Bocas del Toro

We loved Providencia so much that we decided not to spoil our impression of Colombian islands by visiting San Andres as we had heard that that island was more populated and touristy than Providencia. So we passed by the lights of San Andreas during our 48 hour sail from Providencia to Bocas del Toro in Panama. We motor sailed most of the way as there was not a lot of wind. The closer we got to the coast, the more frequent the rain squalls seemed to be. The rain didn't bring much wind, but just made for a soggy trip.

Bocas del Toro is an archipelago near the Costa Rican border. We are staying at the Carenero Marina which is on the island of the same name and is a $1 boat taxi ride away from the town of Bocas on Isla Colon. Bocas is something of a backpacker town with a lot of competitively priced hostels, cheap bars and restaurants that sell american style food. It's nice that we are not residing in the middle of all of that, even though I loved that sort of travelling 25 years ago!

We have been taking it very easy since we have been here. Some days we have taken a water taxi across to Bocas to do things in town and other days we have stayed around the marina doing things on the boat and trying to organise the next part of our trip. Yesterday we went on a chocolate tour. This involved catching a water taxi to Almerante and from there we were picked up and taken to a community that grows cacao trees and makes chocolate from the harvested beans. They have recently, under the guidance of a Peace Corps volunteer, started the chocolate tours. It was a fabulous tour with the local guide giving us lots of information about the ecology of the area and their permaculture practices as well as about the chocolate making process. The community run the cacao and tour business as a cooperative. We saw a sloth (very high up in a tree so very hard to make head or tail of), some lovely blue and black frogs and some tiny red frogs.

chocolate tour with Mauricio



House next to the marina



Like many of the places we have visited on this and other trips, one wonders whether the people (including the many ex-pats who build grand houses next to the water) think at all about sea level rise and what on earth our local council regulations would make of some of the structures.



restaurant ripening window



 

Stratocumulus and cirrus clouds...I think

getting a lift to town on the veggie boat

Providencia

Four days and four nights sailing saw us arrive in Providencia early one morning. Like exercise, it was good to stop doing it! We had checked the weather sites before leaving and it looked like we could expect solid wind of about 18kts and seas of 2.5 m for at least for some of the trip. What we actually got was never more than about 12 kts of wind and about 1m seas which made me very happy; although it was uncomfortable at times because it was beam on.  That´s wind and waves on the side of the boat for non-boaters. We both felt sea sick for a good part of the trip but enjoyed eggs and bacon for breakfast when we got in.

Providencia is a small island off the coast of Nicaragua, but is actually Colombian. It is low key, has one road that goes around it and has some nice snorkelling. They say the reef off Providencia is the 3rd largest in the world and as such a lot of people come here for snorkelling and diving. Unfortunately they have a problem with lionfish, an invasive pest that has arrived in recent years, and which is eating the native reef fish.

Brio at anchor in Catalina Harbour

The main town of Providencia is Isabel on Catalina Harbour. Everwhere we go we have an interesting checking in experience with customs, immigration and quarantine and this one proved no different. The agent, Mr Bush, advised us to come to the dinghy dock at 11am. We duly did this and after a while he and about 5 other people showed up, all with clipboards with forms to complete and all seeming to ask us the same questions. It was quite funny to be checking in sitting on some broken milk crates in the shade of a building on the dock, with a barrage of questions being asked.

Main street, Isabel, Providencia

 We spent our 8 days on Providencia snorkelling, looking at some amazing corals and fish, trying out the local restaurants, especially enjoying the very fresh seafood, trying to get internet access and visiting the beaches. We made friends with James and Victoria who were visiting from their home in Germany. With them we climbed to the top of the peak of the island. A local guide showed us the way. We were also accompanied by two dogs all the way to the top. Climbing the peak involved an early start for us as we had to row into Isabel from our mooring to be picked up by a motorcycle taxi at 6.30am. The taxi driver was also our guide and he was right in insisting the early start as it gets very hot by mid-morning. It took us about an hour and a quarter to get to the top and the views were good.

At the peak with Victoria, guide Imacio and James

Leaving Jamaica

After 15 days in Port Antonio, Jamaica we departed to start to make our way south to Providencia. It was a bit tricky to work out the best time to leave to get reasonable weather for the whole trip, but we managed to avoid bad weather as it turned out. First stop was Negril on the western end of Jamaica. We had decided to go there on the good advice of our friend Ed to make use of the shelter of the island from strong winds and from there we could keep an eye out for a good weather window to depart for Providencia. We sailed for 22 hours to get to Negril and then spent 2 nights anchored there in the north of Bloody Bay.

Ivan repairing sail, Negril



Typical Louise pose








Negril was much more touristy than what we were used to in Jamaica. We were anchored not far from a huge, purple resort. We swam into the beach one day and met an English couple who were there on a 2 week holiday and they explained that the resort was part of a chain that has exactly the same buildings and services at various locations around the world. This was the 3rd time they had been to one of these resorts and each time they didn´t leave the actual resort to explore the surrounding towns and culture. Such a different holiday experience to the ones we are usually seeking!

close encounter with a cruise ship on the way to Negril

Week 2 in Jamaica

It's easy to see how people sail into a port and never leave. We are now into our second week at Port Antonio, Jamaica. Richard, our other crew member left us last week. We all agreed it wasn't working out, so it was sad that he didn't get to see through the adventure he was looking for, but, as they say, that's sailing.

We have sorted out the problem with our HF radio, with the help of a local guy, Richard. Seems the antenna connections were so corroded, we couldn't receive anything. Now we can receive and transmit! Our chartplotter started mysteriously playing up a few days ago, but i think we've sorted that out now too - probably a dodgy adapted card that the microSD card sits in. In the meantime......

......we spent a couple of hours one day on a bamboo raft going down the Rio Grande. Our rafting guide, Keith, was very happy for Ivan to 'take the helm' from time to time......

......we went swimming in the Blue Lagoon - made famous by the movie of the same name - with our fellow boaty friends Ed and Martha........the lagoon is nice to swim in because it has a layer of cool freshwater on top and warm saltwater below. This is because it is fed by some freshwater springs. There is one right next to the lagoon where you can rinse the saltwater off after a swim...very civilised!

We've been checking out the sights, sounds and tastes of the town......the market in any place is always a fun experience

Jamaican apples

me holding the freshly baked bread and a breadfruit


.....and Ed, who has made a science of bread-making, showed me his no-knead method of making bread. although it took up a good part of the day because we were fitting a lot of other chores around it, the bread was my best effort yet in the oven. The secret ingredient was the air-conditioning as  without it the cabin would has been tooooo hot to do anything in. We decided to purchase a small air-conditioner that we can use while in port, so we can get a decent night's sleep. It is soooo good.


Happy to be in Jamaica

Day 2 in Jamaica after a 10 day non-stop trip from Florida.

We left Stuart in Florida on 3 June, with Rose and Phil on the dock waving us goodbye and safe travels.
 It was a pleasant couple of hours down the canal to the St Lucie Inlet which was our entree to the ocean. Having heard all sorts of stories about the shifting sands at the inlet and the importance of local knowledge to ensure a safe crossing of the inlet, we found our way easily and were quickly in the deep blue heading south down the coast. Our plan was to stay close to the coast of florida to avoid the strong currents of the Gulf Stream and then cross the Gulf Stream way down south somewhere in order to get across to the Bahamas. Of course we are sailing, so nothing goes according to plan. It all seems long ago now so it's hard to remember the detail, but we didn't end up going to the Bahamas beacause the winds and seas were against us. Instead we kept going south into the sea north of Cuba and then travelled southeast along the coast of Cuba, finally making it to the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti and then across to Jamaica. Sounds quick and easy as I write it now, but it was a slog. Even Ivan said it was some of the worst sailing he has experienced.

We seemed to either have wind on the nose or no wind at all. It was pretty tense going through the channel north of Cuba. We spent a lot of time motor sailing there to get us through the channel as quickly as possible as the weather looked like it was going to get stormy. Fortunately there were no storms. We did 2 hour shifts at the helm each night and the self-steering and the chartplotter were good companions here. (Hey Tuckker it's quite fun checking out the size and speed of ships on the AIS as they are bearing down on you!) Some days there was no wind which was very frustrating and some days the wind and current were such that we were nearly going backwards. We spent about 3 days trying to get past Cuba.

the view...mostly

So my introduction to passage sailing was pretty ugly - fear, nerves, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, salt and sweat saturated clothes and bed, preparing food at a 45 degree angle....oh and i almost forgot the first 2 days of seasickness. But at least it wasn't rough and stormy weather.

Don't look Mum, that's me up the mast



Asymetrical spinnaker



Although we had intended to sail direct to Panama from Florida, by day 9 we were all exhausted and sick of being on a slow boat to nowhere, so Skipper Ivan suggested we pull in at Port Antonio on the north side of Jamaica. It would also be a chance to get some more fuel as we had used us most of what we had by then. It was with great relief that we pulled into the Errol Flynn Marina at Port Antonio at about 8.30am on Monday 13 June.

Waiting for lunch

We have explored the town a little and all had a big sleep last night despite the party raging on the boat alongside us. The people are really friendly and relaxed and the marina is in a lovely spot. The heat is intense, but the marina bar and pool make up for it somewhat. we will spend a few days here doing some minor repairs and hopefully see some sights. Tomorrow Ivan and I are going to go on some sort of rafting trip in the mountains.(Perhaps the holiday is beginning!)

Leaving Indiantown

Thanks all for your lovely words of faith and encouragement after my last post. I didn't think i would be posting again quite so soon.

After a false start, we have made it out of the Indiantown Marina and are now at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. Our first attempt to leave Indiantown last Tuesday was thwarted by the boat engine. While it had been running fine after Ivan and Jack first fixed it up, it decided to give us grief the day we wanted to leave. We said our farewells to all of the wonderful people we had made friends with in the boatyard and to the fantastic staff at the marina and went to cast off from the floating jetty. With the engine still running at this point, we were only slightly delayed by having to forward and back to free the boat from the sticky muddy bottom that it had been resting on due to the unseasonably low level of water in the marina. Then the engine conked out! After checking for air in hoses, tightening everything and getting various bits of advice from a number of people, we made it out of the marina into the canal, thinking all was fine when the engine conked out again. To cut a very long story short, we spent the next 4 hours in the canal trying to get the engine to run for more than 10 minutes before conking out.  Finally we conceded defeat and turned back to Indiantown Marina ( we had only travelled about 500m up the canal). Even getting back was a challenge as the outboard motor decided to play up. Fortunately the hastily rigged staysail didn't let us down and the boat engine actually continued running for the whole journey back. It was an exercise in perserverance and frustration for Ivan and I think I developed a few more grey hairs. The only slightly tricky bit in getting back was making sure we could time our arrival at the railway bridge so that it was up to let us pass under.

Going through the open Indiantown Railway bridge

The next morning Graeme from the marina and Ivan set to work to try to find out what the problem with the engine was. The outboard problem turned out to be easily fixed. The boat engine problem was more of a mystery. Again, to cut a long story short, it took all day, changing over hoses, tightening and re-tightening things, bleeding lines, looking for air bubbles and then finally they worked out that a tap that was in the 'on' position should have been in the 'off' position. So some buckets of sweat, curses and hundreds of dollars later, once again we were able to leave the marina. We left at about 5pm and motored successfully down to the St Lucie Lock where we had to stay the night as the lock was not due to open again until 9am the next day. It was a 2hr trip down the canal.

Richard and Ivan are happy chappies now we are underway.

Thursday morning we were up early waiting for the

Lock to open. A catamaran had also stayed the night near us and a couple of motor cruisers came up the canal that morning to go through the Lock too. We were travelling east and the west travelling boats came through the Lock first so it took some time before we were through. By about 10.30am we were once again on our way motoring up the canal towards Stuart. There wasn't much to see in the canal other than the back gardens of some swish, but sterile houses which reminded us at times of the canals in Paynesville. We arrived at Stuart and picked up our mooring at about midday.

Today we are having our 'Mack Pack' fitted and rigging checked. We will do some final provisioning here before leaving for the Bahamas. Still not entirely sure when we will depart as it depends on what needs to be done in regard to the rigging. The clock is ticking and, much as we like the very good meals at the restaurant near the Marina we are very keen to get away.

Nearly Ready to Leave

Two months after we arrived at the Marina, we are nearly ready to leave. We hope to travel down the canal to Stuart on Tuesday or Wednesday, spend a couple of days there finalising the boat and then it's off to the Bahamas to start out journey home. This may be my last post for some time.