Saturday, October 12, 2019

Grand Cayman


Georgetown, Grand Cayman

5-March-2019

Picking-up crew for the Cuba sail


The estimated 350 Nm trip from Providence ended up being 406 Nm as we altered course to give wide berth to the infamous Gorda Banks. With sporadic piracy again on the rise we even went east of the Rosalind Banks which required about 9 hrs of motor sailing to get the easting we needed to clear the bank. The trip was 3 days and 3 hrs long with close hauled sailing for 60 hrs of the 75 hrs and motor sailing the rest of the time for the crossing. This was the first longer sail since returning to Kanilela in November but we felt ourselves settling into schedule of life at sea pretty quickly. The NE winds had us close hauled all the way so it was quite bumpy, especially when motor sailing tighter into the wind.

When my “big” brother, Doug joined us in Panama to transit the canal he made some repairs to our Single Side Band (SSB)/Ham radio which dramatically improved our sending and receiving abilities. It was great on the longer crossing to be able to get Chris Parker’s weather reports daily and managed radio contact with Randy and Dawn from s/v Reciente who were on their way south to Panama and Steve Warren from s/v Warren Peace who had heard my calls to Randy. Steve was in the San Blas Islands about 550 miles south of Grand Cayman expecting Reciente to arrive any day. The name Warren Peace is unique enough that I was certain it was Steve Warren from the Bluewater Cruising Association who left Vancouver a few years before Mags and I left. Although we had never met in person before it was great to finally talk to Steve because we had met numerous cruisers who had asked if we knew Warren Peace. 
Calm day at the Immigration Dock


After the tranquil life style of the past months we knew that we were probably in for a cultural shock in Grand Cayman Island. Weaving our way in past the numerous shuttle boats running from the three cruise ships anchored and all the other commercial and pleasure craft confirmed the tempo had changed. We were initially directed to return to the outer staging area avoiding the cruise ships but before we got headed out we were called back in to the Immigration/Port Captains concrete pier. Although we had read numerous horror stories of boats smashing the concrete in the swell from the open Caribbean we were fortune to have a perfectly calm sea to arrive and moor. The two female Immigration Officers who met us were exceptionally friendly and helpful and we were done entry in minutes.

Mags’ cousin Ann and her husband Tom were arriving from Liverpool so we decided we would check in to Barcadere Marina. 
Coral heads tight on both sides entering the North Sound
The interesting challenge with Cayman is the only all-weather anchorages are in the North Sound and it has an extremely shallow entrance, a reported nine foot depth between submerged corral heads into an equally shallow huge lagoon. To get to the marinas or anchorages you have to follow very specific way points and generally cannot draw more than 6’ 4”. Frank Virgintino’s, Free Guide to the Caymans is available online and is extremely helpful but recent local way points for specific locations are imperative as buoys wander and disappear!

Barcadere is a new marina close to the airport and within walking distance, a long walk, to downtown Georgetown. There is a very good restaurant and bar as well as a small store and fuel dock at the marina. Staff were very friendly.
Ann and Tom arrived from Liverpool for the sail to Cuba

 Having four people and wanting to see all of the island we rented a car at the airport. Life was easy. The huge modern stores with food and hardware were amazing. We had been warned to expect high prices and with that knowledge and the sheer joy of finding almost anything you could want we still enjoyed a buying spree.

As well as being an international banking center for the world, Grand Cayman hosts a continuing parade of cruise liners, often having 5 ships in Georgetown at a time. Many of the boats in the marina were charter boats that take people from the cruise ships on various day charters. The crews were really friendly and helpful. 
Stingrays do not strike unless they are stepped on
so shuffle your feet along the bottom

The owner of an excursion boat moored near us treated us to a trip to Sting Ray City. We had great time shuffling our feet on a shallow sand bar making sure not to step on any of the numerous stingrays. 








Ann and Mags feeding squid to a big female
The females are the biggest and love to be held and fed squid which explains the great numbers that patrol the shallow sand bar in the middle of the North Sound.

Having the car let us drive on every road on the island enjoying small restaurants serving great jerk chicken and visiting the more remote beaches and villages. 

Providence


Providence, Columbia

1-March-2019

Slowly northbound


Providence Island is about sixty sailing miles from San Andres, about fifty miles from north point to the south point so it makes for a good overnight sail if you do not sail too fast. As it turned out that was not our problem.

We untied our Med moor lines and with help from Stephan from Coco Prinz and Guillermo from Nene’s we untangled our anchor rode and headed south down the entry channel. Mags was great on the helm while I manually cranked the windlass retrieving our chain. The repairs to the solenoid were working intermittently at best. A project for Providence….


We arrived at the Providence entry channel way point in the early morning having motor sailed in near calm conditions, doused our sails and motored past Morgan’s Head on the west coast of Isla Santa Catalina into the anchorage. It is always a joy to arrive in an anchorage to a radio welcome, in this case it was from Mike and Michelle on s/v Minuet, friends from Bocas del Toro who we had not seen for more than a month. They were in the process of clearing out of Providence while we were clearing in. Mr. Bernardo Bush is the sole agent for the island and you must use an agent. After completing the forms at his office which is in the small town of Isabel beside the anchorage we then rode by motorbike to the Capitan del Puerto, to sign forms and get a new stamp from the Immigration officer who had obligingly come to the Port Captain’s. Because Mr. Bush had business elsewhere it was agreed that she, the Immigration Officer, would give me a ride back to town on the back of her motorcycle. These have to be the most accommodating, friendly people anywhere.

Kanilela, second from right with the locally named Morgan's Ass in the distance

Mike and Michelle were not leaving until early the following morning so we went to an excellent restaurant, Miss Francia’s on Isla Santa Catalina where the barracuda was superb. Also, the opportunity to visit with Mike and Michelle and get a wealth of local knowledge was greatly appreciated. They were headed to Isla Mujeras, Mexico so our next shared anchorage could be well into the future as our paths diverge.

Providencia, or as the locals often call, Old Providence, has a small island, Isla Santa Catalina, attached on the northwest corner by a floating foot bridge called Lover’s Lane. The names are further confused by the locals calling it Ketlina Island. The waterfront sidewalks are lined with brightly painted hand rails and many small alcoves with benches and shade trees on both islands. Everything is so clean and well maintained, the civic pride is obvious. 
At the Providence end of Lover’s Lane Bridge a collection of motorcycles are parked because no vehicles allowed on the small island. The finished sidewalk goes right for about 200 meters past approximately ten homes ending with an ancient cannon that had no doubt seen action in the days of Captain Morgan who lived on the Island.
stairs up to the Virgin Mary statue
 At the bridge, the sidewalk also extends to the left about 800 meters along the coast past a few restaurants and small hostel type hotels and another ten or so local homes ending with a steep, 81 step, promontory lookout with a statue of the Virgin Mary. Miss Francia’s is along this coast and the sidewalk has a small public dock. From the Statue the finished trail drops down to a beach with clear water for swimming and snorkelling. A dirt trail continues to Morgan’s head, approaching from above giving great views of the coral heads and sandy places for the dinghy anchor.

Downtown Santa Isabel

On our walk we met a lovely couple from the San Francisco area who were staying in one of the hostel/hotels and we agreed to meet for dinner at Miss Francia’s. Back on the boat we were visited by a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, couple, Randy and Dawn on a classic 51’ ketch s/v Renceinte who had already been in Providence for one month followed shortly by a visit from the newly arrived m/v Fish Vicious with Doug and Nancy from San Francisco. Doug and Nancy agreed to join us for dinner with Ron and Susan our recently met land travellers. Another fantastic meal at Miss Francia’s with engaging conversation with our newly met friends.

The crews of Zverver, Renceinte, Fish Vicious and Kanilela

As the week progressed we enjoyed numerous snorkeling opportunities and had the pleasure of a new arrival to the anchorage, a beautiful Dutch ketch Zverver with owners Diederik and Ilsa. As a group we visited sites around the island spending time in engaging conversations and enjoying the incredible local hospitality.

Of course, no stop occurs without the obligatory boat repairs. There is an oft repeated line that 9 out of 10 times windlass problems are in the solenoid. As our exit from San Andreas with the rebuilt solenoid proved, we were the 1 out of 10 exception. After removing the motor and separating the gear box the problem was still not obvious but in checking everything possible it became apparent that the housings for the four brushes were all corroded enough to inhibit the springs designed to provide tension of the brushes to the rotor. Lofrans is purported to be one of the best built windlass brands so I was a little disappointed that the brushes housings were made with a stamped mild steel material located in one of the most moisture plagued parts of the boat. Cleanup done and the fight to reinstall the windlass in an impossibly tight location completed, all was working fine. Providence/Providencia ranks at the top of our list of favourite ports of call for Kanilela.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

San Andres, Columbia



San Andres, Columbia

22-February-2019

San Andres is a positive surprise.

As expected it is a beautiful tropical island but several cruisers had said we should not bother stopping as it was so commercialized. Several years ago a Columbian president decided to make San Andres a duty free port and a playground for wealthy Columbians.
The clean Malecon
The main town is situated on the north east end of the island and the waterfront has a Malecon, sidewalk, that follows the coast from Nene’s Marina around the coast to a long white/golden sand beach.
white sand and hotels

kite surfers and shade tents



A new lifeguard in town.
The beach has long expanses of shade tents with chairs rented by the tourists who stay in the large hotels and apartments that line the land side of the shore road and malecon. In the blocks behind, modern high ceilinged, air conditioned, full frontal glazed, immaculate modern stores representing the name brands entice the wealthy tourists to spend, spend. SPEND. Actually, most of the stores have few or no shoppers and the beautiful, young, smart-uniformed staff stand by the open front doors, perusing their cell phones while mildly curious if the passers-by may indeed enter the store. There is a Columbia Brand store where for a mere $1,600,000 Columbian Pesos, now quickly do the math and divide by 3,000 to get $266ish US$, for one of their ubiquitous fishing shirts. I passed.

The beauty of San Andres lies immediately beyond the big brand stores. In the nine days there Mags and I developed our “go to” merchants in the small crowded shops where if they did not have what we wanted they would give us directions to another small, crowded shop that appeared to have everything the previous merchant had plus that one thing we were searching for. Oh, and for a price comparison, I managed to by two pair of soccer shorts for $12 US. We often ate in the small cafes where a large bowl of soup, a quarter of a big chicken or several pork chops, with salad, rice, beans and bread cost $3 to $4. Poor Mags was generally full after the soup.

Balconies on a government office and our 
grocery store beyond
The people, shopkeepers and other customers, were incredibly friendly and curious as to where we came from and I think, more than mildly surprised that we had ventured into their side of town. The tourists do not. We did go to a higher end restaurant, The Gourmet Shop,
The Gourmet Restaurant's pork medallions in sauce and 
chicken on a baked pear sauce
 where both the flavours and presentation were excellent. Our meals and drinks were about $35 for both of us, far more economical than comparable in Vancouver.


San Andres is very safe, with the exception of the traffic. Timing your crossing of streets to coincide with the flow of motor bikes, golf carts, quads and cars is an art we perfected in Asia and were soon back to using. Just do not change your pace or intention. We rented a quad and drove on every road on the island, first the coastal perimeter and then the various interior roads. We stopped for a ceviche and camarones lunch,  lunch, watched the wind from a coastal blow-hole blow the tourist’s long hair vertical and stopped for a very good snorkelling excursion on a deserted lava-lined beach. Well, deserted until the other people in their rented vehicles saw us and decided we were where they should be. Actually, great fun and we were surprised how many of the tourists were from Brazil. We also visited an old wood structure home Museum that had raised generations of San Andreans, with a lovely guide explaining the old implements and furnishings, some of which Mags and I grew up with. In the interior villages the smiles were infectious, from little children to the elderly. Again, we encountered no tourists off the coastal road. So, quite clearly, San Andres is a tale of two places and the very good side so completely outweighs the part that did not appeal to us so we are really happy we stopped.

Ceviche and Camarones


The marina staff led by owner, Nene and supported by Antonio and Guillermo were really helpful and friendly as was our agent Rene. Our marina neighbours, Stephan, originally from Belgium, and his wife, Pamela, from Costa Rica, on s/v Coco Prinz were enjoying the drier cooler air of San Andres so much they decided to stay another week or so. They were fun people to be med moored beside. We had been across the dock from them in Bocas del Toro. Cruising can be a small world.

Friday, February 8, 2019

Isla San Andres


Isla San Andres, Columbia

06-February-2019

Finally, Sailing Again


Last sunrise at Marina Bocas

Bocas del Toro to Isla San Andreas, Columbia

We had a fabulous time in Bocas del Toro, albeit a much longer stay than planned. We have made friends there we will see again either cruising or by land travels. (Yes s/v Goenplaces II, Dave, you, Mags and I will see Max in Lankawi, Malasia. Porque no?) 
A farewell from close friends, Russell, Dave, Rich, Larry, 
Christian and Brian. We'll miss you guys!













We will miss all the staff of Bocas Marina who were wonderful and became good friends. We wish you and your families well. Bocas is great for provisioning and repairs, we recommend it highly.

While there we replaced our VW/Audi/Pathfinder engine with a new 54hp Yanmar 4JH5E that is so quiet and starts instantly. We hauled Kanilela out at the Almirante boat yard and did the engine swap ourselves. The yard is set in a filled clearing behind a mangrove coastline. It has both a mobile crane and travellift but is off the electrical grid with a genset running only during working hours. Again, Dave from Goenplaces II came to the rescue and loaned us his Honda 2000 genset so we could run our air conditioner while hauled out. Without it the month we were there would have been very difficult so he saved me from a mutiny. The chitres (no-see-ums) would have been unbearable.

We had 4 new agm house batteries shipped down from Florida and they are performing perfectly.

Our pvc/aluminum inflatable dinghy split a seam last month but we very were fortunate that a friend in the marina, Shannon on s/v Elsewhere, had just bought a new hypalon/aluminum inflatable that did not fit his big catamaran. In discussions we decided to buy his brand new 15 hp Yamaha engine as well. The new dinghy flies so we can get 4 people to snorkel/dive sites in minutes. Thank you Shannon.

As well we had parts and new equipment too numerous to itemize both purchased in Bocas, shipped from Florida and carried in our luggage from Vancouver. Kanilela was ready for her first crossing since arriving in Bocas 2.5 years earlier.

Looking North at Laguna Bluefield, fisherman in a beautiful 
new cayuco
We left Bocas on Thursday but only sailed to Bluefields Lagoon about 20 miles east of Bocas to spend two nights at anchor to relax and make sure that all systems were working. The trip to San Andres is 200 miles so the stop also ensured we would arrive on Monday, not the weekend. Bluefields, named after the Dutch pirate Bluefeld who frequented the bay, is beautiful. There are a few indigenous villages in the lagoon with numerous possible anchorages but we chose the first one on the SW corner after taking a leisurely cruise around the long bay. We knew that our friend Ignacio who runs the shuttle panga at Bocas Marina owned the point area we were anchored beside. Although Ignacio lives mainly in Bocas, his wife and some children and several grandchildren live on the bay we anchored in. We spent a leisurely morning and early afternoon doing a few boat chores while watching a group of five kids on the jungle lined beach with a cayuco (a dugout canoe) pulled up the bank and another cayuco with three people fishing along the coast. The ones fishing were in the hot sun for several hours without being able to move around in the cayuco. 
The two cayucos leaving Kanilela, heading to the village
in the distance.
In the afternoon we watched as the fishing cayuco joined the other on the beach and large bunches of plantains, (starchy bananas), old coconuts and yuccas were loaded into both cayucos.  They then left the beach and paddled out to Kanilela with four people in each. They were a middle aged woman who had been in the fishing cayuco, six girls ranging from late teens down to a five year old and one young boy. The cayucos were loaded with plantains, coconuts, yuccas and a few dozen fish they had caught. We told them we knew Ignacio and their faces lit up. In the course of a conversation in my Spanish and the older ones explaining to the young ones in their Indian dialect we learned that three of the girls and the young boy were Ignacio’s son’s children. 
Beautiful in the late afternoon sun
Ignacio was their abuelo they proudly said with shy smiles. After a short, smiling visit they departed paddling towards the village across the bay that they could not have reached before darkness had closed in.

As an aside on the Panamanian indigenous cayucos. They are carved out of a single tree and can range from as small as six to seven feet up to forty plus feet. 
More than 40 feet (12m) long by 6.5 feet (2 m) deep,
difficult to get a shot that gives its true perspective.
In the 2.5 years we watched a very big one being carved and then finished in Almirante. 
The adze work both inside and out was amazing followed 
months of sanding and finishing.
It was nearly ready for launching on my last visit to the Port Captain in Almirante to get out Zarpe documents to leave Panama. We were often amazed by six or seven kids out in the bay at Bocas playing in a cayuco with only two inches of freeboard and someone constantly bailing. As you travel through the archipelago the cayucos are ubiquitous, with men and women out fishing and children playing. The largest have outboard motors but most are paddled. While in Dolphin Bay we anchored near an Indian village that had small open deck restaurant over the water. The fish tacos we had were excellent and the beer was cold but most interesting was the local Indian who came up in his cayuco and ordered a beer. He stayed in the cayuco with the restaurant deck at the perfect armrest height. In the course of an hour or so he had three beer and then left paddling a few kilometers across the bay. He never left the comfort of his cayuco. In Laguna Bluefield we saw several brand new cayucos that were the beautiful honey brown colour of new wood. All very reminiscent of our time in Alert Bay off Vancouver Island when twenty plus first nations dugouts arrived on a coastal journey north.

We left Bluefields at about 4:00pm for the two nights and one day trip north to San Andres. The Bocas coast is a world renowned surfing area with breaks exceeding ten feet so you have to choose your departure time well. Our forecast was for waves to six feet, wind light. The winds from the north were light but the waves were in the ten to twelve feet compounded by the reflected waves off the various irregular coastlines. A veritable washing machine. Motorsailing into the wind, pitching and rolling in all directions for our first time back at sea in 2.5 years.

Although we had regularly added biocides to our diesel tank and because it had been near full I thought the condensation and sludge issues would be minimal. The constant rolling and pounding stirred up our fuel tanks that in fact were a mess. In the middle of the night I drained off water and sludge from the two engine filters, 10 and 2 micron, and went back to our day tank. After running through the day tank I transferred fuel from the main tank to the day tank through our 20 micron Recor 500 filter. After running for several more hours it was apparent that I would have to change all the filters to be able to continue. This is not a fun job in a sweltering engine room over a hot engine in rolling seas but eventually was completed. After about one hundred miles the wind had clocked to the NE and the seas became less irregular, also from the NE. We were sailing and feeling much better. Late in the afternoon Mags noticed our house battery charge was getting low. After a bunch of checking I found a connection from the solar panels that had melted and failed. After repairs it still did not seem to be getting the afternoon charge it should so we decided to motorsail again to provide power to the autopilot.  We travelled through the night with only one more incident when the Jabsco transfer pump spun its impellor while trying to refill the day tank. Fortunately we have spares and after again cuddling the hot engine in a sweltering engine room in the middle of the night the new impellor was in and the fuel transferred. The worst part of fuel issues is that you cannot relax, you are constantly concerned the engine will stop at the most inopportune time.

Finally dawn came and Mags got some land fall photos of San Andreas in the distance as we approached the entry buoy. While we were dropping and stowing the sails to enter the channel through and behind the reef into San Andreas we had an Armada Maritime large inflatable with 3-300 hp engines and pilot house on it approached and wanted to board. We of course invited them on as we continued up the channel, Mags at the helm. Four very friendly young naval personnel and a beautiful golden Labrador came on board, checked our documents, opened most compartments and sniffed everywhere, the dog did the sniffing and they left us just prior to our arrival at the only marina in San Andres, Columbia.
M/v Chartwell and s/v's Coco Prinz and Kanilela Med moored
 to the dock at Nene's Marina.
We decided to opt for the Marina because I thought I may need power to solve the charging issues and possibly have the fuel in the tank polished.

We are stern tied to a dock on the Malecon. The marina staff are friendly and were patient with my inability to smoothly Med-moor.  The water is clean and a beautiful blue. 
Palms and bright colours of the Malecon at the Marina.

The street in front is a frenzy of activity with motorbikes and scooters to rival any Asian city. We have done a little walking in the town and as a duty free resort for wealthy Columbians it is teeming with activity. Kanilela has her encrusted salt washed off and sails all stowed. The two nights sleep have been glorious and tomorrow we plan to take the dinghy out to the reef for some snokelling.