Log of s/v Willowtag:www.svwillow.net,2008://12008-08-24T00:11:27ZHere is a look at life onboard a 34' junk rigged schooner, designed by Jay Benford, built by Greg Krivonak and Bonnie Gauthier. It is a good life.Movable Type 3.3b1Some beautiful places.tag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1352008-08-23T01:24:28Z2008-08-24T00:11:27Z Well, it is now Friday the 22nd of August. We have taken care of all the paperwork needed to...
Here is Jason, getting ready to try and spear a fish or two, not sure of the outcome on this particular day, but likely we did not end up with much. None of us have had great success with the spear guns, ah well; just the same, it is fun to swim around with the intent anyway.
Bonnie is the real water rat on Willow. She is getting very good at free diving now, able to get quite deep for longer and longer times. I tend to spend my time in the outrigger sliding along the surface. Here she is having fun with the cameraman.
Yep, we see lots of sharks out here, but they do not seem all that interested in us. Usually they come by to have a look at us, but then decide we are not of much interest and move on. On the other hand, we have met several local islanders along the way that have some rather nasty scars from shark bites. The young boy on Palmerston, John, had a very recent bite on his calf from a Moray Eel. Luckily it did not clamp down, just took a taste and let go. I am amazed how comfortable we all have gotten around the sharks; they are really fun to watch. A new game I have played is to put a big chunk of fish on a big hook and lower it over the side. We then climb into the water and hold onto Willow and watch what happens. After a few minutes the sharks show up and the show begins. It is really amazing to watch them hit the bait and not let go, not until we haul them out of the water that is.
This is Matt from the boat “Robyn,” doing a superman.
Back on land now, we have a few good pictures from here on Niue. There are numerous caves around the island to climb around in and swim through. Here is Jason after emerging from a cave walk onto the reef.
This is a shot of the mooring field off the west side of the island. It is rather deep and rock strewn for anchoring here, so all of us hook into the moorings set there by the local yacht club. That’s right, there is an official Yacht Club here, certified and everything. They serve cold beer and drinks, ice cream and other tasty treats. Not to mention being a nice shady spot with tables and chairs for us cruisers to take a break and meet one another.
A few more cave shots here. Jason looking a bit small in the cave.
Jason looking even smaller in another cave.
Bonnie is endless in here energy for exploration. Non-stop on the go. Niue was a good place to rent bicycles and spend days riding around to see what is out there.
There I am. I gave up the camera for a while I guess.
Bonnie and Jason doing a little water ballet for me. Guess you had to be there to fully appreciate the entertainment value. It was very, very funny.
My beautiful and entertaining Bonnie.
That is me in there playing cave monkey. It was good fun climbing around, then getting to jump back down into the cool waters.
Another parting shot of Willow as we look for a good place to anchor. Bonnie is up on the forward sail bundle getting a better view down into the water for coral heads and the like. You can also see the outrigger canoe stored up on deck. We did not move far that day, in protected waters, so, left the dingy trailing astern and the canoe just set on deck.
Well, there you go, a bit more to see I guess. Will likely be a while before the next update. We should be in Tonga within 3 days then to Fiji by the end of September. We will be moving onto the delivery catamaran and heading for Thailand by the 5th of October or so, but will try to keep up on our movements as I can.
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Plan of the next few months.tag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1342008-08-22T19:33:41Z2008-08-22T19:43:52ZBelow are some pictures and words giving a quick look at what Bonnie and I have been up to the...
Below are some pictures and words giving a quick look at what Bonnie and I have been up to the past months. There is always more I want to say and other pictures to show you all, but not this time. We have been on the island of Niue for about a week now and are preparing to leave in the morning (Saturday the 23rd I think it is). So, I will keep this one short in order to do the few things on Willow that need doing.
At the moment it is actually completely cloudy here, gray and rain are the order of the day it seems. Should not last all that long judging by looking at the weather reports we can find on-line.
The next stop for Willow will be the northern islands of Tonga. We will have about 3 weeks or so to spend there and then we have to move on to Fiji where we will haul Willow out for the cyclone season (about 6 months). Fiji was not the origional plan, New Zealand was. Things changed quickly when we were offered a job helping another couple deliver a 60' catamaran from Fiji to Thailand.
That is the future path for now. Fiji to Thailand on another boat, then working in Thailand on the boat doing a bunch of maintenance and rebuilding. Beyond that is a complete unknown. We are always looking for interesting jobs as we move around, so if anyone has something in mind for us, let us know.
For now we are content with out situation and are looking forward to Tonga in a few days.
OK, good morning from us on Willow. Until next time.
Friends in the South Pacific.tag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1332008-08-22T04:32:44Z2008-08-22T05:02:04Z Getting pictures of all the beautiful people we meet is not as easy as it may seem. Many people...
These were on the island called Raraka, in the Tuamotus. That is a young Greater Frigate bird that has no mama. So, this little girl has taken to caring for it.
Also on Raraka. This fellow is grating up coconut for a meal being prepared for us visitors.. There is a wooden paddle he is sitting on with a metal, serrated tool attached to the end that does the job.
This dude was funny. He had some crazy stories. One of which was getting attacked by a guy in Tahiti wielding a freaking machete. The got chopped in the neck and had a huge chunk of the meat carved out. He laughed when he told that one.
A brother and sister swam out to visit us on board Willow. Very peaceful, respectful kids. The simply wanted to say hello and share some coconut with us in exchange for a look inside our boat.
This is the man that tattooed both Jason and I when in Huahine, French Polynesia. Half of his face is covered as well. Very interesting fellow.
That is Jason’s brother Alex, with a local sweetheart, and Alex is a pretty big guy. Just to give you a little perspective.
Jason’s other brother, Trevor with a local fisherman in Huahine.
Ben, Matt and Camilla in Riatea, with some of the local creatures we met on a walk one day.
A visitor to Willow one morning for coffee.
On Palmerston now. From the left is Simon, John, Shekinah and Yvonne. These were some of the folks that were our hosts while we visited there.
David, my good buddy while on Palmerston. He showed us all how to most easily break into coconuts and carve out the meat. Bested us all at spear fishing and was an all around good young man to spend time with. He works nearly 12 hrs a day it seems. Fishing with his father or uncle, then cleaning the fish, then the coconut breaking to feed pigs and chickens. He is 12 years old.
Other kids on Palmerston.
Jason and Matt getting a coconut-shucking lesson from David and Johns father, Edward.
This is John again on Willow, a wild little man.
Shekinah visiting Willow, quickly found the coolest seat on the boat.
This was back in Papeete, Tahiti. It was the night Jason, Matt and I played some music downtown and earned a few dollars. These kids all sat there around the guitar case as the change piled up. Instead of pocketing it, they arranged it in neat piles according to value, stacked and counted.
This picture has nothing to do with locals we have met, I just saw it and remembered as being a very good days sail from Riatea to Bora-Bora in very light winds. That spinnaker was given to us in Mexico and not seen much use. In calm seas it works great and does a bit better than the junk foresail, However, in general we have not found it to increase speed much, relative to the aomount of work needed to get it set up. Perhaps we need something a bit bigger.
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The Outrigger Canoe on Willow.tag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1322008-08-22T02:26:45Z2008-08-22T02:51:41Z There has been a new addition to Willows fleet of vehicles. I mentioned it earlier I am sure, but...
There has been a new addition to Willows fleet of vehicles. I mentioned it earlier I am sure, but really want to say a bit more about our Vaka (that is in Marquesian, Va’ a’ in Tahatian and “Wa ka” in Cook island talk) We would call it an outrigger canoe in English. Above you can see how we put in on deck while at anchor and using it often. When under way I take it apart and store the “ama” or outrigger hull on the other side where the inflatable kayak is.
Now that I think about it, we really have quite a few toys on board Willow. Lets see. There are 3 surf boards, one Vaka, on inflatable kayak, our dingy, two kite boards, three big kites and two small training kites, two guitars, a mandolin, a ukulele, a drum, ahh, that about covers it I think. We do not get bored out here.
The Vaka was bought from a local guy in the Marquises, and it would not even float then due to the many holes in it. So, I got a really good deal. It took me several days to put the thing back to gether, but the result was just fine. Below is the sequence of shots as I first re-launched the thing and went for a test spin.
You can see some of the patchwork on the ama where I had to glue and re fiberglass it back together. All I needed was a can of white spray paint to finish the job.
These rigs are very, very tippy if you lean away from the ama. But they are a beautiful thing to paddle. Fast, quiet and made for the shallows inside the reefs of these islands. It is like floating in a dreamscape when in clear water and only 6inch between you and the life of the coral.
I did OK, but definitely flipped over several time at first. Eventually you get the hand of the thing and I am pretty stable now. However, I always carry a bailing bucket with me, always. Again, below you can see the unpainted patches in the deck of the vaka. That was my work and it all seems to be holding up. The bottom of the boat needed most of the work. It looked like the previous owner surfed it onto some rocks.
The whole set up only weighs about 30lbs; thus, it is a rather delicate thing out of the water. I have punched several holes in it already while bringing it up and down from the decks of Willow. My technique is good now and have not had any mishaps for a while.
Besides just heading out for a long paddle around the atolls and islands, we often take it out to a good snorkeling spot. It is easy to drag around and let other take a break from swimming. Here is Jason taking a breather from spear fishing.
Jason also has an underwater case for his camera and thus can get some unusual shots.
Here are a few pictures taken by our friends Kay and Craig from their boat Little Wing, a 28’ Bristol Channel Cutter. We are anchored off of Bora-Bora. Bonnie is getting good at the canoe as well. That is her heading over to say hello to Kay.
It really does feel like you are floating in air when the water is this clear and calm.
Well, that is about it for canoe pictures. Have to focus on getting more of them. I have paddled kayaks most of my adult life and love them. However, these outrigger canoes are more to my liking. They are not as well suited as kayaks for rough waters and quick maneuvering, but they are fast. It is a whole different skill set when using a one bladed paddle to control everything. The canoe is 24’ long and only about 17’ wide at the widest. Without the ama, it would not sit upright. It is rather difficult to turn quickly because these designs are built to go straight and fast for racing.
I suppose if I had to choose one sport boat to have on board I would probably go for a kayak due to its versatility and heavy weather abilities. Luckily, we do not have to choose, we can do as we please. It seemed like a fun thing to try out while sailing the waters where these water craft seem so at home.
After a few cans of spray paint the rig looks pretty good. It could really use a big sanding and repainting, but I will just mess that up with the way we use it. So, that is all I will do for now.
The parting shot here is of Bonnie and I heading up a river into the middle of Riatea. Sorry you cannot see Bon better, more of her later, promise. We still use the dingy all the time, mostly just to get to the beach, but also for touring around together. But the canoe is way faster that the dink and outboard.
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Bring on the Musictag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1312008-08-21T22:29:20Z2008-08-21T22:51:12ZOnce again, my lack of journal keeping has left me at a bit of a loss as to where to...
Next is a good shot from the island of Huahine, part of French Polynesia. Our audience was a bit thin at this point, but picked up later on as the sun set. Here I am, with Jason Rose in the middle and his brother Alex. Bonnie is just behind Alex there. Most of the island towns we have visited have some sort of central area that is open for all to sit around in the shade and do whatever it is they want.
Jason Rose has been our steady companion throughout the South Pacific. He is sailing single handed on his boat Bodhran. (www.jasonrose.com).
Here he is working on a song with Bonnie. She is getting much better at the guitar thanks to her perseverance and Jason’s coaching.
There was one night in Tahiti that really stands out in my memory. It started out with a bunch of us sailors headed downtown in Papeete with the instruments in tow. Matt, Jason and I set up on the downtown waterfront and took a shot at earning some beer money. There were lots of people wandering around. As it turns out, American folk/country/blues draws a lot of attention. We ended up with about $70 in the guitar case in front of us. Unfortunately, in that town $70 is enough for two pitchers of beer, only just enough.
None-the-less, we wandered around until we heard some great music coming from an alley bar and had a seat. These local guys were awesome musicians. We sat for a while listening. Then, as usually happens someone calls us in when they see the instruments. I jumped in with the mandolin first, and gave it a go. Not to bad, but the island style of music can be very fast for me.
Jason and Matt jumped in there and we had an event. The three of us would do a song and they join in, then they lead and we try to follow. These fellows were really good. They had no problems figuring out what we were playing and added a huge new sound to all the songs we had been playing together for months. Well, the evening went on and more people crowded into the place. Pretty soon there were hundreds around, often singing along with whatever songs they knew.
That was a very, very fun night. Then we had to make our way back to the boats, and that took a while at 2a.m.
Here we are back in Huahine. There were many yachts anchored with us and most of them came in to shore this particular evening to see what would happen on a Friday night. Well, much did happen. We ended up working our way down the street stopping and playing wherever anyone seemed interested. These guys were just standing around their truck and asked for a song or two. Jason and I obliged them.
While playing at the truck another fellow came by and pulled us along to his fishing boat for some more tunes. They were commercial fishermen and just back from a long day on the water. All were in good spirits and we all took turns with the guitar and singing.
This is a more recent shot, taken at Palmerston Island, a very unique place to say the least. We spent 10 days there. Every morning Edward (blue shirt in middle) would pick us up in his boat and haul us in for a coffee and chat. Then, we would all get to work on the list of things that they asked us to help them with. We fixed heavy earth moving equipment, solar panels, generators (actually, could not fix the generator, needed a part); Jason was able to be a huge help to many of them with their computers and other electronic equipment. Bonnie taught the kids how to fly our big kites (made here a real hero for sure). Matt fixed up all of the broken bicycles lying around. Ben got some video cameras running and the list goes on.
Now, it was not all work. Every day they set out a huge meal for all of us. Followed by another coffee and music of course. Here Jason and I have a go with Tere and Edward.
These are some shots from several months ago, back in the Tuamotus Islands. Three or four boats anchored up away from the village and had a beach fire and music. Lets see. There was Willow, Bodhran, Ariel, Just Do It (German couple) and Robin (British boat).
It was a spectacular night.
Here is Matt off of “Robyn” having a go with his guitar.
Well, that was the quick tour. There were many more nights we played and mornings and afternoons, but do not have pictures of it all. I wish I had more and will try to take more as we go. We have met some fantastic musicians and have been luckily enough to play with them and learn from them. Hopefully there will be many more good times to come.
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Galapagos to Marquisestag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1302008-06-07T01:08:49Z2008-06-07T01:54:12ZIt is difficult to know where to begin just now. Bonnie and I have been very, very bad about getting...
So, I am going to skip the time spent in the Galapagos for now. It was very cool to sail there and get to see some of the things we have heard about, but was also a disappointment in many ways as well. It has become a rich mans destination and not at all welcoming for cruising boats to go and look around. The officialdom there was at the height of annoyance and inefficiency, we were happy to haul the anchor and set sail for French Polynesia. In keeping with tradition we tipped some local rum into the sea as a tribute to whatever gods you wish to see us safe across the most remote piece of water on the planet.
Our 3,000nm passage from the Galapagos to the Marquises was as ideal as you could ask for. We were never without wind to fill the sails and it was usually about 10-15 knots, which made for very comfortable conditions the whole time. The trip took us 23 days, which is not bad for our size boat. There is not much to say about the passage really, it is like entering the twilight zone for a while and then re-emerging in another world. A beautiful world where the locals speak French and Marquisan and the landscape is truly a fantasy world. Here is Willow at anchor off of Fatu Hiva, the first island we visited. Next is "Bodhran and Willow off of Fatu Hiva."
The team. Bonnie, Greg and Jason take on the South Pacific.
Bonnie about to jump off a cliff.
Bonnie at the top of the road on Fatu Hiva.
There is really too much to describe, even when trying to do it months after it happened. I fear I am not good about keeping a running journal although I wish I were. We certainly have the time to keep one going, not sure why we are so bad at it, perhaps I will come around. So, first we visited Fate Hive and just enjoyed walking and swimming and not being under way for a while. The language barrier was a problem, but not a terrible one. I seem to have a knack for body language and stringing together words from four languages until I get the point across. It is amazing how a little Spanish, English, Tahitian (I was studying Tahitian on the passage, although Marquis an is different, they usually get the meaning) and French will do for you.
The Marquises is truly a tropical paradise. We were constantly given gifts of fruits of all kinds that are simply falling off of the trees. The generosity of the locals gave me hope that not everywhere in the world is completely driven by financial gain. How often have we as Americans met a complete stranger on the street and invited them back you our place to meet the kids and parents and share a meal, right then. The happened to us all the time, especially when we had the guitars and mandolin with us.
That has been the greatest thing for us. With Jason Rose (www.jasonrose.com) as our sailing companion now on his boat “Bodhran”) and his endless songs and guitar playing, me on the mandolin, Bonnie with her guitar and smile and whomever else happens to be with us, well, we are a show for the locals. At first our hosts are a bit shy, however, once they get used to us they take the guitars for a bit of song trading. It nearly brought tears to my eyes at times to listen to these people sing. I would have to say that these are some of the most musical people we have met, anywhere. It seems everyone can pick up the guitar or drum and make beautiful music, never mind how they sing.
So, the music has been the best form of communication we could have. Everywhere we go, we simply have to take the instruments with us and we are asked to play a bit and that leads to feasting and laughing and more friends.
The little girls everywhere love Bonnie. It never fails, as long as she is alone (no men around her, she has a following of laughing girls. Here she brought in the computer to show them some pictures.
Our next stop was the island of Tahauata and a village filled with artist’s renown for their carvings. What a great place this was. It was mango season and they were literally falling down and hitting you on the head. We were given stalks of bananas, limes, pompamouse (spelling a bit shoddy there, but is similar to grapefruit, though not as bitter), guavas, coconut and breadfruit. This was a truly peaceful place. We would go in and sit at the central tree basically and play some songs while the locals worked on their carvings and weaving or simply relaxed to talk a bit. I could see staying in a place like that for quite a while actually, but we had to move on. As Americans were only allowed a 3 month visa and there is a lot of water to travel in three months. I did get my first shot in one of the super fast racing outrigger canoes here and I was hooked. Also was taken surfing with two younger guys in their outrigger boat set up with outboard and all.
A local friend shows off his work.
Oh, before I forget, another boat from Bellingham met up with us there. Gordon and Jeannine Wunder on their boat “Vari.” I worked with Gordon and Western Towboat out of Seattle and got to help him a bit on building Vari, I count them as good friends and feel grateful to know them. They are currently anchored near us here in Tahiti.
The place we spent the bulk of our time in the Marquises was on the island of Ua Poa. There is a surf break right there in the anchorage and a canoe building shop on the beach and a town full of fantastic people. We ended up staying there for over 3 weeks. Lets see, we surfed a lot, nearly every day. I ate roasted horsemeat, with breadfruit cooked in a coconut milk sauce, as well as some chicken that was running around a few hours before hand. I bought an outrigger canoe here. It was old and beat up, but the price was right. The only problem was the color, bright red, not really my style, but there were no options. It took a bit of work to patch up, but is looking fair enough now.
Ahhhh, and then there was the music. We played on the streets, on the beach; in the back yards and front yards of people we met, wherever we could. These were some of the best times I have ever had while cruising. I did not get a tattoo here, but I should have. Unfortunately the tattoo artist had injured his hand pig hunting and was out of commission, oh well, next time I reckon.
Well, this is enough for one sitting, my backside is getting numb now so I must move. I will get some more words and pictures up before leaving Tahiti. Hope all are smiling as much as Bonnie and I are.
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Ecuador, Puerto Lucia to Bahia de Caraqueztag:www.svwillow.net,2008://1.1292008-02-11T15:36:52Z2008-02-11T16:24:36ZPuerto Lucia to Bahia de Caraquez Many months have passed since I last put anything up here, sorry. I suppose...
The flight was fine; we had a driver meet us at the airport for the 2-3 hour drive out to La Libertad and Willow. The marina Willow was hauled out in is called Puerto Lucia Yacht Club. There are very few cruising boats there now, as compared to the many we saw when we arrived back in May. Willow was in relatively good shape. It took a lot of scrubbing to get all the boat yard grime off, but that was not a real big issue. The only moment of panic for Bonnie was when we saw the extent of the mold that was growing down below. It took a while to get the full picture soon realized that it was not as bad as it seemed. Actually, it was pretty bad, but Willow is not a very big boat, so the problem was manageable.
While Bonnie attacked the mold issue, I got right into dealing with getting the bottom paint on the hull and all the other assorted jobs that needed doing concerning the mechanical and electrical systems. It was four days of solid effort to get everything under control and put to rights. Bonnie was heroic in her cleaning and organizing efforts with the reward of getting Willow back in the water relatively quickly. It is not much fun living on an ocean cruising boat while hauled out in a working boat yard. The first night in the water was a good one, we were home and all was right in our world.
It took us several more days to get Willow re-provisioned and a re-rigged. Not to mention that we were back in cruising mode, so, there were many long breaks between tasks to just sit around or talk story with some of the other cruisers in the yard. One couple we became fast friends with were Mark and Brandi Fox, owners of the boat, “Restless.” They were also out of the Pacific NW, Seattle to be exact. They are two very fun and generous people. We feel privileged to call them our friends now and were sad to say good-bye after knowing them for only about 10 days. They were headed back to Seattle for 6 months of work now, so we will not be seeing them in the South Pacific this season, but I have a feeling we will be seeing them out there in the future. Thanks for everything Mark and Brandi, we enjoyed sipping tea with you.
OK, we were ready to go, just needed to get the necessary papers from the Port Captain. The process of moving around foreign countries in a vessel flagged elsewhere is often a confusing mess of paperwork. Ecuador is no different. Basically, the officials do not really know what to do with small cruising boats. We do not fit into their system as a motor vehicle, nor do we fit the slot set up for big ships, like tankers. At a loss for what to do, each Port Captain or Customs official simply chooses which ever one he likes the best at the time. The port official we needed to deal with likes to treat small boats as if they were tankers, including the mandatory use of an agent to do the paperwork. The agent costs $200 dollars, plus the other fees involved. That is steep considering we simply wanted to move 100 miles up the coast, not leaving Ecuador at all.
The issue at hand for us to base our approach to the situation was the fact that the use of the agent is not official policy anymore. It has been official stated by the big bosses that the agent is not necessary for small yachts. Well, the big bosses are up in Quito, a long way off, and the Port Captain is right down the street and he is the boss here. So, for other cruisers out there considering heading to Ecuador and Puerto Lucia in particular, here is what we found out and what we did.
The agent is officially not required, but the Port Captain here requires him anyway. We spoke with a yacht there in Puerto Lucia that had just come up from Peru. He was ending a 9-year circumnavigation and seemed very savvy when dealing with this sort of thing, plus he spoke fluent Spanish. He wanted to check in and out of the country at the same time, as he was just there to pick up crew. After learning that he was going to be charged $200 dollars by an agent that was not really required, he very aggressively took on the problem. Apparently the customs official basically harassed his female crewmembers, as did the health department official. In his words, it was nothing illegal or physical, just many rude, sexual comments. The cruiser ended up calling the US Embassy to see what could be done. In effect a US flagged vessel was being held against its will and against the law, not to mention the harassment.
The embassy folks called the Port Captain and learned that according to him the issue was the computer system that was in place. It was the usual shit. In order for him to be able to check a boat into and then out of the system he had to fill in all of the blanks on the computer, and there are a lot of blanks. Now, we could fill in all of the blanks our selves of course, all but one, the agent’s code. This is a common thing, even in the US in regards to the big shipping paperwork. Basically, there was nothing the embassy could really do. The big bosses made a statement that the agents are no longer required, but according to the Port Captain, no changes were made in the computer system to allow for it. That is his argument and he is sticking to it. The above-mentioned cruiser made a formal complaint against the Customs and Health fellows, but it remains to be seen if anything really comes of it. In the end, he paid Roque, the agent, $100 for his services and got the hell out of there.
Bonnie and I heard all of this info before we even met with Roque and were determined not to pay more than $100, less if possible. Karla, the fantastic lady at the marina, did most of the dealing with Roque. She seemed frustrated at having to deal with all of the mess the officials were creating, but was very kind and friendly to us. We could not get around paying the $100 for a national zarpe. The situation is what it is, and it is not the United States, with everyone having someone else looking over their shoulder to keep an eye on things. Actually, from what I have heard from non-USA cruisers trying to sail into the States, the nightmare of officialdom there is far, far worse than anything we have dealt with all through Latin America.
We chose the path that would for sure get our boat and us out of that port with the least dealings with the officials. Just like everywhere else, there are the good guys and the bad guys; La Libertad seems to have most of the bad ones. Aside from the money, it was an absolutely painless process for us. Now, we only had to deal with the Port Captain for a zarpe to another port in Ecuador. If you plan on checking out of the country there, you will have to deal with all of the above mentioned assholes. That was a big part of why we have chosen to sail north, back to Bahia de Caraquez for our final preparations and paper work before heading west and south. Not to mention that it is a very cool spot to be for a while.
Our agent gave us this calender/poster he had made up for publicity. That is his son at the wheel apparently. Hmmmmmm.
The owner of Puerto Amistad, in Bahia de Caraquez is an American named Tripp. I have not met him yet, but have heard nothing but good about him and his willingness to help us cruisers out. He knows all the issues at hand and how to deal with them. The officials up there seem much more reasonable towards small cruising vessels.
OK, that gets you all up to speed on the official dealing down here. We thought it was going to be a problem, it turned out to be no problem at all. One piece of advice I will give, since no one can stop me from giving it, is this; if you pull into a place like Puerto Lucia Yacht Club and expect things to happen for you as if you were back in the states, I promise you, they will not. Yes, the fees are steep there, yes, we are paying for a service, but no, the employees are not our servants. The people working in the boat yard earn about $15-$20 a day doing work you cannot or do not want to do yourself. I tip them all well and evenly, say hello all the time, and help them on a task if my help is useful. They all became good friends and were always willing to help me when in need.
One person you for sure want to be good to is Karla Espinoza, in the little office out in the boat yard. She speaks English quite well and seems to be the one running the show concerning the needs of the boats there. She is the one that can make happen all you want to have happen, or not. I saw nothing but a smiling, ultra helpful woman, but have heard that she is no push over and can make your experience there as miserable as you are probably making hers. Bonnie and I are low maintenance people and our boat is low tech, our needs were few and perhaps that helped our situation out a bit.
The funny thing about how we are treated is that you can never be all that sure if anyone is actively doing something to thwart you, or just plain bad luck. One cruiser there on a big boat has hired a crew to paint the hull. Apparently this fellow is a huge pain in the ass to everyone there. I met him and he definitely has what I call the “center of the universe” complex. In his mind everyone and everything around him is his to use or abuse at will. Well, his boat has been sitting there for months now all sanded and prepped, but no paint has touched it. There is always a good reason why no paint has hit the hull, but the weeks go by and all the fellow can do is kick and scream, at no one. I suppose he could paint it himself, but I am thinking that is not the sort of job for someone that commands the universe to dirty himself with
I will end my rant there and get back to cruising on Willow.
Puerto Lucia north.
Here are the GPS numbers for the spots we have anchored on our way north from Puerto Lucia. We have been in search of waves to surf and also to simple check out every nice looking spot as a potential anchorage.
Ayangue: 01* 58.9’ S
80* 45.3’ W
Ayangue is a small beach town about 15 miles north of Puerto Lucia. The beach was crowded with weekend sun seekers and the bay is filled with small boats on mooring or anchored. We anchored outside of the fleet and close to the north side of the entrance in about 16ft of water. Bottom was sand and the anchor stuck hard. Should have dropped a stern hook to keep us pointing into the swell entering the bay, but it was not all that bad really. Would probably not be a great spot if a really big swell were running.
Montanita: 01* 49.3’S
80* 45.5W
Dramatic headland and a big party town for travelers. Also a well-known surf destination in Ecuador, and there were waves. Anchored to the south of Punta Montanita in about 30’ of water. Bottom seemed like sand and good holding, but that was all the spot has going for it as an anchorage. In order to get into water shallow enough to anchor we had to be rather close to the beach break, and it was big. I did not really sleep at all that night as I listened to the wave thundering just a hundred yards away. Of course, if you are looking for waves to ride, that is the price. In the morning I paddled over to the point break to have a better look at the surf. It is a beautiful wave as far as waves go, but getting into the big and powerful realm in relation to my level of experiences. But I went anyway. I got creamed a few times, but also got some good rides. The bigger sets were downright unnerving, but managed to get out of their way before taking them on the head. Soon the local crew of surfers came out and I soon paddled back to Willow. Those guys probably ride that wave everyday and they were all over it. We got out of there to look for a calmer spot to play.
Isla Salango: 01* 35.6’S
80* 51.6’W
Fantastic spot on the north side of the island. Anchored in 25’ although there is coral all around the spot. The bottom slopes quickly down away from the beach, so we had to get fairly close to the beach to find good depth. Centered on the white sand beach seemed to be a good spot with more sand than coral. Very cool place. Steep trail to top of island. Bonnie headed up to look at the thousands of birds making the place home. Several tourist boats with divers came out, all were very friendly
Salango: 01*35.4’S
80*50.6’W
Anchored in 25’ just outside of fishing fleet to the north. Would probably be better protection in big swell to the south, but a bit crowded with big shrimpers and the like. Very peaceful spot with an awesome long beach, very small town. Beach landing is just that, a beach landing. There was no spot better than another, just depended on the swell and how badly you wanted to get ashore. I watched the locals come and go for a while before heading in, had no problems. Had a great meal at Restautante Pelicano. The owner, Ivo, we met out at Isla Salango while he was running a dive trip. Very friendly fellow and good food, but probably not the cheapest in town. There is a cool little museum on the north end of town focusing on the history of the people in the area. It is one of the oldest settlements on the coast, super friendly people. My Spanish is improving out of necessity. Virtually no one speaks any English at all.
La Playita: 01* 38.8’S
80* 50.3’W
A fantastic bay just around the point from Salango. No name for it on the chart but enclosed by Punta Mala to the south and Punta Los Piqueros to the north. We tried anchoring closer to the Punta Mala side, but was all smooth rock and boulders so had to move around. The position above is well off shore in 35’ and we had all sand. I swam around and towards the beach to see what there was to see. Was good depth way inshore, but lots of rocks on the bottom. Would be a good idea to swim around and find a sandy patch to set the hook. Punta Mala is supposedly a good point break, but the conditions are fickle and need to be just right. I was tempted to paddle into the waves breaking there, but on closer inspection realized it was shallow rocks where the wave looked good. Must need a bigger swell to break further out. Nice beach, dramatic geology. Apparently the last nesting beach for sea turtles in Ecuador.
Puerto Lopez: 01* 33.5’
80* 49.1’
Dropped the hook in 40’ again outside the fleet of smaller vessels. Did not really look around for a better spot to anchor as all seemed good bottom. Again, super friendly people. When I got to the beach a bunch of kids came up to say hello. They did not ask for anything, as was the norm up in Mexico, just wanted to sit in our little boat and laugh. I asked them to keep my boat safe and a good thing to. As I was headed back to the skiff after some food and shopping I saw my crew bailing the boat out. I guess I did not pull it far enough up the beach and a bigger wave crashed over the stern and took it off the beach. They hauled it back up and were just finishing cleaning out the sand and water when I showed up. They were all telling me the story and laughing. I did give them all a tip at that point and they were psyched. Now I have my own posse of 6-10 year olds when I hit the beach. That works out fine with me, as my Spanish speaking skills are probably that of a 4 year old. I know our dingy will be safe from now on. Lots of restaurants and little stores.
Well, that gets us up to date. I am writing this on Willow anchored up off of Puerto Lopez. It is early morning and Bonnie is still up forward asleep. There is a light rain falling that seems to be the norm for the mornings around here. The mist gives landscape around us depth and texture, in contrast to the brightly painted buildings of the town. I can hear water trickling down the hoses of our rain collection system into our water tank. We have been able to collect enough water this way so we have not had to break into the jugs of water we loaded in Puerto Lucia. The temperatures here just south of the equator are surprisingly mild, in the 70’s to low 80’s most of the time. However, when the sun does burn through the clouds, it is intense. We hide from it most of the day and are thankful for the overcast days that have become the norm here.
An often-asked question by folks back in the states is: “What do you do all day on the boat, don’t you get bored?” No, I sure don’t and Bonnie does not seem to either. I have been sitting here writing for several hours now, sipping coffee and listening to some music, content with my spot on the planet. Bonnie has since woken up and is now sitting across from me reading a book on sea birds while also sipping coffee. She can do that for hours on end. Later we may go into town or at least to the beach to look for the birds she is reading about. We swim a lot, every day and it feels good.
Few cruising boats stop in at the places I have mentioned above so we are somewhat of an event. The fishermen coming and going from their labors often motor by us to take a look and say hello. Yesterday the entire crew of a big shrimp trawler swam over to say hello. All six of them climbed into our little skiff floating astern of Willow. I did my best to chat with them while Bonnie listened from below, intent that I practice my language skills. Eventually they invited me back to take a look at their boat. I jumped in and swam back with them to meet the captain and have a look around.
That is the sort of thing that may happen at any time, and it is fun to be part of.
Bahia de Caraquez.
Well, we arrived in Bahia de Caraquez about 12 days ago and I have still not put anything up on the website about it. This is a beautiful spot with about 20 other cruising boats at anchor here. Many we know from Mexico or Central America, which is a great thing. We have taken care of the last jobs and provisioning on Willow and are ready to head out for the Galapagos tomorrow morning, which is the 12th or so of Feb.
Bonnie is an awesome at getting the needed items for our trip from town and back to Willow. Her Spanish skills have become very good now and she is comfortable heading out and tracking down all the things we need. I have been spending much time on Willow taking care of all the little projects we had to do. Everything is running fine now and we are anxious to get moving.
So, I need to get this on the web site now and then take care of a few more things before the morning high tide that will float us over the river bar and out to sea.
I will write while underway and hope to give a good account and pictures once in the Galgalapagos.
Hello to all and keep in touch. Greg and Bonnie
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Escape from the Northwest gray.tag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1282007-10-26T18:12:48Z2007-10-26T18:32:20ZWell, just to give a quick update as to what Bonnie and I have been up to the past months,...
Well, just to give a quick update as to what Bonnie and I have been up to the past months, here it is.
After about two months in Pennsylvania visiting my parents I hopped on the Amtrak train for the three and a half day ride across the country, back to Seattle and Bellingham, WA. I was greeted by a cold, gray wet sky that has really not let up in the past 3 weeks. The occasional sunny day felt like heaven on my pale face. Bellingham is where we built Willow and have all of our closest friends. It has been good to see everyone and hear all the news I have missed. But I am ready to make a move to a warmer clime and continue working.
Bonnie has been in Michigan with her family for 2 months now and I miss her terribly. However, the separation is coming to an end when she flies in on Tuesday, just 4 days away. We will spend a little time here so that Bon can say hello to everyone and then we are both off to Hawaii and work. Two of our best friends, Bob and Cary Derringer have settled there. Bob is a general contractor and Cary has returned to graduate school. It is thanks to their kind hearts that we get to go there. We will both be working with Bob on some construction projects for the next two months. Of course it will not be all work. They are both committed surfers and we will be happy to join them in that. Thanks Bob and Cary, see you soon.
The plan is to be returning to Willow in Ecuador at the start of the new year. There is not much work to do, but some. Once we are back afloat we intend to move Willow a bit further north to Bahia de Caraques as a home base. From there we will be doing some inland traveling around Ecuador to see more of that beautiful country. Then, we will set sail and point the bow west for the Galapagos Islands and continuing on into the South Pacific. We are both very excited about the upcoming travels and are only just able to prevent ourselves from heading back down right away. Alas, we are in need of a few more dollars to make it all happen, so we do what we have to.
I will let you all know how HI is treating us as we go, but again, please drop a note to let us know someone is reading this. Either way, I will continue writing, I enjoy it. In fact, I sent an article to "Latitudes and Attitudes," a cruising magazine, and they accepted it. Not sure when it will make it into print, but will let you know.
Good luck to everyone with everything. Greg and Bonnie
Summer story.tag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1272007-09-04T03:42:40Z2007-09-04T03:43:45ZIt has been many months since I have written anything here, but there is a good, solid reason. The idea...
It has been many months since I have written anything here, but there is a good, solid reason. The idea of this was to give a look at life on Willow, cruising. Well, Willow is still in Ecuador, staring in the direction of the Galapagos Islands and the South Pacific while Bonnie and I are up north, thousands of miles away, chasing a few dollars to get us back there and keep going.
I have since reconsidered and decided to give the full picture. Bonnie and I are not really part time cruisers, it is our life, as is the need to work (although not much really). While I miss our home and life on the water, our work world is not all that bad either. For example; We flew back from Ecuador in the middle of May, 2007. Bonnie already had a job lined up with her past employer, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, or IPHC to save me the typing. It is a pretty cool job, most of the time. We have both done this job for many years now, it paid for the building of Willow and continues to support our lifestyle.
Basically, Bonnie flew up to Yakutat Alaska and hopped on board a 70' commercial fishing boat, owned and crewed by Canadians, all chartered to perform a stock assessment survey. The boat heads out and sets long line gear, in predetermined spots, repeated every year for many years. They move about, fishing, hauling, dressing (that is gutting) and icing the fish. The bioligists on board are taking all relevant info from the fish caught, i.e. size, sex, maturity, that sort of thing. All this info, and there is a lot of info, is eventually used by the folks back in Seattle to determine the health of the fishery. How they do all that based on the numbers we collect is for someone else to explain, perhaps on their website actually. It sounds sort of cool, and it is except for the bad weather, blood and guts and various and assorted other potential problems. The upside is that we have had the chance to see places that we would never have gotten to see otherwise, plus we were getting paid to do it, nice.
So, that is what Bonnie was up to for about two months, right up until she came down with a nasty case of pneumonia and ended up in a hotel room, alone and suffering miserably in Kodiak, AK. She is one tough woman. After giving the antibiotics a few days to stabalize her very serious condition, she hopped on a plane and spent two awful days traveling, to end up here in Pennsylvania, with me, and my folks. She was absolutely worn out and slept for days, but slowly recovered and is now doing great.
My summers employment began in a bit warmer climate, Hilo, Hawaii. We have two good friends living there, Bob and Cary Derringer and he offered me a job, place to stay, cars to use and surf boards to ride. All I had to do was water their plants (which was rather easy as they are all outside and it rained some every day) and take over the job Bob was doing before he they headed back to the mainland for a family visit. I was working doing the finish carpentry work on a house Bob had built (he is a contractor there). It was fantastic and I regretted leaving, but my next stop has been just as nice.
I have been in PA, helping my parents remodel the home they just bought. My sister and husband, Kathy and Mike Dearborn have been in the process of building a new home. They will be moving in with their three kids in a month or so. Graciously, they have found some work for me to do and been willing to pay me for the labors. I wish I could hang out here and work for free, but alas, we do need a few dollars to make Willow go. At the moment I am finishing up all the jobs they had in mind, I have perhaps only one more week of work and I am not really sure what will come next, but all will be well I am sure.
On that note, if there is anyone out there reading this, I am available for employment and I will do just about anything, anywhere and smile the whole time, so send me a note and tell me where to go, I will be there. That is a serious offer and I am in need. I am trying to get out of the work I have been doing the past several seasons (crew on tug boats) to find other options for future work.
We will be heading back to Willow when we feel the bank account is topped up enough for the next leg of the voyaging, to the Galapagos Islands and into the South Pacific.
Time to go to sleep now. Please say hello, anyone, just because it is fun to meet new people.
Try either. svwillow@svwillow.net
or hawkjunction@hotmail.com
Greg (Sept. 3)
Willow hauled out in Ecuador.tag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1252007-06-01T21:36:35Z2007-06-15T15:43:14ZWell, it has been many weeks since I last posted some words here, sorry. At the moment I am sitting...
Well, it has been many weeks since I last posted some words here, sorry. At the moment I am sitting in a hotel room near the University of Washington, Seattle. Bonnie is finishing up the week long training session she must go through for her job with the International Pacific Halibut Commission. The benefit for me is getting to stay in this very plush hotel she is put up in for the week. Our life goes from one extreme to the other actually. This is the type of place we would never stay in if it was left up to us to decide and pay for. That said, let me back up and let you all know what we got ourselves into since Panama.
Willow departed western Panama bound for Ecuador in good spirits and good condition. The passage left a bit to be desired as far as winds were concerned, but we made it in good time anyway. We initially headed WSW, bound for Isla del Coco, Costa Rica. This is an island several hundred miles offshore from Panama/Costa Rica, and said to be an extremely unique habitat for all sorts of creatures. Well, we never made it there. As we moved further south and west, we began picking up current, directly opposing us. It was not at all unexpected, in fact we were sure we would run into it, just not as strong as we encountered. Basically we ended up with a 2+knot current on the nose, in addition to the only winds out there were 10-15, also coming from exactly the heading the island lay on. Put the two of them together, then add up the potential hull speed of Willow, even at full throttle with the motor, and you get a very straight forward answer. NO WAY! We actually got within 80 miles of the island. But what a long 80 miles it would have been at 1.5-2 knots, you do the math. We could have made it actually, but then would have burned up all our diesel with no real idea as to whether or not we could get more at the island.
That said, we fell off and headed SSE, bound for Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador. Tara was of course within 10miles of us this entire time, always in contact on the radio. They agreed that the island was not happening this time and off we went. Now, we were expecting to have relatively consistent SW winds once we turned for Ecuador, which would have been ideal, considering we were so far west to begin with. Well, SW was no longer the norm for the week we spent out there. Day and night we had Southerly winds, much to our chagrin. That, in conjunction with the current setting us back east as well made for a very rapid loss of ground to the east and the coast of Columbia. Never fear, we were so far out there to begin with the we did just fine and made land fall about 20 miles north of our intended goal.
After about 6 days at sea, we dropped the hook north of a headland called Cabo Pasado. This worked out nicely, as three other boats we knew were already there. Not just boats we knew, but people we particularly liked to be with. There was Damen and Deseree on "Gia", Jan and George on "Clair de Lune", and Herme and Jack on "Iwa". Plus a fourth boat we got to know called "Wooden Shoe", skippered by Susie and crewed by fantastic young woman named Joy and an Argentinian lad who's name escapes me at the moment. Anyway, we had a fun few days there before moving south into Bahia de Caraquez and a lot more boats.
We spent about a week in the bay dealing with port officials and the like. Ecuador is a beautiful country, populated by some of the friendliest people we have met anywhere. I regretted the fact that we needed to keep moving south to get Willow to the haul out yard in time for work dates and the like, but that is exactly what we needed to do. One boat in particular we got to know and hope to continue to know is called "Malalika" (hmmm, I think I have the spelling correct, if not, so sorry and will correct it as I can). Anyway, Chris and Lynn are the owners, from South Africa, and they are good company. We spent several nights on board their boat laughing, in addition to a one day surf excursion just north of the bay. I hope Chris and Lynn are in good stead, where ever they are and hope to catch up with them in the future for some surf at Mompiche.
Well, I am writing all this without looking back. So, if there are gruesome spelling and grammatical errors, sorry, I am sure you can figure out what I intended.
After many farewells and a few extra beers to be sure, Tara and Willow headed out of the bay in company with a boat named, (here is a big one) Quetzequoatal. We sucessfully navigated the bar and made it out to deep water with no problems.
I NEED A BREAK RIGHT NOW. Cannot keep up the pace, plus I want to find some pictures to put here as well.
To wrap things up for now, this is where Bonnie and I stand at the moment. Bonnie will be flying to Alaska very shortly to get on board a Halibut fishing boat for several months, to work. She will be part of a very large stock assessment survey going on to help manage that particular fishery. It looks like she will be working the waters of Prince William Sound as well as areas east of Kodiak Island. She looks forward to this every year, as there is wildlife beyond what many may even be able to imagine.
As for me. I opted out of the cold water and cold weather work this summer. I am flying to Hawaii in two days to begin a construction job on the Big Island. As luck would have it, two of our best friends, Bob and Cary Derringer, live there. Bob is a contractor and has need of someone to help out while the two of them visit family on the mainland. Actually, Bob does not seem to really need help from anyone, with anything, but I am glad he likes me and is willing to throw some work my way. So, I get to do his job, look after their house, drive their car and hopefully use one of their surf boards. Not a bad deal really.
Enough, I wish all friends peacefull days and laughs. More later.
Last words from Panama.tag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1212007-04-20T01:58:54Z2007-04-20T21:20:25ZWillow and Tara left Golfito, Costa Rica, hmm, about two weeks ago. We spent a few days surfing at a...
Speaking of good fun, we met another couple on a 50’ Sparkman Stephens, about to complete their 5-year circumnavigation. The boats name is “Julia” the crew, Larry and Ken. Their claim is to have been the first gay couple to circumnavigate the globe by sail (and motor of course). They have had several articles written about them around the world looking for challengers to the claim. They are a riot and very generous on top of it. We pulled out the kite boards and surfboards and got whipped around the anchorage behind their super fast skiff, once again taking some hard falls, but laughing the whole time.
Larry and Ken had endless crazy stories of adventures on their travels. As it turns out Turkey was one of their favorite spots, go figure. Guess we will have to get there some day. We met them at anchor off of Isla Parida, out in western Panama. It is the first good-sized island you would run into after leaving Costa Rican waters. The islands out here remind me a lot of the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest. A big difference would be the heat, iguanas, monkeys, and palm trees, that sort of thing. A similarity is the rugged beauty of the area and the often-present rain clouds amongst the distant mountains inland of us. There are rocky islets everywhere, submerged rocks to keep us on edge while moving around, and fairly big tidal exchanges. The tides are something we did not really have to think about up in Mexico, being only a few feet. It is definitely useful to pay attention down here; the result of not doing so would be an accidental careening in the middle of the night while at anchor.
Boca Chica, Panama.
Well, as it turns out, western Panama is not as remote as we thought it would be. Here we are, anchored up in the entrance waters of a very large river/estuary system and there is a fishing resort here putting out a wireless signal, who knew. It is a very small fishing village called Boca Chica. (08°12’.9N, 82°12’.4 W) That is the GPS position. Go ahead and Google Earth it, I think it will be a really good picture.
Here are a few of the local watercraft anchored off of Boca Chica. Most boats we see the locals cruising around in are made of fiberglass these days. However, we certainly see some very old dug out type craft still moving through the water.
Here is Willow at anchor about half a mile from Boca Chica proper. The sunsets are usually very nice up there as a result of the light cloud cover to add some dimension to the sky.
Here is a group of Panamanians just back from a day at one of the hundreds of islands in the area. It seemed they were all a huge family unit, off to celebrate someone’s birthday. They were all in that boat, and no, they did not have enough life jackets for everyone.
They did, however, have some food, on the hoof, so-to-speak. Yep, you have heard the iguanas are eaten down here and it is for sure. Why not? We have seen more of them than any other type of land animal, and they can get quite large. The coconuts are the back up when the beer runs out I think.
Yep, amazing creatures. Wonder what it is thinking right now.
This place is owned by a Canadian, named Jorge (pronounced horr-hay). That is his real name, not a Spanish version of George or anything. He opened this place up just a few years ago and it was great fun for us. Beers cost 3 quarters, cheeseburgers (good ones too) are 8 quarters. You may think, right, typical American, beer and burgers. Fine, I accept that. The reality is that the food since leaving Mexico has left much to be desired. Not sure why that is. They have the exact same raw ingredients down here as up there, but do not seem to put them together in the fantastic ways the Mexicans did. So, I try burgers out when ever they are on the menu, which is not very often.
Bonnie and I are very content here in Panama. There are good people everywhere, all
willing to talk and teach what they know about their world. It has been a bit warm here, and humid, but we can handle it. At the peak of the heat we just hide out in Willow, take frequent swims and fresh water showers. It helps for about 15 minutes, and then back to the heat. One new daily event as of southern Costa Rica and now Panama is almost daily rain showers in the afternoons or evenings. These are usually preceded by an unearthly lightning show with the necessary thunder for dramatic effect. Before heading south for Mexico nearly two years ago we added a rigid awning over the cockpit on Willow. I built in what is effectively a gutter set up with two drains in the low spots for rainwater collection. These have finally become useful after 15 months of cruising along the coastal deserts of Mexico and Central America. We simply plug a hose into the drain/spigot and the other end into the water tank. The result is tasty fresh water, without having to haul around jerry jugs from point A to B and so on. It seems we will be getting a lot more rain over the next few hundred miles south and I look forward to it.
Isla Seas
OK, to get us up to speed, let me jump forward a few days. Willow is now anchored off of Isla Cavada, in the Secas group of islands. We left Boca Chica yesterday morning and made the 15-mile transit in really good time. We had 15 knots of wind on the beam or slightly forward of it. That gives both Willow and Tara over 6 knots of boat speed, which is really fun. (Probably should have hauled the skiff on board instead of tow it, but all was well. It actually surfed down some waves and passed us, but stayed upright and no problems). We were getting lazy and complacent, but no longer. We had an awesome sail into the anchorage. Got to show off a few of the beauties of how junk rigs can be handled. Willow flew around the northern point of Isla Cavada, plowing a frothy bow wave in the clear blue waters. As we rounded the point we got headed by the breeze, no problem, these rigs actually do sail up wind, contrary to popular belief. We worked our way up into the lee of the island and towards the other boats anchored there. There was a cut, or low spot, in the island that was funneling nice breeze into part of the anchorage. Once we made it into the favorable breeze from the cut and had our spot picked out, we fell off onto a broad reach under full sail, sliding along nicely. Then, as sweet as can be, a calm jibe of both sails. As we head up into the wind, whoosh, Bonnie lets go the anchor, I let go both halyards and the sails drop like a Venetian blind that has come loose from the wall, which is a very handy thing if the wind is really blowing.
As one of the very few junk rigged boats out here, I feel the need to be a vocal advocate of the rig and do a little bragging every now and then. Yesterday’s maneuvers could have been done by any boat, but certainly not as easily and safely. OK, I will step off the junk rig soapbox and get back to our daily lives.
For example, right now it is 9am local time; Bonnie and I are sitting here finishing off a nice breakfast while sipping some Costa Rican coffee. While we do that, we are also listening to the morning Pan Pacific Net on the Single Side Band (SSB). The SSB is the marine version of a HAM radio. Basically we get to listen to people all over this part of the world as they move about. We also check in with the net when we are under way. It has become a morning habit to listen in. One of the most useful aspects of this radio net is the info on wind and sea state conditions. Every boat that checks in gives their position and weather conditions. This is extremely useful to us as we develop our sailing plans moving into new waters.
Willows next big sail will be from here to Ecuador, about 500 miles, but there is a glitch. 500 miles is not that long a passage, if the wind is on the beam or behind us. Well, the passage to Ecuador will be headwinds as well as a very strong opposing current (it is called the Humboldt Current, check it out). The Humboldt Current runs from south to north up the coast of South America at anywhere from 2-3knots. Now, Willow can only go 7knots, and that is only in ideal sailing conditions, usually we make anywhere from 4-6knots, on average. Well, the math is simple there, that give us only 1-3knots of speed made good. Most people walk through the park faster than that. This current has been known to sailors for centuries now, and is either avoided or utilized depending on the direction of travel.
Another obstacle is something called the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), also known as the doldrums. It is a band of no wind, or rather no consistent wind, squalls, thunderstorms and more no wind. This band is usually parked just north of the equator, fluctuation north to south depending on water temps, equatorial currents and probably some other voodoo I have not studied up on at this time. At our present location, we are just north of the ITCZ, which is good actually. North of the ITCZ we can hope for some favorable winds out of the north, hope being the operative term.. So, if you check out your handy globe or world atlas, you will see that from western Panama to Ecuador is due south, which is not so ideal for us. Now look very closely southwest of the Panama/Costa Rican border, you'll see an island called Isla del Coco out there, about 350 miles. It sounds like an amazing spot; supposedly lots of big marine animals. Think Jurassic Park type setting, minus the dinosaurs. It is a national park of Costa Rica and we want to go.
It seems foolish to miss up a chance to visit what is claimed to be the largest uninhabited island in the world, virtually untouched by modern mans influence, which is a really big deal, because nothing is untouched. Another good nautical reason to go out there is the fact that we will get ourselves very far west, setting ourselves up nicely for the SW winds below the ITCZ, I think!!!!!!! We just heard from s/v Gia on the radio (the other junk rig), they left from here for Ecuador yesterday morning. Looks like they had the same nice wind we did yesterday and made good time south. Right now they have only 5 knots of breeze from the SSW, which is not a lot and from not such a good direction, but they are patient it seems.
Well, either way, we will not be heading offshore until Ben and Nikki meet up with Ben’s father, Bill, on the 16th. Then, a few bottles of wine and some eggs and we are ready for an ocean passage. Isla Coco will certainly be given a good go, but we will see what the gods cast at us as far as wind and currents go. If we make it to Isla Coco, we will probably stay only a few days, they charge 25$/person/day, plus 25$ for the boat/day. That seems a bit excessive. They offer no services of any sort out there, none. We do not need any services mind you, but where the money going? Either way, it seems a really good place to check out.
Isla Contreras
It is now April 14th as I write here from an anchorage in the Isla Contreras, only about 14 miles from the last anchorage in the Secas. Willow parted company with Tara for a few days. Ben and Nikki are headed back to Boca Chica and then on up the river to Pedrigal, very near the city of David. That is where they will be meeting up with Bill and doing a little of the bureaucratic dance that we have come to understand a little, if not comprehend. The best approach seems to be this: Bring tons of copies of every official piece of paper you have, pace yourself, perhaps have a beer on your way from one office to another and back and forth and so on. If things get frustrating, which happens often, consider another beer and coming back the next day. It really does put a guy to pondering why all of the fuss is even taken to keep track of all of us travelers. But, since it has been decided it is necessary, why the hell can it not be figured out how to do it in some way that resembles efficiency.
On the other hand, we meet many Canadian cruisers down here and they all say without hesitation that by far the worst, most unreasonable and screwed up place to deal with checking in and out from, was the good old USA and the wonderful folks from Homeland Security. (Homeland Security, now there is a handle and no doubt about it. For some reason is conjures up memories from history classes, wars, and dictators, that sort of thing. I cannot quite place accurately enough the reference that comes to mind, but perhaps you get the idea anyway.) Ooops, I had decided not to make any judgments or observations involving cultural norms, or political issues that I am too ignorant of to verbalize intelligently, so I will stop there. The bottom line comes down to this. So far the most pleasant noise I could wish to hear when standing at the customs, or immigrations, or Port Captains office is the rapid, old school stamping of papers. The folks down here have got the machine gun stamping technique down and I love them for it. Wham, thump, wham, thump….music to my ears!
I know, I know, I have become quite the dashing sailor, it is a hard image to keep up.
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South for Panama and then Ecuador.tag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1192007-03-29T17:15:22Z2007-03-29T22:47:03ZOK everyone, Willow has been in Golfito for several days now and we are finally moving on. We will be...
OK everyone, Willow has been in Golfito for several days now and we are finally moving on. We will be leaving this morning for the Panamanian border and some surf we have heard about. The basic plan is to spend several weeks out in the western islands surfing and swimming. Then we will make a direct passage to Ecuador. Once there we will haul Willow out for several months while we head back to the states for work and the wedding of Bonnie's sister, Dawn, to a fellow named Hudson. We are looking forward to the trip to visit family and put a few more dollars in the bank for the next leg of our journey across the South Pacific. But that is a long way off, so I will not think too much on it.
For now Bonnie and I are looking forward to surf and crystal clear water to swim in. I will put together a nice entry here for the next time we have internet access, as well as work hard on the Building Willow site. The reality is this; Western Panama is rather remote and will probably not have much internet access. From Panama it is about an 8-10 day passage to Ecuador, so you will probably not hear from us for quite a while.
We're off, wahooooooo.......
Oh, one more thing. Thanks to Jim, the comments button below works. Please send us any input or hello's out there. Send us your e-mail, or questions, we enjoy meeting new people, especially folks with a liking of boats and beautiful places.
Greg and Bonnie
Monkeys and Lizardstag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1172007-03-27T17:28:42Z2007-03-30T03:48:28Z Guess what? We almost had a new crew member, but common sense prevailed. It was a very near thing...
Guess what?
We almost had a new crew member, but common sense prevailed. It was a very near thing however. While in Bahia Ballena we met a Canadian couple (Kimberly and Mike) who were renting a house right on the beach. They let us use their shower and fill up water jugs, all we really need I suppose, and we offered to take them out sailing on Willow for the day, which we did. The morning I went to pick them up they had this kitten crawling all over the place. It seemed homeless and they did not want to leave it alone until they could find a home for it. So, we took the critter out to Willow for the daysail. She was a bit put off a first, but was soon cruising all over down below, finally settleing on top of our guitars as a good spot. Kimberly is trying to pull the little guy down.
Below are Mike and Kimberly. They were good fun to have out with us and seemed to really enjoy the experience of sailing a junk rigged boat. Thanks a lot you two, hope to see you in the future.
Another great couple we met were the owners of s/v Swagman II. Dominic and (…). We made some music together several nights and did a lot of laughing. Will need to find some pictures of them.
After taking our ease for about a week in Bahia Ballena, we made the 20 mile sail across the Gulf of Nicoya into Bahia Herradura, entrance to the very swank marina/resort of Los Suenos. We did not stay in the marina. I do not know what it would cost to put Willow their for a day, but it would have cost $50 to tie up our little dingy “Jake” for the day. Needless-to-say, we stayed clear of that spot. It was very handy to get a few cans of diesel and water in the dingy’s, so that was a chore for the morning.
One thing of interest about this bay was what appeared to be a very big surf break on the south side. Bonnie and I headed over to check it out and see what it looked like close up.
Bonnie here, looking beautiful in her anti-sunburn garb, surf behind.
From where we were anchored it did not seem very big, but as we got up to in the the skiff we realized it was a rather large break after all. As it turns out, this spot only breaks and is ridable about a dozen times a year, this was the first time this year that it did.
So, why were we not out there? Well, that was the intention. Unfortunatlely, Ben and Nikki were off on an epic journey by bus, foot, bicycle and taxi to get their propane bottles filled. We were their ride back to Tara, so we waited a bit to see if they would show. In the meantime, word got out that the wave was pumping I guess. Before we knew it there were over 50 people out there. We are just getting into the sport. That kind of crowd, mainly locals I later learned, was not for me. Then there was the issue of the big boulders sticking up to dampen my enthusiasm. Oh well, I am sorry Scott and Liz, we are trying to live up to your standards, but falling short I am afraid.
Well, the wave quit that night and off we went. Next stop, Quepos, below. It is a nice town, but we did not stay very long as we were anxious to get to the anchorage just aroung the corner in Manuel Antonio Natinal Park, and it was well worth the visit.
We have finally made it into rain forest latitudes and they are beautiful places. Huge trees, monkeys, sloths, lizards of all sizes and shapes, birds all the colors of the rainbow, oh, and hundreds and hundreds of large, white and burnt red North American tourists on the quick tour. Never fear, we got up and into the park by 6am, and saw virtually no one until we emerged at the end of our walk.
We did the best we could to get some good pictures of the creatures all around us, here are some of the better shots.
As I have mention before, Ben has an affinity for all creatures, particularly lizards, snakes and other critters you may find under a rock or in a dark hole. He grabbed this little guy at the start of our hike and the cold blooded creature rode on top of Bens head for the rest of the morning. Obviously it was sucking the heat generated in Ben’s brain caused by thinking…… har..
This one is for Bonnies mom, Linda. There are many beautiful flowers out here, even in the dry season.
It is always starteling to see such large iguanas just sitting around right next to you, unseen until they move. This one was a bit more in the open as it warmed up in the early morning sun.
Then of course their were the monkeys. We came across a whole gang of them right along the trail. They were not in the least put off by us. In fact, I had set my little camera bag down at my feet in the trail and what do you know. One little guy lopes out towards us, two feet away, just staring at us. Then, a quick snatch and it was off into the trees with the bag. No big loss, just a ziplock and padded sack, I thought. As I watched them all gather around to divide the spoiles I suppose, I noticed one of them tentatively biting on something colorful. “Shit, the monkey is eating my money,” I exclaimed (or something like that) and off Ben and I were to retrieve the stolen goods. We got it all back, it not being very tasty I suppose.
At this time the camera battery died, leaving us with these two mediocre pictures. Sorry!
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Bahia Ballena, Costa Ricatag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1142007-03-10T17:26:17Z2007-03-13T03:17:33ZWillow is now anchored in a fantastic spot called Bahia Ballena, located in the Golf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. Once...
OK, that brings me to our latest crew, Jim LaGasse. Here he is blending in nicely with the local flora. It took him all of about 10 minutes to relax into our pace of life out here (which is rather slow). That is the most important trait for a guest on board boats of our limited size and speed. The most we moved in one shot while Jim was on board was 45 miles, and that took us about 11 hours due to no wind at first, and then winds on the nose later. A few other things to keep in mind should any of you consider visiting us or any other boat out there: Pack very, very lightly. I figure if it does not fit into a carry-on bag, it is too much. We are living in a place where a Hawaiian shirt is considered foul weather gear. A pair of walking shoes and a pair of flops (i.e. flip-flops, thongs, slaps, go-aheads) is all that is needed for the feet. In fact, I can honestly say that I have not put on a pair of shoes that has laces in nearly 4 months. All of the bottles of shampoo, lotions, soaps, herbal this-and-that, various hair care products, forget it. Have toothbrush, will travel.
Done here. The point was that Jim was the ideal crewmate, low maintenance and low impact.
We were visiting with the crew of sv Swagman last night for Jim’s birthday. Here is the man taking in the music and conversation from a very comfortable spot.
The following few shots are back a week or so in Bahia Garza. Jim was making new friends.
Here is the same beautiful little girl. Her family owned the beach restaurant we often ate in. The dogs also seemed to be part of the family. She was thrilled with the instant look at herself digital cameras offer.
The next two pictures are of Bahia Carrillo, simply put, awesome.
For everyone headed this direction on his or her boats. Note the breakers extending way out from the right hand (northern) side of the bay. The south side is clear. That is Tara and Willow outside of the sports fishing boats mooring field.
This afternoon I will try to get some good shots of our current anchorage in Bahia Ballena and surroundings. For now, Bonnie is napping the heat of the day away and I am considering going for my swim. The thick, red water really is a deterrent and I am not sure if I will follow through, it will clear up eventually.]]>
Huatulto, Mexico-Bahia Garza, Costa Ricatag:www.svwillow.net,2007://1.1132007-03-05T03:47:48Z2007-03-28T16:04:09ZNow that I have gotten a bit of the past taken care of I will try to slow down and...
Here they are working our way through a tunnel of green and life, it was awesome. We managed to get in and out with no mishaps, which was a good thing, being rather remote and all. No worries we had water, beer, some snacks and a knife or two I believe, arrrrrr.
Here are a few shots for our good friends Debbie and Andrew.
Well, it is not exactly out in the middle of nowhere I suppose, but damn close to it. You know what, every single person we met there was smiling and gracious in their own way. These fellows were just tooling along smiling and laughing with us at the day and how good it was; well, that’s what I figure they were doing, and I agreed with them.
Onward, south and east some more, next stop Huatulco, Mexico and the first marina Willow had been in since San Carlos months before.
Hmmmm, I have just taken a look for some great shots of Huatluco, but can come up with none, hang on, just remembered one.
Ah yes, here is Ryan with his very cool parents on board Willow while tied to the dock in Marina Chahue. We had good fun with them and everyone we met there. Part of the reason for going into a marina was to give the boats a real good fresh water wash down for the first time in months. Another part was just the luxury of showers a short walk away, resupplying with food and fuel and all sorts of fun things like that. Also, the next leg of the trip was to be crossing a notoriously bad stretch of water call the Gulf of Tehuantepec. We wanted a nice spot to sit and listen to weather forecasts, helping us make the decision of when to make the crossing.
We did not have to wait all that long really.
Wait, back up. Tara, Godspeed and Willow left Punta Galera together, Ocean Lady, Sarana and Get Lost stayed there a bit longer, and we have not seen them since.
So, there we are. We talk to this guy, listen to that guy on the radio, look at the various web sites dealing with the forecast for the Gulf of Tehuantepec and make our move. This time it is just Tara and Willow moving on, in company with another boat named Sunshine. (A father and daughter team on a great trip).
I had better tell this little tale, just to illustrate the small community out here and how our paths seem to cross when not expected. It has to do with s/v Sunshine. A year and a half ago Bonnie and I had just gotten Willow to San Francisco with or friend Jason Rose on board to help. We tied up at the San Fran municipal marina, directly in front of a small boat named Sunshine with a little girl and her father as crew. We had a brief interaction and a few laughs one day and they took off, southbound the next day. That was that, never heard of them again, until we are tied up at a dock in southern Mexico and there is Sunshine. The fathers name is Lou, but this time it was his older daughter, Eden with him, not the little one I met before. He is still going strong and loving the life.
Anyway, there it is. They left with us and we took the deep breath and headed off to see what the Tehuantepec would deal us. It was a very uncomfortable motor sail for two day working our way north and east into the gulf. We stayed near shore, avoiding the wind that was still blowing, biding our time and waiting for it to moderate. Well, at some point the hardy crews of Tara and Willow said, “looks good to me, what to you think”, “yep, looks good to me, lets go”, and we turned east, straight across the gut of the thing.
Well, very quickly, as we left the beach, the wind built to a fresh 30+knots, or so. We do not have an anemometer (wind gauge), nor does Tara; so, you will just have to take my word for it. Willow was reefed down, with only two panels of each sail flying. The only other time we have had to do that was in a two-day gale in the north pacific, trying to make way in 40 knots. Tara had nothing but her storm staysail up, mixed in with a bit of double reefed main. We both fell off to take the winds and seas just aft of the beam to ease the motion. Now, the wind was not dangerous and would even be considered nice sailing wind, except for the seas that had built up. I figured them at about 8-10ft or so, not so crazy really. However, the wave period was only 3-4secons. That means, every few second we were getting hit by another wave, and another and another. The boats handled it just fine, no real danger, but it was sure as hell not very comfortable.
This is Tara, dealing sweetly with the conditions. We did not think to take a picture, and I cannot say why, will work on it.
I have to admit, it was awesome to see Willow maintain 7.5knots for long periods, over 8knots at times. All I could think at times was, “unreal, we built this thing and it can deal with this craziness, and goes like stink on top of it, I love this boat and the beautiful, stout, incomparable junk rig.” (or something like that anyway.)
Needless to say, we made it in fine form and very quickly after the winds mentioned above, we were motoring our way towards Guatamala. So it goes. Once again, Bonnie and I failed to take any pictures of the coastline as it slid by. Partly because our little camera simply cannot take effective pictures like that, but mostly because we do not think to do it. I can tell you that Guatemala is a very volcanic part of the coast here and it must be amazing to travel upland there.
Bound for Costa Rica.
Our plan was to go nonstop into Costa Rica to meet up with my brother, Dan and then our good friend Jim, who would be traveling with us for 3 weeks. We had a goal, and goals are good, they give you something to focus on and work towards, I reckon.
Well, we got into Nicaragua and the wind started building, opposing us and we were already tired and we were going nowhere. I decided to plot out some potential spots to hide out and realized something very fortunate. We were 5miles or so from a place called Puesta del Sol, Marina-Resort. Nice……. Did not take much convincing to talk Ben and Nikki into it. We waited for daylight and made our approach and entrance and very soon we were in one of the most beautiful spots we have been to.
Here I am suffering through the heat by the pool on the inland side of things.
Here I am recovering from the walk from the inland pool across the peninsula to the pool overlooking the ocean. Never fear, I suffered no long-term harm.
We became good friends with some of the local boys. That canoe is a true dugout. That is to say, it used to be a giant tree that was cut down, hollowed out by burning and carving and such and walla, a very heavy canoe. This thing was very old and these young fellows new how to handle it with style.
They just loved Bonnie, all smiles and smooth talking to woo her, what fun.
The canoe crew multiplied. It stared with four. Then I gave them a tow back, up stream from a fishing expedition and was a star. Next thing we know, there were 5 and eventually 6 or 7.
They were as polite as you could imagine well-raised lads to be. All they asked for outright was some clothes, which we gave gladly.
The binoculars were a big hit, wish we could afford to give them away as well, but they were fine with taking turns.
Ben and Nikki gave the crew two pairs of sunglasses, which were by far the coolest thing they could have acquired from us. Well, that left 4 or 5 of them with no styling shades, so they came over to Willow.. They were good buddies by now, so the formalities were dropped and they asked if we had any to spare, which we did. So, we gave them all some glasses from our sack of cheap glasses we had acquired along the way, and they were psyched. This crew will for sure be running the place in another 10 years or so.
Here we are on the walk back from the beach. We met the crew of another boat and had a good time with them.. The are Brad and Nikki, they were crewing on sv Inherit the Wind, however, that is not their boat, they were helping a friend. Their boat is named “Wind Thief”, and will be headed south from San Diego in another year or two. We were very glad to have met them and hope to see them again in the future.
Ben finally came through for us and captured some new crew for Willow. Dogs and cats are out, the only reasonable thing came down to critters that were real small and ate bugs. So, he snagged this tree frog as well as two geckos, we brought them back to Willow and let them loose. The geckos immediately disappeared. The frog was an up front kind of critter. It would launch from one spot to the next. Upside down, sideways, what ever. It really seemed to like our hair. We quickly decided on the name Splat for it and it was accurate. Within about an hour, I stepped on it and Splat was no more. Sorry buddy, but the floor is not place for a creature as big as my little finger.
Splat, about to go aerial, it was a good pet while he made it.
Another Ben shot, he as an affinity for creatures of all sorts.
Eventually we decided we needed to leave Puesta del Sol and move down the coast of Nicaragua into Costa Rica and brothers Dan and Jim, so we left, and it got really windy.
It was only about 150miles, but it took us a solid week to cover. The wind never fell below 20knot, right on the port bow. Usually it was over 30knots. The only way we could make any way at all was to stay within about half a mile from the beach, motor running hard, deeply reefed mainsail sheeted in. If we got even a mile offshore the fetch was enough to kick up the seas to a condition that was completely untenable. It is amazing how comfortable you can get with running a Frisbees toss from the beach, in 30+knots of wind, down a coast that has not really been charted all that well. We were happy to make 20 miles in a day. We would then go do our best to find a somewhat sheltered spot, drop the hook and hope nothing gives way.
The wind was relentless, we were on edge and it did not let up for nearly 3 weeks. Below is one of our first anchorages in Costa Rica, on the western end of Punta Descartes. Notice the white caps. The boats are anchored only about 150yds off the beach, behind a big hill. Still, they would get hit by gusts that would put us rail down and mast vibrating. Eventually Tara and Willow were sitting nicely with two anchors set.
One thing about a windy place that is fun, kite boarding. This is a mecca for it. People come from all over the world to ride in Bahia de Salinas. Here are Tara and Willow anchored in the lee of a mostly submerged reef near the launch beach. The reef gave no protection from wind, but did lessen the wind waves. None-the-less, we were never comfortable leaving the boats out site and only stayed there for two days I think.
We did in fact meet up with my brother Dan there. He had been in the country for nearly a month and was taking some lessons here from the guy in red, Kent.
Bonnie, hiding out from the sun as best she could out there.
Ben and I had mixed luck with the kite boarding. We are both just learning the sport and that was a lot of wind to learn in. Ben had a really sweet ride across the bay; I had a gear complication with one of my launches that was a bit unnerving. We survived, but needed to get the boats to a more protected spot as the wind was predicted to pick up even more, and it did. We sat at the above-mentioned anchorage for about a week in up to 45knot gusts and the never ending howl of the papagayo winds.
Eventually our friend Jim showed up as planned and we geared up to head further south with him on board as crew and chief party planner. He has done a stellar job of it so far; the time has gone by far to quickly.
We had a windy rounding of Cabo Santa Elena, but no problems there. Then the wind regrouped and really let us have it in a place that I would have sworn would have been in the lee and out of the brunt of the wind. So, we stayed put at a place called Key Point, just east of Santa Elena and got absolutely blasted for two days straight. For sure we had gusts over 50knots and I was sure we were going to pop loose of the anchor and head out to sea. (Which would probably have been more comfortable than what we dealt with at anchor.)
All held fast and we got the hell out of there when we felt it had come down to 30knts or so. Off we went across the Golf of Papagayos, bound for El Coco and the official check in point to Costa Rica for visiting vessels. I will skip the logistics of checking in, unless someone writes to ask in particular. Just lock everything up while there, there are many, many characters running around, obviously on serious drugs and looking for more.
That about gets everyone up to speed with us to date. We are currently in a fantastic spot called Bahia Garza and love it here. Good people, beautiful scenery and lots of creatures. Here is our first sighting of monkeys since arriving in the country.
Jim has been the king fisherman on the boat and here is the first fish he caught on the rod and reel. Crazy thing, we did not eat it. These cuties will kill you after all.
The only restaurant in Brachia Garza. The folks here have been super friendly and helpful to us. Refilled water tanks from their tap and leaned a lot about the area.
Bonnie always makes friends with the children and animals of the local spots.
Arghhhhhhhhh, where next, time to go…..
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Bonnie is the real water rat on Willow. She is getting very good at free diving now, able to get quite deep for longer and longer times. I tend to spend my time in the outrigger sliding along the surface. Here she is having fun with the cameraman.
Yep, we see lots of sharks out here, but they do not seem all that interested in us. Usually they come by to have a look at us, but then decide we are not of much interest and move on. On the other hand, we have met several local islanders along the way that have some rather nasty scars from shark bites. The young boy on Palmerston, John, had a very recent bite on his calf from a Moray Eel. Luckily it did not clamp down, just took a taste and let go. I am amazed how comfortable we all have gotten around the sharks; they are really fun to watch. A new game I have played is to put a big chunk of fish on a big hook and lower it over the side. We then climb into the water and hold onto Willow and watch what happens. After a few minutes the sharks show up and the show begins. It is really amazing to watch them hit the bait and not let go, not until we haul them out of the water that is.
This is Matt from the boat “Robyn,” doing a superman.
Back on land now, we have a few good pictures from here on Niue. There are numerous caves around the island to climb around in and swim through. Here is Jason after emerging from a cave walk onto the reef.
This is a shot of the mooring field off the west side of the island. It is rather deep and rock strewn for anchoring here, so all of us hook into the moorings set there by the local yacht club. That’s right, there is an official Yacht Club here, certified and everything. They serve cold beer and drinks, ice cream and other tasty treats. Not to mention being a nice shady spot with tables and chairs for us cruisers to take a break and meet one another.
A few more cave shots here. Jason looking a bit small in the cave.
Jason looking even smaller in another cave.
Bonnie is endless in here energy for exploration. Non-stop on the go. Niue was a good place to rent bicycles and spend days riding around to see what is out there.
There I am. I gave up the camera for a while I guess.
Bonnie and Jason doing a little water ballet for me. Guess you had to be there to fully appreciate the entertainment value. It was very, very funny.
My beautiful and entertaining Bonnie.
That is me in there playing cave monkey. It was good fun climbing around, then getting to jump back down into the cool waters.
Another parting shot of Willow as we look for a good place to anchor. Bonnie is up on the forward sail bundle getting a better view down into the water for coral heads and the like. You can also see the outrigger canoe stored up on deck. We did not move far that day, in protected waters, so, left the dingy trailing astern and the canoe just set on deck.
Well, there you go, a bit more to see I guess. Will likely be a while before the next update. We should be in Tonga within 3 days then to Fiji by the end of September. We will be moving onto the delivery catamaran and heading for Thailand by the 5th of October or so, but will try to keep up on our movements as I can.
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These were on the island called Raraka, in the Tuamotus. That is a young Greater Frigate bird that has no mama. So, this little girl has taken to caring for it.
Also on Raraka. This fellow is grating up coconut for a meal being prepared for us visitors.. There is a wooden paddle he is sitting on with a metal, serrated tool attached to the end that does the job.
This dude was funny. He had some crazy stories. One of which was getting attacked by a guy in Tahiti wielding a freaking machete. The got chopped in the neck and had a huge chunk of the meat carved out. He laughed when he told that one.
A brother and sister swam out to visit us on board Willow. Very peaceful, respectful kids. The simply wanted to say hello and share some coconut with us in exchange for a look inside our boat.
This is the man that tattooed both Jason and I when in Huahine, French Polynesia. Half of his face is covered as well. Very interesting fellow.
That is Jason’s brother Alex, with a local sweetheart, and Alex is a pretty big guy. Just to give you a little perspective.
Jason’s other brother, Trevor with a local fisherman in Huahine.
Ben, Matt and Camilla in Riatea, with some of the local creatures we met on a walk one day.
A visitor to Willow one morning for coffee.
On Palmerston now. From the left is Simon, John, Shekinah and Yvonne. These were some of the folks that were our hosts while we visited there.
David, my good buddy while on Palmerston. He showed us all how to most easily break into coconuts and carve out the meat. Bested us all at spear fishing and was an all around good young man to spend time with. He works nearly 12 hrs a day it seems. Fishing with his father or uncle, then cleaning the fish, then the coconut breaking to feed pigs and chickens. He is 12 years old.
Other kids on Palmerston.
Jason and Matt getting a coconut-shucking lesson from David and Johns father, Edward.
This is John again on Willow, a wild little man.
Shekinah visiting Willow, quickly found the coolest seat on the boat.
This was back in Papeete, Tahiti. It was the night Jason, Matt and I played some music downtown and earned a few dollars. These kids all sat there around the guitar case as the change piled up. Instead of pocketing it, they arranged it in neat piles according to value, stacked and counted.
This picture has nothing to do with locals we have met, I just saw it and remembered as being a very good days sail from Riatea to Bora-Bora in very light winds. That spinnaker was given to us in Mexico and not seen much use. In calm seas it works great and does a bit better than the junk foresail, However, in general we have not found it to increase speed much, relative to the aomount of work needed to get it set up. Perhaps we need something a bit bigger.
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These rigs are very, very tippy if you lean away from the ama. But they are a beautiful thing to paddle. Fast, quiet and made for the shallows inside the reefs of these islands. It is like floating in a dreamscape when in clear water and only 6inch between you and the life of the coral.
I did OK, but definitely flipped over several time at first. Eventually you get the hand of the thing and I am pretty stable now. However, I always carry a bailing bucket with me, always. Again, below you can see the unpainted patches in the deck of the vaka. That was my work and it all seems to be holding up. The bottom of the boat needed most of the work. It looked like the previous owner surfed it onto some rocks.
The whole set up only weighs about 30lbs; thus, it is a rather delicate thing out of the water. I have punched several holes in it already while bringing it up and down from the decks of Willow. My technique is good now and have not had any mishaps for a while.
Besides just heading out for a long paddle around the atolls and islands, we often take it out to a good snorkeling spot. It is easy to drag around and let other take a break from swimming. Here is Jason taking a breather from spear fishing.
Jason also has an underwater case for his camera and thus can get some unusual shots.
Here are a few pictures taken by our friends Kay and Craig from their boat Little Wing, a 28’ Bristol Channel Cutter. We are anchored off of Bora-Bora. Bonnie is getting good at the canoe as well. That is her heading over to say hello to Kay.
It really does feel like you are floating in air when the water is this clear and calm.
Well, that is about it for canoe pictures. Have to focus on getting more of them. I have paddled kayaks most of my adult life and love them. However, these outrigger canoes are more to my liking. They are not as well suited as kayaks for rough waters and quick maneuvering, but they are fast. It is a whole different skill set when using a one bladed paddle to control everything. The canoe is 24’ long and only about 17’ wide at the widest. Without the ama, it would not sit upright. It is rather difficult to turn quickly because these designs are built to go straight and fast for racing.
I suppose if I had to choose one sport boat to have on board I would probably go for a kayak due to its versatility and heavy weather abilities. Luckily, we do not have to choose, we can do as we please. It seemed like a fun thing to try out while sailing the waters where these water craft seem so at home.
After a few cans of spray paint the rig looks pretty good. It could really use a big sanding and repainting, but I will just mess that up with the way we use it. So, that is all I will do for now.
The parting shot here is of Bonnie and I heading up a river into the middle of Riatea. Sorry you cannot see Bon better, more of her later, promise. We still use the dingy all the time, mostly just to get to the beach, but also for touring around together. But the canoe is way faster that the dink and outboard.
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Jason Rose has been our steady companion throughout the South Pacific. He is sailing single handed on his boat Bodhran. (www.jasonrose.com).
Here he is working on a song with Bonnie. She is getting much better at the guitar thanks to her perseverance and Jason’s coaching.
There was one night in Tahiti that really stands out in my memory. It started out with a bunch of us sailors headed downtown in Papeete with the instruments in tow. Matt, Jason and I set up on the downtown waterfront and took a shot at earning some beer money. There were lots of people wandering around. As it turns out, American folk/country/blues draws a lot of attention. We ended up with about $70 in the guitar case in front of us. Unfortunately, in that town $70 is enough for two pitchers of beer, only just enough.
None-the-less, we wandered around until we heard some great music coming from an alley bar and had a seat. These local guys were awesome musicians. We sat for a while listening. Then, as usually happens someone calls us in when they see the instruments. I jumped in with the mandolin first, and gave it a go. Not to bad, but the island style of music can be very fast for me.
Jason and Matt jumped in there and we had an event. The three of us would do a song and they join in, then they lead and we try to follow. These fellows were really good. They had no problems figuring out what we were playing and added a huge new sound to all the songs we had been playing together for months. Well, the evening went on and more people crowded into the place. Pretty soon there were hundreds around, often singing along with whatever songs they knew.
That was a very, very fun night. Then we had to make our way back to the boats, and that took a while at 2a.m.
Here we are back in Huahine. There were many yachts anchored with us and most of them came in to shore this particular evening to see what would happen on a Friday night. Well, much did happen. We ended up working our way down the street stopping and playing wherever anyone seemed interested. These guys were just standing around their truck and asked for a song or two. Jason and I obliged them.
While playing at the truck another fellow came by and pulled us along to his fishing boat for some more tunes. They were commercial fishermen and just back from a long day on the water. All were in good spirits and we all took turns with the guitar and singing.
This is a more recent shot, taken at Palmerston Island, a very unique place to say the least. We spent 10 days there. Every morning Edward (blue shirt in middle) would pick us up in his boat and haul us in for a coffee and chat. Then, we would all get to work on the list of things that they asked us to help them with. We fixed heavy earth moving equipment, solar panels, generators (actually, could not fix the generator, needed a part); Jason was able to be a huge help to many of them with their computers and other electronic equipment. Bonnie taught the kids how to fly our big kites (made here a real hero for sure). Matt fixed up all of the broken bicycles lying around. Ben got some video cameras running and the list goes on.
Now, it was not all work. Every day they set out a huge meal for all of us. Followed by another coffee and music of course. Here Jason and I have a go with Tere and Edward.
These are some shots from several months ago, back in the Tuamotus Islands. Three or four boats anchored up away from the village and had a beach fire and music. Lets see. There was Willow, Bodhran, Ariel, Just Do It (German couple) and Robin (British boat).
It was a spectacular night.
Here is Matt off of “Robyn” having a go with his guitar.
Well, that was the quick tour. There were many more nights we played and mornings and afternoons, but do not have pictures of it all. I wish I had more and will try to take more as we go. We have met some fantastic musicians and have been luckily enough to play with them and learn from them. Hopefully there will be many more good times to come.
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Our 3,000nm passage from the Galapagos to the Marquises was as ideal as you could ask for. We were never without wind to fill the sails and it was usually about 10-15 knots, which made for very comfortable conditions the whole time. The trip took us 23 days, which is not bad for our size boat. There is not much to say about the passage really, it is like entering the twilight zone for a while and then re-emerging in another world. A beautiful world where the locals speak French and Marquisan and the landscape is truly a fantasy world. Here is Willow at anchor off of Fatu Hiva, the first island we visited. Next is "Bodhran and Willow off of Fatu Hiva."
The team. Bonnie, Greg and Jason take on the South Pacific.
Bonnie about to jump off a cliff.
Bonnie at the top of the road on Fatu Hiva.
There is really too much to describe, even when trying to do it months after it happened. I fear I am not good about keeping a running journal although I wish I were. We certainly have the time to keep one going, not sure why we are so bad at it, perhaps I will come around. So, first we visited Fate Hive and just enjoyed walking and swimming and not being under way for a while. The language barrier was a problem, but not a terrible one. I seem to have a knack for body language and stringing together words from four languages until I get the point across. It is amazing how a little Spanish, English, Tahitian (I was studying Tahitian on the passage, although Marquis an is different, they usually get the meaning) and French will do for you.
The Marquises is truly a tropical paradise. We were constantly given gifts of fruits of all kinds that are simply falling off of the trees. The generosity of the locals gave me hope that not everywhere in the world is completely driven by financial gain. How often have we as Americans met a complete stranger on the street and invited them back you our place to meet the kids and parents and share a meal, right then. The happened to us all the time, especially when we had the guitars and mandolin with us.
That has been the greatest thing for us. With Jason Rose (www.jasonrose.com) as our sailing companion now on his boat “Bodhran”) and his endless songs and guitar playing, me on the mandolin, Bonnie with her guitar and smile and whomever else happens to be with us, well, we are a show for the locals. At first our hosts are a bit shy, however, once they get used to us they take the guitars for a bit of song trading. It nearly brought tears to my eyes at times to listen to these people sing. I would have to say that these are some of the most musical people we have met, anywhere. It seems everyone can pick up the guitar or drum and make beautiful music, never mind how they sing.
So, the music has been the best form of communication we could have. Everywhere we go, we simply have to take the instruments with us and we are asked to play a bit and that leads to feasting and laughing and more friends.
The little girls everywhere love Bonnie. It never fails, as long as she is alone (no men around her, she has a following of laughing girls. Here she brought in the computer to show them some pictures.
Our next stop was the island of Tahauata and a village filled with artist’s renown for their carvings. What a great place this was. It was mango season and they were literally falling down and hitting you on the head. We were given stalks of bananas, limes, pompamouse (spelling a bit shoddy there, but is similar to grapefruit, though not as bitter), guavas, coconut and breadfruit. This was a truly peaceful place. We would go in and sit at the central tree basically and play some songs while the locals worked on their carvings and weaving or simply relaxed to talk a bit. I could see staying in a place like that for quite a while actually, but we had to move on. As Americans were only allowed a 3 month visa and there is a lot of water to travel in three months. I did get my first shot in one of the super fast racing outrigger canoes here and I was hooked. Also was taken surfing with two younger guys in their outrigger boat set up with outboard and all.
A local friend shows off his work.
Oh, before I forget, another boat from Bellingham met up with us there. Gordon and Jeannine Wunder on their boat “Vari.” I worked with Gordon and Western Towboat out of Seattle and got to help him a bit on building Vari, I count them as good friends and feel grateful to know them. They are currently anchored near us here in Tahiti.
The place we spent the bulk of our time in the Marquises was on the island of Ua Poa. There is a surf break right there in the anchorage and a canoe building shop on the beach and a town full of fantastic people. We ended up staying there for over 3 weeks. Lets see, we surfed a lot, nearly every day. I ate roasted horsemeat, with breadfruit cooked in a coconut milk sauce, as well as some chicken that was running around a few hours before hand. I bought an outrigger canoe here. It was old and beat up, but the price was right. The only problem was the color, bright red, not really my style, but there were no options. It took a bit of work to patch up, but is looking fair enough now.
Ahhhh, and then there was the music. We played on the streets, on the beach; in the back yards and front yards of people we met, wherever we could. These were some of the best times I have ever had while cruising. I did not get a tattoo here, but I should have. Unfortunately the tattoo artist had injured his hand pig hunting and was out of commission, oh well, next time I reckon.
Well, this is enough for one sitting, my backside is getting numb now so I must move. I will get some more words and pictures up before leaving Tahiti. Hope all are smiling as much as Bonnie and I are.
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The owner of Puerto Amistad, in Bahia de Caraquez is an American named Tripp. I have not met him yet, but have heard nothing but good about him and his willingness to help us cruisers out. He knows all the issues at hand and how to deal with them. The officials up there seem much more reasonable towards small cruising vessels.
OK, that gets you all up to speed on the official dealing down here. We thought it was going to be a problem, it turned out to be no problem at all. One piece of advice I will give, since no one can stop me from giving it, is this; if you pull into a place like Puerto Lucia Yacht Club and expect things to happen for you as if you were back in the states, I promise you, they will not. Yes, the fees are steep there, yes, we are paying for a service, but no, the employees are not our servants. The people working in the boat yard earn about $15-$20 a day doing work you cannot or do not want to do yourself. I tip them all well and evenly, say hello all the time, and help them on a task if my help is useful. They all became good friends and were always willing to help me when in need.
One person you for sure want to be good to is Karla Espinoza, in the little office out in the boat yard. She speaks English quite well and seems to be the one running the show concerning the needs of the boats there. She is the one that can make happen all you want to have happen, or not. I saw nothing but a smiling, ultra helpful woman, but have heard that she is no push over and can make your experience there as miserable as you are probably making hers. Bonnie and I are low maintenance people and our boat is low tech, our needs were few and perhaps that helped our situation out a bit.
The funny thing about how we are treated is that you can never be all that sure if anyone is actively doing something to thwart you, or just plain bad luck. One cruiser there on a big boat has hired a crew to paint the hull. Apparently this fellow is a huge pain in the ass to everyone there. I met him and he definitely has what I call the “center of the universe” complex. In his mind everyone and everything around him is his to use or abuse at will. Well, his boat has been sitting there for months now all sanded and prepped, but no paint has touched it. There is always a good reason why no paint has hit the hull, but the weeks go by and all the fellow can do is kick and scream, at no one. I suppose he could paint it himself, but I am thinking that is not the sort of job for someone that commands the universe to dirty himself with
I will end my rant there and get back to cruising on Willow.
Puerto Lucia north.
Here are the GPS numbers for the spots we have anchored on our way north from Puerto Lucia. We have been in search of waves to surf and also to simple check out every nice looking spot as a potential anchorage.
Ayangue: 01* 58.9’ S
80* 45.3’ W
Ayangue is a small beach town about 15 miles north of Puerto Lucia. The beach was crowded with weekend sun seekers and the bay is filled with small boats on mooring or anchored. We anchored outside of the fleet and close to the north side of the entrance in about 16ft of water. Bottom was sand and the anchor stuck hard. Should have dropped a stern hook to keep us pointing into the swell entering the bay, but it was not all that bad really. Would probably not be a great spot if a really big swell were running.
Montanita: 01* 49.3’S
80* 45.5W
Dramatic headland and a big party town for travelers. Also a well-known surf destination in Ecuador, and there were waves. Anchored to the south of Punta Montanita in about 30’ of water. Bottom seemed like sand and good holding, but that was all the spot has going for it as an anchorage. In order to get into water shallow enough to anchor we had to be rather close to the beach break, and it was big. I did not really sleep at all that night as I listened to the wave thundering just a hundred yards away. Of course, if you are looking for waves to ride, that is the price. In the morning I paddled over to the point break to have a better look at the surf. It is a beautiful wave as far as waves go, but getting into the big and powerful realm in relation to my level of experiences. But I went anyway. I got creamed a few times, but also got some good rides. The bigger sets were downright unnerving, but managed to get out of their way before taking them on the head. Soon the local crew of surfers came out and I soon paddled back to Willow. Those guys probably ride that wave everyday and they were all over it. We got out of there to look for a calmer spot to play.
Isla Salango: 01* 35.6’S
80* 51.6’W
Fantastic spot on the north side of the island. Anchored in 25’ although there is coral all around the spot. The bottom slopes quickly down away from the beach, so we had to get fairly close to the beach to find good depth. Centered on the white sand beach seemed to be a good spot with more sand than coral. Very cool place. Steep trail to top of island. Bonnie headed up to look at the thousands of birds making the place home. Several tourist boats with divers came out, all were very friendly
Salango: 01*35.4’S
80*50.6’W
Anchored in 25’ just outside of fishing fleet to the north. Would probably be better protection in big swell to the south, but a bit crowded with big shrimpers and the like. Very peaceful spot with an awesome long beach, very small town. Beach landing is just that, a beach landing. There was no spot better than another, just depended on the swell and how badly you wanted to get ashore. I watched the locals come and go for a while before heading in, had no problems. Had a great meal at Restautante Pelicano. The owner, Ivo, we met out at Isla Salango while he was running a dive trip. Very friendly fellow and good food, but probably not the cheapest in town. There is a cool little museum on the north end of town focusing on the history of the people in the area. It is one of the oldest settlements on the coast, super friendly people. My Spanish is improving out of necessity. Virtually no one speaks any English at all.
La Playita: 01* 38.8’S
80* 50.3’W
A fantastic bay just around the point from Salango. No name for it on the chart but enclosed by Punta Mala to the south and Punta Los Piqueros to the north. We tried anchoring closer to the Punta Mala side, but was all smooth rock and boulders so had to move around. The position above is well off shore in 35’ and we had all sand. I swam around and towards the beach to see what there was to see. Was good depth way inshore, but lots of rocks on the bottom. Would be a good idea to swim around and find a sandy patch to set the hook. Punta Mala is supposedly a good point break, but the conditions are fickle and need to be just right. I was tempted to paddle into the waves breaking there, but on closer inspection realized it was shallow rocks where the wave looked good. Must need a bigger swell to break further out. Nice beach, dramatic geology. Apparently the last nesting beach for sea turtles in Ecuador.
Puerto Lopez: 01* 33.5’
80* 49.1’
Dropped the hook in 40’ again outside the fleet of smaller vessels. Did not really look around for a better spot to anchor as all seemed good bottom. Again, super friendly people. When I got to the beach a bunch of kids came up to say hello. They did not ask for anything, as was the norm up in Mexico, just wanted to sit in our little boat and laugh. I asked them to keep my boat safe and a good thing to. As I was headed back to the skiff after some food and shopping I saw my crew bailing the boat out. I guess I did not pull it far enough up the beach and a bigger wave crashed over the stern and took it off the beach. They hauled it back up and were just finishing cleaning out the sand and water when I showed up. They were all telling me the story and laughing. I did give them all a tip at that point and they were psyched. Now I have my own posse of 6-10 year olds when I hit the beach. That works out fine with me, as my Spanish speaking skills are probably that of a 4 year old. I know our dingy will be safe from now on. Lots of restaurants and little stores.
Well, that gets us up to date. I am writing this on Willow anchored up off of Puerto Lopez. It is early morning and Bonnie is still up forward asleep. There is a light rain falling that seems to be the norm for the mornings around here. The mist gives landscape around us depth and texture, in contrast to the brightly painted buildings of the town. I can hear water trickling down the hoses of our rain collection system into our water tank. We have been able to collect enough water this way so we have not had to break into the jugs of water we loaded in Puerto Lucia. The temperatures here just south of the equator are surprisingly mild, in the 70’s to low 80’s most of the time. However, when the sun does burn through the clouds, it is intense. We hide from it most of the day and are thankful for the overcast days that have become the norm here.
An often-asked question by folks back in the states is: “What do you do all day on the boat, don’t you get bored?” No, I sure don’t and Bonnie does not seem to either. I have been sitting here writing for several hours now, sipping coffee and listening to some music, content with my spot on the planet. Bonnie has since woken up and is now sitting across from me reading a book on sea birds while also sipping coffee. She can do that for hours on end. Later we may go into town or at least to the beach to look for the birds she is reading about. We swim a lot, every day and it feels good.
Few cruising boats stop in at the places I have mentioned above so we are somewhat of an event. The fishermen coming and going from their labors often motor by us to take a look and say hello. Yesterday the entire crew of a big shrimp trawler swam over to say hello. All six of them climbed into our little skiff floating astern of Willow. I did my best to chat with them while Bonnie listened from below, intent that I practice my language skills. Eventually they invited me back to take a look at their boat. I jumped in and swam back with them to meet the captain and have a look around.
That is the sort of thing that may happen at any time, and it is fun to be part of.
Bahia de Caraquez.
Well, we arrived in Bahia de Caraquez about 12 days ago and I have still not put anything up on the website about it. This is a beautiful spot with about 20 other cruising boats at anchor here. Many we know from Mexico or Central America, which is a great thing. We have taken care of the last jobs and provisioning on Willow and are ready to head out for the Galapagos tomorrow morning, which is the 12th or so of Feb.
Bonnie is an awesome at getting the needed items for our trip from town and back to Willow. Her Spanish skills have become very good now and she is comfortable heading out and tracking down all the things we need. I have been spending much time on Willow taking care of all the little projects we had to do. Everything is running fine now and we are anxious to get moving.
So, I need to get this on the web site now and then take care of a few more things before the morning high tide that will float us over the river bar and out to sea.
I will write while underway and hope to give a good account and pictures once in the Galgalapagos.
Hello to all and keep in touch. Greg and Bonnie
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Here is a group of Panamanians just back from a day at one of the hundreds of islands in the area. It seemed they were all a huge family unit, off to celebrate someone’s birthday. They were all in that boat, and no, they did not have enough life jackets for everyone.
They did, however, have some food, on the hoof, so-to-speak. Yep, you have heard the iguanas are eaten down here and it is for sure. Why not? We have seen more of them than any other type of land animal, and they can get quite large. The coconuts are the back up when the beer runs out I think.
Yep, amazing creatures. Wonder what it is thinking right now.
This place is owned by a Canadian, named Jorge (pronounced horr-hay). That is his real name, not a Spanish version of George or anything. He opened this place up just a few years ago and it was great fun for us. Beers cost 3 quarters, cheeseburgers (good ones too) are 8 quarters. You may think, right, typical American, beer and burgers. Fine, I accept that. The reality is that the food since leaving Mexico has left much to be desired. Not sure why that is. They have the exact same raw ingredients down here as up there, but do not seem to put them together in the fantastic ways the Mexicans did. So, I try burgers out when ever they are on the menu, which is not very often.
Bonnie and I are very content here in Panama. There are good people everywhere, all
willing to talk and teach what they know about their world. It has been a bit warm here, and humid, but we can handle it. At the peak of the heat we just hide out in Willow, take frequent swims and fresh water showers. It helps for about 15 minutes, and then back to the heat. One new daily event as of southern Costa Rica and now Panama is almost daily rain showers in the afternoons or evenings. These are usually preceded by an unearthly lightning show with the necessary thunder for dramatic effect. Before heading south for Mexico nearly two years ago we added a rigid awning over the cockpit on Willow. I built in what is effectively a gutter set up with two drains in the low spots for rainwater collection. These have finally become useful after 15 months of cruising along the coastal deserts of Mexico and Central America. We simply plug a hose into the drain/spigot and the other end into the water tank. The result is tasty fresh water, without having to haul around jerry jugs from point A to B and so on. It seems we will be getting a lot more rain over the next few hundred miles south and I look forward to it.
Isla Seas
OK, to get us up to speed, let me jump forward a few days. Willow is now anchored off of Isla Cavada, in the Secas group of islands. We left Boca Chica yesterday morning and made the 15-mile transit in really good time. We had 15 knots of wind on the beam or slightly forward of it. That gives both Willow and Tara over 6 knots of boat speed, which is really fun. (Probably should have hauled the skiff on board instead of tow it, but all was well. It actually surfed down some waves and passed us, but stayed upright and no problems). We were getting lazy and complacent, but no longer. We had an awesome sail into the anchorage. Got to show off a few of the beauties of how junk rigs can be handled. Willow flew around the northern point of Isla Cavada, plowing a frothy bow wave in the clear blue waters. As we rounded the point we got headed by the breeze, no problem, these rigs actually do sail up wind, contrary to popular belief. We worked our way up into the lee of the island and towards the other boats anchored there. There was a cut, or low spot, in the island that was funneling nice breeze into part of the anchorage. Once we made it into the favorable breeze from the cut and had our spot picked out, we fell off onto a broad reach under full sail, sliding along nicely. Then, as sweet as can be, a calm jibe of both sails. As we head up into the wind, whoosh, Bonnie lets go the anchor, I let go both halyards and the sails drop like a Venetian blind that has come loose from the wall, which is a very handy thing if the wind is really blowing.
As one of the very few junk rigged boats out here, I feel the need to be a vocal advocate of the rig and do a little bragging every now and then. Yesterday’s maneuvers could have been done by any boat, but certainly not as easily and safely. OK, I will step off the junk rig soapbox and get back to our daily lives.
For example, right now it is 9am local time; Bonnie and I are sitting here finishing off a nice breakfast while sipping some Costa Rican coffee. While we do that, we are also listening to the morning Pan Pacific Net on the Single Side Band (SSB). The SSB is the marine version of a HAM radio. Basically we get to listen to people all over this part of the world as they move about. We also check in with the net when we are under way. It has become a morning habit to listen in. One of the most useful aspects of this radio net is the info on wind and sea state conditions. Every boat that checks in gives their position and weather conditions. This is extremely useful to us as we develop our sailing plans moving into new waters.
Willows next big sail will be from here to Ecuador, about 500 miles, but there is a glitch. 500 miles is not that long a passage, if the wind is on the beam or behind us. Well, the passage to Ecuador will be headwinds as well as a very strong opposing current (it is called the Humboldt Current, check it out). The Humboldt Current runs from south to north up the coast of South America at anywhere from 2-3knots. Now, Willow can only go 7knots, and that is only in ideal sailing conditions, usually we make anywhere from 4-6knots, on average. Well, the math is simple there, that give us only 1-3knots of speed made good. Most people walk through the park faster than that. This current has been known to sailors for centuries now, and is either avoided or utilized depending on the direction of travel.
Another obstacle is something called the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), also known as the doldrums. It is a band of no wind, or rather no consistent wind, squalls, thunderstorms and more no wind. This band is usually parked just north of the equator, fluctuation north to south depending on water temps, equatorial currents and probably some other voodoo I have not studied up on at this time. At our present location, we are just north of the ITCZ, which is good actually. North of the ITCZ we can hope for some favorable winds out of the north, hope being the operative term.. So, if you check out your handy globe or world atlas, you will see that from western Panama to Ecuador is due south, which is not so ideal for us. Now look very closely southwest of the Panama/Costa Rican border, you'll see an island called Isla del Coco out there, about 350 miles. It sounds like an amazing spot; supposedly lots of big marine animals. Think Jurassic Park type setting, minus the dinosaurs. It is a national park of Costa Rica and we want to go.
It seems foolish to miss up a chance to visit what is claimed to be the largest uninhabited island in the world, virtually untouched by modern mans influence, which is a really big deal, because nothing is untouched. Another good nautical reason to go out there is the fact that we will get ourselves very far west, setting ourselves up nicely for the SW winds below the ITCZ, I think!!!!!!! We just heard from s/v Gia on the radio (the other junk rig), they left from here for Ecuador yesterday morning. Looks like they had the same nice wind we did yesterday and made good time south. Right now they have only 5 knots of breeze from the SSW, which is not a lot and from not such a good direction, but they are patient it seems.
Well, either way, we will not be heading offshore until Ben and Nikki meet up with Ben’s father, Bill, on the 16th. Then, a few bottles of wine and some eggs and we are ready for an ocean passage. Isla Coco will certainly be given a good go, but we will see what the gods cast at us as far as wind and currents go. If we make it to Isla Coco, we will probably stay only a few days, they charge 25$/person/day, plus 25$ for the boat/day. That seems a bit excessive. They offer no services of any sort out there, none. We do not need any services mind you, but where the money going? Either way, it seems a really good place to check out.
Isla Contreras
It is now April 14th as I write here from an anchorage in the Isla Contreras, only about 14 miles from the last anchorage in the Secas. Willow parted company with Tara for a few days. Ben and Nikki are headed back to Boca Chica and then on up the river to Pedrigal, very near the city of David. That is where they will be meeting up with Bill and doing a little of the bureaucratic dance that we have come to understand a little, if not comprehend. The best approach seems to be this: Bring tons of copies of every official piece of paper you have, pace yourself, perhaps have a beer on your way from one office to another and back and forth and so on. If things get frustrating, which happens often, consider another beer and coming back the next day. It really does put a guy to pondering why all of the fuss is even taken to keep track of all of us travelers. But, since it has been decided it is necessary, why the hell can it not be figured out how to do it in some way that resembles efficiency.
On the other hand, we meet many Canadian cruisers down here and they all say without hesitation that by far the worst, most unreasonable and screwed up place to deal with checking in and out from, was the good old USA and the wonderful folks from Homeland Security. (Homeland Security, now there is a handle and no doubt about it. For some reason is conjures up memories from history classes, wars, and dictators, that sort of thing. I cannot quite place accurately enough the reference that comes to mind, but perhaps you get the idea anyway.) Ooops, I had decided not to make any judgments or observations involving cultural norms, or political issues that I am too ignorant of to verbalize intelligently, so I will stop there. The bottom line comes down to this. So far the most pleasant noise I could wish to hear when standing at the customs, or immigrations, or Port Captains office is the rapid, old school stamping of papers. The folks down here have got the machine gun stamping technique down and I love them for it. Wham, thump, wham, thump….music to my ears!
I know, I know, I have become quite the dashing sailor, it is a hard image to keep up.
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From where we were anchored it did not seem very big, but as we got up to in the the skiff we realized it was a rather large break after all. As it turns out, this spot only breaks and is ridable about a dozen times a year, this was the first time this year that it did.
So, why were we not out there? Well, that was the intention. Unfortunatlely, Ben and Nikki were off on an epic journey by bus, foot, bicycle and taxi to get their propane bottles filled. We were their ride back to Tara, so we waited a bit to see if they would show. In the meantime, word got out that the wave was pumping I guess. Before we knew it there were over 50 people out there. We are just getting into the sport. That kind of crowd, mainly locals I later learned, was not for me. Then there was the issue of the big boulders sticking up to dampen my enthusiasm. Oh well, I am sorry Scott and Liz, we are trying to live up to your standards, but falling short I am afraid.
Well, the wave quit that night and off we went. Next stop, Quepos, below. It is a nice town, but we did not stay very long as we were anxious to get to the anchorage just aroung the corner in Manuel Antonio Natinal Park, and it was well worth the visit.
We have finally made it into rain forest latitudes and they are beautiful places. Huge trees, monkeys, sloths, lizards of all sizes and shapes, birds all the colors of the rainbow, oh, and hundreds and hundreds of large, white and burnt red North American tourists on the quick tour. Never fear, we got up and into the park by 6am, and saw virtually no one until we emerged at the end of our walk.
We did the best we could to get some good pictures of the creatures all around us, here are some of the better shots.
As I have mention before, Ben has an affinity for all creatures, particularly lizards, snakes and other critters you may find under a rock or in a dark hole. He grabbed this little guy at the start of our hike and the cold blooded creature rode on top of Bens head for the rest of the morning. Obviously it was sucking the heat generated in Ben’s brain caused by thinking…… har..
This one is for Bonnies mom, Linda. There are many beautiful flowers out here, even in the dry season.
It is always starteling to see such large iguanas just sitting around right next to you, unseen until they move. This one was a bit more in the open as it warmed up in the early morning sun.
Then of course their were the monkeys. We came across a whole gang of them right along the trail. They were not in the least put off by us. In fact, I had set my little camera bag down at my feet in the trail and what do you know. One little guy lopes out towards us, two feet away, just staring at us. Then, a quick snatch and it was off into the trees with the bag. No big loss, just a ziplock and padded sack, I thought. As I watched them all gather around to divide the spoiles I suppose, I noticed one of them tentatively biting on something colorful. “Shit, the monkey is eating my money,” I exclaimed (or something like that) and off Ben and I were to retrieve the stolen goods. We got it all back, it not being very tasty I suppose.
At this time the camera battery died, leaving us with these two mediocre pictures. Sorry!
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We were visiting with the crew of sv Swagman last night for Jim’s birthday. Here is the man taking in the music and conversation from a very comfortable spot.
The following few shots are back a week or so in Bahia Garza. Jim was making new friends.
Here is the same beautiful little girl. Her family owned the beach restaurant we often ate in. The dogs also seemed to be part of the family. She was thrilled with the instant look at herself digital cameras offer.
The next two pictures are of Bahia Carrillo, simply put, awesome.
For everyone headed this direction on his or her boats. Note the breakers extending way out from the right hand (northern) side of the bay. The south side is clear. That is Tara and Willow outside of the sports fishing boats mooring field.
This afternoon I will try to get some good shots of our current anchorage in Bahia Ballena and surroundings. For now, Bonnie is napping the heat of the day away and I am considering going for my swim. The thick, red water really is a deterrent and I am not sure if I will follow through, it will clear up eventually.]]>
Well, it is not exactly out in the middle of nowhere I suppose, but damn close to it. You know what, every single person we met there was smiling and gracious in their own way. These fellows were just tooling along smiling and laughing with us at the day and how good it was; well, that’s what I figure they were doing, and I agreed with them.
Onward, south and east some more, next stop Huatulco, Mexico and the first marina Willow had been in since San Carlos months before.
Hmmmm, I have just taken a look for some great shots of Huatluco, but can come up with none, hang on, just remembered one.
Ah yes, here is Ryan with his very cool parents on board Willow while tied to the dock in Marina Chahue. We had good fun with them and everyone we met there. Part of the reason for going into a marina was to give the boats a real good fresh water wash down for the first time in months. Another part was just the luxury of showers a short walk away, resupplying with food and fuel and all sorts of fun things like that. Also, the next leg of the trip was to be crossing a notoriously bad stretch of water call the Gulf of Tehuantepec. We wanted a nice spot to sit and listen to weather forecasts, helping us make the decision of when to make the crossing.
We did not have to wait all that long really.
Wait, back up. Tara, Godspeed and Willow left Punta Galera together, Ocean Lady, Sarana and Get Lost stayed there a bit longer, and we have not seen them since.
So, there we are. We talk to this guy, listen to that guy on the radio, look at the various web sites dealing with the forecast for the Gulf of Tehuantepec and make our move. This time it is just Tara and Willow moving on, in company with another boat named Sunshine. (A father and daughter team on a great trip).
I had better tell this little tale, just to illustrate the small community out here and how our paths seem to cross when not expected. It has to do with s/v Sunshine. A year and a half ago Bonnie and I had just gotten Willow to San Francisco with or friend Jason Rose on board to help. We tied up at the San Fran municipal marina, directly in front of a small boat named Sunshine with a little girl and her father as crew. We had a brief interaction and a few laughs one day and they took off, southbound the next day. That was that, never heard of them again, until we are tied up at a dock in southern Mexico and there is Sunshine. The fathers name is Lou, but this time it was his older daughter, Eden with him, not the little one I met before. He is still going strong and loving the life.
Anyway, there it is. They left with us and we took the deep breath and headed off to see what the Tehuantepec would deal us. It was a very uncomfortable motor sail for two day working our way north and east into the gulf. We stayed near shore, avoiding the wind that was still blowing, biding our time and waiting for it to moderate. Well, at some point the hardy crews of Tara and Willow said, “looks good to me, what to you think”, “yep, looks good to me, lets go”, and we turned east, straight across the gut of the thing.
Well, very quickly, as we left the beach, the wind built to a fresh 30+knots, or so. We do not have an anemometer (wind gauge), nor does Tara; so, you will just have to take my word for it. Willow was reefed down, with only two panels of each sail flying. The only other time we have had to do that was in a two-day gale in the north pacific, trying to make way in 40 knots. Tara had nothing but her storm staysail up, mixed in with a bit of double reefed main. We both fell off to take the winds and seas just aft of the beam to ease the motion. Now, the wind was not dangerous and would even be considered nice sailing wind, except for the seas that had built up. I figured them at about 8-10ft or so, not so crazy really. However, the wave period was only 3-4secons. That means, every few second we were getting hit by another wave, and another and another. The boats handled it just fine, no real danger, but it was sure as hell not very comfortable.
This is Tara, dealing sweetly with the conditions. We did not think to take a picture, and I cannot say why, will work on it.
I have to admit, it was awesome to see Willow maintain 7.5knots for long periods, over 8knots at times. All I could think at times was, “unreal, we built this thing and it can deal with this craziness, and goes like stink on top of it, I love this boat and the beautiful, stout, incomparable junk rig.” (or something like that anyway.)
Needless to say, we made it in fine form and very quickly after the winds mentioned above, we were motoring our way towards Guatamala. So it goes. Once again, Bonnie and I failed to take any pictures of the coastline as it slid by. Partly because our little camera simply cannot take effective pictures like that, but mostly because we do not think to do it. I can tell you that Guatemala is a very volcanic part of the coast here and it must be amazing to travel upland there.
Bound for Costa Rica.
Our plan was to go nonstop into Costa Rica to meet up with my brother, Dan and then our good friend Jim, who would be traveling with us for 3 weeks. We had a goal, and goals are good, they give you something to focus on and work towards, I reckon.
Well, we got into Nicaragua and the wind started building, opposing us and we were already tired and we were going nowhere. I decided to plot out some potential spots to hide out and realized something very fortunate. We were 5miles or so from a place called Puesta del Sol, Marina-Resort. Nice……. Did not take much convincing to talk Ben and Nikki into it. We waited for daylight and made our approach and entrance and very soon we were in one of the most beautiful spots we have been to.
Here I am suffering through the heat by the pool on the inland side of things.
Here I am recovering from the walk from the inland pool across the peninsula to the pool overlooking the ocean. Never fear, I suffered no long-term harm.
We became good friends with some of the local boys. That canoe is a true dugout. That is to say, it used to be a giant tree that was cut down, hollowed out by burning and carving and such and walla, a very heavy canoe. This thing was very old and these young fellows new how to handle it with style.
They just loved Bonnie, all smiles and smooth talking to woo her, what fun.
The canoe crew multiplied. It stared with four. Then I gave them a tow back, up stream from a fishing expedition and was a star. Next thing we know, there were 5 and eventually 6 or 7.
They were as polite as you could imagine well-raised lads to be. All they asked for outright was some clothes, which we gave gladly.
The binoculars were a big hit, wish we could afford to give them away as well, but they were fine with taking turns.
Ben and Nikki gave the crew two pairs of sunglasses, which were by far the coolest thing they could have acquired from us. Well, that left 4 or 5 of them with no styling shades, so they came over to Willow.. They were good buddies by now, so the formalities were dropped and they asked if we had any to spare, which we did. So, we gave them all some glasses from our sack of cheap glasses we had acquired along the way, and they were psyched. This crew will for sure be running the place in another 10 years or so.
Here we are on the walk back from the beach. We met the crew of another boat and had a good time with them.. The are Brad and Nikki, they were crewing on sv Inherit the Wind, however, that is not their boat, they were helping a friend. Their boat is named “Wind Thief”, and will be headed south from San Diego in another year or two. We were very glad to have met them and hope to see them again in the future.
Ben finally came through for us and captured some new crew for Willow. Dogs and cats are out, the only reasonable thing came down to critters that were real small and ate bugs. So, he snagged this tree frog as well as two geckos, we brought them back to Willow and let them loose. The geckos immediately disappeared. The frog was an up front kind of critter. It would launch from one spot to the next. Upside down, sideways, what ever. It really seemed to like our hair. We quickly decided on the name Splat for it and it was accurate. Within about an hour, I stepped on it and Splat was no more. Sorry buddy, but the floor is not place for a creature as big as my little finger.
Splat, about to go aerial, it was a good pet while he made it.
Another Ben shot, he as an affinity for creatures of all sorts.
Eventually we decided we needed to leave Puesta del Sol and move down the coast of Nicaragua into Costa Rica and brothers Dan and Jim, so we left, and it got really windy.
It was only about 150miles, but it took us a solid week to cover. The wind never fell below 20knot, right on the port bow. Usually it was over 30knots. The only way we could make any way at all was to stay within about half a mile from the beach, motor running hard, deeply reefed mainsail sheeted in. If we got even a mile offshore the fetch was enough to kick up the seas to a condition that was completely untenable. It is amazing how comfortable you can get with running a Frisbees toss from the beach, in 30+knots of wind, down a coast that has not really been charted all that well. We were happy to make 20 miles in a day. We would then go do our best to find a somewhat sheltered spot, drop the hook and hope nothing gives way.
The wind was relentless, we were on edge and it did not let up for nearly 3 weeks. Below is one of our first anchorages in Costa Rica, on the western end of Punta Descartes. Notice the white caps. The boats are anchored only about 150yds off the beach, behind a big hill. Still, they would get hit by gusts that would put us rail down and mast vibrating. Eventually Tara and Willow were sitting nicely with two anchors set.
One thing about a windy place that is fun, kite boarding. This is a mecca for it. People come from all over the world to ride in Bahia de Salinas. Here are Tara and Willow anchored in the lee of a mostly submerged reef near the launch beach. The reef gave no protection from wind, but did lessen the wind waves. None-the-less, we were never comfortable leaving the boats out site and only stayed there for two days I think.
We did in fact meet up with my brother Dan there. He had been in the country for nearly a month and was taking some lessons here from the guy in red, Kent.
Bonnie, hiding out from the sun as best she could out there.
Ben and I had mixed luck with the kite boarding. We are both just learning the sport and that was a lot of wind to learn in. Ben had a really sweet ride across the bay; I had a gear complication with one of my launches that was a bit unnerving. We survived, but needed to get the boats to a more protected spot as the wind was predicted to pick up even more, and it did. We sat at the above-mentioned anchorage for about a week in up to 45knot gusts and the never ending howl of the papagayo winds.
Eventually our friend Jim showed up as planned and we geared up to head further south with him on board as crew and chief party planner. He has done a stellar job of it so far; the time has gone by far to quickly.
We had a windy rounding of Cabo Santa Elena, but no problems there. Then the wind regrouped and really let us have it in a place that I would have sworn would have been in the lee and out of the brunt of the wind. So, we stayed put at a place called Key Point, just east of Santa Elena and got absolutely blasted for two days straight. For sure we had gusts over 50knots and I was sure we were going to pop loose of the anchor and head out to sea. (Which would probably have been more comfortable than what we dealt with at anchor.)
All held fast and we got the hell out of there when we felt it had come down to 30knts or so. Off we went across the Golf of Papagayos, bound for El Coco and the official check in point to Costa Rica for visiting vessels. I will skip the logistics of checking in, unless someone writes to ask in particular. Just lock everything up while there, there are many, many characters running around, obviously on serious drugs and looking for more.
That about gets everyone up to speed with us to date. We are currently in a fantastic spot called Bahia Garza and love it here. Good people, beautiful scenery and lots of creatures. Here is our first sighting of monkeys since arriving in the country.
Jim has been the king fisherman on the boat and here is the first fish he caught on the rod and reel. Crazy thing, we did not eat it. These cuties will kill you after all.
The only restaurant in Brachia Garza. The folks here have been super friendly and helpful to us. Refilled water tanks from their tap and leaned a lot about the area.
Bonnie always makes friends with the children and animals of the local spots.
Arghhhhhhhhh, where next, time to go…..
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