San Andres, Colombia

We opted for a trip to Isla San Andres before we headed to the Corn Islands. San Andres is a Colombian territory along with Isla Providencia and several surrounding cays (read: land and coral in the middle of nowhere that will eat your boat if you don’t pay attention!) San Andres was a bit tough for us to get to because the winds from Bocas del Toro are predominantly north and that is the way we needed to go. Once again, our sailboat made the trip as mostly a motorsailer. The trip was 193 miles offshore from Panama and we made it in about 50 hours and sailed the last 10 with no motors. We were immediately shocked by the beauty of this place. The main town is sheltered behind a several mile long coral reef and the bottom is white sand. This gives the water that tropical turquoise look and feel that we have been searching for all our lives (or at least for the last year and a half). We have explored the entire island and found a rather unique place. There are lots of tourists here, but they are all from mainland Colombia and it has been described as the Hawaii of Colombia. It is very upper class, but the feel is still very local. There are a few high rise hotels and some all inclusive resorts. The people are Colombian, but with a Jamaican sort of flair and the people are a mix of Latin and caribbean islander. Spanish is the main language with a surprising number of locals who speak English as a first language. The town itself has an incredible number of supplies and services considering the distance from the mainland. You will find all manner of American brands and stores along with a fantastic white sand beaches and the clearest water we have seen. I can see the bottom in 50 feet. For you potential tourists, there is snorkeling, diving, glass bottom boats, swimming with the mantas, and weather to match. We have not had a drop of rain during the day and full sun with a trade wind to keep the temperature just right. We have broken the record for the cheapest meal out in a local restaurant of which there are plenty. The meal was rice, beans, salad, chicken and soup with a definite local flavor. We left with full bellies and a bill for $8.50. I have informed Brady that we can eat out for two meals a day for less than our grocery bill. I do think we would pack on a few pounds on this diet :) After a week of this torture in paradise, we decided to head for Providencia, 55 miles to the north. We left after dinner with the hopes of arriving the next morning and were 8 miles into a perfect sail when a 15 foot seam on the mainsail decided to let go (read: the sail ripped in half). I did not want to motor the whole way, so I guess it was back to paradise. The next morning, I inquired about a local upholstery shop to help us out and was quickly distracted by an American boat needing help with getting their boat into the dock in 20 knots of wind. When we were finished, I was met by a local who was here to fix our sail. I was totally taken by surprise that not only did the (very local) marina know someone who could help, but they called and he came right away. I removed the sail and sent it off with Miguel, who fixed it the same day and for only $100. This place has met our definition of the perfect place: Super nice people, Beautiful scenery, Great climate, and Cheap cost of living. If there were a downside, it would be lots of traffic (cars, motorcycles, and golf carts) although it is still nothing like the U.S. (there are still no stoplights!). There is an international airport and I think this place will continue to grow as more people discover it. Troy

BOCAS DEL TORO!

Bocas del Toro is an absolute breath of fresh air. We had to fight a headwind and an incredible current to get here, but we are here at last. It is 133 miles from Colon to Bocas and it took us 72 hours to make the trip with good wind! We moved at a snails pace since we had to tack against the wind and fight the current the whole way. We did stop at an island called Escuda de Veraguas for some rest after the first 48 hours, but got wind and waves directly into the anchorage and did not sleep much. We caught our first Atlantic fish (36” wahoo) and had Brady’s house special sushi the first night and fish tacos the next. We entered Bocas del toro (on one engine again...tracked it down to a broken clamp on a fuel line later after changing both filters and spending 3 hours bleeding the fuel system-probably could have used some stitches on a cut finger too). The first thing we noticed was that everything is on the water-literally. Bocas del Toro is situated on an island and has hotels, restaurants, bars, stores and houses built on pilings or stilts on three sides. All of these places have docks that are available to customers and basically it is a boaters paradise. There are surf and dive shops (both with excursions), resorts, hostels and even a firehouse with a dock on the waterfront. The town itself is about 8 blocks long and three blocks wide with an airstrip and ferry service to the mainland. We hope that any of you adventurous souls will put this on your list of places to see. The prices run the gamut from U.S. pricing at the nicest places to the local places where beer is still a buck and we can feed the family for $15. We have visited the Zapatilla cays (snorkeling photos attached), Starfish beach, and several other locales. We entered the boat in a lighted boat parade and won some really cool stuff and are soaking it up until we head for the Corn islands in the next few weeks. Ta ta,
El Capitan

Crossing to the Caribbean

Since we last wrote, my sister Stacy has come and gone after being indoctrinated into our way of life in a big way. When she arrived, the weather had not been perfect for several days and the wind was blowing at 25-28 knots. We had plans to go to the Perlas Islands and she opted to just get it out of the way. The seas were 8 feet in spots, but we averaged 7.5 knots and made the trip in five hours. Sloppy for sure, but wow was it fast! When we arrived, I managed to run over one of our fishing lines and fouled our starboard propeller. With one engine, we were unable to cross a patch of water with a lot of cross current and after re-hoisting the sails had to sail into the anchorage. I spent an hour under the boat cutting away the lines and then we were off to explore the rest of the Perlas in the coming days. All was well until the last three days of her trip when we lost a belt on the starboard engine. I had used our last spare on the port engine before we left, but all is well on a catamaran with two engines right? The new belt on the port engine gave out two hours later and we were left with sails alone. Fortunately, the wind held out and we sailed into the anchorage on Isla del Rey. We sailed to our last stop and then decided to leave with the wind back to Panama City. I had an improper sized belt from another boat on one engine just in case. 15 hours later, after two rain squalls, reefing (reducing) the sails twice, and tacking (changing direction) six times, we arrived back in the anchorage to drop off my sister and troubleshoot my latest engine problem. With everything fixed, and all things considered , the decision was made to cross the Canal into the Caribbean.
It has been a bit of an inauspicious start to our little change of plans. On the day of our scheduled crossing, we had three guests onboard to line handle and picked up two canal advisors at 0545. We were on our way until, for the first time in 20 years, the Panama Canal was closed to ALL traffic for bad weather considerations. It had been raining for several days and all of the spillways were at full open. Debris was littering Gatun Lake and it was determined that navigation would be hazardous. We were placed on the schedule again three days later. Brady went back to the store for fresh food and we hoped this would be the end of it. I called the scheduler to confirm our time and found that we were delayed again for one day. The day finally came and we up-locked into Gatun Lake without incident. We spent the night on the lake with all guests aboard and down-locked the following afternoon in lots of rain. We were finally into El Caribe!...and were met by 30 knots of wind and terrible conditions (inside the breakwater!). The anchorage in front of Club Nautico is large enough for 4-5 boats and we were the 10th to arrive. Not ideal, but the anchor was down and it was time for much needed sleep. This could be the end of our little story, but OH NO. The next night in 30 knots of wind and 3 foot waves entering the anchorage, our anchor slipped for the first time. We were both asleep and if not for hitting the cruise ship channel marker, would have drifted on past leaving about 100 yards for the anchor to re-catch...or not before hitting a container ship or the rocks. We almost needed to rename the boat Ran-aground-parents. The marker did not damage the boat and we were able to motor our anchor free (it did get caught briefly on the buoy). We re-anchored and you can imagine how well I slept for the rest of the night. We had intended to wait for our friend to cross the Canal a few days later, but could not take Colon (pronounce it without the spanish accent and you may BEGIN to get a feel for how nice this place is). Most of the town was built during the canal construction around the early 1900’s and it looks like not much has been touched since. The town looks like the most dangerous place I have been ever. Everyone we have spoken with advised us to take a cab EVERYWHERE or risk being robbed. So, despite visits from cruise ships (?????) you can all safely remove Colon from your list of must see places. We are off to Bocas del Toro for X-mas and I hope to keep the blog updates coming with lots of new stuff. Ta-Ta for now,
El Capitan

CHANGE OF PLANS

Since last we wrote we have changed our plans and are now going through the canal. This winter will be spent cruising the beautiful San Blas islands. Every cruiser we have spoken to has said that the San Blas islands are one of their favorite places in the world, which leaves us with great anticipation for our next season of travel. We are planning on crossing the canal in 1-2 weeks and should have plenty of details to start blogging again (hopefully nothing too dramatic). We are getting excited to start moving and seeing something besides Panama City's skyline, not that it isn't wonderful. We have really enjoyed Panama City and have met some amazing people, but are overdue on a departure. For all those who have dreams of traveling the caribbean by sail boat, you are always welcome to meet up with us. We love having visitors. Wish us luck on going through the canal. Brady

SORRY!

I know it has been a long time since our last entry, but I have excuses, really. OK, not really. The truth is that Panama is not a very big country and we have already seen the majority of what it has to offer us on the pacific side. My sister, Stacy, is coming for a visit on the 3rd of November (WOO HOO!) and we are seriously getting the itch to move on. The reason for the layover is that we can only visit parts of Colombia, which will not take long, and Ecuador does not have much to offer either. From there, crossing the Pacific should happen around February. This is when all of the Pacific Puddle Jumpers set sail from Mexico, Panama and Ecuador for the islands of the south pacific. The cyclone season in that region is from October to March and you shouldn’t arrive too soon before March unless you like hurricanes...Since we last posted, there have been a plethora of mechanical problems and I am learning to fix most of them myself. A brief re-cap: replaced headsail bearing, rebuilt fresh water pump (port side), replaced upper sail-drive shaft bearing (starboard), portable generator fell into the ocean, while running (still working on that one), replaced faulty wiring on bilge pump (port), repaired hole in fresh water line, re-plumbed refrigerator cooling line from salt to fresh water. So you can see that I have at least been busy.
Fortunately, Panama is a good place to find supplies. Brady has been back to the U.S. to visit her mom, we have re-visited the Perlas Islands (three times), and will probably head back again with my sister. Hopefully, we have come to the end of our boat project list (wishful thinking) and will be heading south before too long. Meantime, we are exploring the city one little bit at a time. Apparently, Panama has a family day at the...horse track. Wouldn’t want to wait too long to expose the children to the wonders of gambling at the track, so of course, we went. The kids enjoyed seeing all the horses and Dad gave a good lesson on why you shouldn’t bet the horses by losing every time I did. Finally, Halloween was an altogether different experience. One pirate captain, one pixie princess, two fairies, and mother nature set off in a dinghy to trick-or-treat through the anchorage. Surprisingly, they got a pretty good haul before hitting the shore. From there it was off to our friends neighborhood for some real candy action. About one in 10 houses was decorated to the nines and that is the candy signal here in Panama. We walked around for about an hour and saw four other kids motivated enough to trick-or-treat. The rest just followed behind us asking for our candy...The concept hasn’t quite caught on fully, but it was a great time. The final stop was the Multiplaza mall, but it was near closing and most of the stores were out of candy. One McDonald’s dinner for the me and the kiddos and another Halloween is over. Until next time...Ciao! Troy

Panama Canal!

Well, so much has happened since our last post. After my dad left, we jumped headlong into some overdue boat projects. When returning from the Perlas, our roller furling headsail became jammed several times when we needed to bring it in and our single sideband radio was not transmitting. After several trips into town, we located most of the parts and service we needed and stopped at a local firehouse along the way. I met Jose Rodriguez of the Panama City Fire Department and traded several DFD shirts for a Panama City Fire hat and shirt. We became instant amigos and have since had dinner at his place and had him out to the boat for a visit as well. We were planning to take him and his family over to Isla Taboga for a day trip when Brady, the kids and I were offered a trip through the Panama Canal if we served as line handlers in the locks. The boat was a beautiful 65' steel ketch called "White Falcon". Andreas, the captain, needed one more set of hands, so I offered it up to our new friend Jose, who was thrilled at the opportunity to see his country's beautiful canal by boat. We started the trip at 0600 and headed into the first, of two, Miraflores Locks around 9. We held the boat in the middle of the chambers with four lines and could feel the rush of water lifting us from below. After going through the locks, we crossed Miraflores Lake to the final up lock. The Pedro Miguel Locks were the only thing separating us from Gatun Lake and our brief trip to the Caribbean. We traversed 30 miles or so of the freshwater lake and arrived at the 3 Gatun "down locks" around 3 P.M. The story gets a bit interesting at this point. Every sailboat that goes through the canal has an "advisor", or canal employee, on board. Ours failed to mention a few important details on how to tie up alongside a tug boat. We were joined in the locks by a giant container ship behind us and a tug boat next to us. Usually, this is much easier because you only need to manage lines on one side. In our case, we got the bow line to the tug, but could not get the stern line attached before the White Falcon drifted helplessly sideways with no steerage and a lot of cussing. We managed to get the boat into position backwards in the lock and secure for the trip down. A we were lowered, we were informed that the boat still had to turn around before moving into the next chamber. This was also a bit tricky since sailboats do not steer well until they have forward motion and most do not steer at all in reverse. After pushing off the bow and drifting sideways through the locks for a bit, the captain did get the boat turned around and we were once again secured to the tug boat. We opted to leave the lines attached at this point and let the tugboat drag us alongside into the final chamber. We were finally through and without a scratch, despite the small mishap. What lay ahead-the sunny skies and crystal clear water of el caribe? Nope, we never got to the other side of the giant breakwater and headed straight for the Shelter Bay Marina in lots of rain. From here, we got a glimpse of post U.S. control of the Panama Canal and the consequences of our withdrawal on the local community. As sometimes happens when a major military base is removed, the local economy struggles and Colon, Panama is a prime example of this. We were always told that Colon is dangerous, but I did not realize that when the U.S. military base was closed, there was a political power play in Panama City that basically decided to let Colon go, so to speak. What we found was a lawless, grungy and rather scary place. It was a $20 ride from the marina to the city and we were told to pay very inconspicuously to avoid being seen with any money, cameras, phones, anything basically. I asked why and the reply was that if you are seen with any money, there will be an armed robbery. That being said, we did not stick around to see any more of the city and took the direct express bus back to Panama City. The experience was a grand one and today I fixed the headsail, installed a new bowlight, and reattached the radio tuner behind the girls bathroom wall. Hopefully, we are headed to the Perlas in the next few days for some clean water in the islands, snorkeling and R&R. Ta-Ta for now,

Los Vagabundos Medinas

WOW!

Where do I begin on this one? Panama is absolutely fabulous by boat. I am trying to picture how we would vacation here by land and I think it would be a bit difficult if we were expecting a resort experience. I have yet to see a large resort complex and love this place for it. My dad and sister just left after a two week visit and we treated them to all manner of local experiences. After a $.25 pp bus ride toward the city proper, we walked to Casco Viejo. This is an area of recently refurbished, but very old historical buildings including churches, houses, businesses and a theater. After that, it was off to a local fonda (restaurant) which set us back all of $17 for the seven of us including drinks. One torrential downpour and another bus ride and we were back to the boat. We opted to take our first sail the next day and ended up motoring over to Isla Taboga in 26 knots of wind and driving rain...no fun at all really. From there it was off to Las Islas de Las Perlas with our friend Greg, who sailed over on his boat Sweet Dreams. Only 35 or so miles from Panama City are about 200 islands that boast beautiful beaches, clean water and very local villages. Isla Contadora is a weekend retreat for wealthy panamanians and has a nice calm anchorage. The town has a few small stores and not much else. We introduced my sister to snorkeling, which was an instant hit. After this, we hopped around several other islands looking for towns and snorkeling spots. The next town was really a few houses with nothing else. Brady and I tried to strike up a conversation with little luck, but saw some local women shredding coconut for "coco rice". We headed back to the boat and a few hours later were visited by two young boys offering a container of coco rice for us to try. I donated some gas for their return trip and Brady gave a necklace as a gift for their mother. The hospitality and graciousness of these folks is impressing me daily. Our best stop by far was Isla Pedro Gonzales. We met another local kid on the beach who seemed to be enthralled with the gringo visitors. It turns out his mother was killed in a fiery bus crash, that left him scarred as well. With our new 15hp outboard, I towed our kids, my sister, Greg, and our new friend Juan David behind the dinghy on both the boogie and surfboard. I think we may have made not just Juan David's day, but possibly his life up to that point. He may still be smiling. In return, he rounded up a 25 lb. tuna as a gift and offered to show us where to dive for fresh lobster. Greg and I jumped at that opportunity and found the best snorkeling experience of our trip.

Around the Northeastern point of the island, we snorkeled in about 25 feet of water and saw thousands of fish, a beautiful starfish, manta rays, 5 sharks (four bottom feeding nurse sharks and a white tipped reef shark), and lobster. If that wasn't enough, we saw a whale about 100 yards away playing in a pile of floating trash of all things. We coasted up a little closer and killed the motor to watch. I suggested that we get in the water to get a better look, but Greg was not to savvy on that plan so I went solo. The next thing I heard was, "Troy, it's getting pretty close!". Out of the deep blue about 25 feet in front of me emerged a giant humpback whale headed in our direction. My bravery gave way as well and I made haste back into the dinghy. The whale headed away when Greg fired up the motor and we hurried back to get my dad and the girls for another round of snorkeling. Two weeks flew by and we had to get back to the city, but we all visited the Miraflores Locks Museum to learn about the canal and watch a ship head through the locks toward the Atlantic. One cruiser pizza night later and my dad and sis were off again to Colorado. Back to normal for us as well with laundry, grocery shopping, and boat projects to be done although we treated ourselves to a grand mall experience complete with Taco Bell and a movie before resuming school for the ladies. Oh, and Brady needs feedback on the blog. Think of sad Brady face and post a comment or two please :) Until next time...Troy