24-33.743 N
081-48.013 W
Docked
Key West Bight Marina
Key West, Florida
Thursday, November 29, 2007
So, you quit sailing, hiking, skiing, back packing or river rafting, never
to return, because your first one- or two-day experience was bad, consciously
and decisively denying yourself a piece of life, a food portion so tough
to eat that you cannot imagine eating it again. If the first days of
anything are bad, if you have had a challenging or awful "first impression,"
that ball game is over for you. Right? In that case, you will
not make it as a cruising sailor.
Our first two days were horrible. We left Colon on Saturday, November
17, (thereby avoiding the classically unlucky Friday departure) and immediately
found ourselves with enough motion sickness to satisfy a life time. Chichi
was constantly "woozy," John was tired, lethargic and nauseous, and our fine
crew member, Bob Jones, an experienced cruiser from Indianapolis, Tilghman
Island, and Orange County, said he had never "seen it like this."
Then, the Three Day Rule applied. This rule states: a vacation
does not commence until the third day, meaning that the body requires roughly
three days to adapt to any change. We recovered, and sailed forth for
the next 7 days.
Chris Parker had told us to sail north on 80W from Colon, but a combination
of winds and inattention (perhaps caused by the motion sickness) left us
about 40 miles west of 80 west, probably missing a favorable current. With
the help of computer navigation, we adjusted, and proceeded, with many hours
of wonderful sailing, other hours of sailing and motoring, and a smooth ride,
UNTIL: THE AUTO PILOT FAILED. Nothing could be worse. Hand
steering Pachamama is not fun at all. The shoulders get tired, attention
wanes, watches are reduced to half an hour, hours of sleeping are curtailed,
and time to eat together is hard to find. With labor and luck, John
and Chichi found the problem, repaired it, and we went on our way. The
problem was a failed electrical connection underneath the stern cockpit seat.
The connection was poor (and unprofessional), from the start, and will
be completely made over as soon as we can.
Other problems were salt water in the forward cabin, some leakage in the
aft cabin, and a failed barometer.
Bob had a tough time on this trip, not being accustomed to the myriad of
sounds that prevent sleep. These sounds include pumps, banging halyards,
the motor, and the beep-beep of our egg timer used to wake up the person
on watch every ten minutes. He also could not find the perfect spot
to sleep. One night, he tried out the starboard cockpit seat, only
to find himself wet and rolled onto the cockpit floor by a wave that came
over the starboard side. (We were on a starboard tack most of the trip.)
The positives were good food (prepared in advance by Chichi), frequently
good wind, a fine and enjoyable stop at The Dry Tortugas National Park (Fort
Jefferson), and another relaxing stop at The Marquesas, two thirds of the
way from Tortugas to Key West.
Our conversations with Bob were uniquely stimulating as we continuously discovered
common experiences and similar tastes in movies, politics, and books. He
also knows personally people we admire, such as Marvin Hamlisch.
The last two days here at Key West have been a motor race of cleaning, clearing
in, getting Bob ready to leave, and figuring out when to leave here. We
probably will leave the marina tomorrow, anchor out a few days, then begin
a casual trip (128 nautical miles) to Miami, where we plan to leave Pachamama
several weeks.
09-22.075 N
079-57.073 W
Docked
Shelter Bay Marina
Near Colon, Panama
Thursday, November 15.
Occasionally, intensity replaces tranquility in the lives of sailors, no
more so than during the rush to leave by a certain date. Then there
is the matter of returning to a rather defined community in which people greet
each other in predictable fashion, and, once in a while, someone leaves us,
as we learned that Henning, a friend from Club de Pesca, passed away, leaving
his widow, Dorothy, totally alone on the boat, with little or no family support
in Germany, and no clear life ahead. Mixing this kind of news with
the constant banter about a recent trip, a proposed trip, or a mechanical
or weather issue, and our plan to move on, produces a boiling stew of emotions,
and a long list of things to do.
Here is what To Did: Engine: new oil, transmission fluid, belt,
impeller, re built turbo charger, worth a startling amount, but from a fine,
fine technician, Andy Anderson. Replace nuts and bolts securing the
rudder cables, replace repaired auto pilot drive that did not want to work,
potentially torpedoing the entire plan, only to recover when we discovered
the cabling was incorrect, caused by some installer, in 2001, changing the
color of cables over the run from the course computer to the drive. Victor,
who did all of that, also scraped our hull and replaced the deceased shaft
zinc, all without air tanks. Cleaning everything, putting up the fore
sails again in the face of a breeze, checking the dinghy and dinghy motor,
going over the proposed route over and over, beginning to understand current
weather systems, and making at least two, probably three, runs to town to
provision, knowing full well that no matter how thorough our lists, we will
forget something. Then we have the frustrations of fans not working,
part of the kitchen food locker requiring a dose of varnish, engine mounts
that need paint, and all these are known issues. We know that unknown
issues are hiding somewhere, ready to strike us in the ....
Our crew, Bob Jones, from Orange County, CA.,, and from Tilghman Island
on The Chesapeake, and formerly from Indianapolis, arrived in Panama City
last night, and will join us tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, all the
hotels we knew are sold out for a travel agent convention, leaving Bob in
a facility that he said "is about as good as I had in Russia." Nuts.
At least someone was waiting to pick him up at the airport, as promised.
So, Saturday we are off.
Indianapolis
Thursday, November 8
After a fine summer, including a new grandson in Colorado, and a new son-in-law
in Indianapolis, plus renewal of wonderful friendships, we return to Colon,
Panama, tomorrow, to prepare for a ten day passage from Colon to Miami.