Wishbone - Vonny and Ray
Wed, Jan 25th, 2012
I feel I have been remiss. We arrived back on Wishbone, which is in the water, at Monkey Bay Marina in Guatamala's Rio Dulce two weeks ago. I've been enjoying Terry Folace's book, Best Laid Plans before I go to sleep at night and not doing any writing. I'm going to see if I have the wherewithal to include a picture or two with this update.
We always seem to have lots of projects on board. Each season since our mould disasters in Panama we are changing another sectional of the interior wood from oiled to varnished, so it needs to be teak cleaned, sanded and at least four coats of varnish with increasingly finer sand papering between each coat. One more season and all the interior wood should be switched over. Besides it looking brighter, mould can't get a toehold on the glossy varnished wood nearly as readily as on the oiled wood.
Ray has installed a new foot pump and bilge pump and sweated profusely through lots of other jobs. We seem to always have so much to do but are stopping now. Just this morning we think our dinghy motor is finally fixed and our friends Bill and Sue Jaine have arrived this afternoon from Canada. The cushion recovering will have to wait for next season again.
When we arrived the exterior and interior of the boat were in good shape. Efrain, who works for the marina and is the father of a little family that lives behind the marina had cleaned the exterior of the boat and his sister, Helen who also works here, had cleaned the interior. Efrains thirteen year old son Allan had been hauled up on the halyard to clean the underside of our wishbone boom too. This has been a good place to leave a boat. Not too expensive and good care. Ray usually does the dishes in the kitchen palapa (an open sided pole and thatch building with a wood floor). There's jungle all around here and no roads in. You have to come and go by boat. Ray likes that he can splash all around while doing the dishes and even let the sink run right over if he wants to. There's a hose beside the sink too if he wants some extra fun.
Ray got a two pronged bite from something that looked a bit odd but nothing seemed to come of it. We do have a fair number of bug bites. Mosquitoes or noseeums or whatever. While Ray was spray painting some plugs from the interior lining of the boat whose finish had come off one of them flipped out of the work palapa and into the swamp floor. This area is officially a rain forest and there are wooden walkways joining the palapas. Some are totally over water. He watched where it went and then ventured into the squishy forest floor, going up to his ankles in muck but he got the plug back.
This marina holds about twenty boats max and at the moment there are three couples from Texas working on their boats before they head to the Honduras Bay Islands, an Italian couple who have had engine problems and are heading to Panama and a Canadian guy single handing who can't decide what he wants to do. One of the Texan women, who has a great sense of humor, noted that the women who live around here have two styles, Mayan or whore. It may be a bit over stated but I do see what she means.
I have managed to put three pictures here but didn't figure out yet how to put an explanation under each one. But as you can see they are Wishbone at the dock and Ray in the kitchen palapa and in the work shop. These were actually taken last year when we went nowhere but things look pretty much the same except another boat is not outside of us any more so we should have no problem getting away hopefully next week.
This year we plan to head north outside of Belize and Mexico to Isla Mujeres then cross over to Cuba and go east along the south side, storing Wishbone either in Cuba or the Bahamas next summer.
Bye for now, Vonny and Ray on Wishbone
Wed, Apr 27th, 2011
We arrived back at Wishbone, our 30' Nonsuch sailboat Sunday, April 24th after spending an extra night in Guatamala City because our bags did not arrive with us as they should have. Wishbone has been here at Monkey Bay Marina in the Rio Dulce, Guatamala for around a year. It is fresh water in the river and this was the first time we left it in the water while we were back in Canada since we started cruising in 2002. It's 3PM now and just over 100F, 38C (in the shade) so we are melting always, especially Ray, who does have a problem with the heat but doesn't mind cold weather. We are planning to go back to Canada gradually as we work our way around the Caribbean, across the top, down the Eastern Caribbean, across the bottom from east to west and now we plan to be heading north, but not this year. We are getting such a late start that we will just work on Wishbone for four weeks and then fly back to Canada, hoping to get an earlier start next year.My dad died March 30th and we spent a lot of time with him and my mom before that. Since Sunday Ray has gotten our dinghy up and running so we have transportation, there are no roads to the marina here in the jungle. He's installed a new pump assembly for our head, toilet for non sailors, so it's functional and not leaking. That's a treat. Two of our four interior fans were worn out and Ray replaced them today but they blow the wrong way. He thinks switching the wires will get us a breeze. Thank God for the other two that we sleep in front of. Our refrigerator was giving us trouble last season and doesn't seem to be working at all now so we'll have to see if someone can look at that and on and on. Oh, and I've sanded all the blisters off of our exterior wood and was anxious to get a sealing coat of varnish on it today but alas, our varnish must have been removed from our bags because we don't have it and didn't notice when we were stashing our stuff. We're hoping to get the kind we want tomorrow, no luck today. Hope we don't have to settle for some other type. I love Epifanes. I won't bore you with all the details but we have plenty to keep us busy for four weeks. I should also recover our interior cushions. Some of them were destroyed with our mould problems last year. When we arrived this year we were delighted to find the boat washed outside including the boot line which we had expected to be very scummy. The inside was nice and clean too, so we'll be sure to have Helen air it out once a week after we're gone this time too. May 12th. Still working away. This will be the only update we send this year since we're not going anywhere. We were unable to get Epifanes marine varnish so are using the local one which is a quarter or a fifth of the price of Epifanes and does do an excellent job with lots of UV protection. As the song says "If you can't be with the one you love then love the one you're with" and we are learning to love the local varnish.
We ended up having to replace our fridge at the tune of $1350.00US because Ray took our old one out and helped to instal the new one. Otherwise it would have been $1500. Maybe it's true that BOAT means break out another thousand and cruising is boat maintenance in exotic places. Ray continues to fix and install things and I continue to varnish. Eight coats on the exterior wood. They say a coat for every month in the Tropics and we have some left from before. Four coats inside in our main cabin that we are changing gradually from oiled wood to varnished wood. We had such a problem with mould in Panama and mould has a much harder time getting a hold on the shiny surface. Also it brightens up the interior. There are about twenty marinas in this marina district of the Rio Dulce and around a thousand boats here when people are not out sailing. Many of the Mayans especially don't read or write. The bank will take a thumb print as a signature. A sixteen year old Mayan girl who was staying at the marina for a while could not even write her own name. To get a drivers license here you need to know the limit for passengers in the back of a pickup truck. It's fifteen. I'm sure this is a very boring update and I've gone on far too long. Hopefully next season we'll be heading north outside of Belize and Mexico to Cuba.
Bye for now, Vonny and Ray on Wishbone.
PS. Our son and daughter in law gave us a bag of toys without batteries that we were able to pass onto Casa Guatamala, an orphanage just down river from us and they were, of course, very happy to get them.
Also, looks like the cushion covers will have to wait till next year.
Fri, Apr 23, 2010
Hi everyone. So we checked into Guatamala at Livingston at the mouth of the Rio Dulce. After we'd finished the formalities we anchored close to town because it was almost dark. Everyone says you have to lock everything up. We slept in the cockpit last night and so did Terry and Sandy on Gambit. Ray had the search light and pepper spray by his bed and I had the camera and the fog horn. Terry said he had a small gun. I'm surprised. Later we found out that he thinks it's a good idea to say that over the VHF in case anyone is listening. By this morning we had not been boarded and still had all our stuff. This morning we slowly came about ten miles up the Rio to Texan Bay to anchour. There's a marina here and it's safe to anchour. The river is spectacular but I'll quote what John Lloyd Stephens wrote about "The River That Swallows Gringos" in 1841. He can describe it better than I. "In a few moments we entered the Rio Dulce. On each side, rising perpendicularly from three to four hundred feet, was a wall of living green. Trees grew from the water's edge, with dense unbroken foliage, to the top; not a spot of barrenness was to be seen; and on both sides, from the tops of the highest trees, long tendrils descended to the water, as if to drink and carry life to the trunks that bore them. It was, as it's name imports, a Rio Dulce, a fairy scene of Titan land, combining exquisite beauty with colossal grandeur. As we advanced the passage turned, and in a few minutes we lost sight of the sea, and were enclosed on all sides by the forest wall; but the river, although showing us no passage, still invited us onward."Sat, Apr 24, 2010
The sun has been down for a long time but it's still 30C and no wind. Thank God for fans. Our generator is running for power. We're in Texas Bay. Sherry and Mike, who are from Texas, started a marina here about five years ago. Mike has a very raspy voice and such an accent. He says even the Texans can't understand him because his daddy came from Mississippi. We've done some hiking and dinghying around through the mangrove swamps. It amazes us that people live in the mangrove jungles in a building on stilts on the water with their dugout canoes and fish traps. It must be so buggy in there and no breeze but I suppose there is no land to buy.Sum, Apr 25, 2010
The heat is ridiculous. We went to a fund raiser for a local school on a nearby island by dinghy this morning. The dinghy pontoons are scorching. The dinghy seat is and the floor is too. We couldn't stay long because we were so streaming with sweat and felt like we might perish. When we got back to the boat we jumped in the water. It's not very cool but at least it is fresh water. We've mover along a couple of bays to Gringo Bay. It's 3PM, 37C and we are hoping for a breeze and staying in the shade of the bimini. Our shower bag is in the fridge so that will be exiting. Ray says that way it puts out the fire. Apr.28th. We are at our final destination for this year. For the first time since we left Toronto in 2002 we'll be leaving Wishbone in fresh water here at Monkey Bay Marina while we go back to Canada for the summer. Hope that works out OK. Apparently they take quite good care of your boat and will clean it and open it up to air it out when the weather is good. Most of the places along the river here have no roads to them. The transportation is by boat. It's the same for this marina. We can get to a town, Frontera, by boat that does have a road to Guatamala city from it. The marina which is all on stilts backs into a swampy jungle and the howler monkeys at dawn and dusk are really close and loud. We have a long list of jobs to do on the boat. It seems like we'll be able to get our floor replaced here and we'd like to do a bit of inland traveling before we head back to Canada.Thu, Apr 29, 2010
Last night we had a storm with thunder and lightening. There are two guard dogs here and one of them is afraid of storms. Last night she hopped into our cockpit and then into our cabin and laid on the floor all curled up and afraid. I had to nag Ray until he woke up and took her off the boat and tossed her into her nice dog house. We work away all day on the boat until the heat gets too bad in the afternoon. I am working on the exterior wood and Ray is teak cleaning and sanding the interior wood. We will varnish the interior wood instead of continuing to oil it. With a shiny sealed surface it is harder for mould to grow on it and it has darkened a lot over the years. Especially this year with our mould problems. But there is a lot of wood so it will be an ongoing project.Sun, May 2, 2010
We find the heat oppressive. Everyday is in the 90sF with the heat index 120F to130F. We work away on Wishbone taking it easier in the afternoon and easily have enough to keep us busy for a month but would like to be back in Canada by the beginning of June. I'll finish off this update not knowing if we will ever be able to send them. We have flights booked for June 7th and will work on Wishbone with hopefully a couple of little inland trips until then. Finally the weather is better with a high of only 88F today. May.29th. The temperature is OK now but it rains a LOT. Hope you all had a good winter too and we'll see many of you in the summer.Wishbone
Thu, Mar 25, 2010
Before making a passage, a long one especially, we are always anxious about how the sea state and wind will be. This did turn out to be a terrific weather window and for most of it we were able to sail without motor at more than five knots. We left Providencia at 2AM so we could arrive in daylight and the wind was strong (up to 32 knots) with fairly big seas in the beginning. Leaving in the dark was nerve wracking even with some lights. We were considerably oversailed to start so put a reef in but were able to shake it out during the next day. We were traveling with a French couple on their 42' sloop "Sandy 2". Another boat left the anchorage at 10PM going the same way but we haven't seen them since. We sort of expected to see them when we got here but they must have moved on. They would have arrived at the Hobbies in the dark and we did have to go around a reef that wasn't on the chart. The French couple, Claud and Sylvie, caught a 1.5 meter fish that seems to be in the barracuda family and had us over for dinner tonight. They are safe eat in these waters. In the Bahamas there is danger of siguteria poisoning with them. Ray caughtt a barracuda too and we saw no pirates. So of course we were worrying for nothing. We arrived around noon of the second day. We always feel so grubby from the salt air and are tired and the boat is a mess after a passage. I like this anchorage in the Hobbies or Cajones (meaning boxes or coffins in Spanish). It's named because of the huge mounds of lobster traps on the little island in off season which is now. Lobster season starts July 1st and goes for 6 months.There is a reef in front of us with a good breeze coming across it and the water is swimming pool coloured. The reef looks high enough that we should be able to walk on it. The little island is to our starboard. Two young guys caretake this fishing camp for six months. They are really nice and happy to have company. They cleaned our fish and Ray gave them half of it. They gave us each a green coconut that they cut a hole in the top of so we could drink the juice. We will go in tomorrow with some gifts, a wind up flashlight, some playing cards, etc.
Sat, Mar 27, 2010
Yesterday we six on our two boats went into the little island to visit. A fishing boat is here waiting for a belt for their water pump to be delivered by some other boat. There are four guys on the fishing boat who seem to know the care taking ones. The young men are so generous. They gave us more green coconuts that they opened again so we could drink the juice then cracked them open with their machetties so we could scoop out the soft coconut with a piece of shell. Ray asked if they had a conch that he could have the guts from to use for bait. They gave us eight conch cleaning them all first and putting the guts in a separate bag. They also gave us pieces of cooked fish to try. We had two frozen packages of four double chicken breasts each that we bought in Providencia and brought that to them with a package of cookies. They keep a few chickens for eggs. They have the coconuts and what they get from the sea. They have a fresh water tank that seems to be getting quite low and they seem very proud that they have everything they need. As Sylvie says "the less they have the more they give". We had the conch last night with Sylvie and Claud, a special treat. Sue made fresh bread too and we had the Cole slaw and chick pea salad that we made for our last passages but didn't eat on the way. And now all our wine is gone but we had a good time.The weather seems settled and we listen on the SSB to the North Western Caribbean Net for reports. Our plan is to leave at daybreak tomorrow morning to arrive in Guanaja while the sun is still fairly high so we can see in the water. Tue. Mar.30th. We arrived in Guanaja yesterday. Yet another good weather window. Mostly we had the wind and waves on our quarter and a full moon so good visibility and good speed. And most importantly the waves were not too big. The first day we had dolphins frolicking on our bow for quite a while and for a bit as well on the second day. It is said that cruising is like driving across the desert in a motorhome at 5 MPH. There are definitely some similarities.
Checking into Honduras yesterday was the easiest and cheapest we've had for a long time. $3 US per person. Our first impression was not that great. We anchored temporarily by the town which is all crammed on a little island to keep away from the sand fleas. It is very interesting looking with canals and narrow streets. There are no cars here. A young guy latched onto us and wanted to show us around which we didn't want and then of course he wanted to be paid. Also, a Dutch boat here said that they had fuel siphoned out of their gas tank while they were tied to a dock in town. After we were checked in we came over to the anchorage and like it here much better. A German guy who has a restaurant beside the anchorage says that there is no serious crime here if you don't count the drug trade and that doesn't affect him. He says it's only petty theft and with the history of pirates it's just the way of life. He says people don't change all that much and they even steal from each other within families. It's just a lock it or loose it mentality. Our French friends cought a fish again on the passage and we had dinner on their boat tonight, eating their fish. The French sure are terrific cooks.
Tomorrow we'll take our dinghies through a canal to the other side of the island. It is supposed to be a good excursion.
Thu, Apr 1, 2010
Yesterday during our excursion we stopped at the little airport in Guanaja beside the canal. A new airline just opened up. It flies between Guanaja, Roatan and La Ceiba on the mainland of Honduras. They use DC3s, also called Dakodas. Bill loves those planes. They were built 40yrs ago. So this morning Bill and Sue flew from Guanaja to La Ceiba in one and Ray and I are back on our own until Suzanne arrives on the 5th. It's only 35 miles to French Harbour in Roatan from our anchorage in Guanaha. The sea is almost flat. We have a light wind on our beam but must motor to keep our speed up.Bye for now from Vonny and Ray on Wishbone
Hello everyone. Vonny and Ray from Wishbone here. Shortly after we had started cruising last winter Pocketmail went out of business and we were unable to send or receive. Since we've been back in Canada we bought an iPad and are trying to get up to speed on it. I intend to copy the updates from my Pocketmail into the iPad since we can't transfer them electronically because we can't find anyone with old enough equipment. So you'll be receiving them about one per week. There are five. It will of course be old news. But it's the best I can do. It is also good for us to have a record as our memories are not what they once were. So here we go.
Mar 16, 2010
It seems like longer but we were only in San Andres for two days. Someone who was supposed to know about autopilots came out to look at ours and thought it might need oil. Ray had remembered reading in the manual that you shouldn't oil it so wasn't goin for that. The autopilot guy called over someone from a fishing boat that could speak English and he advised that if we were going to try and find someone in San Andres who knew something about our autopilot we were wasting our time. Bill, our guest noticed that the nut that was holding on the wheel at the helm was loose and tightened that. It worked perfectly from San Andres to Providencia. Our masthead light decided to work as well. A refrigerator guy came out to the boat in San Andres and measured something with dials. He said if it stops working we should turn it off for ten minutes then turn it on again. He said a lot of other stuff in Spanish that we didn't quite get. But it seems our refrigerator works when we have lots of power and sometimes even with not that much. So things are looking up on Wishbone. Most people buzz around in motor scooters in San Andres and the traffic can be very busy. We rented a golf cart one morning and drove around the island stopping for lunch and at two museums. One of them was Morgans Cave where it's thought that Henry Morgan hid gold. The other was a typical older island house. The young woman who showed us around had a twelve year old daughter but looked so young herself. She said girls on the island started having babies early, around fourteen years old. She and another young woman did an island dance for us in their bright colored wraps. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and their camaraderie. It was probably good that we were in the golf cart because I think the locals can tell we are tourists that way and may be more forgiving in traffic.When we wanted to leave we planned to stage at a little island near the main island and take off during the night to arrive from our 55 mile trip to Providencia (another Columbian island) in daylight. But we were uncertain about our anchorage and with lots of reefs to go through even with a marked channel we decided to leave before dark to arrive in the morning. So we kept our speed appropriate to do that. We were heading NE and with the prevailing NE winds we knew it would be on our nose so didn't even put the sail up. Some sailors we are but it would have added so much more to the length of the trip to tack into the wind. This seems a beautiful little quiet island with lots of hiking and snorkelling so we want to stay a few days. On our next passage, just slightly shorter than our longest one, to the Hobbies (also called the Cajones) we may or may not stop at the Vivorillos first. We'll be heading NW so hopefully we can actually sail on that one. It is so hot here with businesses being closed from lunch until three or four o'clock that we've decided siestas in front of a fan and out of the sun are a good idea too. Mar.17th. Happy St. Patties Day. If you say that to someone here they don't seem to get it.
Today we rented motor scooters and drove around the island feeling like real tourists and stopping for lunch at "Miss Marys", a French Canadian woman who has a lovely restaurant on the beech. Most people get around on motor scooters here, often with a few people on one including babies and toddlers. Ray went to get two five gallon jerry jugs of fuel this afternoon. A motor scooter taxi took him and said it would be no problem. Ray held the two empty Jerry jugs on the way there and on the way back the driver put one in front of him and Ray put one in front of him. The people here always wave and are friendly. They seem very proud of their island and you don't see garbage around as you do on many.
Mar 19, 2010
Yesterday we hiked out to Morgans Head. We thought we'd snorkel after but it was quite a long hike so that will have to wait till tomorrow. Morgans Head is a large rock formation on the end of an island near the entrance and it does look like a head. There is yet another cave here where it is said too that Morgan hid gold. A front is coming through here and last night we dragged quite a ways but fortunately didn't drag into any other boats and the anchor had reset by the time we realized we'd dragged when Bill got up to pee off the stern. A few boats dragged last night, some more than once. Ray and Bill cleaned and tightened the terminals and bus bar for our fridge and it has worked steadily since so we're hopping that's it. We had a slow leak in our dinghy and Ray went to shore to look for it and has reported it found so he'll mark it and patch it latter. He said two local guys came by and told him he should use Fab dish soap and went off to get some. They kept looking and wouldn't stop until they'd found it.Today is Bill's 67th birthday. Last night he was sung happy birthday to by a local band. The Ocala put on a performance for the cruisers. They really seem to like to have us here. Some kids danced in costume and the band played islandy songs. They had an electric mandolin, a base guitar, a gut bucket, maracas, a cow bell and a horses jaw. We'd never seen one played before. He used it like a washboard but when he shook it it rattled as well. The wind is down and we hope to head the 194 nautical miles to the Hobbies tomorrow or the next day before dark depending on the sea conditions. It may be a short window so we don't want to miss it. Mar.22nd. We decided to wait out the last front and so now are planning to leave tomorrow at 2AM. There are reports of pirates around Media Luna but we'll be traveling with two other boats for safety. It will probably be wavier than our other passages. Hopefully not too bad. Our friend and former babysitter, Suzanne, will join us Apr. 5th in Roatan so we need to be there by then. Often Wishbone is like a library with all four of us reading.
Bye for now from the gang on Wishbone
Mar 9, 2010
Hi everyone. We (Ray and Vonny, Sue and Bill) on Wishbone are finally away from Shelter Bay Marina at Colon, Panama where Wishbone has been for over a year. The wind has started to lessen a bit. Our plan was to go out of the harbour and go to San Andres, a Columbian island, if the seas were down enough. If they were still too high we'd go to Porto Belo, 20 miles to the east, which would put us at a little better angle to the wind for San Andres. If they were really terrible we'd tuck into a little anchorage 5 miles to the east of Colon. It wasn't too bad but still fairly rolly so we are at Porto Belo. Besides getting at a better angle for the wind it is our first sail and we are getting our sea legs and, more accurately, our sea stomachs. Ray and Sue seem to have the strongest stomachs. The wind continues to lighten and the seas calm so tomorrow we'll head the 217 nautical miles to San Andres. It should take about two days. At least we have our early morning take off routine figured out. Everything seems to be working except the head (toilet). We have a leak of sea water that seems persistent even though we have replaced a part and added sealant, then epoxy. We will just use the bucket or go in the head, open through hulls, flush like mad, close through hulls and mop up. Hopefully the seas will stay down until we get there.Mar 12, 2010
We are at San Andres and completed the longest sail for this season. The best thing about the passage was the weather which is a huge issue. For timing, it seemed to take us forever to make the first 25 miles because we were tacking with the light wind. As it turned out, of course, our going to the east wasn't an advantage for the wind but we're still glad we went there because it was like a shake down cruise and Bill and Sue got to see a nice little Panamanian town that they wouldn't have otherwise. Ray and I were there for a while last season. We ended up dropping our sail during the first day and motoring in a straight line toward San Andres. We had hoped to arrive in the morning of the third day but we made such good time on the calm sea that we were ahead of schedule. During the second day we tried to sail only in the light air to slow ourselves up but it was quite frustrating. So we decided to arrive during the second night and anchor in front of a grease factory on the leaward side of the island which looked straight forward for a night approach and move around to the more complicated entry to the port through reefs in the morning light. A coastguard boat came to us just before we were anchoured about 3AM to tell us we had to go to the port but we said (in broken Spanish) that it was not safe for us to do so at night and that seemed to satisfy them.This morning they were back to make sure we were moving but they were very courteous. Bill was speculating that the old grease factory may be an army base because there was no smell. At the end of the first night before dawn while we were making passage the overheating alarm for our engine sounded. We were motor sailing at the time so continued sailing while Ray checked it out and found the belt for our raw water pump broken. He replaced it and we continued motor sailing. If we have to choose between conditions that would make us puke (but have lots of wind for sailing) or motor (and not have enough wind to sail), we always choose to motor. We'd rather not have big seas if we can avoid it so it's always a trade off. During the second day Ray noticed that the gasket that holds one of the arms that braces our wind generator pole had come out. He spent a long time standing on his toes on the stern rail trying to get another gasket under the ring that holds the arm while I was also standing on the rail pushing the main support for the wind generator toward him with Sue and Bill handing up tools. Of course Ray was trying not to drop a nut or bolt into the water as we were sailing along. And of course he was sweating buckets and we had to both be looking directly into the sun for what we were doing. Why does it always work out like that?
Also the second day we noticed that our refrigerator was not working. The meet that we'd stuffed into the little freezer when we were provisioning was thawing and the freezer was defrosting. And ...after we were anchoured by the factory we noticed that the masthead light stopped working. The steamer light had stopped working around midnight. And ...our self steering is still working but acting up a bit. So many things seem to be needing repair this year. We think it must be related to the water that was in the boat when we returned to it and the mould. A manager at Shelter Bay said that Panama knows how to do one thing and that is to grow mould. I'd have to agree with him. We'll just have to fix things when we can as we go along. But during the passage we had such calm seas, though there was no moon so the horizon wasn't always easy to see, with the sky full of stars. I'd have to say it was a very good passage in spite of the technical glitches.
Sue and Bill are great on board. They are seasoned sailors and understand about things not working on a boat and are always there to pitch in and do what they can as well as appreciating the good things about the life style. I guess it really is true that cruising is boat maintenance in exotic places. Our head situation doesn't seem as bad as it originally did. We just use the head and flush with a bucket of water, leaving the intake valve closed and leave a very absorbent rag under the drip. We'd like to move along to Providencia as soon as possible. Sounds like it is a quieter, prettier island. We'll try to get our refrigeration and autohelm looked at here if we can. Most of our meat is cooked and our diet is very meaty lately. With our disrupted sleep for the last couple of nights (we do two hour watches) we'll all sleep very well tonight. And of course there isn't all the creaking and motion. This is such a nice smooth anchourage with good holding and lots of breeze over the reefs. We are more than three degrees further north with less heat and humidity and that's nice too. After we were settled in this anchorage we had showers with the shower bag and orange juice with Champaign, patting ourselves on the back.
Bye from Captain and crew on Wishbone
Feb 15, 2010
Hello everyone. After almost a year Ray and I, Vonny, are back at our sail boat, Wishbone, a 30' Nonsuch in Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama. For a while we thought we might not be back to the boat this season because of family reasons but thank God we did come back. We've been up since 2AM and it's 10PM now. There was a 2 hr. hold up with our second flight. But dear Victor, our Panamanian cab driver, was still waiting for us and even stopped so we could get a few groceries and a phone card before bringing us to the marina and then said we owed him less than he had originally quoted. So of course we gave him more. Maybe he knows thats how it works, but we like him. Of course our travel experience is nothing like those who come from Australia and lots of other very far away places, but we're still pretty tired. When we arrived at the boat we were so incredibly disapointed.Every year so far since we left Toronto in 2002 Wishbone has been perfect inside when we return. We do a lot before we leave to have it in good shape when we come back. When we left the boat in March we neglected to take the plug for our knot log impeller out so that if any water got into the boat at least it would be under the floor boards. It has always been so nice and dry. It's horrible, the worst by far ever with water a little over the floor boards and mould everywhere. It was getting dark when we arrived and we had planned to sleep on board but it is so awful we don't want to. There is a bit of a hotel connected with the marina and, although it is full, we were able to sleep in Gabriel's room. He lives here and works at the marina but is not here tonight. Tommorrow in the daylight and after some rest we will have to assess the damage and see what has to be done and what does and does not work. We were so disheartened when we saw below in Wishbone. I thought boats that looked and smelled like that were just not very well looked after. We were hoping to head to San Andres island Feb 28th with the full moon but are wondering now how long it will take us to get out of here and of course we'll be working our butts off for the next couple of weeks.
Feb 21 2010
We have been working all day everyday to clean the boat up and although the floor looks like crap, the rest of the boat is good with the mould gone and the wood oiled. The cushions have been aired, cushion covers and every scrap of fabric on board washed and old mouldy pillows replaced. Totaly rusted pans are also replaced. Our friends, Sue and Bill arrive tommorrow from Canada. I think they'll stay with us until Roatan, Honduras. Our 30' Nonsuch is not a big boat but we should be OK. Walking around the docks here makes us feel downright puney. On the hard we have no refrigeration because our fridge uses a shoe on the exterior of the hull that disperses the heat into the water, and of course no head (toilet) until we are in the water but we do have a bucket. We even bought a new one without a crack in it that pinches you for our guests!So this is no 5 star cruise. Now we need to turn our attention to cleaning and waxing our hull and deck, getting our antifouling on and making sure everything will work. We need to replace our batteries. I hope that won't hold us up.
Feb 27, 2010
Our friends are here and we get along very well. The boat is looking much better. Our hull is nice and shiny (with 4 of us working on it, it took only one day) and our antifouling is on. Our friends, Sue and Bill, are going through the Panama Canal tommorrow, Sunday, as line handlers on an Australian boat that was our neighbour on the hard. When they come back on Tuesday or Wednesday we may be in the water. We'll miss heading out on our longest sail to San Andres (a Columbian island) on the full moon which is tonight but thats the way it goes. We replaced our house batteries and remarkably found exactly what we wanted at Casa de la Batteria in Colon. For the last two weeks I haven't been able to send or recieve with my little pocket mail device and was worried that they were going out of business. It is old technology. But today I had success so think I may be able to continue in my usual manner for another season. We will really have to break down and get a computer one of these days. This season we may be able to send some pictures through the laptop that our friends have brought with them, as of course we can never send them with our pocketmail. They'll come from bill.jaine@gmail.comMar 1, 2010
With Bill and Sue away our boat seems big and quiet. Hopefully they are having a good experience line handling through the Panama Canal. The hydraulic trailer that moves the boats from the jack stands to the travel lift is parked directly in fromt of our boat so we must be the next boat to be moved tommorrow. For the last two mornings I have tried unsuccessfully to pick up some nets to get weather patterns for this area on our single sideband radio. Hopefully I'll be successful tommorrow because we need to have a good idea of what is happening with the weather for the next while before we head to San Andres.Mar 4, 2010
Tuesday, before we were to go in the water, Ray was checking out the impeller for our raw water pump and realized the spool wouldn't turn. A guy at the marina took it apart and said we needed new bearings and a seal. The parts don't cost much but we had to go to Panama City, about an hour from Colon, and one place that didn't have them would call another, etc., etc. We used Victor again, as our taxi driver because he can speek English so we were able to get the right parts and of course it is an all day process that ends up costing lots, but at least we were able to get the parts. So we are still on the hard but can hopefully get in the water tommorrow.Mar 6, 2010
We did get in the water yesterday and is it ever nice to be floating. Also, our Yanmar engine is working and so is our dinghy motor. Bill has been able to get weather on his (actually his son's) computer yesterday and it looks like Tuesday should be good to go. It's been very windy the last few days and we can see high waves splashing over the breakwall outside of Shelter Bay. Today we'll provision now that we have a fridge. Tommorrow we'll give the office our documents to get our zarpe to clear out of Panama.Bye for now from Vonny and Ray and Bill and Sue on Wishbone