Curare's Adventures

Galapagos Shmagapalos

Whoever said these islands are "fabled" or "enchanted" obviously didn't have to stay on a boat the whole time.  I've been here for a week now and never get to go ashore and sniff things out.  But I sure can smell all these sea lions swimming around.  Man do they stink.  And they bark sort of like me too, only the language is way different.  I've made a new friend and he comes by the boat every day for a chat, but like I said, there is a bit of a language barrier.

It's not as bad as I make it out to be I guess.  I get to relax on my comfortable bed for long stretches and then run around the deck keeping the sea lions away and making sure everyone knows this is my boat - stay away!  Kibble arrives at the appointed hours and the uprights are always talking to me.

But after a week at sea it's always nice to stretch the legs and go for a good walk in search of whatever garbage I can find.  This place is so clean, I don't think I'm missing out on much.  I hear several dogs barking ashore and sometimes I add my two cents worth.  But for the most part, I'm content to lounge around onboard and add the Galapagos Islands to my "Been there - Done that" list.

What's next only time will tell I guess.

Tsunami Warning

The other morning we woke to the sound of more boat traffic in the harbour than usual.  As Geoff was making coffee, the agent responsible for clearing us into the Galapagos Islands came by to announce a tsunami warning had been issued for the coast.  At first there was confusion, with boats that had left port early that morning being forced to return to port until the Port Captain could sort things out.  By 0800 local time the Port Captain issued an evacuation order and insisted that all vessels must leave port.  Even the derelict, abandoned looking vessels weighed anchor and headed out to sea.  More confusion arose as some vessels were ready to make the 3,000 mile passage to the Marquesas or other ports and needed proper clearance papers before departing.  Others needed to put on more provisions before leaving.  But the port town of Baquierizo Madero was also under evacuation orders and everyone was to head to higher ground, so shops, fuel stations and even the airport were closed.

The tsunami warning was generated by a 8.9 Richter magnitude earthquake located 130 kilometres off the Japanese coast.  Early forecasts predicted a tsunami wave would reach our port by 5:30 in the evening, which gave everyone ample time to sort themselves out.  Ourselves, we had to track down our agent to retrieve our passports that he had taken as part of the check-in procedure.  We received emails from several sources, plus a radio broadcast by BBC, confirming the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.  So we set out to sea and deep water to ride the wave out.  By noon, our time, we had reports of the wave passing Hawaii some 5000 miles northwest of us.  The original 9 meter wave had diminished to 2 meters at that point.  We predicted that the wave(s) would be much smaller by the time they dissipated energy crossing the remainder of the Pacific Ocean. 

But with the port closed, the sun shining and a nice breeze blowing, we took the opportunity to sail around some of the nearby sights and enjoy the rest of the day.  By nightfall the Port Captain gave the all clear and a mad rush was on to secure an anchor location.  With more than 50 boats, six cruise ships and a hand full of large pleasure yachts, it was bedlam for a few hours until everyone got themselves sorted out.  We had to re-anchor twice as the larger boats used the "might is right" rule and forced us and other boats out of their way.  It all quieted down by midnight and we had a relatively peaceful sleep.  In the morning we saw that there was no damage to the port town and heard reports of a minor half meter to one meter swell had pulsed through the bay over a period of one hour.

Different Directions

It has been interesting to watch the large container ships pass by on their way to and from the Panama Canal but almost as interesting as the big boats are all of the sailboats. Most of the traffic is out of the Caribbean and into the Pacific, although there are a few boats that head the other way.

In fact it was a sad day for us when, a week ago, our good friends on Gallant Fox hauled up their anchor and headed north. We met the Fox in 2007, almost as soon as we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico and since that time we have loosely followed each other, getting together for some memorable food, drink and adventures. Now they are headed north on the Atlantic side and we are going south on the Pacific side. 

Every day new boats arrive in the anchorage, all of them festooned with tires. The tires are used as additional fenders to protect the hull from scrapes and bumps and boats that have transited usually leave them hanging for a few days as a symbol of having "done" the canal transit. Many boats leave these tires up for days, either because they like the look, are too tired to remove the tires or just don't know what to do with them. Then the tires mysteriously disappear, usually after dusk, and are next seen in a large pile at the local garbage bins. From there some of the tires make their way back to boats headed the other direction, but the majority are collected by a truck (not the regular garbage truck) and I assume they are taken someplace for disposal - perhaps they are recycled (that would be amazing)!

So far we have seen sailboats from Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Canada, the USA, Aruba, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Poland and Estonia. The majority of these boats are heading to French Polynesia via the Galapagos so we will probably see some of them again. After that we are headed in a different direction.

A Trip of Milestones

This past week has been a wonderful 7 days full of excitement and milestones for Curare and her crew.

We departed Panama City on February 28 after having cleared out with the Port Captain on Friday, Feb 26th.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Panama - from the beautiful and secluded beaches of the Western Islands, the tranquility of the Perlas Islands, to the get whatever you need done attitude in Panama City.  But it was time to move on with lots of great new adventures awaiting us over the horizon.

So after waiting a couple of days for a weather window in the Las Perlas Islands the weather filled in Monday night and we weighed anchor early Tuesday morning with a solid 10 knot northerly filling our sails.  We pointed Curare's bow towards the Galapagos Islands, 900 miles away.  On the morning Panama Pacific maritime net we learned that three other boats had departed the previous day and would be roughly travelling with us. 

Throughout that first day and night the winds built as we got closer to Punta Mala at the northern entrance to the Gulf of Panama.  We saw winds in the 30 knot range with some larger waves that occasionally splashed into the cockpit.  By sunrise everything had settled down some and we were roaring along with 20 knots of wind making 8.5 knots steady.  Those first few days were not so much uncomfortable as getting back our sea legs after not having completed any open water sailing since March, 2010.  By the end of the second day Curare's crew was in the swing of things and everything became routine, working three hour watches, 24 hours a day. 

Our watch schedule rotated around a couple of radio nets that we check in to and in the case of the Pan Pacific net, Geoff operates on Fridays.  So at least twice a day and sometimes three times a day we talked with other boats spread out over some 1200 miles of ocean to get weather information, chat about local conditions and collect data on ports of entry.  It was great camaraderie and because the conditions were so favourable it sounded like everyone was having a great time.  Plus Linda connected via Ham radio with a Blue Water Cruising member located in San Francisco.  Peter would log our daily position and pass along news worthy items, which was always welcome. 

The milestones we accomplished on this trip include some wonderful personal bests for Curare.  Her previous PB was a 140 mile day while crossing the Gulf of Tehuentepec last March.  On this trip she has consistently made 150 mile plus days.  Her current 24 hour PB now stands at an incredible 185 miles.  Sure we had some favourable current to allow this to happen, but those miles were covered so that record stands.  At the start of the trip we were only using the main with a single reef and the staysail.  As the winds lightened up we poled out the genoa and then for the last 36 hours of the trip we flew the asymmetric spinnaker on a broad reach that pulled us along the relatively flat seas at great speed.

Another big milestone for both Curare and her crew is crossing the equator.  We are now in the southern hemishpere having toasted Neptune at 0245 on 7March 11.  Apparently it is a nautical tradition to offer Neptune something special to allow for a continued safe passage.  So we had a little celebration, and thinking he may not favour the fruit salad that was going off, we offered Neptune a dram of single malt from each of us.

This trip is the first time that we have experienced true down wind sailing, having to gybe the main twice on the entire trip.  Our sail handling only required the occasional trim as the wind shifted a few degrees one way or the other.  Even as we got down below 2 degrees north latitude and the wind shifted to a more easterly direction all we had to do was harden up the sheets and make minor adjustments to the wind vane to keep us trucking towards the Galapagos.

And of course the other incredible milestone of this trip has been to land in the fabled Galapagos Islands.  We landed at Wreck Bay on March 7 at 1530 local time, having made the 871 mile passage in 6 days and 5 hours at an average boat speed of 6.7 knots, all of it under sail except for when motoring away from the islands in Panama and entering the harbour in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.  After clearing into Ecuador and the islands we plan to explore Isla San Cristobal over the next week.  More on that later.

Panama Anchorages

Panama has two primary areas for anchoring plus two marinas and a mooring field, all located in the region known as the Amador Causeway at the entrance to the Panama Canal.  One of the anchorages, Las Brisas, is on the north side of the causeway that links several small islands together.  This is the favoured anchorage during the wet season from May through December as winds and swell are generally out of the south.  Boats are able to anchor anywhere along the 2 kilometre length of the causeway but obviously the further away from the dock, the longer the dinghy ride.  We have seen over 80 boats at anchor here, with at least five of them abandoned and derelict.  When the winds start blowing out of the north during the dry season this anchorage becomes a nasty, choppy, bumpy place to be and many boats move to the other side.

The other anchorage, called La Playita, is nearly opposite Las Brisas on the south side of the causeway which provides prtoection from those north winds and fetch.  During the dry season, January through April, this anchorage is the favoured location although it is subject to some southerly swell and becomes a bumpy place due to the numerous  wakes from the passing freighters, pilot boats and service vessels that move around the canal entrance.  It's not a very large anchorage and there is a lot of competition to fit in the current 35 boats anchored here.

One of the marinas in the area is the Flamenco Marina.  It is a very high end type place filled with expensive sport fishing boats and costs $1600 per month to stay at.  The other marina is the Playita Marina where we had Curare for a week while Geoff was visiting with his friends.  It is equally as expensive but can used on a daily basis rather than monthly.  The third choice for securing your vessel in Panama City is the Balboa Yacht Club which is located closer towards the canal entrance.  They maintain a number of mooring balls for $25 per day.  Wake from boats transiting the canal is quite large in this area and it is yet another bumpy place to be.

Heading to the Galapagos Islands

The Archpielago de Colon (Galapagos Islands) is located approximately 900 miles southwest of Panama CIty.  The islands lie just south of the equator centered at 1 deg 30 min South latitude, 90 deg West longitude and are under the jurisdiction of Ecuador.  A two hundred mile boundary designated a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area" and "Area to be Avoided" means that we do not anticipate much in the way of freighter traffic en route as large ships must stay outside the designated boundary. 

We will however have to cross over the inter tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), an infamous stretch of no wind that wraps around the equator.  The exact latitude of the ITCZ fluctuates seasonally but also daily.  Currently it lies at 3 deg North and stretches from the east coast of South America nearly out to the longitude of Hawaii.  The ITCZ varies in width from 50 to several hundred miles and often has rain squalls and lightening associated with it.  Our trick will be to locate the narrowest spot to cross over or at least ensure that we cross where the ITCZ is traversing north as we go south and not vice versa.

We would like to make the passage in 10 days but the current long range forecast does not show any winds, favourable or contrary, for at least a week.  We only carry enough fuel to travel 400 miles, so wind is essential to getting to the Galapagos.  With Curare all loaded up with provisions to last forever, or at least the next three months, and now having cleared out of the country, we'll be heading off to sea to see what we can see, or something like that.  Our actual plan will be to return to the Las Perlas islands and wait at a beautiful anchorage until the weather fills in. 

We plan to post some notes of our travels while underway but any photographs will have to wait until we reach the land of internet again.  You can always follow our progress by checking the position report shown on the left side of our blog page.

City Wildlife

I rarely see animals in the wild so I was astounded to see them close to the marina in Panama City. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised because the marina parking lot is divided from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Center by only a strip of grass and the Smithsonian is home to several 3-toed sloths and a pack of crab eating raccoons.

Jessie was the first member of the crew to spot a raccoon, running around on the rocks of the marina breakwater. I glimpsed it a few seconds later and couldn't believe my eyes, a raccoon in the tropics! Someone in Costa Rica had told me that there were not any raccoons in Central America, only their relative the coatimundi, so I was sure I was seeing things. The next day at the Summit Park Zoo I saw the crab eating raccoons (Procyon cancrivorus) in a cage and knew that neither Jessie nor I were hallucinating. According to the the zoo the crab eating raccoon is found from Costa Rica through to northern Argentina (more misinformation from Costa Rica). As it's name suggests it eats crab, lobster, and other crustaceans, but it is an omnivore and its diet also includes, for example, small amphibians, turtle eggs, and fruits. But just like the raccoons at home they have developed a taste for garbage (easier to find than crabs) and Jessie and I were guaranteed a sighting if we walked by the garbage bins at dusk, much to Jessie's delight. The crab eating raccoon resembles its northern cousin, the Common Raccoon, in having a bushy ringed tail and "bandit mask" of fur around its eyes but it appears smaller and thinner than the Common Raccoon because it does not have an undercoat. I wouldn't have an undercoat either when the average daily temperature is 30 C.

Jessie missed all of the sloth sightings, they move much too slowly and live way up in the trees.  This slow lifestyle enabled me find a certain tree with a resident sloth and once I knew it lived there I could spot it on most occasions.  The sloth (bradypus variegatus)  is the world's slowest mammal with a fastest recorded speed of 4 meters (13 feet) per minute. Sloths are built for life in the treetops, hanging upside down from branches with a powerful grip aided by their long claws and having extra neck vertebrae so that they can rotate their heads 270 degrees.  They are herbivores and are most active at night, eating leaves, shoots and fruit. During the day they curl themselves into a ball, indistinguishable from foliage, and may sleep for up to 20 hours. Leaves,the sloth's main food source, provide very little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily so they have very large, specialized, slow-acting stomachs. As much as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive process can take a month or more to complete. (That's disgusting!)

I suppose the sloth and the crab eating raccoon encounters cannot be counted as a genuine wildlife sighting because I saw both of them from a parking lot with cars driving by but they are animals and they are wild so I am adding them to my life list.

A visit to the Zoo

During Linda's marina stay she took a few hours away from the constant cleaning and provisioning chores and went to visit the Summit Park Zoo with the crew from S/V Gallant Fox. This is a small zoo that was originally set up by the Americans in 1923 as a botanical garden in an effort to reproduce and distribute  tropical plants from around the world. At a later date Panamanian animals and birds were added to introduce canal workers to the native wildlife. It is not a fancy zoo and I felt sorry for the animals in their cages but recently the Houston Zoo has stepped up as a partner and is assisting with a revamp of the exhibits.

The highlight of the zoo is the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) interpretive center, located in the center of the botanical gardens. The center consists of a large building with photographs and interesting facts about the Harpy, a short video showing the eagle in the wild and three stuffed birds. They have distinctive appearance -dark gray and white in front, a lighter gray head and a head dress of longer feathers that flop about.  I was amazed at their size. They are the largest eagle in the world, twice as large as a bald eagle with a body length of 35 - 41 inches, a 6 1/2 - foot wingspan,  a weight of up to 20 pounds and have hind talons up to the size of grizzly bear claws.  WOW! Harpy females lay 1 or 2 eggs in a 2 or 3 year time span. After the first egg hatches 53 - 58 days later, the other egg is usually ignored and does not hatch. The chick will fledge from 4 1/2 - 6 months of age, but the young bird stays in the parent’s territory for at least 1 year. They feed primarily on animals that live in the trees, like sloths, monkeys, opossums, and some reptiles and birds. It must be truly terrifying for the prey to hear the beat of the Harpy's wings just before they are plucked from their perch.

I was hoping that I would get to see a real bird and I did. At the back of the center is a huge cage with one lonely Harpy Eagle sitting on a branch. Apparently they cannot put two together because they are territorial and will fight until one is dead.The cage was large enough for the Harpy to fly around and get some exercise but while we were there it just sat on it's branch and glared as we took photos through the wire mesh. 

Ever since I was in elementary school I had heard about Harpy Eagles and their funny head feathers but I always thought they were extinct, so to see one, even in a cage, was a thrill of a lifetime.  They are however considered an endangered species.