1000ths post

[Jon 359]

1000th post Trip report

Laissez-faire Caribbean to the Pacific

Last September I had a call from Italy to ask if I was interested in doing the ARC as they had just bought a new Beneteau 58 and needed one more crew.

My reply was yes but when, you will need to be in the Cannery's in 6 weeks, yah nah can't do that short notice but what's your plans after that ? We're sailing it back to NZ so what's your time frame, as it turned out the Panama to French Polynesia part fitted perfectly so I asked if they need any more and they didn't have anyone at that time so I asked GreeneO if he was available and the answer was sh*t yer when do we go.

So on the 21 February we flew to LA then a 8 hr wait for a 6 hr flight to Panama City.

I'd read on CF that you just catch the bus from the airport into town then another bus to Colon then a taxi to Shelter Bay Marina so I negotiated a deal with a taxi driver to take us straight there $100 less than the bus fares for two.

So here we are onboard on the 22nd with 24hrs till we leave to transit, the lines and tyres are delivered on the morning of the 23rd then over to the fuel barge to top up the tanks, about $1 a litre from memory and the locals are complaining about the price.

Now the Lazy Fairy is off to the Pacific.

1400hrs we were instructed to be at the flats to meet our pilot, and there we first saw the two yachts that we would transit with, one being Italian and the other British flagged both about 40 feet.

We were then instructed to motor up the river towards the Gatun locks that would take us up 100ft into Gatun lake, the locks are 105ft wide by 1080ft long. So we were rafted up to passage behind a small ship, being larger than the other two we were to be the centre with the English couple Eric and Dee on our starboard and Veto the crazy Italian to port, they had spent a year in the San Blas Is and had obviously been stressing about the transit as they decided to approach at 6+ kts from about 140 degs off our bow at full power ( this was the worst part of the entire trip ) on the third attempted we managed to catch his lines and bring them alongside. We handled all the lines and motored the raft between each lock.

Once into the lake we released the lines and motor around to a large mooring buoy off the now closed Gatun Yacht Club for the night, the passage being about 50nm through and quite narrow in parts, yachts are only allowed to transit in daylight so its up one afternoon then motor through the next day to descend in the pacific in the afternoon. We spent a very pleasant evening 100 ft above sea level in fresh water, having a midnight swim with the crocs ( we decided that if we drank a bottle of scotch and swam naked they would stay away, and it worked ).

0630 hrs the new pilot arrived and before 0700 we were underway.

The expansion of the canal is well underway with lots of dredging and widening but still we had to move from side to side to keep out of the ships way, they run everything one way for 4 hour then change direction so the ships don't need to pass

We then passed through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks and under the bridge of America and there we are motoring into the Pacific.

We stayed in the marina for a couple of days to provision then we were off, just a short hop of about 900nm and crossing the equator to Porto Ayora, Santa Cruz Galapagos

 

I've got hundreds of photos but am having trouble posting

 

To follow Panama to Galapagos then 18 days to the Marquises

[Jon 359]

Here are some

[Island Time 1,214]

Nice!

How about a report on the next leg??

[SloopJohnB 323]

Nice!

How about a report on the next leg??

 

We will just have to wait for his 2000th post.

[Jon 359]

998 to go

 

Wasn't sure if I'd bore you all to death or anyone wants to read my dribble.

 

Will set to tonight but here's a teaser.

[Guest]

Wasn't sure if I'd bore you all to death or anyone wants to read my dribble.

 

Please feel free to bore us and we will dribble in privacy...........

[Guest]

Ah the memories

Bring it on mate

[Jon 359]

Panama City to Santa Cruz

Before we leave La Playita marina just a bit about Panama, the crew onboard that had done the Caribbean said that the taxi drivers in Cartagena took the cake but for me it was the Panamanians, indacating was for the weak and the only working part required was a horn which they used to a skill level unthought of, they had to toot at every woman, by law it seemed but also had a full vocabulary for every possible situation. Very nice people that were willing to do whatever was required even though I couldn't speak Spanish and they couldn't speak English. One more thing, RUM yes rum good as a single malt but $8.50 a ltr. The biggest mistake I made on the whole trip was only buying 6 bottles, its amazing what you can do with good rum and time at sea !

We departed panama about midday on the 27th Feb with 6 POB, the route is WSW but the usual route is to head south to clear the northern conversion zone and then west but our info was to mostly straight line it with a slight southerly arc but light winds. Luck the ship carries 1000ltrs of diesel as we ended up motoring 1/3 sailing 1/3 and motorsailing the other 1/3 with a plan that if we weren't doing over 5kts the engine went on, great perfect trawling speeds, day two we landed a dog tooth tuna ( I called it that as it had sharp pronounced teeth) about the size of a Kahawai but good eating , day 3 we hooked up on a sailfish but I f ed up and we lost it under the boat day 4 we got two tuna, the night of day 5 we crossed the equator at 0300 hrs which was celebrated with single malt and even one crew member on a SUP, we had planned on swimming across but decided not to in the dark. Day 6 had us sight land at daybreak and by midday we were motoring between the islands so we stopped for a swim 10nm out in 2000m of water, there was a pod of dolphins not far away that decided to come over and check us out, they had sea lions swimming with them so we all got masks on to check them out but after awhile we realised that some of the dolphins were swimming differently ? Yes they were Galapagus sharks, very freindly but still sharks, what a welcome.

Mid arvo we were anchored front and centre Porto Ayora.

Well everything we thought about this place was wrong, the food and drinks were cheap the people friendly the wild life was everywhere ( pelicans landing on the boat, iguanas swimming past, and blue footed boobies diving for fish around us ) I will let the photos do the talking.

[Jon 359]

More pics

[smithy09 50]

Excellent 1000th post and follow up! What a great trip!

[Jon 359]

Tonight I will start on the 18 days down wind to French Polynesea and the 6 game fish we landed.

[Jon 359]

Well after a week in Porto Ayora it was time to head west, we were at about 1 deg S and the advice was to head down to 7 degs to get through the convergence zone and into the trades then head direct to Hiva Oa at about 10 deg S and from 90degs W to 140deg W or a bit over 3100nm.

Provisioning wasn't too bad, we left with fresh meat for a week and veg for a bit longer, the plan was to catch fish or eat tinned and as a last resort we had 4 days of freeze dried.

It was meant to be light to start but we had a good breeze for the first 12 hours pushing us clear of all the islands then then it died away so on with the iron genoa for 12 hours till it kicked in at 15 from the E so were off. In the Galapogus your not even allowed to have fishing gear visible let alone fish but now we were clear of there territory and we had a whole day with a school of tuna swimming along with us, they wouldn't take a lure but if you just dropped a lure over on free spool they would hit it every time, more sashimi yum. We made good progress but had to dodge thunder showers or at least hope you weren't on watch when they hit, the breeze would increase from mid teens to mid twenties and often we would have to bear away and furle in the genoa.

We sailed just about the whole way with a reef in the main and it over sheeted to prevent chaff the auto pilot steered unless we were landing a fish or anchoring and our slowest day was 150nm, best 204nm, averaging 172nm over 18 days and 3154nm, we did fly a A sail on about 3 days when the wind was around 12kts and the right angle.

It just goes to show that the fishing gods do look in you fridge before they supply as it was just after we had finished the fresh meat that we landed our first Shortbilled Spearfish, 1.75m long the first day was raw the next two were fried then day four ( sniff ) curry, then one day of spam and paster before we got another, same type just a little smaller. Two more days and were eating the last of that one when we land a Mahi Mahi, 1 day out and it's yellowfin tuna, yum more sashimi.

I'm going to stretch it out a little more and do the Marquesas tomorrow as I need to go out now.

[Jon 359]

More

[SloopJohnB 323]

What a great cruise.

[Guest]

What - me jealous???

 

Thanks for a great post/thread D.

[Island Time 1,214]

Great report. Fishing in the Pacific is great! Awesome pics!. What did you think of the boat?

[Jon 359]

Great report. Fishing in the Pacific is great! Awesome pics!. What did you think of the boat?

Boat is very nice, we had a look on a Swan 66 called Lott 66 that Tiny and Gemma run ( he's a kiwi and there on there way back to NZ to settle ) it was also nice but the Beneteau had a lot of things that suit kiwi style yachting, like the transom which got nicknamed in the Caribean by some poms " 4 ft of nothing " well to me that was the highlight for getting in and out of the dink to showering at sea to landing fish, we ended up calling it "4ft of nothing yer right"

The cockpit and salon were both bigger than the Swan and all for about 1/5 the price. Easily driven hull and great daily averages with the ability to carry 1000lts of both water and fuel.

But a Toyota is never going to be a Rolls Royce.

The pic below was about 2 weeks ago just east of Nuie and that's a 90kg strippy plus 3 guys on the transom.

[Jon 359]

Marquesas, well what a gem, 15 islands 1000nm from Tahiti, 8500 people spread over the bigger ones, no reefs, 1200m mountains rising out of water over 3000m deep thats less than 10nm from shore

3000nm from the nearest continent so only visited by yachties and the intrepid traveler.

We arrived in Hiva Oa on Easter Friday to find the place pretty much shut down but we found a resort that was willing to meet us at the dock and transport us up the hill for dinner, I think we were the only ones there, well it seemed like it after a few rounds of drinks, after a few more Greene O's legs stopped working and I think we eat dinner.

Saturday we walked into town to get fresh provisions and clear in, we managed to find a gendarme after we walked into the constabulary through the back door ( gave them a hell of a fright ) seems not many people break in to check in.

Sunday we motored across to Tahuata 4nm between and into Baie de Hanamoenoa, 12nm from anchorage to anchorage and 1 Wahoo great, there was 6 other yachts in the bay so we cut half of the Wahoo into 6 and jumped into the dink and paid it forward. The next morning we scrubbed the goose necks off the bottom and did some work on the boat snorkelled around the bay, the water temp never was less than 30deg C the whole time we were there. Then in the arvo took the dinghy down the island to Vaitahu Village in search of Hinano, the lads on the waterfront told us we were out of luck as the ship wasn't due for another week and they had drunk the island dry. So we asked them if we could get some fruit off them, they looked at us as if we were from mars and wanted to know if it was alright to breath their air. Well they gave us a dinghy full of bananas, mangos, pawpaw, limes, oranges and pamplemousse, now I'm starting to get worried, what's this all going to cost as I only had 2000 pf ($30nz) but they said they didn't want any money for it, so I said we must be able to give them something, they asked if we had any woman as there was a shortage of fresh blood on the island but we couldn't help there, they then asked if we had any spare rope, I ask how thick, they say anything, I say how long 5, 10, 15m ? They say anything we can spare, so I ask what they need it for thinking this might give me a better indication of what they were after "to tie my horse up with" I thank them and say we will bring them the rope tomorrow and the boys start to put the fruit down, they say no take the fruit and just bring the rope sometime.

So, lucky we had rum, an ice maker and a blender.

The next day we motored down to the village and took them the rope, ended up spending 3 hours helping them repair there water supply pump and another hour at there house having lunch and being given another load of fruit, they asked us all about NZ and what the weather was like then told us that "sometimes it gets down to 28 deg here but only at night" We had to leave this island or the boat was going to sink under the weight of fruit, at 1800 hrs we weighed anchor and headed north for 80nm to arrive at Nuka Hiva at day break.

Three day there amongst these great people then a 3hr flight to Papeete, 2 days in Tahiti and Moorea checking up on my ancestors graves then back to this reality. The boat is currently on passage from Tonga to Fiji.

Hoping to go up to Fiji in mid October for another week or so.

Over and out.

[Guest]

Thank you

[Island Time 1,214]

More great writing! Only been ashore 8 months and the sea is calling again. Now, if I could just fix the bank account!