Calypso's Journal: June 2009

As the major events of the last few months have primarily involved Paul’s time, expertise, muscles and frustrations (and the not so occasional profanity), it is he who will start this edition of our blog . His input is shown in green.

Finally, after seemingly months living on dry land at Puerto Lindo, Calypso elected to sail for waters bluer in the guise of Bocas del Toro in western Panama up near the Costa Rican border. In the company of Stuart and Shelia on Imagine, we set a date and on the appointed day hauled up the mud encrusted anchor.

Stuart and Shelia were a little more seamanlike in removing foul smelling mud from the chain but so anxious to get her teak decks wet once more, Calypso pulled out of the anchorage and motored out the channel past the hazardous Lavanderia reef. Barely 10 minutes has passed when a dreaded noise emerged from the engine control panel; we are overheating Maureen yelled. Probably a plastic bag over the water intake I replied. Ease down the throttle and give her a pulse of reverse to clear it I suggested.

When this failed to help, we returned to the anchorage and investigated the water intake by diving under water. It was completely clean. Never having had a serious problem with our trusty 50 hp engine, I confidently told Maureen it was nothing more than a faulty cap on the heat exchanger so I cut a rubber washer to provide a better seal and we raised the anchor again. Predictably, the overheating warning screamed once again. Not to be denied our trip, with a pleasant favourable breeze, we carried on west for Bocas under sail.

About half way, we heard a noise similar to one we had experienced three months earlier while in the San Blas and, just like our former experience, the noise was a spring breaking in our feathering propeller. This only prevents the propeller from feathering when not in use so did not present an immediate problem.

Within sight of our destination Maureen reported an autopilot malfunction but this simply obliged us to hand steer so, again, was of no great import. As we approached the anchorage we saw Imagine and tried to raise Stuart and Sheila only to discover our VHF radio had decided to call it a day and refused to transmit an audible signal. And then to complete our incidental problems, our water pressure system ceased to function normally.

Re-seating Calypso's portlights

In Bocas we discovered what incessant rain means and regrettably that 11 out of our 13 port lights were leaking into clothing and food storage areas. We thought it couldn’t get much worse but were sadly mistaken. At the start to tackling the engine overheating problem, I manually switched on our automatic bilge pump as, yup, the auto feature had also failed. I noticed a rapidly growing trickle of water returning to the bilge. Upon examination, we discovered our bilge outlet pipe had split at the 90 degree bend it takes immediately prior to discharging into the sea. The downside of this was the returning stream of diesel-impregnated sea water had now soaked our dried goods bulk storage rendering most of the contents as unusable.

To complete the list of repairs needed, our aft heads started leaking and the replacement bilge hose necessitated carpentry alterations to a drawer system.

Thus entered a period aboard Calypso that so aptly proves the definition of cruising: “conducting boat repairs in exotic ports.”

View of Bocas Town from the Anchorage

Needless to say, our time in Bocas has been fruitfully spent as it’s a good place to receive items from far and wide. Spare prop springs were sent from New Zealand, bits & bobs for the engine from the States, a new rudder reference unit for the auto pilot from Panama City and we are now awaiting a new radio and other items to be shipped. Our engine is back in shape running smoothly and coolly, our auto pilot is back on duty and our prop is feathering. The port lights have all been removed, cleaned up and reseated and, thankfully, are no longer leaking. And just because there was so much time during all this activity, we’ve sanded and varnished all the woodwork (including, Bronte please note, all the hatch lifter upper thingamabobs) in the cockpit which is now waiting for new fabric to arrive so we can be even busier making new covers for the cushions.

Stuart & Shelia 'Imagine"

Cruisers are a wonderful bunch of folk who are willing to pass on advice and help whenever it 's needed and there was no end of help from our friend Stuart who literally couldn’t sleep at night until he’d helped resolve the overheating problem. Thanks a mil. Stuart.

Tranquil Dolphin Bay

Despite all of this, we still managed to get around to some of the nearby bays and islands. Bocas del Toro is an archipelago of very different islands compared to those of the San Blas region. It lies up in the northwestern corner of Panama, about 30 miles from the Costa Rican border and is fast becoming Panama’s main tourist destination. Our cruising guide tells us that Christopher Columbus discovered this area on his fourth and final voyage and was awed by its natural beauty. It was later populated by a vast array of immigrants, mainly coloured slaves from the US, Providencia and San Andrés who intermarried with the native Indians. The indigenous people have their own language but there is a surprising amount of English spoken here, no doubt due to the many tourists visiting the area.

The nearby mountainous mainland is heavily covered with rmagnificent rain forest and vast banana groves on the flatter regions near the coast. From there, million of tons of bananas are exported annually, primarily the Chiquita brand which I remember from my childhood in Canada.

The little town of Bocas is really quite charming in a somewhat dilapidated way. There are dozens of interesting little shops and restaurants, many built on stilts out into the water. The nearby islands offer few beaches compared to the San Blas but here, any and all water sports are allowed. Generally, we are told, snorkeling and diving is very good but, right now, they have experienced so much rain that the waters are not clear enough to see much of anything.

A 'walking' palm tree

We have visited a few other bays nearby, wandered around the beautiful gardens created by an English/NZ couple, toured the home of an American couple who grow and produce their own wonderful chocolate, tasted great flavours in a chili cooking competition and even attended a concert in the jungle. Those of us in the open anchorage were invited to take our boats around to a party for the opening of a new marina which is possibly the best built marina we’ve ever seen. It was a great party, a fabulous weekend and the development has one of the best beaches we’ve seen to date. Bocas is a popular spot for retiring ex-pats who all seem quite passionate about their chosen country and lifestyle.

Sad farewell to a good friend

And, there just had to be a sad note to all of this fun. We've had to say a fond farewell to our ever-trusty genoa. How she got us this far is quite beyond the imaginations of most of the critical eyes who have seen her (some have been downright rude) but she did. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to everything and we had to finally admit, the time had come. She was lowered for the last time, folded up and is ready to be given to any of the passing locals in their cayucos who may make some use of what remains. Sniff.

PHOTO GALLERY:

'Downtown' Bocas