Back to Mexico
Holy crap, we have made it to a country that we have been to before.
We know HOW to check in, the paperwork that is required, some of the
language and the names of our favorite beers. . .it's quite a pleasant
change. We arrived to the Club de Yates Acapulco (Acapulco Yacht Club)
last night. This is a VERY fancy/expensive place and will be the most
expensive marina that we have stayed at by far. My girlfriend Christina
has been on vacation in Mexico for the last two weeks and was able to
come down to Acapulco to meet us, so not only did we come back to a
familiar country, we had the smiling face of someone we knew waiting for
us on the dock. As could be expected, I am very, very happy.
Mr. Matt's Wild Ride
So I had the pleasure of going up the mast today for a bit. All of
the sudden on Casey's watch, the jib just slid down it's track and ended
up all in the water. After the 3 of us hauled the heavy wet jib back on
board without hurting it we tried to determine the cause. Turns out the
shackle for the jib head fell off. No problem, just need to get another
shackle and re hoist the jib. Easy. Except that the jib head attaches to
the furling swivel. Which is still up at the masthead. Hmmm. The weight
of the entire steel cable halyard was much much heavier than the swivel
and bit of cable on the other side of the sheave. Atleast the other
shackle didn't come off and send the entire halyard falling into the
mast. Fishing out a halyard is a job I do not ever want to face. Now the
task is to get the swivel and pull it back down to the deck. Being the
lightest I drew the straw for heading up the mast. Only thing is we're
not at a dock where we usually go aloft. The seas are pretty mild out
here, mostly choppy, but with no way on the boat we just sit and bob
mercilessly around especially when you start getting into a harmonic
condition with the waves. Also one would think the worst motion would be
a roll back and forth. However with the main still up heading us up in
to the wind all the motion was a pitching fore and aft. And it was not
mild. So I put some shoes on and tied two halyards to the bosun's chair.
I'm not a huge fan of heights but with all the shaking around I barely
even thought about it the entire time. On the way up there were parts
where I thought I might loose my grip and then I'd be in real trouble. I
got to the top though and sent the swivel down to the deck. By this time
I was getting pretty nauseous. I was only up there for a few minutes but
I can imagine that much more time and I would have been showering the
deck with lunch. Still the worst motion was by far at the top, which is
to be expected. 65 feet up and swinging through an arc of about 15 feet
every second or so. I finally got up the nerve to head down, which gets
tricky as there isn't much to hang on to, especially above the upper
spreader. The best option I found was to jam my hand between the
mainsail and the mast. Fine except I had to take my hand out at every
slide and trust what ever else I could get a hold of while I moved down
to the next gap. Also I was trying not to break off the various lights
and other hardware on the way down. By the time I got down I just wanted
to sit/lay down for a few hours. That was 12 hours ago and I still have
a kicking headache. I'm pretty sure my time up there gave me a mild
concussion. I didn't even bang into anything. Also I came out with a
nice strawberry/friction burn on one arm likely from giving the mast a
death bear hug at some point. In the end the jib is back up and we're
sailing along to Acapulco. Now if my head would just stop pounding for a
bit so I can get to sleep.
Tanned and Jaded
Today I had the noon to four watch. I was actually dreading this
watch because we're currently motoring due to lack of wind. This means
you have to sit near the wheel, out of the protective shade of the
dodger. That's right ladies and gents, I was lamenting having to sit in
the tropical sun, on a boat, reading, listening to music and watching
sea turtles drift by. What the hell!? I'm lucky time travel isn't
possible because 6-month from now me, living under Seattle's gray winter
canopy, would have appeared today to kick present day me right in the
groin. To make the day a bit more memorable, I did catch a marlin. I'd
gone below to refill my water bottle and by the time I came back up it
had already spooled off 300 yards of line. I fought him for a good 20-
30 minutes before getting him up next to the boat. Jeff took a bunch of
pictures. It wasn't nearly as big as the behemoth Jeff hooked up in the
Atlantic but still easily the biggest fish I've ever caught. We had him
alongside the boat for several minutes trying to decide what to do next.
I really wanted the picture of me holding up the tail on deck but
couldn't figure out how to get the fish on board without killing it, or
it killing me, and since we don't have a freezer to store the extra
meat, we let it go. Jeff has the lure back in the water now and says the
derby is on. It's a tough life but we're persevering.
I hit a turtle
There is so much sea life out here. Dolphins jumping throughout the
day. Birds flying circles around the boat. And I see at least a dozen
turtles just swimming along without even looking for them. One poor guy
was too close to our path and I must have hit him because when I saw him
he was back by the stern and pretty close to the boat. Another clue was
that he was upside down, rolling and flailing. I'm sure he'll make it.
They are tough. Also just before we got to Costa Rica I saw one turtle
giving another tired turtle a piggyback ride. Either that or they were
mating. I don't know, I'm not a biologist.
Beyond Coincidence
That's the name of one of the books we got from Life's a Dream in
Bonaire. It's full of little coincidental anecdotes like a guy that buys
a Lincoln Continental and finds a penny, heads up, in the ashtray and
silly stuff like that. What has become more than coincidence is how
weather patterns seem to change in time with our watch schedules. This
morning I was able to finish a cup of tea and a tin of pears before the
rain started. It continued to come down like the proverbial cow peeing
on a flat rock (or was that in Psalms?) until right before Jeff's watch
when it slowed to just a sprinkle. The rain was impressive but not
nearly as impressive as the lightning. We've seen a fair bit of
lightning during the trip but for the most part it's stayed safely and
silently in the clouds. This morning though we had strikes to the water
all around us. The thunder made that cracking ripping sound and arrived
immediately after seeing the lightning, less than one Mississippi
quantitatively speaking. This made me nervous from a couple stories
we've heard recently. First was the Norwegian boat Jeff met at the
Panama Canal Yacht Club that lost all their electronics when struck by
lightning off of Costa Rica, not far from our current position. Next was
the story from Enkidu's previous owners who survived, undamaged, a
direct hit. This blew holes in my theory that all La Fitte 44's had a
magical immunity to lightning. The rain and lightning has gone for now
so we'll count our blessings and keep moving. The new owners of Enkidu
are lucky though what with that whole lightning striking twice deal they
should be good to go.
Off the coast of some country
In the last two days we have passed Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras,
El Salvador, and I think we are almost off shore of Guatemala, then
Mexico. I honestly didn't know which order these countries were in or
really where they were. Maybe it's the same for you guys back home, but
I seem to always need a geography lesson about the next place we are
heading to. So, Costa Rica was a cool spot. It is very much the Central
America vibe. Relaxed, cool people, cool bars, you can walk around
barefoot with a beer and nobody looks at you weird. We met some really
cool people and I'll put links up to their websites once we get back to
the internet. I would highly recommend traveling to Playa del Coco, but
not in the rainy season. The dive guides all said that the visibility
underwater was only about 15 feet. They have all kinds of shark dives,
but I would poop myself if i saw a big shark come out of the murk only
15 feet away. The Lemon Sharks in Bora-Bora were pretty intense, and you
could see them from over 100 feet away. We have motored over half of the
time since Costa Rica and would really appreciate some wind. We are
about 150 miles from the infamous Gulf of Tehuantepec and it's
unpredictable and sometimes severe winds. We are requesting a forecast
from the weather routing service we use and will be attempting to listen
to Don Anderson on Summer Passage (google that whole phrase for his
website). He is a volunteer forecaster that is an expert on the region
and broadcasts about 8 times a day on the SSB radio from his home in
California. On a side note, it is FRIGGIN HOT out here. No wind and
having the engine running makes us all sweaty beasts and it is not very
easy to sleep. Things cool down from about 4am till 7am and then they
just warm right back up again. We are all looking forward to things
becoming (hopefully) less humid as we head North.
Manana
Just kidding. We can't leave until tomorrow since today is some sort
of holiday and we can't get our passports stamped out until tomorrow.
Trapped in paridise I guess.
Bad Apple
My computer is dead. I spent almost an hour on the phone with Apple
and nothing tried worked. The good news is that I have all the pictures
backed up except for just the last day in Panama. So if you've got a
spare G4 Powerbook lying around I can return to my photoshopping and
other worthwhile activities. In other news we're leving Costa Rica later
today. Playa del Cocos is a cool town. Lots of friendly people. Plan is
to just head up to Acapulco if the winds are decent. We were thinking of
stopping off in El Salvador but it's only 2 days away and we really need
to be moving. We put 40 more gallons of Diesel in the boat just in case.
It's about 1000 miles an hopefully will take about 8 days.
Underwater Rocketship Dolphins
are back. It's great to see them swim around and under the boat at
night and make long bright phosphorescence trails. Gives you a good view
at how fast and maneuverable they can be. I'm sure they are barely
trying and just playing around too. I also saw a turtle earlier today
with it's little turtle head poking out. It was just sitting there
swimming on the surface and watching us motor on by. Oh, and just when I
got on watch tonight a huge phosphorescence area bigger than the boat. I
motored right by it and could see it behind us for a long time. I
contemplated driving back for another look it was that cool. Then I
thought it might be a whale or maybe the Kraken. So I decided against
living out Moby Dick/Pirates of the Caribbean in real life. In the end
it was more likely just a bait ball schooling or being herded by some
tuna. The lights of Playa del Coco are visible now and we should make it
there early in the morning. Hopefully they'll let us in on a Sunday.
Drying Out
Today is our first full sunny day since leaving Panama. It's just in
time too. During last night's torrential downpour I was making a mental
inventory of my rapidly dwindling supply of dry clothes and cursing
myself for the smart ass comments about naked fishermen. All my clothes
are dried out again so it looks like I dodged the karmic bullet on this
one. We're currently motoring off the Costa Rican coast. I threw a lure
in the water after spotting a couple sport fishing boats this afternoon.
I think they're probably a better indicator of gringo tourist dollars
than actual fish though as we haven't has so much as a nibble yet. No
fish but lots of turtles today which is always cool. Hawksbills by the
taste of them. Just kidding. Sea turtles all taste the same to me,
endangerlicious! Seriously though, we don't eat turtles. We're able to
find enough trouble on our own without committing crimes against nature.
Flashing Thingys
About 1 in the morning I saw a flashing strobe on the horizon.
Thought nothing of it as we were heading in it's direction and would
figure something out when I got closer. And then there were two. Still
on the horizon. Then a third closer and off to the left. When there was
just one my first thought was that it was some sailboat with it's strobe
on. We have a bright one on top of the mast, but never use it. My
recollection was that it's only for emergencies. Also we have smaller
ones in each life vest and a larger throwable type in case of a man
overboard or something worse. I decide to put a tack in to sail closer
to the newer single strobe off to the left. Maybe there is a ship down
with crew scattered. Would do me no good to sail right by some poor guy
out swimming would it. I figured it would take me a while to get there
as we aren't all that swiftly. Then it seemed that it was moving around
me, or I was sailing around it. Like it might moving on it's own maybe.
A few more tacks and jibes to get closer. By now it's 1:30 and a half
hour to Jeff's watch. I decide to roll up the jib and turn on the engine
to go straight to the strobe. Then it seems I'm getting pretty close.
Now my thought is that it's either a person in the water or some rebel
trap to draw sail boats in. I know, brilliant. So I go wake Jeff up as
it's almost his watch to have a second pair of eyes and someone else on
deck in case something needs doing. By the time he gets up we're almost
on top of it. I can see the reflection of the strobe in the water now.
Jeff remarks, "oh it's probably one of the end markers the long-liners
use on their gear." Yep. It's a pole probably a 5 feet out of the water
with a strobe on top and likely fishing gear and floats streaming in
some direction. And here I am driving around with the prop spinning
trying to get close to the thing. Begging to get wrapped up. I apologize
for waking Jeff up and shut down the engine and proceed to get
everything set back the way it all was before I had imagined my maritime
disaster. So the crisis was averted. Or more accurately a crisis that
never was. Which is the best type of crisis really. On a better note the
phosphoresce is great out here, especially with no moon as it's really
dark too. You can look off the side and see the different streams coming
off the keel and rudder. I tried to take a picture but it's simply too
dark. Put it on the list of things that must be seen in person and no
description will ever do justice.
The Yellow Flash
I'm on watch this morning, enjoying my book with a cup of joe, when I
look up and see a Japanese long liner lumbering towards us. I keep
watching and sure enough they appear to be on a collision course with
us. We're the stand on vessel for whatever that's worth out here so I
let Earl do his thing and keep on eye on them. As they get uncomfortably
close I start debating either tacking or heaving to and letting them
pass when black smoke billows out of their stacks and they accelerate
safely past. We won't collide but I'll still have to tack if they're
making a set so I look to the stern. I see three fishermen standing idly
on the aft deck and see that they aren't making a set then do a double
take and realize that they're all buck naked. Jeff pointed out the large
black cloud bank behind them. Maybe they were just rained on and were
letting their clothes dry. Everyone on the Sohcahtoa keeps a set a dry
clothes for such an event but to each his own. I hate to speculate what
else they might have been doing but if you find a curly hair in your
sushi, it might not be the chef's.
Sohcahtoa 1, Logs 0
So I hit a log this morning. Pretty sure that it was our first. A
loud thud down forward and then another further back as the log bounced
up again for strike 2. I was pretty sure it was a log until I saw it
behind the boat right after. 8 inches around and about 12 feet long. It
was plenty loud enough to wake both Jeff and Casey up too. Jeff probably
got it the best as he was sleeping in the salon and his head was right
about where a log would hit. We don't really look for stuff in the water
except ships. Can't at night or in bigger seas anyway. Also our hull is
pretty thick even for a fiberglass boat. Later in the day I saw a tide
rip/line with a bunch of them in it. All covered in barnacles so they
must have been out here for a while. The question is; do you still knock
on wood when trying to dispel the bad omens that come from discussing
logs? Seems like that would only draw them in closer...
Leaving Panama shortly
So I ddin't get to writing about the whole canal yet. Yet. Too much
going on here trying to get ready. Hopefully on the way to Costa Rica
I'll get a chance. Not sure where we are going yet, but we to put some
miles behind us just to maintain our schedule. Crikey we should be back
in the US in less than 2 months. After feeling so far away from home for
so long and for many reasons it's strange that's it's just around the
corner. Here's to a good passage and decent wind in a decent direction.
Onward.
We are all packed up and are getting ready to head out for Costa Rica
and beyond. We are leaving at the beginning of the hurricane season, and
will have to be diligent about checking the weather as we proceed North.
If you want to play along at home, here are the websites for the National Hurricane
Center and for Crown Weather, both of which are good resources. We
hope to start catching fish again and really look forward to getting
away from all these god damn freighters that are everywhere.
More pictures.
Matt just finished sorting pictures from as far back as Brazil, check
them out here. These include the
pictures from our transit of the Panama Canal and the HUGE ship that was
right behind us. Thanks again to everyone that sent us the screen shots
from the Panama Canal webcam, turns out there are lots of people that
would rather watch us than work. We have also put up a bunch of our DrinkLink pictures.
F@#king Awesome
It is so cool to have computer nerds as friends. I just received two
movies of our transit through the Miraflores locks on the South end of
the Panama Canal. Mark Hastings gathered all the pictures, edited the
boring parts out and put them all together in two different versions,
the one without
music(3.71 MB), and the one with music(11.6MB). These videos really show how
big these freighters are compared to our tiny 44 foot bathtub toy. If
anyone wants to see all of the pictures that Mark gathered, here is a ZIP file with all 167
images. Thanks again Mark Hastings and Kevin Summers for forsaking work
and being support crew for team SohCahToa. I hope you they don't get in
trouble, since I'm pretty sure their boss reads the site. On a side
note, check out how things can go
wrong during a transit of the canal.
Our Ocean
We're on a mooring outside the Balboa Yacht Club right now on the
Pacific side of the Canal. Our trip through went pretty smoothly. We had
bit of excitement in our first lock going up. Workers on the locks toss
heaving lines to you before you actual enter a lock. You tie this line
around the rented lines. Then upon entering the locks the workers are
supposed to pull up the lines and attach them to the top of the walls.
We found out too late that one of our rented lines had a splice in it
that wouldn't fit through the chock. This in turn made the line too
short to get to the top of the wall so Jeff had to maneuver the boat
closer to the port wall while we were getting pushed every which way by
current in the locks. We were able to get it attached but I only about
5ft of line left on my starboard line. After we got that sorted out the
rest of the way up went well. Then we stayed the night in Lake Gatun
with our two line handlers Naldo and Tito Junior. The way back down was
much easier as we just had to pay out line as the water went down rather
than pulling it in as water went down. We were the only southbound
sailboat going through at the time so we didn't need to raft to anyone
but we did share the locks with big freighters. That made for some cool
pictures. Speaking of which, it turned out that several people actually
got to see us on the Miraflores web cam and they grabbed some screen
shots that show the Sohcahtoa dropping with the water level. Thanks to
everyone that did that. Jeff and Matt are working diligently to get
those up on the site for everyone to see. It's nice to be back in the
Pacific and, while we have several miles of beating ahead of us, getting
through the Canal makes it seem like we're much closer to home.
Through the Lake, Over the Mountain and Under the Bridge
We're through. I was able to go into town and find another battery
charger (first one is dead) for my old apple laptop (amazing) so I'll be
able to work on the hundreds of pictures and a few short movies we made
in the last day. Also thank you to every one who saw us on the webcam
and saved pictures and emailed them to us. We asked the Lock Master to
redirect the webcam just on us in case you are wondering. So please
stayed tuned for bunches of pictures and a good sized writup about it
all here. It was definitely a day of trivia. Did you know a sailboat
once sunk in one of the locks? And one of the locomotives that handle
the lines for the big ships got pulled into a lock too? Stuff like that.
We had an " Advisor" on board to bother with these and other Pulitzer
worthy questions for the entire transit. Cheers.
Back in the Pacific.
We just tied up to a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club after finishing
our transit of the Panama Canal. At the Mira-Flores locks, our Transit
Advisor knew the guy up in the control tower and asked him if he would
point the webcam at us. I hope that the pictures turned out. If you saw
us and saved some pictures, send them along to us and we'll put them up
on the website along with the pictures that we took. It is really cool
being back in the Pacific Ocean. The next part of the trip back North is
going to absolutely suck, but that is what we have got to do. Keep
checking back in the next day or so for new pictures. I'm going to take
a nap. . .going through the locks is a bit stressful, and I am shot.
Panama Canal
We're heading through starting later today. We've already got our
lines. 4 x 150 foot, 1" ones. We're waiting on tires now. For $2 each
they get you a tire and wrap it in plastic bags. Then at the other side
it costs another dollar to get rid of them. I'm guessing there are a few
tires in the water at each end. First we have to go top up on fuel
though. Then we go out and wait for the advisor. We've had to hire 2
line handlers and an advisor as per the regulations. So we'll get fuel
and head out with the 2 handlers. The advisor will come on later by boat
nearer the first lock. After we're through the 3 locks on this side I
think he will leave. The we'll go to a huge bouy in the lake and spend
the night with the 2 handlers trying not to get eaten by crocs. Come
morning the advisor will come back and we'll motor through the lake and
canal to the other set of locks. There is a live webcam there. That
works, I've checked. Google it. I'm thinking we'll be heading past it
around noon Seattle time. We'll try to figure out a way to update the
website when we get closer. Hopefully a few people will see and save a
picture for us to use on the website too. Kinda stressful and exciting.
Our boat will soon be 85 feet above sea level.
Our Turn.
After waiting for only a few days, we are scheduled to head through
the Gatun locks this afternoon. We will be transiting sometime around
5pm local time, which is 3pm Pacific. There is a webcam that shows boats
heading through and we hope that someone back home will be watching and
save some screen shots for us. The website is www.pancanal.com. We are going to be
staying overnight in Lake Gatun and then heading over to the Pacific
side starting early tomorrow morning. No word yet on what time we will
be going through the Mira- Flores locks, but I imagine sometime in the
early afternoon. I promise that this webcam works better than the one on
Ascension Island.
Artillery Strike
So it's the rainy season here. We've lucked out sofar. Last 2 days
there has been no rain. Today is different. Right now is it raining
about as hard as it can. I don't dare walk out from under the roof here
at the marina unless I want to be soaked in about 5 seconds. To go with
the rain is awesome thunder and lightning. The thunder is so loud it
sounds like we're in a war. Even some of the locals jump when it hits.
In Cristobal/Colon
We are anchored inside the breakwater on the Atlantic side of the
canal. It's a pretty big spot, ships docked and moving all over. Looks
to be about 15 or 20 other sailboats here but we haven't seen the marina
yet. It's 4 in the morning here so we haven't seen much except lights
really. Tomorrow (later today) we get to start figuring out how to get
our boat over the hill.
Our Kuna Pit Crew
After drifting in the Columbian Basin for a day with a current taking
us back toward Bonaire we decided to reassess our trip to Colon. The
forecast called for at least 3 more days of the same stagnant weather.
Since we didn't have enough fuel to make it all the way to Colon
fighting 2kts of current, we opted instead to duck in to the San Blas
archipelago to see if we could scare up some fuel there. This was a bit
of a gamble too. We only knew a couple things about San Blas when we
made this decision. Our guidebook told us that the islands were
inhabited by the Kuna Indians,
a very traditional tribe who's currency up until the 90's, and I'm not
making this up, was coconuts. Doesn't paint a picture of a land
dependent on fossil fuels. We had also heard that charts for the area
were generally inaccurate and that 2-3 boats had already been lost there
this year as a result. We headed in yesterday afternoon, drifted over
night so we could navigate into the archipelago during the day so in
true Sohcahtoa style we arrived on a Sunday. We cruised by a Swedish
boat that told us that we could in fact get diesel here which was good
news. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that we wouldn't be able to
clear customs or get fuel until Monday but no sooner had we set the hook
when two locals in a dugout canoe came up and asked us if we needed
diesel. We handed them our jerry jugs and off they went. By the time
they came back we had a couple more canoes hanging on the toe rail
selling us Molas, the fabric the Kunas are famous for. We fueled up,
gave pens and chocolate to the locals we didn't buy anything from and
headed back to sea. Our San Blas trip couldn't have worked out much
better.
Short Attention Span Theater
This morning we decided to stop drifting backwards out here and head
to the San Blas islands to hopefully buy/beg/borrow diesel there. We
started motoring at a low RPM, and decided to make some water. After a
few hours, with our tanks full, I went through the process of stopping
the watermaker and flushing out the filters. Step 1 - switch the output
from the tanks to the kitchen faucet. Step 2 - slowly back the pressure
off at the panel by turning the knob. Step 3 - Turn the boost pump
switch off at the panel in the galley. Step 4 - Turn the main power off
at the electrical panel. Step 5 - Open up the back flush valve for one
minute and pump fresh water back through the system through the filters
and overboard. Step 6 - Look at watch, wait for 15 seconds and then go
and wander off up on deck to put away fuel jugs, completely forgetting
about the open valve and the fresh water pumping overboard. I must have
hung out up above for 10 or 15 minutes before coming back down and
looking for something to eat. Matt comes down, looks at the valve and
says, Is this guy done backflushing? AAhhhhh, crap. Most of the fresh
water we just made has been returned from whence it came. It isn't a big
deal since we have lots of water left, but it speaks volumes to my
attention span and ability to really focus. God help anyone that gives
me a job when we get back.
Today's pop quiz.
A sailboat leaves for the Panama Canal, 100 miles to the SW. What
wind she has is light and mostly on the nose. She's carrying 20 to 30
gallons of fuel. Add in a 0.5 to 1.0 knot current on the nose. Her fuel
consumption is somewhere around 3/4 gallon per hour at a speed of 5
knots. The question is, how screwed is the crew? This has been our
problem for the last day or two. We're running low on fuel. The wind is
nothing. The current pushes us away from our goal if we don't motor into
it. Even motoring we only get 3 to 4 knots due to the opposing current.
Current plan is to; 1. Remove 5 gallons of fuel and keep it in a jerry
can for maneuvering or whatever when we do get somewhere. 2. Transfer
all the fuel into the forward tank as it's pickup is much closer to the
bottom than the rear. 3. Move the remaining fuel out of the rear tank
that lies below the pickup and thus is unusable (maybe 10 gal from
previous visual inspection during our Australia water in the fuel
adventure). 4. Head for the San Blas islands, saving us 50 miles and
hoping there is either a place to buy fuel or another boat we can make
arrangements with. So now we are motoring at a medium rpm to hopefully
maximize range. The fuel is being drawn from the rear tank, while the
return is going into the forward tank. Soon all the fuel should soon be
moved to the fwd tank. The rest we will have to pump by hand using a
dinghy engine primer bulb. We've got plenty of food, water and
electricity, just low of fuel. Every one of the guides for this area
warns of a nasty stretch and high (30 knot) winds. What do we get?
Nothing.
An interesting predicament.
When we left Bonaire, we had all the wind we wanted. About 3 days ago
the wind started dying off and then completely stopped. We ran the
engine for about two days until yesterday when the wind miraculously
came back. Even though the wind was decent we were making about 2 knots
less than we all thought we should be. We were sailing along great, but
only making 3 knots. . .which seemed to point to some kind of current
heading in the opposite direction we wanted to go. This morning, the
wind started going to shit once again and for some time we were actually
going backwards at 2.0 knots even though we were just barely making
forward progress. . .sooooo we once again fired up the engine. We
started making positive progress, but only at about 3.5 knots. We
usually motor at 5.5 knots, so that current was killing us. After a few
hours, the engine sputters to a halt, signalling that our fuel tanks are
empty. We hadn't gotten fuel since South Africa, but we really hadn't
used much since then. The 40+ hours of motoring chewed through more fuel
than we would have liked. This left us with the 20 gallons in our
jerry-jugs that we keep on deck. Casey poured those in, but that is ALL
the fuel we have left. We are a total of 98.3 miles from the Canal and
more diesel fuel. We usually estimate that we get 5.0 knots an hour and
consume roughly one gallon an hour. If you are playing the home game,
that would give us roughly 100 miles. . .but that assumes 5 knots. At
3.0 knots that give us a range of 60 miles, which puts us completely out
of fuel quite a ways off shore. Our only option is to try to sail as far
as we can before starting up the engine again. This is a bit frustrating
right now, since we are sailing at 2.0 knots right now and not going the
direction we would prefer. The boat is pointing on a heading of 240
degrees (from the compass), but the GPS says that our actual heading is
175 degrees, which means the that current is pushing us away from where
we want to go. We are hoping that by heading South for a ways, we can
get out of this current. In the meantime, we are watching some
incredible lightning storms on the horizon and keeping an eye out for
the freighters that are pouring out of the canal. As I was writing this,
the meager wind we had dropped to barely a breath. We are making 0.3
knots an hour right now. If this keeps up, during my 3 hour watch, we
are going to go less than one nautical mile. In the next hour, we will
sail the length of my Mom's driveway. . .that is depressing.
Back in Bonaire
We're nearly to Panama, it's over 3 weeks since we arrived in Bonaire
and several days since we left so I thought this would be a good time to
finally write something about it. The high point of our stay was, of
course, meeting Sally on Zahi and hanging out and diving with her. Our
Bonaire experience wouldn't have been the same without her. I would have
missed half the stuff hiding under water there or not known what it was
if wasn't for Sally pointing stuff out and explaining what things were
after the dives. Thanks again Sally. We also met Bob and Barbara who
were just selling Enkidu, the younger, prettier sister La Fitte to the
Sohcahtoa and the new owners Lewis and Janet. We met several other
cruisers on the dock, all of whom were pleasant but still had a guarded,
reserved air to them. It reminded me a bit of our time in Mexico. I
think cruisers hang out in Bonaire for long periods like Mexico's west
coast. New boats that come in are just additions to the neighborhood and
you don't need any new friends because the jackass across the street
still hasn't returned your damn weedeater. Something like that. Or,
maybe it's a function of having a bunch of American cruisers. Bonaire
was the first place since leaving Mexico that we've seen this many boats
and tourists from the US. It was kind of a weird reverse culture shock.
We finally caught up with Life's a Dream, our friends we met in Cape
Town. Robin and Devon got off the boat in Bonaire and Life's a Dream
continued on to meet a schedule to the Galapagos. As always, it was
great hanging out with Robin and Devon and hopefully we'll meet up with
them again on our way up the California coast. While I'm mentioning
people, I can't forget to thank Tom Stewart once again for saving the
day and flying down our new roller furler and forestay for a brief and
impromptu vacation. Quite and impressive display of dadsmanship there.
Bonaire itself is a nice, relaxed little island. I'd only recommend it
as a vacation destination if you want to dive but if you're a hardcore
diver then the island is really set up well for you. Tons of dive shops
and dive sites you can walk into from the shore and some excellent
restaurants for when you're hungry and exhausted from a full day of
diving. I know I only scratched the surface of our stay on Bonaire but
it'll have to do for now.
So you've got an old furler...
I forgot all about getting rid of the old furler that we broke. We
got the thing down and onto the dock early into the process. It was
parallel to the boat (therefore perpendicular to the main dock walkway)
and stretching from the end of our finger to a good 20 feet past the
main walkway on the other side. We tried to get it onto the main walkway
so we could walk it out the gate and maybe cut it up on the street away
from the boats but that proved to be impossible as it was 57 feet 3
inches long. I know this because we measured it about a 1000 times
trying to figure out the new one. We wanted to wait to get our new one
all set before destroying the old anyways since it was still perfectly
good as a forestay even if we couldn't roll a sail up on it. Anyways, a
German guy came down and wanted to use it on his boat which was shorter
by cutting off the top and replacing the broken section at the bottom.
This was about 2 days before we left and we couldn't wait to hear back
from him so we had to figure something else out. Sally had a friend on
the island that did random rigging work and she said would want it for
spares or whatever. Only problem was that he was at work so we had to
move it ourselves. Great. Luckily his place was on the beach near the
marina. So we came up with a plan to use 2 dinghies and haul the thing
off the end of the dock and out to his place. So Casey and I in the
Duchess and Sally in her dinghy set out. We got the big end in our
dinghy and drug it off the dock until the other end. Sally put this into
her dinghy and held on as the furler was going to serve as the tow line
for our floating disaster in the making. Sounds like a good plan until
you try to maneuver the whole mess. Imagine driving one of those fire
trucks that steer at both the back and front, on ice, looking in a
mirror. It was about that frustrating getting turned around in the
marina to head out. After trying all the combinations of the two
dinghies and engines we got headed the right way. Word is we had quite
an audience during this whole time trying to figure out what the hell we
were up to. So, arriving at our particular spot of beach, we threaded
our way through the moored sailboats and local boats closer to shore.
Not wanting to run the dinghies onto the rocky beach I jumped out in
waist deep water and drug the whole mess ashore, trying to at least keep
the furling drum out of the water. Then got the other end onto shore,
all 57 feet of it. It was still there, making for an interesting sight
as we tied up to a nearby mooring before leaving. Hopefully someone gets
some use out of it.
Big Dorado
Yesterday I got a one day late birthday present in the form of a
really good sized Dorado. He was a jumper and a fighter and it took me a
while to bring it to the boat. Since there was absolutely no wind, we
were motoring along and it made it much much easier to slow the boat
down and maneuver as the fish ran than when we are sailing. We got to
use the awesome aluminum gaff that Matt bought and made a big mess
dispatching the fish on deck, no poetry this time. ..sorry Dear. Matt
did the honors and chopped it up into bite sized bits, breaded and fried
the beast. Tasty as usual. Then, this evening, Casey brought in another
Dorado almost twice as big as the one we caught last night. After our
fish feast last night we decided to let new fish go and successfully
released it. Neither of the two fish were as big as the monster Dorado
that got away off the coast of Brazil.
Off Columbia
No wind. None. Just freighters. The sea is so smooth that you can see
the moon and even more impressively the lights of the freighters
reflected in the surface. We've been running the engine for almost a day
now. Word is that Panama is a good place to buy outboards and
electronics, so maybe, just maybe we'll finally spring for an autopilot
to relieve the work of hand steering when we're running the engine.
We've taken a slight detour around the coast of Columbia to keep away
from pirates. It's not so much pirates as much as drug boats that are
shy and don't like attention. It should only add a few hours but if it
works then what the hell. Saw some dolphins last night but even they got
bored with us running the engine and the flat sea and were soon gone.
There is some good lightning on the horizon behind us and over the
coast. Mostly cloud lightning that lights up the sky. Just as long as we
stay out from under the storms that are associated with it is all I ask.
We'll probably get our fair share of rain in Panama anyways. On another
note, I've filled up my passport and the officials have started to stamp
the extra pages in the back. Pretty good for not going to the same
country twice.To remain in the lead for the contest to see who can use
the most stuff out of our first aid kit I have decided to split a chuck
of the tip of my big toe off on the door threshold for the bathroom. I
kicked it with as I was heading through. I knew I had done something but
didn't think it was that bad so ended up leaving blood drops from the
bathroom to the cockpit and back. It was pretty bloody so I'm hoping
that it will grow back together just fine. Don't worry I took a picture
for those who can't quite picture it. Also I'll have you know that I had
the boat so well balanced with just the wheel locked off that over the
entire episode I was still only 10 degrees off course.
Bonaire Retrospective
One afternoon we drove the rental truck south to the salt beds where
they still mine salt for export. The #2 industry after tourism. The salt
beds are pink, which comes from lots of brine shrimp in the super salty
water. There are also flamingos and they are pink from eating the brine
shrimp. So now I know how pink flamingos get to be pink. When the salt
beds are deep enough they go over them with a big front- end loader and
scoop up the salt. So next time you salt something imagine the brine
shrimp, the flocks of pink flamingos wading and eating and god knows
what else, and the loaders driving all over your salt. I'm sure this
stuff is marketed as " sea salt" too. Also out near the salt beds were
the old buildings that they slaves lived in. Basically like a large dog
house with thick walls. I'm not sure how else to describe them other
than to recommend you look at the pictures. They are maintained now for
historical purposes. After our trip to the salt beds we went to Lac Bay.
Which is a wind surfing Mecca. They get consistent trade winds and there
is a low reef that creates a calm bay for great windsurfing. We saw
about 20 people out there learning but also heard that it is the spot
that Olympic wind surfers go to practice. In Bonaire they mostly take
the US Dollar and the Dutch Guilder. Even the cash machines give you a
choice of which to take you money out in. This is probably due to the
large number of American tourists. It got kind of confusing at times to
keep track of what the prices were in and what you were paying in. The
laundry service charged me in Dollars for what should have been Guilders
(about a 2 fold increase) and I had to spend the next 5 minutes trying
to figure out how much i should be returned as they only gave change in
Guilders. Also there was a language barrier as most people there speak
Dutch and enough English to get by. And my Dutch is horrible (I can say
thank you). At one grocery they started to speak to me in Dutch until my
deer in headlights look and me saying "Um, I don't understand" made then
say "Oh, you speak English." They went on to say that I looked very
Dutch with my face and hair. Go figure now I'm Dutch. You'd think I'd be
taller.
Off the coast of Columbia.
I can smell the coffee from about 40 miles off the coast. Not really.
All I can smell is three dudes on a boat. Not going to be one of the new
options at Starbucks. Anyhoo. . .we are making about 5 knots here on our
way to Panama. Nothing as speedy as our passage from Brazil, but we are
still making at least 100 miles a day. We have been enjoying immensely
the brownies that Sally made for us prior to our departure from Bonaire
and I think that we have been subsisting almost entirely on all the
American junk food that we haven't seen in a while, but stocked up on
before we left. Did you know that they make M and Ms in a double sized
pack now? I'm going to have to be careful, or I'll be finding out what
the lethal dose of candy shell goodness is.
All better.
The boat is quite happy again after having a new roller-furler
installed along with a new forestay. Thanks a whole pile to my Dad for
flying down 100 pounds of boat parts. Everything went together as
advertised, and only(ONLY) cost a little bit over two boat units. So, we
are back in business and are packing up and heading out today to Panama.
We have also bought not one. . . but two gaffs, so that we can pull all
of our big big fish we are going to catch onto our boat. That's it from
land, we'll write more from sea.
Leaving Bonaire
Or time on Bonaire is over. There has been much diving. A bit of boat
repair. A huge thank you to Jeff's dad, Tom, for flying down last minute
with our new roller furler. Everything went together great and we're
back to being a complete sailboat again. The weather has been awesome
but the mosquitoes are vicious, especially at night. We met our sister
ship, Enkidu, and both the new (Janet and Louis) and previous (Barbera
and Bob) owners as it was in the middle of changing hands while we were
here. Their boat is in very very good shape. Also met Sally, who was a
fantastic dive motivator and guide. I hope she finds another Mantis
Shrimp. Our friends off Life's a Dream, Robin and Devon, were here for
most of the time before flying back to CA. Hopefully we'll see them
again on our way up the coast. From here it's on to Panama and through
the Canal. It's about a 5 day sail there. The trip through the Canal
should be very interesting and hopefully not very stressful or damage
the boat. Other than that, we are all stocked up and just running some
last errands. The final one being a mexican food lunch on Sally's boat.
Bonaire is highly recommended for boats as well as for people to fly in
for the diving and wind surfing. I'm coming back someday. I'll try and
write more once we get moving and have plenty of free time.
Speedy Delivery
Well, last week turned into a whirlwind of parts ordering that was
greatly assisted by our personal savior, Shari from Fisheries Supply in
Seattle. We were able to round up all the parts that we need and get
everything together in a day and a half. Then, my Dad stepped up and
volunteered to fly down here and hand carry the 90 pounds of boat
hardware to Bonaire. He arrived last night saying that he is never doing
me another favor for the rest of my life. One of the boxes was 7 feet
long and weighed about 35 pounds. The other was 65 pounds and contained
a two and a half foot diameter coil of 3/8 inch wire for our new
forestay. A few Gin and Tonics helped to soothe his travel weariness
after the 23 hours of travel on 3 different flights. We went diving
today, and hope to get in 5 more dives in the next day and a half.
Thursday is going to be our day to put everything together and I really
really hope that we have what we need.
Fish pictures!
These pictures will make the fish protectors in the audience happy.
Pictures of fish where we AREN'T killing them! Here are a bunch of
pictures from a few of our dives in Bonaire. They were all taken by our
friend Sally. There are quite a few pictures of a yellow turd of a fish.
This is called a Frog Fish and they are very rare and hard to find. All
the divers on the island are always looking for them and we have been
lucky to see 4 or 5. In boat repair news, we might be here for a bit
longer because the people at the boat store here have been deceptively
incompetent and we are now taking things into our own hands. Granted, we
did get a bit distracted going diving every day, but now we are on the
job.
Quick update from Bonaire
We weren't able to get our roller furling fixed here after all and we
will have to make a stop in Curacao in our way West. We are in the
marina tied up to a dock and on 110 Volt shore power for the first time
since we left Mexico last March. We have been diving six times in the
last two days and we met an avid diver/sailor named Sally who has been
showing us around the dive sites. Today we had four people (us and
Sally) with all our dive gear and eight scuba tanks crammed into our
dingy for an hour ride north to some very amazing diving. I'm going to
steal her underwater photos, but just look up Bonaire diving pictures on
google and you will find pictures of all the amazing stuff we have been
seeing. Tomorrow we are each getting two tanks again and heading out to
the west side of Kline Bonaire (little Bonaire). Other than that, we
have been enjoying the food and then totally crashing out by about 10pm
because we are all so exhausted from diving.
On a mooring ball in Bonaire
We arrived in Bonaire about noon today and we have just finished
checking in. We had our first shore-side meal in two weeks at Kentucky
Fried Chicken. Imagine what your stomach would feel like AND do to you
if you ate relatively fat free for two weeks and then bombed it with
Crispy Chicken Strips and lots of cold Pepsi. So, once we all recover
from our fried food induced comas, we will be heading into Karol's Bar
for some ice cold beers. It's only about 200 yards away and has a dingy
dock. The water here is AMAZINGLY clear. The entire island is a Marine
sanctuary and you cannot anchor anywhere in the country. There are 70 or
so mooring balls up and down the West coast and they are all supposed to
be incredible Scuba Diving. So, that's it for now. If our pattern holds
true, you won't hear from us again until we leave in about 6 days.
Later.
Into the Caribbean Sea
We are now officially in the Caribbean. I have never actually
(actually) figured out which of the two ways it is pronounced. Is it the
Care-i-beeee-an? Or Ka-rib-e-an? Does that even make sense? I don't
know. Well, to commemorate the occasion I just had to re-watch the
amazing movie Captain Ron, and now am reading the Mitchner novel,
Caribbean. And in two days time, I will truly celebrate and drink some
kind of Caribbean beer, and eat some Caribbean Jerk Chicken. Now I'm
just seeing how many times I can say Caribbean in one post. Caribbean.
In Case You Were Wondering
If you were still curious, our fish murdering process is really quite
fast. This limits our poetry to limericks and haiku's. Some examples:
There once was a fish in the sea Swimming so far and so free Got hooked
in the lip, took a small trip And ended in my belly. Or: My pelagic
friend Strong and majestic tuna Delicious sushi. Okay, that's enough of
that. If I'm not careful I'll end up one these sailors who express their
insanity through crappy poetry and horrible Jimmy Buffett knock offs.
Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Drink a margarita and whack a pinata for
us.
Are the fish still alive?
Yesterday I got an email from my girlfriend, Christina, asking me if
the fish were still alive when we were dragging them behind the boat. I
am SURE that her heart is reaching out in empathy to all the fish that
we are senselessly murdering out here on the high seas. I remember that
once in the San Juan Islands when I had just caught a salmon and had
rather unceremoniously thrown it into a bucket, she kept asking me if it
was still alive and her entire person was focused on the possible
suffering of the fish. I believe that I cut it's head entirely off and
remarked that I was pretty sure that it was dead, but that she should
keep watching it just to be sure. So, Dear, we are now instituting a new
humane fish de-living program where when we catch fish, we put them onto
a soft blanket, hook them up to a Kevorkian-esque euthanasia machine and
then we quietly read it poetry as it gently and painlessly drifts into
the great beyond. The ironic part of this post is that while writing it,
Matt has caught two Tuna in a row and they are both now dragging behind
the boat. I know for a fact that they both enjoyed the poetry.
Tooth and Nail
Actually it should be speargun tip and lure. That's what we lost
while wrestling our latest catch, a decent sized wahoo, into the boat.
We've been using our speargun as a makeshift gaff but yesterday we lost
the tip. That's the most important part because it spreads open after
you shoot the fish allowing us to haul it on board. The lure we lost
because it was on a monofil leader and wahoo have really sharp teeth.
We're lucky we got it at all. The fishing the past few days has been
outstanding but their still putting up a good fight. In other news,
we're less than a day away from Galleons Passage which runs in between
Trinidad and Tobago. We're also losing some of the wonderful Guiana
Current, no longer seeing speeds in the 7-9kt range. It was good while
it lasted.
If wishes were fishes . ..
We would have caught two 10 pound wishes made of Tuna. We had another
Tuna Two-Fer yesterday. Casey got the one on the handline and I got the
one on the pole. Taking the advice of Mike from Eshamy, we got them on
board and quickly but a tail rope on them, tore out their gills and drug
them behind the boat for a few hours. After filleting them both, and
having AMAZING sushi out of about a 3 pound chunk(best we have had on
the trip so far), we all agreed that the dragging behind the boat thing
makes for much better tasting fish. I was kind of hoping to have a shark
come and try and take one of them, but no luck. We are still making good
time and are about 400 miles away from Trinidad. I just sent an email
off to the big boat store in Trinidad to see if they have the parts
necessary to fix our roller furling. If they don't, I am sure that they
will be kind enough to sell us a whole new setup. Not sure, but I have a
feeling we may soon be parting with a few boat units (boat unit is
$1000).
Foiled Again
Our headsail furling gear broke. More specifically the aluminum
extrusion (called the foil but nothing like the stuff in your kitchen,
more because it's the shape of an airfoil) that rides over the forestay
and what the sail luff slides into and rolls up like a window shade in a
cartoon on. I know a picture here would be great. Google it. The lower
section between where the furling drum (where the human- power is
applied via rope) and the lowest portion of the sail (where the maximum
torsional load is) twisted itself completely apart into a mangled thing
good only for shredding a $3000 jib if we're not careful. Answers the
question I asked a few hours before when the jib completely unfurled on
its own but didn't move the cleated off furling line. Also we were also
able to furl the sail back up: How is that possible? Now we know. Jeff
and Casey got it rolled back up by hand after it got light out. Now
we're only able to use the staysail flying from the inner forestay and
the main. While it's critical to jib operation, there is no risk to
anything else, such as the mast stability as the forestay is still all
as it should be. So now we're trying to figure out if Trinidad or
Bonaire is the place to tear the thing apart. At the very least we'll
need a replacement section of foil and a new forestay. New forestay
since we have to cut the current one to remove the swage off the end and
it then becomes too short to reuse. At the most we'd end up with a new
forestay, new furling gear entirely (if the old stuff isn't available or
it just makes sense), and likely getting some sail work done to make
sure that everything plays nicely together.
Ba-Ba-Barracuda
It's always weird to catch a Great Barracuda out when you assume that
you are in thousands and thousands of feet of water. As I understand,
Barracuda aren't an open ocean fish, they tend to congregate around sea
mounts and shallower areas. After looking at the charts, it looks like
there was an area that we sailed over recently that came up from 3000
feet deep to about 300. I assume that is around where Matt caught the
fish. We were once again able to get a fish on board, this time by
shooting it with the spear-gun as it got close to the boat. It was good
timing because it wasn't more than 5 seconds after I had it by the spear
than the hook came out of it's mouth when it thrashed (presumably from
the 3 foot long chunk of steel through it's head). I guess it was about
10 pounds and we ended up with more than enough to make really really
good fish tacos. It is soooo nice to be eating something other than Top
Ramen, Spaghetti, and candy bars.
Finally!
The curse has been lifted. . .our no-hitting streak is over. We
caught AND landed two SkipJack Tuna this afternoon. They weren't very
big, but it was a ground breaking event on the fish-less SohCahToa. We
haven't eaten fish that we have caught since somewhere in the Indian
Ocean. It has been quite a while. We are now hoping to land one of the
many Dorado that we seem to hook up every day around noon. Yesterday
Casey and Matt had a good sized one up to the boat again, only for the
hook to tear out as they were wrangling it on board. The big issue is
that our boat has so much freeboard(distance from water to the deck)
that you have to haul the fish entirely out of the water to get it onto
the boat. . .and there really isn't any way to get a hand down into the
water and grab it by the gills(since we are currently without a gaff).
The Tuna today were only about 5-8 pounds each, so it wasn't really an
issue. We were also sailing at about 8 knots when we caught them, so
they were actually skipping on top of the water behind the boat. This is
hopefully a return to log updates about the successes we have while
fishing, not the bitter, bitter, disappointments. On a geography note,
we are now north of the mouth of the Amazon river and will be off the
coast of French Guyana in the next day or so.
Hot Sailors
After just over a year in the southern hemisphere, the Sohcahtoa
crossed to the north side of the equator today. We crossed the equator
just after noon today. Let me tell you, the equator at noon in late
April is flippin hot. On a serious note, it's good to be back in our
quarter-sphere, if that's even a word. The sailing has improved a bit.
It looks like we're back into the trade winds with a touch of current
helping us out. I hooked up a nice size dorado yesterday. We could have
easily gotten it on board if we had a gaff but it shook the hook out
while we were experimenting with alternatives to getting it aboard.
Later, on the same watch, a sailfish struck the lure repeatedly but I
couldn't get the hook set. Finally, I decided to check the hook to make
sure it was sharp. The fish kept attacking the lure until it was just
over a boat length away so I got a good look at it but not taste of it.
The hook was still sharp in case you're wondering. I can only conclude
that I encountered the craftiest sailfish in the ocean since my fishing
prowess is unquestionable.
Dear Diary
It's 4:00 in the morning and later today we will be crossing back
over the Equator and back into the Northern Hemisphere for the remainder
of our trip. It seems strangely about as exciting as an old hat at this
point in the trip. Last time was our first crossing and who can't be
excited about their first. Also that was during our first long ocean
passage from Mexico to the Marquises and we were nearly a 1000 miles
from land. Now as we watch the numbers on the GPS roll back to those of
our home we're less than 120 miles from the coast of Brasil. Physically
one day from the world and much much more used to being out here. Still
it is a milestone and unless you start south of the equator or do some
interesting routing through the Pacific and the most dangerous part of
SE Asia, you must cross the equator (twice) on a circumnavigation. After
crossing the line in the water, that must be seen to be believed, we'll
set our sights on the last big milestone, the canal. Well I got to right
here in this entry when the wind decided to kick up 10 knots, turn the
boat 70 degrees and also start raining. We've got full sail up so I
spent the last 10 minutes furling in some of the jib, and taking some
power out of the main hoping this little rain shower would pass and not
build too the point I'd need to reef the main. This is common here near
the equator for us, and even now the wind is back down to where I wish
it was more. So it goes.
Obregado Brasil!
Means Thank You Brazil in Portuguese. Compared to previous stops on
this trip, Fortaleza was pretty uneventful. We didn't really do any
touring or go and check out the sights. We didn't meet many new people
or do a bunch of work on the boat. I recall feeling that maybe I should
do some of those things after the third day of sitting under a palm tree
next to the pool reading and drinking ice cold beers. But then I
thought. . .nahhhhh. This was the first resort that we have been at on
this trip and I fully enjoyed all the amenities. The buffet, the pool,
the awesome club sandwiches at the pool, the Antarctica beer that was
chilled down to below freezing so that it would be just a little bit
slushy when you got it. All in all it was a pretty chilled out stop. The
only thing that we kind of needed to get was propane. Apparently there
was no place in Fortaleza where the American threaded propane bottles
could be filled. We are down to one half of a bottle, and it is going to
be really obnoxious if we run out during this passage and can't cook
anything. Good thing we have so much snack food.
Leaving Brasil
Our time was short there, less than a week. Especially after just
crossing the South Atlantic, with only a fews days of stops in St.
Helena and Ascension. Favorite thing had to be the "meat festival."
Basically a huge buffet where they also have guys walking around with 20
different kinds of meat on skewers, right from the grill. After weeks
without good meat and little fresh food we gorged ourselves that night.
I remember being still full in the morning. Also it rained much of the
time there. Being so close to the equator and also just east of the
Amazon that's expected though. It rains hard and it's seeming always
overcast and humid. All you want to do is dry out and go do something
where there is air conditioning. The hotel/marina had a pool, snack
grill, breakfast buffet, and free internet that we could get out on the
boat. It was nice to relax without having to worry about the boat and
waking up at all hours. Either way we had to keep moving to be able to
get back on time. Would have liked to see other cities, or maybe go up
the Amazon a bit. Next time. The winds have been flunky. No trades as we
were hoping for. Right now it's light out of the NNW but since we left
it's been lighter, to almost nothing for lots of the time. So we've done
a bit of motoring. We forgot to get another gaff in Fortaleza to replace
our broken one, so even though we are fishing, if we catch something
we'll have to get creative to get it in the boat. Next stop is Bonaire.
Good diving and part of the ABC islands. Should be getting into lots
more of American boats doing the Caribbean circuit there. That will be
an interesting change to our very international last year.
More pictures for your enjoyment.
Wow, we have been on the dock for less than 6 hours and we already
have our new pictures from the crossing up. . .we need a raise. During
the passage, Matt has been busy choosing, editing and describing
pictures from the last month or so. These cover a bit of South Africa,
St. Helena, Ascension and some pictures of fish and sailing.
In Brasil
Well we've crossed our 3rd and final ocean. We arrived in Fortaleza,
Brasil this morning. Starting at about 8 (end of my watch) on the sky
opened up on us. Tons of rain. I was down below for most of it, but the
word is the visibility was down to less than 60 feet with all the rain.
With all the small fishing boats and other traffic around here it's
quite ideal. But we found the little marina and are Med moored like
everyone else. Walked into a shopping center nearby and got a steak off
a quick little grill place for $1.50. Back to the boat for some free
internet from the marina/hotel and then probably a nap. Looking forward
to the big meat feasts here. Should have picture up later today as they
are all ready just need to upload.
Lost; 40 pound Dorado
Smells of vodka, makes strange sounds, and does NOT come, even when
hooked or gaffed... We lost a monster Dorado. I was on watch and saw the
reel start to spool. For about 10 minutes I worked the fish slowly in
when it would let off tension at all. It was going back and forth at the
surface most of the time so we were able to see the lure and the Dorado
coloring easily. That part was pretty cool. I'm not sure if it was the
line going through the water or the fish, but there was a strange sound
like a bark/squeak every once in a while coming from the fish. We all
heard it, so maybe we're all crazy. Anyways, worked the monster in to
the boat. Had to be about 40 pounds, biggest Dorado and probably best
catch of the trip. Got it's head above the water and dumped some cheep
Mexican vodka in it's mouth. That kinda slowed it down and made it swim
on it's side a bit, but wasn't near enough to kill it. Tried to gaff it
but the monster tore the hook of the gaff pole. Jeff got a glove on and
grabbed the steel leader but as he pulled it out of the water it
thrashed hard (as a big Dorado can do) and got the hook out. We watched
the mammoth iridescent green beauty slide back into the water. I really
thought about jumping in after it, it was that good a fish. After
catching nothing for the entire south atlantic this thing would have
made up for it. Instead we're left with a busted gaff, and the hook on
the lure was severely bent. Next time we're going to shoot it with the
spear gun as we bring it along side. Next time.
Man vs. Marlin (again)
Today we were visited once again by the noble Marlin. About 30
minutes into my afternoon watch I noticed the handline get hit, but it
sprung back, and then it got hit again. I grabbed it, but I could tell
that there wasn't anything on it. Both Casey and I immediately looked at
the fishing pole, because it's lure was trailing just behind the lure on
the handline. Almost on cue the pole bent in half and line started
screaming off the reel. I tightened up the drag a bit, but this fish
didn't want to slow down. About 100 yards behind the boat I saw a big
splash and a tail, but couldn't tell exactly what it was. The line kept
running. Another splash about 150 yards behind the boat. More line. This
time the whole fish jumped out of the water and it was a beautiful
Marlin. By now the fish was about 250 yards out and was starting to slow
down a bit. This was good because the reel was getting so hot that I
have a blister where I got burned. Had it kept on going, I would not
have been surprised to see the reel burst into flames. Anyways, Casey
got most of the sails down so that I wasn't fighting both the fish and 5
knots of boat speed. Then began the slow and tedious task of reeling in
the 14 miles(exaggeration) of line that the fish had just taken. It must
be much easier in professional fishing boats that have fighting chairs
and belts for the pole to go into. We have to wedge ourselves on the
stern using the radar pole for support all the while trying not to jab
ourselves in the nuts with the pole and trying not to fall overboard.
This was a pretty good sized fish and it took me something like 30
minutes to bring him within 30 feet of the boat. Once near the boat, the
fish kept trying to dive straight down and when he went, it was all I
could do just to hold onto the pole. After a while of this game, I gave
up the pole to Casey to take a bit of a break. I don't know what it was,
but almost the minute we switched, the fish took off for the deep again,
went back under our boat and the line must have caught on our keel
because seconds later. . . snap, no more fish. This of course led to me
blaming Casey for losing my fish and Casey saying that it was my fault
for being such a pussy and not being able to reel the fish in my own
self. Before it left us, I got a pretty good look at it and it was
longer than I am tall, so over two meters. The big mistake that we made
was that we took down too much sail and we should have kept up a knot or
two of boat speed. This would have prevented the fish from heading under
the boat. SOOOOOO, there ARE fish out here, they are just a little bit
bigger than we want. Pray for Tuna.
See Birds?
Over the last few nights we've had a group of small birds try to get
some rest on our boat, fighting over the perch on the radar like it's
Jerusalem. I used to read all kinds of books, magazines and blogs on
sailing and something I read time and again was how people knew they
were getting close to land because they started seeing birds. I'm
calling shenanigans on that right now. It may have worked back in Noah's
day but I'm going to file the whole world flooding under the special
case section. We've seen birds all over every ocean, hundreds of miles
from land. So, if you ever find yourself adrift in the ocean and start
seeing birds, unless they're ostriches, you're probably no closer to
land.
Ha Ha, Very Funny
The Japanese long line fishing boat Senyo Maru No. 2 just passed
within 150 yards of us. This is uncomfortably close in the middle of the
ocean. When I passed by I saw that they were actually making a set,
dispensing their line and buoys off the stern. It's Neptune shooting us
the bird and saying, "Look, you are in EXACTLY the right place but
you're still not catching anything. Oh and thanks for your cheap Mexican
booze jerkoff." Either that or our inability to catch fish has created a
safe haven under our boat which has become legendary among the
international fishing community. We are Atlantis to those fishermen. Now
we're running parallel to this long line with the buoys passing closer
and closer. Intuition tells me we should cross over it somewhere between
buoys since we have more windage and should be drifting downwind faster
than the set. Murphy tells me that it's already hooked on our keel, prop
and/or rudder, creating the largest rats nest known to man. We'll find
out in a few hours when they come to retrieve it.
One year ago today.
Exactly one year ago we were crossing the Equator on our way to the
Marquesas from Mexico. That point is roughly 14638 miles East of us.
.and it is also 6483 miles West of us (the whole sphere thing). That
means that we have averaged moving 41 miles a day West. We have been
moving much quicker than that ever since we left Australia. By my
calculations, since November 4(left Australia) we have been averaging 55
miles a day West. That doesn't even account for the 3000 miles of
latitude we have sailed heading around South Africa and back up. All in
all, we have done a shitload of sailing in one year, and still have a
shitload to do if we are to get back to Seattle by August. We are right
now 999 miles from Fortaleza, Brazil and are averaging 5.0 knots. ..
putting us there in just over 8 days. Hopefully our candy bar cache
lasts.
nightime
Few excitements out here. Last night I did get to watch a pair of
birds fight for who got to poop on the solar panel. One landed for quite
a while. Grey with black tail feathers. Must not see a lot of humans
with headlamps on as I was able to touch his tail feathers a few times.
The sounds they made were an interesting frog playing a kazoo kinda
thing. Wind is up to something reasonable, moving at our usual average
5.5 now. But with the last day and a half at well under our average I
believe we're owed a few 7 knot days. Stands to reason.
Come on!
I'm halfway through my morning watch and every few minutes the water
around the boat erupts with flying fish. I've got hand line and the pole
out but haven't had a nibble. Something down there is chasing those
flying fish. I mean c'mon! This is getting ri-goddamn-diculous. Our
fisherman friend Mike off Eshamy suggested making a sacrifice to
Neptune. I couldn't decide whether he'd like a Matt or a Jeff better so
I went with the next best thing, some white cane alcohol we bought in
Mexico. It's pretty awful stuff. I hope didn't offend but it's all we've
got. I offered it up with a little speech comparing and contrasting his
greatness to our lameness. This if the first time I've done anything
like this and if it works I'm afraid I may have taken the leap from
extrastitious to superstitious.
Descending on Ascension
We arrived at Ascension Island around 2am Tuesday morning. We checked
in once all the necessary offices opened and wandered around the main
town of Georgetown and Long Beach bit before heading back for an early
night. Ascension is a bit smaller than St Helena and while many Saints
work on the island, the atmosphere isn't nearly as friendly. Oh yeah,
the web cam was a bit of a let down as well. It pointed to the pier head
and wasn't updated very often so the chances of actually seeing us were
slim. Pierce from Thunder hitched a ride up from St Helena with Noel on
Tigem. They arrived in the early evening so had them over for a relaxing
dinner. Wednesday was our big day. We'd organized a tour of the Green
turtles that lay their eggs on Long Beach during the evening. We wanted
to rent a car to drive up to Green Mountain but there was only a 2
seater available. We were disappointed because this was the only full
day we would have on the island. We were lamenting to the lovely Susanna
at the conservation center and she spent about the next half hour
wrangling us a ride up the mountain. This was awesome because it would
have been a shame to miss Green Mountain. Most of the island is barren
volcanic rock and soil but Green Mountain is an oasis with a cornucopia
of lush green invasive plants introduced through the years. We hiked a
couple of the trails, up to the dew pond and highest point on the
island. It was beautiful to say the least. In some of the clearings
clouds would fly right in between us like fast moving fog. We walked
from Green Mountain back to Georgetown which was a pretty good trek but
it's nice to stretch the legs before a long passage. In the evening we
had our turtle tour. Our guides took us down to Long Beach and we got to
watch one of the huge females laying eggs and then burying her nest.
Then we got to see a bunch of the hatchlings making their way out of a
nest out to the sea. It was amazing seeing all these turtles out of the
water and getting so close to them was really exciting. Hopefully Matt's
pictures come out. It was quite dark out but he's generally pretty
clever with a camera. You can probably read more about the above topics
online somewhere but I didn't see anything that related the story of the
war on the rats. This is how I heard it. Someone introduced feral cats
to the island to take care of the rats. Then the cats started decimating
the sea bird population. What to do now? Why, call in a team of kitty
assassins from New Zealand of course. I didn't know such a thing existed
and frankly I feel a bit cheated by my high school guidance counselor.
I'm still unsure whether they advertise in Cat Fancy or Soldier of
Fortune. Apparently they're effective because there's no more feral cats
on the island and a few less domestic ones, collateral damage I think
they call that. The rats are still there, that's a different team I
guess. I suggested they try cobras this time so look for those next time
you're headed to Ascension. I better wrap this post up before it becomes
a novel of its own. We're on the way to Fortaleza, Brazil right now.
Only 1457 miles to go and we'll be done crossing oceans for a while.
Elite New Zealand cat poisoning squad!
Back on the move for our last big passage. Once we get to Brasil
we'll be fairly close to land for the remainder. Ascension was great.
Did a nice 2 day whirlwind tour but the island is small and only has 900
people so you don't a ton of time. Came into the anchorage at about 2 am
and set the hook before getting a few hours sleep. Then at about 8 am we
put the duchess together and went to shore. Only shore there is either a
nasty beach break onto sand and rocks or the "stairs" near the pier
head. Just like St Helena there is no dock, just concrete right to the
water. You get the dinghy close and grab one of the big rope hanging
above the edge. Then one of us would take the dinghy out and tie it up
to the floating moorings and swim back to the steps. First day we walked
around to all the offices and checked in. After the passage and getting
in late we were pretty beat so we just grabbed some hamburger (which is
called beef mince in this part of the world) and headed back to the
boat. A boat that left just before us in St Helena also came in that
afternoon (yes we were faster) and we had them over for a nice meaty
spaghetti sauce, green bean casserole and garlic toast. Day 2 was
walking day. Walked halfway up a small cinder cone near town to some big
guns from around WWII. All over the island are these cinder cones. Huge
hills of volcanic gravel. Later that day we got a ride up to the top of
the island, which is called green mountain. It's about 3000 feet. We
hiked around on some trails up there. Water is an issue and about a
hundred years ago they found a spring up there only it was on the wrong
side of the island from the town. So what did they do, tunnel under the
top of the mountain to get it to the other side. Also a huge concrete
hill to catch and direct rain. Then there was the pipe that goes the 7
miles to town. Most of the island is bare volcanic gravel with a few
trees and bushes but the top of the mountain is cool and wet so there is
all kinds of growth. It's so wet that we're were in the clouds a lot of
the time and couldn't see the coast. After that we walked back down the
mountain to town. We tried to get dinner but you have to tell them the
day before so we just got to watch people eat. After dark we met up with
a turtle guide who took us out to watch the green turtles come ashore
and lay eggs. About 200 a night and each turtle lays more than 100 eggs.
Only 1 in 1000 will live to come back though. Once they have dug the
hole and are laying eggs, you can come close and watch. Something about
they go into a trance at that point. After all the eggs are in, the
turtle fills the hole back in so you cant really tell. There were big
holes all over the place but those were for abandoned attempts, the real
nests you can't see. So the hatchlings stay there for a few weeks and
then dig sometimes more than a meter out. We got to see lots of them on
the beach heading for the shore. Those had been laid weeks ago but the
turtles do this for a few months each year. Otherwise they go to Brasil
to eat. How they find their way back is just amazing. Like salmon, they
will go back to the same place they were hatched. Did see a few donkeys
in town. We were told they are kind of pests and will sit outside a
house at night and bray until someone comes out to feed them. Today was
just checking out and reading old magazines at breakfast. Then a little
snorkeling around the boat before stowing everything and pulling up the
hook. All in all a great little tour of an interesting island. Everyone
there has to be working or just visiting, else you have to leave. So it
was a different feel than St Helena. The people we're friendly but not
quite as much as on St Helena. Anyways, I saw Casey typing and epic so
this might all be redundant but maybe a little different perspective.
Brasil in about 12 days. Fortaleza. Here's to hoping we get to slaughter
a fish along the way. It's been a while and a dorado would be mighty
tasty about now.Oh yeah they had a rat problem on Ascension. So they
brought cats. The cats ate all the bird eggs instead so they had to call
in a team from New Zealand to come kill the cats. Some innocent pets got
hit too which didn't go over well. But if you ever have a cat problem,
you know who to call.
Volcanic Island number Two.
We are anchored in Clarence Bay, Ascension Island. The island itself
looks pretty barren, with lots of red and black volcanic soil and rocks.
The beach that we are anchored off of is called The Long Beach and right
now it is Sea Turtle egg laying season. They say that every night
somewhere around 200 Sea Turtles will climb up on the beach and lay
their eggs. We walked on the beach today and it looked like there was
massive carpet bombing with all of these foxhole sized holes everywhere
and the tracks of HUGE turtles heading back into the sea. Tomorrow night
we are going on the tour and are hopefully going to see some turtles
laying their eggs. As for right now, Matt is cooking spaghetti and meat
sauce (we bought some frozen ground beef today on shore. . .awesome) and
making up some famous garlic bread. Other than that, we might rent a
car(actually I should say rent THE car) tomorrow and tour the island. I
hear the entire tour takes about a half a day. Hasta.
I can see the island.
We have about 30 miles to go, but the island is clear on the horizon.
Kind of lumpy with one bigger peak. It is 6pm and we have roughly 6
hours before we are there, so we will be anchoring sometime around
midnight. The anchorage looks really straight forward and not tricky at
all. If it were tricky, we would be hanging out offshore all night and
then continue in in the morning. We will continue to call them on VHF
channel 16 as we get closer. No matter what, we will be on land by
tomorrow sometime. Oh, and I almost sliced the tip of my thumb off today
while I was chopping onions. Just a second of my mind wandering along
with a funny wave on the beam, and slice, instant blood fountain. I was
able to finish cooking my Chinese fried rice with a big bunch of paper
towels pressed over it and it has finally stopped bleeding. It really
isn't very bad, i am exaggerating, it is just inconvenient. Now I am
going to have to wait for a day or so before I can play the Game Boy
again. .. damn.
Webcam on Ascension
As mentioned earlier, there is a webcam on the island of Ascension
that looks out upon the anchorage. I have no other information about it.
You should be able to find it by going to the Ascension Island website:
www.ascension-island.gov.ac
The Sailors Reward
Our Atlantic crossing so far has lived up to all the tales we've
heard about the South Atlantic. In one word, pleasant. The fishing has
been poor. I think we pissed off Neptune by bragging about our luck in
the Indian Ocean. Hopefully we'll get back on his good side before we
get to Brazil. The sailing itself has been phenomenal, especially on
this St Helena to Ascension leg. When we left St Helena we set the jib
out with the pole and haven't touched it since. Occasionally a dark gray
cloud will blow over us, we'll start to push 7kts and get a sprinkle of
rain but nothing compared to the double-reefed torrential downpour
squalls of the Pacific. The weather is warm enough that night watches
only require shorts and a t-shirt and there's enough cloud cover during
the day to keep the heat bearable. No where near the blistering heat
that marked the beginning of our Indian Ocean crossing. The waves are
big enough to know we're offshore, not making any meals that require
more than 2 pots at a time, but we're not getting pitched out of our
bunks. Things may change on the second half of the crossing but right
now we're enjoying some utterly fantastic offshore sailing.
as the world turns
Ugh. We forgot our book with all our boat documentation and passports
back in St Helena. We really need that. So we've turned around and are
looking at about 6 days into the wind. Just kidding. All is well. Easy
pleasant sailing. No fish still. What is it with this place? Should be
in Ascension in about a day and a half now. Still using just the poled
out jib that we set when we left St Helena. I figure not a single sail
change in 5 days is pretty good.
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Casey McNeese, Jeff Stewart and Matt Smith. All Rights Reserved.