Panama City

Since coming through the canal at the end of October, we have stayed in Panama City and the surrounding area. Panama City has served as an excellent port for preparing Chandrika for our upcoming crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Panama City has a wide selection of materials and supplies available. That said, it is not always easy to find them. Latin America works on a different time scale than the US. It seems that every other week there is a major holiday and stores are closed. Furthermore, stores are not centralized and computerized like back home. For example, Novey’s is a hardware store chain throughout Panama. If they are sold out of a particular item, they are unable to look in their computer and tell you if another one of their stores has it in stock. They also are unable to call the other store to ask for you. Sometimes they claim they do not have a telephone. Somehow I find this hard to believe. Additionally, many stores in the area do not display their merchandise. Instead you must walk up to the counter and ask them if they have what you are looking for. This would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that many of the employees have no idea what they sell. When purchasing a valve for a propane tank, we went to the Tropigas store and asked them if they had a US propane tank valve. They told us that they did not and sent us on a wild goose chase looking for one. Exhausted and empty-handed we rowed back to Chandrika. On the way, we stopped to talk to some fellow cruisers. We discovered they had bought a US propane tank valve at the Tropigas we had visited that very morning. Our friends gave us their receipt, which showed the purchase of a “USA valvula ” which incidentally was exactly what we had called it at the store. We returned the next day armed with the receipt and yes, they had plenty of them. Perhaps it just depends what sales representative you get. We began trying to call stores in advance to see if they had what we needed in stock, but soon realized that this approach was pointless. Often they would say that yes, they had selection of the item we wanted. Then after spending two hours traveling all over town on buses, we would arrive at the store to discover that there was nothing of the kind available. As the city is extremely loud with horns honking, street venders yelling, and music blaring out of the open shops, it was always a relief to get back to the relative quiet of the anchorage. Despite many frustrations and various set-backs, we have accomplished a lot over the last few months. We’ve undertaken numerous electrical projects, such as installing a new Garmin GPS, a fish-finder that serves as a back-up depth sounder, and a Single Side Band (SSB) radio and antennae for receiving weather forecasts and for listening to news. Our previous SSB radio had very poor reception and it was so corroded, it was difficult to change frequencies, making it virtually useless. We’ve also fixed various other electrical problems that involved rewiring a few systems. In addition to our electrical projects, we’ve tackled our rigging and have made some modifications. We’ve added two halyards for hoisting our new asymmetrical spinnaker. This sail will allow us greater sail area for sailing in light downwind conditions. We’ve also improved our reefing system so that we can more easily reduce sail area when we encounter strong winds. Chandrika’s mainsail now has 3 reef points, allowing us to further reduce sail area should we get caught in a serious storm. Up to now, we’ve had only 2 reefs, which has been sufficient for the winds we’ve encountered so far. We’ve moved the cheek blocks that we use for reefing and have improved their attachment to the boom by riveting them in place. The cleats for putting in the third reef are through bolted. We’ve also added lazyjack lines and have re-rigged our running backstays to allow for greater tension adjustment. In preparing for our passage, we’ve also inspected all of our hoses and thru-hull attachments, replacing hose-clamps when necessary. During our check, we discovered that our sink drain had corroded, leaving the hose (that is attached to a thru-hull) standing upright but completely detached from the sink. This discovery followed an incident in which we and fellow cruisers rescued a boat at anchor from sinking when a hose burst off of its thru-hull. This incident served as a reminder of the importance of vigilance when living afloat. We’ve also made a few improvements to our creature comforts as well. We scraped away the old flaky paint inside our storage lockers and added some fresh paint. We’ve also installed a new 2 burner propane stove, which runs off of a large 25 pound propane tank that we have secured on deck. Our old stove was a one burner propane stove that ran on small green camping stove propane bottles. These bottles can be hard to find and are difficult to refill. Our new tank can be refilled easily in many places around the globe. Our biggest improvement to Chandrika, however, is our installation of a Monitor self-steering device. This device mounts on Chandrika’s stern and uses the wind to keep her steering on course. We will no longer have to sit at the helm 24/7 keeping Chandrika on course. This will be greatly appreciated as we will be doing a lot of sailing the next several months! The installation of the Monitor wind-vane went fairly smoothly but was not without its difficulties. Its installation required us to remodel our bimini (our shade structure). Since the wires for some of our electrical equipment ran through the bimini frame, this involved rewiring our radar, our wind-speed indicator, our solar panel and our GPS antennae. While rewiring the radar, we discovered that the previous owner had accidentally mounted the scanner at a 90 degree angle. No wonder we had never been able to understand the images on the radar screen (not that we had ever put much time into it). Mounting the Monitor itself, involved suspending the 80 pound unit over the water, aligning it with Chandrika’s stern and drilling 8 holes through her transom, no small undertaking. Our time in Panama City hasn’t been all work. We’ve met many sailors here who have become great friends. We celebrated Thanksgiving aboard 50’ Warrior, with our friends Robin and Michelle and about 20 other cruisers. Graham baked a turkey in our oven using a cut-off tin can filled with denatured alcohol. It was delicious. We’ve also had a couple of visits from family. Sue’s mom and dad visited for 5 days at the beginning of December. We took Chandrika to the nearby island of Taboga and enjoyed a few relaxing days, spending time together. On our return to Panama City, we visited the Panama Canal and watched ships transit through the Miraflores Locks. We also went on a tour of the city. Graham’s mother and sister also came for a short 6 day visit at the end of January. Since dry season had just begun with its prevailing North winds, we decided to leave Chandrika anchored and visit Taboga by ferry. The anchorage at Taboga is exposed to the north, and it can get quite rough inside during the dry season. We spent a few days on Taboga, hiking, kayaking and relaxing on the beach. After Taboga we returned to mainland and visited Gamboa, a resort on Gatun Lake along the Panama Canal. We had wonderful visits with our families. We really cherish these visits and wish we could spend more time with our loved ones. Over the winter holidays, we took a break from work and sailed to Las Perlas Islands, about 40 miles south of Panama City. We had a wonderful time exploring the islands. At our last anchorage at the island of San Jose, we discovered a waterfall along the coast that could be reached by scrambling along the rocks at low tide. What a beautiful shower spot, right on the ocean. Our visits with family and our trip to Las Perlas were a much needed break from our hard work on Chandrika. In addition to boat maintenance, we’ve been loading up with spare parts and supplies, such as a spare alternator, spare blocks and sheaves, engine oil, etc. Additionally we’ve stocked up with food and toiletries. We’ve heard that imported foods and toiletries in many of the South Pacific Islands can cost over 10 times as much, so we’ve made the best of Panama’s low food prices and have heavily provisioned. We’ve also increased our water capacity to 130 gallons, by adding several more jerry cans, and we’ve expanded our diesel fuel capacity to 80 gallons. With Chandrika heavily loaded and down to her water line, we are finally ready to set sail. We plan to leave Panama City on either March 26th or the 27th. We’ve decided to skip the Galapagos. Entry fees are expensive and to explore the islands, it is obligatory that you hire a guide. We plan to sail non-stop to the Marquesas in French Polynesia. From Las Perlas islands off the coast of Panama to the Marquesas is a distance of about 4150 nautical miles. This route takes us across the equator and the doldrums, where there is often little to no wind. After passing this area, we should eventually meet up with the strong South Pacific trade winds. It is difficult to estimate how much time it will take us to sail this distance, because it depends so much on the winds that we find along the way. It could take us as much as 50 days, but without catching rain water, we have enough water for over two months. Right now our minds are focused on the journey and we are looking forward to spending a month at sea. November 2008 – March 2009

Colón and The Panama Canal

Many of the cruisers are well-off Los Estados Unidos gringos who have spent most of their lives at home being filled with fear from the media. We therefore took our warnings of the dangers of Colón with a grain of salt. After all most cities can be dangerous if you don’t use common sense. However, while not quite as bad as most made it out to be, Colón is a city of great economic disparity, a 50% unemployment rate, and therefore unusually high crime. A fellow cruiser aboard World Wind was yanked into an alleyway at gunpoint close to where he was doing laundry. After taking a swing at the man with the gun, he lost only his passport, pants and perhaps a little dignity walking back to the laundromat in his underwear. An unusually unlucky man, on his second visit to the city (and only his second day in the city), his dinghy and outboard were stolen right off his boat. So, while we almost always go for walking, we took cabs at night and when going through dangerous sections. It was our goal to be out of the city as quickly as possible and yet, while never having been through the canal, we wanted the experience in order to be comfortable bringing Chandrika through. While waiting for an opportunity to line-handle on another boat, we were visited by our good friend, Steph, who hoped to share the canal experience with us. Unfortunately, Steph was unable to stay long enough to go through the canal. She left after a brief but wonderful four day visit. Having had no luck going through on another vessel, we opted to get the show on the road. We paid our fees, including signing a contract that we would owe an additional $400 + if we went less than 8 knots through the canal (with a hull speed of 7.5 knots, we told them we did 8), along with another additional $800 + if we damaged the canal walls (likely story).

Steph visits, bringing many bursts of happiness to Colón

The next step was to get 4 heavy ropes over 125 feet and many tires to protect Chandrika’s topsides, prior to the official inspection and measurement necessary for canal transit. The canal traffic was low, and the scheduling office gave us a date only 4 days post inspection. Our friends, Slim and Gail, aboard Miss Gale and their daughter, Wendy, and Sue made up the four necessary line handlers. Graham took on the role as captain for our transit. We were ready to go. On October 28th at sunset, our advisor (the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá, ACP, personnel in charge of assisting us through the locks) came aboard. We motored towards the Gatun Locks, the first set of locks for the canal. There are several ways a sailboat can transit through the locks. The preferred method, which we were fortunate enough to experience the entire way through, is to be “center-tied”. This means that the sailboat motors into the center of the chamber. Four long dock lines are used to secure the boat to the side walls. The engine is put in neutral, and now the lines are used to control the position of the boat. On the way up, the water enters the chamber. As the boat rises, the distance between the boat and the top of the sidewalls, where the boat is secured, becomes shorter. To compensate, the line handlers on the boat take in the slack, being careful to keep the boat straight and in the center of the chamber. After the chamber is full, the lines are released from the wall. The captain then uses the boat’s engine to motor into the next chamber, where the procedure is repeated. We passed through the three chambers of Gatun Locks so quickly (in 1 and 1/2 hours), it was difficult to register everything that happened. Part of the haste was because the canal workers were in a hurry. They double-culverted us, meaning that they filled each chamber twice as quickly as normal. It being our first time through, we did not realize that this was unusually hectic. As soon as our lines were placed on the cleats of the sidewalls, the water would rush in, creating circular swirls of turbulence. On the 3rd and last chamber of Gatun Locks, our lines were secured to the cleats by the ACP workers up above. Then, for some unknown reason, one of the workers removed one of the lines from the cleat. With the engine in neutral, the turbulence from the water coming into the lock immediately pushed on our bow sideways and Chandrika was now positioned perpendicularly in the chamber. Our wonderful advisor began screaming into the radio, yelling at the authorities not to run water into the lock, because “my vessel is in a compromised position” at the fault of an ACP worker. Thanks to our excellent advisor and some serious line-handler sweat, no harm was done. (We have been through the canal twice since bringing Chandrika, and we have yet to meet an advisor as good as the one we had while going through Gatun Locks.) After passing through Gatun Locks, we motored to a mooring buoy, where our advisor departed and we prepared to spend the night. We were now on Gatun Lake, just over 80 feet above sea level. In the morning, we woke on the calm stillness of the lake to the sounds of howler monkeys. Graham, Sue, and Slim went for a morning dip. After spotting a crocodile, we decided it was time to dry off and to wait for our new advisor.

Slim and our Panamanian advisor

Our advisor (not the same one as yesterday) finally arrived at 9:45am, over three hours late. We were finally on our way. We motored through the 23.5 mile long channel that spans Gatun Lake. We entered the Pedro Miguel lock at 1:30pm, having averaged a little over 6 knots. Now began our descent back to sea level. We were the only boat in the entire lock. 10 million gallons of fresh water was spent to down-lock a single 34 foot sailboat, giving us images of a Cheerio being flushed down the toilet. Down-locking was much more relaxing than the hasty up-locking of the night before.

Gail after an exhausting 2 days and a brief squall

An ACP worker crossing the canal on top of the chamber door

After the Pedro Miguel Lock, we continued on to the Miraflores Locks and our final two chambers. While we waited for a cargo ship to arrive, we were told to dock against the wall. After an hour and a half, the ship arrived, and we were instructed to pull away from the wall and prepare for center tie-up. The ACP workers passed us the ends of two lines, called monkey fist lines, that we would use to send them our dock lines after our boat was positioned in the middle of the chamber. One end of the line was therefore on our boat and the other end was in the hands of the ACP worker on the wall/ dock. Being too lazy to feed out the appropriate amount of line as we pulled away from the wall, he decided to throw a huge 100 foot long wad of line into the water, right at our propeller.

The ship behind us in the Miraflores locks

Chandrika has a keel-mounted rudder with a small cut-out just for the propeller. Protected as it is, the line became entangled, and Graham quickly threw the engine into neutral. We were not allowed to dive the prop and after going between forward and reverse, the line twisted free, but we doubted that was all of it. We down locked without trouble and upon exiting the locks, we throttled up to 80% maximum speed. The shaft and propeller shuddered. While still in the canal, we convinced the advisor to allow us to pull to the side, drop the hook at 2:1 scope and dive the propeller on the basis that the shaft could come free and the boat could sink. Graham dove with a knife and found a wad of rope 20 layers thick on the 1” of exposed shaft between the boat and the propeller. Cutting off the rope revealed that it had eaten 1.5” into the rubber lining of the bronze cutlass bearing (a bearing around the shaft that keeps the shaft from wobbling). Further inspection of the shaft at the coupling (where the shaft attaches to the engine transmission), we found that the set screws had come loose, allowing the rope to pull the shaft about 1” out of the coupling. Without divots in the shaft, we put in the two spare set screws we had, wired them together, hauled up the hook (anchor) and were on our way to drop off the line-handlers. With a ripping current, darkness upon us and stress high, we were fortunate to have a panga come up to Chandrika and bring them ashore. (Docking was the only other foreseeable option at the time.) “Welcome to the Pacific,” we thought, as we dropped the hook for the night. We soon discovered after much effort and frustration that the shaft was permanently out from the coupling (unless we pulled out the engine), as we could not get it to go in the final ½”. Graham carefully drilled new divots into the shaft for the set screws, which along with the key and machine fit will have to do until Chandrika gets hauled out again. Furthermore, while we could have tried to get the ACP to take responsibility for the damage, the foreseeable bureaucratic hoops made it not worth the effort. Hey! Look on the bright side – we can now fit a larger and better zinc anode onto the shaft (to prevent corrosion of the propeller). With headaches behind, an ocean lay ahead.

From Cartagena to Colón

A tropical depression was forming on the Pacific side of Panama. According to the weather forcast this depression was going to cause 15 to 20 knot southerly winds on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus of Panama. Delighted that we might have enough wind to actually sail (wind is difficult to come by in this area at this time of year), we set of to Colón, a distance of about 270 nm. On Day 1 (October 11th), we struggled to sail in the light, almost non-existent winds, at times breaking down and motoring for short periods. By the middle of the afternoon, the wind increased and we were able to sail close-hauled. The night brought another frustrating lull in the wind. On the morning of Day 2, we were experiencing light NW winds. Just before 11am, we approached a line of squalls. We quickly reefed our mainsail in anticipation of getting hit by a squall; however, we managed to weave Chandrika between the squalls without getting hit. As soon as we crossed the squall line, the weather switched dramatically. The wind turned directions, coming from the south, and had gained in strength to 10-15 knots with occasional 20 knot gusts. We were now moving along nicely at 5-1/2 to 6 knots. For the rest of the day and the following two days, the wind became very sporadic in its intensity, making the sailing difficult and at times intense. We experienced periods of light 0 to 5 knot wind followed by periods of stronger 20 to 25 knot winds. Sometimes the lulls would last only 20 minutes to be followed by 10 minutes of blasting 25 knot wind, and then the wind would drop again to almost nothing for 10 to 20 minutes. We put 2 reefs in the mainsail and would sit and wait, barely moving in the still air. Then we would fly along when one of the strong gusts would hit us and then again the wind would stop.

A young Great Heron, being caught in one of the strong gusts and unable to fly back to shore, lands on "Chandrika".

24 hours later, our friend is still with us.

Perhaps our lost friend thinks Graham is his "papa"?

Fortunately, the gusts never lasted long enough to build up the seas too badly. By late afternoon, however, the winds began to increase. Still we had fluctuating wind speeds, but now we would experience 10 to 20 minutes of 10-15 knot winds followed by 10 to 20 minutes of 30-35 knot winds coming from abeam. This fluctuated back and forth until soon after sunset when the wind completely stopped. We sat and waited. Eventually we decided to motor through the eerie stillness, not knowing what to expect next. Then it hit. Right on the nose, we were blasted with a 30 to 40 knot sustained headwind! The wind no longer came in spurts like before. We experienced hours of this strong steady wind. The seas began to build and we were slamming our way into them. With only about 20nm remaining until we reached Colón and being already 4 tiring days at sea, we were eager to get into the harbor. Between the screeching wind and the hammering seas, we were crawling along, only barely making headway. Our options were to heave-to (possibly for days) waiting for the wind to let up, to continue beating into the wind under sail (potentially spending the next day doing so), or to turn on the motor and power-sail into the wind and waves with the hope of reaching Colón the following morning. We opted for the third choice. We forced our way onward and by first light we entered the breakwater protecting Colón. Completely exhausted, we anchored Chandrika in the Flats anchorage outside the Panama Canal Yacht Club. October 2008

Cartagena, Columbia

After the quiet solitude of Kuna Yala, the loud honking horns, the rumbling of engines and the ear-wracking clamor of people screaming and yelling on the busy streets was overwhelming. Cartagena, Columbia was the first real city we’d visited since we left Miami, Florida about a year ago. Surprisingly it did not take long for the culture shock to abate and for us to settle in to the fast paced city life.

Approaching the Big City

We spent our time in the city acquiring numerous boat parts and supplies that only a large city can provide. We also carried out numerous boat projects, including hauling the boat out of the water and painting the bottom with antifouling. The anchorage in Cartagena was filled with other sailboats. While we were there, more and more arrived. During the fall months, there is almost no wind in this area, except for during the occasional Culla de Pollo (which means Chicken Butt in Spanish). These intense squalls came every few days during the middle of the night, bringing strong 30 to 40 knot winds, heavy rain and intense lightning. Due to the tight quarters of the anchorage and the slippery mud bottom, often a number of boats would drag their anchor. Fortunately, the owners were typically on board and there were no incidents of boats crashing into other boats. Despite the smog from the city, the brown smelly ocean water in the harbor, both of us falling sick with flu-like symptoms (which would recur 2 more times), and the oppressive, stifling heat, we enjoyed Cartagena. We were able to walk most everywhere we needed to go in relative safety. Columbians as a whole are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. Rather than simply giving us directions, people would walk us to where we were trying to go. On the island of Barú (20 nm south of Cartagena), some of the locals we met gave us mangoes, coconuts, watermelon, and limes off the trees in their yards. We also took a trip to Isla Grande, on of the Rosarios Islands (also 20nm south of Cartagena), where we varnished the interior of the boat and went ashore to walk, to explore and to play with the local children while the varnish dried. We went to the middle of town and started slacklining in the park. Slacklining is a recreational activity popular among rock climbers that involves walking across a one inch wide piece of webbing that is stretched tightly between two trees. It is an excellent way to practice ones balancing skills. Quickly the children gathered to watch and we invited them to join. Some of the children were amazingly good. We watched in awe as a tiny little girl (probably only 4 years old) after only several attempts was able to walk the entire length of the webbing unassisted (something Sue was unable to accomplish after many more attempts). While in Cartagena, a man we met at ta store selling leather and heavy canvas offered us $5000 to bring him to the US on our sailboat. Appealing as it was, should 5 of his compadres want to come along for the same fare, we had already decided to head to Colón to transit the Panama Canal.

September 2008

Sailing to Cartagena, Columbia

Arriving in Zapzurro, Columbia was like entering another world. Instead of thatched homes that blend in with the colors of the earth, we saw brightly painted concrete buildings. The yellows, greens, blues and pinks sharply contrasted the surrounding jungle. The gently sounds of nature, the soft lapping of water on the shore, and the beautiful songs of birds were overridden by the loud upbeat rhythms of salsa music and the roaring of outboard engines on the small pangas entering and leaving the harbor. Despite our culture shock at arriving here, we realized that were we arriving from anywhere other than Kuna Yala, we would see Zapzurro for what it really is, a small quaint, little village nestled in the jungle, far removed from roads and motorized land-vehicles. We soon went ashore to explore the new sites. Since Zapzurro is not an official point of entry and we had just arrived in Columbia, we decided to check in with the police to let them know of our arrival and to request permission to stay and visit. We had no trouble finding an officer. The village was swarming with policemen. They were all dressed in green military fatigue with tall, black combat boots and were carrying huge automatic firearms. In contrast to their fear-provoking attire, they were also wearing large, friendly smiles. The policemen in Zapzurro were the most genuinely hospitable and helpful policemen we have ever met. They encouraged us to stay and to explore, and they helped us to find our way. We spent the next two days hiking in the jungle and visiting the neighboring towns. On our third day, a cruiser named Don came into the harbor and told us of the excellent sailing conditions offshore. Hurricane Gustaf was in the Carribean 1000nm to our north and was sucking the air out of our area, creating wind. We had been hoping to have enough wind to sail to Cartagena and had reluctantly assumed we would have to motor a large part of the way. Now was our opportunity. On August 28th at 10am, we left Zapzurro en route to Cartagena. Outside the sheltered bay, we encountered almost no wind, and we begun questioning the timing of our departure. However, only two hours after leaving, the wind picked up out of the west and then soon clocked around to the southwest. We were sailing at a broad reach (wind coming from the stern port quarter) in 20 knots of wind. It was perfect! We were making excellent speed. Our GPS showed us to be moving at 7 to 7-1/2 knots! Since we hadn’t sailed much faster than 2 knots in the past few months (because of the light winds), we had almost forgotten that Chandrika could sail so fast. We sailed throughout the night and the following day at 2pm we arrived at an intermediate anchorage point highly recommended by a fellow cruiser. The anchorage was on the south side of Tintipán, an island in the San Bernardino island group, south of Cartagena. Unfortunately, the anchorage was terrible. The bottom was sand covered with coral heads. Since it was already afternoon, we did not want to continue sailing as it would mean sailing through reef-strewn waters that night in the dark with terribly inaccurate charts. We had also been warned to stay protected from the south, as the squalls that occasionally pass through in the night tend to approach from this direction. This anchorage would be completely exposed should we experience a squall. We also did not like how close to shore we needed to anchor to be in anchorable depths. Not far from shore the bottom quickly dropped to 120 feet, a depth too deep in which to anchor. We spent the next two hours motoring around, sounding the bottom, trying to find somewhere shallower that did not bring us uncomfortably close to shore. We also hoped that we would anchor somewhere that did not have coral. We finally found a patch of ground with 75 foot depths. That night we awoke instantly as the wind jumped from only a few knots to about 30 knots. We rushed outside and quickly pulled down our shade awning to reduce windage on our boat. By the time we got it down (about 5 minutes later), the wind speed had picked up to 40 knots. Just as we had feared, the winds from the squall were coming directly from the south, pushing our boat towards the shore. We were so thankful we had gone through all the trouble of finding a spot further away from the shore! That said, we still did not like having a lee shore. If our anchor were to drag, we might have a hard time keeping the boat off the land, especially if the wind got any stronger. We turned on the motor, keeping it in low throttle in an attempt to relieve some of the strain on the anchor. The strong winds were kicking up about 5 feet of swell. We watched as our dinghy, which was trailing behind the boat, rose up as high as our heads and then dropped out of view behind Chandrika’s transom. The squall stopped almost as quickly as it had begun. It had lasted only about an hour, but an intense hour it had been! The winds were sustained at 40 knots with higher gusts. The highest gust we recorded was 47 knots. At first light, very eager to leave, we raised anchor and motored towards Barú, an island 20nm south of Cartagena. Barú has an excellent, well-protected anchorage with lots of room, 22 foot depths, and a good-holding mud bottom. Here we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves for a week before continuing on to Cartagena. August – September 2008

Food

We are often asked by friends and family what we eat. First we should describe the galley (kitchen in boat-speak) and its facilities. The refrigerator is by far the largest energy consumer on sailboats. Many cruisers run their engine for 1 hour or more per day to produce the energy needed to run their fridge. Our boat came with an old, inefficient refrigerator system from the early 80s and a poorly insulated ice box, which houses the cold-plate for the fridge. The refrigerator unit does not work and probably needs a change of Freon (the old ozone-depleting kind which is now banned in the US). Because we want to eliminate hassles and because we strive to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels by minimizing energy consumption, we have opted to go without a refrigerator. And let’s face it! We are frugal. Since we were living out of a car before moving onto the boat, it does not feel like a sacrifice at all. Chandrika also came with a broken three burner stove with oven that runs on pressurized denatured alcohol. She also came with a hanging stove that uses small propane gas canisters, which are the size that one might take backpacking. The propane stove works excellently. It is even on gimbals, which allow it to swing back and forth, keeping the stove level while the boat is rolling and pitching about. Unfortunately, the alcohol stove does not work. There are a number of leaks in the fuel lines making it impossible to use one burner without the others spewing out alcohol in several other places. While in Miami, thinking we would want an oven, Graham set about fixing it. After having searched and found spare parts from an old stove on EBay, he began disconnecting and reconnecting lines and cleaning out the tank and burners. When it came time to test the stove, Graham lit a match. There was a large bang, a flash of light and the smell of burnt human hair as Graham threw himself across the boat and away from the stove. We don’t need an oven! Since leaving the states, we have mostly been using the same ingredients as the locals use: beans, rice, pasta, lentils and fish. Because we don’t have a fridge, we cook a separate lunch and dinner, and we do not make enough to have left-overs. Breakfast consists of cold cereal or cooked oats with fruit (bananas or raisins) and non-fat powdered milk. Our staples for lunch and dinner are pasta marinara (we make our own sauce from cans of tomato paste), rice and bean chili, refried beans on corn tostadas (flat tacos) or on tortillas, pasta and bean salad, tomato lentil soup with crackers, peanut curry pasta with canned tuna fish, and chicken tahini pasta, which with all the substitutions no longer has chicken or tahini. Of course, our meals change from place to place, and we are constantly having to substitute one ingredient for another, depending on what is available. For example, for some unknown reason, pasta in Belize was very expensive, so we used rice instead. In Bocas del Toro, Panama, we could not find tostadas, tortillas or peanut butter. Natural peanut butter (without hydrogenated oils) has been very hard to find. We even resorted to making our own in Guatemala using a hand-crank corn-meal grinder. Since Graham’s exploits with the oven, he has created a very excellent solution. Denatured alcohol when it is not pressurized in not explosive. So, Graham took an empty bean can and cut it in half to shorten it. We now fill the can with denatured alcohol, put it in the oven, light it, and viola! It works amazingly. It was then just a matter of figuring out the right size of can and the correct amount of fuel for the various things we bake. We can now bake fresh caught fish, scones, and home-made bread. What a treat! We are now even making home-made pizza when we are near a town where we can buy cheese. (It is sometimes hard in Latin America to find cheese that melts.) Graham was even able to bake an 8 pound whole turkey breast for our Thanksgiving feast with friends in Panama City. We have discovered vegetables that survive well in the tropical heat without refrigeration, such as chayote and other kinds of squash, carrots, cabbage, etc. While there are foods from the US that we miss, if we were back in the states, we would miss many of the foods that are available here. For example, a man in a kayuka in the Bluefield Range paddled up to our boat and sold us 3 fresh pineapples for 40 cents each. We’ve also tried many new fruits, such as jack fruit, sapotilla, anona (or sour sop), manzana de agua, which means water apple in Spanish (it tastes nothing like apple), and many others. All of these fruits taste nothing like any of the fruits in the states so we can’t begin to describe them. There are also over 20 different species of bananas, which range widely in their tastes. Some taste more like potatoes, while others taste like apples and some like vanilla. While at times, we have been limited in our food choices, we certainly have not been suffering from lack of good foods. 2008