-----Original Message-----

Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 10:52 PM

Subject: Exumas

 

 

Kay and Tony -- We made it to the Exumas two days ago.  We're anchored at Allen's Cay, which seems to us to be the most beautiful place in the world.  Nearly flat calm and cloudless today, wonderful snorkeling, 76 degree water and conch salad in for dinner.  You should see the girls snorkeling.  Our 49 hour passage from Lake Worth to Nassau was rough.  We made it across the Gulf Stream before the arrival of a norther had kicked the seas up too badly.  But the passage through the Northwest Providence Channel got really tough as the wind kept clocking around, staying ahead of our beam all the way to Nassau.  We could never carry more than the staysail and the wind stuck steady at 25 to 30 for about 18 hours.  Needless to say the seas were pretty uncomfortable.  How miraculous to arrive in Nassau Monday morning and to tie up at the Nassau Yacht Haven for two nights.  We recharged our psyches and settled tummies and left there two days ago for the Exumas.  What a magical place this is. Love, Doug

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 7:46 PM

Subject: Norman's Cay, Exumas

 

 

Hi family members --

 

We are anchored at Norman's Cay.  This is a notorious yet stunningly beautiful 6 mile long island in the northern Exumas, Bahamas.  Until about 1983 this was an unassailable haven for the smuggling operations of a dangerous cocaine and marijuana drug lord named Carlos Lehder.  This afternoon we went snorkeling around the almost intact wreck of a large two engine plane used by Lehder.  It's home now to a lot of very colorful tropical fish.  Supposedly the abandoned building we can see at the south end of the island is pocked by bullet holes.  We may dinghy over to investigate tomorrow.  This is quite a spot.  We explored a tiny uninhabited island with a single palm tree.  The girls especially found this very exciting.  Today we left Allen's Cay around 10 AM and traveled three hours south to Norman's.  We had the choice of traveling on the "Bank" (10'-20' deep) or the "Sound" (thousands of feet deep).  We chose the bank because it was too tricky to wend our way eastward around coral heads facing into the morning sun's glare to gain the deep water from our protected anchorage.  Navigational choices like this feel very sharp -- a mistake can't be fixed by a call to TowBoat US.  We anchored this afternoon with two anchors, a 35 lb "Bruce" with about 90' of 5/16 inch hi-test chain and an 18 lb "Fortress" (similar to a Danforth) with 60' of similar chain.  They are about 100 ft apart.  We expect the wind to blow from the SE through NW over the next few days and the current to run E to W at about 1 1/2 kts as the tide comes in and W to E at the same rate as the tide goes back out.  So we have tried to position the anchors so as to keep us safely anchored without the chain fouling either anchor.  This may sound mundane and tedious, but in our new life, matters like this have become really important (and, believe it or not, actually interesting to us).  After dropping anchors and playing out the chain Doug dived on them (10' to 15' deep here) to be sure they were in clean (not too weedy) sand and well set.  Doug also explored by snorkel the area within swinging range to make sure the depth will be adequate in any direction, even at low tide.  All of this is helped enormously by the incredible underwater visibility, 100' or more!

 

We hope to be much more regular in our emails to all of you.  If you have email addresses for other family members who'd like to receive postings like this from us now and then, please email us.  We think the address we have for Scott and Linda is out of date, and we can't find Joe and Mary's.  Please forward this to them and send us their addresses so we can include them next time.  And finally, a request, when you email us at this "sailmail" address please delete the original message and any unnecessary text.  Sending and receiving emails by single sideband high-frequency radio is very slow (only 300 bps!) and uses a lot of battery power. And we are restricted to a total of 10 minutes of send/receive time per day.  Also, we can't afford to get this sailmail address included in circulation lists or it'll get too clogged.

 

We promise to include more personal stuff in the future.  We won't only send around boat techy or travelogue history discourses.

 

We think and talk about you all the time. 

 

Love, Kyle, Doug, Eliza, Abigail aboard Estrela

 

PS -- Sailmail lets us put only a single address in the "To" line and the rest of the addressees have to go in the "cc" line.  Our plan is to alternate our two sets of parents/grandparents in the "To" line.

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:59 PM

Subject: Warderick Wells Cay, Exumas Land and Sea Park

 

 

Hi Family -- We are on a mooring for our third night at the north end of Warderick Wells Cay in the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.  This is a truly amazing place, one of the first fully protected marine parks -- 176 square miles in which no fish, coral, conch, lobster, flower, leaf, or even shell may be taken or disturbed.  So guess what?  There are lots of big fish and they aren't afraid of people.  To my embarrassment, I  forgot where we were for a moment our first evening here. When Kyle spotted a large game fish of some kind (later identified as a horse-eyed jack) swimming in the current behind Estrela a few feet from where she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair I jumped up and reached for the fishing rod. Kyle's shout of horror snapped me back to my senses.  Today the four of us volunteered for the morning and built cairns visible from the water marking trail heads.  A fearless little lizard followed us around; "Little Buddy" even ate termites from my hand.  AMC would be proud of our rock towers.  Snorkeling in the afternoon we drifted with the tide past a forest of lovely soft corals, and then anchored our dinghy (carefully placing the anchor in patches of sand) in a couple spots to watch fish clustered around dramatic coral heads.  I found a big Nassau Grouper and the biggest spiny lobster I've ever seen, both hidden in crevices under a tall mushroom shaped mound of colorful coral.  Here are some impressions of the day from the crew:

 

 

Eliza:  The coral heads were so beautiful.  There were lots of Blue Tangs and Sargent Majors.  Squirrel Fish are very interesting to look at.  They have very spikey dorsal fins, vivid splashes of red and big eyes.  It's really fun when you're in very super shallow water, like for instance on a sandbar, and you start snorkeling with no flippers on.  You can see the tiniest and most beautiful shells, especially in the Land and Sea Park because people aren't aloud to keep any shells so you can see the most beautiful shells in the world.  

 

Abigail: When I go snorkeling I ride on daddy's or mommy's back, if she's ready.  The water is so blue and clear. You can see the bottom when you're looking down out of the dinghy and it looks shallow but it's really actually deep. At the park headquarters, before we went snorkeling we went to feed the bananaquits, a kind of bird.  You feed them sugar.  When you feed them it tickles your hand.  You feed them with bare hands but it doesn't hurt.  It's fun when you feed them because it feels like you're going to do that for the rest of your life.

 

Kyle:  My heart fills with joy when I see my family together in the water.  Abigail rides on Doug's back and Eliza and I hold hands as we snorkel.  We are in awe of what we see and all we can hear is our own breathing.  It's very dramatic.  We feel we're finally there (or here), where we've been trying to get to all these long months. We've made it.

 

 

 

The weather forecast calls for a strong front to build east and north of us tonight and tomorrow, so we expect strong winds (20-30 kts) out of the N and NW through tomorrow.  This weather system is supposed to evolve into a powerful nor'easter by the time it reaches New England and maritime Canada.  Stay cozy!  We probably will stay put tonight and tomorrow night on this secure mooring and sail to Staniel Cay to meet Laura, Brett, Finley and Jack on Thurs or Friday, depending on when the winds moderate.  They arrive Thursday for two+ weeks!  We couldn't be more excited.

 

Love to all, Doug, Kyle Eliza and Abigail

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 9:49 PM

Subject: surf's up

 

 

Hey -- Pretty awesome swell must be building up out there.  Have you donned your drysuit and headed down to the coast to catch some curls?  I saw in a weather fax tonight that hurricane strength winds are forecast for east of New Jersey and Cape Cod.  We've been bouncing around here all day, wind strength pegged about 25 to 30 kts since about 6 AM.  Thinking about you and wondering if this storm is bringing snow to New England, in addition to the wind.  Love, Doug

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 5:32 AM

 

 

Hello friends--

 

It's dinner time and we can see Cuba!  The southeast tip, Cape Masai, is about 8 miles away!

 

Most of you haven't heard from us for quite a while.  Sorry.  All is well.  This is an incredible experience all the way around . . . Jumping in right in the middle, here are some recent log entries from Estrela.  Lots of Love. -- Kyle, Doug, Eliza and Abigail

 

 . .

 

Today 3/10/04 3:15 PM -- (N 20 deg 36 min, W 74 deg 06 min)  20 NM from NE coast of Cuba.  All well here.  Will enter Windward Passage on course of 171 deg True just before dark.  Need to make good time to get past Jamaica before forecast NE winds pick up to 25 kts.  Next 36 to 48 hrs should be a great sail with winds from the NW through NE.  Very light winds now (still motoring; can't wait to get rid of the engine noise); expect shift to NW and N and increase to 10 to 15 kts in the next few hours as approaching cold front passes.  Hot, hot, hot!  89 deg F inside cabin; 97 under dodger.  Girls playing on computer together; Kyle sleeping before she goes back on watch at 4:00 PM.  Fishing line out.  Saw jumping fish earlier but no strikes. -- Doug

 

Yesterday 3/9/04, 9:40 PM -- (N 21 deg 58.16 min, W 74 deg 19.17 min) This puts us about 83 miles from the NE coast of Cuba.  Estrela is traveling at 5.5 knots on a course of 160 degrees true through the southernmost islands of the Bahamas.  We passed through the Mira Por Vos Passage at the SW tip of Acklins Island, Bahamas during a delicious dinner in the cockpit.  Eliza gave us an astronomy lesson, showing us what she'd taught herself about the  Orion constellation, including its stars and a nebula, by reading various astronomy books this afternoon.  Abigail proudly found the Big Dipper for us without any prompting.  We just altered course 10 degrees to port to give wider berth to a passing freighter whose lights appeared a few minutes ago off our starboard bow. 

 

We departed Staniel Cay 37 hours ago for a 1050 nautical mile passage to the Panama Canal.  Our first 24 hours we made 123 nm, a blistering pace we'll be hard-pressed to maintain.  We've been able to sail about half the time and, whether because of no or little wind or having the wind dead on our nose, have motored the rest.  The sailing from 5:30 this morning until about noon was spectacular -- making a steady 6.5 to 7 knots on a beam reach in about 15 to 18 knots of wind. We anticipate beginning our transit of the Windward Passage tomorrow afternoon or evening.  This is the storied body of water between Cuba and Haiti.  We are favoring the Cuban side, by the way. I have the auto pilot and the engine on now, the wind is on our nose.  Kyle and the girls are sleeping. 

 

Kyle and I have split up the watches like this:  8am to noon Kyle, noon to 4pm Doug, 4pm to 7pm Kyle, 7pm to 10pm Doug, 10pm to 3am Kyle and 3am to 8am Doug.  We are only now really getting squared away on keeping these watch times.  It's quite an adjustment, as you can probably imagine, with the girls and their homeschooling and the regular domestic life that has to adapt to Kyle and me swinging shifts.  Kyle and I will probably be feeling exhausted for a few days until our bodies get used to the new rhythm.

 

(The freighter just passed safely 2 miles abeam of us; the radar is really useful for tracking other vessels at night.)

 

We enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing two weeks with my sister Laura, her husband Brett, daughter Finley and son Jack, who stayed for most of this time in a guest cottage on Pelican Point at the south end of Staniel Cay, in the Central Exumas.  They flew home Friday the 5th and we worked hard for three days to prepare Estrela and ourselves for this passage.  Sadly for the Baba-Hopkins, the very windy and often cloudy weather that dominated their time here in the Bahamas continued until the day they departed, giving way the next day to a still, crystal clear sky.  The winds we all experienced were, according to their "landlords," the Ruffings, the most sustained uncomfortable winds of the season and also very unusual.  Estrela was anchored during most of this time in a narrow channel off uninhabited Lumber Cay and (named by us) 2x4 Beach.  Traveling back and forth across Pelican Bay to the cottage in the inflatable dinghy required wetsuits and entailed thorough drenchings in the choppy waves and gusty wind.  The Babas had it a little easier with their Boston Whaler and 40 hp engine, but not much. 

 

Our adventures with the Babas included some spectacular snorkeling, notably two shallow dive sites with caves or grottos accessible at low tide without having to dive under the water.  All four kids amazed us by becoming such confident and proficient snorkelers.  By our last day in Pelican Bay, Eliza and Abigail were snorkeling in by themselves to 2x4 beach while Kyle and I just watched them dumfounded from Estrela.

 

We recently learned of a person named Chris Parker who runs the Caribbean Weather Center from his own sailboat.  This is a single sideband radio (SSB) weather service for cruising boats anywhere in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean.  We have hired him ($75 for a single passage from Central Exumas to Panama Canal) to help us with weather forecasting and route planning tailored to our passage.  We check in with him each morning during a scheduled weather net on 8.104 Mhz USB starting at 0730 EST.  We tell him our position and rate of progress and he tells us what we can expect over the next few days and how we might alter our course or speed to catch the best possible weather conditions.  So far it seems to be a terrific service and he is uncannily accurate.  If you had access to a SSB or ham radio you might be able to listen in.  The net runs about 45 minutes or so, as a number of boats check in.  We had our check in with him this morning about 8 am.  There's lots more to tell but I have to get some sleep now.  Kyle just came on watch for her long five hour stint. -- Doug

 

3/7/03, 10:00 PM -- We are in Staniel Cay in the Exumas, Bahamas.  Everyone is well--Estrela included.  Lots of stories about our windy and bumpy passage from West Palm Beach, Florida to Nassau, a 49 hour sail, motor-sail and motor, about our reaching the beautiful Exumas, about our first experiences as a snorkeling family, about our reunion with Doug's sister and her family here on Staniel Cay, about my rescuing a lost dinghy drifting in a storm (and the subsequent offer for free dinner at the S.C. Yacht Club!), and about our many anchoring and re anchoring adventures in this very windy and stormy weather these past few weeks.  Don't get me wrong, we've had some incredibly calm (and more typical) Bahamian weather between all these fronts coming through.   I look forward to writing down these stories and more for you, but this email is a quickie to let you know that we are safe, and to give you our SSB email address.  This is the address that we can use anywhere--at land or at sea.  I've pasted in Doug's explanation of this system which he sent to our family, including the special rules necessary because it's such a slow system which really stresses our batteries.  I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get this email address and info to you all as well. 

 

Lots of love. – Kyle

 

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Panama passage

Date: 11 Mar 2004 11:31:18 -0000

 

Tony and Kay, Roy and Mom, Bill and Sally --

 

Thanks for your emails.  I just downloaded them.

 

We're sailing again now (a relief to be rid of the engine noise) -- wing and wing with only dbl reefed main and staysail -- at 6 kts, in about 16 to 22 kts wind and building follow seas!  We're through the narrowest part of the Windward Passage, and so past the densest vessel traffic.  It was definitely a little tense there for a bit.  Now heading 218 deg T toward our next waypoint NE of Jamaica, 76 NM away, where we turn more south after passing SW tip of Haiti. Outside temp is 77.5 F.  It's dawn -- very pink. 

 

Re the Panama Canal, which Tony asked about, . . . We have a couple excellent guidebooks with detailed advice about how to safely transit the canal in a small sailboat.  Once we make landfall in Panama we will tie up at the Panama Canal Yacht Club.  This will be our base for clearing customs and immigration, reprovisioning (we need propane and will need diesel), and make arrangements for transiting the canal.  We have to me measured, pay a big fee (around $1500 now, I think), and be scheduled.  The actual transit could begin as soon as 24 hrs after all this and will take 24 to 48 hours.  We have to have a Panamanian "advisor" or pilot aboard plus three additional line handlers; Kyle or I will serve as one line handler and the other will handle the helm.  We can hire Panamanian line handlers, or more likely, will meet some travelers on other cruising sailboats also waiting to transit the canal and willing to assist us as volunteers.  We will probably take turns doing the same to gain canal experience on other boats before we take Estrela through.  The actual locking procedures is complex and can be difficult.  I gather the requirement of four line handlers, not counting the helmsman, is sound.  We might be positioned in the middle of a lock; the linehandlers have to keep even tension on the four lines (requirement is that each line be 125 ft long and at minimum, 3/4" diameter; we understand these can be rented informally through network of cruisers at the PCYC). Fenders will be critical too.  Per advice in one of the guidebooks, we brought a box of contractor grade garbage bags from Home Depot.  We will rent old tires, double or triple bag them and festoon our sides with these utilitarian fenders.  A way preferred by many to lock through is to be assigned a tug boat as a buddy ship, to which we would be tied during each locking procedure.  Then we would untie and motor independently to the next lock and then tie up again to our buddy.  Bill Balch informs us that the Panama Canal has a live web cam at at least one of the locks.  Here's the URL: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html.  Thanks, Bill!  He suggests that if you know the date and time of our transit you can watch us live go through the lock.  We'll keep you posted on our canal transit schedule. 

 

I just went topside to scan the horizon for other vessels.  A pod of small dolphins was swimming on both sides and at our bow.  One leapt spectacularly clear of the water right out of the face of a large swell and slapped loudly back into the water.  A great way to begin another day at sea.  The girls just woke up.  Got to go be a dad. 

 

Love, Doug

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Panama passage  -- between Jamaica and Haiti

Date: 13 Mar 2004 12:11:16 -0000

 

10 PM Thursday, March 11.  N 18 deg 08 min, W 75 deg 19 min. Wind 22 to 25+ kts from NNE.  Seas well developed.  Sailing under double reefed main and staysail on broad reach.  Making 6 kts.  Rough ride.  The crew are asleep.  Kyle is about to wake and take over from me.  No other vessel traffic seen either visually or on radar.  The last 12 hours have really challenged us -- not terribly comfortable.  Only heroics from Kyle in the galley gave us a hot meal for dinner.  Abby likes to get in the surfing position, crouching, hands out, and "ride" Estrela's motion.

 

10:15 PM Friday, March 12.  N 16 deg 40 min, W 76 deg 16 min.  65 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica.  Single reefed main, dead downwind, no jib. The last 48 hours have been tough.  Loads of wind, steady at 25 to 30+ for a while last night, with big seas.  Estrela pitched and yawed pretty wildly. We're gradually compiling a list of additional modifications to make of things like drawers and other stowage areas to keep them from flying across the cabin or suddenly emptying their contents at the prompting of an extra steep wave.  We had a period of rainy, squally weather today and traveled about 12 miles perpendicular to our desired course to move out of the band of clouds and squalls more quickly.  Kyle has battled back with humor, reminding herself and us frequently that this isn't really a big deal and that she's nothing more than an inconvenienced suburban housewife when she has to jam one foot against the nav table and hug her pressure cooker on top of the gimbaled range to save the savory one-pot dinner from become interior boat paint.  She's also taken to stripping to the buff before going on the foredeck for yet another sail change or complicated jibe maneuver that will likely douse her with seawater.  The girls seem to be wondering what their parents have gotten them into and if mom and dad have lost their minds, thinking this is supposed to be fun. 

 

More tomorrow.

 

Love, Doug

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Greetings from the middle of the Caribbean

Date: 14 Mar 2004 21:44:07 -0000

 

Hi family --

 

Sunday, March 14.  3:40 PM.  N 14 deg 09 min, W 78 deg 25 min.  We're about 300 miles from the Panama Canal, more than two thirds of the way there!  A gorgeous sunny afternoon, but very windy, with big waves.  Blowing ENE 23 to 29 Kts.  We're making about 5 to 5.5 kts under staysail alone, on a broad reach.  Lots of pitching and rolling.  Pancake breakfast was quite a scene -- probably the wrong menu choice today, but the most appealing of the options to sensitive tummies.  We flew a double reefed main with the staysail until about 3AM and then dropped the main to improve the motion.  Got some improvement in comfort at the price of about 3/4 of a kt in boat speed.  But the rig didn't seem to be working as hard, so Estrela creaked and groaned less.  We are getting great routing advice from our weather forecaster, Chris Parker.  He's basically guided us to carve a large arc through the Caribbean, making more westerly than southerly progress at first to get around a large area north of Colombia with higher winds and seas.  Conditions will still get even more challenging for us over the next 24 to 36 hours before they really start to moderate.  At least we know what to expect and can prepare ourselves psychologically as best as we can, not to mention planning ahead appropriate menu choices.  The girls are next to me and want to say hi:

 

 

Abby:  About surfing, oh yes.  I like to surf inside the boat, even though there's no water in there. I surf like 10 knots.  I don't mean the knots like the tying knots.  I just mean knots like speed knots.  Oh yes, about reading.  When my Mom reads to me she reads Magic Tree House series books.  When Dad reads to me he reads Greek Myths and Mossflower.  We ate pancakes this morning, even though Dad said it too.  The subject now is, sleeping.  When I go to bed after dinner I fall sound asleep.  And then I wake up at nighttime.  I fall back asleep again.  Then I wake up in the morning and stay awake.  Mom is still sleeping.  It's really hard cause I want to wake her up.  I drop my little rope and it drops down onto Mom.  Then I think she will wake up, but she doesn't.  She wakes up a couple minutes after and she starts making breakfast.  Yesterday for breakfast we had cold, leftover, mushy Ramen noodles.  I made up this song and it goes like this, "Smell some Ramen, need to eat it.  Smell some Ramen, need to eat it.  Smell some Ramen, need to eat it.  Hey, smell some Ramen."   The tune is Macarena tune, but I can't sing it on the computer.  Love, Abigail        

 

 

Eliza: We've had a great lesson in balancing and in proper stowing.  It's really, really bouncy and it's tremendously hot because we have to shut up all the portholes against all the spraying water from the sea.  It's torture.  We are eating vegetables and fruit so we won't get scurvy.  Sometimes water comes into the cockpit from over the side when we heel a lot, and then our scuppers drain the water out.  Down below whenever people get up off a cushion on the high side the cushion just flies off into mid-air.  We're having a lot of fun.  A certain cupboard called "the pantry," has all the condiments and important things they we need everyday.  Whenever someone opens it everything comes flying out because it's on the high side.  I had an incident with it with the pepper grinder this morning.  All the pepper corns came flying out.  And then we had to repair the stove this morning before we could eat pancakes.  Dad discovered the gimbal knob was about to break off.  Love you guys. -- Eliza

 

Kyle is off watch, on a bunk beside us, trying to grab some shut-eye.

 

Oops, Kyle just woke up and wants to add something. 

 

Kyle:  The inconvenienced suburban housewife likes to entertain her crewmates each morning by showing off her latest greasy hairdo.  Yesterday it was the Elvis Presley look.  Today it was the, just got out of the swimming pool look.  I really need a facial.  I am very shiny.  Love, Kyle

 

Love, Doug

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 8:11 PM

Subject: We made it! We're anchored in Cristobal Harbor, Panama

 

 

Hi family -- March 17, 2004 8:00 PM.  N 09 deg 20 min, W 79 deg, 54 min.  We anchored at 3:30 PM here in Cristobal Harbor, Panama, the north (Atlantic) terminus of the Panama Canal.  Nine days and seven hours from Staniel Cay, Bahamas.  We're whipped.  Didn't even have enough energy to go in to clear Customs.  We're safe, greasy, salty and giddy.  Taking turns amusing each other with dumb jokes, random reflections on memorable moments from the passage, apologies and forgivenesses for short tempers and whining, and videotaping demonstrations of how one or another of us managed to do some vital, yet not-so-simple task, like crawling into a bunk cocooned by a lee cloth while heeled and rolling through 70 degrees.  Anyway, thank you from the heart for the support we felt from all of you.  This was a much more difficult passage than we had anticipated and we now welcome the chance to rest and recover before we begin preparing for the next challenge -- transiting the canal!  Love, Doug, Kyle, Eliza and Abigail and the amazing Estrela

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 12:01 PM

Subject: March 19, 2004 log entry -- Cristobal Harbor, Panama

 

10:00 AM Friday, March 19, 2004.  N 09 deg 20 min, W 79 deg, 54 min. Anchored at "the Flats" anchorage, Cristobal Harbor, Panama.   We and Estrela are beginning to feel normal again.  We never left the boat yesterday -- I still haven't even gone in to clear Customs and Immigration.  I will do that as soon as I send this email and reinflate the dinghy. 

 

After sleeping in yesterday morning and having a lazy pancake breakfast -- boy did George Holt's maple syrup taste incredible -- we read aloud for several hours.  We're half way through "Mossflower," book two in the 16 novel Redwall series about courageous woodland creatures like mice, otters, squirrels and badgers.  My Environmental Defense colleague Becky Goldburg suggested we encourage  Eliza to try out the Redwall books; she was hooked immediately and persuaded her mom and dad to track down the rest of the series, which we ordered, mostly used, through Amazon.com before leaving Florida.  Now the rest of us have fallen in love with these myriad small characters and their quests. The bad guys are the carnivores, except the occasional one who has chosen a vegetarian diet, and the good guys, the herbivores. 

 

Returning reluctantly to our urgent immediate reality, we then started the gruesome process of literally unpacking stowage space after stowage space to track the extent of disconcertingly voluminous salt water intrusion through the deck caulking during the rough passage to Panama.  We cleaned any wet stores, gear and spaces with a vinegar and water mixture and dried them thoroughly before repacking contents.  Began drying several wet open cell foam bunk cushions.  I erected the wind generator to take advantage of the constant refreshing wind here, blowing 15 to 20.  Without the blessed wind we'd quickly cook in this hazy tropical sun.

 

This is a very dramatic spot.  At 6:30 this morning the Queen Mary II docked directly opposite, evidently southbound (toward the Pacific) and staging for her transit.  What an impressive sight, with her distinctive navy blue hull and CUNARD emblazoned on the side.  The nearby container port, brightly lit at night, works noisily 24 hours a day.  Around us are about 35 other cruising sailboats, and a few ocean-going power mega-yachts, in various stages of preparing for their canal transits.  Once draped with the required 10 to 12 fenders, mostly old automobile tires wrapped in garbage bags and packing tape, and equipped with four 120 foot 7/8" lines the boat is visited by a large port pilot boat which drops of an "admeasurer" who inspects the vessel for preparedness, interviews the captain and measures the boat in various ways.  Following this process and the payment of a large graduated fee, based on vessel length, and a damage deposit of another $900 or so, the boat is scheduled for transit.  Then, as we watched happen this morning, the day scheduled for transit, the boat brings aboard its additional volunteer or paid line handlers and drops anchor by 6:00 AM or earlier, and circles in the anchorage area awaiting arrival of a pilot boat to deliver the "advisor"  assigned to guide the captain through the 2-day transit.  The advisor leaves the boat and goes home at night, we understand.

 

Today we saw three boats leave for the canal.  We have a lot of work to do before we will be ready to request an admeasurer's visit.  This is a no-nonsense place.  Boats are not here to loll about enjoying the tropical clime, rum drinks and sandy beaches.  The harbor is dirty, its perimeter run-down industrial.  But for the refreshing wind the air would be foul -- a number of stacks nearby belch black smoke. And large ships of every conceivable shape and purpose cross back and forth barely a half mile from us, into or out of the canal's Atlantic entrance.  Very exciting.  We are trying to reconcile our many competing feelings.  It's hard not to feel anxious to catch up with neighbors evidently days (weeks?) ahead of us in their canal transiting preparations.  But we need a break.  And we're a little different from the other boats we've observed so far -- with 9 and (almost -- March 26 birthday coming!) 6 year old girls aboard.  Thank you girls for helping your parents try to remember to smell the roses.

 

-- Doug

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 4:35 PM

Subject: Scheduled to transit Panama Canal Sunday March 28! Look for us on LIVE

 

Hello friends and family --

 

We have a Panama Canal transit date!  Sunday March 28.  There is always a chance this will be delayed, but we have our fingers crossed.  Around noon tomorrow, Sat 3/27, we are required to call Marine Traffic Control to confirm the Sunday transit date and to learn exactly when on Sunday morning the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) Advisor is supposed to be delivered to Estrela (possibly as early as 5 AM) and when we are scheduled for the first of the three Gatun Locks, which is about three miles from our anchorage on the "Flats" here in Cristobal harbor. 

 

For any of you interested in trying to watch us LIVE! on the Panama Canal webcam as we go through locks, I will send out another email tomorrow afternoon advising you of our scheduled Gatun locks time.  My uncle, Bill Balch, says this is the website to check:  http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html.    

 

There are three sets of locks, Gatun (three locks up), Pedro Miguel (one down) and Miraflores (two down).  I think the only webcam is at the Miraflores locks -- you'll have to check -- but I am not sure whether it's at the first or second of the Miraflores locks.  I am told that you can email the webcam operator as you are watching on the pancanal website and ask the operator to aim the camera at a particular vessel, which you would identify by description or possibly by vessel name.  You may even be able to get the operator to zoom in on us!  Amazing.  We will wave madly if we can figure out where the camera is located.

 

We do not know how we will be secured in the locks, and the method may vary from lock to lock.  It is most likely that we will be "nested" or rafted with one or two other sailboats, with four taut long lines holding the rafted boats in the center of the lock.  Watch to make sure the lines stay tight.  There is a lot of turbulence in the locks and tremendous strain on the lines holding the bows and sterns motionless.  Line handlers on the boats and atop the lock wall must make no mistakes and stay vigilant to assure the lines are well fastened and always tight.  A nest of three sailboats going through two days ago had an ACP line handler fail to get the looped end of a bow line over a bollard in time, causing the raft to slam into the side of the lock, slightly damaging the innermost boat, which was jammed against the wall by the inertia of two heavy cruising sailboats and its own weight set in motion by a strong cross wind.  If we are not nested in the center of the lock chamber, or secured by ourselves in the center, we might be tied to the side of a tugboat.  We have asked not to be tied to the sidewall, concerned that turbulence could rock our spreaders against the wall.  

 

Knowing in advance precisely, or even roughly, when we would go through any of the locks is difficult.  If all went exactly as scheduled and we entered the first Gatun lock at, e.g., 7 AM EST, we would exit the third Gatun lock approximately 9 AM, take about four and a half hours to cross Gatun Lake and travel down the Gaillard Cut, enter the Pedro Miguel lock at about 2 PM and enter the first of the two Miraflores locks about 3 and exit the second about 4:30.  Many factors could cause delays and it is even a very real possibility that we might have to stop and spend the night at anchor off the town of Gamboa, a few miles before the Pedro Miguel lock.  In this case we would likely get started again in the late morning on Monday 3/29.  So anyone trying to spot us on the webcam will have to be pretty patient and determined.  If anyone sees us, please send us an email.  If we have to anchor at Gamboa I will send out another email to all of you on Sunday night.

 

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To those of you who haven't visited the Estrela website in a while, you might be interested in reading our log entries posted during our recent 9 day passage from the Bahamas to Cristobal Harbor, Panama.  The website, generously set up and maintained by Kyle's brother, George Holt, is www.naturofm.com/Estrela.  The URL may be case sensitive.  If you have any trouble finding it, email George (george@naturofm.com) (Thanks, George!)

 

Finally, even if you have previously received email from us from this email address (WDB3042@sailmail.com), please read the following, which explains the limitations of this super slow single sideband (SSB) HF radio email system, including some new considerations re how you use and share this email address.  Thank you. 

 

Sailmail email system limitations:  This SSB email system lets us send and receive short text only emails from the boat, in theory, anywhere.  Propagation has to be good, though, and sometimes it'll be lousy.  We'll get better at using it as we gain more experience.  Right now I'm just awed that it works at all.  Our email address, as required under SailMail's system, is WDB3042@sailmail.com.  The letters and numbers at the beginning of the address are the call sign of Estrela's FCC issued Ship Station License.  Messages are sent and received over marine SSB frequencies, not ham radio frequencies.  We pay $200/yr for the service.  This allows us to send and receive unlimited email @ 300 baud per second (very slow . . . compare to 56,000 bps in a typical dial-up connection) so long as we do not exceed an average of 10 minutes per day connect time over any 7 day period.  If we go over this average our account is blocked until the average is brought down again.  Consequently, we have to be really careful, and ask for your help in preventing the wide dissemination of this email address.  We also ask everyone sending us emails not to hit "reply" without also deleting the previous message.  We also can't let this address end up on large circulation cc lists, especially ones that might inadvertently lead to this address receiving long emails with attachments or imbedded photos or graphics.  The worst case scenario would be if our address were picked up by a spam generator.  If we started receiving spam we would quickly have to terminate this email address.  It would also help us if you did not put this address in your Outlook or similar contacts list, which could result in a crushing volume of reply or bounce messages being sent to us if one of the nasty latest viruses out there that targets contact lists were to use our address to send out a rash of emails to others.  I know all this sounds overly serious, and I apologize for sounding so geeky.  Over time, as we and our family and friends get the hang of this molasses slow, battery draining system, I am sure things will become more second nature.  Until then, thank you in advance for your help making this work.

 

All the best.

 

-- Doug

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 3:22 PM

Subject: We're a go for a Sunday March 28 Panama Canal transit -- 6:00 AM EST Gatun Locks time!

 

Dear friends and family --

 

We just confirmed that Estrela will transit the Panama Canal tomorrow.  We have an early start time, which we'd hoped for! 

 

The Panama Canal Authority has scheduled us to enter the first of the three Gatun locks at 6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time tomorrow morning, March 28.  At least in the Gatun locks, and possibly the others, we will likely be nested with the two other sailboats scheduled for the same start time, "Maya" and "Wings and Strings".  Estrela is the smallest of the three and will probably be positioned on one side. The "nest" or raft will be tied in the center of the lock chamber.  If all goes according to schedule we would exit the third Gatun lock at around 8 to 8:30, and enter the Pedro Miguel lock around 1 to 2 PM and the first Miraflores lock around 2:30 to 3:30.  Any number of glitches could cause delays in this schedule, however. 

 

John Amos emailed me to say there are webcams at both Gatun and Miraflores, although only the Miraflores camera can be swiveled on request to look for specific boats. 

 

-- Doug Hopkins

S/V Estrela

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2004 8:28 PM

Subject: Estrela and her crew made it through the canal safe and sound!

 

 

7:50 PM March 28, 2004 (N 9 deg 56 min, W 79 deg 33 min) -- On a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club, Balboa, Republic of Panama.  We made it through the Panama Canal in near record time.  In fact, after the Gatun Locks, which we exited at 7:20 AM, we were ahead of schedule all day.  We enjoyed the smoothest, most uneventful transit of the canal we could have hoped for.  Line handlers (two Brits from another sailboat and one Panamanian professional) and the PCA advisor all arrived on time between 3:45 and 4:45 AM.  A container ship waited an hour for us at the first Gatun locks so we wouldn't be delayed -- almost unheard of.  Then we were able to unfurl our genoa jib for part of the way across Lake Gatun, boosting our speed by half a knot  An advance taste of Panama's rainy season even kept us cool crossing the lake.  And at Pedro Miguel they locked us through without any freighters --- just sailboats -- really unusual.  We waved at the webcams in Gatun and Miraflores locks; it looked as though they were aimed at us for a least a few minutes in each location.  We'll check for emails now to see if anyone saw us.  Eliza kept a written journal almost hourly throughout the day. As soon as we type it up we'll sent it to George for posting on the Estrela website.  And we'll send pictures for posting soon.  You'll have to read it to learn what wildlife we saw.  Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.  What a day!  -- Doug, Kyle, Eliza and Abigail

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2004 11:14 AM

Subject: Still in Balboa

 

 

7:30 AM March 30, 2004 (N 9 deg 56 min, W 79 deg 33 min) -- We're still on a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club.  This is more of a very basic commercial marina than a yacht club.  There are about 50 moorings, a fuel and water dock and three showers.  The only facility other than the restrooms is a small air-conditioned office with one employee perched above the fuel dock at the end of the pier.  One twist about the BYC is that one isn't aloud to tie up one's own dinghy ashore.  But they run launches 24 hours/day.  Each evening, for "happy hour" someone drives up with a truck and sets up a makeshift bar and canteen under an open-air grass roofed gazebo where the pier meets the land.  Happy hour is a good place to meet up with other cruisers.  And we actually met another kid there last night! Roderick (9 or 10) and Eliza played a single hand of "War" (the card game) for about an hour and a half.  Amazingly, a Fedex delivery guy came out to Estrela in one of the launches to deliver two packages and to collect $14.00 duty yesterday (books and charts from Bluewater Books).  To a person, every Panamanian we have encountered has been kind, polite, and, I guess the best adjective would be, gentle.  These are really wonderful people, who, despite Panama's long and complicated history with the US, in our experience exhibit no ill feelings whatsoever toward Americans.  Yesterday we began to reconvert Estrela from a canal crossing boat to an ocean-going one.  This means untying the eight old garbage bag-wrapped tires festooning her sides, hauling the outboard engine out from under the galley table and remounting it on its bracket at the stern, putting our rigid solar panel back up above the tiller, and, until we depart Balboa, re-rigging the wind generator.  We are looking for a northbound boat to take the tires.  There is more demand for them on the Atlantic side, where the going price is $3/tire.  Here there is a surplus, and the Balboa Yacht Club charges $1/tire to dispose of them if a yacht cannot find a northbound taker.  A great lesson in the free market at work.  Yesterday we had two unexpected encounters with Panamanian bureaucracy.  First the Agriculture Ministry agent arrived unannounced at about 7:30 AM to inspect Estrela for prohibited meats (anything from California would have been a problem, inexplicably, but frozen Italian meatballs from Florida were ok), vegetables, fruits, and pets and to make sure we had no cockroaches or rats aboard.  He said we were clean (dirty dishes didn't count) but warned us not to bring the tires ashore, except to dispose of them through the yacht club.  Giving them to another boat was ok.  He said the problem with tires is that their cavities, which are difficult to keep empty of water, act as breeding reservoirs for mosquitoes.  While Malaria is not currently a problem here in the Balboa and Panama City area, the rainy season, when mosquitoes become prevalent, has nearly arrived.  Dengue is always on their minds, it seems.  We'll get rid of the tires one way or another by tomorrow!  Fortunately, we haven't seen a single mosquito in Panama.  Late in the day the Port Captain representative arrived to formally check us in to Balboa.    None of our various Panama cruising and canal guides alerted us to this requirement. This is why there is a flourishing business for canal agents who lead cruising sailboats through Panama's labyrinthine red tape.  A couple of the officials, by way of explanation and apology, have told us they are just carrying on the administrative procedures the Americans had in place during their administration of the canal zone.

 

Today we head off in search of a dentist (to make an appointment for cleanings), a store to buy charts and a few other boat supplies, an internet hook-up and maybe even the old city of Panama for some sightseeing. 

 

The best to all of you. 

 

Love, Doug  

 

Copyright © 2003-2009 Doug and Kyle Hopkins. All rights reserved.