s/v Always & All Ways

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November in March

05 March 2011 | San Blas Islands, Panama
Mark
It was a yo-yo night. Go to bed and open overhead hatch to get nice tropical breeze, go to sleep, awaken to rain drops, close hatch, go to sleep, awaken hot and stuffy (though not bad as Deb runs her fan always), open hatch to get nice tropical breeze, go to sleep, awaken to rain drops, repeat, repeat, repeat. Morning wasn't much different. Passing showers, some with quite a bit of rain, and a totally overcast sky. This is November weather, not March. The morning net confirms my opinion, we are not supposed to have this weather in March, what's up? Well, the day certainly looked like it was going to stay gray for a bit, so I decided it was a good day to make bread. We are almost out of the Bimbo bread we bought in Bocas and I like homemade better anyway. But all we have is white flour. Hey, we do have oatmeal, but no bread recipes. Let's see. Make oatmeal according to recipe on package. Add some proofed yeast and a bag (14 oz.) of flour, some salt and mix. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add another bag of flour and knead into a good dough. Let rise twice then make into loaves in the only two pans we have. Rise again and bake. Turned out quite good if I do say so myself. By now it was lunch time and the sky looked a bit more promising. Yum, I have left over lobster to make a lobster roll with! Still pretty strong of garlic, but after the first bite or two a very good lobster roll (on a grilled bun of course). After lunch, Deb wanted to take the dinghy to the end of the island and see if we could get inside the reef on the windward side – usually pretty difficult. I figured out that I could lower dink by using my good hand to lower it one stretch at a time and using my left to operate the clutch. Worked fine. We took dink to end of island seeing some gorgeous reef in the process. We made it inside the reef near the end, but still to leeward. Approaching shore it got too skinny and we had to get out and walk it to the beach. There is also a sand bar to a tiny island on the tip that is not even knee deep. (I proved it by walking over and back.) So we walked the beach anyway. This end of the island is so different from the other. The E end (where the Kuna family lives) is totally clear of under brush and even all the flotsam and jetsam is picked up and burned. This end is totally overgrown with thick underbrush and very littered shoreline. The dividing line between the two sections is razor sharp and even marked with stakes. It must be that the family who lives here only cares for half the island and whomever is responsible for the other half doesn't do a very good job. By the time we got back to the boat, it was a bit brighter and we decided to hookah. But hookah did the start and die routine. I give up. He just needs some TLC from a real small engine mechanic and I know he'll be fine, but I am out of ideas. Well, maybe just try a little tweak. Crank the throttle up just a bit. Ran like a charm. Quick, get into dive gear, launch hookah and go before he changes his mind. Had a great dive, no problems. We circled the reef to the E of where we are anchored which drops to 20-30' and has lots of canyons in the coral. Very healthy coral with lots of fish. We did see one lion fish. They seem to be multiplying terribly. Coming back in the far cut, there was quite an opposing current. Not what we needed that far into the dive. I took Deb's hand with my good arm and kicked harder and we made it in just fine. As soon as we turned the corner to the inside of the reef, the current was gone. Easy swim back to the boat over the conch grass. (Yes, Deb did find a couple conch that I could not convince her should remain in the water, so they are now in our fridge.) Deb is making spaghetti for supper (her favorite and I like it too) and it looks like we may even be able to lay out in the net and look at some stars. Turned out to be a pretty good day after all.
Comments
Vessel Name: Always & All Ways
Vessel Make/Model: Fountaine-Pajot Belize 43
Hailing Port: Hancock, NH, USA
Crew: Mark & Deb Parker
About: Mark, an ER doc, retired 10/08 to become a sea gypsy. Deb, an educator, has been retired since 5/07 and was equally anxious to leave the cold of New England far behind
Extra: We now have a hurricane season home in Bocas del Toro, Panama. We still plan on spending many months cruising every year.
Always & All Ways's Photos - Main
In the Spring of 2016, we sailed from Bocas del Toro, Panama, to Cuba and back with stops at the Albuquerque Cays, Providencia, and the Cayman Islands. We cruised the South coast of Cuba some and then left the boat for some inland excursions.
20 Photos
Created 8 March 2018
Cruise of Albuquerque Cays and Providencia, Columbia
19 Photos
Created 12 June 2013
Pictures from our 2012 cruise from Bocas del Toro, Panama, to the Bay Islands of Honduras and back. Posted each time we have internet
2 Photos | 7 Sub-Albums
Created 28 March 2012
Pictures of our home at Discovery Bay, Isla Solarte, Bocas del Toro, Panama. More (older) can be found in Discovery Bay album.
49 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 5 August 2010
Pictures of our recent trip to the San Blas Islands of Panama with friends Ron & Cynde
58 Photos | 3 Sub-Albums
Created 29 April 2010
Pics from the month we spent at some of the out of the way places in the Bahamas, May 2009.
39 Photos
Created 22 June 2009
Birds, animals, etc. that we have seen along the way
14 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures of some of the improvements we have made over the past few months
37 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures from Rio Dulce
20 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures from our travels
29 Photos
Created 11 April 2009