Monday 20 April 2015

Shelter Bay

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
                          hand feeding the fish
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.

                            great reaching conditions
                       The inevitable squalls