An adventure to the Land that Time Forgot

While I was away in New Zealand Nigel and Ted sailed the boat down to the western end of Tahiti, not a great distance only 5 miles or so. They'd spent most of the time cleaning the boat and snorkeling during the day and visiting the bar at the marina not far from the anchorage.

They'd chosen a fabulous spot, from our anchorage we looked directly over to Moorea (that's the picture with the yachts from my last blog entry). Moorea is one of the most scenic islands in the world, its where they filmed South Pacific and most iconic views of the South Pacific are shot here. The outline of the island is magnificent and looked incredibly beautiful as the sun went down behind it in the evenings.

My first morning back saw Nigel drag me out of bed at 06:30 to go snorkeling, we loaded up the dinghy and rowed the short distance from Honalee to the edge of the reef. For those of you that aren't familiar with the layout of French Polynesia all of the islands are surrounded by coral atols. This means that outside of the reef it can be incredibly rough and very deep, whereas once you are inside the reef its calm and the sea is the most stunning tourquoise blue and reasonably shallow.Apart from the Galapagos which was teeming with fish this is the most magnificent place to snorkel, so much coral, so many fish. It was like swimming in someones tropical fish tank, you expect to see a treasure chest laying on it's side with jewels spilling onto the sand. Heck of a way to spend the morning, infact we were out there for 3 hours, we did the for the following couple of mornings and didn't see the same thing twice.

Before we departed for Moorea we did another 4 WD drive adventure into the mountains in the middle of Tahiti. Nobody lives here, just as well really as the road is incredibly steep and rough and prone to landslides when its been raining. We had a blast despite the enormous potholes which at times felt like you were falling into the abyss whilst lossing any fillings that you had at the same time.

We crossed rivers and fords, saw some incredible waterfalls, infact everywhere you looked there was a waterfall, I've never seen so many in all my life. Just before we stopped off for lunch we took time out to swim in one of the rivers, crisp clean cold mountain water, just what you need in 30 degrees of heat. Only myself the tour guide and one other took the plunge, but after some short deliberation Nigel decided not to let the side down and finally joined us - he's such a woosy where cold water is concerned. The rest of the day saw us travelling through countyside that came straight out of the The Land that Time Forgot and Jurassic park, lush rainforest and mountain pastures.


We had an amazing day, after the heat and dust of Papeetee it was chicken soup for the soul to be up in the peace and beauty of the mountains. We are being incredibly spoilt and feel truly fortunate that we are being given the opportunity to do all of this.

Tahiti and a position Update

Well its been nearly 2 months since my last update - and yes there is lots to update you with.

Tahiti was fabulous - very expensive,lush, green and exotic. Our first week was spent in the capital Pappetee, it was so good to be alongside a jetty with running water and electric. The last time we had had either of these luxuries was in Panama which seemed an eternity ago. I really didn't care that I had the population of Papeetee watching me having a shower on the jetty as they commuted into work, I was just soooo please to have fresh water to wash my hair with!

Just a short walk from the boat was the fruit and veg market, quite disappointing really, after coming from the Marquessa's where just about everything imaginable grows (and is free) what was on offer here was a bit of a come down, not only was there little choice it was also extortionate - £15 for a bag of 5 oranges! But, it was nice to get in a bit of retail therapy.

I flew home to New Zealand for a brief visit to get our residency visa's and to catch up with Robb and Heather. Before I left Nigel and I had a couple of days in a hotel - sheer bliss I tell you - hot running water - a toilet that didn't require you to brace yourself with your legs up the wall - media overload with a flat screen TV - internet - wow died and gone to heaven I tell you!

Just before I left Sara and Norman sailed in from the Tuamoto's, they'd had a great time, partied on the beach and dived for pearls. A great shame that we missed the Tuamoto's (this time) perhaps if we do it again we will get a chance to go see what we missed.

Anyhow I will post some photo's on this update for you and fill you in on the rest of Tahiti and Moorea in my next entry.

Nigel

Nigel has been having a great time while we have been away, he's had some stressful moments but on large this trip has been a good wind down from life in the Navy. He's had his fishing moments and I don't think that he will ever catch another marlin in his life - it will forever be 'The one that got away'.

He's got us through some pretty rough sailing conditions and he's trying to teach Ted how to navigate (think he's on to a loser with that one!). He loves sitting up on watch by himself contemplating, and he's still the only one of us that would quite happily do the big trip again from Galapagos - good for him 'cause I sure as hell won't be doing it!

Anyhow here are some photo's of my better half on his Pacific Adventure.

Ua Poo - pronounced Waaa Poooo!

This was our last stop in the Marquesas, we were the only boat in the anchorage and as usual the villagers off loaded their excess bannanas. Everyone rows in the islands, probably because it is the only way to get round to the other villages, so where ever you go when work is finished everyone does the Hawaii 5 0 bit.This was the village where I was 'advised' that the tap I was washing my hair and feet under was the village drinking water.

More Photo's

Doing this a bit arsey - but hey!

Wind from all regions and overdosing on strange meat and gratis fruit

Well the trilogy continues, as does the gusting wind from the north, south, east and west; yes, bad wind seems to be the theme at the moment. We are supposed to be in the Trade Winds belt, with constant south easterlies, however wind is coming from everywhere at the moment (and its got nothing to do with all the fruit). Oh and it rained overnight, which is the first rain we have seen in an age; but when it does we have to close windows and the temperature is soon through the roof (you wouldn’t believe how hot it is here overnight, so perhaps I shouldn’t be moaning about the wind after all).

Yesterday we did a tour of much of the island of Nuka-Hiva, which proved to be really interesting. It is quite a big island with an airport of sorts, however the road from the main town to the airfield is still unmade (as are all the others) and we now realise why everybody drives a 4x4. The island is quite stunning and despite the fact that they are in the middle of the worst drought on record, everything within the interior is very green and lush. As with all of these island, fruit is everywhere, so again we overdosed on mango and banana.

We spent about 8 hours travelling around and 90% of it was on dirt roads, however we did get to visit several ancient sites and learn something of the bloody past of this island. Inter tribe fighting was always taking place and the pits where prisoners were held before execution, the sacrifice alters and the shaped stones for crushing skulls of these lucky enough to be selected to meet there makers were everywhere. The last known act of cannibalism took place on these islands 100 years ago, however when you visit these sites, you realise how much it must have been part of the everyday way of life. So when the next village invited you over for supper the usual 'Bring a bottle' for us meant 'Bring whoever you can spare for the entree' for them.

Tahiti at last!

Well we are now in Tahiti - and wow what a place! I have loads to put on my blog but my data stick got a virus, but I am flying back to New Zealand for a brief visit on Saturday so I intend to update it then.

We had a fabulous time in the Marquesas, wonderful scenery and such incredibly friendly generous people. Our sail to Tahiti was really crappy, high winds and big seas, we couldn't get into the Tuamotos because of the weather - a shame as they are beautiful! Never mind we will do them next time...............I'll tell you about that sometime!

Update on Saturday with LOADS of photos.

French Polynesia at Last!

Our first pôrt of call in French Polynesia was the island of Hiva Oa, there are only a couple of villages on the entire island, and with the depth of water here you are limited as to where you can anchor. We had a two mile hike into town in 90 degrees the first day we landed, but after being at sea for 21 days we were just glad to be on firm land. Ted,s leg mysteriously played him up so he choose not to walk into town with us! Now if there had been a bar 200 yards down the road he would have made it.

After 21 days at sea we desperately needed to do some laundry, luckily Nigel and I keep on top of our stuff so we only had a few bits, Ted refuses to do laundry, he saves his for some little lady to do it ashore. Twenty pounds latter he wished he,d done it himself!

The boat was covered in goose barnacles when we got here, and despite the sharks nigel went over the side to clean them off, luckily he only saw one small one but still got out of the water quick incase it,s Dad turned up. We are quite suprised, there isn,t much wildlife here, not many fish or birds, compared to the Galapagos it,s very noticeable.

The people here are very friendly, every where you go you are greeted as though they haven,t seen you for a very long time. The ladies all wear a flower tucked behind their ears, and the guys are covered in the most ornate tattoos. Talking of tattoos lots ,of our friends on other boats are all getting tattoos done here, we have resisted so far! But I guess if you are going to get one done this is the place to do it, it,s where they originated from. Sarah from Norsa has had a really intricute ray done on her hip, I could go with one of them hidden somewhere.

We are now in Nuka Hiva getting our sail repaired, once that is done we will do a couple more islands and then set off for the Tuamotu,s and Tahiti. I feel a bit happier now that the mainsail is being fixed, we had a real crappy sail over with no main and I wasn,t relishing the thought of having to go a thousand miles on the headsail. Still I will be glad to get to Tahiti, we are hoping to get into a hotel for a couple of nights......... a real shower!!!! Last week I resorted to the fishermans shower on the jetty at Hiva Oa, quite surreal as me and this French guy chatted over the wall to each other as he did his laundry and i had a shower.

The internet is too slow here to put photo,s on so I guess you,ll have to wait until Tahiti. Anyhow I,m off to top up my tan! Love to you all!

Back in the land of the living!

Hi There! Well after 21 days at sea we are finally back in the land of the living. I won;t bore you with our sail over, nothing but sea and a few pilot whales. We are now in the Marquesas, they are trully beautiful islands. They rise 3000 feet straight out of the sea, they look very much like Hawaii, very lush and green.

The people are very friendly and have made us most welcome, a true Polynesian welcome. Everything is sooooo expensive VERY expensive infact! 5 pounds for a can of beer!

I will update more tommorrow, got to go find a sailmaker to fix the headsail.

Arrived safely in the Marquessa's

Hi There, (Leah updating for me as no internet) we have arrived after 21 days at sea (the longest of my life I might add). These Islands are magnificent, a real garden of Eden. Very much like the Hawaiian islands to look at, mountainous and lush, everywhere you look are fruit trees, in fact you cannot buy fruit as the locals just give it to you. We are inundated with bananas! Yes there are sharks! Nigel got spooked by one this morning as he cleaned the hull. Unfortunately for us this morning we blew our mainsail and now somehow have got to get it fixed, if not a slow sail to Tahiti through some pretty dodgy reefs. When I get to an internet cafe I will update properly. Love to you all!

Life Onboard

Hopefully today is our last day in the Galapagos, so as you can imagine we are dashing around trying to get the last minute things done. We are potentially looking at 28 days non stop at sea, it is 3,000 miles from here to the Marquesas our next destination. Nobody is really looking forward to it but we know that it has to be done, this trip is just about one of the longest sea crossings that you can do. It isn’t on any major sea lane so we hope that everything goes ok as help can be a very long time coming. There are around 30 plus boats heading out that way as well, and although we don’t have SSB radio we have the satellite phone and could call up one or 2 of them to relay messages or ask for assistance.

The boat is well stocked up, we figure we have enough canned goods on board to last for around 3 months which by the time they start to run out we should be in places where we can stock up on some reasonably sensible stores. So until then we have to run with what we have got and then rely on things that we can buy in the islands, oh goody! Fish and coconuts and more fish and coconuts. Our meat should last us for a week and then it is on to tinned meat, the only tinned meat that any of us could get was Spam and Corned Beef, so I will have to use my imagination well and truly. Yesterday I made my first bread onboard, didn’t come out too badly, Nigel and Ted ate it and didn’t complain too much. They’d better not as that’s all they will be getting between here and Tahiti.

Although our water maker is turning out fresh water quite happily, we are always happy to take advantage of free water when it comes. Last night it rained like no mans business so this morning the dinghy was full of fresh water – yippee free fresh water rinse for my clothes. We still have plenty left so as an extra treat I will have a fresh water hair wash rather than the saltwater wash and fresh rinse – sheer luxury I tell you. I have even set aside some in a container for 5 days down the line when I can have another one.

Tonight will also be my last night sleeping in the forepeak, after that it will be back to my sea bunk in the main cabin – best bed in the house! You wouldn’t really want to sleep up front enroute, not unless you were a glutton for punishment. So it will be back into the watch system again, 3 hours at night and 4 during the day, Pilates exercises 24 hours a day – its amazing how toned you become as your body constantly compensates for the movement of the boat.

Anyhow this will be my last update for at least a month or so, I’m not too certain what the facilities are for the internet in French Polynesia. Please think of us occasionally, especially as you are tucked up in your comfy bed of a night time – long gone are my days of comfy beds, constant running water and a kitchen that doesn’t move! But – I do have desert islands, sandy beaches and palm trees to look forward to. One last piece of info for you – we have been told not to swim off the boat in the Marquesas – Tiger sharks are coming into the anchorages now that there are more yachts doing the rounds of the islands. Scrub the hull? ………. I don’t think so!

Pollywogs and Shellbacks

Well Honalee has now officially crossed the equator and in true mariner style we held a ‘Crossing the Line Ceremony’. Neptune (Nigel) summoned the 2 Pollywogs onboard (Ted and myself) to be on deck addressed in the appropriate attire.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with crossing the line, Pollywogs are those that have never crossed the line, where as those that have are called Shellbacks. Nigel already being a hardened Shellback was Neptune’s helper, Neptune communing with him through a conch shell (in our case the measuring jug). We duly paid our dues through a series of forfeits and the eating and drinking of disgusting items and drinks ie oysters, anchovies and a shot of extra strong rum, washed down by a bottle of champagne.

So here are the photo’s for you! Ted will never live this one down and we intend to make sure that copies of this make it’s way to the Swan Inn in Olney to all his old drinking buddies. As a foot note – a message was put into the champagne bottle and set on its way. Normally we try not to littler the ocean but we thought that on this occasion we would in time honour tradition put a message in a bottle. Who ever finds it has been directed to Ted’s pub in Olney!

PS Sorry folks, internet too slow today to downloard photos!

Not another Iguana!

You can’t come to Galapagos without seeing the giant tortoises, we saw Lonesome George, incredible to think that this guy was alive when Charles Darwin was here. Most of his life was spent in solitude on Pinto Island, they figured out that he had spent at least 100 years living all by himself, he is know in a compound with 2 females, bur apparently he has forgotten what to do with them!

Nigel was looking forward to seeing the Blue Footed Boobies (now why doesn’t that surprise you!). These guys are incredibly comical, huge bright blue feet, they look at you with what appears to be a big grin over their faces. Nigel wants one of the ‘I love Boobies’ tee shirts that are for sale in the shops here. There are so many birds it would be too boring to list them all but I will post some of the incredible shots that Nigel got of them.

Iguanas are everywhere! the land ones are quite handsome as iguanas go, but the marine ones have to be the most ugliest thing you have ever come across. You can be quite happily snorkelling along the reefs, pop your head up and be confronted by the grottiest looking mini dinosaur looking you straight in the eyes. Only their mothers must love them!

Penguins pop up when you least expect them – Nigel surfaced from diving to be confronted by a little guy looking straight down at him. Its incredible that just 10 minutes away from the penguin colony is a flock of flamingos who live in the crater of an underwater volcano.

The landscape is amazing, no trees just cacti and the odd low growing bush, everything is black volcanic basalt rock, but you do come across white sandy beaches where over thousands of years the coral has broken up and formed fine white sand. These form the most beautiful swimming lagoons, sapphire water where you can see rays and sharks swimming along the bottom.

Finding Nemo!

Well if anyone had told me that I would ever swim with sharks, let alone Nigel (who has had a life long fear of things that lurk in the sea) then I would never have believed them! This week I have swum within a few feet of 2/3 metre sharks, we didn’t see a hammer head but we were told that if we had we could have got within 20 feet or so. Sharks here don’t bother people (?) as there is too much marine life for them to go hungry.

One morning a huge manta ray came gliding past as we were snorkelling, apparently they are deep water fish so we were incredibly lucky to see it. It was amazing to see this giant ray in amongst the 10 of us, just glided on by, with 10 of us fast on it’s tail. Seal lions would swim right up to us and play around us as we snorkelled, if you blow air bubbles at them they blow them right back at you. Nigel and I had a big male come and swim around us as we dived off the reef. There were so many reef fish that it would be boring to tell you all of the fish that we came across, but we did come across Nemo and his buddies.

One thing I must mention, we were snorkelling above a huge shoal of fish (millions to be precise) we were all hovering above them when suddenly huge reef sharks appeared from under the shoal, darting in and out feeding as we watched – incredible! The same dive we came across a turtle busily grazing on the bottom, it didn’t faze it at all that he had us all peering down on him.

An Amazing Adventure

We have returned from our trip round the Islands – what an incredible experience – this place is amazing! You think that what you see on documentaries is exaggerated, well I can honestly say that this place is even better than the tv.

We went to see a local tour guide to see if there were any spaces left on the local cruise boats, most people who are here on the Blue Water Rally had booked theirs over a year ago – but us non BWR are rebels and decided to leave it to the last minute. As per usual Nigel left all the talking to me! We told her that we wanted 4/5 day tour and asked what was available, there are dozens of small tour boats that do the rounds, for around $1500 you get a bunk/food and tour guide. Geoconza (strange name) asked me straight away where my accent was from? As usual I said English – she said No No – where in England? Norfolk says me! Thought so says she – I worked in Suffolk – us Norfolk/ Suffolk girls we stick together! I’ll find you something!

Find us something! Let me tell you – we had a suite, separate toilet and dresser, we had a BATH in a separate room off our cabin, and to top it all we had our own balcony, along with food and cocktails. Normal price was $2500 each – we paid $700! So you see at times it does come in handy to have a good old Norfolk accent!

We have had an amazing time, doing and seeing things that we never thought that we would ever do. We were swimming with sharks, lolling around on beaches with sealions, a hair’s breath away from penguins, and we became quite blasé about iguanas (marine iguanas are by the way the most ugliest animal/reptile I have ever seen!). Billy the official Galapagos guide( you are not allowed anywhere without an official guide) made the tour for us, he was so knowledgeable and passionate about the wildlife here, he knew where to find everything and knew everything about each animal we came across.

So what have we done? Well the next few pages of my blog will be about some of the things we have seen and done. I don’t really want to bore you with all the in’s and out’s but I’m going to split it into 2 parts – one page for the land and the other for the sea. Unfortunately we don’t have an underwater digital camera so not too many shots from under the sea, we do have a couple that we got from a Swiss guy onboard.

Galapagos Arrival

We finally arrived in the Galapagos Islands yesterday afternoon after a fabulous sail. We were very lucky (VERY) that we had such a great rip, some of the other yachts coming over had a really rough time of it. One was dis-masted, another had a fire onboard, others had no wind and had to motor most of the way – we were fortunate and long may it last.

This place is truly awesome folks! I remember watching David Attenbourgh when I was little with the giant tortoises and the marine inguanas, Nigel and I have often spoken that if we ever had the chance we would visit here one day. Not ever in a month of Sunday’s did I ever think that I would get the chance to actually sail here. I just wish that Heather and Robb were here to share it with us!

The anchorage is teeming with wildlife, so far we have been visited by dolphins and turtles, pooped on by pelicans! On our trip in to town last night we saw several sea lions lazing around the town, we have been told not to leave our dinghy in the water over night as we’d find that it would have a ‘resident’ sealion in it the next morning.

We spent our first night in the Galapagos catching up with friends from the San Blas Islands, we all had a few rum and cokes and dinner from the street vendors. Today we have to complete the officialdom and hopefully get to see the giant tortoises this afternoon. Because you are not allowed to tour with your own yacht we are intending to take a 4 day guided tour around the islands – great someone else to sail the boat and cook the meals!

Doldrums – we didn’t see no stinky Dlodrums!

At 10:30 the next morning we decided to head out for the Galapagos Islands, which is s journey of about a thousand miles or so. The winds for the first few days were looking good and after that it was going to be the Doldrums, which you all know mean no winds and scorching heat!

Well – let me tell you – we had 37 knots of wind on the stern and it turned into another Cartagena trip. We have now gone into a 3 watch routine so I am now doing night watches by myself – let me tell you it is VERY interesting doing a solo watch in these conditions! Still I am here to tell the tale. Just to tell you how interesting it got in the morning we found part of a fishing net on the end of the boom. So yes we had the boom in the water at one point!

As for the Doldrums – we didn’t come across them and we had a fabulous sail the rest of the way to the Galapagos. We stuck the engine on for 12 hours because we wanted to go an extra knot to allow us to get in in daylight.

The wildlife over was awesome! We came across a huge leather back turtle bumbling along oblivious to the rest of the world and really not interested in what we were doing. For several days we were followed by blue boobies who swooped around the boat feeding on the flying fish that we disturbed along the way. We were accompanied by several pods of dolphins who thought it great fun to frolic in our bow wave. A thresher shark jumped out of a wave behind us – just to remind us that ‘yes’ there are large fish around us.

The highlight of our trip was the fish that Nigel managed to catch. He caught an 8 foot marlin/sail fish – it was truly awesome – especially when it leapt out of the water about 30 feet behind the boat. There was absolutely no way that it was going to stay on the line and it duly ran away with Nigel’s line and favourite fishing lure. So somewhere out in the Pacific is a pretty ticked off sailfish with a fluorescent green and yellow lure stuck in his mouth.

Sponge Bob Square Pants and a Tsunami

This morning we had set our alarms early as we heading out towards the La Perlas Islands in the Gulf of Panama. As we were getting ready to raise the anchor Daniel and Nicholai from the Danish ING boat were heading towards the marina. ‘Hey you guys what are you up to this early in the morning?’. Well it appears that their boat wasn’t sailing for the Galapagos as planned so they had both decided to jump ship and Nicholai was taking Daniel ashore to catch a plane to the Las Perlas for some diving before heading out to the Galapagos. We duly offered him a lift which he gratefully accepted and jumped aboard.

Whilst this was all going on ‘Natibo’ a big cat with Sponge Bob Square Pants on her sides was also lifting her anchor and came steaming over to us with the skipper shouting ‘Tsunami is on its way from an earthquake in Chile – we have to get out into deeper water before 08:50 – pass the message on’. Our anchor came up so quick and we duly passed the message on. We headed out to sea and within half an hour as we looked back towards Panama the whole fleet was heading out behind us. Luckily Honalee can take big waves so we knew that once we got out into deeper water we would be relatively safe. At about 09:15 we had 2 bigish waves come beam on to us, we are still not certain whether this was the result of the Tsunami or not, it could have been the wake from a big boat miles away - who knows!

Nigel caught his first fish today – two infact! One was a dolphin fish (don’t panic it wasn’t Flipper!) the colour of a rainbow and the other was a tuna. The dolphin fish was soooo good to eat – the best fish I have ever eaten! The tuna was not so good, far too bloody and the meat was very dark more like a piece of steak. They were both b*ggers to kill, and even the copious amounts of alcohol poured into their gills didn’t have much effect. In the end Daniel clubbed them to death, I think we need stronger booze – Ted’s 4 year old Greek Ouzo couldn’t quite cut the mustard

The Isle of Contrador was our first stop, it’s the Panamanian version of Mustique where the rich and famous have holiday homes. Nigel and I went ashore to look for a bar or hotel and the usual internet. A guy saw us struggling up the beach with the dinghy and came down to help us lift it up the beach (we now have to contend with tides now we are in the Pacific). Turned out he was a builder working on one of the beach front villas and he invited us up to the property and even sent one of his builders to show us the way to the hotel. It cost us 4 beers but hey we got to nosey round a million $ home and they got to practise their English.

Over run with Pelicans and Cormorants

The Las Perlas Islands at this time of year are visited not only by whales but by thousands of pelicans and cormorants, all taking advantage of the millions of shrimp and krill brought in by the Humboldt current. It seems at times that the sea is boiling with fish and all around we are surrounded by wildlife in various forms. Whilst we were anchored off the Isle of Viveros Nigel hung off the transom and did some night fishing, the boat was surrounded by quite literally millions of fish. Quite by chance as we had the dive torch on the water we were visited by a very ‘large fish’ it was either a barracuda or a small shark – Nigel quickly moved his legs back into the boat - toes look like bait!

March 3rd (Steph’s Birthday)

Today we are anchored off the Isle of San Jose at the southern tip of the Las Perlas. This is a huge bay which I have to say is not the most scenic and there isn’t as much wildlife about as the others. I decided not to go ashore with Nigel after reading the guide books – too many wild pigs, snakes and crocodiles ashore. Apparently there are Boa Constrictors ashore that live on the wild pigs, I figured if they are happy to attack wild pigs they wouldn’t be too unhappy at taking a pop at me as well! Nigel is quite happy to go poking about in the undergrowth, well he was until the other day when a French guy on Viveros warned him about the constrictors. He duly went off to explore the mangroves until he figured that it looked like something out of a movie scene and didn’t hang around to find out whether he was up to the Johnny Weisenmuller part of wrestling a boa in the jungle.

I guess if we hadn’t have been to the San Blas Islands then I would consider the Las Perlas quite scenic, but by far I think the San Blas out weigh them by a long shot. Nigel and I have joked about getting tattoos at the end of our trip with the Lat’ and Long’ of our favourite place – mine so far is Porvenir in the San Blas. From someone who is very anti tattoo - it’s going to have to been a pretty special place to be etched on my butt for eternity!

Isla Del Rey

This was to be our last stop before heading out towards the Galapagos Islands. We anchored up just of the mouth of a river which was supposed to be great to explore on a rising tide. Lorrigray a boat that we had met on several occasions was anchored up beside us so we all decided to take a little sojourn up river into the jungle on our dinghies.

Wow - what a way to spend an evening! We carried on up river surrounded by jungle, not something that I ever thought I would ever do (especially in close vicinity to salt water crocs!). The mangroves were amazing, and the birds calling to each other was out of this world – we felt like we were on a movie set. We decided to head back when it began to close in on us and vines started coming down into the river – not only was it mozzie heaven we thought that we were getting too close to things that lived on the river banks.

We spent the rest of our night on the back of Honalee with the crew from Lorrigray enjoying a ‘few’ sundowners!

Las Perlas & the Glapagos Islands

Tommorrow morning we are leaving Panama and heading out to the Las Perlas Islands before sailing out to the Galapagos. I'm not certain when I will be able to update the blog again -possible not for 3 weeks or so. Sorry to make this so brief but I've got to do weather checks and get back to the boat - its pitvh black out there and getting 300 yards back offshore is not a bundle of laughs!

Love to you all - and I'll catch up when I can!

Panama City

Here are some pictures of our trip into Panama city, I'll try and upload some more tommorrow . It looks like we will be leaving for the Las Perlas Islands on Saturday where we will spend a week or so before heading to the Galapagos Islands. Not sure how long it will take us as there is no wind at the moment, but I'm expecting to be out of contact for 2/3 week or so.

Canal Photos

PANAMA CITY

23rd February – Lots has happened in the past couple of days! On Sunday Nigel and I took ourselves off into the old city, it was a bit disappointing in the fact that although some effort is being made to preserve the old buildings but in general it is quite run down. At the turn of the 20th century I would imagine that it was quite some place. Its very Hispanic, lots of old wooden doors leading into shady courtyards, balconies overlooking the street – you could be anywhere in Spain. Unfortunately the city’s worst ghetto is just a few blocks away so you have to be very careful how far you wander. Our taxi driver made us lock the doors as we had to drive through it to leave the city, not even the taxi drivers like driving through there.

The new city is a mass of high rise apartment blocks mostly occupied by Americans who have retired there because the living is so cheap and the healthcare is excellent. Yesterday we visited the shopping malls checking out the prices for our ‘store ship’, if you shop where the Yanks go then you will pay double the price anywhere else, and when you have got to buy 50llb of flour to make bread the costs rise quickly. It’s cheaper to buy beer than it is coke, coke is twice the price of beer! Four pm on this boat is ‘Beer O’clock’!

Life on the anchorage isn’t as bad as we first imagined, it can be rolly from the canal traffic but our main gripe is it’s sooo hot with no breeze. We are getting regular visits from rays who patrol round the yachts, 2 nights ago we had a visit from a small shark. Nigel did a spot of night fishing a couple of nights ago, caught a fish which promptly bit him when he got it aboard – he bled like a stuck pig unfortunately. Long and short of it is - he has bought himself padded fishing gloves as most things caught here either bite or are poisonous.

My final piece of news is that we are no longer a crew of 4. Last night our new crew member was asked to remove himself from the boat. The long and short of it was he had done nothing to endear himself to us, he couldn’t sail and had made no effort to even learn anything about the boat, he drank like a fish and when he wasn’t drinking he was either eating or sleeping. We were all working hard and he was quite happy to sit and watch us, while we were shopping for stores and equipment yesterday he took himself off into Panama quoting ‘I’ll eat anything you buy!’ So Ted asked him to leave the boat – he promptly got steaming drunk and came back to the boat a very mean drunk. He couldn’t understand that we were not happy to put our lives in his hand’s, I don’t think the enormity of a Pacific crossing had even crossed his mind.


Got lots of Photo's but can't upload them until tommorrow.

Panama Canal

Well we have finally made it into the Pacific! We made our transit through the canal yesterday and now we are anchored off Flamenco Island just outside Panama City. I don’t know if any of you managed to see our passage through, I know Dad was watching as we came under the Centennial Bridge into the San Pedro lock. We did wave to the cameras but there was a large red tanker in the lock next-door and he may have blocked us from viwe.

We started our transit at 6:45 pm through the big Gatun lock after taking on our Adviser Roy ( he looked like Eric Strada from Chip’s for you oldies), we had a young Danish lad called Daniel who very kindly volunteered to be our 4th line handler. We had hoped to go through during daylight but ended up going through with a large American motorboat, us and another yacht were either side of him as we went through. Actually it worked out quite well, he was 20 feet longer than us so he had the lines tied to him, all we had to do really was watch and fend off the walls if the line handlers failed to control the lines.

We had to share the Gatun with a large tanker, doing this makes it slightly more hairy as there is a lot of turbulence in the water and the boats get thrown around quite a bit. It’s quite something to do, the locks are an amazing piece of civil engineering and it’s incredible to think that they are nearly 100 years old and still using the same lock doors and equipment. The tankers are pulled through by trains on either side of the locks, these are made by Mitsubishi and come in at around £2.5 million each. We finally made it to the mooring boys at around midnight in the holding lake, we had to raft up with the big American boat who’s crew (who had been drinking all the way through the locks) continued to party until 1:30 am much to our annoyance. Even more so when at 5am they turned on their generator, the Adviser was due back on at 6am for us to complete the transit.

We left the anchorage at about 6:45 am, it’s a 25 mile journey down through the lake to the Miaflores locks, the trip takes you down through the Panamanian jungle which was something I didn’t expect. Its incredible to see these huge Panamax tankers speeding through the jungle, I was on the helm for part of the journey through, usually I get spooked at being half a mile away from these things so being only 50/60 feet or so away was quite something.

I called my Dad up just as we were rafting up under the Centennial Bridge before we transited the Miaflores locks, coincidence would have it that he was watching us as I was calling him. Despite the fact that going down in locks is supposed to easier we actually had quite a tough time and bounced off the wall at one point as the line handlers on the other side of the power boat cocked up the lines. Trust me it’s not a bundle of fun being squashed up against the lock walls as the water is emptying out, Hoanlee has gained some scratches much to Ted’s annoyance. Lots of shouting and swearing was done! Poor old Nigel found it incredibly frustrating, he’s been in and out of floating docks for all his working life and not being able to control our lines was quite hard for him. The idiots on the other side were letting out their side hence allowing us to float into the lock walls – great for their boat but not us.

At around 1:30 pm we exited the locks and Honalee sailed quite happily out into the Pacific! Panama City from the water looks incredibly like Miami, lots of skyscrapers and beaches. We anchored up by Raylar and Moonshiner - friends from the San Blas, it was great to see them again. Norsa ,Sarah and Norman’s boat was anchored in the middle of the fleet and we caught up with them when we finally got ashore. It was lovely to catch up with both Sarah’s, they’ve become good friends and it was great to catch up for a girly chat (and a moan!). Last night we all went ashore for a meal in a local restaurant and polished off a few bottles of wine and a ‘couple’ of beers. Norsa is leaving for the Las Perlas Islands today and I don’t know when we will see them again – possibly the Galapagos if we miss them in the Las Perlas.

So – for the next few days we will continue to store ship, do all the work that needs doing and then get under way. The water here is very dirty (something to do with tankers whizzing past 24/7) so we have been unable to try out the new watermaker – I just hope it works when we get into clean water. Hopefully our new crew member will cease to treat Honalee like a cruise ship and actually begin to do some work around the boat rather than asking for another cold beer. Karen F - why oh why couldn’t you have come with us???? – ok so I know you can sink a cold beer but at least you can sail, know what a halyard is and have actually set foot on a yacht before.

I hope that's fruit they're throwing!

Yesterday Nigel took himself off into the jungle for another one of his epic reccies - one of these days he is going to come across a giant anaconda and have the beejeezus scared out of him!

At one of the old forts he came across a large troop of howler monkeys, they were just hanging around in the vines and climbing over the ruins so he sat down under one of the trees to watch them go about their business. After a while they gathered in the tree above him and proceeded to throw fruit at him - well he guessed it was fruit as they were picking it off the tree. When he didn't move one of them climbed into the canopy above him and peeded all over him - now perhaps he would get the message!

I wish I wasn't such a scaredy cat where snakes are concerned, it didn't bother me too much in Trinidad going across the field as I guessed they would slither away as soon as they heard me. Out here they are big b*ggers that wouldn't think twice about sizing me up for a meal. It just means that I miss out on so much of the wildlife, although I have to say there is more than enough around the marina to wonder at. We came across a group of coati-mundis the other morning - I've put a picture of one above, not great quality as it was with my camera. The others are of the sloth taken by Liz as it crossed the road and the howler monkeys.

We will be going through the canal on Thursday afternoon around supper time in Canada - 10 pmish in the UK and mid morning for NZ. I will put a link on the next blog for anyone that cares to see us go through, we will be going through the Gantun Locks on Thursday evening and then through the Miaflores on Friday. I am hoping to hang a flourescent pink flag in the rigging of Honalee - just so you know which one is us. I will try to wave but as I'm a linehandler I think I might be slightly busy, however if we are hthe middle boat it should be quite a leisurely proceedure.

Howler Monkeys

Our early morning wake up call is now provided by a family of howler monkeys who have moved into the vacinity of the marina. Every morning we are woken at first light by whooping and roaring from the canopy of the jungle that surrounds the marina.

This morning Nigel and I braved the deserted roads of the old Fort Sherman, these go way off into the jungle which is now a protected wildlife reserve. Our first introduction to the wildlife was a small capybara out for his early morning stroll, he eyed us up and down and then continued merrily on his way totaly unfased by us humans. High above us in the canopy of the jungle we could hear monkeys moving above us and as we got closer they started to call out warning each other of our presence. They were quite large and I'm glad that they kept themselves up in the trees - they can move faster than I can!

We came across a family of what we thought were ring tailed limas or ones that sure looked like them. They were quite happy to play on the jungle floor as we walked past them, thye were drinking fresh water out of the drains along the road and then climbing a plam tree of kinds that had date like fruit growing under the fronds. There were loads of parrots flying around, not the bright coloured macaw type but green and a dull yellow. Nigel has taken some photos so when he gets round to loading them onto the data stick I will up load them to the blog.

Don't Lick Toads!

We had some excitement in the marina last night around supper time, one of the boats in the marina has 2 Jack Russels onboard and one of them had suddenly taken a bad turn and was dying. We had people rushing round boats looking for anti histamine and believe it or not Ventolin inhaler, it was thought that the dog had been bitten by a snake.

Luckily I carry really strong antihistmine and I had my inhaler - so with a saline drip kindly given from one of the super yachts alongside and my inhaler stuck down the dogs throat it survived the night. It is now in the vets hospital in Colon and should make a full recovery. It turned out it wasn't a snake bite but a toad! it had obviously found one in the grass and went to investigate - stuck its nose on the toad and went into anaphalactic shock - hence DON'T LICK TOADS IN THE JUNGLE!

Our resident alligator turned up in the marina 2 nights ago and was dully chased off by the night watchman. Our waterline really needs scrubbing but I think that it can wait until we get to the Las Perlas Islands, it really isn't safe to even sit in the dinghy and lean over the side.

I had my first attempt at making bread this morning - I think I need some practise! my bread rolls turned out like grapeshot, still I guess we could throw them at the 'gators. It dosn't help having an oven that will not heat up and a grill that hasn't worked for years - if it can't be cooked in a pressure cooker on Honalee then forget it. Lots of nice warm stews to look forward to on the equator then!

Shopping Panama Style

Well we are still waiting at the Carribbean end of the canal waiting for Jimmy our new crew member to turn up with the new water maker.

Thankfully the marina here lays on a minibus to the local shopping mall (well their version of a mall - a supermarket and 2 small department stores). Our trip involves a 15 mile journey through the jungle into the otskirts of Colon, this is a really great trip as most days you are likely to see some wildlife. On our way back from the supermarket yesterday we came across a sloth making his way VERY VERY slowly across the road, apparently they only come down out of the trees to go to the loo. We haven't seen any anacondas or aligators yet but they are there. Our minibus driver says he drives round everything but snakes, he runs over them as they kill people - aligators he can't run over as they're would ruin his exhaust (muffler) and suspension.

Most days we get held up at the Gantun locks as one of the huge Panamax ships goes through. They literally have inches to spare either side, if we are really unlucky we will have to share a lock with one of these monsters. Nigel and Ted had quite an experience taking a yacht through the other day, the yacht they were on broke down with a Panamax baring down on them. Luckily the pilot onboard managed to get a tug to push them out of the way in time - if not 'asta la vista Moonshiner'. They spent a disturbed night in the holding lake, its in the middle of the Panamanian jungle which is full of howler monkeys who called to each other all night long.

Shopping here is sooo cheap! good shoes can be bought for about $5, swimsuits about the same. So today I hit the shops and bought myself a new wardrobe for about $50, even Nigel treated himself so you know how cheap it is!

Some more photo's

Peace for a short while!

Nigel and Ted have gone and left me for 24 hours! they have volunteered to be line handlers for some friends as they transit the canal, most peole do this to get experience before taking their own boat through. So I have had the boat to myself, spent last evening with the guys from Mercury Rising watching the Superbowl on Panamanian TV.

Life on the boat is VERY hot! most days its 32*+ so we tend to get work done early in the morning before the decks get too hot. Its not too bad when you are alongside in a great marina like this but once we get through the other side we are on our own regarding water and electric. We make our own electric via the wind generator and the solar panels, hopefully when Jimmy turns up next week with our new watermaker we will hopefully be self sufficient in power and water. Food is another totally different matter! Ted has an addiction to evaporated milk, we figured that with his present consumption we would have to buy at least a 100 tins of it alone let alone the tinned pears that he likes to accompany it! Storage is of a premium, Nigel had better start catching these tuna's and dorado's that he keeps telling us about!

I've posted some more photo's of our trip to the San Blas - hope you like them!

Panama at Last!

Well we have finally arrived at the Panama Canal! We are presently in Shelter Bay Marina on the outskirts of a city called Colon (the a*sehole of the world!). The marina is wonderful - showers - electric - bar - swimming pool - bus to a fully stocked supermarket - BLISS!

Without boring you too much, Colon is an extremely dangerous city and we have been told that we must not go into the city without security guards as it is too dangerous. Our trip to get our visa was like being in the presidential cavalcade - van pulls up outside office - guard gets out - we follow into office - finger prints taken - guard clears the way out to van - and we quickly depart the area. Kinda gives you that warm fuzzy feeling dosn't it!

The entrance to the port was 'interesting' and very busy, we had supertankers wizzing down either side of us one after the other. I didn't realise just how busy the canal was, it is constant 24 hours a day. On our way to the immigration office we had to pass over the huge Gantun lock - wow its pretty impressive and quite intimidating to think that little old Honalee will be tied up alongside a supertanker to get through the locks. We had the officials on the boat the other day to measure us up, now we only have to get our watermaker working and we are ready to go through.

We are now beginging to stock up for the Pacific, the logistics of buying for 6 months let alone storing it on a yacht is going to be a nightmare. Our neighbours on the marina bought nearly a 100 bottles of wine yestrday along with 70 flats of beer (24 in each) - this is how much space we have for food not including water or beer! I'd like to be on their boat! While we were shopping yesterday we came across quarter bottles of spirits for trading in the Marquesas for fish - they were 50p each! if it gets us some tuna or dorado great!

Anyhow - off to start making an inventory of stores on the boat in 90* plus heat!

26th January

We upped the anchor and moved eastwards towards the middle of the Hollandes Cays this morning. This is a small anchorage protected by a large reef with mangroves on one side of us and another island inhabited by a family of fishermen and coconut farmers.

We went ashore to see if they had any fresh fish and came back with a ‘takeaway’ which consisted of 3 freshly smoked fish and a large coconut. I was invited into their cookhouse to pick which fish I would like – it was like stepping back in time. I could quite imagine that this was how we lived in the middle ages and yet here I was in the 21st century, to me this is squalor but it is how they have lived for centuries and know nothing better. They were a lovely family and made us most welcome, the Father told me his name was Robert and was most impressed when I told him my son was also called Robert! Everything came to $4 – so maybe I will go back and buy a mola or 2 from them – this is a pittance to us but they can live on $10 a week quite easily here.

What at first appeared to be a tranquil anchorage soon turned into a riotous afternoon when several crew from the other yachts here (all Frenchies!) decided to party on the beach. After having the audacity to ask us to switch our wind generator off because it was too noisy (we don’t call it ‘Das Stuka’ for nothing) they proceeded to sing and shout all afternoon – including chanting their national anthem. We were tempted to play Abba’s ‘Waterloo’ at full blast – or invade the beach – after all the Frogs are used to having their beaches invaded – they just got lucky at Hastings in 1066!

27 -30th

For the past 3 days we have been back in Porvenir, we were intending to have just the one night here but we have been held up by a cold front that has brought high winds and high seas. Nothing that the boat or us couldn’t handle its just that we really don’t want to put us or the boat through anymore stress than we have to.

Still – we have had great fun, there are another couple of British boats that are in and we have become good friends with their crews. Most nights we have ventured ashore for a ‘session’ at Hotel Porvenir, with our evenings finished with a stroll back along the runway and onto the jetty for a bouncy wet ride back to Honalee out in the anchorage.

Water is getting to be a premium onboard at the moment, we are down to one tank so we are being VERY careful as we don’t know when we are going to be able to fill the tanks. This evening we went ashore for a shower at the hotel which cost us a dollar to use the room and shower. When I say room – I can only liken this to a concrete room with 2 beds, a breeze block wall that divides the toilet from the bedroom. The shower is a spout that comes out of the wall – now when you haven’t had a proper shower this year it seems like pure luxury even if it is cold and intermittent. Washing is done off the back of the yacht with a fresh water rinse – better get used to this as we may have to go a month without washing on our way to the Marquesa Islands.

The past couple of nights have been interesting, one of the boats started to come loose and was bouncing off its neighbours in the night with much shouting and abuse (it was a German boat hitting English ones). Today our dinghy came loose from Honalee and drifted off to the mainland 20 miles away. Luckily it was spotted and we managed to get her back, without this we would have been well and truly snookered.

Our next port of call should be Portobello a few miles from the Panama Canal. Portobello is where Sir Francis Drake was buried, he was taken out to sea and buried in a lead lined coffin, to this day legend has it round here that you can hear Drake’s drum beating on a still calm night. Most nights round hear all our neighbours can hear is ‘Das Stuka’ off the back of Honalee as she generates enough power for me to recharge the computer to write my blog.

30th

Sadly we left Porvenir this morning at 6am, I will miss this place as we’ve had a great time here. Its only a tiny place run by a bunch of old age pensioners but it has a certain charm, and although they must get 100’s of visitors a year they went out of there way to make us feel so welcome. We made the effort to say goodbye to all of them, even the little lady who did our laundry came out to say goodbye us.

We didn’t make it to Portobello it was getting late and so we headed into Isla Linton 8 miles further east. As we were coming in we could hear whistling coming from below, Nigel went to investigate and started to shout that there was smoke coming from the engine compartment – Oh sh*t! It seemed as if our engine was on fire, thankfully the smoke turned out to be steam, but the engine was severely over heating and we had to get in fast. God knows what would have happened if we had been further out or coming through shoals or reefs. Long and short if it is that the impellor for the salt water intake has disintegrated and the engine will have to be stripped tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Robb!

19th & 20th January

All important day today (19th) - its Robb’s birthday! I can’t get cell phone reception so we can’t wish him Happy Birthday – we miss both him and Heather, I’m sure they would love the adventure but not the sailing.

Both mornings we have had the Porvenir wake up call at 7:15am, 50 feet above our mast the flight from Panama City brings in another 2/3 guests at the hotel. We bought 2 lobsters and a huge crab for $10, so with beers at the hotel costing $1 we are living like kings – well the boys are I can’t stand lobster or crab.

20th – Today we sailed over to the Chichime Cays 5 miles from Porvenir, these are 2 islands surrounded by a coral reef, the pilotage coming in was rather hairy as the charts for here are hugely out of date. These 2 islands are supposed to be home to just a couple of coconut famers, but we have got here to find a hotel – well I use the term loosely. It’s a wooden hut with a palm roof, bring your own hammocks, all the food, free coconuts, beer $1, all for 10 bucks a day! But hey the view is great and the ants and land crabs clear the crumbs up off the floor for free.

There is a little lad that lives here with his Mum and Dad, we had bought a big bag of lollipops for the kids on the islands, his face was a treat when him and his Dad rowed over to say hello and we gave him a lollipop – don’t think he sees too many sweets. Tonight is Nigel’s turn to cook – fish pie – there’s a surprise (but not one he caught) and then we are going to paddle ashore for a couple of cold beers at the ‘hotel’ with 3 lads who are backpacking round this part of the world. Desert will be ashore – wait for it………….you guessed it…………..fresh coconut! Better get used to it me thinks. We been told fresh coconut milk has a mild laxative effect……….no I’m not even going to go there!