The Galapagos!!

It has been fantastic here, there are sea lions (not seals apparently but I personally don't know the difference) that swim around your boat and with you. Although if you get too close on land they bark at you and apparently that means they're getting ready for a bite. It's neat to see families swimming at the beach with sea lions all around swimming and hanging out. And of course you can hear them all the time, the little babies sound like sheep and make a "baa" noise. Alex also got to swim with some turtles, no pics because it's really hard to catch them on camera. We should get an underwater one for next time. There are lots of crabs, and pelicans and boobies of course. Alex saw the famed blue footed boobie, but I didn't get that close. And we finally saw some tortoises!! We went on a little tour and saw the only fresh water lake in all the islands and the Galapaguera where they raise the baby tortoises to ensure their survival. They collect the eggs and hatch them in incubators and then raise the babies in cages unfortunately. The cages are necessary since the wee babies get eaten by dogs, cats, and rats. All animals that were introduced to the Galapagos by the first settlers.

Transit from Panama to Galapagos

Whoa! So it's been awhile since I last wrote....
The problem with Panama city is that it's like a black hole, you get sucked into endless provisioning for the big crossing of the ocean. So you spend weeks shopping shopping shopping and in most other cases waiting for parts for the boat. You see, getting to Galapagos (~1000miles from mainland) or Marquesas (~4000miles from mainland) and finding out then that you need a boat part or to fix something will cost many more dollars providing you even make it there in the first place. For us we were waiting on autopilot parts. The autopilot is a very important piece of equipment for sanity's sake, as it's not realistic to be at the helm constantly--especially when there's only two people to share 24hours and then repeat until you reach your destination however many days later. It took nine to get to Galapagos, and we were expecting 10 or more. For the Marquesas from here, it will be around 30 days. See? Not realistic to be at the helm all that time.
Anyhoo, blogging about provisioning is as exciting as it sounds, hence no blog for a month while we sorted ourselves out in Panama. And of course no blog during the transit since we aren't one of them fancy boats that has internet capability.
The passage here was relatively non-eventful, I'm getting better at staying awake my entire 4 hour shift, though I still have to pop a few gravol for the the first few days (ok, so pretty much the entire time) which doesn't provide wakefulness. At least not for me. Although in the beginning gravol really tripped me out and I had a conversation with the autopilot once. Yes, I did. No I don't remember what we discussed, but I had a pretty good chuckle when I came to. I think I was in one of those quasi-wake/sleep moments. Let's not talk about this again.
The first two days we had really good wind, I guess 20 knots but it was behind us, and though there were irritatingly large waves, we were going with them and this makes all the difference. And that horrid current that was against us as we approached Panama city was with us on the way out and it's hard to complain when you're averaging 6-7knots relatively comfortably in the right direction. The next couple of days were pretty calm, light breeze but since it was on our nose we decided to motor through it. I figure that was the infamous ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone--the region where the northeasterly and southeasterly tradewinds converge near the equator) that is known for no wind and the doldrums. However, it also is known for some nasty squalls with lightning and the like, so I spent my time watching the clouds and distant lightning and hoping not to get hit. It worked.
Then we were in winds that were so consistent that they should have been the southeast tradewinds but they were coming from the southwest, which was nearly on our nose and we were traveling upwind again. Upwind is likely the most uncomfortable and we were on a 20-30 degree angle for five days. But the wind was consistent and like I said it only took us 9 days. When you cross the equator you are suppose to honour King Neptune by pouring him a shot of the best alcohol on board and that we did, he got the 12 year old scotch.
We haven't seen much of the island(s) yet, so I will blog about them in a few days after we've had a chance to explore......
Photos: Blue beaked boobie that hung out with us for a day and night, yep he slept there with his beak under his wing--don't know how he hung on, Alex went up to him and pet him too; kicker rock off of Isla San Cristobal, this was our first glimpse of the Galapagos; seal munching on a fish right beside our boat; entering Wreck Bay at Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos.

Transiting the Panama Canal

Alex and I have been fortunate enough to crew on a boat that was transiting the canal twice now. The first was on “Flina” with Captain Flo—a professional snowboarded taking the season off--and Nina, his lovely girlfriend. We also had team Greg and Christine on our side as they were visiting at the time, and all six of us made a great group if I do say so myself. We left from the Caribbean side on Flo and Nina’s 35’ catamaran and met up with our adviser Roy before entering the canal. We rafted up to a powerboat that was already rafted up to another sailboat, this one larger ~42 feet. The three vessels made the canal transit in this buddy system, separating at the lake for our overnight stay. The lake has crocodiles apparently, but that didn’t stop our motley crew (except myself ) from diving in. In my defense, I learned in Australia where there are many crocs as everyone should know, that they always go for the smallest swimmer. Well, that would have been me, but of course I was too clever for the crocs and didn’t jump in—this time.
We got our new adviser, Caesar, the next morning and carried on toward the next locks. Each boat gets an adviser to guide you through the canal, ie. make sure you stay in between the appropriate buoys and raft up with other vessels of their choice safely. There are two sets of locks; three locks each. The first set is close to the Caribbean side just before Gatun Lake (called Gatun Locks) and the second set is just before leaving the canal to the Pacific side. The second set is broken up a bit with the first lock set apart from the last two that are on the other side of Mira Flores Lake (called Mira Flores Locks) representing the last step before the Pacific Ocean. Got it? Good. Anyhoo, our job on the boat was to be linehandlers which each boat is required to have four--one for each line for each “corner” of the boat. These lines position the boat and keep the boat from hitting the walls of the canal. For the big tankers and cruise ships they have little railway cars called “mules” to do this job, since a human doesn’t stand a chance of stopping a tanker by pulling on the line. Now as I mentioned we’d tied up to a neighbour and were on the outside so only needed two linehandlers (the powerboat in the middle didn’t require any) and naturally the other two linehandlers were on the second outside boat. So that means that Alex and Greg got to do the hard work. Suckers.
On our second time around—from the Pacific to the Caribbean—we were linehandlers on a Cal 46’ sailboat named "Blew Moon". The captain was Captain Houston, a retired nuclear submarine captain, and his lovely wife Gail (I'm mentioning professions to indicate the broad spectrum of cruisers out there). We rafted up to our (and their) friend Bob’s exact same Cal 46’. Unfortunately there were some rogue waves that really jolted both boats while tied up and snapped Bob’s stanchion and snapped Houston’s lifeline (fancy words for post and railing respectively). Other than that we had a fantastic journey (again Alex did all the work) and made wonderful new friends as there were six people on each boat—all wonderful individuals. This time around I did swim in Gatun Lake at our overnight stop, the prospect of being completely submerge in fresh water too compelling to resist. And I swam in the Caribbean the next morning after finishing our transit. It was awesome.
I just want to say that the people Alex and I have met by “linehandling”--or in my case just sitting around—have been really amazing and I’m so stoked to have met them and heard their stories!
Photos: three boats rafted up behind us--the one in the center is made entirely of carbon fiber!, Alex and I on Flina in front of a lock, don't look now but there's something behind you...., Alex and Morty while we were on Blew Moon, the little pilot boat dropping off our adviser (you generally don't stop, they catch up to you, this is the same for the big tankers, pretty impressive to see)

Panama

Panama is a beautiful country. We were welcomed by a group of ~20 dolphins after we crossed into waters off the Panama coast. They hung out swimming and playing with the bow of the boat. Lovely animals. We headed for Jicaron which is an unihabited island off of Isla de Coiba. Isla de Coiba either presently has or used to have a penal colony on it. My guide books say they intended to shut it down in 1995 but that it has been delayed and the last Lonely Planet said it was still open. Our cruiser’s guidebook advised us not to pick up anyone floating around on a raft should we happen upon such a sight. Thankfully the water between Coiba and Jicaron has a very strong current, Alex couldn’t even swim to the front of the boat from the back, so finding escapees wasn’t really our concern. On Jicaron we had our own private beaches, black volcanic sand and white coral sand mixed together and sometimes separate. It was fabulous exploring these beaches crawling with hermit crabs, ours the only footprints. We finally heard howler monkeys, but have yet to see any. Saw some monkey tracks on the beach as well as iguana tracks-- the iguana’s were larger. We then sailed down the coast to the gulf of Panama and we’d always been warned about Punta Mala (Bad Point) due to the strong winds that hang around the point. There had been strong wind warnings (we finally have our SSB radio working thank goodness) so we’d tuck in every night into a nearby anchorage as we made our way down. We met up with some other cruiser friends and they informed us it had been blowing like stink for the past three days so we chose wisely. When we finally got to Punta Mala, it was fine, and we happily sailed on our way. Later that night however, while well into the gulf of Panama we were hit with a 2.5-3 knot current against us, and 3-5 foot waves barely spaced apart. The result of these conditions was us bobbing up and down and only managing an average of 1 knot forward with the sail raised and the motor running. We made 10 miles in 12 hours. We finally had to head out away from our destination to average 2.5 knots so we could at least make some headway. Eventually we got to 3 knots and then eventually up to 4 and heading in the right direction. Alex doesn’t ever want to talk about that leg of the trip again, so don’t ask him! Getting into the anchorage here by the canal was also pretty stressful, lots of tankers to watch out for and at night it’s hard to distinguish different lights from landmarks, land and boats. Poor Alex almost got run down by a tanker that had been stationary and then suddenly decided to move right towards us. But after all that we actually made it!

Photos: Alex getting a coconut, Alex cutting a fishing line off a boobie's leg, a grasshopper on my toe, private beaches #1 and #2

Dorado! Or the story of lucky Jean

So as you stop at each location to recoup and use internet, you run into other cruisers along the way and find out their stories. One such cruiser had been on his way out of Golfito towing his dinghy behind his ketch (two masted sailboat) when he looked back some hours later to discover his dinghy was missing. Now the thing about dinghies is that they are a relatively necessary item for cruisers as otherwise you'd need to swim into shore or always use a marina and a dock (with an acceptable depth). Swimming into shore can be problematic when one has items that need to keep dry, such as computers and passports. So Jean (our hero in this tale) had to go back to Golfito because it was getting dark and he still hadn't found his dinghy. The next day, I was talking to another cruiser, Ron, and he suggested we check out this cute little fish place for lunch. We invited Jean but he was a bit depressed and worried about his dinghy, and didn't have his wallet, so initially he refused. But then Ron also backed out because he realized he also didn't have his wallet. So I offered to spot them both for lunch and after a bit of convincing Jean came with us. On our way to the lunch spot, some Ticos (as Costa Ricans apparently call themselves) asked if we wanted to buy some fresh fish as they were unloading a fishing boat that had recently returned. We said no we were going to lunch, and they suggested we have lunch there. Sure enough between the two buildings was a cute little restaurant with a fish cleaning station and several freezers in the back. I had red snapper and the boys had dorado. It was lovely entertainment watching young boys bringing in huge dorado (mahi mahi) from the fishing boat that had just arrived and then watching them get cleaned in the back. Also the parade of patrons visiting to buy the fish was fun too. At the end of our lunch, the boys were talking to the Ticos to ask them to keep an eye out for Jean's dinghy and then they asked "is that it there?".
And there is was, one dock over.
But today lucky Jean's generator is not working despite Alex's effort, so we may have to take away the "lucky" title.
We are leaving for Panama tonight or tomorrow morning, will be back in a couple of days!
Photos: Ron (L) and Lucky Jean (R) at our impromptu lunch spot, you can see the patrons sussing out the fish in the freezer in behind them, the young boys bringing in the dorado, Alex very happy with his beer that is half slush, and me getting on the Che train.

In Golfito, Costa Rica

We finally made it to the South of Costa Rica! No more papagayo adventures after that one biggie, and the leaks are fixed now, so it was a good shake down cruise. The whole anchor locker thing I mentioned earlier is Alex trying to bail out an anchor locker full of water while the bow keeps getting slammed under waves. Anyhoo, he's drilled some holes in it so it should drain now. We were experiencing 35-40 knot winds and leaned on a 45 degree angle. Rail and winch under the water. Our traveling companions lost their depth sounder and autopilot in the same weather, but their cabin stayed dry. We lost them after the first 12 hours crossing the bar in El Salvador and only just met up with them again here in Golfito.
On the fun side of things, I think I saw my first pod of whales. We think they're pilot whales, the one that got right beside the boat was 10 feet long, had a smushed in nose and flat forehead and was either black or dark gray. I'm posting a video of their fins, you can hear Alex and I deciding that they must be dolphins, but after they got closer we're pretty sure they are whales. We did see dolphins too, small 3 feet light gray guys that like to jump completely out of the water (so did the whales), what I didn't know is that if you cheer them on (the dolphins) they will hang out longer and do tricks. I just sat there with my jaw open when the one guy jumped up twice right beside the boat. Next time I'm cheering...
Photos: Alex hanging out on the back of Reflections, the coast of Costa Rica, Reflections at Playa del Coco, Alex at the bus stop when checking in to Costa Rica, and finally Alex's spotted mackerel that we let go because I was seasick.

Papagayoed

papagayo (′pä·pə′gī·yō): A violent, northeasterly fall wind on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Yes, it total kicked our asses. I was really sick and terrified, and Alex tells me it gets a lot worse. Ok, thanks for making me feel like a pansy after waves crashed over the boat and fell into the cabin while the opposite side of the boat had its railing buried nice and deep into the waves. But admittedly he has been through worse, I am hoping however to avoid it.
I will expand on this later, but Alex wants everyone to know that the anchor locker makes a nice bath....
We are in Playa El Coco, in Costa Rica, we will be heading out to Golfito shortly....