6/29/2011

Just another day in Paradise


Today is the 25th according to the computer. I am completely losing track of time. It’s something that happens to me when I have no schedule. The dinghy is our ride from the boat, our car so to type. Without it we need to depend on others, or swim…..lol. Swimming in this anchorage is not my wish. Through the kindness of Donna from Nintai we were able to get to shore, and search for dinghy parts for the engine. I pulled the carb off the engine, and it looked clean. I looked into the fittings on the fuel line, and there was lots of varnish from fuel drying, and flaking off. We bought new fuel lines, pump, and a rebuild kit for the carb.

Last night while it was cool I opened the carb to find it perfectly clean everywhere. Before we left I ran it dry of fuel to keep it clean, and it worked. I put on the new pump, and line, and immediatley fuel was to the carb. By then it was dark, and I was tired of being hunched over the damned thing!

It’s morning, and I have had my coffee. We lowered the dink into the drink, and with one pull she tried to start. On the third she started right up. A moment later water started pouring out it’s back, and I knew it was being cooled. We sat with smiles like teenagers who just got their drivers license, and freedom to roam at will. After a couple of minutes we decided we are good to go. Today we will get ourselves to shore, and run errands.



Albrook Mall- The biggest department store in Panama


Fun things like laundry, provisioning, and seeking out more parts for various projects. It won’t be long, and the only project left will be to scrub Imagine clean, and set sail!
It’s the 29th of May, and it seems much later. I am anxious to get going, but that’s not going to happen right away. We will move once again today.


We need to gather official paperwork, so we can move the boat to the yard. Fresh bottom paint after 4 years, and new seals from the sail drives to the hulls. The seal are 11 years old, and the manufacturer claims 7 years is good. I have watched them constantly, and they still look good. There is no dryness, or cracking in the seals. But the Pacific is not someplace you want to push your luck, or any ocean for that matter. If I was home I may push them a little farther, but that would be day sails, and not a 4,400 mile crossing with the chance of snotty weather coming along.

The cooling system is cooling, but we have noticed water in the engine compartment again. I trimmed off the end of the hose hoping it was just worn on the end. It continued to drip. I pulled the pump off I replaced, and sure enough the seal is leaking. I put back on the original, and will have to take this one apart, and rebuild it. The previous owner left me an aluminum suit case that is a treasure trove of small parts. Seals, gaskets, plates, pumps, filters, and so on. Over the years I have used quite a bit out of the case, saving me quite a sum of money, and still it is over half full.

Melanie has turned out cooler into a water catchment system. It holds about 40 gallons of water. The boat tanks hold 150 gallons. This amount should get us to Hawaii with careful use. Using clean ocean water for things like boiling eggs, potatoes, plantains, and such. A first wash of the dishes, and then a freshwater rinse. Showers on the stern with a bucket of seawater, and a freshwater rinse. Yesterday evening it was raining long enough, and hard enough for Mel to shower, and wash her hair in the cockpit. Then she noticed a couple of fellas one boat over joining in on their stern too.
If we can fill the cooler a couple of times across to Hawaii we can use water liberally for usage on a boat that is!

Everything should be set to go by the end of the week, and if Don arrives we can go. The weather is looking light for the first 3rd of the way, but that will be better than fighting the ITCZ like we did twice last year. Once we get the trades behind us I am looking forward to 200 mile days. Until we will be lucky to get 100 at times. Last year the weather was so bad, and in front us . We sailed about 80 miles one day with the progress of only 36 towards our destination.

For those of you who don’t understand how a sailboat works. I will give a small, and simple explanation. A sailboat cannot sail directly into the wind.
Most boats can sail 45 degrees away from the wind on either side. That leaves a blank spot of 90 degrees, which is one quarter of the circle. Once you are 45 degrees away from the direction of the wind the boat will sail. The sail acts like a wing, and pulls the boat. As you sail further away from the wind you slowly let your sails out. You begin with the sails in tight. This is called close hauled, and in stronger wind can be very uncomfortable, and for many boats slower the bigger the wave. You have to push through those waves coming at you. Imagine pushing a barrel up hill if you will.

As you turn away from the wind the sails are let out, or eased. The pressure lessens, and the boat usually becomes faster. When the wind reaches the side of the boat it is called a beam reach. This is a nice sail until the waves get big. Then the boat beings to roll, and this can be uncomfortable too when the wind is strong.

You may have heard the term LET THE WIND BE AT YOUR BACK. This is the wind coming from behind the side of the boat, and it becomes much more comfortable, and easier on the boat. Imagine pushing that same barrel down hill now. Long sails are most happy with the wind behind the beam of the boat. Especially a multi hull. This is where a multi hull is at her best. She remains flat, and usually faster than a mono hull. There is a huge controversy about mono against multi. I have to say each has it’s plus & minus. Every boat is a compromise of some kind. You give up one thing to get another. When we were in the ITCZ with stormy weather. I would have preferred to be on a mono. I can’t snap my fingers, and change what we sail, so I have learned to live with the faults of a multi. Fortunately it’s faults are rare, because we try to keep the wind behind us.

This is one reason we are sailing to Hawaii first instead of up the coast. Going to Hawaii with wind, and wave, so we are letting the barrel roll down hill. Going up the coats is against wind, and wave, so we would be pushing the barrel uphill, which at times can include the boat pounding against the waves.

Well it’s Sunday morning, and the air is cool, almost enough for a t-shirt. Panama seems to hold a grip on us, and we just can’t escape. For 2 weeks we have been trying to get into the yard for bottom paint, and new seals from the sail drives to the hulls. They wanted us to come into the yard with no set prices for the labor. I could not bring myself to do that. For 2 reasons, first I don’t want any surprises, and an insane bill in the end. I want to know what, or approximently what the bill will be. I have been in the repair business of autos for 33 years, and I do understand sometimes things break,
or other problems are found underneath the obvious ones. Second I don’t do disagreements well when someone is trying to cheat me. I have a tendency to let the ghetto come out of me, and it’s not pretty.

Finally we knocked around some numbers for cost of labor, and we were agreeable. We were told to come in Tues, or Wed. Then it was Wed, or Thurs. Then it was well, we don’t know when you should come in. At this point I figured I had annoyed the manager to the point where he didn’t want me in the yard at all. Turns out that on Wed. they lost the electricity in the yard, and even by Fri. it had not been resolved. So here we sit in the anchorage waiting for Mon. morning to make yet another call to the yard to find out when we can get in?

The dinghy seems to have a mind of it’s own. Yep the kids were grounded for several days without wheels to get to shore. We were going in to the dock when the motor sputtered. I sputtered a couple of times, and I tried to adjust the choke when the damned thing died! We were very close to the dock, so we quickly grabbed the oars, and started rowing. Mel looked back as we were rowing, and asked why the motor was smoking. I looked, and there was smoke oozing out from underneath the cowling. I raised the cowling, and one would think we were sending out smoke signals. There was a stream of unpleasantries spewing from a sailor’s mouth, and for the rest of the distance to shore.

We got to the dock, and I gently pulled the cord to see if the motor was frozen. It turned over easily, and would spit out more smoke. We left the dink, and ran our errand. Upon returning I tried to start the motor, but no luck. At least it would turn over easy, and there was hope it wasn’t fried to death. Now I have a tendency to anchor out away from shore. So we can catch a breeze, and be more comfortable. Also to stay away from boats that come loose in bad weather. So there we are about a mile away from the dock with a barge for a dinghy to row. +&)(_)^#%&*)_ was all coming from this sailor’s mouth. Especially when other sailor’s would ride right past us, and wave as we struggled to row.

People on their boats would look at us, and turn away. One in particular watched us from the dock to the stern of his boat. Knowing full well we had to row past him. He watched, and watched, and about 100 ft. from his stern he turned his back. Another couple who we had dinner with several nights before later asked Mel why we were rowing.
When Mel told her the motor had died. She replied well, we wondered why you would row?

Rowing a planing dinghy that is meant to go quickly through the water by lifting it’s bow, and riding on it’s flat stern is tough enough. When you add wind, and current against you it is even tougher. Then you add a small woman, and a recovering man with no strength, and no stamina. It’s downright worth some more cussing from a sailor’s mouth. Then on top of all of that Mel doesn’t understand the concept of rowing, so we are going in a zig zag pattern adding distance to what I already consider too much distance.

The wind, and current are trying to drag us out of the anchorage, and we are doing our best to stay in it. If need be we can grab onto another boat, and regain some strength. About half way I tell Mel not to think of the pain to just keep rowing. I have to tell myself this too. We keep putting the oars to the water, and we are 7/8s the way to Imagine. I encourage Mel to row, and not think of the pain. When actually I am talking out loud to myself. Even my leg muscles are burning from the paddling. Mel has her head down giving it all she has, and I am dry of mouth from breathing hard. I tell Mel to stop, because we are upwind of Imagine about 15feet, and we can drift down on her.
You would’ve thought we climbed Mt. Everest with the smiles on our face. I looked at Mel, and said “We did it, we ^*&#!$& made it!” My shoulders, and back ached so much it was hard to get on the boat, but we made it, and I couldn’t have done it without Mel. It was getting late, so we put the dink on the sterns, cooked dinner, and went to sleep.

Next day I go to take the bottom end of the motor apart to replace the intake impeller for cooling. Turns out this motor is the only thing on the boat that is standard size nuts, and bolts. I only, and have only carried metric for years. That’s right you guessed it some more cussing from this sailor’s mouth. I pull the cord, and the motor turns over easily, so I put the tools away with some unhappy thoughts. I am thinking I can’t do this any more. I just don’t have the strength, and stamina. I am thinking I can’t get in the yard, and I, no we need a break. So here I am sitting on a boat worth a small fortune, and I am thinking I will never get her home. I will get pennies on the dollar for her here. I just felt like giving up, and my heart sank.

I have never given up in my entire life. It was a benchmark, a sad day in my life to think this way.

Sometimes in my sleep I resolve my problems, and this night was no different. I woke up, and remembered I had a better set of wrenches, and although they are metric too. They might be tighter, and might not ruin the bolts. In the morning I break out the tool box again, and dig down to the other set. Sure enough I can give some pressure, and the wrench holds. It doesn’t slip off like the other set.

I gently work the wrench back, and forth to break the glue loose on the threads. Finally with ease the bolts are coming out. I am a hands on type student of life. Reading instructions have never been easy for me. Mel, and I together with her good eye sight pull the bottom off reading instructions. I let Mel take everything apart, and clean the parts. I let her put most everything back together, so it will be a learning experience for her. It takes us a couple of hours where a shop could’ve done it in less than 30 minutes, but it’s back together.




It starts to rain, so we quickly clean our mess, and tools. We go inside to wait for the rain to pass. In a short time it does pass. We drop the dinghy in the water. I pull the cord, and the motor sputters. You can’t imagine how good that felt. I push the choke in a wee bit, pump the fuel bulb, pull the cord, and the motor comes to life. Mel is smiling, and clapping her hands like a kid at the circus. Believe me my own enthusiasm is no less. The kids have got wheels again. Gee, now we can get into the dock, and do laundry. We can pick up parts for the shower. We have been showering in the cockpit at night with rain water we have caught.

6/28/2011

Dinghy

Today is the 25th according to the computer. I am completely losing track of time. It’s something that happens to me when I have no schedule. The dinghy is our ride from the boat, our car so to type. Without it we need to depend on others, or swim…..lol. Swimming in this anchorage is not my wish.


Through the kindness of Donna from Nintai we were able to get to shore, and search for dinghy parts for the engine. I pulled the carb off the engine, and it looked clean. I looked into the fittings on the fuel line, and there was lots of varnish from fuel drying, and flaking off. We bought new fuel lines, pump, and a rebuild kit for the carb.

Last night while it was cool I opened the carb to find it perfectly clean everywhere. Before we left I ran it dry of fuel to keep it clean, and it worked. I put on the new pump, and line, and immediatley fuel was to the carb. By then it was dark, and I was tired of being hunched over the damned thing!
It’s morning, and I have had my coffee. We lowered the dink into the drink, and with one pull she tried to start. On the third she started right up. A moment later water started pouring out it’s back, and I knew it was being cooled.

We sat with smiles like teenagers who just got their drivers license, and freedom to roam at will. After a couple of minutes we decided we are good to go.

Today we will get ourselves to shore, and run errands. Fun things like laundry, provisioning, and seeking out more parts for various projects. It won’t be long, and the only project left will be to scrub Imagine clean, and set sail!

6/27/2011

Engine Problem

It’s 5/15/11, and it is said that cruising is fixing a boat in exotic places. Mel & I returned to some issues with Imagine. Apparently it was pretty windy one night in the anchorage. It blew the wind generator right off her mast. Turns out over 11 years the dozen, or so rivets that hold it’s stand in place came apart. Causing pieces to separate, and letting the generator fall. On it’s fall it sheared off all 3 of the blades. Funny thing is all are broken at the same length. The bungie cord that held the blades in place must have failed, and allowed the wind generator to start spinning?

Only one out of 2 engines will start, and it has to be jumped with an extra battery. 2 dead batteries, and I can’t find exact replacements, so I am having to improvise. That at times means multiple trips to shore. Which means time is being eaten up looking for small parts.

While we were gone the dinghy was stolen from her perch on the boat. It was set adrift once the motor was removed. Fortunately Chuy of Taboga Moorings was quick to regain the motor & dinghy. Hopefully there is no damage to the motor. The dink must’ve went up on some rocks. There are chips all along the hard bottom.

The day before we left Panama the little Honda Generator took a swan dive & died. After a little research we believe it is a bad valve. Getting it to shore will be quite cumbersome, and involved. So we will wait until we can sort out the starting problems with the engines, and move to an anchorage. This way we don’t need to take a ferry back & forth to the mainland juggling the generator the least as possible is highly desirable.

Barnacles are something that grows on an idle boat. They will grow at sea too, but much quicker when the boat is stationary. They have grown to the point that I can’t turn the wheel. I don’t have the stamina I use to have, or the strength. Mel won’t let me get in the water to do any scraping.

I just wanted to do as far as I could reach from the waterline, rudders, and props. Now I realize I am restricted a wee bit, but I figure. The more I can scrape the shorter time the diver will scrape, and the less money we will spend for the diver. That’s just the way I think, and especially since money is tight!

The motors have been running for a couple of days, and the bottom has been cleaned. We are off to the Las Brisas anchorage on the other side of the channel to the canal. There we can get water, fuel, and free access to public transportation. It cost $24 a round trip to shore from the mooring in Taboga.

Off we go with everything going smoothly. Well, at least for a short time before an alarm goes off. Seems the starboard engine has quit pumping water through the system.
Tell tale signs are water not coming out of the hull. An alarm that always annoys me, because of it’s insistant screaching, and a wee bit of steam coming out of the hull.
We shut down the motor, and the beauty of Imagine is the port motor is still running so we are not adrift.
I get down in the hole, and take off the pump.

Now I am nearly upside down, balanced over a large piece of steel that is 200 degrees between my knees.
The boat has it’s motion of it’s own trying to throw me off balance, and I am just not as physically fit as I use to be. This makes for a lot of effort to accomplish the job needed to be done. Cussing sure seems to ease the misery, but it drives my love nuts to listen to me. Thank goodness my head is in a hole, and she can’t hear everything.

The pump is finally installed, and I go to adjust the belt. The adjustment goes all the way to the end, and the belt is still loose! I am really out of practice. The adjustment of the belt is the first thing I should’ve looked at. Mel gets me a new belt, water is pumping overboard, and the engine is cooling.


I am happy, the boat is happy, and my little brown love is happy!


The Panama Canal is a busy place, and as we reach the channel to cross. Ships are coming, and going. We drive around in circles to let three ships pass, and finally get our chance to get on the other side. We aren’t 5 minutes on the other side, and another alarm goes off.

Have I mentioned how the screaching call of the engine alarms annoys me? Well sure enough the port engine is hot now, and no water coming out of the hull.
Sometimes I am a good student of life, and this is one of them. The first thing I do is touch the belt, and it’s very loose. I tighten it, and Mel starts the engine. Water is coming out of the hull, but the tempature is not going down. Mel shuts down the engine, and we will make the anchorage under one motor, or at least that is my plan.

It is said that man makes plans, and the gods laugh! The gods maybe laughing, but I am not. I am back to cussing! To make it worse Mel walks over to the starboard engine, and takes a look. I hate it when she calls me over. I always know something is wrong when she does that.

Sure enough there is water in the compartment, and lots of it. I shut down the engine, and in a hurry we roll out the jib. We are now coming into a congested area of very large steel work boats that are anchored.


You might be thinking well it’s a sailboat why weren’t you sailing anyway? You need wind to sail, and 5 knots is not much wind, so we were motoring to make better time. Obviously there is current, because we are going sideway, and towards one of those tens of millions of dollar yachts.

As the crew is standing at the rail watching us drift towards them. Water incoming, or not I start the starboard motor, and power past the yacht. It takes a couple of minutes, but we pass their bow, and I shut down the motor again.

We are doing nearly 2 knots, and the work boats are spread out enough for us to turn, and work our way under sail to the anchorage. We call a friend to ask them to standby while we drop the anchor, and set the hook under sail.

Unfortunately she is not on her boat, but gives us another number to call. Richard from Bananas, another catamaran says he will stand by. As we enter the anchorage I see a dinghy coming towards us, and it is Richard. He comes along side, and we talk boats for a few minutes, and then he ties up alongside us. We furl the headsail, and he powers us to a spot to drop the anchor along with a second dinghy that had come out to help.

The cruising community always restores my faith in mankind, and it’s kindness. Not to type that kindness is not ashore too. It just does not seem so obvious


It has been a quite day, and I am feeling like I have been beat up with a baseball bat. The days not over yet, but I am going to wait for the sun to go down, and the air to cool. The sun is low in the sky, and I crawl in the starboard engine compartment where the water is. We had bailed it out, and now I have Mel to a look, and see. She can see water dripping, and it’s obvious it is operator error, mine. I had not completely tightened down one hose. Now that the boat is stable I crawl back down, and bend over upside down, and can rest my knees against the motor.

Job accomplished, and the motor has been running cool ever since, well at least for 2 days now. We start the port engine after checking internal fluids, and start it up. It runs, and the tempature stays with in it’s normal range, we have engines again.

Remember why we came here? We came for fuel, and water. We were down to a litre of water. The fuel can wait, but water is a necessity of life. We managed to make it through the night, and in the morning. Another boat sent over three jugs of water. We start on the dinghy motor to try, and start it. It won’t start so we have to place her back on Imagine. That’s a job for tomorrow.