sound like we would like it. And if we don't, we can always head on to Salvador later. The place we are heading is called Puesta Del Sol, which means sunset. There is a marina, mooring field, and a hotel complex which means there is a pool, to cool off from the hot Nicaraguan weather. Friends of ours have been there, and speak highly of it. And I planned to visit there anyway, at least on a land trip from Salvador. That also means that the trip will be about 100 miles shorter than to Salvador, which helps with our fuel consumption issue. We also had a great discovery in the fuel realm - we have been averaging about one half gallon of fuel per engine hour, which is damn good.
Right now we are in an anchorage called Bahia Honda, and I think it may be the prettiest anchorage I have ever been in, bar none. We are surrounded by jungle, with birds and moneys calling out to us. The fish are jumping all over the place, and the rays are also throwing themselves up out of the water and landing with a loud splat. If you have never seen a ray jump, you have missed something. I have never seen anything that looks so simply joyful. A local man came by yesterday right after we got here, and sold us some avocados and limes. He is supposed to come by today with pineapple, onions, and potatoes, as well as bread. We still have plenty of meat in the freezer, and the other day we caught a big sierra, which Mike was able to filet into eight separate meals. So with this new produce, we have better meals than ever. The onions were the most important part, truthfully. Almost everything we make uses an onion.
Mike and I are lucky in that we have pensions, and don't have to live off a "cruising kitty." All we have to do is tighten our belts for a couple of months, and we an afford pretty much whatever comes our way, especially something bad (like a lightning strike) because we are insured. But there are a lot of cruisers who are not insured, and when something really bad happens, they are completely out of luck. Sometimes it means the end of the whole thing. We know a man in Panama City, whose boat was struck by lightning last year and all of his electrical systems were completely destroyed He can't even really live on it anymore, let alone sail it anywhere The sad part is he lives on social security with apparently little to no savings, and he is stuck. Really stuck. He can't afford to get it fixed, and now I suppose he will have to sell it for a song and where he can live as cheaply as he does now, I do not know. I suppose he couldn't afford insurance if he wanted it, but I know a lot of people who say their insurance is "prudent seamanship" I have also heard it said (by one who is not insured but I know could afford to be) that people who are insured are not has careful as those who aren't. Prudent seamanship is all well an good, but it is no good whatsoever against a lightning strike. We are at least as careful as the uninsured, maybe even more so. Interestingly, there are a lot of libertarian types out here who simply do not agree with the whole concept of insurance, asserting it constitutes "betting against oneself" I don't think so, but maybe I am wrong. All I know is that if something bad happens, we will be pretty much okay. If I decide I want to stop cruising, so be it, but I want to make the decision myself and not have it made for me by some horrid accident.
The local guy just came by and brought us pineapple, more avocados, the potatoes, the onions, plantains, bread, and some delicious bananas. We paid for the stuff and also gave him some fishing line, a nice lure, and some hooks. He promised to come by tomorrow with some papaya.
So I guess that is all for now. We got some rain, enough to wash the deck off. Now we need more so we can collect some water. Nothing beats drinking rainwater.
"For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before?" (Hilary Mantel)
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Right now we are in an anchorage called Bahia Honda, and I think it may be the prettiest anchorage I have ever been in, bar none. We are surrounded by jungle, with birds and moneys calling out to us. The fish are jumping all over the place, and the rays are also throwing themselves up out of the water and landing with a loud splat. If you have never seen a ray jump, you have missed something. I have never seen anything that looks so simply joyful. A local man came by yesterday right after we got here, and sold us some avocados and limes. He is supposed to come by today with pineapple, onions, and potatoes, as well as bread. We still have plenty of meat in the freezer, and the other day we caught a big sierra, which Mike was able to filet into eight separate meals. So with this new produce, we have better meals than ever. The onions were the most important part, truthfully. Almost everything we make uses an onion.
Mike and I are lucky in that we have pensions, and don't have to live off a "cruising kitty." All we have to do is tighten our belts for a couple of months, and we an afford pretty much whatever comes our way, especially something bad (like a lightning strike) because we are insured. But there are a lot of cruisers who are not insured, and when something really bad happens, they are completely out of luck. Sometimes it means the end of the whole thing. We know a man in Panama City, whose boat was struck by lightning last year and all of his electrical systems were completely destroyed He can't even really live on it anymore, let alone sail it anywhere The sad part is he lives on social security with apparently little to no savings, and he is stuck. Really stuck. He can't afford to get it fixed, and now I suppose he will have to sell it for a song and where he can live as cheaply as he does now, I do not know. I suppose he couldn't afford insurance if he wanted it, but I know a lot of people who say their insurance is "prudent seamanship" I have also heard it said (by one who is not insured but I know could afford to be) that people who are insured are not has careful as those who aren't. Prudent seamanship is all well an good, but it is no good whatsoever against a lightning strike. We are at least as careful as the uninsured, maybe even more so. Interestingly, there are a lot of libertarian types out here who simply do not agree with the whole concept of insurance, asserting it constitutes "betting against oneself" I don't think so, but maybe I am wrong. All I know is that if something bad happens, we will be pretty much okay. If I decide I want to stop cruising, so be it, but I want to make the decision myself and not have it made for me by some horrid accident.
The local guy just came by and brought us pineapple, more avocados, the potatoes, the onions, plantains, bread, and some delicious bananas. We paid for the stuff and also gave him some fishing line, a nice lure, and some hooks. He promised to come by tomorrow with some papaya.
So I guess that is all for now. We got some rain, enough to wash the deck off. Now we need more so we can collect some water. Nothing beats drinking rainwater.
"For what's the point of breeding children, if each generation does not improve on what went before?" (Hilary Mantel)
----------
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Saturday, June 6, 2015
Rain and More Rain
It has been raining every day here, as we sit and wait for some wind to come along and help us work our way to our destination, which seems at this point to be years away. Not really, but it does seem that way. So we download weather information, and what do we see? A crazy weather pattern, that looks for all the world like a hurricane where a hurricane should not be. We have been watching it for a couple of days now, and it is not really going to become a hurricane, but it is going to cause our current anchorage to become untenable. With no wind to speak of now, we are going to have to move to a safer place and we will leave tomorrow. There is a really good spot not all that far from here, and we will just have to motor there if we can't sail it. This diddling around would not bother me at all were it not for the fact that there is family business requiring signatures and I am worried that I am holding the process up. However, we will arrive eventually and then all will be well.
One of the benefits of being out in the middle of nowhere is that you an only eat what you brought on board when you provisioned up in Panama City. So if a person is smart, and not hungry when shopping, that person will not choose to buy him or herself a bunch of fattening snacks and things like that. And I am smart. When Mike buys candy and chips, I try to make sure he gets the kind I don't like. So that way, there is nothing but healthy things for me to eat. I am remembering the things I learned in Weight Watchers, like drinking a lot of water, using glasses of water when I get the urge to eat without really being hungry. I am only eating when I am actually hungry. So without jinxing it (I hope) I am losing weight. Hopefully on my next visit to the US, I will look as awesome as a nearly sixty year old woman can look.
Otherwise, I do not really have anything newsworthy to report. We listen to the howler monkeys every day, and one day we got to see them all perched in a tree that did not have a lot of leaves. Usually we can hear them but not see them because the foliage is too thick. That was a treat.
I am trying hard not to get edgy and nervous, but sometimes my generalized anxiety gets the best of me - it took me years to recognize free floating anxiety as something that just happens and is not related to anything being wrong in reality. It is something that will pass, especially if I sit quietly and take deep breaths picturing myself blowing all the anxiety out of me through my exhales. I used to sit and frantically review everything that was happening, trying to find a reason why I had that overwhelming feeing of doom. The only way I can describe it is this: it is the exact same feeling I got as a child when I was walking home from school with a bad report card, knowing without a doubt how much trouble I was in and how I was going to get yelled at. That sick feeling in your stomach, like you are going to throw up but not quite, and throwing up won't help anyway. Now I can stay on top of it, and just do my deep breathing until I can blow it away (most of the time, anyway). If anyone reading this has this problem, try the breathing - take deep breaths, hold them a bit, then blow them out hard like candles on a birthday cake.
But I digress. I am reading a lot of English history these days, so if anyone is curious about the Plantagenets, just ask me. Or the War of the Roses. When we still had internet access, I downloaded a three volume set of English history. If anyone has any suggestions for any good books about French history, let me know. That is going to be my next stop. BUt you know, I can't get over the fact that nothing ever seems to change. Just when things look like they are settling down, someone gets a bug up their ass and everything goes to hell again. Same hassles, new faces. And everyone has God on their side.
So with that, I will end this post - a rambling, pointless post, the result of too much time on my hands and too much time to think about things. But it is still better than the best day working, so I still feel lucky.
"Chance favors the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur)
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One of the benefits of being out in the middle of nowhere is that you an only eat what you brought on board when you provisioned up in Panama City. So if a person is smart, and not hungry when shopping, that person will not choose to buy him or herself a bunch of fattening snacks and things like that. And I am smart. When Mike buys candy and chips, I try to make sure he gets the kind I don't like. So that way, there is nothing but healthy things for me to eat. I am remembering the things I learned in Weight Watchers, like drinking a lot of water, using glasses of water when I get the urge to eat without really being hungry. I am only eating when I am actually hungry. So without jinxing it (I hope) I am losing weight. Hopefully on my next visit to the US, I will look as awesome as a nearly sixty year old woman can look.
Otherwise, I do not really have anything newsworthy to report. We listen to the howler monkeys every day, and one day we got to see them all perched in a tree that did not have a lot of leaves. Usually we can hear them but not see them because the foliage is too thick. That was a treat.
I am trying hard not to get edgy and nervous, but sometimes my generalized anxiety gets the best of me - it took me years to recognize free floating anxiety as something that just happens and is not related to anything being wrong in reality. It is something that will pass, especially if I sit quietly and take deep breaths picturing myself blowing all the anxiety out of me through my exhales. I used to sit and frantically review everything that was happening, trying to find a reason why I had that overwhelming feeing of doom. The only way I can describe it is this: it is the exact same feeling I got as a child when I was walking home from school with a bad report card, knowing without a doubt how much trouble I was in and how I was going to get yelled at. That sick feeling in your stomach, like you are going to throw up but not quite, and throwing up won't help anyway. Now I can stay on top of it, and just do my deep breathing until I can blow it away (most of the time, anyway). If anyone reading this has this problem, try the breathing - take deep breaths, hold them a bit, then blow them out hard like candles on a birthday cake.
But I digress. I am reading a lot of English history these days, so if anyone is curious about the Plantagenets, just ask me. Or the War of the Roses. When we still had internet access, I downloaded a three volume set of English history. If anyone has any suggestions for any good books about French history, let me know. That is going to be my next stop. BUt you know, I can't get over the fact that nothing ever seems to change. Just when things look like they are settling down, someone gets a bug up their ass and everything goes to hell again. Same hassles, new faces. And everyone has God on their side.
So with that, I will end this post - a rambling, pointless post, the result of too much time on my hands and too much time to think about things. But it is still better than the best day working, so I still feel lucky.
"Chance favors the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur)
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Monday, June 1, 2015
No Weather Today
That is about how things stand right now. We are waiting for some wind, any wind, to get us moving toward Salvador. we are still in western Panama, in a beautiful anchorage that we have all to ourselves. It is starting to be the off season now for cruising between Mexico and Ecuador,so when I run my radio net it takes way less time and there will come a time when no one checks in. A few of us just keep it going until the season picks up again. I have been doing this net for a couple of years now, although I couldn't do it from Ecuador and I am not sure if I can do it from Salvador. There is radio reception there of course but maybe not clear enough to actually run the net. The anchorages are up river estuaries, and there can be a lot of interference. To be honest, I know very little about how the radio stuff actually works, I just know how to use the mike and talk on it.
As I said, it is gorgeous here, so if we have to be stuck, this is the place. We are here alone 99% of the time, except for the monkeys we hear in the jungle. There are lots of birds, and there is always fish actiOn to watch. By that I mean big jumpers out towards open sea, which we don't want to catch. A really big fish is hard to handle,and our freezer is only so big. Our sport fishing days are over. Now we just fish for food. And even more fun to watch - there are schools of small fish that hide underneath our anchored boat and come out periodically to feed on alga or plankton, or other even smaller fish. Never a dull moment.
Although we do have an engine and fuel, we don't carry enough fuel to motor all the way to Salvador, at least I don't think so. We need to save the fuel for things like dodging lightning cells while underway, getting into tight anchorages, avoiding shores if the wind and currents are trying to push us there, things like that. Plus the engine is loud and it is almost impossible to get any decent sleep with it going. This is an especial problem for Mike, who never gets enough sleep anyway when we are underway. We ave a watch schedule, but if something goes south on my watch, I need to get him up to help me deal with it. There is no way around that. Certainly I do not get him up for every little thing, there are many things I handle on my own with no problems. It seems like everything goes smoothly on his watch, and then as soon as he is settled in the bed, everything changes. As time as go on, I have learned to handle lots of stuff alone, but some stuff requires more strength than I have. Plus, to be honest, Mike is a bit of a control freak, and there are things I am under orders not to even try to do alone. And I am too lazy and without enough ambition to complain about that. I get plenty of sleep while we are underway and there are few things I like better than being all comfy in my bed, listening to the water rush by outside the boat. It is an amazing feeling to think that only a few inches of fiberglass separates me from the open ocean. I really love it. Sometimes I just lay there listening. If only I did not feel so guilty about getting so much more sleep than Mike! But I guess it cannot be helped. But I must add that another great feeling is when Mike is asleep and I am running the boat. I feel very tender towards him, like I would fight anyone who ever tried to hurt him. There are times when my heart feels like it is full to bursting during my watches, like I am overflowing with love for him. Maybe this is too personal, too much about me, but it is one of the best things about being out here. It is just us, and we need to take of each other.
We have already run out of beer, but who care about that, it will help us lose some weight. I have not missed it at all. We did save two cans for en we arrive in Salvador to celebrate. We don't drink at all when we are actually underway, it is a generally bad idea. The only thing it would be a true tragedy if we were to run out of would be coffee. At that point we would probably swim to Salvador, towing the boat behind us. Otherwise, we have plenty of food aboard and can stay out here quite a wile if we had to. But we are hoping to get out of here at the end of the week, as the weather gribs look as though the wind might pick up then. Until then, here we float. As Vonnegut would say, "and so it goes."
"Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly." (Khaled Hosseini)
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As I said, it is gorgeous here, so if we have to be stuck, this is the place. We are here alone 99% of the time, except for the monkeys we hear in the jungle. There are lots of birds, and there is always fish actiOn to watch. By that I mean big jumpers out towards open sea, which we don't want to catch. A really big fish is hard to handle,and our freezer is only so big. Our sport fishing days are over. Now we just fish for food. And even more fun to watch - there are schools of small fish that hide underneath our anchored boat and come out periodically to feed on alga or plankton, or other even smaller fish. Never a dull moment.
Although we do have an engine and fuel, we don't carry enough fuel to motor all the way to Salvador, at least I don't think so. We need to save the fuel for things like dodging lightning cells while underway, getting into tight anchorages, avoiding shores if the wind and currents are trying to push us there, things like that. Plus the engine is loud and it is almost impossible to get any decent sleep with it going. This is an especial problem for Mike, who never gets enough sleep anyway when we are underway. We ave a watch schedule, but if something goes south on my watch, I need to get him up to help me deal with it. There is no way around that. Certainly I do not get him up for every little thing, there are many things I handle on my own with no problems. It seems like everything goes smoothly on his watch, and then as soon as he is settled in the bed, everything changes. As time as go on, I have learned to handle lots of stuff alone, but some stuff requires more strength than I have. Plus, to be honest, Mike is a bit of a control freak, and there are things I am under orders not to even try to do alone. And I am too lazy and without enough ambition to complain about that. I get plenty of sleep while we are underway and there are few things I like better than being all comfy in my bed, listening to the water rush by outside the boat. It is an amazing feeling to think that only a few inches of fiberglass separates me from the open ocean. I really love it. Sometimes I just lay there listening. If only I did not feel so guilty about getting so much more sleep than Mike! But I guess it cannot be helped. But I must add that another great feeling is when Mike is asleep and I am running the boat. I feel very tender towards him, like I would fight anyone who ever tried to hurt him. There are times when my heart feels like it is full to bursting during my watches, like I am overflowing with love for him. Maybe this is too personal, too much about me, but it is one of the best things about being out here. It is just us, and we need to take of each other.
We have already run out of beer, but who care about that, it will help us lose some weight. I have not missed it at all. We did save two cans for en we arrive in Salvador to celebrate. We don't drink at all when we are actually underway, it is a generally bad idea. The only thing it would be a true tragedy if we were to run out of would be coffee. At that point we would probably swim to Salvador, towing the boat behind us. Otherwise, we have plenty of food aboard and can stay out here quite a wile if we had to. But we are hoping to get out of here at the end of the week, as the weather gribs look as though the wind might pick up then. Until then, here we float. As Vonnegut would say, "and so it goes."
"Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly." (Khaled Hosseini)
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Friday, May 29, 2015
Back on the road . . . sort of
Here we are, on our way to Salvador. We left Panama City on May 7, and since that time we are still here in Panama, slowly sailing with either no wind or lightning. Neither are optimal for our purposes. I used to love thunder and lightning, but now I am in horror of it. I have too many friends and acquaintances who have been struck and lost all of their electronics - usually to the tune of at least $30,000 to fix, not to mention the hassle of trying to find someone who can actually do the work and do it right.
The night before last, we had to use the engine to literally dodge around lighting cells. Mike was masterful, handling this boat like one of those NASCAR drivers, only slower. We pulled in here at 3 am with no moon, so we couldn't see anything and had to navigate in using our radar. Then, to add insult to injury, it started to rain. The problem with rain is that when you are using radar to navigate, rather than to see what is way up ahead of you, the rain shows up on the screen and causes the screen to be one big blob, instead of several little clearly defined blobs that are indicative of things to be avoided. But here we are, safe and sound, so we managed. I mean Mike managed - I sat there helping him look out. Too bad I no longer have the excellent night vision I had as a kid. Moonless nights with cloud cover are difficult. A fact of sailing life. So now we wait, for some kind of break in the weather.
At least we are in a gorgeous anchorage. Yesterday we heard the howler monkeys calling. In fact, they have just started up again. The beach butts right up against a dense jungle, and the air is thick with the smell of plumeria. There are wild orchids everywhere,growing on the big ceiba trees. We can see and experience all this from the boat. We also have a bucket of mangoes that we picked at our last anchorage, so we are living well. Our only disappointment is that the fishing has been terrible. I have caught basically nothing this year. Everyone, including the local panga fishermen, are talking about it. Thank goodness we have a freezer full of store bought food. If it were solely up to me this year, we would starve.
The Panamanian military came by and checked our paperwork, which of course is in perfect order. Even though it is always in perfect order (except once when I lucked out) I still break out in a sweat every time someone in a uniform asks to see my papers. Too many WWII moves, for sure. Even though none of these guys sound like Claude Rains. And they usually smile. And they are usually 18 years old. But still.
But other than that, things could not be better. I do not mind going slowly,I just feel bad because there is some family business I need internet to take care of and I don't have it now, and won't until Salvador. I can send and receive basic email with no attachments, via SSB radio (the way I am posting this and why I have no pictures to accompany it) but that is all. So it is frustrating because I do not want to be a hold up to the process. It is one of those "serenity to accept the things I cannot change" things, and the virtue "Patience" has never been my strong suit.
Anyway, this will be a short post. I am fine, Mike is fine, Magda Jean is fine. Although our pace is slow, we are learning to stop expending energy fussing over what may happen next, but to simply accept and experience as deeply as possible what happening in this moment. Not as easy as it sounds, but when it works it is amazing. The adventure continues.
"Please don't understand me too quickly." (Andre Gide)
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The night before last, we had to use the engine to literally dodge around lighting cells. Mike was masterful, handling this boat like one of those NASCAR drivers, only slower. We pulled in here at 3 am with no moon, so we couldn't see anything and had to navigate in using our radar. Then, to add insult to injury, it started to rain. The problem with rain is that when you are using radar to navigate, rather than to see what is way up ahead of you, the rain shows up on the screen and causes the screen to be one big blob, instead of several little clearly defined blobs that are indicative of things to be avoided. But here we are, safe and sound, so we managed. I mean Mike managed - I sat there helping him look out. Too bad I no longer have the excellent night vision I had as a kid. Moonless nights with cloud cover are difficult. A fact of sailing life. So now we wait, for some kind of break in the weather.
At least we are in a gorgeous anchorage. Yesterday we heard the howler monkeys calling. In fact, they have just started up again. The beach butts right up against a dense jungle, and the air is thick with the smell of plumeria. There are wild orchids everywhere,growing on the big ceiba trees. We can see and experience all this from the boat. We also have a bucket of mangoes that we picked at our last anchorage, so we are living well. Our only disappointment is that the fishing has been terrible. I have caught basically nothing this year. Everyone, including the local panga fishermen, are talking about it. Thank goodness we have a freezer full of store bought food. If it were solely up to me this year, we would starve.
The Panamanian military came by and checked our paperwork, which of course is in perfect order. Even though it is always in perfect order (except once when I lucked out) I still break out in a sweat every time someone in a uniform asks to see my papers. Too many WWII moves, for sure. Even though none of these guys sound like Claude Rains. And they usually smile. And they are usually 18 years old. But still.
But other than that, things could not be better. I do not mind going slowly,I just feel bad because there is some family business I need internet to take care of and I don't have it now, and won't until Salvador. I can send and receive basic email with no attachments, via SSB radio (the way I am posting this and why I have no pictures to accompany it) but that is all. So it is frustrating because I do not want to be a hold up to the process. It is one of those "serenity to accept the things I cannot change" things, and the virtue "Patience" has never been my strong suit.
Anyway, this will be a short post. I am fine, Mike is fine, Magda Jean is fine. Although our pace is slow, we are learning to stop expending energy fussing over what may happen next, but to simply accept and experience as deeply as possible what happening in this moment. Not as easy as it sounds, but when it works it is amazing. The adventure continues.
"Please don't understand me too quickly." (Andre Gide)
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Thursday, May 7, 2015
"I've been one poor correspondant . . .
I've been too too hard to find. But that doesn't mean you ain't been on my mind." Okay, quoting America of all bands is not going to win me any prizes for either the depth of my intellect or my level of music appreciation. And they had to be one of the most overplayed bands of the seventies or whenever it was. But it still describes how I feel about letting this blog go as long as I have.
And there is no real good answer - my usual general laziness mixed with what we had going on.
I think we left off with us in Panama. I did tell of our two guests/crew members who rode with us from Ecuador to Panama - Wayne and Marcos, hailing from Newfoundland and Australia respectively. We met them in Bolivia, on a bike and boat trip that took us from high in the Andes down into the Amazon basin. Marcos was the guide and Wayne was another of the participants. We had a blast with them on the boat.
After they left, we spent some time enjoying the Perlas Islands. At that point, we dove on the boat (which means diving under the boat to see what is going on down there) and discovered that when the Ecuadorian pilot caused us to run aground, we did suffer damage to the rudder skeg (part of the boat that hangs down to protect the rudder. Here, it did its job well.) To fix it required us to have the boat hauled, which was planned anyway for new bottom paint. So we spent most of the month of March with the boat on the hard (in the shipyard). We do not stay on the boat when it is on the hard, and I don't think this yard would have let us do that even if we wanted to. So we stayed in a nearby hotel, so we could go everyday and check on the boat. It is always sort of a treat to stay in a hotel - there is the big king-size bed, the unlimited water for showers, air conditioning (which makes one truly appreciate the HOT shower. We have the ability to have hot showers on the boat, but we never go there. It is too hot to want to take anything but a nice cool shower. I do not want any more warm water on my body, thank you. The constant sweat is warm enough.), and of course Cable TV, which usually includes the following English presentations: CNN International along with one other channel which seems to play the many, many permutations of the show CSI, as well as NCIS or whatever the initials are for the one about naval intelligence. We just sit there eating junk food and watching junk television, but who cares - it is never for very long. But I always miss the boat, especially sleeping in my own little bed with the nice soothing rocking motion.
So the damage was fixed, and insurance did pay fort some of it, although most of the work fell within the deductible. Then, right after we got back on the boat, I went to the doctor because I had a slight case of conjunctivitis, and knowing how icky it is, I went in right away to catch it before it got bad and before Mike caught it. So while I was in there, i decided to have the doctor take a look at two spots on my skin, one of which my sister (who is a nurse and knows about these things plus she is a survivor of two malignant melanomas) told my did not look good. I of course blew that off. Then right before I went in I noticed a spot on my upper arm that looked funny. You must know that I am covered with freckles and various other spots and skin tags and whatever, so it is hard to keep track of all the spots and what they might be doing at any given time. But I decided "What the hell, I am here, I might as well get this addressed now so I don't have to periodically think about it." The doctor looked at the one on my chest (we never got to the one on my arm) and she said "You need to see a dermatologist." "okay" says I. "No" she says. "you need to see one this week.) So I did, and of course you can guess the rest. I had a malignant melanoma on my chest, and a basal cell sarcoma on my arm. The dermatologist/plastic surgeon got all of the cancer, so I am right as rain currently.
It did give me a scare, though. I had been walking around with the melanoma for well over a year, and had it not been for the conjunctivitis, it would still be there. I have a cousin who died of skin cancer, and I am told it is a bad death. I feel like I dodged a bullet or something. I suppose I am making too big a deal out of it, but it scares me to think I really could have screwed the pooch here but for something completely unrelated. I guess this also messes with my master plan of getting through my fifties without any cancer.
Now I have no choice but to be careful with the sun and I would be horribly remiss if I did not warn everyone to be careful with this sun before it is too late for you. The price of a beautiful golden tan is not worth it! Go to the salon and get a fake one if you simply must have one. I was never one of those who baked themselves all summer, and was always pretty careful to use sunscreen, but it still happened. I endured my high school years at Laguna Beach High School in the early seventies being constantly asked (and always in a snotty tone) "Don't you ever go outside?" I would patiently explain that as a redhead tanning wasn't really something I would ever excel at. Then they would point out someone close to redheaded with a nice tan and tell me that I could do it if I really tried. I hope things have changed at that level, because that is when the damage starts that ends up with surgery and cancer. What I had is not the result of my being on the boat, it is damage that set in a long time ago. But I have now moved from tank tops to long sleeved t-shirts, and if anyone anywhere asks me why I have no tan I am likely to want to punch them in the nose.
But enough of that. I am fine now and that is all that matters. Things are fine, the boat is in great shape, and we are ready to move on to new adventures.
One thing happened that was very interesting and I doubt we will ever experience anything like it again. One morning we got in the dinghy and went in to the dock. Our plan was to do some shopping and then get a few beers and something eat. As we pulled up to the dock, we saw our favorite driver, Roosevelt, waving to us from the top of the ramp near the dinghy dock. He told us he had a favor to ask of us, One of his relatives had died, and the family wanted to ashes scattered in the Panama Canal. He asked if we could take two family members along with the ashes into the entrance to the canal in our dinghy so this could be done. Of course we said yes and so that happened. Our anchorage is right by the entrance, so we went up in there and sat quietly while that family said a prayer and then released the ashes into the water. I felt pretty honored that we were able to be of assistance. If my sisters are reading this, I would like to tell you it went smoother than it did when we took mom out on Islandia Sport Fishing.
Later on, another local friend asked if he could come on our boat, as he had never been on a sailboat. So we took him out for a couple hours just sailing around the bay (thank goodness we chose a day where there was enough wind to do so!). It was a fun time for all three of us.
Once the boat was fixed, it was time to think about what we are going to do. Staying in Panama is not an option due to the horrendous lightning once the rainy season is in full swing. (It is just starting now.) The best way to avoid it is to return to Ecuador, but there are two reasons why I do not want to do that. There are only two truly viable anchorages in Ecuador - one is in Bahia Caraquez (where we were before) and the other is near two towns called Salinas and Puerto Lucia.
I won't go back to Bahia Caraquez, and I have never said that about any other place, even those I was not fond of. The anchorage there is supposed to be secure, with round the clock security, but after we went to Colombia for two weeks, upon our return we discovered we had been burglarized. I did mention this before, but as time has gone on, we have discovered that more and more things were stolen, and all indications are that the burglars had plenty of time to not only go through the boat completely and then put things back the way they were. Right away we noticed the missing computers (three out of the four were broken, ha ha ha) and some of the boat equipment (i.e. our best ratcheting winch handle!). But it was not until later, much later, when I dug deep into one of the closets for the few pieces of jewelry that I saved. The thieves got in there and stole all my gold chains, plus (and this is the one that hurts and I cannot forgive) my sapphire ring that Mike gave me when we first got together. That is the only piece of jewelry i have ever really cared about, and I do not want to return to Caraquez and have to look at all those workers around the anchorage (and we know it was one of them, there are no other possibilities) and wonder which of those people I regarded as friends did this to me. And yes, I am taking it personally. We were not the only boat this happened to, and everyone else feels the same way. The people running the anchorage do not seem to care. So I am not going back. It would be too hard and I am not good at staying suspicious and angry, it is too hard.
The other place is an unknown entity. There are two yacht clubs there, and supposedly there are some moorings that can be rented, but nobody knows for sure and nobody knows how much it costs. The clubs do not answer emails (I have sent them in both Spanish and English), and the only person who has actually been there was on the hard for repairs and spent no time there in any anchorage. I do not want to get all the way down there only to discover the alternatives are really expensive mooring rentals or a crappy anchorage with no decent place to dock the dinghy. So that is out, since we really need to keep our expenses down and save up some money.
While we were ruminating over what we wanted to do, our friends suggested we go back up to El Salvador, but to a different place than where we were before. While El Salvador does have lightning issues, it does not seem to us to be as bad as Panama. El Salvador is very inexpensive, especially compared to Panama. I had been intrigued by this place (called Barillas) since before we went to Salvador originally, but we went to Bahia del Sol instead as that was where the El Salvador Rally went and where our friends at the time were going. Again we will be anchored in a river estuary, and will rent a mooring (affordable!) near a really nice resort where we have use of the pool, etc. If we don't like it, we can go further north back to Bahia del Sol. We can also go south when the rainy season winds down and stop in Nicaragua. I do hope we can do some travel in Costa Rica and Nicaragua while we are there - Costa Rica has a lot of lightning issues too, which is why we are not spending the season there. But I do want to see both of them, and who knows what will happen.
We had planned to return to Ecuador and go from there to the Galapagos and on to Polynesia, but the medical stuff and the boat damage through our scheduling off. So we plan to head back here (Panama) and do all the preparation for that big trip to begin in February next year. We need two new sails and a bunch of other things to make a sail that long and serious a true reality for us. This year, a number of boats trying to make the trip had to head back this way because of boat problems like rigging issues and things that MIke wants to replace on MJ before we head out. We know of one boat that sank and the couple aboard was rescued by another sail boat. Both of those boats were over 1000 miles from any shore. There is another one out there now that is creeping towards Polynesia with damaged rigging, and a mast that is swaying in the breeze. I don't want to be any of these people. And we could very well be, so the most important thing is to make sure the boat is in the best shape it can be in.
So now I have brought things up to date. This has been a really dynamic year so far - and even with all the bad things I can't say it has been a bad year so far. I don't feel that way. I (we, actually, Mike agrees) have had some experiences that taught us a lot, not only about the boat, but about each other. Things between the two of us may never have been better, and that is because both of us have taken some lessons from people and things we have encountered just in this very short time period, of less than six months. It is amazing how much one can learn when one wants to learn. But you have to be willing to accept and recognize the lesson when it comes to you. And for Mike and I, that is key.
Anyway, I am going to wind this down now. We are currently in the Perlas Islands, and are slowly meandering up to El Salvador. For those that worry, we are in touch every day on SSB radio, and there is always someone out there who knows where we are and can help arrange for assistance if everything went south, which it is not going to. So I wish everyone all the best possible.
"How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn't listen." (Victor Hugo)
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And there is no real good answer - my usual general laziness mixed with what we had going on.
I think we left off with us in Panama. I did tell of our two guests/crew members who rode with us from Ecuador to Panama - Wayne and Marcos, hailing from Newfoundland and Australia respectively. We met them in Bolivia, on a bike and boat trip that took us from high in the Andes down into the Amazon basin. Marcos was the guide and Wayne was another of the participants. We had a blast with them on the boat.
After they left, we spent some time enjoying the Perlas Islands. At that point, we dove on the boat (which means diving under the boat to see what is going on down there) and discovered that when the Ecuadorian pilot caused us to run aground, we did suffer damage to the rudder skeg (part of the boat that hangs down to protect the rudder. Here, it did its job well.) To fix it required us to have the boat hauled, which was planned anyway for new bottom paint. So we spent most of the month of March with the boat on the hard (in the shipyard). We do not stay on the boat when it is on the hard, and I don't think this yard would have let us do that even if we wanted to. So we stayed in a nearby hotel, so we could go everyday and check on the boat. It is always sort of a treat to stay in a hotel - there is the big king-size bed, the unlimited water for showers, air conditioning (which makes one truly appreciate the HOT shower. We have the ability to have hot showers on the boat, but we never go there. It is too hot to want to take anything but a nice cool shower. I do not want any more warm water on my body, thank you. The constant sweat is warm enough.), and of course Cable TV, which usually includes the following English presentations: CNN International along with one other channel which seems to play the many, many permutations of the show CSI, as well as NCIS or whatever the initials are for the one about naval intelligence. We just sit there eating junk food and watching junk television, but who cares - it is never for very long. But I always miss the boat, especially sleeping in my own little bed with the nice soothing rocking motion.
So the damage was fixed, and insurance did pay fort some of it, although most of the work fell within the deductible. Then, right after we got back on the boat, I went to the doctor because I had a slight case of conjunctivitis, and knowing how icky it is, I went in right away to catch it before it got bad and before Mike caught it. So while I was in there, i decided to have the doctor take a look at two spots on my skin, one of which my sister (who is a nurse and knows about these things plus she is a survivor of two malignant melanomas) told my did not look good. I of course blew that off. Then right before I went in I noticed a spot on my upper arm that looked funny. You must know that I am covered with freckles and various other spots and skin tags and whatever, so it is hard to keep track of all the spots and what they might be doing at any given time. But I decided "What the hell, I am here, I might as well get this addressed now so I don't have to periodically think about it." The doctor looked at the one on my chest (we never got to the one on my arm) and she said "You need to see a dermatologist." "okay" says I. "No" she says. "you need to see one this week.) So I did, and of course you can guess the rest. I had a malignant melanoma on my chest, and a basal cell sarcoma on my arm. The dermatologist/plastic surgeon got all of the cancer, so I am right as rain currently.
It did give me a scare, though. I had been walking around with the melanoma for well over a year, and had it not been for the conjunctivitis, it would still be there. I have a cousin who died of skin cancer, and I am told it is a bad death. I feel like I dodged a bullet or something. I suppose I am making too big a deal out of it, but it scares me to think I really could have screwed the pooch here but for something completely unrelated. I guess this also messes with my master plan of getting through my fifties without any cancer.
Now I have no choice but to be careful with the sun and I would be horribly remiss if I did not warn everyone to be careful with this sun before it is too late for you. The price of a beautiful golden tan is not worth it! Go to the salon and get a fake one if you simply must have one. I was never one of those who baked themselves all summer, and was always pretty careful to use sunscreen, but it still happened. I endured my high school years at Laguna Beach High School in the early seventies being constantly asked (and always in a snotty tone) "Don't you ever go outside?" I would patiently explain that as a redhead tanning wasn't really something I would ever excel at. Then they would point out someone close to redheaded with a nice tan and tell me that I could do it if I really tried. I hope things have changed at that level, because that is when the damage starts that ends up with surgery and cancer. What I had is not the result of my being on the boat, it is damage that set in a long time ago. But I have now moved from tank tops to long sleeved t-shirts, and if anyone anywhere asks me why I have no tan I am likely to want to punch them in the nose.
But enough of that. I am fine now and that is all that matters. Things are fine, the boat is in great shape, and we are ready to move on to new adventures.
One thing happened that was very interesting and I doubt we will ever experience anything like it again. One morning we got in the dinghy and went in to the dock. Our plan was to do some shopping and then get a few beers and something eat. As we pulled up to the dock, we saw our favorite driver, Roosevelt, waving to us from the top of the ramp near the dinghy dock. He told us he had a favor to ask of us, One of his relatives had died, and the family wanted to ashes scattered in the Panama Canal. He asked if we could take two family members along with the ashes into the entrance to the canal in our dinghy so this could be done. Of course we said yes and so that happened. Our anchorage is right by the entrance, so we went up in there and sat quietly while that family said a prayer and then released the ashes into the water. I felt pretty honored that we were able to be of assistance. If my sisters are reading this, I would like to tell you it went smoother than it did when we took mom out on Islandia Sport Fishing.
Later on, another local friend asked if he could come on our boat, as he had never been on a sailboat. So we took him out for a couple hours just sailing around the bay (thank goodness we chose a day where there was enough wind to do so!). It was a fun time for all three of us.
Once the boat was fixed, it was time to think about what we are going to do. Staying in Panama is not an option due to the horrendous lightning once the rainy season is in full swing. (It is just starting now.) The best way to avoid it is to return to Ecuador, but there are two reasons why I do not want to do that. There are only two truly viable anchorages in Ecuador - one is in Bahia Caraquez (where we were before) and the other is near two towns called Salinas and Puerto Lucia.
I won't go back to Bahia Caraquez, and I have never said that about any other place, even those I was not fond of. The anchorage there is supposed to be secure, with round the clock security, but after we went to Colombia for two weeks, upon our return we discovered we had been burglarized. I did mention this before, but as time has gone on, we have discovered that more and more things were stolen, and all indications are that the burglars had plenty of time to not only go through the boat completely and then put things back the way they were. Right away we noticed the missing computers (three out of the four were broken, ha ha ha) and some of the boat equipment (i.e. our best ratcheting winch handle!). But it was not until later, much later, when I dug deep into one of the closets for the few pieces of jewelry that I saved. The thieves got in there and stole all my gold chains, plus (and this is the one that hurts and I cannot forgive) my sapphire ring that Mike gave me when we first got together. That is the only piece of jewelry i have ever really cared about, and I do not want to return to Caraquez and have to look at all those workers around the anchorage (and we know it was one of them, there are no other possibilities) and wonder which of those people I regarded as friends did this to me. And yes, I am taking it personally. We were not the only boat this happened to, and everyone else feels the same way. The people running the anchorage do not seem to care. So I am not going back. It would be too hard and I am not good at staying suspicious and angry, it is too hard.
The other place is an unknown entity. There are two yacht clubs there, and supposedly there are some moorings that can be rented, but nobody knows for sure and nobody knows how much it costs. The clubs do not answer emails (I have sent them in both Spanish and English), and the only person who has actually been there was on the hard for repairs and spent no time there in any anchorage. I do not want to get all the way down there only to discover the alternatives are really expensive mooring rentals or a crappy anchorage with no decent place to dock the dinghy. So that is out, since we really need to keep our expenses down and save up some money.
While we were ruminating over what we wanted to do, our friends suggested we go back up to El Salvador, but to a different place than where we were before. While El Salvador does have lightning issues, it does not seem to us to be as bad as Panama. El Salvador is very inexpensive, especially compared to Panama. I had been intrigued by this place (called Barillas) since before we went to Salvador originally, but we went to Bahia del Sol instead as that was where the El Salvador Rally went and where our friends at the time were going. Again we will be anchored in a river estuary, and will rent a mooring (affordable!) near a really nice resort where we have use of the pool, etc. If we don't like it, we can go further north back to Bahia del Sol. We can also go south when the rainy season winds down and stop in Nicaragua. I do hope we can do some travel in Costa Rica and Nicaragua while we are there - Costa Rica has a lot of lightning issues too, which is why we are not spending the season there. But I do want to see both of them, and who knows what will happen.
We had planned to return to Ecuador and go from there to the Galapagos and on to Polynesia, but the medical stuff and the boat damage through our scheduling off. So we plan to head back here (Panama) and do all the preparation for that big trip to begin in February next year. We need two new sails and a bunch of other things to make a sail that long and serious a true reality for us. This year, a number of boats trying to make the trip had to head back this way because of boat problems like rigging issues and things that MIke wants to replace on MJ before we head out. We know of one boat that sank and the couple aboard was rescued by another sail boat. Both of those boats were over 1000 miles from any shore. There is another one out there now that is creeping towards Polynesia with damaged rigging, and a mast that is swaying in the breeze. I don't want to be any of these people. And we could very well be, so the most important thing is to make sure the boat is in the best shape it can be in.
So now I have brought things up to date. This has been a really dynamic year so far - and even with all the bad things I can't say it has been a bad year so far. I don't feel that way. I (we, actually, Mike agrees) have had some experiences that taught us a lot, not only about the boat, but about each other. Things between the two of us may never have been better, and that is because both of us have taken some lessons from people and things we have encountered just in this very short time period, of less than six months. It is amazing how much one can learn when one wants to learn. But you have to be willing to accept and recognize the lesson when it comes to you. And for Mike and I, that is key.
Anyway, I am going to wind this down now. We are currently in the Perlas Islands, and are slowly meandering up to El Salvador. For those that worry, we are in touch every day on SSB radio, and there is always someone out there who knows where we are and can help arrange for assistance if everything went south, which it is not going to. So I wish everyone all the best possible.
"How sad to think that nature speaks and mankind doesn't listen." (Victor Hugo)
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