So it finally came to an end, just like everything else. Our trip is done and we're back in Calgary. As I write this, both Michele and Meghan are writing school examinations.
Losloper is in Golfito, Costa Rica and is scheduled to arrive in Victoria, BC on a YachtPath chartered cargo ship on July 16. Her final home will be Ladysmith, BC, but we might not have enough time to get to Ladysmith the weekend of the 16th, since I'm working on the 17th. She might have to stay over at a marina closer to Victoria for a while.
After the Panama Canal, we visited a number of islands in the Gulf of Panama, specifically the Las Perlas Island group. These islands are really beautiful and a great cruising ground, but unfortunately since the rainy season has started and as a result, the river run-offs from the mainland, the diving and even snorkeling on the Pacific side of Panama was not really great and in most cases we could not see the bottom in even just over six feet of water. Quite a contrast from the Caribbean! Also, we were quick to realize we're not in the Caribbean anymore, when we suddenly had to keep 10-14 foot tides in mind when anchoring, compared to pretty much ignoring tides in the entire Caribbean. We're used to high tidal ranges from our previous cruising of the Pacific Northwest so it wasn't a big shock, but it sure puts a new spin on things. For instance; one has to be very cognizant of what's going to happen with your dinghy when you leave it on a beach and go wandering off. Within a couple of hours you might have a hundred meters of gravelly (or rocky if you're unlucky) beach to get to the water, OR the dinghy has drifted off if you didn't secure it sufficiently. The muddy beaches also creates new issues for trying to keep things clean.
In Shelter Bay we met up with the crew of the South African cat sv Goodie (Jacolette, Joop, Johannes, Dirk) again after we last saw them in Bequia. We originally met them in 2008 and have seen them in the Eastern Caribbean on and off. It was very exciting to see them again and to compare notes and stories and then to cruise together for almost two weeks. We also met and befriended South Africans Adrian and Lisa on sv Two Ticks, a Wharram cat. This young couple has grabbed life by the horns and are living the life on a budget with a beautiful, affordable and unique boat and having a blast! In their presence I felt at least 10 years younger and probably acted even more immature... A Swiss boat completed our Las Perlas fleet and together we had great beach BBQs and mango picking expeditions.
Unfortunately the time came to say goodbye came far to soon and while Goodie, Two Ticks and Yellow Dog turned South to the Galapagos and Marquesas, we (very) reluctantly turned West towards Costa Rica. Here we made quite a serious planning mistake. We miscalculated the distances between the Gulf of Panama potential anchor possibilities. Also, as a result of the rainy season having started, the prevailing winds now made most South facing anchorages untenable. The result was a very long, frustrating and tiring motorsail around Punta Mala. We arrived off Bahia Naranja in pitch darkness, knowing that the next available anchorage was basically an overnighter away through continued squalls. Fortunately Bahia Naranja has an open approach from the West, BUT just to the South of the entrance there are some rocks and small islands. It was so dark we couldn't see a thing and not only that, but there was fog, making flashlights useless. We have a strict policy of not entering dangerous places at night (we hove to during the night off the San Blas to wait for daylight for instance), but here the weather was attrocious, the seas very uncomfortable, we were tired and the Bay had NO dangers except the mentioned islands/reef and of course the beach at the head of the Bay. So, what we did was very carefully plot an approach latitude that will put us safely North of the danger and then we creeped in with active radar. Radar can be a god-sent under the right circumstances - here there would have been absolutely no way to safely enter this bay without it. Not only could we clearly see the islands and rocks (we could not see them at ALL with our eyes, even with our strongest flashlights), but we could also see the surfline ahead and the beach. This allowed us to compare the radar image to our chartplotter and guidebook charts. We do NOT trust the electronic plotter charts for a degree of accuracy to allow no-visibility entries like this. Too many times (regularly on this side of Panama in fact) the plotter showed the islands a long way off from their true position or sometimes didn't show entire islands! Complicating the situation that night and another reason we decided to enter and not continue was that we had lost all our Raymarine electronics about an hour earlier, after which it sporadically would come on, and then disappear behind a message stating: 'Seatalk failure'. Fortunately I have a spare computer onboard with a complete set of different electronic charts and fired that up, with it's own gps. The depthsounder was the only thing that work, and fortunately our radar (although Raymarine), is a completely standalone unit with its own display. The modern trend of integrating all electronics in one network and often one display is in my opinion a recipe for disaster. Twice on this trip we lost all Raymarine data through a failure of ONE connection in the Raymarine Seatalk series installation. This is one last legacy of shoddy workmanship done in Rhode Island when we upgraded the boat initially. One loose or corroded connection can take out everything, including: autopilot, depth, wind, gps data and thus positioning - and if you have one of these fancy new digital, overlayed radar - that too. In such a situation we would have been in a very dangerous situation.
As it were, we made it in safely. We spent a rolly night with not much sleep (the waves curled around the reef) and were up early. After about an hour of searching I found the problem - yes a wet, corroded seatalk connection - and had it fixed. We got out of there asap. After an initial fantastic few hours of broad reaching, we were hit by a fantastic squall that just seemed to go on and on and wiped out not only all visibility, but also most likely, the anchorage we were just then approaching. For the first time we were all in foul weather gear but still cold! Truly, we were in the ITCZ. The result - we decided to be safe and headed back out to sea away from that island.
Isla Coiba will have bittersweet memories for us. This is the largest island in Pacific mesoamerica and has a rich prehistoric and more recent history. Currently it is famous for having been the largest prison island in Panama (maybe beyond) and contained hard-core prisoners since 1919 till a few years ago. The prison buildings are somewhat derelict but there is some construction going on. Apparently the Panama government intends to develop high income eco-tourism on Coiba. Here is where our problems came in: Our guidebook stated that since this is a National Marine Park, that there is a modest anchoring fee and a park fee, but that it is only applied to yachts when they anchor in the bay where the park office is located. So, of course we went somewhere else, where we got a tour of the old prison headquarters and explored some of the onshore scenery, specifically looking for crocodiles, for which Coiba is also famous (we didn’t see any unfortunately). We then staged our departure towards Costa Rica in another anchorage, where we didn’t even go to shore. Well, just before we could leave the next morning, the park boat came along and quite specifically instructed me to report to the Park office, where I was charged $400.00 for the four nights we were in the area. I almost croaked and eventually simply refused. With broken Spanish I made it clear to the officials that I will NOT pay that amount of money and that I take exception to the fact that even though we’ve seen and even talked to a Park official a day earlier, there was no indication of such usurious fees. According to our interpretation of the fees, the total would have been less than one hundred. The officials then produced official documents showing that their calculation is indeed correct, according to rules clearly intended to cover fast daycharter boats delivering a large number of people, stay for the day and then depart. The fee per boat is high and then there is a per head fee, both of which are charged per day. In the end after I flatly refused to pay $400 dollars but knowing that they could enforce it, they accepted full pay for one day ($100), plus a (‘Propina para me’) bribe of about twenty dollars. We got out of there in a hurry, feeling sad that with rules clearly intended for a certain customer base, this island which has lots to offer, will be bypassed by every single longterm cruiser in the future.
After a few more nights in variable anchorages we reached Golfito in Costa Rica. The check-in process here was the most cumbersome of any I’ve ever experienced, but at least the officials were friendly and the fees not outrageous (and nobody asked for a ‘propina’). Golfito itself is set in a beautiful bay and nestled below a hill with gorgeous rainforest and the associated animals (howler monkeys, Toukans, parakeets and macaws, etc.)
We left Losloper in the care of Land &Sea services, a very unique and cruiser friendly establishment and flew out from there, back to Calgary. Losloper is supposed to be loaded on a YachtPath ship soon and scheduled to be delivered in Victoria July 16.
The adventure continues, but in a new way. PNW here we come!
