00 36.65S 080 25.25W
Dear freinds,
Passage-making in a sailing boat is better than beating your head on a
brick wall: It is not only wonderful when you stop and finally
wake in an anchorage from a long, undisturbed night with the lapping of
ripples on the side of the hull; it can be fun on passage too.
For instance, eating fried squid appetizers and wondering why it is our
normal routine to throw dead flying fish and squid off the deck each
morning. The obvious answer is that at first light, after little
sleep, you are just not in the mood to brace yourself into the galley
with feet & hips secured into one position while you prepare food
from some innocent ocean creature which you happened to disturb during
the night. However it can be worthwhile - the squid was
wonderful.
We liked Panama City well enough, but were ready to leave when we were
finally equipped with 2 new raw water pumps, a spare fresh water pump,
a new water pump on the outboard, the autopilot was repaired, and much
else besides. For the first time in our passagemaking, our own
health had been suffering too. Dave had a heavy chest cough, and
Jan had an eye inflammation. We dropped lines from the buoy at
the Balboa Yacht Club and headed out to the Las Perlas Islands.
It was too late really, but as the sun set, a voice on the VHF radio
introduced itself as the sailing boat "St. Jude" and suggested we could
join them on an unmarked anchorage just under a cliff on the northern
tip of the island group. We missed the cliff by less distance than
planned as we dropped the mainsail and stared through the dark for the
flashing light. Next day was a lazy sail to the island of San
Jose at the southern end, where we anchored for 3 nights, explored, and
changed gear.
San Jose is a privately owned island about 10 km long, mostly covered
in tropical rain forest, but criss-crossed by a network of good gravel
roads as one of the owners also owns a road construction company.
We anchored off the biggest beach, about 2 miles of sand backed by low
cliffs & dense trees, and hardly saw a sign of human life while
were there. There were lots of fish, and probably good oysters
& lobster too but we left them. The first day we
walked. Coconuts & a few tropical fruits, a small teak
plantation, many parrots and many other birds, and small wild
pigs. We had heard a rumour of a new 5 star resort somewhere on
the island, and after an hour walking, we were passed by a smart
vehicle with tinted windows followed by a pick-up truck filled with
neat suitcases. Interest was peeked and after 11km Jan had given
up in the heat, but Dave tottered into a planted garden, under an
archway and down to a beach of fine yellow sand with a couple of
plastic boats, a hut, and most importantly a water tap beside it.
Dave wandered round and, wearing his ragged shorts and soaked T-shirt,
was welcomed by a friendly manager. Anybody with $200 per night,
a couple of weeks, and a desire to get away to a beautiful, remote
resort should look at www.haciendadelmar.net.
On the walk back we each met a fellow riding on a well-used quad (4
wheeled motor bike) an old hat with the word "Colombia" across the
front who talked about the island and the resort and then introduced
himself as one of the owners.
The second day we rested, and on the third morning, after the thunder
storm and squall of a tropical wave had passed by, we set off for
Ecuador 600 miles south. The radio brought daily weather maps,
and the morning SSB radio net brought news of other cruisers and more
weather reports, but there must be fewer reporting stations than in the
Caribbean, and no forecasts were very good. We made 135 miles our
first day on flat seas and a following breeze, but before we reached
Ecuador this was reduced to 75 by head winds and short seas.
"World Cruising Routes" suggests that you keep 100 miles off the
Pacific Coast of Colombia because of piracy and small fishing boats
with nets out. We heeded the advice. The first fishing
boats we saw were off Ecuador and all seemed more professional and
better lit than we remembered from Central America. In one open
boat, all 3 or 4 fishermen got up and waved as we went past as if they
needed help, but as we sailed away we could see other boats around and
felt sure that they just wanted to greet us.
As we approached Bahia De Caraques, the wind eased and we could point
directly down the coast under sail without tacking. There is a
sand bar off the town which has to be crossed at high tide, so we hove
to and waited for the sun to rise and for a pilot to arrive and steer
us in. There was much chatter on the radio as we waited and watched the
tide peak and start to drop before 2 boats appeared round the corner at
11 am, and our pilot transferred from one of these to Harmonica.
He looked about 20 years old, was polite, quiet, and spoke the same
amount of English as we spoke Spanish. He knew how to handle a
boat. He explained that it was Sunday and there had been a really
good party on Saturday night! Harmonica arrived happily without
incident in the peaceful bay behind.
Bahia includes the Port of Puerto Amistad "Friendship Port".
There has been no commercial traffic since the river mouth silted up
half a century ago, but it lives up to its name. Most people have
a smile, the town is clean, and one shop owner asked Dave on our first
day where we had sailed, and then replied "You are welcome here. This
is your home". The town looks bigger than it really is because of
several apartment buildings along the sea front. This is due to a
little real estate boom after one of Ecuador's many recent presidents
owned a summer home here. It is clean and well kept. There
are no super markets and the roads have more bicycles & pedestrians
than cars (which are mostly taxis). The weather is cooler and less
humid here, in fact very pleasant. We doubt whether the whole of
Ecuador will be quite as serene.
Dave, Janet & Harmonica
PS We just spent the day driving 90 km to the nearest city and back to
allow immigration to stamp our passports. We returned in time for
Radio Canada to tell us that there is now a minority government in
Ottawa.