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
