The Sailing Adventures of Lea Scotia

After an amazing week in the San Blas islands we were looking forward to our second fabulous week before we had to watch the weather and head for Cartagena. The transmission had other ideas.

We were anchored in a place called Coco Banderos and enjoying the scenery. While snorkeling we saw large numerous stingrays throughout the water, thus we called it “stingray” alley. Trevor even spotted a turtle swim under the boat, a squid, and we had dolphins fishing right off our beam. Pretty awesome!

We had decided that we needed more fuel for our run to Cartagena and one town in San Blas was purported to have it. Calling on other cruisers for information and help, we arranged to pick up 30 gallons of diesel in Nargana, an island just off the mainland of Panama and only about 6 miles from where we were.

Right after getting off the radio with “Blue Sky”, a helpful veteran of the San Blas, a Kuna man pulled up in an ulu (dugout canoe) and said he could get anything we need including diesel and gasoline. Ok, that might be a good option. We weren’t excited about going to Nargana because rumor had it they were charging $15 for the anchorage and getting the diesel delivered right to the boat would be nice. We negotiated a price with the man ($3.75/gallon, same as in Nargana) and agreed to 30 gallons Saturday morning. But then he said he needed the money up front to buy our fuel. Hmmmm? He said that all the other boats in the anchorage (there were about 8 others) were getting stuff from him and they were his amigos. Still it just didn’t feel right. We said no, so he said he’d take $100 (of the $130 we’d owe him – also getting a little gas) and then get the rest in the morning. Again, we weren’t comfortable with that. We had heard other horror stories of boats giving their jerry jugs to locals to get fuel, never to see their jerry jugs again (originally he wanted our jerry jugs too but they still have fuel in them). It’s one thing to steal someone’s jerry jugs, but cold hard cash ($100 is a LOT of money down here) would be pretty tempting. The Kuna are known to be very persuasive and he wasn’t budging. We called back “Blue Sky” and asked them if they had any experience with this particular person and if we could trust him. They emphatically said don’t do business with him and we’d be better off with our arrangement in Nargana. Apparently one of the tricks they do is get your money or equipment, and knowing that you need to go the next day at a particular time, they’ll just be sure to be late. If you gotta go, well you gotta go. He got the hint finally that we weren’t going to send him with a pre-pay and finally departed. Whew!

The majority of the Panamanians we’ve met have been very nice and there’s no telling that he wasn’t completely trustworthy. But giving any stranger $100 has no guarantees to it. Additionally the Kuna can be a little pushy and what would seem to us as rude. He wasn’t really being obstinate; he was just hoping we’d give in. It’s just their culture and something you have to get used to.

So back to our transmission…Saturday we pulled anchor in the early afternoon (still no sign of the Kuna who had said he’d be back the following morning. Hmmm.) and had a great sail over to Nargana. Even with the big seas the boat rode them well and with two reefed sails we cruised along over 6 knots. Our troubles began while anchoring. I think the anchor flipped over and it wasn’t sticking in the mud. We were slowing dragging. Deciding to re-anchor, I started bringing the 150 feet back in. When I had brought all but 60 feet in I heard a strange noise. Trevor heard it too and we both ran for the engine room. It was an awful racket, something akin to ball bearings banging around in our transmission box. Not good. Trevor killed the engine and told me to drop the anchor. We could only hope it held this time. I threw out 180 feet (in about 30 feet of water which gives us 6:1 scope). After letting the situation sink in we decided to start the engine again and see if the noise occured only in gear. The engine started right up and sounded perfectly normal. So far so good. Then, without putting it in gear, I gave it a little gas while Trevor listened. That awful sound instantly reappeared and we shut the engine off again. Uh-oh. We definitely had a problem. In March of ‘08 (not too long ago really) we had a completely new transmission installed. We’re baffled as to why we’d have a problem again so soon.

So here we are in the middle of the San Blas Islands with no haulout facilities and a potentially bad transmission. Oh, and let’s not forget that we need to be in Cartagena in less than a week to meet family. Not good.

Sunday morning (after a night of thinking we might be stuck here for a long, long while) we called out on the net (SSB community that runs every morning in the San Blas area) for advice. We were looking for any cruiser who might have worked on their transmission recently or any recommendations for a mechanic. One cruiser, Kevin, on the 32′ junk rigged steel schooner “Maramina”, from Canada, said that he’d be willing to help us. After determining that he’d need to look at it himself he said he’d pull anchor and come join us in Nargana.

When our transmission was replaced last year the shop had to move our engine forward a few inches or so in order to get at the problem. Worried we’d run into the same problem we cautiously proceeded in trying to troubleshoot the situation. Kevin looked at it with Trevor and determined that the problem sounded like it was in front of the transmission – maybe, just maybe the tranny was ok.

After a few phone calls on Monday to the mechanics back in Seattle everyone figured it was our damper disk that blew. Not a part in the transmission (yay!) but still a total pain to get to. Trevor and Kevin worked slowly to couple the prop shaft and take it all apart (not an easy task) and yesterday afternoon finally figured out what was broken. In front of the damper disk sits a metal fan that apparently keeps everything cool. Somehow, someway, it had broken and was throwing metal pieces around in the this cavity in front of the transmission. With some fancy footwork on the part of Gallery Marine back in Seattle the part is now headed to Port Orchard to rendezvous with my parents today and they’ll fly it down tomorrow.

And here’s where it starts to get complicated. Once they get to Panama (7 hour layover before headed to Cartagena) they’ll find a taxi guy we’ve hired to drop the part off. He’ll then deliver it to the small airport at Albrook (not far from our “home away from home” in Panama City) and it’ll come by small plane on Friday morning. We hope. Once the part arrives it’s a scramble to get the transmission back in place and head out by Sunday morning to arrive in Cartagena Monday afternoon. Pant, pant. If the part gets waylaid and doesn’t make it, well we’ll button everything up in the engine and go to Cartagena without the fan and revisit this project then. Let’s hope we don’t have to do that. There’s a good looking weather window coming up this weekend, so we hope to make the 40 hour crossing without further trouble.

Anyone who thinks cruising is boring is sadly mistaken. It’s always an adventure around every corner. We hope to post again stating that we’re en route or have already arrived in Cartagena. Now let’s hope that the weather window holds true and we don’t see the big seas, big winds, and big current (well not much we can do about the current) that has been the reality this past week.

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