more photos from 8/19/09

8/19/09 Santa Catalina to Morro Negrito & Isla de Silva

081909 Santa Catalina to Morro Negrito and Isla de Silva Afuera

8/19/09: At 0645 we anchor up and depart Santa Catalina to Morro Negrito off the Rio Santa Lucia. In heavy rains, 4’ seas off our port beam and limited visibility, all three guys are on careful watch. Thank goodness they’re all professional mariners! Certainly gives me great peace of mind. Another positive advantage is that neither Chris nor I have to pull the anchor up. Tim and Kopra have inherited the job and instantly jump into action on demand. As usual, after the anchor is hoisted and secured, it’s time to rinse down the deck, clearing debris and rusty chain splatters spewed on deck. All call out, “FISH BUCKET!” in request for our old reliable, rusty handled plastic pail, used to hoist seawater on deck for the rinse down. It’s become Colin’s responsibility, and he’s usually nowhere to be found when it comes to doing his job. Hence the need to continually call out the request, “FISH BUCKET”! Only then does Colin appear, head hanging, frowning face and pouty lips, slowly dragging feet towards the bow with Fish Bucket in tow. As boys will be boys, the 3 guys aptly and instantly bestow the nickname FISH BUCKET onto Colin, who immediately refuses acceptance of this newly acquired gift. Too bad, already done. It stuck, permanently. By the way, I forgot to mention that on the day after Tim and Kopra arrived, Fish Bucket and Kopra walked around Isla Santa Catalina and found my dry bag washed ashore! How’s that? What luck! We all presumed that in the haste to get to shore the night before, it must’ve flown out of Opihi just as Chris had spun out to retrieve Tim and the luggage. 0930: The skies have cleared, the winds are in our favor, and Kopra hooks a 10# mahi! 1130: A pod of dolphins swim with us briefly and we pass two turtles mating on the waters’ surface near Isla Medidor. Motor sailing with full sails at 5.5 kts. 1415: Another fish is on the line! It’s Fish Bucket’s turn to reel in the catch. With very rolly seas and no hand rails, Chris hand steers the boat, Kopra guides and coaches while Tim has a steady hand on Colin, lest he gets yanked overboard by fish and swell. It’s a struggle alright and now near the surface, Kopra exclaims, “it’s an ahi!” Places everyone! Kopra readies the gaff, swoops over and under, and SWOOSH! Off flies the fish to freedom. Gone in 20 seconds. Drooling jowls dreaming of ahi sashimi quickly dry up, and the line is put back out. Oh well. 1600: Drop anchor, Morro Negrito, just inside Punta Entrada in 25’ of water, high tide ebbing. Skies are overcast and it looks like rains coming, winds 20-25 kts and chilly. Rain water shower!

8/20/09: After recovering during the am hours, Chris, Kopra and I hike the interior jungle towards the surf camp Morro Negrito. We’re told by locals it’s a short 20 minute hike to the other side. Armed with long sleeved shirt and pants, cap, glasses, heavy duty insect repellent, machete and two men, I feel somewhat secure venturing into a REAL jungle. Chris and Kopra take turns in the lead, as I scurry along to keep up in the middle of the pack. It’s a little freaky, encountering lizards, Howler monkeys, gigantic mosquitoes, land hermit crabs, spiders and unseen snakes. Everything seems to be on steroids here, truly a place where survival of the fittest rules. It takes us 45 minutes to reach the other side, only to find out we’re at the opposite end of the bay where the surf camp lies. After a short rest and discussion, we decide to sail Iwalani to Morro Negrito surf camp tomorrow, and check out the waves on that point. Figuring that as long as we’re on the move, no critters can settle up on us and we shave 20 minutes off the return hike, making the transit in just 25 minutes. Near the end and just before we break out of the jungle, Chris walks face first into a spider web! Commotion breaks out as we both hop around, scream and freak a bit, then I swipe at his face with my hands and shirt in my best effort to clear the invisible ghost like webbing and hope there’s no spider tangled up within. Freed from the tangle of web, we scurry back to Opihi and return to Iwalani. Tim quips, “What was all that commotion we just heard out there?”, and we proceed to describe our encounters. 1520: Anchor up to Isla Silva de Afuera, about an hours’ sail. 1620: Upon arrival we find a pitching right-hander and reeling lefts around the corner. Chris, Colin and Kopra jump in to surf the lefts while Tim and I stay aboard Iwalani, adrift in the sea while heavy squalls approach. Tim explains how to stay adrift, and then motor around to keep in place, and I’m glad not having to be alone in this task for the first time. 1730: Depart Isla Silva back to Morro Negrito amid a rainy squall with minimal wind and we all get a rain water rinse. 1930: Arrival near our anchorage, darkness falling fast, the racing outgoing current slows our speed to 1.8 kts. 1945: Drop anchor and fetched up nicely in 18’ of water.

8/21/09: At 0730 we anchor up and head to the Point off Morro Negrito Surf Camp and find the waves pitching at 2 – 3’ with no one out. Yee haw! We later cruise over to check out the Morro Negrito Surf Camp and find that there are just a few occupants at the moment. It’s a small, rustic camp, accessible only by boat or panga, and costs around $640 per week including panga rides to the various surf spots nearby. We all vote that Iwalani is a much better surf vehicle: mobile, surf gear, transportation, meals and all you can drink included. By 1335 we’re back at Isla de Silva Afuera for another epic surf session, ruling the lineup of 5. Nice. We could get used to this.

8/22/09: More of the same today at Isla Silva, surfing with just our pack of 4. Waves were a bit blown and choppy, so I offered to stay aboard and keep watch on Iwalani, giving Capt. Chris peace of mind without worrying about the boat, and focusing entirely on his surf session. Along comes another fishing boat and Chris trades 2 packs of cigarettes for several snappers and a couple of yellow corvinas, which end up freshly sautéed in a lemon, butter, and caper sauce.

8/23/09: We get an early start and head out to Isla de Silva at 0600 for our final surf session. Although we’d love to stay, time marches on and we have to get moving towards Costa Rica, where there’s much surf yet unexplored by Iwalani. 20 minutes into our motoring, we hook another fish! What is it? It’s a local fish called Sierra, and excellent eating. Thai Fish Curry for dinner tonight! P-Land serves up a glassy state of 2-3’ for our pack of 5, but with the tide running out quickly, there’s a short 1.5 hour window to surf. By 0900 the tide is racing out fast, the switch gets turned off suddenly, and rocky boulders begin exposing their mossy sheen with every lap of receding salty seas. To avoid the long lulls and hop scotching the rocks with a surfboard, I paddle back to Opihi to take some surf photos of the gang. Tim soon joins me to start the first of two shuttle rides back to Iwalani. Upon arrival at Iwalani, I start the usual procedure of sliding off Opihi into the water with my board, climb up the ladder, and turn to use the leash to haul the surfboard onboard. Unfortunately, at the moment I turned around on the ladder to haul up my board, Tim and Opihi start RACING towards me uncontrollably. Opihi bounces off Iwalani and Tim makes a sharp left, dragging my board off his port bow, separating me and the other end of the leash, which is still attached to my leg, off to the starboard bow. Whoosh! The outboard motor grinds my leash and I get yanked off the ladder and into the depths below. Underwater, I immediately vision being chomped into pieces by the motor, but Tim quickly kills the motor before bodily damage occurs. Surfacing, I whip off my leash and scurry up the ladder. Geez! What just happened? Somehow the motor got stuck in forward as he tried to reverse. We’re both a bit panicked (you think?) with the adrenaline rush, and turn to inspect my prized Dave Parmenter fish. Eek. It took a thrashing. My fish’s tail, fin box and fin looked like it received a full barrage of whacks from a pissed off local farmer with a very sharp machete. But it was an accident and we’re very thankful that the board got chomped and not me, which would have been considerably worse, located in the middle of nowhere. Tim has earned a new nickname…munchman. Still in disbelief, he motors Opihi back to P-Land to retrieve the rest of our crew and surfboards. For a quick change of pace and to shred the recent horrors, Chris and I go ashore to Isla de Silva Afuera, discovering the beauty rarely told. Isla de Silva is a small island surrounded by multiple surf breaks, crystal clear water and abundant marine wildlife. We ascended the short steep cliff to find that the island plateaus on the top and is being taken care of by 2 local farmers. The island is lush and self sufficient with agriculture (corn, yucca, watermelon, papaya, sugar cane, coconuts, sweet peppers and more), a natural water source, 4 pigs in a pen, and a dozen or so chickens in a pen. Amazingly, whatever they farm is only for their families and they do not sell the produce. They offer it for free to whoever arrives at the island such as local fishermen and visitors. We loaded up with 60 pounds of yucca, watermelon, corn, peppers and traded 3 cans of Vienna sausage and 2 packs of cigarettes. Wow. Most of the western civilization has forgotten how to survive off the land and the locals here live it daily. They do not have need for anything. They farm their produce, grind their own maize for tortillas, fish, raise pigs for meat, raise chickens for eggs and meat and have a few friendly dogs for company. Isla de Silva Afuera, beautiful in all its’ simplicity, is truly a paradise...that's for sale by the way :-) We return to Iwalani where Kopra, Tim & Colin jump into Opihi to have their shore time and discover the island. At 1300 we anchor up, depart Isla de Silva for Isla Secas, and find safe harbor by 1800. What a day it’s been. Even with an unsavory event, we are thankful that no one got hurt and realize we are truly blessed to be enjoying life aboard Iwalani with family and good friends, day sailing, surfing, going ashore to chat with the locals, catching fish and trading for fish with local fishermen, and the simple pleasure of showering on deck when it pours. Life is good.

more Isla Santa Catalina photos

080909 Isla Cebaco to 8/18/09 Santa Catalina

8/9/09: It’s time to depart Cebaco Bay and head to Santa Catalina. It’s said to be one of the best surf spots in Panama, and that’s where we’ll pick up friends Tim Clearwater and Chris Kopra to join us on our surf safari for the next two weeks. 0830 it’s my turn to pull up anchor, manually, and Colin helps put the chain into the locker. Successfully spitted with salty and rusty chain spray, I scrub it off my skin as Colin washes down the bow and deck with our aptly named “Fish Bucket”. It’s our old, reliable, rusty handled bucket that serves as our primary holding tank for freshly caught fish and hauling seawater on deck. It’s only an 8 mile transit to Isla Catalina, but with the wind and current against us, we drop anchor off Isla Catalina at 1200 in 15’ of water at low tide. It’s a beautiful protected spot, just short of a 2 mile dingy ride to the surf line up.

8/10/09: 0700 morning surf session! Excellent. Solid and consistent 2’ (Hawaiian style) right and left hander’s off a reef break with some 3-4’ sets, glassed with off shore winds at 5-8 kts. Mellow crowd. With 12-15 foot tidal ranges, it’s surfed at medium to high water only. Sweet!

8/1109: 0700 surf session #2! Successful mission with better shape and bigger size. Consistently arriving at 2-4’ and hollow, barreling right hander’s are plenty. Crowd’s a little more aggressive today, but there’s still plenty waves to go around. By 1100 Colin stays aboard while Chris and I go ashore to purchase diesel, visit the local bakery, walk 1.5 miles to the internet café which has intermittent service, and purchase produce off the local produce truck roaming the streets and announcing their presence with a LOUD speaker. Tim & Kopra were expected to arrive today, but at 1800, without any means of announcing their arrival on the beach, we give up hopes of picking them up amid a high tide and massive shore break, and in total darkness.

8/12/09: Surf is not as good as the last two days, but still refreshing. At 1200 there’s still no sign of our guests, so we go about meeting some locals, and attempt to collect our diesel which was ordered the day before. After a while, the diesel man shows up, and we load the canisters of diesel into his pick-up truck to haul down to the shoreline. As luck would have it and as is the Panama way, the battery is dead. After changing it out two times, we end up gathering a couple of passerby’s and pushing the truck to jump start it down the road. Success! We hop in and head out before it goes ka-put again. On the beach, we load Opihi with our cargo with the help of Javier, an ex-pat married to a local and living in Santa Catalina. At 1730 we settle in aboard Iwalani as a heavy lightening storm unleashes its wrath. 1830: Colin jumps up and yells, “What’s that in the water????” He grabs the flashlight and shines it onto the water in almost total darkness. With a strike of lightening illuminating the surface disturbance, we see it’s CHRIS KOPRA!!! Oh-my-gawd! He frog manned it out from shore to Iwalani. A 2 mile paddle against an outgoing current in the middle of a heavy lightening storm! In total awe, we haul him onboard with surfboard and fins amid hugs and laughter. Hooting and hollering the excitement rictor scale escalates to maximum velocity, and Capt. Chris readies Opihi to retrieve Tim, sopping wet in the rain, waiting onshore with luggage and surfboard bags. Crap! Opihi plug plunges into the sea. Unretrieivable, a cork substitute is engaged. I toss him my dry bag and he speeds quickly off towards shore. A beach landing is decidedly sketchy at high tide, but Chris manages to ride the back of a wave onto the shore break. Spinning around in the darkness, he’s caught unaware by a rogue wave and gets wiped out. Gone is my dry bag. Bummers. Another item claimed by the sea. With the help of a drunken local, Chris and Tim load Opihi and shove off amid an unexpected lull, and putter back to Iwalani unscathed and dry, minus my dry bag. After rounds of storytelling and raucous laughter, we call it a night.

8/13/09: 0630 surf session in solid 2’, a little smaller than the last two days, but still nice conditions. Crowd is a little more aggressive, but we still have a great time.

8/14/09: 0700 surf session in 2-3’ with 4’ sets. Lots more people in the water today, and the crowd is a little more agro. Later in the morning, Tim, Kopra and I hire a local to drive us into Sona for provisions, as Chris and Colin stay aboard to watch Iwalani.

8/15/09: Surf check at Punta Rocas provides no incentive, so it’s La Punta again, amid crowds and inconsistent wind chopped waves. After lunch, we cruise the shore of Isla Santa Catalina to collect land hermit crabs for our hermit crab races. Washed out ashore by the rain, we continue the races on deck on Iwalani, gawking and prodding the little buggers to win-place-show.

8/16 – 8/18/09: Surf is diminishing and crowds are gathering in aggression, so we decide to pack up and head out the next day.

080609 Punta Benao to 8/8/09 Isla Cebaco

8/6/09: At 0330 we depart Playa Benao to Punta Naranjo, approximately 85 miles along uninhabited coastlines and the notorious Punta Mala (Bad Point), known for its’ strong currents. 0610 motor sailing along at 5 kts, we’re amazed by the numerous whale sightings encountered, breaching, spouting and frolicking as we sail quietly past these gracefully mammals. On two occasions, at 0830 and 0930, the fishing reel spins madly out of control and two precious lures are lost as the line snaps crisply and quickly. Egads, must’ve been some very large fish. Too large for our small reel and broken handled gaff. I guess that’s what’s called a blessing in disguise. At 0905 we see several water spouts off in the distance. Ominous, powerful, funnel shaped spouts spinning furiously and seemingly out of control, twisting and flickering as they connect dark skies to the oceans’ surface below. Gratefully, they travel in a direction opposite ours. On a better note at 1110, along comes a pod of approximately 20 dolphins, hop scotching along the waters’ surface in a race towards our bow. They playfully swim alongside the bow, gracefully twisting their sleek bodies to take an upwards peek at who’s standing and watching them from the bow spurt above. We smile and wave and they return the gesture, silently breaking the waters’ surface with dorsal fins and flippers. In a flash they’re gone! The mood darkens. Chris scans the water and spots dorsal fins off our Port beam. Sharks! Now we understand their sudden disappearance. Need to regroup and protect the pod. 1520: drop anchor at Punta Naranjo, a small bay providing safe anchorage near shore. The dark jungle looms just off the tiny beach, a sharply rising peak of shrubs, monstrous trees and mossy undergrowth. Cloaked within the forest, Howler monkeys loudly voice their displeasure at our visual intrusion. My thoughts of safety provided by the seas’ separation of land and boat are quickly quelled by Chris’ simple comment. Monkey’s can swim. Exhausted, we call it a night by 1930.

8/7/09: 0820 departure from Punta Naranjo to Isla Cebaco, a much shorter distance than the previous day. 1310 arrival at Cebaco Bay, on the SW corner of Isla Cebaco. There’s a rumored surf break called “Dos Rocas”, translated as Two Rocks, obviously named by geological surroundings. We launch Opihi in search of surf, and are presented with our first skunk factor. Disappointed, we return to Iwalani at 1400, seconds before a torrential downpour. I gleefully race around deck, hanging my rain catcher buckets and successfully filling our water tank, cooler and 5 liter rain water bottles. I even have time for a refreshing rainwater shower! With the rain continuing for over 2 hours, Chris grudgingly gives up hope of hunting down any more surf spots today.

8/8/09: Armed with surfboards and packed with emergency gear, Chris and I hop onto Opihi and depart Iwalani at 0800 for an early morning surf expedition in search of Dos Rocas on the south side of Isla Cebaco. Colin stays aboard to do home school and keep watch on Iwalani. We find a pristine coastline teaming with the ocean’s wildlife, glassy swells, and no surf. Skunked again. Chris is majorly bummed, as Dos Rocas was the primary reason for this destination. Sometime during this transit, Chris manages to lose my one and only long sleeved rash guard, which I use on a regular basis. He had wedged it between the boards for cushion, but apparently not snugly enough. One more item reclaimed by the sea. Take note to email purchase request to Tim Clearwater prior to arrival from Hawaii - one women’s long sleeved rash guard please. He and Chris Kopra will be joining us on Iwalani for 2 weeks for a surf trip. Upon return to Iwalani, Chris tackles the project he’s been avoiding since we departed Colon, Panama. Organizing the lazarette. It’s a deep, dark crawl space with little, if any, fresh air, and no light. It houses our desalination unit, auto pilot, tools, lines, fenders, A/C unit, battery charger, inverter, heat exchanger, hydraulic day tank and miscellaneous ropes, shackles and trim wood. Colin helps his dad as I surgically slice off a portion of our mattress, fitting it to the contours of our berth, and hand sew it back together in a Frankenstein method. Upon completion, Chris is officially dehydrated, and takes 2 days to recover. BUT, the lazarette is now in order!

7/15/09 Panama - 8/3/09 Punta Benao

071509 Panama to 080309 Punta Benao

Hi gang,

So much has happened since we flew out of Honolulu on 7/15/09 to resume our travel aboard Iwalani. The transition to leave land and live aboard a sailboat is mind boggling, and worse than getting married and having to change your last name on all documentation since birth. But very well worth it.

In a capsule, (although nothing I do is really that short now is it?), we flew in to Panama City in the Republic of Panama located on the Pacific Ocean side, and drove by braille to Iwalani, docked in Colon, Panama, on the Caribbean Sea side of Panama. That was an adventure in pitch dark blackness provided by driving at 1:00am in the morning, on a newly built but not yet complete (hint hint), freeway, doing 80-90mph as the few other vehicles whizzed by us doing 100mph +.

After a couple of weeks of preparing the boat, minor repairs, haul out for welding, scrubbing the bottom of the boat, provisioning, making new friends (notably Rosemary and her son David aboard NINA), getting paperwork done to go through the Panama locks, we finally transited the Panama Canal successfully on 7/30/09. As an engineering masterpiece based entirely on gravity, it remains functional and unchanged since its successful opening on August 15, 1914. With that 2 day and 1 night experience under our belt, we were anxious to move on with our adventure.

Yeah! The Pacific Ocean! The Atlantic is nice, but the Pacific is home. Since it was later in the day than anticipated, we grabbed a mooring ball and spent the night at the Balboa Yacht Club off Panama City.

7/31/09: Depart Balboa Yacht Club, Panama City to Isla Taboga. 8* 47.6' N 079* 33.0 W. It's a nice little seaside community which serves as the speedboat "weekend getaway" point for Panama City dwellers. Surprisingly, there were numerous mooring balls in place, and at no charge. Since its Friday, we had beaten the weekenders and easily grabbed a mooring ball. No sooner than we tied up, along came a small boat filled with 4 teenagers, paddling along (although not in unison), apparently on a fishing safari. That's nice. A couple of minutes went by and then..."hey, what's that in the water?" "It's-a-DOG! Swimming...after the kids...in the boat...in DEEP water....out to SEA!" It’s SNORKEL DOG! In Spanish, Chris called after the kids advising them their dog was following. Their reply? "Go get him then". Alrighty! Opihi rescue is launched! By the time we got Opihi in the water with outboard motor in place, the dog had reached the kids, one mile offshore, fishing near a large anchored freighter. They shooed him off and now the dogs’ paddling back to shore. We zoomed around in front to try and snag him out of the water, and he immediately took evasive action. Eyeballing us, he took sharp turns to the left and right, picking up dog paddling strokes as he moved, efficiently avoiding any and all contact with us. Opihi rescue is logged as a failed attempt, but Snorkel Dog swims on.

8/1/09: Depart Isla Taboga to Isla Bona, a small uninhabited islet off Isla Otoque, with safe anchorage in a quiet bay. En route we catch a small ahi and see a mama whale and calf at 8* 47.0’N, 079* 34.5’ W, all before 8am in the morning! At 1025 we drop anchor in a small quiet and lonely bay. 8* 34.7’ N, 079* 35.5’ W. Not many sailboats out this way. Just when we think we’ve got the place to ourselves, along comes a local commercial fishing vessel, dropping anchor at 1500. Captain Chris, friendly and optimistic as ever, plops his long board into the water, paddles over with two packs of Marlborough cigarettes, and returns with 18 SNAPPERS! Commerce at its best! They even tried to persuade him to join them for beers. What a likeable guy.

8/2/09: Depart Isla Bona to Punta Benao, our first surf spot! Oh oh, this transit will take 18 – 22 hours. Our first real sail with real watches. I get the 4-8, Chris takes the 8-12, and Colin gets the 12-4. Of course, Capt. Chris stands watch with all of us and barely gets any sleep.

8/3/09: We arrive at Punta Benao at 0400 on Monday, 8/3/09. Still lathered in darkness, we hover outside the bay till first light. At 0600 we enter the bay, drop anchor and rest! Punta Benao is a beautiful bay with just a handful of structures along the shoreline. 1100 surf session! Incoming tide, 2-3’ Hawaiian style, clean beach break with off shore winds at 10-12 kts. Lots of fun!

8/4/09: Anchored at Punta Benao. The morning is spent doing chores; Chris splices line to make new hand rails; and I sew covers for the diesel and gasoline canisters to prevent contact with direct sunlight, which causes expansion of the fuel and inevitably…leakage. A catamaran named NEOS arrived around noon and we officially have neighbors! Colin surfs the 1-2’ beach break as Chris and I take Opihi to visit the next Bahia and discuss future plans.

8/5/09: 0500 brings a torrential downpour with earsplitting lightening, and our quiet calm bay is instantly transformed into an open ocean nightmare. Iwalani starts rolling heavily on the beam in 3 – 4’ open ocean swells, blasted with 20 kt winds, just 50 yards off shore! It is the rainy season. Suddenly I heard the dreaded words, “Lisa! Come here!” I raced up the companionway as quickly as physically possible, just in time to see Chris DIVE OFF THE BOAT! Whoa! What a stomach churning sight to see, as lightening cracked all around me while the wind and rain whipped pellets that seemed to imbed in my skin. A long board in its sock flew overboard, and Chris jumped in to retrieve it. We hoisted it safely back onboard, Chris clamored back up the ladder, and we secured all items on deck. Sopping wet with anchor dragging, Capt Chris decides to buoy the anchor and let it go, and we motor safely in place to maintain the best position to ride out the storm. A few hours later, everything calms down, and life resumes to the Panama pace.