Shelter Bay Marina
Shelter Bay Marina has a lot going for it
as described earlier, but after being up on the hard and trying to get some
work done there another side comes out. Lack of infrastructure and little
ascendancy towards the demands of the many yachts that come through here and on
top of that poor organizational skills means it is all a very frustrating time
when wanting to get anything done here.
A simple three-day job of hauling out,
cleaning, preparing and reapplication of anti foul, along with a service to the
engine and a new anode fitted to the prop turned into a mission. I had given
the yard manager an email 2 months prior to our arrival there stating the work
required, had a meeting with him at our arrival, arranged all the necessary
product required and agreed on the time to do it(a week later), well after four
days up on the hard we still were waiting for the paint to turn up, no service
was organized and no anode. It took some pushing but we finally got the boat
back in the water after a comedy of errors. I gave up on the new prop anode and
put the old one back on.
We met some interesting people on boats
there with a range of experience. Don and Sally from New Zealand were doing a
delivery of a Catamaran back to New Zealand for the owners who we had met
earlier in the Med, between them they had over 500,000 miles of ocean miles
under them. It was great talking to them and getting a lot of relevant
information off them. Both Barry and myself were offered to go with them
through the Canal as line handlers for them and we were glad to have the
opportunity, as there is a lot to take in as newbies.
The Canal
We were up early the day of our scheduled
Transit and the boat was ready with all our Fenders and the extra tyres (8)fitted
to the side of the boat, along with our hired extra lines(they have to be a
minimum of 22mm diameter and 150 meters long each). We had the boat and the
extra 160 liters in Jerry Cans filled with diesel and were ready to go.
After another typical organizational botch
up on the time to be at ‘the Flats’, the official meeting place, where the time
changed several times and in the end we were rushing to get there, we finally
got our two line handlers that we hired( you need one skipper plus four line
handlers for the transit) and the ‘Advisor’ (appointed by the Canal
Authorities)on board and we were under way.
The first series of ‘Locks’, the Gatun
Locks are where you enter three locks after each other and the water gets
pumped into the locks, lifting you around 20 meters in each one. The water is
gravity fed into the locks from the Lake and the first lock being the lowest,
the water comes in at a hell of a rate and the pressure on the lines and cleats
on the boats are pretty heavy as the boats rise up with the water. After the
locks are used, they simply let the fresh water go out to sea, wasting millions
of Liters each time.
We were through them and at the lake around
7.30pm and we tied up to a mooring on the lake there along with 6 other yachts.
There were 7 of us rafted up to the one Mooring for the night, the Advisor was
dispatched back home and after Dinner a few quiet ones were consumed that
night.
The next morning we had another ‘Advisor’
on board at 6am and we were off again through the lake towards the other Locks.
The journey through the Lake takes approx 3 hrs to go through and that was an
experience in itself with the ‘Advisor’ telling me to keep to the left hand
side of the channel where we were supposed to be on the right. We were taking
ships head on starboard to starboard, one even honking his horn and complaining
to the Canal Control that we were on the wrong side, but the ‘Advisor’ refused
to move over and I was not overly happy about the whole thing and had a couple
of words with him on the subject.
We went through the next set of Locks going
back down and were out the Pacific side quite early. After another couple of
minor incidents while rafted up to another boat in the Locks due to the
‘Advisor’, I came away with not a lot of faith in the Panamanian ‘Experts’ that
they give us to guide us through the Canal, but over all it was a great
experience.
We spent a couple of days on anchor at
Balboa on the Panamanian side of the Canal and after filling the boat back up
with diesel, went into Panama City, which is a total change from Colon being
very modern with high rise buildings, great roading and obviously more money
about.
After going to the dentist again and
electing to get that troublesome very back tooth taken out-(smashed out, ouch),
we were ready to leave Panama and looking forward to the next leg to the
Galapagos Islands.
Galapagos Islands
It took 6 days, five nights to get there in
very light conditions where the Gennaker came in handy and made good progress
with it. Sometimes the boat was going faster than the true wind and ‘Falshator’
was proving slippery in the water with her new clean bottom. It was a challenge
to sleep at night with the heat as we were right on the equator here, and with
little wind about it wasn’t easy.
We crossed the Equator just before the
Islands and had to have the obligatory ceremony that goes with it. The crew and
Captain were all ‘Pollywogs’ being virgin Equator crossers so we all had to do
the ceremony. The boat was stopped at the Equator and we had to spray shaving
foam on each other and crawl on our hands and knees to circumnavigate the boat.
Then it was into the Briney for the compulsory swim and the celebratory
Champagne along with the issuing of the Certificates I had made for
confirmation of being official ‘Shellbacks’ being official Equator
crossers.
Galapogas Islands
We anchored at Santa Cruz and after
contacting our Agent, we had to go through the intensive Immigration procedure
there. We had 7 officials on board at one time and also a diver in the water
checking that the bottom of the boat was clean.
They went through everything on the boat,
including checking toilet chemicals, checking all medicines and their use by
dates and our food on board.
While intensive, they were all very
friendly and it was all over very quickly.
Then we had to get Certification from the
local Capitannae to enable us to get our Jerry cans filled with Diesel.
After all the necessary formalities and
fuel etc, we spent the next 5 days exploring the island and all it had to
offer.
We spent time snorkeling with the seals,
diving with the sharks and the shoal fish which must have numbered over 50,000.
They surround you in the water very closely and there are so many of them, they
block out the light and it goes dark, Incredible. We also saw large turtles out
there and it was one of the best dives I’ve done.
We also went out to the Charles Darwin
Centre and to the Tortoise farm where they have huge Land Tortoises that you
can get up very close to. Along with the Iguanas and the various bird life
including blue Footed Boobies, it is definitely an amazing place to visit .
Fresh water fissure swimming hole
deserted beaches
lava caves
dont rush me man
Puddle Jumping
We left the Galapogas Islands after
stocking up and made for The Marquesas Islands. The trip took us just over 19
days and aside from a couple of very quiet days wind wise we had a great trip
with only a couple of damages being losing our Engine Compartment fan and
breaking the Gennnaker halyard with around 5 miles to go to Nuku Hiva. The sail
ended up in the water, but hopefully not damaged and we will have to rerun
another halyard through the mast but no biggie.
The inevitable squalls
