by chris ayres | Jun 2016 | UK to New Zealand
And no before I start it wasn’t a navigation error.
I had decided after much consideration of the alternatives to go to Curacao to lay up the boat for the hurricane season, I had even booked some storage there. Curacao is about 600 miles SE of Jamaica so I knew it would be a hard passage to windward but thought it do-able, but just how hard I was later to discover. I delayed my departure by a day to let some strong winds pass by but then the forecast looked OK. What they don’t tell you however is that these passage forecasts of grib files ignore what they term as local disturbances and there was one just to the SE of Jamaica right then. I’d filled up with diesel and topped up with water the day before and now the weather looked fine to set off and so it was until later when I ran into this disturbance. Dark rain squall clouds 30 knots plus of wind 12ft swells and torrential rain capped with thunder and lightning. It was not pleasant. The wind eased but throughout the first night the skies looked very threatening and lightning flashed all around. Mid morning next day conditions were better but the seas were big so it was hard work punching into them and the motion of the boat far from relaxing, lots of crashing and lurching.
Had a couple of reasonable days but noon to noon runs were disappointing in terms of distance covered then it was more squalls and a wild night.
Just to show its not all blue skies, fluffy white clouds and gentle trade winds a couple of short clips.
By the 6th day I was concerned over our slow progress, the weather which was continuing unsettled and the sea state which was rough.
4.00 am on the 8th day was the final turning point, Curacao lay 250 miles away to the SE on a course of 118 degrees, our course was 130 but our COG was 187 so a little west of south due to leeway the waves and the strong W setting equatorial current and SOG a dismal 0.7 knots. It was pretty obvious even to a stubborn skipper that we weren’t going to make Curacao.
An American who had meet in Jamaica had been selling me on the virtues of Panama, he has been keeping his boat there for past 8 years. So I decided to head there. It was about 420 miles away but importantly downwind. As soon as I altered course the differance was appreciable, gone the crashing and jerking, the motion although still lively was much more comfortable and boat speed shot up.
The weather though had not done with us yet, after a reasonable day in which we ran 90 miles noon to noon, the night grew steadily wilder and by dawn I was putting the 3rd reef in the main then handed it a bit later when the wind passed 30 knots and the seas were huge, all a bit scary. Little else to do but put the washboards in the companionway and close the hatch and lie down on a bunk.
By noon it was easing and we could raise more sail, the trouble was the wind continued to drop first to 10 – 13 knots then next day down to 6 knots and then calm. Now us sailors we are never happy there is always either a deal too much wind or not enough. 11 days out and we had to resort to motoring. That was OK for some hours until the engine started to falter and then die. Sounded like fuel starvation to me and problem fairly soon traced to a blocked air vent pipe to the fuel tank. For good measure I cleaned out the fuel filter and separator just in case there was water in the fuel, bleed the system and we were running again, although hadn’t managed to clear the blockage in the vent pipe I could get around this by loosening the fuel filler cap from time to time to let some air into the tank.
Late afternoon of our 12th day out we sited land off to our port side. Had a bit of a scare that night wen a sailboat appeared close by, no AIS, no lights showing, all sails up and fluttering but obviously moving under engine. A powerful light flashed over it brought no response at all and I had to take evading action. The morning of our 13th day on passage we closed the rocks and light on Farallon Sucio and shortly after passed between Isla Verde and the rocks of Bajosalmedio to enter the bay of Portabelo, Panama. It was so good to see green hillsides again. We finally anchored off one of the old forts and the little town of Portabelo. A passage of 835 miles
by chris ayres | Jun 2016 | UK to New Zealand
Sea Bear at anchor under the guns of the fort
Portobelo is half a day’s sail away from Colón, at the northern entrance of the Panama canal.
It is a small historical city, part of the Spanish Main (Cartagena/Portobello/San Lorenzo) and quite interesting. Portobelo was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 and the city was established in 1586 as a Caribbean transhipment center for the South American riches the Spaniards took back to Spain. The treasure house is still there and it is said that once they took out all the silver and stacked it in the streets to make room for all the gold.
The treasure house and fort
Also dating from the Spanish is a cathedral which is renowned for its black Christ statue
The black Christ
The jungle has reclaimed some of the fortifications but some have been cleared and the canons are still there, still laying where they were abandoned all those years ago.
It is also the burial place of Sir Frances Drake, the 16th century English explorer who was buried at sea off Drake’s island.
The bay is beautiful, surrounded by wooded hills with humming birds and parrots.
A beer in a bar by the bay
I enjoyed my stay here and although had thought of it as a destination realising that there was more to Panama than just the canal and that the area would bear closer exploration.
A local bus
by chris ayres | Aug 2016 | UK to New Zealand
Despite Portabelo being a port of entry I was having trouble with the formalities. Even after two visits to immigration I still had not been given an entry stamp. They did not like it that my clearance from Jamaica had Curacao as destination as although I had explained and written them a statement with the explanation they would not stamp my passport, saying that I had to visit immigration in Colon. So much as I was enjoying Portabelo I decide to go to Shelter Bay near Colon and since it was the rainy season anyway, thought I might haul out, lay the boat up and go back to UK for a bit. So early one morning, having put all arrangements in place I weighed anchor and set off down the coast towards Colon. Shelter Bay is situated inside the Colon breakwater, which protects the entrance to the Panama Canal so closing it it was busy with many ships, some at anchor and some on the move and permission has to be sought over VHF from the harbour authorities to enter. Permission granted I passed inside the breakwater and motored to the marina, They were ready for me so, straight into the haul out dock. Paper work completed and soon Sea Bear was ashore and shored up in the yard.
The marina is on the site of what was the American jungle warfare training centre Fort Sherman so is surrounded by jungle which is slowly reclaiming most of the old military buildings.
The marina had a free bus service which ran into Colon so Monday morning first thing I was on the bus, it was a longer journey than I thought and crossed the canal at one of the Gatun locks. As well as sorting out my entry stamp with immigration I had to get my cruising permit sorted. I’ll not bore you with the details suffice it to say it took me from 09.300 until 14.00, visits to 2 different offices, numerous forms to fill in, photocopies to submit and 2 taxi rides across town. Bureaucracy is alive and well in Panama and there is still a market for tippex. Colon has a bad reputation for muggings and it is not advised for ‘gringos’ to walk in the town, hence the taxi. One good thing though, the women in the shipping office advised me that the fare should be no more than 2$ , outside agreeing with the taxi driver the fare he said well for tourists its 2$ but for locals 1$ I’ll charge you 1$. The drive was interesting, chaotic traffic but I have never seen such a run down City in all my travels, it was a bit shocking really.
A few days later with Sea Bear safely laid up a taxi took me for the one and half hour ride over the isthmus to the airport at Panama City. A flight via Mexico City took me to Heathrow so I’m back in UK for a bit. Be nice to see family and friends again. I’ll return to Panama after the rainy season and am looking forward to exploring it.
by chris ayres | Dec 2016 | UK to New Zealand
I have been back here In Panama for about 2 weeks. The “black pig” my travel bag somehow didn’t fly with me on the last stretch from Mexico City to Panama so this was worrying for a few days until it finally turned up. Arriving here the temperatures was in the 30’s, a bit of a shock after cold England it it took me a few days to get acclimatized but nevertheless great to just pull a pair of shorts and a vest on and have done with it.
Sea Bear was fine though hot as an oven from being shut up for so long.
Sea Bear at Shelter Bay
So began the task of fitting out, slow going in the heat and a few problems arose. One a crack in the heel of the keel which had to be ground out and repaired. Turns out a few Vancouver 28 have suffered this fault, the two part s are just glued together and not bonded over with glass fibre. Fortunately my crack turned out to be just a surface crack so no water ingress in the moulding.
Shelter Bay marina
The boat yard here is surrounded by jungle.On Christmas day I had a short walk, I didnt see any jaguars, sloths or toucans but did see Nasua Narica, a monkey, Great Kisadees, Tropical King bird, hummingbirds, Greater Ani and Vultures, beautiful in flight but ugly and awkward on the ground.
Hoping to relaunch in a few more days.
by chris ayres | Jan 2017 | UK to New Zealand
Finally Sea Bear was re-launched on 3rd January, it felt great to be back in the water. Felt it was time to get sailing again, a few little jobs to finish off but then a set back and had a disaster afternoon.
There was a drain valve at bottom of fuel tank just checking things over looked like it was leaking a bit, investigating and it fell off in my hand so there I was laying in engine bay with my finger stopping the hole where once the valve was. Like the Dutch boy and the dam trying to stop 30 gals of diesel pouring into the bilges Mmm I thought! Anyway someone heard me shouting and came to help so I was able to tell them where a wooden plug and a hammer was so hammered the plug in the hole.
The reducer between tank and valve had been just a mild steel fitting, not fit for purpose at all and had just corroded away. Lucky that it had happened here where I was able to fix it and not somewhere out at sea
Spent rest of afternoon chasing someone down as I need to empty fuel tank so need big drum and pump etc. Eventually all organised and next morning the tank was pumped out, fitting replaced with new valve and tank refilled.
So planning to set of in the morning, just a short hop up the coast to either Portabelo or Isla Linton.
I will also switch on the Yellow Brick Tracker so there should appear a live position of the boat on the current position page.
by chris ayres | Jan 2017 | UK to New Zealand
I eventually got away from Shelter Bay on 6th Jan, winds14-16 knots just right for a shake down sail and seas outside the breakwater after playing dodge the shipping, not too bad. However it took a long time to make Portobello, against wind and current with a few tacks thrown in, about 8 hours for 29 logged miles when the nominal distance is just less than 20. The clearwater buoy marking the entrance to the bay had disappeared since June, probably a victim of Otto and in the bay there were several wrecked boats, Otto being the late season hurricane that had hit the coast further north, the latest and furthest south hurricane ever recorded.
Another teething problem surfaced, this a hole in the heads outlet pipe spraying out dirty water! Though how a hole had suddenly appeared in a 4mm thick reinforced pvc pipe beats me. Shortening the pipe by cutting of the end fixed it but what a struggle to get the pipe back on – took about 3 hours!
Next day the strong winds returned, that have been an almost constant feature since arriving back in Panama. Unless these ease i will not have much chance of making San Blas. After a few days in Portobello I headed of for Isla Linton, just 8 miles away but by the time I arrived logged distance was 19 miles and time taken 5 hours. So much for beating into strong winds and big seas. The entrance was spectacular between surf on the reef on one hand and crashing waves on the rocks on the other hand.
In the morning I dinghied across to the island, didn’t make much progress into the jungle though. Returning towards the beach I was just sheltering from a rain shower under a Palm tree turned around and there were 2 monkeys sitting behind me not 2 feet away. They walked with me back to the beach, I was amazed at how upright they walked. One grabbed me around the legs, I was just a bit wary as had been warned they sometimes bite and one was obviously thinking of some monkey business.
Puerto Lindo
Isla Linton
Whilst at anchor here the weather continued unsettled, always strong winds, some heavy rain squalls and one knew the waves outside would be big.