Panama: Atlantic to Pacific & onto Galapagos
Dec 09-May 10
DEC 09: The U.S tour went well K stopped in Athens Georgia to visit mom and sis, shopped and ate for a week. Next
stop Ft Lauderdale to hang with grandson and Michelle then off to Cincinnati. Meanwhile N hit NY to see his mom and
sis, stopped in Ft Lauderdale to FINALLY take care of jury duty, Yep they kept sending us notices and we finally got it
taken care of. We met up in Cincinnati had Christmas with all the kids and 1)grands. . Rented a big old house in Cincinnati
so all kids, grands, sister and hubby from Michigan,& nephew wife and kids from Indiana could all spend the night NY
Eve. We also invited a few friends and enjoyed a fabulous dinner. Great time!
Whistler B.C.Cananda for Jan 10 greatest ski conditions ever tons of snow and the place was awesome because they
were getting ready for the winter Olympics. N had a slight injury in his calf but he still squeezed his boot on ea. day. Ella 2
½ had her 1st experience with ski school. We lied and said she was 3, she loved it. Mr. (aka Jarrid) was rippin up the
slopes on his board this yr keeping up and even passing us old ones. Jarrid was also improving on his cooking skills he
made us a fabulous Chicken Curry. Lily decided to start walking, very cool since Ella took her 1st steps there too. Spinny
(daughter Shells new guy) or fresh meat we call the new skier, was Mr Camera so we have tons of pics this yr. All kids
and grands made it this yr except for Matt and Katt. We missed them.
FEB: 10After 2 days of delayed flights & no luggage we are ready to go home. But wait N gets a call from the doc; he has
been trying to get us for a month. We need to go back to Cincy so N can take care of some minor stuff. The doc says cant
wait to New Zealand in Nov. Crap. Phone calls, hunting luggage, flight change. Ok cool we watch super bowl with the
kids! Neil gets his stuff done, NOW lets go
FEB Shelter Bay Colon Panama: We are back a week late and told our friends Robert and Beate we would be late, they
were coming from Switzerland to go through the canal with us, “NO problem we will come help ya get ready.” OK??
Meantime N’s calf is still huge and he goes to a doc. He has a lg. hematoma, they drain it and give him a really cute
support hose to wear!
Work work work. We haul out to paint the bottom. Well as boat people know nothing is quick. We need to replace a 2)
cutlass bearing, which meant take the old one out. Ok ours wont come out after all kinds of ideas from EVERYONE who
walked by. Yep need to take the shaft out! All goes better then expected, its out, found a new one, & the boys got it back
together with a bit of 3)grease work. This is of course a few days of horrible work, climbing in engine compartment
working under the generator and then outside attempting to get the max prop all back together again onto the shaft. It
really was like humpty dumpty. It came out in tons of pieces! Next project the mast, the goose neck for the boom has
been a constant annoyance and needs to be attached on better AGAIN. We do plan to do it properly once in New
Zealand. So Robert and Neil work a lg bolt all the way through the mast, hum seems to be a good solution. Next, life raft
has not been checked in 7 yrs. AND I’m not about to go buzzing across the pacific until it is. Well R& N seem to think
they can do it themselves. Fine Beate and I go to do provisioning. We heard the life raft was up at the restaurant and
cruisers were intrigued by the site, no one else ever opens those suckers up they send them off! Ok so the boys know
what they are doing, turns out they got it all open replaced batteries, took out some old food and ALMOST got it all back
together. N did call around and found a place that would “squish” it back together. Meanwhile N is running with the cart
down the dock, so they can put the heavy Life raft in it to take to get squished, and rams the handle (metal pole) into his
ribs! No biggy he has to go to the doc tomorrow to check on his leg. Guess what, now N has stitches on his eye lid
(reason we went back to cincy) a sock on his leg and now cracked ribs!! YEP we are ready for the canal transit! The plan
was for R &B to go through the canal and sail to the Perlas islands with us. So far they have 4)sanded the prop, worked
on the cutlass bearing, painted the bottom, polished stainless, fixed the boom, repaired some lights in the cabin, taken apart
the life raft, lived on the hard in the boat yard and shleped supplies up and down the ladder to the boat. They did get to
enjoy the nature walks in Ft Sherman. Beate wanted to see a tree sloth and they did baby and all! We also saw a sm
panther while we took a morning off to take a walk; he just zipped across our path. He was small so we asked around and
the locals called it a panther. Luckily we did finally get to do the canal transit before they left.
FEB 26,10 TRANSITING THE PANAMA CANAL YEEEHAWW
The agent comes out to measure your boat, ya know size does matter, over 50 ft you pay more and we are over if you
count davits to bowsprit. So he is a nice guys asked if we can change anything to make it smaller, wellllll we could pull the
davits in(NOT REALLY) humm well 49.5 sounds good to me he says, Cool we got a nice guy. Next we hook up with
Tito “our agent” one of the most unorganized guys I have EVER met. We did manage to get all our tires and lines to go
through the canal! Paola a good friend from San Blas came into the city to line handle for us as we went through the canal.
ALL SET
Off we go to anchor in the flats and wait for our pilot/advisor is what they call them for our size boats, showed up right on
time. George jumped in the cockpit at 4:20 and said ok lets go. Wow.. not like the stories we had heard. Up anchor and
away we go. In front of 1st lock we tied up with another sailboat Kilkae .His advisor said he wants to be in the middle so
George said ok fine tie up on his port, our great crew has us tied up quickly. Ok next boat (Black Arrow) comes up and is
“trying “to tie up on the Starboard of Kilkae Well they didn’t have our crew is all I’m say’in.! Kilkae ended up losing a
cleat!! And not very happy about it either!
Going through the locks is amazing (pics below), you get in and are tossed a line with a monkey fist on it(knot) you have to
get that tied to your line so the guy on the wall can pull it back up and walk ya through the lock. The door closes and up
ya go.. way cool then when lock is full you can look over the wall and see the other side . Kilkae had middle so he was to
steer but we had our engine on and N did a good amount of steering as well. We made it to Gatun Lake, “record time”
George tells us , by 7 . Huge buoys are there to tie up to sometimes they stack them up. We were lucky and just had 2
boats on ours. Nice celebratory drink showers and bed.
So 6:20 am William shows up AGAIN right on time. NICE. Ok off we go, this time just the 2 boats we told William we
are not interested in rafting with the 3rd boat who did not have the right lines or crew. It seems Kilkae said the same..
Motoring slowly (4hrs) through the lake to the next lock we did spot one croc… just minding his own business. As we
entered the lock with the camera, N was on one phone I was on the other calling the family”hey look for us, do ya see us?’
We were observed by a lg tourist boat also waiting to go though. Kind of like the zoo animals I think they were fascinated
by us, they kept taking pictures of us too! Well just as we were finally moving through it started to pour rain, buckets! But
this did not deter our crew 9)Paola ,Robert and Beate were still out there holding onto their lines!.. Ha I had my turn
yesterday in the nice sun..
So if going through the Panama Canal is not enough excitement for us, A Tsunami was on its way!!! Chile had just had an
earthquake and the tsunami was predicted to head right to Panama..HUMMM can we just hang out here in the lock. So I
called my info woman (daughter Cari) and had her check on timing and routing of this thing. We also heard that all the
boats in the Pacific anchorage took off out to sea. Ok so we went through and just went to Flamingo marina, seemed like
all was calm and boats were back so what the heck. This place was NOT for our size boats let me tell ya. The marina
was full of HUGE sport fishing boats and a few 100 ft plus sailboats. Since we had the key to the gates we did walk
down to the 150ft sailboat and I snapped a pic while 10)Robert and Neil puffed their cigars acting like they were the
owners, well I think a few people up above “might” have believed it. Located on the point with lots of restaurants and
shops it was interesting to walk around. Robert and Beate were heading back home and we went back to Colon to go
through the canal with Boree as line handlers so it was a place to lv Attitude at least. Taxi to a bus, bus to Colon jumped
off at the shopping center and caught the Shelter Bay Marina bus back to Shelter Bay. It all worked out great, through the
canal twice!! Awesome
MARCH,10 La Playita, Amador TIME TO PREPARE:
Top off propane :( stove and grill) no problem we lucked out Steve and Vicky on True Companions had some left and
gave it to us.
Food: Met Roger (our driver for the day) at $8 an hr we got a lot done! 1st stop mega depot, on to pricemart, Riba smith,
a different Riba smith and even a stop at Abernathys (marine store). The car is PACKED but we were still on the hunt for
bottles of beer and 1 liter plastic soda. Seriously we went to 6 places some were distributors but they had nothing. One
last stop we really wanted an 11)Embera basket from the Darien province but never made it though so we stopped at the
YMCA market and bargained for one. They are beautiful tightly weaved and can take months to yrs to make. They even
hold water NO kidding.. Well Neil and I bargained with one poor guys and he finally said this is all I can do my wife will
beat me HA what a line but it worked. In the meantime Roger is thinking, if we buy the beer in a store its way to expensive
so he pulls up at a sm Chinese store and says wait here. Ok. he came out and said they will sell you 3 cases of what you
want for a good price! Cool we go in, kid brings out 3 cases, and we pack it in our bags. A woman is making pot stickers
in a fryer at the cash reg so why not? Humm beer and pot sticker ..Roger is a great one to know! Ok that was the fun part,
now unload the car, carry it down to the dinghy, load the dinghy (3 full trips) and THEN put the crap away! N vac
packed tons while I unpacked, marked and shoved into hiding places. I must have been a bit crotchety cuz N shoved a
cubalibre into my hand! Ok 12:30 am we can finish tomorrow.
Our poor old dinghy engine has been complaining and getting repaired quite often in the last few yrs so we bit it and bought
a new Yamaha 15, 2 strokes and sold the old one. The dinghy is a sight but as least I know we can get around. Ended
up buying a new starting Battery, But hey at least we were in a place to get one so its all good..
Big Party at Balboa Yacht Club put on by Latitude 38 getting us all pumped up for our South Pacific adventure. Our plan
was to lv in a few days, BUT Boree was lving the next day and kept on about why we don’t go then. Well we aren’t
ready; we haven’t checked out, we need important things like shrimp, vac bags, & tortillas. Ok so we gave into peer
pressure. We figured it’s better to travel with someone else for a 10 day sail so ok. Neil whips off to check out, and I meet
him back at Attitude about 6. N has to caulk around the life raft(remember we had to squish it down ,still a bit of a gap),
We had some work to do on the boom gooseneck at the mask, get all our lines out and ready, read up and plot our
course but we did it.
MARCH 7,10 off to Galapagos: Anchor up and heading out by 9:30, Dream Time and Boree way ahead of us. By 12:30
N has 12)3, 5 lb tunies, but while bleeding #2, #3 was snatched up unfortunately we didn’t see what took him. Sailing
along I spotted a lg fin N says it was probably a marlin. Bed at 8 getting rest for my watch. We had 35 knots and a nice
sail, got a bit rough on N’s watch but by the time I got up it was calmer and full of stars! Used our cell while still in range
chatted with kids and found out I’m going to be a GRAMMY again Matt and Katt are having a cutie in Oct.
Day 2, N caught a good size 13)mahi .. yum (pic below) . Sailing along 8 knots or so fantastic winds still love it!
Day 3, dead squid all over the deck N thought it would make a good breakfast! (pic above) 5:30 pm we finally had to put
the engine on DARN. 1a.m. N yells get up AND auto pilot out again.. YUK bolt in quadrant of auto pilot drive arm
sheared off. Good news it has happened before AND we have a spare. Bad news I have to get under our bed and under
v berth bed where all parts are.. Oh well could be worse. Poor N did not get to bed til 2 or so.
Day 4, YEA sailing again by 7:30 a.m. plus saw 2 nice dolphin cruise by. Great wind all day we figured out how to extend
out whisker pole which really helped!
Day 5, dark night no stars, but did have a lg bird hang’in out with me til 7am just kept up flying next to the cockpit. I guess
he was fishing or could be dad again. I finally finished our entire inventory and organizing pics from way back in Cartegena
in Nov. night watches can be productive too. Water Water.. Darn hatch in forward cabin leaking and we forgot to take the
dorades off and cap them shoot sailing 101 and we forgot! Dolphins buzzing by again so not all bad!
Day 6 not much wind so we are motor sailing. 15)Lg red footed Booby landed on bow sprit, sat there picking away for
hrs . Poor guys tired himself out tucked his head in and spent the entire night there. Pollywogs to Shellbacks crossed the
equator by 8:30 and of course gave an offering to old king Neptune my rum even!
Day 7 Arrived in Galapagos San Cristobal. Booby with us til about 9am his friends joined him for a bit then they all took
off once we got close to his home I guess. Out in the distance we saw whales spouting nice entry into the Galapagos
Islands Id say. Still a few hrs out N says I would like to catch another good size mahi so out goes the line and really w/in
20 min N has a good size dolphin. Perfect he wanted to have Boree and Dream time over for dinner. Entering into a 17)
bay w/out charts is not fun. For some reason we did not have ANYTHING on Galapagos. No electronic chart either.. But
it all went well we circled around looking for a nice spot, ended up in back of the anchorage like usual
San Cristobal Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Bolivars son Bolivar came out in a water taxi to take us in to do paper work and
immigration with his father. We entered their home and sat and watched TV for at least 30 min also talking to Grace (wife)
humm sooo what now. Finally B walked in did some papers while we were offered melon and off we went to immigration.
B filled out all papers, took our passports and back to his house we went. We can stay 20 days which is fine with us we
were here 15 yrs ago on a live aboard and not sure this trip can live up to that one. Getting the final info I hear a pig
squealing Big time!! And B, son, comes in from the kitchen with splatters all over his chest and says I need a bigger
container for the blood (all in spanish) YIKES THEY were killing the poor thing as we listened…
Pablo chases us through the street, hey friend hey friend hey mr. we finally turn. He wants to sell his tour, we listen he says
$50 we say ok maybe 40 but we will check with others.
As we walk around we see tons of sea lions just like dogs or cats, just hangin at the park, on benches and on almost every
fishing boat.
OH sea lions are NOT so cute! 2:30 am N says OHHHH we have a guest I heard a sneeze! Crap Sam the Sea Lion was
just lounging in the COCKPIT!!! Seriously I was like get get get and shown the light on him, he slithered right over my
hatch to the deck and off.. Good I thought at least we had a chicken one. but yuk dirty stinky and black little hair, he could
have fallen in on my BED!!
So we tied a fender on the step, And they climb right over it!! Finally 4 fenders later and 1 hr at least they came on the
bottom step and then couldn't get up. SO WE THOUGHT! 5 am Sams DAD I think is on the deck in the back. I go up
yell and flash the like he is like "whatever"..NEIL come get him.. N comes up does the yaaaaaaa yaaaaaaa and stomps.
Mr sea lion give him a big HISSS and leaves. Well we saw all these boats with barbed wire around and even high up, I
though how cruel HUMMM Im thinking we may go the the hard ware store today. A few more nights with Sea lions in
the cock pit and we did finally go find a 21) fisherman and have him make us a net to put across the stern. It worked too
we got to sleep all night!
Boree tells us hey we met a guy who will give us the same tour you had for only 30 bucks and he will meet us at the bar
today. Cool ok we are sitting there and in walks Pablo!! Ah ha we deal with him and get it for 20 now to funny but hey
can’t blame him for trying.
TOUR
Dream Time, Boree and Attitude climbed into a truck (Michael, Claudia and me in the back) and off we went 1st stop the
big 22)old tortoises some 100yrs plus. Our guide showed us where they keep and protect all the young ones in cages until
they can make it on their own. 2nd stop the Volcano lake cerro Brujo. Climb up a path and we walked around the creator
beautiful view windmills and horses in the valley. Off to the23&24) marine iguana ,so prehistoric , they blend in with all the
lava rock and we could get pretty close to them no head bobbing or spitting of salt at us so we were fortunate. From there
we walked a bit to a really nice beach near the loboaria (lobo marina is sea lion in Spanish) a few baby sea lions there
playing with some kids really cute. One little guy jumped out of the water in front of me 25)smiled, waited for the pic and
took off ha. Nice lunch at Pablos ended our day
Cashed in at the market found some nice 26)shrimp..the meat hanging by it wasn’t appealing though.
Diesel: ok its $3.50 a gal if YOU go to the pump. If the fishermen buy it its about $1..humm so we heard through a water
taxi guy, who shall remain nameless, that we could buy it for $2.80. Cool!
He comes by 2 xs during the day and says tonight NO LIGHTS. .ok so we wait sure enough at 7:30 we hear an engine.
Next we hear rapido rapido and a few big cans are tossed on deck, we hear medio ahora ok and the water taxi is gone!
Well we got 48 gal that night so we were happy. The rest never did happen (we needed 36 more) we spotted police cars
at the dock and we did not talk to our “source” for a few days. Ok so we found him he didn’t get arrested but said cant
deliver more he is being watched. That’s ok it was an exciting delivery and we did get some!
Walking around San Cristobal there are lots of statues & art related to nature and conservation, the place really is sort of
pretty .One guy painted an 28)old boat and is sponsored by the world wildlife fund, he has made a gift shop our of it. We
even had a great 27)meal in the street, N had a HUGE pork sandwich and the rest of us(Vicky,Steve and Dorothy) went
for a chicken meal with plantains rice and empanadas! Yum and all about 3 bucks!!
Back on Attitude we found the netting kept the sea lions from climbing on deck but for some reason they love sleeping
back on the stern, this little guy jumped up sometime in the night and 29)slept on the netting!
Projects will be wrapped up, diesel topped off, more food packed in and we will wait til the 31st when our friend Mike
“dares” to do the 25 days to Gambier with us!
Our next adventures will be completely new for us.. Pacific Adventures!!!
Dec 09-May 10
DEC 09: The U.S tour went well K stopped in Athens Georgia to visit mom and sis, shopped and ate for a week. Next
stop Ft Lauderdale to hang with grandson and Michelle then off to Cincinnati. Meanwhile N hit NY to see his mom and
sis, stopped in Ft Lauderdale to FINALLY take care of jury duty, Yep they kept sending us notices and we finally got it
taken care of. We met up in Cincinnati had Christmas with all the kids and 1)grands. . Rented a big old house in Cincinnati
so all kids, grands, sister and hubby from Michigan,& nephew wife and kids from Indiana could all spend the night NY
Eve. We also invited a few friends and enjoyed a fabulous dinner. Great time!
Whistler B.C.Cananda for Jan 10 greatest ski conditions ever tons of snow and the place was awesome because they
were getting ready for the winter Olympics. N had a slight injury in his calf but he still squeezed his boot on ea. day. Ella 2
½ had her 1st experience with ski school. We lied and said she was 3, she loved it. Mr. (aka Jarrid) was rippin up the
slopes on his board this yr keeping up and even passing us old ones. Jarrid was also improving on his cooking skills he
made us a fabulous Chicken Curry. Lily decided to start walking, very cool since Ella took her 1st steps there too. Spinny
(daughter Shells new guy) or fresh meat we call the new skier, was Mr Camera so we have tons of pics this yr. All kids
and grands made it this yr except for Matt and Katt. We missed them.
FEB: 10After 2 days of delayed flights & no luggage we are ready to go home. But wait N gets a call from the doc; he has
been trying to get us for a month. We need to go back to Cincy so N can take care of some minor stuff. The doc says cant
wait to New Zealand in Nov. Crap. Phone calls, hunting luggage, flight change. Ok cool we watch super bowl with the
kids! Neil gets his stuff done, NOW lets go
FEB Shelter Bay Colon Panama: We are back a week late and told our friends Robert and Beate we would be late, they
were coming from Switzerland to go through the canal with us, “NO problem we will come help ya get ready.” OK??
Meantime N’s calf is still huge and he goes to a doc. He has a lg. hematoma, they drain it and give him a really cute
support hose to wear!
Work work work. We haul out to paint the bottom. Well as boat people know nothing is quick. We need to replace a 2)
cutlass bearing, which meant take the old one out. Ok ours wont come out after all kinds of ideas from EVERYONE who
walked by. Yep need to take the shaft out! All goes better then expected, its out, found a new one, & the boys got it back
together with a bit of 3)grease work. This is of course a few days of horrible work, climbing in engine compartment
working under the generator and then outside attempting to get the max prop all back together again onto the shaft. It
really was like humpty dumpty. It came out in tons of pieces! Next project the mast, the goose neck for the boom has
been a constant annoyance and needs to be attached on better AGAIN. We do plan to do it properly once in New
Zealand. So Robert and Neil work a lg bolt all the way through the mast, hum seems to be a good solution. Next, life raft
has not been checked in 7 yrs. AND I’m not about to go buzzing across the pacific until it is. Well R& N seem to think
they can do it themselves. Fine Beate and I go to do provisioning. We heard the life raft was up at the restaurant and
cruisers were intrigued by the site, no one else ever opens those suckers up they send them off! Ok so the boys know
what they are doing, turns out they got it all open replaced batteries, took out some old food and ALMOST got it all back
together. N did call around and found a place that would “squish” it back together. Meanwhile N is running with the cart
down the dock, so they can put the heavy Life raft in it to take to get squished, and rams the handle (metal pole) into his
ribs! No biggy he has to go to the doc tomorrow to check on his leg. Guess what, now N has stitches on his eye lid
(reason we went back to cincy) a sock on his leg and now cracked ribs!! YEP we are ready for the canal transit! The plan
was for R &B to go through the canal and sail to the Perlas islands with us. So far they have 4)sanded the prop, worked
on the cutlass bearing, painted the bottom, polished stainless, fixed the boom, repaired some lights in the cabin, taken apart
the life raft, lived on the hard in the boat yard and shleped supplies up and down the ladder to the boat. They did get to
enjoy the nature walks in Ft Sherman. Beate wanted to see a tree sloth and they did baby and all! We also saw a sm
panther while we took a morning off to take a walk; he just zipped across our path. He was small so we asked around and
the locals called it a panther. Luckily we did finally get to do the canal transit before they left.
FEB 26,10 TRANSITING THE PANAMA CANAL YEEEHAWW
The agent comes out to measure your boat, ya know size does matter, over 50 ft you pay more and we are over if you
count davits to bowsprit. So he is a nice guys asked if we can change anything to make it smaller, wellllll we could pull the
davits in(NOT REALLY) humm well 49.5 sounds good to me he says, Cool we got a nice guy. Next we hook up with
Tito “our agent” one of the most unorganized guys I have EVER met. We did manage to get all our tires and lines to go
through the canal! Paola a good friend from San Blas came into the city to line handle for us as we went through the canal.
ALL SET
Off we go to anchor in the flats and wait for our pilot/advisor is what they call them for our size boats, showed up right on
time. George jumped in the cockpit at 4:20 and said ok lets go. Wow.. not like the stories we had heard. Up anchor and
away we go. In front of 1st lock we tied up with another sailboat Kilkae .His advisor said he wants to be in the middle so
George said ok fine tie up on his port, our great crew has us tied up quickly. Ok next boat (Black Arrow) comes up and is
“trying “to tie up on the Starboard of Kilkae Well they didn’t have our crew is all I’m say’in.! Kilkae ended up losing a
cleat!! And not very happy about it either!
Going through the locks is amazing (pics below), you get in and are tossed a line with a monkey fist on it(knot) you have to
get that tied to your line so the guy on the wall can pull it back up and walk ya through the lock. The door closes and up
ya go.. way cool then when lock is full you can look over the wall and see the other side . Kilkae had middle so he was to
steer but we had our engine on and N did a good amount of steering as well. We made it to Gatun Lake, “record time”
George tells us , by 7 . Huge buoys are there to tie up to sometimes they stack them up. We were lucky and just had 2
boats on ours. Nice celebratory drink showers and bed.
So 6:20 am William shows up AGAIN right on time. NICE. Ok off we go, this time just the 2 boats we told William we
are not interested in rafting with the 3rd boat who did not have the right lines or crew. It seems Kilkae said the same..
Motoring slowly (4hrs) through the lake to the next lock we did spot one croc… just minding his own business. As we
entered the lock with the camera, N was on one phone I was on the other calling the family”hey look for us, do ya see us?’
We were observed by a lg tourist boat also waiting to go though. Kind of like the zoo animals I think they were fascinated
by us, they kept taking pictures of us too! Well just as we were finally moving through it started to pour rain, buckets! But
this did not deter our crew 9)Paola ,Robert and Beate were still out there holding onto their lines!.. Ha I had my turn
yesterday in the nice sun..
So if going through the Panama Canal is not enough excitement for us, A Tsunami was on its way!!! Chile had just had an
earthquake and the tsunami was predicted to head right to Panama..HUMMM can we just hang out here in the lock. So I
called my info woman (daughter Cari) and had her check on timing and routing of this thing. We also heard that all the
boats in the Pacific anchorage took off out to sea. Ok so we went through and just went to Flamingo marina, seemed like
all was calm and boats were back so what the heck. This place was NOT for our size boats let me tell ya. The marina
was full of HUGE sport fishing boats and a few 100 ft plus sailboats. Since we had the key to the gates we did walk
down to the 150ft sailboat and I snapped a pic while 10)Robert and Neil puffed their cigars acting like they were the
owners, well I think a few people up above “might” have believed it. Located on the point with lots of restaurants and
shops it was interesting to walk around. Robert and Beate were heading back home and we went back to Colon to go
through the canal with Boree as line handlers so it was a place to lv Attitude at least. Taxi to a bus, bus to Colon jumped
off at the shopping center and caught the Shelter Bay Marina bus back to Shelter Bay. It all worked out great, through the
canal twice!! Awesome
MARCH,10 La Playita, Amador TIME TO PREPARE:
Top off propane :( stove and grill) no problem we lucked out Steve and Vicky on True Companions had some left and
gave it to us.
Food: Met Roger (our driver for the day) at $8 an hr we got a lot done! 1st stop mega depot, on to pricemart, Riba smith,
a different Riba smith and even a stop at Abernathys (marine store). The car is PACKED but we were still on the hunt for
bottles of beer and 1 liter plastic soda. Seriously we went to 6 places some were distributors but they had nothing. One
last stop we really wanted an 11)Embera basket from the Darien province but never made it though so we stopped at the
YMCA market and bargained for one. They are beautiful tightly weaved and can take months to yrs to make. They even
hold water NO kidding.. Well Neil and I bargained with one poor guys and he finally said this is all I can do my wife will
beat me HA what a line but it worked. In the meantime Roger is thinking, if we buy the beer in a store its way to expensive
so he pulls up at a sm Chinese store and says wait here. Ok. he came out and said they will sell you 3 cases of what you
want for a good price! Cool we go in, kid brings out 3 cases, and we pack it in our bags. A woman is making pot stickers
in a fryer at the cash reg so why not? Humm beer and pot sticker ..Roger is a great one to know! Ok that was the fun part,
now unload the car, carry it down to the dinghy, load the dinghy (3 full trips) and THEN put the crap away! N vac
packed tons while I unpacked, marked and shoved into hiding places. I must have been a bit crotchety cuz N shoved a
cubalibre into my hand! Ok 12:30 am we can finish tomorrow.
Our poor old dinghy engine has been complaining and getting repaired quite often in the last few yrs so we bit it and bought
a new Yamaha 15, 2 strokes and sold the old one. The dinghy is a sight but as least I know we can get around. Ended
up buying a new starting Battery, But hey at least we were in a place to get one so its all good..
Big Party at Balboa Yacht Club put on by Latitude 38 getting us all pumped up for our South Pacific adventure. Our plan
was to lv in a few days, BUT Boree was lving the next day and kept on about why we don’t go then. Well we aren’t
ready; we haven’t checked out, we need important things like shrimp, vac bags, & tortillas. Ok so we gave into peer
pressure. We figured it’s better to travel with someone else for a 10 day sail so ok. Neil whips off to check out, and I meet
him back at Attitude about 6. N has to caulk around the life raft(remember we had to squish it down ,still a bit of a gap),
We had some work to do on the boom gooseneck at the mask, get all our lines out and ready, read up and plot our
course but we did it.
MARCH 7,10 off to Galapagos: Anchor up and heading out by 9:30, Dream Time and Boree way ahead of us. By 12:30
N has 12)3, 5 lb tunies, but while bleeding #2, #3 was snatched up unfortunately we didn’t see what took him. Sailing
along I spotted a lg fin N says it was probably a marlin. Bed at 8 getting rest for my watch. We had 35 knots and a nice
sail, got a bit rough on N’s watch but by the time I got up it was calmer and full of stars! Used our cell while still in range
chatted with kids and found out I’m going to be a GRAMMY again Matt and Katt are having a cutie in Oct.
Day 2, N caught a good size 13)mahi .. yum (pic below) . Sailing along 8 knots or so fantastic winds still love it!
Day 3, dead squid all over the deck N thought it would make a good breakfast! (pic above) 5:30 pm we finally had to put
the engine on DARN. 1a.m. N yells get up AND auto pilot out again.. YUK bolt in quadrant of auto pilot drive arm
sheared off. Good news it has happened before AND we have a spare. Bad news I have to get under our bed and under
v berth bed where all parts are.. Oh well could be worse. Poor N did not get to bed til 2 or so.
Day 4, YEA sailing again by 7:30 a.m. plus saw 2 nice dolphin cruise by. Great wind all day we figured out how to extend
out whisker pole which really helped!
Day 5, dark night no stars, but did have a lg bird hang’in out with me til 7am just kept up flying next to the cockpit. I guess
he was fishing or could be dad again. I finally finished our entire inventory and organizing pics from way back in Cartegena
in Nov. night watches can be productive too. Water Water.. Darn hatch in forward cabin leaking and we forgot to take the
dorades off and cap them shoot sailing 101 and we forgot! Dolphins buzzing by again so not all bad!
Day 6 not much wind so we are motor sailing. 15)Lg red footed Booby landed on bow sprit, sat there picking away for
hrs . Poor guys tired himself out tucked his head in and spent the entire night there. Pollywogs to Shellbacks crossed the
equator by 8:30 and of course gave an offering to old king Neptune my rum even!
Day 7 Arrived in Galapagos San Cristobal. Booby with us til about 9am his friends joined him for a bit then they all took
off once we got close to his home I guess. Out in the distance we saw whales spouting nice entry into the Galapagos
Islands Id say. Still a few hrs out N says I would like to catch another good size mahi so out goes the line and really w/in
20 min N has a good size dolphin. Perfect he wanted to have Boree and Dream time over for dinner. Entering into a 17)
bay w/out charts is not fun. For some reason we did not have ANYTHING on Galapagos. No electronic chart either.. But
it all went well we circled around looking for a nice spot, ended up in back of the anchorage like usual
San Cristobal Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Bolivars son Bolivar came out in a water taxi to take us in to do paper work and
immigration with his father. We entered their home and sat and watched TV for at least 30 min also talking to Grace (wife)
humm sooo what now. Finally B walked in did some papers while we were offered melon and off we went to immigration.
B filled out all papers, took our passports and back to his house we went. We can stay 20 days which is fine with us we
were here 15 yrs ago on a live aboard and not sure this trip can live up to that one. Getting the final info I hear a pig
squealing Big time!! And B, son, comes in from the kitchen with splatters all over his chest and says I need a bigger
container for the blood (all in spanish) YIKES THEY were killing the poor thing as we listened…
Pablo chases us through the street, hey friend hey friend hey mr. we finally turn. He wants to sell his tour, we listen he says
$50 we say ok maybe 40 but we will check with others.
As we walk around we see tons of sea lions just like dogs or cats, just hangin at the park, on benches and on almost every
fishing boat.
OH sea lions are NOT so cute! 2:30 am N says OHHHH we have a guest I heard a sneeze! Crap Sam the Sea Lion was
just lounging in the COCKPIT!!! Seriously I was like get get get and shown the light on him, he slithered right over my
hatch to the deck and off.. Good I thought at least we had a chicken one. but yuk dirty stinky and black little hair, he could
have fallen in on my BED!!
So we tied a fender on the step, And they climb right over it!! Finally 4 fenders later and 1 hr at least they came on the
bottom step and then couldn't get up. SO WE THOUGHT! 5 am Sams DAD I think is on the deck in the back. I go up
yell and flash the like he is like "whatever"..NEIL come get him.. N comes up does the yaaaaaaa yaaaaaaa and stomps.
Mr sea lion give him a big HISSS and leaves. Well we saw all these boats with barbed wire around and even high up, I
though how cruel HUMMM Im thinking we may go the the hard ware store today. A few more nights with Sea lions in
the cock pit and we did finally go find a 21) fisherman and have him make us a net to put across the stern. It worked too
we got to sleep all night!
Boree tells us hey we met a guy who will give us the same tour you had for only 30 bucks and he will meet us at the bar
today. Cool ok we are sitting there and in walks Pablo!! Ah ha we deal with him and get it for 20 now to funny but hey
can’t blame him for trying.
TOUR
Dream Time, Boree and Attitude climbed into a truck (Michael, Claudia and me in the back) and off we went 1st stop the
big 22)old tortoises some 100yrs plus. Our guide showed us where they keep and protect all the young ones in cages until
they can make it on their own. 2nd stop the Volcano lake cerro Brujo. Climb up a path and we walked around the creator
beautiful view windmills and horses in the valley. Off to the23&24) marine iguana ,so prehistoric , they blend in with all the
lava rock and we could get pretty close to them no head bobbing or spitting of salt at us so we were fortunate. From there
we walked a bit to a really nice beach near the loboaria (lobo marina is sea lion in Spanish) a few baby sea lions there
playing with some kids really cute. One little guy jumped out of the water in front of me 25)smiled, waited for the pic and
took off ha. Nice lunch at Pablos ended our day
Cashed in at the market found some nice 26)shrimp..the meat hanging by it wasn’t appealing though.
Diesel: ok its $3.50 a gal if YOU go to the pump. If the fishermen buy it its about $1..humm so we heard through a water
taxi guy, who shall remain nameless, that we could buy it for $2.80. Cool!
He comes by 2 xs during the day and says tonight NO LIGHTS. .ok so we wait sure enough at 7:30 we hear an engine.
Next we hear rapido rapido and a few big cans are tossed on deck, we hear medio ahora ok and the water taxi is gone!
Well we got 48 gal that night so we were happy. The rest never did happen (we needed 36 more) we spotted police cars
at the dock and we did not talk to our “source” for a few days. Ok so we found him he didn’t get arrested but said cant
deliver more he is being watched. That’s ok it was an exciting delivery and we did get some!
Walking around San Cristobal there are lots of statues & art related to nature and conservation, the place really is sort of
pretty .One guy painted an 28)old boat and is sponsored by the world wildlife fund, he has made a gift shop our of it. We
even had a great 27)meal in the street, N had a HUGE pork sandwich and the rest of us(Vicky,Steve and Dorothy) went
for a chicken meal with plantains rice and empanadas! Yum and all about 3 bucks!!
Back on Attitude we found the netting kept the sea lions from climbing on deck but for some reason they love sleeping
back on the stern, this little guy jumped up sometime in the night and 29)slept on the netting!
Projects will be wrapped up, diesel topped off, more food packed in and we will wait til the 31st when our friend Mike
“dares” to do the 25 days to Gambier with us!
Our next adventures will be completely new for us.. Pacific Adventures!!!
| WELCOME TO ATTITUDE Neil & Kathy's Sailing Adventures |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
Our friend Mike made it to Galapagos to join us in our Pacific Adventure, AND yes he knows us well and still
chose to risk it! We piled up a few more provisions & put up our new spinnaker (lots of lines that needed to
be placed). We even had a nice blue footed booby watching us for a bit
APRIL 2-10 We venture out of the harbor ready to take on the Sea! Neil has our watch list all set written out
an up at the nav station. We go over safety issues with Mike, ya know like here is your life jacket, man
overboard button, snack cabinet where the salty and sweet stuff is. Hey this is an important issue if you're on
watch at night! Fishing lines are out asap. Sure enough we are out about an hr and ZINGGGGGG a nice big
wahoo! 25 lbs. A few minutes later N snags a nice tuna, with an audience of 20 sea lions all with heads up just
watching as
N reels him in! Beautiful Tropic Bird flew by so it was a great beginning.
Day 2: autopilot stopped working but good news it was a pin that sheared off an arm and we KNEW how to
fix it AND had the part! We did have dolphin in the A.M. so not all bad. Neil occupied himself with monitoring
10 boats over the SSB radio. He was just checking in 2xs a day to a few boats but it soon turned into 10 and
all checked in with him so he ended up with a lg spead sheet with everyone's name and positions. Only thing
was they were all turning N to head for the Marqueses! Oh well it was fun for him and nice to hear everyones
catch or wind of the day!
Day 4: awesome!! 5 Pilot whales and 2 different kinds of dolphin,3 different times during the day. 3 Mahi and a
yellow fin. YUM
Squid and flying fish on deck, yum mike made us a fabulous breakfast 2 more sm mahi but after that we hit a
big drought. And seemed to lose morelures daily!
Day 5: wind gen died! 3 lost lures
Day 7: still sailing and loving our spinnaker 2000 miles to go.
One week celebrated with oatmeal cookies
(no rum we are underway 9 ) 3 more lost lures
Day 10 : Mike reeled in a BEAUTIFUL short billed spear fish,
40 lbs & no one got hurt not even mr fish! Poor Neil got to
replace the bilge pump
Day 11 : our gecko(Pacifico) is back I had not seen him for
awhile but he was hangin out at the helm.. I guess trying to find
out where he was heading, lost a big mahi but kept lure!
Day 14: boys saw a billfish following the lure, and we lost
something big on the hand line. YEP we have 3 lines out
ALWAYS
Day 15: live and learn AND speak up. Ok so we now have a
spinnaker it flys fantastic BUT we had agreed to ALWAYS Spinnaker
take it down at night.(You need to be on deck) And we are
flying great winds N wants to lv it up I want it down but don't
feel like arguing so I give my vote and shut up. WRONG thing to do. My watch it's like 10pm wind blows up
to gusts of 35 knots and raining, I'm yell' in for the boys and trying to hold her.. 25 min later spinnaker is down;
neither Mike nor naked N with his safety harness fell off the boat and no rips in our new
Spinnaker. If I wasn't so mad I would have been laughing at the boys!
Day 16: 2weeks, well all Im saying is a pic is worth a thousand words
"sorry Neil"to 20 STILL no fish thinking we are in the Twilight Zone
no fish no birds not even flying fish on deck for a week at least! Neil
baking bread 3rd time yum,
Mike constantly changing lures(even rigging up a flying fish) and we
are playing casino, card game I suck at! Good thing no $ is involved.
BUT we did see a beautiful full rainbow with its end in the water really
close to Attitude. I looked NO pot of gold darn.
YIPEE day 20 we see a booby bird so we know we are close to land.
ANCHORED in Mangareva, Iles Gambier, French Polynesia & Infini
came by with Bananas, an avocado, and a baguette!!
Heaven! food runs out in 20 days!! Fellow Traveler also came by to
say hi and give us some info.
LET THE PARTY START: popped the champagne, brought out the
caviar and cigars. I guess we had fun? Our dinner was caviar, bread
and brie, guacamole and chips and finished with popcorn! Champagne,
plum schnapps, white wine and red wine. I KNOW but we were very
hungry and so happy to be able to have a drink. All I can say is the
mess in the A.M.
Stats: our biggest day was 180 miles, and we only had to motor 48 hrs
out of out 20 days. Not bad, the trip was really much easier than I
thought. We had great weather no squall to speak of and good winds.
Someone was smiling on us for sure!
Iles Gambiers 5-10
Mangareva
1st off Baguettes, This is a French Island so there is a bakery I ate at least
one whole one a day!! Guess I need to keep up my yoga and Pilates
even if we are a rock'in . The town is really cute beautiful trees and nice
houses. This is not a poor island. The Anchorage is really pretty& we
saw some beautiful sunsets, but the water is really cold or at least to me.
No snorkeling in this bay and no fishing. We lived in the water for the
last few yrs so no spear fishing here due to ciguatera is really a bummer!
Nice hikes here though. Up to Mt Duff not really a hard hike but up hill
and on pine needles so a bit slippery, one point there is a rope to hang on.
I loved that part! We even found guavas on the trail.
Taku to Ramp Piko hike: no snorkeling we go for another hike.
There is a trail that cuts across the island so we take it, really pretty up
and down in the woods. Still strange the lack of animals or birds but the
walk was still nice.
End of trail we decide to take the rd back passing a few pearl farms,
4 hrs later we end up at the dinghy with bananas and some grapefruit.
Since Mangareva has a few Pearl farms there are a lot of beautiful black
and other color pearls for sale. Well I did need a new earring!!
With Infini,,Fellow Traveler,Soggy Paws & the crew of Carl Linne
(109 foot sailing yacht ) we had happy hr every night, making up for
our 20 days with out ha!
In Tahiti on Bastille Day there is a big celebration and the people of
Mangareva are practicing dance and music for it. Really fun to watch
about 10% of the population was involved! I can not figure out HOW
those girls move like they do, no matter what size, its amazing!
Taravai: 7 miles away we anchored in a nice bay with one home on each
side. We had heard of Eduard and Denise and that they have fresh
produce! yippee. They were really nice and with Mike and Neil's French
we were able to converse a bit, have a coffee and bring a pile of goods
back to Attitude. Very exciting, like I said before food and fresh stuff are
always a treat. Eggplant, papaya, hot peppers, coconut, sweet & white
potatoes, basil , dill AND lemons. We had not seen real lemons for years!
We did some snorkeling, in my 3 mil, awesome all kinds of new fish to
learn.
Most I had never seen before, unicorn and tons of different butterfly fish.
I did a kayak to the beach to shell hunt but nothing there!
Neil and I took the wind gen off so we could check it out. Not fun or
easy!
Moved around the corner to Onemea bay, boys snorkeled I hunted shells
NOTHING!
5-3-10 Back to Mangareva. So Mike can head home tomorrow..!.
Mothers day off to Tauna: finally some great shells,a nice beach and sun!
Next moved over to Tarauru-Roa off in our kayaks to the beach again
great shells I'm a happy camper again! Darn winds clocking around and
grib (weather) is telling us to go back to Mangareva. 5 days of high winds,
cold rain. Nice this is Polynesia? Neil even wore pants and we enclosed
the cockpit with all the plastic sides. In 7 yrs we have never used them.
We only ventured off the boat 1 time and that was to go to s/v Jenny for
pizza. All the rain did give us a brilliant sky in the eve and a few rainbows. So always something good!
Tuomotus Amanu
Anchor up at 11 off we go to Amanu. The plan was to stop in Taravai to pick up some fresh veg and fruits
from Denise and Eduard .. But once we got out into the pass we said forget it lets just go! Welllllll the dinghy
engine is still on the dinghy hummmm cant go like that so we just dropped anchor in the middle of the channel
(found a 30ft spot) took off all the dinghy straps lowered her took off the engine and put it on the mount Ok
now we can go.. Always something
Not so nice! 14 ft seas, high gusts then no wind very strange weather! And not fun! We did sail the 1st 3 days
but of course I ALWAYS got the rain storms. N would wake me at 1 am say OHHH beautiful night lots of
stars .By the time I got at the helm it was dark and windy.
Day 3: 2 Wahoo hit at the same time. Well after our Wahoo Galapagos to Gambier, that we ate 101 ways, we
passed on these and let the brothers go. But we did get a good size skip jack tuna
1 hr out from entrance its pouring rain and black over Amanu. Not good this pass is small and you need really
good light plus there is a good current so you have to just shoot in!
Well we must do something right once and awhile cuz the sun popped out and N just went for it. This kind of
entrance with big currents is all new for us but it worked out fine I even gave N a high 5 Ha!
Beautiful clear water anchorage. After six months N got to go spear fishing again no ciguatera here, and we did
eat a nice grouper and are still ok soooo guess its true. I went shell hunting for hrs. BOY are we happy now,
warm water, shells and fish! Not w/o boat projects of course. N had to go up the mast to so we could replace
our main halyard and then again to replace our topping lift that just wore through somehow! On to play again
we head to the pass!
Amanu is a 13 mile circle of reef (atoll) with one entrance 150ft wide. So the current flys in and out of the
entrance and it depends on time of day to which we it goes. "THE" place to drift (fly) in the water hanging on to
your dinghy,
Ok well you all know Neil loves the pucker factor Me?? not so much I'm happy with a twitch!
So we dinghy out the opening go out about 100 yards and jump in( or sucked in)and fly through. The big
reason to do this is to see sharks. Welllllll no disappointment there White tip, black tip reef sharks, nurse, grey
reef and silver tip sharks, plus a JUMBO barracuda guarding the entrance! Seriously a pucker adventure, some
of these guys were BIG and fat. At one point we saw six of them just hanging out, in my mind they were waiting
for me to turn my head, but I don't think that is true. All these guys are there feeding and looking for injured
fish, so I tried not to look like one. Finally when I watched the 6 and 1 started to come up to us. I'm like ok I
have seen enough for now and flopped into the dinghy BUT got a cramp in my calf, so I bet I did look like an
injured fish YIKES
We did this 4 times ea time enjoying the several Barracuda, unicorn fish (really cool they have a horn) and lots
of sharks. I'm guessing we will do it again, since we are still here with all appendages
Beach party big boat style: We moved to the E side of the Atoll due to wind changes. Found a great spot,
beach, nice clear water and lots of coral heads for N to hunt on. Jenny and MerryMaid, a gorgeous 110 ft gaff
-rigged sloop from 1903, were anchored there also. Justin (capt) buzzed by in the big high power dinghy and
invites us to shore for a cook out. They bought some fish from a local and the"crew" would be setting up at 4.
NICE. Coral heads all had light sticks on them so we could see to get in (its dark at 5 here) table and fire were
built and ready. There is a crew of 7 all really nice fun people, with great entertainment skills! We had crab
races, boys dug a sm pit and chose their opponents carefully not just by the pretty shell ha! Laura the steward
provided us with fire dancing, balls on lines she swings around. We even had eel hunters, a few of the boys
went into the shallows where tons of eels slither around day and night BUT at night they get a bit upset when
big old feet are on them!
Neil did get a few a few groupers here and we had Jenny over for dinner, but time to move on
MAKEMO 30 hrs
10ft waves & mixed seas for the 1st 5 hrs YUK. Slowly calmed down and we had 20-25 knots for a great sail,
of course I did have my rain shower in the night.
Again we had to time the entry; these atolls are a bit tricky! But we only had 2 or 3 knots with us so all was ok.
Anchored just as we came in near "town" and surprise our wireless worked. Well guess what I did all
night.Since it was a Sunday we waited to Mon to go walk around. Huge cement dock and water soooo clear
you could see bottom with 30 feet. To our great surprise we found a Boulangerie and a lg grocery store with
PRODUCE! We were way too excited and I think the locals were a bit taken back by our enthusiasm.
Seriously we had NO produce even our cabbage was gone we were down to OLD garlic and OLD onions.
Ok back to Attitude, chomping on a fresh baguette, to head west a bit (15 miles) and find our "perfect"
anchorage.
Well we were a bit late for great sun so I'm (K) up on the bow looking for coral heads. Really this place is like
a nestles tollhouse cookie, chips up and scattered EVERYWHERE! Its late afternoon now, I cant see A
THING , we are right up on 2 coral heads so I'm yelling at N to stay right where he is to get through and
wouldn't ya know it ZINGGGGGGGG. We got a f'in fish but oh no ZINGGGGG on the other line! Ok Neil is
thrilled throws his belt on starts the engine (we had been sailing) and leaves the helm!! Telling me make sure we
are ok. WHAT I'm up here????
Well one fish decided he was out of here & got off the other was a nice size black skipjack. WHEW one fish
dinner and no pinball'in off coral heads.
Beautiful anchorage with a long finger reef with gave us great protection. Neil did well on his hunting here
grouper, unicorn fish and snapper. The snorkeling was awesome I saw a huge octopus and watched him for
awhile and my dumb camera stopped working! The entire time we are in the water the black tip reef sharks are
checking us out! We also enjoyed some shelling on the gorgeous sandy
beaches.Walking on the beach we found an old cemetery and the graves had beer bottles cemented in them
and some had strands of cowrie shells on them. After a long day of exploring N hit the hay and I sat up at the
table to read when all of a sudden PLOP... Our gecko Pacifico landed on the table and just sat there staring at
N's watch.. guess he just wanted to know the time :
Stayed there a few days and off to explore some more, heading west again we caught a blue fin Trevally, w/o
the coral head drama this time. Alright, cerviche for dinner. Well you know N one is not enough so as soon as
we anchored he was in the dinghy heading for the coral heads with his spear gun & came back with a few more
grouper, See I gotta keep him he feeds me!
We eased our way west a few more miles to check out the passage we will use to leave Makemo. Again
gorgeous water and beach. So we head towards pass with the dinghy to check things out. No problem, just
need to check tides & current. We stopped at a sm bay that actually went through to the outer reef & did some
shell hunting in the shallows. Wow we counted 10 sharks just cruising along with the water so clear it was easy
to see them even before there black tips were out of the water. Two of them were really sm babies.
AWESOME!
Time is flying we need to leave our paradise and head for Papeete Tahiti, Mr(grandson) will fly in on the 12th
for his annual month on Attitude :. All should be very exciting, huge weekend Puddle Jumpers party & rally to
Moorea, and we hear Bastille Day is really something in Tahiti. So With a freezer full of fish and bildges full of
shells we will move on.
Next adventure Tahiti to New Zealand !!
