People travel because it teaches them things they could learn no other way. Lance Morrow

June 7th 2009    Lenny for Hire

Our pump in the aft head has not been functioning properly, so we asked Lenny, who currently lives here with his family on the island in the East Lemons island chain, if he would be interested in making some money.  He agreed readily and so today he promptly arrived in his ulu at 9am ready for work.  Lenny is a Kuna Indian who is 25 years old and lives permanently in the Isla Robeson's, an island chain about 15 miles away closer to the mainland.  Every two years, his family is scheduled to live here in the East Lemons for three months.  It's kind of like a vacation.  The easily accessibility to reefs for fishing and spearing lobster is a boon, and the opportunity to sell lobster, crab and fish to the cruisers who anchor here is another advantage for earning money. But, they are away from their village and their friends and supplies have to be shipped in via ulu. 

Lenny speaks very little English, so I am the intrepreter for Aaron who shows Lenny what needs to be done to unscrew the pump.  He catches on very quickly and within a half hour the pump is dismounted.  It's a shitty job.  Muy malo (very bad) says Lenny. No doubt about that.  That's why Aaron didn't want to do it. He takes our dinghy to shore with the pump and cleans it onshore and returns in an hour.  Installing the pump takes longer and we take a break in between for lunch.  I had baked a fresh loaf of bread in the morning and so we enjoy tunafish salad sandwiches and marinated cucumbers.  Lenny loves the bread and cucumbers.  The Kunas make bread, but it's shape is like a torpedo, perfect for hotdog buns.  Lenny teaches me some Kuna words, like Nuedi for welcome, and Digate nugami, for hello, how are you?  After lunch, it's back to work.  The pump is installed an hour later, and it's 330pm, so I give Lenny a cervesa and visit some more with him.  He's a very nice guy and his smile is a generous one.  He looks thru the Bauhaus Cruising guide, looking at the pictures and recognizes many of the places.  He also thumbs thru the Fishing Guide book, looking at all the different kinds of fish.  And, I just happen to have an issue of  Lattitudes and Attitudes magazine and he really enjoys looking at all the pictures. (chicas, chicas).  I give him the magazine and a Tshirt along with his hard earned $20 for a job well done.  He asks if we can fill up his water jug because they do not have any way of making water other than catching rainwater.  Glad to help out a friend and upon leaving,  Lenny invites us to his home in the Isla Robeson's next time we visit there.

Whenever there is a trash burn, cruisers turn the event into a fun one.  How?  Well, after the fire has been started by one who knows how (ex boy scouts do this really well), and everyone has thrown their bag of rubbish in the pit (minus aluminum cans, glass, and steel cans) and the fire dies down a bit, it's time for starfish races.  First, one must find a starfish, which isn't hard to do, at this island they are laying everywhere in the sandy bottom of water, then everyone gets in a circle with their lucky starfish, but still standing in about 2 feet of water.   Everyone places their starfish on the bottom but upside down.  The winner is the one who turns right side up first, but stays on the bottom.  (The secret to winning is never let your starfish out of the water but hold him in the water until the race begins!) I find this out after the race is completed and so my starfish finished dead last because he would just float to the surface.  When the race is over, some dig for clams, others watch and we all gaze at the beautiful sunset.  Another day in paradise is over.

June 10th   To the Swimming Pool....again

Our generator is still giving us problems.  We don't know from one day to the next whether it will run the next time we need it.  It's a bit unnerving and Aaron has been constantly trying to figure out what it could be.  He has called the technicians in Florida at the Northern Lights Dealership, looking for answers, and James, the technician, gives out advice generously.  We ordered another part, the oil temperature sending unit, and had it shipped to Kathy and Neil's( s/v Attitude) daughters home in Florida.  Their nephew, who is 10 years old, is flying down for vacation time and so is bringing our part with him.  And so, we head to the "swimming pool" anchorage, once again and meet up with them and our part.  But, after all this coordination and effort the part doesn't solve our problem.  So, it's back to square one.  Frustrating it is.  Tom and Julie on s/v Gris Gris come over to help diagnose the ongoing problem.  Tom thinks it is the relays since his generator had the same problem.  So, Aaron and Tom manage to pop out the relays and each one of them is dirty, so they are cleaned and put back in place.  Mark on s/v Melody is in Panama City at this moment, so we give him a call and he agrees to pick up four new relays for us along with some cheddar cheese and sour cream.  Nice guy he is.  Now, we still have our generator hotwired so it will run, but we do not have any gauges or sensors.  Mark arrives a couple of days later, and the new relays are installed.  But, once again, it doesn't solve the problem.

June 16th   What is this? a new island, a new anchorage?

Yes, we are headed to the islands called the East Cocos Banderos, a group of five islands. It's only five miles to the south of where we are, so we leave our suncover up and motor the entire way.   It is a beautiful area, each island having white sandy beaches and lots of palm trees.  We anchor in 30 feet of water in between two islands and immediately go for a swim.  Valentina, Sonny and Kay, are anchored close by, so we swim over to their boat to say hello and share a couple of beers.  They invite us over for happy hour at 5pm after our swim.

June 20th  Happy Birthday to My Captain

Everyone in the anchorage knows that today is Aaron's birthday, (wonder who told them?)  Birthday wishes are given this morning via the VHF and Betsy on m/v Two by Sea used their hailer and announced Happy Birthday over the whole anchorage!  Later on in the day, the birthday celebration continues on the island.  Everyone in the anchorage is invited, about 10 boats in all, and complete with birthday cake and a portable Itunes the music never stops, but sadly the celebration does have to end when the sun goes down.  But, back onboard, Gary and Linda (s/v Rainbow Rider) and Paul and Karen (on m/v Dreamweaver) stop by and the party continues on........................... 

June 21st    Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Aaron and my Dad and to all those wonderful fathers, who work hard to provide for their families.  You are much loved and hopefully are rewarded today with much love.

 It rained the entire day, so the island get together was cancelled.  We stayed onboard and I cooked all day.  What else?

June 22nd  Back to the swimming pool again.........

The relays that Tom and Julie on s/v Gris Gris picked up for us when they were in Panama City recently, are now being delivered by another boat, s/v Lizzy Jean, with Paul and Rob aboard.  We meet them in the pool and thank them for the special parts delivery with happy hour on BMA. (little did we know that there were many more happy hours in the near future!) These young men, both in their late 20's, are originally from Canada, and have been living in PC for a few years.  Paul came up with the idea of buying a sailboat and going cruising and Rob was a bit harder to convince at the time.  They purchased Lizzy Jean, an Erickson 30, at Shelter Bay marina in Colon just nine months ago and have been passionately learning all about boat ownership since. They plan on heading to Cartagena soon, which will be there first overnight passage.  Concerned for their safety and wanting them to have a smooth crossing, Aaron decides it would be best to polish their fuel before they leave since they have been having problems with clogged fuel filters.  Whenever fuel sits in a tank for a long time, it gets old and nasty and will clog fuel filters really well.  We decide that will be the project for tomorrow

We acquired a new gecko and he proves to be a good one.  While we were on BBQ island for the Monday nite ritual cruiser get together, Aaron caught a gecko as we were leaving and put him in our little blue cooler for the ride home.  Once home and cleaning out the cooler, Aaron feels something crawling up his arm to his shoulder and on instinct throws it (whatever it is) in the water.  Seconds later, he realizes that it was the newest gecko and feels terrible that he threw him in the water.  We attempt a search and rescue, Aaron gets in the dinghy which is tied on the side and shines a flashlight in the water.  He thinks he sees the floating gecko, but can't get to him in time before he floats away.  Aaron and I sit in the cockpit feeling sad, when about 45 minutes later, a gecko climbs down the coaming into the cockpit right by me, crawls into my lap and then leaps for the cockpit table.  Once there, he scopes out the situation, and immediately latches on to my wine glass half filled with amaretto.  He crawls up the glass and helps himself to a drink.  We think he definitely deserves this treat after everything the poor little thing has been subjected to tonight.  Let's see, he gets captured from a tropical island, placed into an artic chill cooler, transported by dinghy to a sailboat, then flung by hand into the sea, floats (do geckos swim?) back to the mainship, crawls up the side onto the deck, keeps climbing up into the cockpit and leaps to the table to partake in a much needed drink after that experience!  He hangs out with us for the next three consecutive nights in the cockpit, enjoying his own amaretto.

June 24th  Generator woes continue

Will we ever discover the true problem of our generator and will it ever be fixed correctly?  This is getting really old, but we persevere. What else can we do?  We have installed the new relays, and still no luck in getting the generator to run.  So, we call Dean on s/v BlueFox, who we have met briefly at an island get together.  Luckily, he is anchored close by and so we ask him if he would be willing to come by and take a look at our generator.  He agrees and without looking at a manual or the specs or diagrams, he takes a look and says it could be your solenoid.  So, yes, we do have a spare and replace it.  He also places his hands on the relays that we just replaced and voila, it starts and runs like it should.  What joy and what healing touch does Dean have?  His been fixing motors all his life he says, but never has earned a penny from it.  Well, we are overjoyed and fix him dinner.  He appreciates it since he is singlehandling and a hotmeal prepared by someone else is always a treat.

June 28th  To the East Lemmons to experience our first "chocosana"

Seems we have been cruising in a triangle, E. Lemmons to the E. Cocos to the Pool and now back to the E. Lemmons.  Lenny paddled by in his ulu on the way out to do some fishing and lobster hunting.  I remembered my Kuna greeting and he smiled and said, "Bien, bien."  We are back here so that tomorrow, we can make the trip over to Porvenir, where we need to see Ricardo, the immigration man, and ask for an extension or check out and head for Sapzurro.  At 330pm, a huge dark gray mass of clouds coming from the mountains quickly was upon us and seconds later, we were experiencing our first chocosana.  A chocosana is a wind that comes from the south-southwest off of the mountains with gusts of 30-60knots of wind and wreck havoc in an anchorage in minutes upon arriving.  This one hit the E. Lemmons with 35 knots of wind for an hour and a half.  During that time, Tony on s/v Andiamo was motoring into the anchorage, and with poor visibility unfortunately ran aground on the reef.  Not able to motor off, Aaron went over to help Tony, along with Louis on s/v Simpatica.  With two dinghies trying to help Andiamo off the reef, it was nearly impossible with the wind.  He was broadside to the wind and waves, not a good situation.  They were able to swing his bow around to face the wind which was better.  It took almost a half hour before Tony was able to eventually motor off of the reef and into the anchorage.

  While Aaron was helping Tony, I was onboard with the motor on, just in case, we started dragging.  As soon as Aaron was back onboard, we swung sideways and started dragging.  We had to reset our anchor which isn't the easiest thing to do when it is blowing like stink.  But, we managed to get it done. 

 Meanwhile, Susan on s/v WoodenShoe, a singlehandler in her 60's, was bouncing around up and down like a hobby horse.  I asked her over the VHF, if she had her chaps on since she was riding a bucking bronco!  Her boat, a Vagabond 42, curved on both ends, just doesn't do well riding waves.  Her bow at times was completely buried underneath a wave.  It's amazing her anchor held through it all.  By 5pm, the winds had died down to 15knots, and all was well again.

June 30th  Check out time for us and our generator 

 The shit has hit the fan!  Our generator did not start yesterday evening.  Crapola!  Aaron tries to fix it, but alas our luck has run out.   We conserve energy as much as possible.  Not using fans, no SSB to check and send emails, no computers, no playing music and not getting into the refrigerator unless we have to and no icemaker.  Life changes dramatically.  Louis and Julie on s/v Simpatica are headed over to Porvenir to check out of Panama as well, so Aaron hitches a ride while I stay aboard. Upon their return in the afternoon, we see s/v Fantasy motoring by with Captain Jack and First Mate Dennis onboard, and we hail them on the VHF.  They say they are headed for Chichime to celebrate Dennis's 50th birthday.  We tell them that we will be following in their wake. Nothing like a party to take our minds off of our generator troubles. The East Lemmons soon is abandoned by Simpatica, Wandering Star and us.  We first met Dennis in Bocas del Toro back in the summer of 2007, and have stayed in touch since.  Chichime is only 2 miles away, but sailboats have to take the long way around to avoid the reefs and shallows so it takes about an hour.  We set anchor and immediately dinghy over to Fantasy to greet Dennis and Jack.  We haven't seen these two since Cartagena.  We bring over a beef tenderloin and throw it on the grill and commence to celebrating Dennis's birthday.

Are we able to get our generator fixed? stay tuned and read July's log