San Andres to Bocas del Toro
November 8, 2012 - Thursday - left 7 a.m. headed for Bocas del Toro Panama 300 miles away. Started with following seas, 3 to 6 ft waves, moderate winds at 15. Waves soon increased to 6 to 8 ft with winds 20 to 30 kts. Increased and rained all night, shifted directions, speed fluctuations between 8 to30 kts the whole trip until around an hour or two before entry into channel for Bocas! A hell trip again, only nothing broken, just a rough trip no sleep and very little eating.
November 9, 2012 - Friday - arrive Bocas around noon, anchor down port captain called. Five people arrived all with stamps and pads, gave them beer and water. We paid $110 for tourist cards good for 6 months. Will have to go on Monday and pay port captain fee of $193 for boat which is good for one year. Launched dinghy checked out marinas, had lunch at Calypso Bar which is at the Bocas yacht club marina. We met marina manager, Chuck. Second Star came up had beer, we went back to boat for the night.
Entries from the Passage Log - 10/17/2012 to 10/19/2012
Roatan Honduras to Isla Providencia Columbia
October 17, 2012 -
Wednesday - left the dock headed for Providencia small island governed by
Columbia. Supposed to be beautiful and great diving. Less spoiled by tourism.
Sister island, San Andres is the Columbians resort island and quite
commercial. Don't know that we'll go
there. We'll see. Did some sailing, our
first since the sea trial in lake Ponchatrain.
Pleasant 6 to 8 knots, winds 10 to 15knots. Nice to save some fuel. Just listening to some music and
reading. We'll see what the night brings
October 18,2012 -
Thursday - calm seas, wind on the nose, motor all day, slept some, busy night
on the water with other boats, daytime
saw many shrimp boats at anchor. We were
in fairly shallow water, 70' to 100 feet some places less, they must shrimp at
night and sleep at day. Made it around
Cabo gracias de Dios about 3 pm hurray, we didn't do it at night. Usually a bad spot on the water, currents
winds, all against you and add in the night factor and usually rain. (all bad things happen at night)
Entries from the Passage Log - 9/16/2012 to 9/18/2012
Isla Mujeres Mexico to West End Bay, Roatan
Honduras
September 16, 2012 left for fuel dock about
8:30 left Isla Mujeres approximately 9:22 am.
Headed to Roatan, Honduras. Day
time calm seas little to no wind. Fought
2 knot current. Evening came, and we were
hammered with 5 and 8 foot waves 20 to 25 knot winds. Very uncomfortable, no
sleep
September 17, 2012 seas calmer had some
breakfast cheesy eggs with coffee and grape juice. Gentle swells. Keep checking fuel filter seems fine when he
changed the oil in Mexico it had some sediment in it. Don set out fishing pole. Another bird came by to say hello. Don even remarked, “hey honey he's coming to
say hello.” It was fluttering in front
of his window screeching. What he did
not realize was that that bird had snatched his lure out of the water and was
screaming at him for help. It flew
around and around the boat trying to get our attention, we had fishing line
wrapped around the boat 2x's! Finally
Don heard the reel spin and he went out to see it was he bird struggling. He was able to bring the bird aboard and into
the cockpit to get the hook out and release it.
It did not fly far, we hope he made it.
It had another bird with it that stayed hovering over him. It was weird. What is it with don and
birds? Evening comes and again around
6:30 the seas start rolling, the wind starts howling. We're now in 15 to 28 knot winds, and 8 to 12
foot seas, this is no fun. Rough night. Saw the rail hit the water on one wave. It literally rolled us on our starboard side
and rolled on by as Limbo righter herself to only be hit again. The black ominous water wall approaching on
one side to the white burst of water on the other was mesmerizing to
watch. It was awful to feel. Boat handled fantastic.
September 18. 2012 morning had red skies, "red sky night
sailors delight, red sky morning sailors warning, and that proved t o be true
we were experiencing some more of the same 10 foot waves and 25 knot
winds. We were working on 15 hours of pounding
when it finally started to let up.
We reached Roatan, west end and anchored
out about 5:30 pm. A boater came out in
his dinghy to greet us and ask about Limbo.
She is a presence when entering an anchorage. He has a dog named Bella black
and white like Ralph and Maggie. His
name is Paul girlfriend named Twyla. She
is in Canada visiting for 2 months. They
do video photography. After we anchored
he came back for a very long visit. We
ate and went to bed with the generator going all night. We were tired and hot.
Entries from the Passage
Log –
Mississippi
to Isla Mujeres -- First Passage and Leaving Home 9/9 to 9/12/2012
September 9, 2012 First
night out spent on the hook in the Mississippi 10 miles from the mouth.
Very rocky & rainy night. Not much for sleep but we're excited
to be leaving. It’s quite overcast and the seas are 3 to 4 feet but some
look to maybe be 5 to 6 regardless, a rough start for both. I
was a bit white knuckled getting use to sailing again after 15 years. On
the up side the auto pilot works fantastic! It did have this small
annoying alarm that would sound every
minute. But hey, we could get used to it as long as it steered the
boat and I did not have to. The day progressed for hours on
end with these sloppy waves till about 3 or 4 p.m. seas settled a bit.
Don put up main sail about noon. This did smooth the ride. The auto
pilot is still sounding every
minute. It’s starting to get fairly annoying.
My anxiety is
settling as night is approaching. Captain Don teaches me the radar so I
can stand my watch. As long as I don't have to drive or mess with the
sails I'm good! (I think I still need a few days to get used to this, I’m
not as young as I was the first time around!) The auto pilot is still
sounding what has become an ever increasing loud beep. Ever 60
seconds you have to press a button to make it stop! This was actually
helpful during the night to keep an eye for oil rigs which the gulf is littered
with, as well as shrimpers. We did not have a watch schedule for our
first night under way, we just stayed up as much as we could while we became
acclimated to water.
September 10, 2012
an uneventful night, seas still too rough for coffee or breakfast.
Looks like a hot day ahead of us. Weather finally calming down, was able
to make some coffee about 2 pm. Don had some ramen noodles and
edame. Day progressed without incident. He was reading book on auto
pilot to get rid of the annoying beeping. I was willing to deal with it
as long as it kept driving but we were both feeling tortured with that beep
every 60 seconds jerking us back to the present. It had been hours, every 60 seconds for about 30 hours. He finally
figured out how to make it stop something in the programming. Oh thank
GOD. I was teetering on volunteering to drive just so I could turn it off
for a little while.
We took coldwater showers
in the cockpit just before dusk. How refreshing. It felt like it
had been days since my last shower. Night time we started with three hour
watches then went to 2. Night went by smoothly, had a small storm but
only slight wind increase and no seas. Minor rain. It was good to
have coffee even if it was from the day before. A little bird showed up
about 6:45 pm and landed in our bathroom until the next morning. He then
flew away…. Weird
September 11, 2012
Seas very calm, no wind, had eggs with sausage and potatoes AND coffee….
Galley seems to be fairly easy to maneuver in while under sail.
Cleaned up the boat some. Slept better than previous nights.
The drone of the engine, the flagging of the sail, all noises we're
getting used to. The cabin seems to stay somewhat cool with the
breeze. Much better than our last boat having to always be in the elements
and when you went below it was HOT! This you can stay out of
the sun and the elements.
Both having some sadness
about home, family, and the dogs we left behind. We quickly turned
attention to where we were, where we were going and reminisced about the 3
years it had taken us to get there. The boat sails great, rides great, is
really quite comfortable. Mexico is but about 20 hours away and the
adventures can begin.
It's been 4 days and 3
nights, tonight should be our last in the open sea. When we get to Isla
Mujeres, we'll stay for a few days only to rest, use the water maker, (which
has yet to be tested) then onto Panama where it will take another 4 or 5 days,
4 nights at sea. There we'll stay for a several weeks. Safe from
hurricanes, plenty of places to snorkel and big enough to get virtually any
supplies we might want. It will be interesting to see what has changed
since we were here in 1998. 14 years ago. Wow
Don asked how I felt now
that we've left. I reserved the right to tell him until later. I did
say I had wanted to go home for weeks, but I was attributing that to being in
the Harvey canal for so long, 6 months. He understood he too was sad to
have left not Harvey but home. I am a little worried about my dad.
I've had dreams about the boys, Matthew and Marcos and baby Mila. Kylee
turned 3 yesterday, Tina is pregnant again. Joshua is now playing
football. Anna is taking piano lessons and gets her first charm bracelet
in a few days on her 10th birthday. Ralphie is playing ball with Remy and
Maggie is still just keeping all in check. Doesn't seem as exciting as
sailing off to South America does it? But it is, its adventures of
everyday life marching on in different directions and I miss cheering them on.
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