The Sailing Adventures of Lea Scotia

Having checked out of Colombia on Monday we are officially not supposed to be here.   Shhhhh!  We saw our agent the day after we had checked out and since he reminded me of Shultz from ‘Hogan’s Hero’s’ I could visualize him saying, “I know nothing!” in his affected German accent.  Yes, it helped that our agent was German and portly, which added to the whole visual.  He sorta looked the other way and said that cruisers always get him to rush their exit papers and then just laze around.  Well we’re not lazing.  The darn weather won’t cooperate.  It’s w-i-n-d-y.  So we wait.  We really did want to leave on Tuesday. Honest.

As the title suggests, we officially have a plan for returning home.  We previously had so many options we just couldn’t choose.  Plan A was to truck the boat home from Galveston, Texas as that was the closest (re: cheapest) port to put the boat on a truck and get it back to Seattle.  Texas being the closest state on the Gulf of Mexico to Seattle made this seem so.  Another option we were kicking around was to leave the boat in Guatamala, up the Rio Dulce, but then we would have to worry about the boat sitting out a hurricane season without us.  A third option was for Trevor to take the boat back through the Panama Canal and sail it home.  The trouble there is it would take a couple months and Kiera and I would miss him, not to mention the extra wear and tear on the boat. 

Just a little over a week ago we got an email from Yacht Path, a shipping company that moves boats around the world, which changed everything.  The real draw with shipping is that you don’t have to decommission your boat.  You just deliver it to the ship, they hoist it out of the water, block it up on their freighter, and three weeks later, voila!  The boat is home.  Well, almost.  The journey we were able to choose goes from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 15th (give or take a few days) to Victoria, B.C.  Once it’s dropped off it’s just a mere 12 hours away from Seattle.  A piece of cake run given what we’ve been through the past 18 months.

Previously shipping the boat wasn’t an option simply because it was too expensive.  Apparently they’re looking for business as they offered us a quote that wasn’t much more than trucking.  If we’d trucked it we would’ve had to remove the mast, rigging, bow and stern pulpits and probably all the stanchions.  For those non-sailors out there – it would’ve been a LOT of work on both ends.  Not to mention the cost of boat yard time, crane rental for putting on and taking off the mast, etc.  You have to remove all the deck gear to comply with freeway height restrictions.  We have an almost 7 ft draft (depth of the boat below the water line) and combined with the height of the boat off the water (freeboard) we are close to that height restriction.  Therefore shipping via freighter is very attractive as the boat is delivered as-is.  Lea Scotia will retrace her steps that will have taken close to two years to make in just a mere three weeks.  We’ll have to try catching her on the Panama Canal cam going the other way!

So, you ask, why the hurry to get home?  Well, I’m pregnant.  4 1/2 months pregnant and due at the beginning of July.  Getting home mid-May really only leaves us 6 weeks to prepare for a new baby.  And we can’t move back into our house until August so we’ll be master moochers.  I might like to get home before Trevor drops the boat off to get with my doctor in Seattle.  I’ve managed to find doctors along the way and have had multiple ultrasounds seeing that everything is fine and the baby is growing right on schedule.  My doctor here in Cartagena didn’t speak great English which made for interesting appointments, but we got by.  Being able to see my own doctor will be very reassuring.

So we’re off to nearby Cholon (a nice anchorage out of the city) to wait for a weather window for the 400 mile crossing to Providenica.  It’s blowing like stink out there with 15′ seas – they’ll be right on the beam.  Nice.  Hopefully things will settle down in the next few days so we can make a run for it.

Going to a doctor´s appointment in Central and South America is very different from anything we experience in the states.  In the states you typically make an appointment for a specific time and you usually see the doctor around that time.    Or at least the nurse comes to get you and you do your waiting half naked in an exam room.   And when you do have to wait, someone can give you an idea of how long the wait might be.

Well not so south of Mexico, or so it seems.  The system we´ve encountered involves giving numerous people the same appointment time and then you are slottedfirst come first serve, based on when you arrive at the office.  My routine 3pm doctor´s appointment on Tuesday wasn´t really a 3pm appointment.  It was finally my turn at 5:45pm.  How do people with jobs make that work for them?   Once you figure out the system you relax and know that it may take two or three hours.  That´s ok though – this is all part of our cultural experience abroad.

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Trevor and I are starting to get the boat ready to depart Cartagena.  We need to provision with food for the next month and make sure any major repairs are done.  We hope to depart in the middle of next week and head north toward Honduras.  We´re looking forward to getting out of the city and getting water moving under our keel again.  I hope to have an update of our past couple weeks up on the blog in the next few days. 

kjm

Upon arrival in Cartagena, we quickly threw the anchor down in the most crowded anchorage we’ve ever been in (made sure the boat wasn’t dragging) and met my parents who were patiently waiting on shore.  Of course we had to clear customs, which you can only do through an agent, but that didn’t take long.  Only a 10 minute taxi ride away from the boat, my parents were staying in Boca Grande, a neighborhood full of shops, restaurants and hotels.  And Boca Grande is where we spent the next 10 days luxuriating in two differnt air-conditioned hotels.  My parents, who had been waiting for us to arrive (we were four days late due to tranmission issue) were ready to have us here.

For one wonderful week we stayed in Hotel Caribe, one of the older (and nicer)  hotels in Cartagena, full of many amenities.  A fabulous breakfast buffet served next to the pool started each day.  Some days we’d come to breakfast in our suits allowing Kiera to play in the pool afterwards.  It also included putt-putt golf (a rickety all-cement course but fun nonetheless), a playground for Kiera, a rec room with pool table and ping-pong (my Dad’s still got it) and a plethora of exotic animals on the grounds.  We saw minature deer, were able to hold three-toed sloths, and saw the biggest iguana any of us had seen.  They also had monkeys and parrots in cages but that was just sad so we stayed away from that corner of the property.   It was a wonderful Christmas present from my folks. 

Old town, called Centro, is so beautiful.  Its streets are narrow so even mid-day the building cast big enough shadows that you can stay out of the direct sun no matter the time of day.   It’s full of commerce, wonderful restaurants and a ton of history.  We’re really enjoying this town.

We made the 36 hour crossing from the San Blas Islands of Panama to Cartagena, Colombia in a near perfect weather window.  With help from friends and family, we received the engine part (the fan in front of the gearbox mysteriously blew into several pieces) – the logistics of getting the part could be an entire blog post, but I’ll spare you the details.

Although we are still having ongoing alternator problems, we managed to sail much of the passage and are currently relaxing with the Lesters here in a luxurious hotel with Lea Scotia anchored nearby (hopefully safely). I’m checking the boat daily and all seems well.

We finally organized a few of our photos and were able to post them this morning.  See the below four posts for coverage of the past month and different chapters of our adventure.   There are a couple photo dupes (one post by Trevor and the other by Karisa) but we figured some of the photos are fun to see again.   Enjoy, and we hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

tdm

Truly a cruiser’s paradise, we finally made it to the fabled San Blas Islands, with their picture perfect islands, crystal clear water, and interesting native Kuna population.  If only we could have stayed longer…

We stopped for a couple days to allow Mac and Nat means to get back to Panama City and the airport so they could fly home to Seattle.  Portobelo is a small pueblo steeped in history.

tdm

We had the opportunity while the MacLachlans were aboard to explore the Chagres River – the Gatun dam created the lake that made the Panama Canal possible.  tdm

Trevor’s 5th Panama Canal transit, but first for Lea Scotia, was nearly perfect.  It happened on Thanksgiving day, and although the only turkey we had was in sandwich wraps, we had a lot to be thankful for!  (Story below in previous blog post)  

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.

Sitting here in the San Blas Islands we’re having a hard time visualizing Christmas season back home. Just think, Trevor said, about the Argosy Christmas cruises going on right now in Seattle. Here we have 85 degrees, 15 knots of steady breeze, palm trees swaying, sting rays the size of small cars flying under the boat, and the water so clear they call this anchorage The Swimming Pool. Not feeling very Christmasy here. So we popped in a Christmas CD and started to teach Kiera all the old standbys. Oh, and one of the boats put up Christmas lights last night. That helped a bit too.

Seriously, the sting rays are HUGE. At least a 5 foot wingspan, probably more. We’ve yet to see one, but there are also sharks in this anchorage. Both boats on either side of us have seen them go by. Guess we’re not looking at the right time. A couple nurse sharks like to hang out in one part of the bay and we know there are reef sharks out there, too. The snorkeling is awesome in this particular bay with lots of interesting walls in addition to massive coral heads all throughout the bay. As long as you’re not actively spearfishing the sharks leave you alone. Whew.

This water is so clear that standing on the bow I was able to check out the anchor 20 feet down and the tracks the anchor chain had made in the sand. From the top of the rig, Trevor was able to watch a large stingray glide by. Many other seasoned cruisers have told us that their favorite place in the entire Caribbean is where we sit now. We’re doing our best to enjoy our short two weeks here.

Get this – I actually did yoga on one of these little tropical islands a couple days ago. This particular anchorage has quite a few boats in it (it’s not called the swimming pool for nothing) and one of the regulars teaches yoga a couple times a week. Talk about a treat! As I’m laying on my towel I look up into the palm trees blowing in the breeze, listen to the surf crashing in the distance, and try and soak up every little detail. I felt like I was on one of those workout specials done in Hawaii on the beach. It was amazing!

A few days ago, anchored amongst a maze of reefs, we noticed a couple homesteads located on a small island neearby. When I say homestead, I really mean a couple 10 x 10 grass hut with hammocks inside for beds. Invited ashore the next morning, we were able to see up close how this particular Kuna family lives. The Kuna are the indigenous people that still hold very strict traditions here in the San Blas. Kiera was able to play with their two girls in the surf as we were woo’ed with their crafts. Picking up a couple molas, hand sewn embroidery, was a must.

We have to keep moving in order to arrive in Cartagena in a week. Cartagena, we’ve heard, does Christmas right. So even though the weather is warm and the skies sunny, I think we’ll find our Christmas spirit after all.

We’ll have lots of great photos to post once we’re back in the land of internet. For now, just use your imagination.

kjm