Panama to the Gambier Islands

Daryl and I decided to take on an extra hand to help with the watches for the long passage across the Pacific.

The crew of 'No Rehearsal' enjoying a sundowner at a rooftop bar in Panama City.  The last night out before the crossing.  Janis is 24 and from Germany, sadly he had slipped by the pool in the marina, that's the reason for the bandage!

Going through the canal was quite a stressful experience, but we managed it all in the one day and were glad to be out at last into the Pacific.

Most of the passage was what we call 'Champagne Sailing' with a glass of wine and nimbles each evening at sundown.  We decided to sail only on one of the headsails and that worked really well.  Having the choice of five to choose from, there was always one that fitted the conditions, and we used them all at some stage.

Showing Janis the ropes, and he showed me a new knot too, never too old to learn new tricks!!                                  

Land Ahoy, after 24 days we approach the Gambier Islands and anchor outside the main town of Rikitea.              

Adios Panama

Just a quick post: Tuesday 20th March.
We shall be leaving Panama in a couple of hours, spending a couple of days in Las Perlas islands, south of here, before heading off to the Marquesas.
I'm having trouble adding photos, but will add photos of canal etc. in next blog.

Best photo from the San Blas

How did I forget to include the best photo from the San Blas?  Fabulous!

San Blas to Panama

The San Blas are islands northeast of Panama and inhabited by the Cuna Indians.  They are very beautiful and can only be reached by boat.  Lisa landed in Panama and after spending a night in a local hostel, she had to get a 4x4 to Carti and then a small boat to No Rehearsal.  Needless to say, she was a bit weary when she finally appeared!

Lisa, relaxing on the foredeck

A dingy ride up one of the island rivers.  The Cuna grow their vegetable up some of these rivers, and often are only wide enough for a kayak.

One of the vegetable boats that come around to the anchored boats with a wide variety of produce.                              

The on to the Marina in Shelter Bay, lots of jobs to do before heading through the canal.  Always time for a cocktail at the bar!

One of the marina's local attractions is a sloth that lives in a tree by the travel lift.                                                       

Lisa and I had some good walks near the marina, with some interesting wildlife to see.  The howling monkeys can be heard screeching from the boat and sometimes seen in the trees nearby.

No Rehearsal was not due to transit the canal before Lisa was due to leave and so we signed up to be 'line-handlers' for another boat that needed two extra hands.  It took us two days in all, with one night spent in Gatun lake.  It was owned by two Austrians and they had been planning this trip since they were at school.  Great experience.

Georgetown to the San Blas

The weather looked good, so we stocked up on provisions and headed south.

Theron caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi, delicious!  

I was a rough old passage and too rough to hang the washing on deck, so here it is adorning the cockpit!    After the first couple of days the wind was behind us, bringing following seas and a more comfortable ride.

Here is 'Poop', so called because he landed on the back steps and for other reasons too!  He had several attempts at landing and was obviously really tired.  He spent the first night in the dingy and in the morning flew off, but returned and spent the second night in the cockpit.  He was with us for three days and we persuaded him to leave when we arrived in the San Blas.

Provenir is one of the islands in the San Blas.  We arrived at night and it was quite a challenge to anchor.  The island is tiny and the runway takes up most of the island.  But there is a local restaurant that served us excellent fish one lunchtime.  We shall stay here to wait for Lisa' s arrival.

Leaving Florida

At last we are on our way, a stop at West Palm Beach just to make sure all the systems are working well and to pick up our crew member, Theron from Alaska.

Christmas on No Rehearsal

                                     

                                Christmas dinner!!     Delicious!                                      

A pensive moment at sunset in Warderwick Wells in the Bahamas,  our cat in the background.                                      

Theron and I took a long walk around the island, this is at the top of Boo Boo Hill, still lots of boat signs, but not many we recognised this time.

Warderwick Wells dock, the weather was not the best whilst we were there, but plenty of good skies.                             

A beautiful sunrise, and guess what, all the boats in the picture are catamarans, how times are changing.                    

So time to stock up and head south to the San Blas Islands.

Sea Trials

Finally we are ready to head out and test some of the new boat systems.

Daryl sets about removing the cheap air conditioning unit that has been running 24/7 since we arrived here, keeping us cool.  We did not want to run the expensive boat unit  for so long, and $400 at Home Depot was a great alternative.

Heading down the New River early in the morning with the sun rising in front of us.  So good to be moving.                    

                                                                                             Breakfast cereal at sea                                            

We are sailing!  At last the white things are up and we have a lovely sail down to Key Biscayne.                               

Calibrating the auto pilot needed a lot of space and circling around the large bay in the Keys was a great spot for it.

So, most of the systems worked fine.  The rig will need some tuning after this first sail and there are a couple of glitches that need to be sorted out.  Back to base at the noisy Lauderdale Marine Centre again after a wonderful quiet few days at anchor.