Curacao
Latitude: 12 N // Longitude: 69 W

October 14, 2008

Hello Everyone,

Wow, it's been a long time since we updated you on our travels. Guess it's because we really haven't done any traveling this past month. Soon as we arrived in Spanish Waters on the island of Curacao we realized what a great place this was gonna be to get some things done on the boat.

We mentioned earlier that Spanish Waters is a huge, land locked bay with an extremely calm anchorage. Very scenic and one of the best parts is that it's absolutely FREE! The weather for the past month has been hot but fairly dry for the tropics so we were able to strip most of our wood bare and refinish it with epoxy and varnish. We used the epoxy method as an experiment in South Africa on just the cap rails and eyebrows. They seemed to be holding up pretty well but needed a maintenance coat so we went ahead and did them then stripped down the hand rails, dorad boxes, traveler block and combing around the cockpit. That's lot's of wood! Sanding, epoxying, sanding, epoxying, sanding, varnishing, sanding, varnishing..... you get the idea. It took several weeks but the Spanish Stroll is looking mighty spiffy!

Last week we spent scrubbing down the decks, polishing the house, shining up all the stainless, rerunning all the sheets and lines and hooking up all the stuff that we had tucked here and there to get out of the way for varnishing and cleaning. We also took care of a few odd repairs that are always lurking on board. Then on Monday we went to Willemstad and checked out with customs, immigration and the port captain for a Tuesday departure.

On Monday afternoon , right after we broke our dingy down and packed it on deck, the winds started clocking around to get in their usual position for our passage. RIGHT ON OUR NOSE! Then thunderstorms chock full of lightening started moving through the area with great frequency. We decided to hold off on our departure for a bit.

Going back into Willemstad we alerted the authorities to our delay, so we're okay with them now but we're pretty much stuck here until the weather gets better. To make matters worse, Sarifundy's Marina burned down yesterday. It's where most of the cruisers get together for happy hours and they also had a book exchange, telephones, laundromat and that's were the buses picked everyone up for the stores. It's sad, now we're all at loose ends about what to do tonight! No, seriously, it's a well known destination throughout this part of the Caribbean and we hope that they'll be able to repair the damages and get back in business again soon.

Now with its well defined center just ninety miles to the north of us tropical storm Omar is keeping things from getting boring. It's expected to develop into a category one hurricane but is projected to move north east away from us. Boats are trawling the bottom as they drag by, unscheduled rafting up parties are all around and the radio drama never ends. The dock where we were landing our dingy and the pier where we enjoyed happy hours in Bonaire just a little over a month ago are gone. Fortunately no boats have been lost. It's been good for us, all the wind and rain have charged our batteries, filled the water tanks and washed the boat. Seems there's never a dull moment in the Caribbean!

Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,

Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll


 Cartagena
Latitude: 10 24 N // Longitude: 75 32 W

November 04, 2008

Buenas!

Once hurricane Omar headed away from the vicinity of Curacao, everything calmed down and it was time for us to set sail for Cartagena, Columbia. Although several boats left during the same time, they all opted to stay close in shore and make the trip in day hops. We chose to avoid the thunder, lightening and squalls that are well known features of the coast in this area and sailed off shore. What a beautiful sail it was! 20 to 25 knot winds at our backs with 6 to 8 foot following seas. Long, relaxing tacks about 40 miles off the coast of Venezuela and Columbia. It took less than four days to make the 470 mile passage. It was great fun and some of the best sailing we've done since arriving in the Caribbean!

We are now in the Bay of Cartagena. Our position is 10 24 north and 75 32 west. We're in the north part of the bay by an Isla/Barrio named Manga with land bridges connecting it to the main land. We are anchored off Club Nautica, a small marina right in the heart of Cartagena. Geared towards cruisers it has a restaurant, bar, showers, dingy dock and library/book exchange on shore. The agent who assisted us with our check in met us at the marina and took care of all the details. With all the amenities and a very modern market right up the street, we can see why some people never leave this place. The weather has been mostly comfortable with just a few days of heavy rains to keep us cooped up. The harbor is a bit murky and we don't plan to run our water maker, so we're happy to fill our tanks with rain water. It doesn't take very long at the rate it pours down, though, so we can really do without quite so much, muchas gracias!

A few days after we arrived we were hailed from the marina docks by an unusually tall Englishman named Peter Ellis. Seems he has a boat just like ours and has been following our travels through the website! What a small world! He and his wife Rina invited us to join them for dinner and we of course said yes! They live in the old walled section of the city of Cartagena called Centro along with Peter's even taller son, Tristen. After Rina's delicious dinner we took a stroll atop the old walls and down through the narrow streets lined with colorful shops, restaurants, homes, huge churches and parks. Their whole neighborhood is historical, full of character and comes alive at night! There are more horse and buggies than taxis for hire. We've seen the Ellis's several times since and always enjoy their company. Tristen sailed their boat, La Espiral Eterna, from North Carolina to Cartagena so we had fun swapping sailing stories when he came on board for a visit one afternoon. Peter and Rina joined us another evening for a barbecue and we've since joined them all for an afternoons visit and dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants. This is certainly looking like another one of those places that we really hate to say goodbye to! Cartagena is not only beautiful and interesting but it's also very clean and safe. We highly recommend it!

A lot of Caribbean cruisers spend the holidays in Cartagena so the anchorage is getting crowded. The new moon is a little bit bigger every night and the boat yard in Panama is calling. It won't be long till we weigh anchor and sail off into the sunset. Go west old boat...


Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,

Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll


 At Sea
LAT 10 05.67 N // Longitude: LON 77 03.19 W

November 15, 2008

Hola Everyone,

We reluctantly sailed away from Cartagena on Tuesday the 11th. What an excellent stop that turned out to be. We made a lot of new friends, met up with some old and had a lot of good times. One boat, Astor, we hadn't seen since Fiji in 2005! Lani and Richard sailed east to the U.S. west coast, down through Mexico and transited the Panama Canal while we kept sailing west. We finally crossed paths and now we'll continue west as they head east with plans to be in the Mediterranean some time next year.

It was so great just to hang out on board, with the skyline of Cartagena surrounding the bay it was an awesome view. Mornings we might share coffee on board with friends and evenings cocktails or casual dinners. Often during the day we puttered around taking care of the many projects that never end on the Spanish Stroll. The super market up the street, Carulla, had a deli where we could buy typical, ready to eat, Columbian foods. Like arepas con huevos, a corn cake about six inches in diameter, slit open and stuffed with chorizo and eggs or empanadas, a deep fried pastry stuffed with chicken and potatoes. Also favorites like broiled chicken, sausage skewers and a fresh salad bar. It was tempting to eat all our meals there, the cost was usually less than $5 U.S. for both of us including delicious, fresh fruit juices; mango, mura and more. A short walk in the other direction and we were in Centro, the old, walled part of the city with more expensive restaurants, but one of Jim's favorites, barbecued beef and potatoes on a skewer being sold by a street vendor at less than $1 each! There was Danna's Pizza right up the street; delicious $3 pizzas and ice cold beers. We may, possibly, have gained some weight but we were still dwarfed by the bronze, nude statue of La Gorda, a "heavy" sculpture by the artist, Fernando Botero that stands (or rather reclines) in the Plaza de Santo Domingo. She's well known for her highly polished boobs! Of course, once we send our next set of pictures home, you'll see that Jim was not immune to her charms.

Forcing ourselves off the boats and away from the restaurants, armed with our cameras and walking shoes we took off with our friends H and Bronte on S/V Cooee Too and toured San Felipe Castillo and the Naval Museum. We took a taxi up to the castle and seeing as we were acting like "real" tourists we decided to pay for an English speaking guide. H and Barb could not keep a straight face as they listened to Alberto tell the stories and explain the castle rooms and tunnels. Jim and Bronte nodded their heads and acted like they were with him; spurning him on to even more details and humorous stories. We had no idea what he was saying, with only a word here and there possibly identified. We laughed at all his jokes, it was delightful! After he was done with his tour we spent a bit more time exploring on our own. The castle is just riddled with tunnels and we had fun following them into the bowels of the castle until someone, usually Barb, got spooked. We should have brought a flashlight, as it was we used our camera flash and now have about 50 pictures of the inside of the tunnel walls. The Museo Naval was a walk down the hill and one beer stop away. Not exactly fascinating, but the dioramas of the harbor showing the changes made during the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire during the 15th and 16th centuries was interesting. We ended up at Danna's for pizza to complete our day. With so much walking that one didn't count!

After motoring out of Bahia de Cartagena we sailed about 20 miles down the coast to Cienaga de Cholon. A huge, calm bay with clear water and only one other boat at anchor. We had noticed our engine running a bit warm as we left, so we spent the next morning checking and cleaning out all the water and air passages. Then we jumped in and gave the boat bottom a good scrubbing to remove all the growth we'd picked up after sitting for almost three weeks in Cartagena. With plans to leave the next morning, we surfaced to find our friends Linda and Doug on S/V Que Linda cruising into the bay. We decided to stay an extra day. We had broken down our dingy and stored it on the deck for our passage so they graciously picked us up and took us to a little beach close by for a nice swim the following morning. They have a cute little dog, Pip, who is on a schedule. We helped them scrub the bottom of the dingy and then it was back to their boat for beers and a nice visit. Wanting to prolong the pasarlo bien, they dropped us off at our boat to finish a few more chores then it was back to Que Linda to share a fish dinner that evening. Linda and Doug are also on their way to transit the canal and then will sail up the coast as far as the Sea of Cortez. We really enjoy their company and look forward to seeing them again in the canal area.

We said our final adioses and sailed away from Columbia on Friday the 14th. The winds are fluky, so we are both sailing and motoring along. The engine is running nice and cool. We are about half way to the San Blas Islands and should arrive sometime early tomorrow. The islands are part of Panama but east of Colon and remote. Most of the islands are not inhabited and those that are have sparse populations of Kuna Indians, the indigenous people. It should be an interesting stop and if all goes well, we plan to spend a week or so exploring some of the hundreds of islands while we relax and take it easy. Kind of like a vacation before we head for our next exciting adventure. "The Spanish Stroll Transits the Panama Canal!!"

Take care of yourselves and we'll be in touch soon,

Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll


 La Playita (Panama)
December 15, 2008

Hello Everyone,

We have been in Balboa for almost a week and it still seems unreal that we have come through the canal and are now on the Pacific side. Debbie and Jeff, our niece and nephew from California who are now experienced line handlers, left yesterday and much as we love them, it is nice to totally relax and let it all sink in (and hang out).

Here's how our transit went! Our line handlers Deb and Jeff and Denny, a friend and fellow cruiser, were all on board and ready to go early Monday afternoon. Our advisor arrived at 5:30 pm and immediately started off by ordering us to pull our anchor quickly and get going. He was impatient when we took an extra minute to wash the deck free of slippery mud before getting underway. We pushed the Spanish Stroll as fast as she could go and although we had checked every possible orifice to make sure she would run cool the temperature began rising. We were trying to decide wether it would be necessary to abort when our advisor gave the order to slow down as we would arrive too early at the first lock! After slowing down the temperature continued to rise so Jim went below and checked it out. He was able to put his hand directly on the engine. Whew!! The engine was running cool and it was the temp gauge itself that was malfunctioning!

Barb had become super stressed as the transit date got closer and just about caught on fire as we approached the first set of locks. Thankfully Jim was able to remain calm and in control. When we arrived at the Gatun Locks, we idled and even reversed to stay in place while waiting for our time to enter. There was a 39 foot power boat going through with us and we would be side tied to each other and then ride through the locks in the center. We finally got all hooked up and as we approached the locks the lock master said that one of the boats would need to be tied directly to the chamber wall. We had specified on our lockage paperwork that we would not go that way, it is too easy to sustain damage on the wall. The powerboat had agreed to that position in error. There was panic on board as they tried to talk us into being the boat on the wall and we refused. As we got closer to the locks the gate started closing! Our advisor was ordering us to go ahead and the advisor on the power boat was telling both boats to abort. Just to add to the excitement a container ship that should not have been there approached from the rear and sounded his horn five times indicating that he could not stop and we were in his way! Jim looked at Ben, the power boat captain, and they quickly flipped a u-turn and moved the boats out of the way. We separated and both boats slowly idled over to a cement quay where we tied off and everyone took a big breath!

About an hour or so later, we once again tied the boats together and approached the locks. This time we entered behind a huge container ship and were soon tied off to the lock walls and positioned in the center. After the lock doors closed a bell clanged and the chamber began filling with water. It was just slightly turbulent and by adjusting the lines we were easily able to keep the boats positioned in the center as we rose. Once we leveled off, the gates were opened and we followed the ship into the next lock where we once again tied off and held our position while the lock filled. After the third and final lock when the gates opened we were in Gatun Lake. It was well past midnight as we said good bye to the crew on the powerboat and made our way to a huge, guano covered buoy, where we tied up for the night. After a quick bite to eat the advisor was picked up and we were all down for the night.

We awoke early the next morning to the unearthly cries of howler monkeys on the nearby shore. Gatun Lake is edged by a lush, tropical shoreline and dotted with small jungle covered islands. We relaxed, shared a few coffees and chatted while waiting for our new advisor to join us. We'd been told to expect him at 6:30 am and he arrived around 8:00 am. Manuel jumped on board and we were quickly underway. As he changed into deck shoes he explained to Jim how we would proceed to the marked channel. He then introduced himself to everyone and learned our names. What a contrast to the advisor of the night before. Manuel kept everybody calm and instead of barking orders he casually prepared us for what was coming next so we were able to handle everything smoothly ourselves. The rest of the time he was a great tour guide and generally just a nice guy. It took us about four hours to make our way from our overnight buoy to the Pacific locks. The scenery was beautiful. Passing the huge ships on their way to the Caribbean was awesome! We had the Pedro Miguel and Mira Flores locks to ourselves. With Manuel's excellent directions and friendly encouragement we smoothly floated on the water's surface, finding it easy to remain in the center as the locks emptied. Picture pulling the plug in a bathtub. There was a little turbulence as the last gates opened and we entered the Pacific Ocean. You probably all heard that big sigh of relief!

We are now at the anchorage they call La Playita. It's at the end of the Amador Causeway and will be our home for the next couple of weeks as we get the Spanish Stroll ready for her last challenge... a hard sail to weather up to California and home!

Merry Christmas to everyone and take care of yourselves! We'll be in touch soon.

Jim and Barb
S/V SpanishStroll