Shelter Bay Marina, Colon
Owning is maintaining! This means once a year Nikan has to be hauled-up and all her systems have to be checked and revised. Just to give you an idea:
• Propulsion: engine, sails, winches, running and standing rigging, mast, propeller
• Ground tackle: chain, anchor lines, windlass
• Energy: solar panels, wind generator, alternator
• Hull: anti-fouling, hull and deck top coat, deck anti-slip paint
• Interior: complete spring clean-up
• Mobility: dingy and outboard engine
• Safety: life raft, flares, all instruments inspection
• Future: spare parts inventory and renewal
Living on the hard adds some complications in this hot and humid environment - the inboard bathroom and sinks are out of order, boat access is by a ladder only (lots of! up and down), dust everywhere – and so we try to limit this time to minimum, which is not always easy, as the speed of having anything done is not on a par with North America (endless phone calls, suppliers' follow-ups, internet research and lots of diplomacy is required to get parts on time and services performed. But after a bit more than two weeks we are glad to report Nikan is back in the water. Of course there are still things that remain to be done, but we can now start to organize the transit through the Panama Canal and to get prepared for our next destination – Ecuador.
February, 2010
Colon, Panama
4 ½ months since the last entry and we are once again back in Colon, a jump-off point on the Caribbean side of Panama for crossing the canal. Nikan is going on dry and we have to tackle a long list of preventive maintenance projects J-P prepared, besides the annual "spring cleaning", as everything is saturated and covered with salt. The first two months I spent in Toronto, helping my mother with her rehabilitation after the stroke she suffered. Meanwhile J-P sailed alone to Cartagena, Colombia, where he waited for me very patiently, taking long walks in this very beautiful colonial city. Very hot and humid during the day, pleasantly cool in the evening, as I had the chance to find out during the three days I spent there, after I joined him there by mid December, and by which time he was anxious to move on. The last two months, without any Internet anywhere, we cruised through the San Blas archipelago of over 340 islands, many uninhabited, full of coconut palms and sand beaches, with some unbelievably beautiful “National Geographic” snorkeling. Others, home to semi-autonomous Kuna Indians, who have best preserved their culture and traditions out of all the tribes in the Americas. They believe, that money changes one's way of being (selfish, greedy...etc.), although today, even in the most traditional villages we saw signs of civilization one needs money for (solar panels, cell phones, battery radios...and other little pleasantries of modern life). Until a few years ago coconuts were the official means of exchange, now they are sold to Colombian trading boats one sees all the time passing by. Another mean of making money is by selling to cruisers “molas”, which are beautiful traditional blouses Kuna women wear. The most famous part of this dress are the panels that decorate the front and the back of the blouse, made by cutting and sawing different layers of colourful cloth into all kinds of figurative or geometric designs (ex.: see the header of this blog). San Blas is a very enjoyable cruising ground in calm water, heavy swells stopped by the many very healthy reefs, with picturesque islands, where the traditional villages blend into surrounding landscape. Kuna people are always polite and friendly with a big smile. Although Panama is a very interesting country, after the nine months we spent here it's time to move on.
October, 2009
Shelter Bay, Panama
Howling monkeys are everywhere. A lonely sloth, hanging on a branch across the little stream that we are exploring on the dinghy is so close, we have to watch not to bump into him-her? Parrots are screeching as they fly from one bank of the river to the other one, always in pairs. And we even have a bit of scare, twice, when we chance on a snake, which quickly disappears, probably quite scared of us. There is an atmosphere of mystic silence, except for the cries of wild birds and animals. This is what we imagined jungle and tropics should look like and we are not disappointed. This is the Rio Chagres, a beautiful tropical river surrounded by virgin rainforest, where we anchored for few days, after an overnight sail from uninhabited island (Escudo de Veraguas). One can go up the river for about six miles, up to the dam, which was built in 1910 to create the Gatun Lake, which supplies the water for the locks of the Panama Canal. When our food supply gets low, we get moving back to civilization and now we are in Shelter Bay Marina, with a restaurant, a swimming pool and a daily bus which takes us to food stores in Colon. Reputation of this city, one of the world’s largest ports, is that it’s a surprise, if you don’t get mugged at knifepoint! We are advised visitors should have no problem – as long as they take taxis everywhere and never set foot on the streets. So we follow this advice, as do all the other boaters, and contribute to the economy of this town full of poverty in many taxi fares. We are (or rather J-P is) installing a wind generator to increase our energy production, so we can play music, make water, and have all the lights on at the same time! Of course he has to change the oil in the engine, fix the outboard engine where everything is plugged from the dirty gas they sold us here, and do all the other man stuff (sometimes it pays to be a woman!). Overall we saw many beautiful places since leaving Bocas archipelago and we are looking forward to meeting some new fellow cruisers at the potluck organized in this marina. And if J-P would want, he could even meet some non-smoking friends in the daily afternoon volleyball game!
Howling monkeys are everywhere. A lonely sloth, hanging on a branch across the little stream that we are exploring on the dinghy is so close, we have to watch not to bump into him-her? Parrots are screeching as they fly from one bank of the river to the other one, always in pairs. And we even have a bit of scare, twice, when we chance on a snake, which quickly disappears, probably quite scared of us. There is an atmosphere of mystic silence, except for the cries of wild birds and animals. This is what we imagined jungle and tropics should look like and we are not disappointed. This is the Rio Chagres, a beautiful tropical river surrounded by virgin rainforest, where we anchored for few days, after an overnight sail from uninhabited island (Escudo de Veraguas). One can go up the river for about six miles, up to the dam, which was built in 1910 to create the Gatun Lake, which supplies the water for the locks of the Panama Canal. When our food supply gets low, we get moving back to civilization and now we are in Shelter Bay Marina, with a restaurant, a swimming pool and a daily bus which takes us to food stores in Colon. Reputation of this city, one of the world’s largest ports, is that it’s a surprise, if you don’t get mugged at knifepoint! We are advised visitors should have no problem – as long as they take taxis everywhere and never set foot on the streets. So we follow this advice, as do all the other boaters, and contribute to the economy of this town full of poverty in many taxi fares. We are (or rather J-P is) installing a wind generator to increase our energy production, so we can play music, make water, and have all the lights on at the same time! Of course he has to change the oil in the engine, fix the outboard engine where everything is plugged from the dirty gas they sold us here, and do all the other man stuff (sometimes it pays to be a woman!). Overall we saw many beautiful places since leaving Bocas archipelago and we are looking forward to meeting some new fellow cruisers at the potluck organized in this marina. And if J-P would want, he could even meet some non-smoking friends in the daily afternoon volleyball game!
September, 2009
Isla Bastimentos and around, Panama
The famous strawberry poison-dart frog, also called red frog, can be hard to spot because of its small size (18-25 mm), but once you see one, they suddenly seem to be everywhere. We see lots of birds, parrots especially get very busy towards the end of the day, but we haven’t spotted any sloth yet, although they had been spotted where we go just seconds before we arrive. These supposedly slow-moving animals are very fast in our case! We had some nice visit on surrounding islands, more as observers than participants. While we could stroll on the beech of Zapatillo Island (part of the national park) during the day, at night only the park ranger is allowed and we could observe him from Nikan as he made his tour every night with the red light checking for endangered species of turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. In Bluefield Lagoon, where we stayed for three days anchored in the well protected bay, with just few huts scattered here and there, we observed the locals of Ngöbe-Buglé tribe holding onto their culture, their daily life so different from ours, basically spending their days in gathering food, as the little store they can paddle to in their wooden cayocos, has really only few necessary basics, and there is no road to bring civilization closer anywhere close by. Fishing is the whole day occupation, as is washing clothes by hand. Back here in Bastimentos we are back to civilization with a great Thai restaurant, with a 100% real Thai cook. Most of the population here, descendants from Jamaica, who came here originally to work on banana plantations, speaks English. The town is quiet and clean, with laundry service and Internet as well. We are patiently waiting for the parcel to bring our new sail bag (the old one got burned by the tropical sun) and than we will move west towards Colon. Did you know that Panama has set aside more land as National Parks and protected forests than Costa Rica, so famous a destination for thousands of ecotourists?
The famous strawberry poison-dart frog, also called red frog, can be hard to spot because of its small size (18-25 mm), but once you see one, they suddenly seem to be everywhere. We see lots of birds, parrots especially get very busy towards the end of the day, but we haven’t spotted any sloth yet, although they had been spotted where we go just seconds before we arrive. These supposedly slow-moving animals are very fast in our case! We had some nice visit on surrounding islands, more as observers than participants. While we could stroll on the beech of Zapatillo Island (part of the national park) during the day, at night only the park ranger is allowed and we could observe him from Nikan as he made his tour every night with the red light checking for endangered species of turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. In Bluefield Lagoon, where we stayed for three days anchored in the well protected bay, with just few huts scattered here and there, we observed the locals of Ngöbe-Buglé tribe holding onto their culture, their daily life so different from ours, basically spending their days in gathering food, as the little store they can paddle to in their wooden cayocos, has really only few necessary basics, and there is no road to bring civilization closer anywhere close by. Fishing is the whole day occupation, as is washing clothes by hand. Back here in Bastimentos we are back to civilization with a great Thai restaurant, with a 100% real Thai cook. Most of the population here, descendants from Jamaica, who came here originally to work on banana plantations, speaks English. The town is quiet and clean, with laundry service and Internet as well. We are patiently waiting for the parcel to bring our new sail bag (the old one got burned by the tropical sun) and than we will move west towards Colon. Did you know that Panama has set aside more land as National Parks and protected forests than Costa Rica, so famous a destination for thousands of ecotourists?
August, 2009
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
We are leaving this Saturday (August 15) to explore the islands in Bocas del Toro archipelago. There are eight major islands, 51 cays and over 200 minor islets. Till now, since arriving from Jamaica, we haven’t moved from this marina on Carenero Island. Being at dock means upkeep and repairs and we are putting the final touches to Nikan. J-P installed the two sliding hatches we brought with us from Quebec to the dodger, which will make our cockpit breezy and fresh in this tropical hot and humid climate. We already notice the difference, although it’s open-close-open… as the rain comes and goes. It’s a rainy season now, although we are told rains were six weeks late this year and while we were in Quebec, there was rationing of water, it even went so far as no shower. Now it rains almost every day, sometime with violent storms, I still have laundry to do but am not afraid for lack of water. There are no rivers on this island and all the water the habitants use here comes from rain. We are looking forward to be at anchor again, to swim, snorkel and fish. All this is not possible right here, the water around marina, as the village itself, is quite dirty. We are going to miss the daily access of Internet and the library, although the owner of this marina doesn’t like women’s books or movies, so mostly I had to settle for murder, espionage, action. Right now we are here three boats from Canada, few from Argentina, rest is from USA. There is another marina on Colon Island and many other boats at anchor. I am sure we will cross some of these people again, everybody is heading more or less in the same direction.
We are leaving this Saturday (August 15) to explore the islands in Bocas del Toro archipelago. There are eight major islands, 51 cays and over 200 minor islets. Till now, since arriving from Jamaica, we haven’t moved from this marina on Carenero Island. Being at dock means upkeep and repairs and we are putting the final touches to Nikan. J-P installed the two sliding hatches we brought with us from Quebec to the dodger, which will make our cockpit breezy and fresh in this tropical hot and humid climate. We already notice the difference, although it’s open-close-open… as the rain comes and goes. It’s a rainy season now, although we are told rains were six weeks late this year and while we were in Quebec, there was rationing of water, it even went so far as no shower. Now it rains almost every day, sometime with violent storms, I still have laundry to do but am not afraid for lack of water. There are no rivers on this island and all the water the habitants use here comes from rain. We are looking forward to be at anchor again, to swim, snorkel and fish. All this is not possible right here, the water around marina, as the village itself, is quite dirty. We are going to miss the daily access of Internet and the library, although the owner of this marina doesn’t like women’s books or movies, so mostly I had to settle for murder, espionage, action. Right now we are here three boats from Canada, few from Argentina, rest is from USA. There is another marina on Colon Island and many other boats at anchor. I am sure we will cross some of these people again, everybody is heading more or less in the same direction.
June, 2009
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
Half an hour by water-taxi and four-hour bus ride through spectacular mountain cloud forest brings us to David, capital of Chiriqui province. It’s not a particularly scenic town, it rains every afternoon quite heavily, it’s hot and humid and so we continue to a cooler destination. Boquete, a mountain town on the east side of Volcan Baru, said to faintly resemble a village in the Alps, is a popular tourist destination. However, this time of a year is a low season and so we don’t see too many tourists around. We have to get up early in the morning to go for our hikes, as each afternoon clouds roll in and it starts to rain. Early in the morning we can admire volcano Baru, before it disappears in the clouds. It’s pleasantly cool and we even have a need of long sleeves in the evening! Besides hiking the most popular activity here is water rafting, but with all the rain, rivers just run too wild. I feel sad to leave this cooler, pleasant town, but I know, I’ll have some cool temperatures again (?) – on our planned visit to Canada. Back here J-P once again continues with his never ending list of maintenance... This is a friendly marina, with friendly people, dogs, cats, even birds some people keep on their sailboats. And of course, none of us yet found the perfect way to keep those irritating sand flies away… After nine months of travelling it’s nice to just relax and enjoy the place, surf the net, read books, join the Friday potlucks with the other cruisers - our stress of working days is somehow fading in memory. Nikan is striped of all her sails, cleaned and prepared for our absence from Panama (June 16 – July 29).
Half an hour by water-taxi and four-hour bus ride through spectacular mountain cloud forest brings us to David, capital of Chiriqui province. It’s not a particularly scenic town, it rains every afternoon quite heavily, it’s hot and humid and so we continue to a cooler destination. Boquete, a mountain town on the east side of Volcan Baru, said to faintly resemble a village in the Alps, is a popular tourist destination. However, this time of a year is a low season and so we don’t see too many tourists around. We have to get up early in the morning to go for our hikes, as each afternoon clouds roll in and it starts to rain. Early in the morning we can admire volcano Baru, before it disappears in the clouds. It’s pleasantly cool and we even have a need of long sleeves in the evening! Besides hiking the most popular activity here is water rafting, but with all the rain, rivers just run too wild. I feel sad to leave this cooler, pleasant town, but I know, I’ll have some cool temperatures again (?) – on our planned visit to Canada. Back here J-P once again continues with his never ending list of maintenance... This is a friendly marina, with friendly people, dogs, cats, even birds some people keep on their sailboats. And of course, none of us yet found the perfect way to keep those irritating sand flies away… After nine months of travelling it’s nice to just relax and enjoy the place, surf the net, read books, join the Friday potlucks with the other cruisers - our stress of working days is somehow fading in memory. Nikan is striped of all her sails, cleaned and prepared for our absence from Panama (June 16 – July 29).
May 2009
Bocas Del Toro, Panama
We leave the never ending blasting reggae music of Jamaica behind us and for the next six days fall into the rhythm of three hours on, three hours off watches - only the hypnotic crushing noise of waves against Nikan is heard. On night watches, under incredibly black sky sprinkled with blazing stars, to keep awake, I interrupt this meditative sound by listening to the Spanish lessons on MP3, trying to etch in my aging grey cells some new vocabulary I will need in Panama. But here in Bocas, there is a lot of English spoken, but nevertheless, I try to practice my new Spanish vocabulary as much as I can. I will get more chance of that once we go a bit inland. We are in marina now on Isla Carenero, just a few minutes by boat from Isla Colon, the main island in this archipelago. We are entering the rainy season here, basically it’s hot, humid, and sand flies, locally known as chitras, are dining on us in full force daily!! Yesterday, I learned they only live for 45 minutes, but believe me, in their short life they get very, very hungry! Real estate seems to be booming around here, and from what we hear everywhere in Panama, expatriates, mainly from USA and Canada are building their fantasy tropical gateways. We have seen some on our walk yesterday, and even here, in the marina, they are boaters looking for their perfect piece of land. For now we are wiping the salt from everywhere, cleaning the sails and next week we are going inland for a little trip - we hear it’s a beautiful area, lush, tropical and even cooler in the mountains. We will also visit David, the main city of this province for a taste of some civilization, although it’s quite touristy here as well, minus the stores. We’ll keep you posted….
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