Mark
03/19/2010, Home, Discovery Bay

Fri, 19 March. Wednesday morning we left the Zapatillas about 8:30 and motored toward Crawl Cay Canal. There was a slight wind (on the nose, of course) but I wanted to motor through the Canal anyway as I remembered seeing some VERY skinny water (like 5'+) on the way out. I plotted an alternative route that according to the chart plotter, had at least 10' all the way. As we approached Crawl Cay, Deb stayed on the bow. Despite the overcast, it was actually very easy to see the deep water channel and the shallows. We ended up taking a direct route through the area and were able to stay in 50' or so of water most of the way. We never saw less than 18'. I had my “bread crumbs” turned on and converted the Track to a Route, so we now have all the way points to lead us through the channel, no worries. Once we were safely in deep water of Bahia Almarante, we raised sail and turned off the engines. We were only going 3+ kts, but we had plenty of time. As we crossed Dolphin Bay, the wind actually picked up to where we were making 5 kts. Nearing Ron & Cynde's house, we dropped sail and motored up to their dock to tie off. While Deb joined the women in Majhong, Ron & I off loaded the kayaks and the other things they had left behind. We then pulled the outboard off dink and put it in his boat to take to Almarante tomorrow. That night we had meatloaf with Ron, Cynde, & Capt. Ron. Thursday we left early to go to Almarante. Ron & Cynde had an appointment with an itinerant veterinarian to have their two old dogs and their new puppy checked and get shots. This vet has an office in Changinola, but travels around in a specially outfitted van to make house calls, or in this case meeting them at the fuel dock and treating the dogs right in his van. Pretty cool. While they were doing that, Deb & I got groceries to restock out larder at home. We also refilled all 4 gerry cans with diesel (we used about 50 gallons total for the whole trip.) and dropped off the outboard to be repaired. Back at Ron & Cynde's house, we went swimming and floated on floaties again. That evening was their traditional Bar-B-Q and we had ribs this time. Capt. Ron and Marianne, a lady from Bavaria who lives in Tierra Oscura now, joined us. It was truly the end of the cruise as I used the last of the mojito juice (simple syrup with mint), the last of the rum, and the last of the ice to make the first two drinks form Ron & myself. (He had more rum so we could continue the mojitoes.) This morning there was a pretty good wind from the W, which was about 90* to our course home. (Finally the wind gods decide to favor us!) We raised sail as soon as we were off the dock and had a great sail all the way home. Fairly slow (3-4 kts.) through Dolphin Bay, but up to 7+ kts. in Bahia Almarante. I hadn't forgotten how to dock at Discovery Bay (It invloves coming in and doing a 180* turn to end up port to the dock with the aft half of the boat against the dock so it is easy to get on and off.) Our house is in good shape and now we are unloading. Deb's dogs all came to greet us. They are painfully thin again, but that won't last long now that Deb is back! I guess the trip is really over. It has been great, but it also feels good to be home.

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Mark
03/17/2010, Cayos Zapatillos

Tuesday, 16 March. The sun burned red this morning. That is supposed to be an ill omen. It means “weather” to the E. Perhaps it means wind! There is a very slight breeze from the W, but we don't have that far to go (36 nm.) so we might just as well fire up the engines and go play motor boat again. We were underway by 7:30. Realizing that it was still relatively early and that we would be traveling along the length of the island that supposedly had lots of fish, I put out two lines. As we passed the end of the island, the breeze built to 10 kts. apparent. That is only about 6 kts. true, but I have learned that 10 kts apparent, from at least 30* is enough that raising the main will add at least a ½ kt. to our speed, so that is what I did. We motorsailed for about an hour. The wind was shifting N which meant I had to fall off our desired course to keep it at 30* apparent, when it suddenly shifted about 80* - to NNE. Since we were headed WNW, that put the true wind almost 90* to starboard. Since it was still less than 10 kts. true, the apparent wind was about 11 kts. @ 60*, but with full main and gennie, we were making 6kts. through the water and 5 kts. over ground. (There is a 1 kt. current along this whole coast.) It was a beautiful sail. The seas were calm and the sails were full. And then I caught a fish! It was only a small tuna, but enough for supper. I 'fileted and released' it as we sailed along nicely. By 1:00 PM we reached the Zapatillas. Not bad – we averaged better than 5 kts. and almost all of it under sail, first time we had that good a day sailing on the return trip. We were early enough, we could have continued to home, but the Zapatillas are beautiful and we wanted to extend the trip one more day, so we found a nice spot in 10' of sand with clumps of coral all around – too deep to cause problems if we swung, but nice to snorkel right off the boat. It was sunny, the water was calm behind the barrier reef that fronts the two islands here, and there was enough breeze to keep it cool – or at least not hot. And fresh seared tuna for supper. What a way to end a great trip. Tomorrow we will go to Cynde & Ron's house so Deb can play Majong and I can unload all of Nystrom's stuff and also see about getting the outboard to someone who can fix it. Then we will be back at our house for a month or so before returning to NH to open the house to sell this summer. I will not be doing daily updates as I have done during the trip, but will post occasional entries when I have something to say.

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Mark
03/16/2010, Escudo de Veraguas

Monday, 15 March. This is what retirement is all about. Today we decided to just spend the day enjoying Veraguas. The island that had been so marginal when we anchored here on our way out, is just beautiful in the calm. Again today there is no wind and the seas are flat. We took the kayak and continued our exploration of the S coast, working out way W. We visited several tiny beaches tucked into the overhanging sandstone cliffs. With jungle all around. It was really amazing. Deb again found lots of shells and plants to bring back. Thankfully we don't have to clear into a different country on return or we would never pass inspection with all the plants and seed pods we have! After lunch I hung in the hammock and Deb quilted. We took the floaties and beer and relaxed behind the boat. Deb laid in the sun in the net, I returned to the hammock. We swam some more. We had drinks. It was a great way to spend the day.

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Mark
03/14/2010, Escudo de Veraguas

Sunday, 14 March. As predicted, it was a pretty rolly night. While we were watching “Lost” on DVD the boat was lurching all over the place as the wind had dropped and the swell was hitting us broadside. It calmed down some overnight. By morning there was no wind and the sea was flat except for a remaining 2- 3' swell. We decided to leave for Veraguas while it was at least not an unfavorable wind. We were under way by 7:30. By 8:30 there was enough wind to make raising the main worthwhile. The wind was really from the SW, but with our forward progress towards the NW, the apparent wind was only 30* to port, enough to make motor sailing worthwhile, but not enough to sail. We continued this way the whole distance to Veraguas. Since we were essentially in blue water, crossing from the mainland to an island, I thought it might be worthwhile to try fishing (which had been futile so far). It put out two lines and half way across, I got a hit on the hand line with the fake fish on it. What looked like a decent sized tuna jumped into the air and then was gone. Maybe it was only a barracuda, but it looked fatter. In any event, it was not going to be our supper tonight. We arrived at Veraguas about 1:00 PM. The sea was dead flat with only 3-4 kts. of breeze from the W. We started at the far E end of the island and worked our way W until we found this nice secluded beach that it looked like we could anchor off. We had to dodge a few coral beds on the way in, but we ended up anchored in 10' over sand with plenty of swing room. There were two other boats anchored on the W side of the island, but they were more than 2 nm. away. In front of us stretched a beautiful deserted beach, accessible only by water and several sandstone cliffs dropping right to the water's edge. We took the kayak in and explored the beach. The waters off the beach had a gazillion fish. All about 1½” long, they were so dense, they looked like grass on the bottom. I mean, we had a mass of fish about 3' deep, 10-25' wide and about a quarter mile long. As I waded through them, some type of large predator came through scattering them as he went. I'm not sure what type of fish it was. It was fatter than a barracuda, not as flat as a shark, but large, 3-4' long, and silvery. And the fish didn't like it. After Deb had collected shells and plants, we got back in the kayak and paddled along the shore. We were able to just barely drift over very shallow coral in some places to get into little isolated bays. In one spot we found dozens of fish vertebrae. No obvious reason why they were there, just lying in 2-3' of water near the shore. We met some folks from one of the other boats who were exploring by dinghy (but could not get into the shallows like we could). They were from Maine! They, too, had been to Kuna Yala and were headed for Bocas. We talked for a while and gave them a few pointers about Bocas and then continued on. At the far E end of the island are several small cays strung out amongst the coral. As we paddled around them, some not even 100' in diameter, it was amazing how one edge would be 3” deep and the other 10-15' deep. Really quite a cool area. Back at the boat, I floated ankle tied behind the boat with a beer while Deb laid in the sun in the net and read. What little wind there was had shifted and we could see the anchor chain wind back from the kellet (which was anchoring us) along side the boat to the anchor that was totally buried right behind the port stern. As long as it isn't buggy, this will be a great anchorage.

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Mark
03/13/2010, Rio Calovebora

Saturday, 13 March. It started out benign enough. I got up ~6:30 and our 'neighbor' was long gone – I couldn't even see his mast on the horizon. Probably headed for Veraguas (48 nm.). As I was making coffee, I heard a splash and then another. I looked and about a dozen dolphins were jumping and splashing going in every possible direction. I guess they were circling fish to heard them into a 'fish ball' that they then take turns diving through eating as they go, but there were several babies involved and I think they were just jumping for fun. By the time that entertainment had ended, the coffee was done and as I sat in the cockpit with my first cup, the howler monkeys on shore woke up and had quite a conversation. We were facing the shore, probably a left over of last night's breeze. There was no wind. When I checked email and weather on the SSB, NOAA actually predicted 'light and variable' winds today. Hey, they got it right for the first time! Well, not actually. By the time Deb was up and we had eaten breakfast (blueberry muffins), there was a building breeze from the W. We were, of course, headed W. I raised the main and with one engine we were soon making 5+ kts. @ 30* apparent with 13 kts. of wind. Not bad. Until it got to be 20+ kts (?light & variable??). The angle was such that if we pointed to Veraguas, we were making 6 kts., but pointing to Calovebora (where we were intending to go), we were only making 4+ kts. That made the TTG (time to go) almost equal. Maybe we should go the Veraguas instead and skip Calovebora. Except for one thing: the wind is blowing from the W and Veraguas has NO protection from the WSW. Calovebora doesn't have much, but it should still be safer. So we fire up both engines and motor sail at 4-5 kts. for Calovebora. Long day. I sure am glad I checked the primary fuel filters this morning. They were nearly plugged so I changed them both. That makes this motoring feel better. About noon we suddenly had several dolphin on our bow wave. We were making 5.5 kts. at the time and apparently that was enough of a bow wave that they enjoyed playing in it. They darted back and forth nearly bumping each other and occasionally bumping the hull (or were they rubbing against it affectionately?) Then from nearly a mile away, two more dolphin sped to join us. I'm not sure if they were at full speed, but they were leaping out of the water for quite a distance with each breath. They were not headed towards us, however, they were on an intercept course that took into consideration our speed and direction. Did one of their friends on our bow tell them, “5.5 kts @ 265*” or did they figure it out themselves by watching us? Their plotted course was right on and soon we had 6 dolphin all crossing back and forth under our bows. This display lasted about ½ hour, and then they were gone, just like that. As the day wore on, the wind faded some and clocked to NW, not the best angle for Calovebora, but we were committed by now. By the time we anchored, the wind was down to

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