Hello again. Please excuse the form letter: Janet is very good at keeping up correspondence, but I am behind as usual. Apart from writing letters, we have had a wonderful year, which has kept amazingly close to plan with very little going wrong! Our sailing boat, Harmonica, has sailed half way round the world and is now lying in Turkey while we fly back to spend Christmas with Mark and Neil in Calgary. This address is where Neil Tigger the cat live. They forward our paper-mail 3 or 4 times each year. Our home is firmly on board Harmonica and email is our normal method of talking to the outside world. Jan, Dave, Mark & Neil will be back in our cabin just west of Calgary for Christmas with the Brazier family. Jan & I will stay in Canada until the end of January. The house in Cayuga Dr has been rented, but the tenants moved out and it is still vacant so we shall move back in for a few weeks.
Here are some of the highlights of our year. After Christmas 2000, we flew back to La Paz, Mexico, and cleaned layers dust off Harmonica. We continued our journey down the mainland coast of Mexico spending a short time in Bahia De Navidad, past Ixtapa & Acapulco without stopping, and on to Huatulco in Oaxaca State. We bypassed many famous bays & anchorages as we wanted to get through Panama & leave the Caribean before huricane season. We chatted on radio nets every day & picked up appeals from El Salvador for materials to help in earthquake relief. We carried down a tarpaulin from another boat and dried milk & a few water containers from Harmonica then crossed the Gulf of Tuhuanapec from Huatulco straight to Barillas El Salvador. Several cruising boats were sitting in Huatulco waiting for a "weather window" to cross the Gulf as this was the first "crossing" for some, and one seemed quite upset that we left on our own without waiting for the rest!
We enjoyed 2 weeks in Barillas marina, El Salvador. If you call on the VHF radio, the marina will send a panga (20 ft open boat) out to meet you at some GPS coordinates about 3 miles offshore and outside the bar on a river mouth. You are then escorted between the breaking waves, past the native fishing village with dug-out canoes on the beach, and up about 6 miles of mangrove creek. At the anchorage, there were little pallapa shelters wired for telephone and internet connection on a beautifully mown lawn between the bar & the swimming pool. The creek seemed ironically similar to the parts of Nigeria where I lived & worked 30 years earlier shooting seismic. This time I was able to enjoy the luxury without worries. I feel much more hope for this country, although it is very poor & many aspects are distressing. There are 3 or 4 prominent volcanoes in the distance. The surrounding coutryside look extremely fertile & was covered in huge plantations (finca's) of sugar cane. The marina was built by a man who used to own the local Finca before the civil war finished (it was probably about 100 square km). The result of the recent earthquake was very evident. In the small town of Usulatan, our nearest shopping centre, most of the building were adobe & piles of rubble sat in the roads waiting for removal where about half had partly or completely collapsed. A number of cruisers, mainly Canadian and American, had formed a group of volunteers to help rebuild a small village of 10 houses in a coffee plantation high on the side of a volcano. We spent a memorable day up at the building site. (see www.barillasreliefproject.org) The villagers were camping under the coffee plants afraid to return into the old homes. I think the biggest achievement in the long run may have been to persuade the coffee plantation owner to let the villagers have freehold title to their rebuilt homes! The children could not attend school as the building had fallen down so activities were provided by the cruisers.
We travelled by bus to Guatemala for a week of intensive spanish lessons. Stops and bus changes in San Salvador & Guatemala City. From here we travelled on to Quetsaltenango (Shela) which is a predominantly Mayan town in the mountains near the Mexican border with Chiapas State. We spent a week organised by a local school, living with a local family who spoke no english, attending spanish lessons in the mornings and sightseeing excursions in the afternoons. We were high in the mountains surrounded in beautiful fertile farming valleys. We climbed to the top of a nearby volcano over 14,000ft hearing the rumbles from a nearby active volcano as we went.
We had a bouncy ride into the wind again down the coast of Nicaragua and decided not to stop as we were meeting people in Panama, early March. All the way, we saw fires where farmers were burning off the sugar cane fields prior to harvesting. We did spend one night anchored in Bahia de St Elena, Costa Rica to recover from our lumpy journey from El Salvador but we did not go ashore. The bay was large, beautiful, and quiet. Birds and howler monkeys were probably laughing at our efforts to recover a halyard which had run up the mast! There was one night of thunderstorms off Costa Rica which made us realise that we had barely seen rain in 6 months.
We reached the coast of Panama and sailed close to green, lush, palm fringed islands seeing turtles float by occasionally, sometimes with a seabird standing on top hitching a lazy ride. We reached Panama City, here we began our preparations for going through the Panama Canal. All latin-American countries seemed to love paper-work. Panama was possibly better than some, but it still took a few days before we had bought our cruising permit, paid for our canal transit and deposit, and been "admeasured". At some stage I signed a form which said something like "Harmonica's deck cleets will take a load of 300,000 tons, and if they don't it will be my fault". A transit date was arranged. Our 3 friends who elected to spend their holiday being line handlers for us were patient. Each boat of our size must have a skipper, 4 line handlers and a pilot on board for the transit which may take 1 or 2 days. Transit day started at 5am and all went smoothly. We went up the first 3 locks side tied to a big tug. Our companion in the lock was a Norwegian cruise ship which went in front of us. We were nervous as 2 sailboats had been seriously damaged 3 weeks before when their raft broke free and they were swept under the back of a large freighter (no lives lost but boats a write off). We then spent most of the day crossing the Gatun Lake. Our Panamanian pilot entertained us with Panama stories as we went. To our surprise, our cruise ship was waiting for us at the down-locks at Gatun, so we shot under their bow with multitudes of movie cameras pointing at us, and made the trip in 1 day. We then entered the Caribbean sea.... what a big sense of achievement as the sun set, out Canadian flag was recognised as we tied to the fuel dock at Cristobal Yacht Club, and several jugs of beer were consumed with supper in the clubhouse.
We spent some time on the Caribbean side of Panama visiting Portobello, where the spanish mule trains of Inca gold were unloaded ready for the annual fleet of ships to cross the Atlantic; and also the San Blas islands, which is a low chain of reef islands stretching to the Colombian border. They sandy, palm treed islands inhabited by the Kuna indians, a tribe descended from the Caribs. They wear traditional colourful dress, and frequently visited us in their dug-out canoes. We bought fresh lobster from the men, and intricately sewn molas made by the women.
Following came our worst sail: Panama to Columbia...banging into head seas and into the wind. Times like that we wonder why we are doing this trip when we could be warm and dry in a comfortable house on land. We stayed in Cartegena, one of the safe places to visit in Columbia. A wonderful old fortified city steeped in history with narrow streets. Boat work was cheap and we now have a new white dodger, sail cover and rat lines.
Next, the 600 mile sail across the Caribbean sea to Cuba, a 6 day trip for us. We stayed on the south coast of Cuba for a few weeks. Joined by Neil, on holiday from the University of Calgary where he is studying computer science and looking after the cat. He was accompanied by some good friends of ours who act as surrogate parents to the boys in our absence. This was the peak of beauraucracy: It took 12 officials and 2 dogs to get all our paper-work for Harmonica to sail Cuban waters. All came to us and were delightfully polite, & interested in the boat. Most of the time, Cuba is a relaxing place where things happen slowly but congenially. We sailed through the mangrove covered cays finding sandy beaches and fisherman with the biggest lobsters we have ever seen. One town we visited was the old town of Trinidad. Many wonderful prerevolution buildings in need of repair and paint. People were all happy, well fed and clothed, but way behind in technology. It was like stepping back 50 years in time. Good education and medical facilities available to all. We left our visitors in Manzanillo and went on our way via Santiago de Cuba.
Jan flew back to Calgary for 3 weeks from the Turks & Caicos islands, while another friend & I sailed on to Bermuda. We visited Jan's friends whom she knew from nursing there over 30 years ago. The island is an idyllic place to live with its pink coral sand beaches and clear sea, but cost of everything shot up from ridiculously cheep in Colombia & Cuba to very expensive! We helped with some sailing races and watched the Bermuda dinghy racing with their oversized sails and strange racing rules.
Atlantic crossing....Jan was not sure if she would want to do this leg but with several 1000 miles of sailing experience gained over the last year she set off without flinching and we had a peaceful, light-airs crossing. We socialized with other boats over the SSB & VHF radios and actually passed over some dried milk to a boat as we passed. Our auto pilot packed up early in the trip which meant a lot of hand steering (tiring night watches) when the wind was not enough to use our steering wind vane. We reached the Azores (Portuguese islands 800 miles west of mainland Portugal) after 19 days sailing. We loved the 3 of 7 islands that we visited.....very few tourists visit here. The island we liked the best was Flores our first landfall. Small irregular fields surrounded in Hydrangea hedges with cattle grazing. Small red roofed houses tumbling down to the waters edge. Flowers and bird song everywhere. We did some long rambles through the countryside. In Horta we met our other son, Mark, on holiday from university on Vancouver island, and our friend Brian who is taking a sabbatical year from teaching and wanted to crew for a while. It took us 9 days to sail from the Azores to the mainland. What luxury to have 2 extra crew members to share night watches.
We visited 3 places on the Algarve, South coast of Portugal. It was the height of the tourist season and seemed very busy and commercial. The coast is spoilt by rows of ugly hotels. Jan's sister and husband joined us for a week; her mother was suppose to have come but due to a rectal haemorrage 4 days before leaving she was unable to visit us. Two weeks later family members left us and we sailed on to Gibralter. Here, for the second time, we failed to get a replacement autopilot to fit Harmonica's elegant slim bottom, and also the replacement rigging, which we thought had been ordered, was not there. After a few days on the rock, in which time we walked up it and around it, Jan walked across to Spain and caught a bus to Malaga and flew from there to UK for3 weeks with her mother who was in good health, but appreciated Jan's help having just moved from her 500 year old cottage into a more suitable modern house. She is now 83.
Brian & I sailed another 1500 miles in 3 weeks to Crete. en route we grew to appreciate why Odysseus got blown off course so many times (and I don't mean the Italian girls). The forecasts divide the Mediterranean Sea into numerous small seas, many of which we only knew from the board game "diplomacy". We would receive a detailed forecast for each area, often in a foreign language, and then the wind & sea would often do the exact opposite. Too enthusiastic to power out of a particularly complex set of swells near the south coast of Sardinia, I got the log up to 12 knots but pulled part of the mainsail track off the mast in the process. We rerivetted the track in Reggio Di Callabria in the Straits of Messina while unsuccessfully fending off our neighbouring Austrian who equipped himself with a guitar and demonstrated how well red wine prolongs your life.
Jan rejoined Harmonica in Xania, Crete. The rush across the Mediterranean was to meet up with Dave's father and friend Ceclia who visit Hora Sfakion, south coast of Crete, every year in October. They have been there for the past 27 years. We love Greece....life is simple and safe. We did a lot of walking along coastal paths, through gorges, and up mountains. Dramatic scenery....barren in parts and fertile in others. We spent a few weeks before parting with Brian and sailing on to Santorini, a picturesque island with villages tumbling over steep, colourful cliff tops which surround the large volcanic crater which is now filled with sea water. It was October and all the package tourists had melted away. We were not even seeing other cruising boats, we think they had already found places to hole up for the winter. On to Nisyros, a small unspoilt island. Here the meltemi wind was blowing and the harbour was not comfortable with large swells coming in. We rented a scooter to explore the island. Two small villages high up the mountain side and down to watch the steaming fumaroles in the old volcanic craters in the middle of the island.
We reached Datca in Turkey. Everything looked green and fertile after the dry, barren islands of Greece. We are getting used to listening to the call for prayers 5 times a day issuing forth from the mosque and minaret that are in every village. We checked out a few marinas along the coast and settled for Marti Marina. We shall winter here in this small marina close to a tiny farming/fishing village, Orhaniye. We like it because it is quiet.... surrounded in pine tree clad mountains. The marina provides a free dolmus minibus (dolmus means stuffed which they usually are!) to the nearby town of Marmaris, a 30 minute ride through the mountains. We shall do boat work here.....replaced all the standing rigging, wood staining etc. In February, we shall pull out of the water ana repaint the antifouling. There are boats in the marina from Britain, Norway, Germany, Holland, Finland, Australia and New Zealand. We are the only Canadian boat.
We have travelled 13,600 nautical miles since leaving Victoria, August, 1999. 2001 has been a wonderful year and we have met many interesting, stimulating, friendly people. We have felt wonderfully healthy. Our life is simple....small space to live in with few belongings; it is possible to live cheaply....anchoring, solar power; we sail most of the time so our fuel consumption and engine wear is low. It is a nomadic way of life never knowing where you will be staying ahead of time. The thing we miss most is a soak in a hot bath!