“Repairing Your Boat in Exotic Locations”

February 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

At Anchor, Zihuatenejo

Zihuatenejo Anchorage

Ah, boating.

We hadn’t even cleared Isla Roqueta off the entrance to Acapulco yesterday when we heard a mysterious bang (not the kind of thing you really look forward to hearing on a boat while you’re underway).

A quick run through the salon and the sound of rushing water…under the sink!  The hose between the hot water tank and the kitchen sink blew, and fresh (thank god) water was spraying all over under the sink. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but it has to GO somewhere, so it went down, through the acoustic overhead in the engine room, and under the cabinets and into the carpet in the salon. [Read more…]

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Jan’s Filthy Smoking Habit Inspires Unique Cultural Experience

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Marina Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua

Awaiting the President of Nicaragua

We arrived the morning of Friday, March 26 after a passage of nearly 140 miles and just a bit over 24 hours. On our arrival, we were surprised to find we were the only cruisers at the dock. Roberto, the marina owner, told us that while we were welcome, there would be limited use of the facilities because the President of Nicaragua had reserved the entire property for Easter week, and was scheduled to arrive on Monday. We wiped the salt off the boat, took a dip in the (HOT!) swimming pool, and enjoyed a dinner out with the full attention of the staff – being the only customers raises some interesting concerns about financial viability of a spectacular place like this. Unless the rate for chartering the entire property for a week pays off… [Read more…]

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The Reason We Have No Pictures from January On…

February 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As we prepared to fly home on February 20, we found ourselves with a total of three suitcases, two briefcases, a chart tube, a back-pack, and a tote bag in addition to my purse. All told, we figured we brought a couple boat-units worth of stuff along, everything from varnish to gaskets to spark plugs and oil filters. Each bag weighed in at 52 lbs., and the tote bag and backpack probably weighed in at 25 lbs. each. We managed to check the three suitcases and carry the backpack, chart tube, briefcases and tote bag successfully aboard the airplane and then to the Hotel Santo Tomas in San Jose for our forced overnight. We aimed at taking the bus into Puntarenas on Sunday, the 21st. [Read more…]

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Finishing Up on Independence with Friends and Bikes

February 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Early February found us getting excited to get back to the boat, and Dale and Linda still having the time of their lives cruising the southwest coast of Panama, toward their ultimate rendezvous point with us here in Puntarenas.

We had more company on the ship, with old friends of Ole’s from over 20 years ago joining the cruise on February 6 – Roar and Trish Molvik. We were able to entertain them at Chops, the specialty steakhouse where you can’t get away from the table in less than 2-1/2 hours, and enjoyed the do-it-yourself Bloody Mary bar on one of the sea days.

[Read more…]

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Emma Jo Transits the Panama Canal

November 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Transiting the Panama Canal

The full story of our Canal transit is published separately, and first appeared as an article for the DeFever Cruisers Winter 2010 magazine, and can be found here.

Dale and Linda published their account, and it can be found here.

And John and Kim Pulkabrek published their account, available here.

Three blind men describing an elephant, I’d say.

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Our Canal Transit Partners Arrive, and We Avoid Disaster

November 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama

In spite of the fact that Dale and Linda Bixler, of El Capitan in Brownsville, Washington, arrived on the 12th of November, we’re still here, watching the notorious Panama rainy season in process. It reminds me of the Ray Bradbury story about the astronauts stranded on a planet where it rains all the time – and they die, one by one, being smothered by rapidly growing plants, while they’re trying to find a sun dome to dry out. We could sure use a sun dome about now. It’s 10:17 in the morning, and it’s been raining hard for two and a half hours. [Read more…]

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Jan Returns after a Sad Visit to Bremerton

November 7, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama

I flew out of Panama City on Wednesday, October 28, to be with my family. We had a lovely memorial service for my Uncle Bob at his home, and all of the cousins and their children were there for a feed, a glass of wine, and a toast to a good man who led a good life. He will be missed. [Read more…]

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Moving to Shelter Bay

October 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Flats, Anchorage “F” in Puerto Cristobal, Colon

Serenade of the Seas Gives Us a Salute

While Ole was up at 0530 (doing what, I don’t rightly know), I slept until 0645, and as I was enjoying the first cup of coffee, wiping the sleep from my eyes, Ole shouted, “look at who’s coming down the channel!” and lo and behold, there was RCCL’s Serenade of the Seas, with Captain Stig Nielsen aboard. Stig and his wife live aboard a renovated Swedish rescue boat in Bodo, and when we’ve been in Norway we’ve always missed them. Ole hailed on the radio and had a nice chat with Stig – and as Serenade glided past we were treated to a three-blast salute (thank goodness he repaired the horn yesterday so we could salute back!) [Read more…]

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October is Party Month in Bocas

October 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Bocas Marina
Bocas del Toro, Panama

The second half of October was uneventful (save a couple of spectacular parties to be described later). We waited for parts. Ole has been down in the engine room dismantling the engine, cleaning up, and getting it ready for the hopefully soon arrival of a new manifold and adapter kit. I’ve been working on making new window covers for the outside of the pilot house, trying to protect the interior wood while providing much-needed shade. Thankfully there are just enough common sense fasteners to handle the just enough Sunbrella I have left.

Now to the parties: [Read more…]

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Exploring Almirante Bay

October 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

On October 1, we cheerfully left the dock, picked up 100 gallons of fuel, and headed out with four other boats from the marina for a week to ten days’ worth of relaxation. In the group were Pamela Jean, a 50-foot Formosa cutter from Texas with Bill and Pam aboard; Mariah, a 63-foot Choy Lee sloop with Evelyn and Dave from Key West; Serenity, with Steve (who’s the staff captain on NCL’s Norwegian Jade); all following Guavi, with Ariel and Michelle from Puerto Rico out to some of the islands and anchorages in Bahia Almirante.

Cayo de Agua (Water Cay)

Our first stop was Cayo de Agua (Water Cay), where one of our marina-mates has property he’s hoping to turn into an eco-resort. The weather was fantastic – the sea flat as a table – which was a good thing, because Cayo de Agua is right up against the Caribbean. We anchored on the south side of the cay, off Daniel’s dock, where we were greeted wildly by his three mixed-blood hound dogs who have the run of the place when Daniel isn’t there. [Read more…]

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