Take to the sea

The (mis)adventures of two dreamers that do

Islas Las Perlas puzzles

Well, we didn’t crack the code of the Perlas Islands…and I don’t think we’ll be sticking around long enough to really figure this place out. Between the Humboldt current that whooshes around in the Gulf of Panama, the (up to) 17 foot tidal shifts, the strong tidal currents (sometimes exceeding 2.5 knots), the narrow passages and countless submerged (and poorly charted) rocks and reefs, this is a challenging place to cruise. You have to live and die by the tides and currents out here and if the current is nudging you in the opposite direction of your intended destination…it’s better to just kick back and let the current and wind dictate where you wind up.

Cruising with the pack

The pack has come and gone. They flocked from the Caribbean, from Mexico, from Central America. They dabbled along the coastline then migrated to their chosen hurricane holes. Very few cruisers are left in Panama, most crossed to Ecuador or to the South Pacific or transited the canal to the Caribbean while a few chose to scurry up to El Salvador or Mexico. We didn’t realize before we started cruising that sailors follow seasonal cycles much like seabirds, whales, schools of fish. The rhythm, however, isn’t solely dictated by nature, it’s also influenced by bureaucracy, by culture, by comfort.

Passage notes: Isla Chapera to Isla Bayoneta, Panama

I woke up with my head screwed on backwards. I attempted to run the HAM radio net and was upset by the fact that I heard nothing but fuzz when a day prior I had heard everyone with crystal clarity. Fifteen minutes into the dysfunctional net, Jeff casually informed me that it would be difficult to talk to anyone without an antennae, which was still coiled neatly on the transom. Niiiice. 

Passage notes: Panama City to Isla Chapera, Panama

1530 — Raised anchor and motored out of Las Brisas anchorage past all the freighters at anchor – outgoing current helping us

1600 — Raised sails in SW wind (8-10 knots), up to 4.4 knots – J’s shift

1700 — Wind dying out, little lumpy

1830 — No wind, still lumpy – time to motor – 3.5 knots, which is slower than expected – cloudy, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a proper sunset

Stories from a stowaway: Stephanie

When planning a trip to visit friends on a boat, flexibility is key.

There’s just one catch… I don’t speak Spanish. I mean I do, but definitely not enough to, like, actually function. So if my Spanish speaking skills were more than just por favor and gracias, that flexibility factor would’ve been a piece of cake. But since they most definitely are not, and I am a very white, blonde gringa, that sticks out like… well like a white girl in a sea of very tan people, Jeff and Harmony said they would do everything they could to meet me in Panama City. They figured a 3 week travel timeline with about a week buffer built in was plenty generous, but had any of us known the trip to eastern Panama would include mending a busted sail and trudging through many days and nights of very frustrating seas, I’m sure our plans would have been a quite a bit different… But somehow, probably out of spite and pure determination (and we really didn’t have a way of communicating any last minute change of plans) they made it, and Harmony managed to meet me at the airport, along with friend and fellow cruiser, Colin.*

Serenity in the city

I really enjoyed Panama City. It’s a remarkable place with no shortage of things to do, sights to see, things to eat and drink while you ponder all the contradictions. Serenity…well she wasn’t such a big fan of the city. The Gulf of Panama is lovely to look at and the anchored ships are a marvel, but it’s another thing to live in that dirty water, surrounded by rusting giants that belch black smoke and spill waste that leaves a an odiferous slick. 

April 2014: cruising budget

April 2014 cruising budget. I was expecting this month’s budget to be much higher considering we were in the city. But we did pretty okay. A couple quick annotations…

Panama City, land of contrast

Panama City is a land of stark contrasts. Gleaming, new skyscrapers pierce the sky above the crumbling ruins of Panama Viejo. New buildings are sprouting from the ground everywhere you turn, but don’’t spend too much time looking up because the sidewalks may randomly spit you out into an onslaught of traffic or a calf high mud puddle.

Sail repair on the high seas

It’s becoming readily apparent that our main sail needs some TLC. The fabric still has crinkle in it but the threads have all been bleached out by the sun making them defenseless against the wind. Most of our tears occur because the weakened thread works itself loose from the seam. Unfortunately, the tear I’ve come to know as “Punta Mala’s love tap” didn’t just work the threads loose, it yanked them from their holes, tearing those precious holes in the process. When we got to Ensenada Benao and our heads had cooled, we took the main sail off of its tracks and fully assessed the damage. The repair was closer to 8 feet, still huge, and the existing holes were almost entirely unusable, meaning we couldn’t simply sew the two panels back together.

Passage notes: Isla Bayoneta to Panama City, Panama (Las Brisas Anchorage)

Passages are emotional journeys. In one passage you can experience every single emotional state in rapid succession: joy, sadness, pride, love, fear, excitement, boredom, longing, awe, anger, fulfillment, defeat, reverence. When you live and travel on the ocean a moment of complete and absolute beauty can quickly turn into a moment of dread. Feelings of fear can fade into fits of laughter. I can not recall a passage that beckons forth only a single feeling. This particular passage encompassed the whole, messy emotional spectrum. My words can not do it justice.