Transit Day

Well, the day has finally come. It’s Transit Day. We’ve been preparing and anticipating this day for a very long time. Along with the pure logistics of transiting the Panama Canal in a sailing vessel, comes the fact that, for us, there’s no turning back now. Once we’re through this canal, we’re in the Pacific, and turning around, while always an option, becomes that much more difficult. While still on the Caribbean side, there’s this sense of security, a connection to home…you’re not THAT far away. But once we’re “on the other side”, well….it’s a long way home via the rest of the world!

But back to today. At 1:00pm our agent, Roy Bravo will come and deliver the lines, the fenders and our line handler. We will leave the marina at 2:00pm and head over to the Flats Anchorage, a staging ground for the first lock. There we will receive our advisor. Every vessel has an advisor from the Panama Canal on board to guide us through the locks. The line handler is an extra set of hands to help us with the huge ropes that will be thrown to us from canal handlers on the side of the locks, and that will constantly have to be adjusted to keep us steady and away from the side of the locks as the water rises. Dave will be at the helm, Garrick, Adrian, myself and the line handler will each be on a corner of the boat controlling the lines.

Once we get through the 3 sets of locks we will be in Gatun Lake, where we will anchor for the night. The advisor will be picked up, but our line handler will spend the night. On Tuesday morning, a new advisor will come to the boat, and will guide us across the lake, and then through the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side. We should be in the Pacific on Tuesday evening!

Unfortunately we are not able to fill up with diesel here at the Marina, and although we have enough fuel to motor through the lake (you have to motor, you are not allowed to sail), we can’t afford to waste fuel on running the generator, which we had hoped to do, so we could run our A/C for our night on the Lake. Oh well…I guess we have to get used to it anyway. We’ve been spoilt with being able to run the A/C while in the marina.

We’ve had a good time here at Shelter Bay Marina, as Dave mentioned in a previous post. Poor Garrick and Adrian were put to work right away, and Adrian was barely able to get over his jetlag, being thrown right in to the mix and helping with boat tasks and preparation! I’m happy to report that Puff is fixed, but there is a snag with the main halyard AGAIN (this has certainly become our Achilles heel!!). As Dave mentioned, West Marine sent a 10mm rope, when we ordered and paid for a 12mm rope. It’s a never ending saga that Dave and I are so tired of, we just can’t even think about it anymore! We will see if we can find the needed 12mm rope in Panama City once we get over there. Luckily our trusty mule Garrick, did bring our old halyard with him as well as the new rope, so we do at least have that as a last resort backup!

Puff getting repaired in the sail loft

But to more fun stuff: our tour of the Panama Canal. Wow…what an experience! On Friday we took a taxi through the jungle roads that lead out of Shelter Bay Marina, and went to visit the Gatun Locks – partly in preparation for our own transit, and partly just to see it all first hand as a tourist.

The sheer magnitude of the operation is mind-blowing, and the history behind it even more so. The first attempt to build the canal was made by the French in 1880, but the cost, both financially and in loss of human life, caused them to abandon the project. After its independence in 1903, Panama made a deal with the US and the construction of the canal started in 1904. There is a LOT more history behind that sentence, but, in the essence of time, I’ll keep it short. The canal was finished in 1914, and was controlled by the U.S until 1999, when Panama took over the control of the Canal. Just being here and seeing the jungle and feeling the heat and humidity (and I’m a Durban/Tampa girl…I know heat and humidity!!), I can only imagine what those poor workers must have gone through building this canal. There was a tremendous loss of life during the construction of the canal, both from disease and from construction related accidents.

Construction of the Culebra Cut in 1907 (Wikipedia)

The Gatun Locks that we will go through first are still the original locks that were completed in 1914. Amazingly enough, the water is not pumped from one lock to another. When a chamber is drained, the water is emptied into the ocean, and when the locks need to be filled up, water is pumped from the lake. The new locks, that are set to open in June, and will be able to handle the super tankers, are designed to recycle the water and it will be pumped from one chamber to another, rather than in and out of the lake and ocean.

The Crew with locks.  You can see a ship transiting through the lock on the right

The cost for a ship to go through the canal is in the region of $300,000 to $400,000 PER TRANSIT. So if a ship goes through, drops off containers, turns around and comes back again – it pays again. The big ships that will be able to transit through the new locks will be upwards of $500,000 per transit! But it saves them 2 – 4 weeks, not to mention the cost involved in running a vessel for that extra time, by not having to go around Cape Horn. We asked how they decided which ship would be the first through the new locks, and we were told that it was a lottery and a Chinese ship is on its way right now to be the one to do the maiden voyage through the new locks.

The lock doors closing and the water level going down in the lock on the right

This ship just barely made it through!  

The same ship as it passed by.  It actually scraped the side of the wall on the far left as the tug driver on our side was not paying attention, and didn't have his lines tight enough!

Beside our time at the Panama Canal, we also provisioned, which ended up being a whole day affair. Buying the food was one thing….finding space to put it all…entirely another! But I managed, and while some of us may be sleeping with beer cans at our feet and tins of tuna snuggled up next to our t-shirts, we should not starve on our way across the Pacific!

Finding space for beer...

Just some of the supplies...

Where to put it all?

Our surroundings also lent themselves to some jungle exploring, and our two most intrepid explorers were Garrick and Gaby. The area around the Marina used to be a US military base, and the runway is still here, as are some of the barracks, and officer’s housing. The buildings are abandoned and decrepit, and the jungle is reclaiming them, but it is amazing to see. Our explorers found a church, gun batteries, a zoo (!), and rumour has it that they just let the animals go out into the jungle and that there might be a big cat wondering around…rumor has it… (monkeys were seen, but they are locals – not remnants from the zoo!)

Garrick and Gaby found a beautiful beach on one of their walks

Jungle walk

Gudrun and Gaby at one of the batteries

We also took the opportunity of wifi to finally set up our drone, and finally fly it! It was a long and frustrating day of downloads and updates and things initially not working, but finally it all came together, and we (ie. Dave and Benjamin) flew it around the marina for a test flight. We were very impressed with it and the videos it took, so we hope to have some amazing footage of deserted islands and atolls in the South Pacific!

Maiden flight...paparazzi captures the moment

Success!

Flyin' High!

And so, once again, we have to say farewell to a place we’ve called home for the last 5 days. We’ve met some wonderful fellow cruisers: some moving on like we are, some heading back home, but everyone has been so friendly and helpful: providing assistance with the SSB radio (thank you, Edd!), knowledge of areas sailed, and even giving us provisions of food that they don’t need and can’t keep on their boat while they head back to the US for a few months (thank you, Betsy!). We are somewhat nervous, somewhat excited (at least I am), to once again be moving on. This is a big step for us, but we are ready to make it! I hope to have wifi on the flip side, and be able to provide and update along with pictures of our transit into the gateway that is the vast Pacific Ocean!

As a reminder, here is the link to the Gatun Locks webcam.  We should be going through at around 7:00pm EST:
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html/

New Kid's Cabin Update!

Please see the "Kid's Cabin" tab for 2 new updates from Ben!  Scroll down just a bit to see his posts!

Time in Panama

Hi everyone.....just putting this up now....its raw and Guds will edit and add pictures later, so come back for the "enhanced" version maybe late today or tomorrow morning!

Well we have all been busy working on the boat and enjoying Shelter Bay Marina area and visiting the Panama Canal visitor center to see where we are going to transit through hopefully on Monday night.

Soon after Garrick and Adrian arrived we got to work on all the boat chores and repairs. The new main halyard has been installed, but unfortunately West Marine sent Garrick 10mm rope instead of the 12mm rope we ordered and paid for, so we have to work through trying to get West Marine to either refund us the money and we send them back the 10mm rope (a real pain) and then attempt to buy 12mm rope in Panama City some place. That may be challenging given we only have one day in Panama City. We do have the old main halyard aboard now, so if needed have that as a last resort.

Guds and Garrick went into town yesterday to shop and top off the provisions we already have aboard, so that we hopefully don’t have to do any major shopping again for a while. Adrian and I worked on the boat trying to make more space while they were gone, and generally started preparing the boat for the canal transit.

Apparently you should be able to see us transit the canal on the live web cam feed below….you will need to choose the "Gatun Locks" live feed as those are the locks on the Caribbean side we will transit through on Monday early evening. Here is the feed links I think (try all 3) otherwise just google “Gatun Locks live webcam feed…you will/should see a ship and some where behind it you may see our tiny boat ;) :

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html/
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Gatun
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Gatun

Here is our exact transit time (remember these are local Panama time which is 1 hour behind Florida EST):

Pilot boarding time                         3.15pm on 23^rd

Arriving Gatun locks                   4.45pm on 23^rd (5.45pm Florida live web feed)

Clearing Gatun locks                    6.05pm on 23^rd (7.05pm Florida time)

Anchoring Gatun lake                     6.30pm on 23rd

The plan as it stands is we leave the marina tomorrow, get fuel at 2pm, head to near the canal entrance, anchor and wait for both a line handler and canal adviser. When they board at 3.15pm, the adviser is the person that tells us exactly where to go and helps navigate us up through the locks and into the lake. Once through we anchor in the lake on Monday night, and then head across the lake with a new adviser on Tuesday day and head for the down locks called the Miraflores Locks, and into the Pacific Ocean!!!! I still can’t believe it’s happening!!!! We also got the invoice for our canal transit today….$2,160 eekkkkk…but I guess compared to the average ship one way transit bill of $400,000 we are a drop in the bucket!!!! That plus the $2,100 we already had to pay for the Galapagos entry permits and suddenly we start being VERY careful with our limited money saved up…..oh well…..you only live once ;)

After that we likely will spend one night near Panama City, before heading off out to the Los Perla’s Islands, just south of Panama City. We will use that time at anchor to clean the bottom of the hull, and get mentally prepared for the 8 day voyage to Galapagos Islands. Our plan is to spend a week there….hopefully may get some internet access there to do a blog update and catch up on emails. From there it’s a 3 week, 3000 mile crossing to Marquees Islands…..;) 

To catch you up on some videos here are a few for enjoyment….

Enjoy:

1^st one is from us diving the “Windjammer” ship wreck off the Dry Tortugas”

 Windjammer wreck video link - Dry Tortugas

2^nd is our tour two days ago of the Panama Canal visitors center at the Gatun Locks…look how close the ship is to the side of the concrete lock wall!!!!

Panama Gatun Canal lock visit

3^rd is another of Ben & Gaby in “school field trip” at the canal locks.

Ben & Gaby school day watching lock door closing

That’s about it for now….off to try and get our drone working…..its been in the box since we purchased it, maybe fit some new boat speakers we have aboard, and fit a new compass ;)

Thanks for everyone’s good wishes, for following us, and for all the comments/news!!!!

All the best from the new and improved team Cool Runnings….now playing with a bigger expanded and better team!!!!

Ps….our beer consumption seems to have DRASTICALLY increased with Adrian and Garrick aboard ….not sure we can carry all the beer we “need” to make it the next few weeks, so may begin rationing once underway ;)

Panama

We made it!  And we have reinforcements!

As we neared the breakwater to the Panama Canal, our AIS, which is the system that identifies ships around you, just lit up.  It was both funny and scary!  On our passages down, it was actually something fun to do, especially on night watch.  I would check the chart plotter, hoping a little triangle would appear.  When it did, I could click on it, and see the name of the vessel, what it was called, where it was going, how long it was, how wide it was, and what course it was traveling.  This allowed us to see if we would have any close encounters with ships...and avoid them.

This is what our chart plotter looked like 27 miles out:  You can't even see the entrance to the Canal with all the ships!

Dave assured us it was no problem, that he used to sail his Optimist in Durban harbour amongst the ships...I believe him, this I've heard before!  But just seeing the ships, either at anchor outside the breakwater, waiting to get in, or inside the breakwater, waiting to transit, was just amazing.  And as we actually got closer and started dodging them all, you realize what a huge operation the Panama Canal is!  All these vessels, coming and going, crossing one country to get from one ocean to another!

6 miles out - easier to see the actual ships now

It was particularly amusing to find ships that had passed us on the way, now waiting to get into the Canal.  Benjamin would spot them:  "Look, there's the Loland" (we laughed at that name :  LOL Land - we have little to keep us amused), and "Look!  The Atlantic Star!"  We identified the tankers, the cargo ships, the Loland was full of truck cabs, all lined up on her deck.  It was fun.  

Approaching the canal.  It was a rainy, misty day, but you can get an idea of the ships on the horizon

We made our way through the breakwater and soon were in Shelter Bay Marina, where most boats go, to complete all the paperwork necessary for a Canal transit.  After those 4 and a half days and 4 nights, we were SO happy to be stable again!  

Dave had just enough time to rinse off the boat, and I was still getting the washing together and wiping everything down and starting to tidy up, when we saw a man with a wheelbarrow approaching the boat...yes, a wheelbarrow....Garrick had arrived!!  The kids raced out to meet him and it was SO good to see him!  Garrick had 2 huge bags (in the wheelbarrow) and one small backpack.  The two huge bags were full of all the items we had asked him to bring for us...primarily 2 sets of rope!  The poor guy lugged all the rope from Virginia to Panama for us!  The backpack was all the space he had left for his own stuff.  Again, thank you, Garrick for EVERYTHING you did for us during our "dark hours"!

Garrick (and new rope!) arrive!!

Today (Wednesday) was a busy day.  In the morning, the Admeasurer from the Panama Canal came to measure our boat.  Jose was an extremely interesting guy and gave us a crash course in modern Panamanian history.  So interesting to talk to!  That will have to be a post in itself to relay everything we learned!  He physically measured our boat with a tape measure and completed all the necessary paperwork.  We have 3 options for transiting the canal:  either we will be center chamber, which means we would be by ourselves in the middle of the chamber; we could be tied up next to a tug boat; or we could be rafted up with one or 2 other boats.  We won't know until we get there.  What the measurer does is take all the information, and they see what other boats they have needing to go through, and they work out the best option given the size and number of boats. 

Jose has a very important tape measure

Due to the fact that we have some repairs and provisioning to do, we have asked to transit on Monday.  Once we know for sure, I'll write a post on the procedure for transiting.

The second exciting thing that happened today was the we met another "Kid Boat"!  I met a lady at the Marina and we started chatting.  She is French.  She asked if we had kids.  I said, yes, we do...do you?!  Yes, she said...2 boys, ages 15 and 9!  YAY!  KIDS!  They are also circumnavigating, having left Europe in September!  I offered to have her come over with the kids in the afternoon and meet Benjamin and Gaby.  And so she did, and, voila! boat friends!  Ben and Gaby went to the Marina pool to swim with Paul and Antoine and I think the noise from the fun they were having, must have brought out all the other kids in the marina that we didn't know were here!  Soon there were 6 or 7 kids playing in the pool!  We didn't see our 2 until it was dark and raining and they had so much fun.  Plans have been made to get together tomorrow again.  Sadly, they transit on Friday, so they'll be gone after that, but I think we may see them again on the way!  We will certainly look out for them!

Third thing (not so exciting), was that poor Dave went up the mast again.  We hope that we have FINALLY fixed the problem with the chafing (Dave was up there for about 3 hours!!), and he rigged up the brand new rope Garrick brought, and fixed the part where the rope was getting pinched, so fingers crossed...the halyard problem should be fixed!

This is what you look like when you are doing repair work 70 feet up in the air

And lastly...reinforcement # 2 arrived!  A weary Adrian, having left South Africa on Tuesday morning, flew from Durban to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Dubai, Dubai to Orlando, Orlando to Panama, and then had to endure a 2 hour car ride in a monster storm with pelting rain and lightning, calmly knocked on our hull to announce his arrival at about 8:30pm tonight!!  He too came with 2 big bags...one was full of pressies!  Thank you, Oma and Opa for the gifts for Ben and Gaby (Gaby shrieked with delight at her new raincoat! :)); thank you, Michelle for the beautiful scarf (and the Onion Marmalade!), and thank you to Adrian for all the other goodies you brought!  We are so glad you made it and so happy to have the Cool Runnings crew finally together.  It's been so many years of planning, it's hard to believe we are all sitting here in the jungle of Panama!

A note of thanks also to Kelly and Michelle for loaning us your men for 2 and half months!  We realize it's a sacrifice on everyone's part, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts - we are so happy to have them, have their help and their company!  I will look after them and return them to you both in once piece!!  The 3 musketeers are together again, and we are excited to begin the next part of this journey!

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Tuesday, May 17th, 2016

Sunsets in Key West...nice; anchored off the tranquil, turquoise waters of the Dry Tortugas...beautiful; swimming with Stingrays and playing with starfish in Grand Cayman....amazing.  Those moments, so far, have been "the Good".   Dave wrote an account of our rather harrowing journey to the Caymans - that was "the Bad".  The trip from Cayman to Panama:  "the Ugly".

As we left Grand Cayman on Friday morning, everything was great.  The wind, that had been blowing pretty strongly for the last couple of days, had calmed down and it was a beautiful sail past the island, south toward Panama.  I thought to myself, oh, this I can handle for 4 days!  Then, the further we got away from land, the more confused the seas got.  And the ride got bumpier and bumpier.  And, 7 hours in, we checked the main halyard, that we had repaired in Grand Cayman, and noticed that it was chafed again.  We couldn't believe it.  We decided to put a reef in the main sail to ease the load a bit, and watched it for a little longer.  Then Dave had another look, and decided to take down the main.  I won't go into the technical details, but he had taken a picture with our zoom lens, and noticed the main halyard pinched at the top of the mast as it entered.  As bad as it was, we were happy to finally realize what had been causing the chafe.  Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't use our main sail, and we still had about 600 miles to go!

We put up "Puff", our big geneker, and sailed only with that sail.  Friday night was OK, and then Saturday it got worse.  The swells were getting bigger and coming at us from the side.  By Sunday, the wind had picked up and was blowing about 25 knots.  We were experiencing swells of between 10 - 12 feet, some as tall as 20ft.  You would look out and see a wall of water coming toward you, and then the boat would lift up over it, and either slide down the other side, or sometimes, fall off the top of wave, and we'd hear almighty crashes as it hit the water!  While this certainly wasn't pleasant, it was made worse by the fact that we didn't have a main sail, and basically, we were overpowered with "Puff".  BUT, it was too rough and dangerous to take down, because we would have had to go to the front of the boat to take the sail down, and neither one of us would risk it.  So Sunday night was tough...we were getting closer to Panama and there were more ships.  We had an incident where a ship came within a mile of us, and we couldn't change course to avoid it, because of our situation with "Puff".  Dave radioed the ship and explained our situation, and he changed course slightly and passed by.  It was by far the roughest night we've had so far.

The only good thing about the strong wind and the big sail was that we were making good speed, and were on track to arrive in Panama by Tuesday morning.  By midnight on Monday, the wind died a little and changed direction, and Dave, who normally will sail under almost any condition, fired up our engines before you could even blink!!  So we motor sailed the rest of the way, and eventually took Puff down, and came in under engine power only.  We arrived in Panama at 1:30pm on Tuesday, May 17th, exactly one month, to the hour, after leaving Madeira Beach!

A note on Puff:  I will go on record and say that I was not a fan of Puff.  Whenever Dave said that he was going to put Puff up, my heart sank. It's a huge sail and quite frankly, it scared me.  It is so powerful, and we've had moments when it's gotten a bit out of control (as Benjamin has put it, "Puff had a tantrum"!).  But now I take back anything bad I ever said about Puff.  To add insult to injury, Puff tore while we were taking the main sail down because of the chafing on the halyard.  But even torn and battered (we did attempt a repair, but it tore again), Puff just kept going, and got us all the way to Panama!  It has redeemed itself in my eyes!  Thank you, Puff!

Puff puffing us all the way to Panama.  It's such a big sail, it's hard to get it into one shot

So that was "the Ugly".  You may be wondering why we even do this, when our passages so far have been absolutely no fun at all.  We have asked ourselves the same thing at times, but then just the few "Goods" we've experienced so far already by far overshadow the Bad and the Ugly, and that's why we keep going!

Benjamin and Gaby:  You guys have been amazing:  homesick and seasick, you have not complained once.  We love you so much and are so, so proud of you!

Captain, my Captain:  I will follow you anywhere...even around the world.  Thank you for navigating us safely to land!

We did have SOME fun!  We had 2 flying fish land on the boat:  Fred and Flippie.  It was a lesson in fish anatomy!

Farewell Grand Cayman

"Refuel" and "Repair":  those were the two boxes we checked on our Immigration paperwork when we arrived in Grand Cayman last Thursday.  That was our intention, but we've ended up enjoying so much more!  Our plan was to do the repair on Thursday, look around on Friday and leave for Panama on Saturday.  But here we are, a week later, getting the boat ready to depart tomorrow!

We've had a wonderful time in Cayman, and met some great people.  Our deepest thanks go to Mike Farrington of Compass Marine, for his help in getting us back on track, and making the trip up the mast...twice!  If you ever find yourself in the Cayman Islands, and need assistance with anything boat related, Mike's your guy!  In addition to getting the main halyard fixed, and the Geneker halyard repaired and rigged so it too won't chafe, we also fitted a new radar, a job that had been slated for Panama, but is now out of the way.

The New Radar Dome

In case you missed it in a previous post, Mike is also from South Africa, and it turns out he and Dave sailed together many moons ago!  They know all the same sailing folks...what a small world!  Also a huge thank you to Mike, his girlfriend, Karen, and her kids Paddy and Lily for the BEST BRAAI EVER last night!  We so enjoyed your company, and the boerewors was amazing!  Benjamin and Gaby enjoyed the company of other children for the first time in a while, and absolutely reveled in it!  We hope to see you "out there" in the not too distant future!

So today we headed downtown to the Customs and Immigration office and cleared out, so we now have 24 hrs to depart.  We've spent the day getting the boat ready for the next passage.  We have over 600 miles to Panama, and anticipate being underway for about 4.5 days, so we should get there sometime next Tuesday.  We are eagerly looking forward to meeting up with our friends, Garrick and Adrian, (who is coming all the way from SA!), and who will help us sail from Panama to French Polynesia!

So as we say farewell to the friendly island of Grand Cayman, we leave with 4 GB of music from the Jamaicans on "Oh Reely", a Rum Cake and a new phrase..."Yeah Mon"...

Yum...Rumcake!

Our home for the last week:  the Barcadere Marina

Keep tracking us on the "Track us Here" tab, and so long, until Panama!

One quick final video link below of last few hours in Cayman this evening hanging out at the yacht club pool with our boat in background:

Having fun at yacht club pool on last day in Cayman

A Mother's Day to Remember!

A very happy belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  I hope you all had a magical day on Sunday.  I certainly had one to remember!  It was pretty windy on Sunday in the Caymans, but we knew that if we wanted to get to "Stingray City", we had to go on Sunday, because Monday was slated for repair work on the main sail. We took the dinghy out across North Sound, and boy, was it a rough ride!  We were unfortunately, (once again!) going right into the wind with lots of bashing and pounding!  But it was worth it...

Stingray City was inadvertently created in the early 1900's when fishermen, returning to port, anchored in the (usually) calm waters of Grand Cayman's North Sound, which is protected by a reef.  The fishermen cleaned their catch here, and threw unused bait overboard.  Southern Stingrays, who hunt by sense of smell, quickly discovered these new feeding grounds, and have continued to come back here to dine!  These days, they dine primarily on squid provided by divers and snorkelers.

One of our visitors

When we finally reached the sandbar, we immediately spotted the gentle giants in the crystal clear water!  They came right over, hoping for something to eat...unfortunately we did not have anything for them, but they still allowed us to swim with them.  Due to the weather, there were very few people out there, which was great, but then a boat arrived, and they did have food for them, and then the stingrays were no longer interested in us!

So close you can (and we did!) touch them!

We had a wonderful time with them, were able to touch them, and swim with them, and snorkel out there on the beautiful sandbar.  The dinghy ride back was quick and painless, and we were back on the boat in the early afternoon.  After some recuperation time, we took our little rental car and explored the West End of the island, and stopped at a another beautiful little beachfront restaurant called "Alfresco" where I was treated to a Mother's Day dinner.  I must say....I can't complain!!

Click below for video:

Video of Stingray City

Ben and Mom...Hang Ten

Gaby touching one of the Stingrays

Team Cool Runnings 

A Boat Birthday! (And a History Lesson)

Sorry it's a little out of order, but I did want to share a little bit of Ben's 12th Birthday and our time in the Dry Tortugas.  After we left Key West, we headed to the Dry Tortugas, about 70 miles from Key West.  We've been here a couple of times, and absolutely love it.  It is home to Fort Jefferson, the largest all-masonry fort in the United States.

A view of Fort Jefferson from our boat.  This evening was exciting as a black hawk helicopter (Customs and Border Patrol) landed right here at the fort!  It was cool to see it fly right over us and land on the beach at the fort

Fort Jefferson was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the shipping channel and the US gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.  The difficulty of getting supplies to the fort and then the Civil War delayed construction, and the fort was actually never finished.  When you walk around it, it is just amazing to see what was actually accomplished, out there in the middle of nowhere.  The park rangers told us that it took 16 million bricks to build it.  You can see the weather taking its toll on the bricks and the erosion is quite significant.

One of the old cannons on the fort (with Cool Runnings conveniently anchored in the background)

A moat surrounds the entire fort.  Great snorkeling on the outside of it

The fort has over 2,000 arches

More of the 2,000 arches

You can see the significant erosion of the brick walls from time, weather and water

The fort was also used as a prison for a time, and Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was convicted of helping John Wilkes Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln, was imprisoned here for 4 years.  He was later pardoned by President Andrew Johnson because of his work on finding a cure and the cause of yellow fever, which broke out on the island in 1867, and his subsequent work in aiding the sick after the fort's physician died (of yellow fever).

A view of the inside of the fort.
You can see some of the ruins of the old buildings on the bottom right of the picture

Beautiful old trees grow in the fort's "interior"

Anyway, all of this is part of Ben and Gaby's "boat schooling"...history!  Additionally, Gaby took the time to complete 2 workbooks while we were there, and was sworn in as a Junior Ranger by Ranger Mike!  We are very proud of her (and didn't have our camera with us when she was sworn in!!).  But she received 2 badges...both very special.  She received the Underwater Ranger badge, of which only 88 have been awarded, and her Junior Ranger badge is a special one because it's the Park's Centennial year this year!

Gaby hard at work on her Junior Ranger certification

As a side note, the Dry Tortugas are also home to Loggerhead Key, the most beautiful island/reef, featured right here on the top of the blog!

Friday, April 29th was Benjamin's 12th birthday!  We started the day with pressies, and then took Cool Runnings over to the "Windjammer" wreck to do some snorkeling.  The water was still a little cold, and the current was very strong.  We did dive (snorkel) the wreck for a bit, and Dave has some cool video on the GoPro that we will need to post once downloaded.

The afternoon was even more special, because we celebrated with cookie cake, Ben's favorite!!  Thank you to Granny for thinking of, ordering and wrapping the cookie cake so carefully, which had been stored in our little freezer since we left.  It was yummy, and what's a birthday without cake, right?!  Thank you to everyone who wished Benjamin a happy birthday!  We didn't get the comments, emails and texts until we were connected to the outside world again (with wifi in the Cayman Islands).

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

So we were planning to head out on Saturday, but on the way over to dive the Windjammer wreck...guess what...the inverter, that we had repaired in Key West, died again!!  We were kicking ourselves for not just replacing it in the first place (instead of the drama that went with getting it repaired), but hey, hindsight it 20/20.  Our little Iridium Go! (satellite) has been the bomb!  Just like it saved us when the main halyard broke, Dave was able to call West Marine in Key West, who luckily still had the one we had ordered as a backup.  He was able to arrange for West Marine to drop the new inverter at the ferry that comes out to the Dry Tortugas daily.  The ferry brought the new inverter on Saturday morning, we took the old one out, put the new one in, and brought it back to the ferry in the afternoon, who then took that one back to Key West.  Our friend Garrick, who has also been the bomb, had arranged for a courier to pick the old inverter up at the ferry, and ship it back to the people who did the repair in Ft. Lauderdale.  All this was arranged and accomplished without any car rental or speeding tickets required!

So it delayed us by one day, but we now have a new inverter/charger.  And now you are up-to-date on our activities!  Again, apologies for the delay in getting this one done, and being out of order, but I couldn't let the history lesson, and the mention of Benjamin's birthday be overlooked!

In true Cool Runnings fashion, I'll end this one with a sunset...

Sunset on Saturday, April 30th.
Loggerhead Key is way in the distance...the little stick on the left hand side of the picture

Day touring Cayman Islands

Saturday, May 7th, 2016

Today, as the memory of a tough passage starts to fade, we decided to hire a car for the next 3 days to have some fun touring around the island.

It started off by me walking to the airport to pick up our rental car ....it is only an 8 minute walk from our Marina...don't worry, I have not gone native yet....getting close though. Was good to walk again, as Guds and I use to walk every morning together before work...mainly to talk about and plan our "future" trip that we are now living ;)

Of course got a bit hosed at the rental car with all the extras, as we no longer have any car insurance we use to carry in the States...of well, what you gonna do ;) Drove it back to the marina and loaded the team Cool Runnings crew into the minute Kia Picalo and were about to take off when we saw another boat coming into dock in strong winds. We could tell they were struggling so all hopped out to help them dock before taking off again.

Basically there is one long road around the island that runs along the coast. What a beautiful drive!!!! The water is just spectacular. Our 1st stop was at the "blowholes" which was pretty cool. Ben and Gaby got some impromptu lessons on blowholes, fossils in the rocks etc.

Blowhole

Learning about fossils and blowholes

Next stop was "Wreck of 10 Sails"...a memorial site along the ocean front from a small cliff overlooking the ship wreck site of a vessel that wrecked there in 1794!!!! My mind raced with images of those poor souls and how brave they were to sail the ocean with essentially nothing compared to how we now sail (gps, autopilots, digital chart plotters, radar, water makers etc).

We stopped at a few other spots along the road, and eventually made it all the way around to "Rum Point" and then finally "Starfish Point" This place was awesome...huge starfish just under the surface....we waded out and picked a few up (yes its permitted, despite my rule enforcing Gaby's protests that we should not pick one up!). Oh well another good learning opportunity and the kids were fascinated eventually touching, holding and examining them before putting them down and watching as they scurried along. We spent some time here and then eventually started heading back home.

Hanging out at Rum Point

Starfish Point

Absolutely incredible...crystal clear water with beautiful starfish!

A close look at the starfish

One other memorable stop was a single bench overlooking a deserted beach, with a shade sail hung above.....I conveniently had no glasses at the time so could not make out what the sign said as I sat down to enjoy the view. After later zooming in on the pic I discovered it said "Private Property"....oooppps sorry!!!

Yes, Dave...it says "Private Property"

On our way back we found this beautiful tiny little shack on the beach that a couple of locals seem to be queuing up for take away. So we stopped and walked up to check it out. I must say we did look a little out of place, but what the hell....when in Rome!!! So we ordered up some fried Mahi Mahi, and the lady cooking directed me to the gas station across the road for beer/wine as she sold no alcohol. Off I went and came back with a six pack and dinky wine bottle for Guds. This place is literally on the beach complete with rickety wooden tables/benches, chickens walking around etc. VERY COOL setting. We sat down and enjoyed some out of the way real local cooking.

Video link below of our dinner on the beach described above...place was called "GrapeTree Cafe":

Team Cool Runnings beach dinner - Cayman Islands video


We stopped at another couple of spots along the way before finally hitting a super market to replenish a few stocks.

That's about it for today's update....made it back to the boat around 8.30pm exhausted!!!!! Time to hit the sack and recharge those lithium ion batteries ;) Thanks as always for the comments, and great to hear from everyone! A few more pics from today:

Near The Reef Resort on East End

Those Starfish were just amazing

No caption needed...!

Our 12 year old - just because Guds loves this picture of him!

PS: Gary and Brenda....we have some pics we want to email you of your boat in Dry Tortugas, but don't have your email....we left you a comment under your comment on yesterdays blog post ;)

Reporting from the Cayman Islands

Hi everyone,

We have wifi! So we can post. Apologies in advance…it’s a long one!

After leaving Key West, we had a great sail toward the Dry Tortugas, and anchored off Marquesas Key the first night. On Wednesday, April 27th, we sailed the rest of the way and arrived Wednesday afternoon. We spent a couple of great days at a place we all love. Guds was working on a post on our time in the Dry Tortugas, so she will probably post that tomorrow.

 

We had left Dry Tortugas I think on May 1st (slowly starting to loose track of time/days as we fade away from "normal life"). The Plan was to sail straight to Panama. Let’s just say we had a baptism of fire 1st leg ;) I am so proud of Guds and the kids for what they endured.

The first part went really smoothly for the 1st 14 miles ;) Then we hit the gulfstream heading over to Cuba....oh boy....all Guds and I could say....thank goodness we did not attempt that part at night!!!!! With about a 2 1/2 knot current going one way and the wind in the opposite direction suddenly we had huge and confused 12ft to 15ft seas!!! You could literally see a line in the water (no kidding) were the gulf stream started. I think that was around 10.30am.....we finally broke free of its grip around 5.30pm...what a rough ride that was!!!!!

After that we had a great run and relatively good 1st night sailing through the night parallel to Cuba about 50 to 70 miles off their coastline. Good speeds of 8 knots most of the time. That continued through the next day and I think it was in the morning that I looked up and saw the main halyard had chafed through again!!!!! .....literally after sailing for only 24hrs...."what the hell" is all I was thinking!!!! My heart sank as I told Guds what I had seen!!!

We sat down quickly at the helm station to discuss our options....as we were talking through ideas...."BANG"!!!!! My worst nightmare...the main halyard broke and gave way before I could lower the sail. The mainsail came crashing down. The downside of this was the broken halyard was now fallen down inside the mast (a much harder repair to make vs if it was all intack like the repair I had made a few days earlier in Key West). We went from sailing along at 8 knots to 3 knots in an instant!

I secured the mainsail in its bag and we sailed on for about 30 minutes on the jib while we pondered next moves. That damn Murphy through another curve ball into the mix by changing the wind direction and suddenly we could no longer sail on the jib as the wind was now coming directly in front of us.

We fired up one engine so we could at least keep moving forward. As we got closer to the west end of Cuba we started to really feel the adverse effects of the current that was flowing 1 1/2 to 2 knots against us (between Cuba and Mexico). The wind increased and the waves got worse. We were down to motoring into this at only 3 knots SOG (speed over ground).

Well, a long story short....we decided after rounding Cuba, that we should divert to Cayman Islands to do the needed repairs and refuel. It took us 2 longgggggg days and nights to make the relatively short 200 mile trip from that point. The seas were so rough and we motored into 15 knots average of wind the entire time. One of the only bad things about a catamaran....they don’t do well going into the wind/rough seas. I take my hat off to Lagoon (the manufacturer of our boat)......this boat is rock solid and we always felt safe....uncomfortable....but safe! To show you how bad conditions were our fearless Gaby that has been on a boat since she was 14 days old, and has been in some rough sailing conditions and never been sea sick in her entire 10 years on this planet, finally got seasick on the very last night....my poor baby ;(

Guds and I did not get much rest and sleep over these days, and the night shifts were long....no moon and pitch black....but like I said earlier....she is one tough and brave lady!!!!!! We did mainly 2hrs on, with 2hrs sleep and rotated watches like that. By the end we were so exhausted we fell asleep within minutes of coming off watch even though the boat was bouncing all over the place!!!

During all of this we seriously questioned what the hell we were doing, and should we forget the circumnavigation and just cruise the Caribbean (nice and close to the USA and all it offers with easy access to parts/flights etc). Again my rock Guds said to me after we had time to contemplate..."I don’t think we should let a broken rope effect our dream and change our plans". During all of this we were in contact with my good friend Garrick via sat phone/sat email, and he really pulled out all stops and started researching why this could have happend in such a short period of time. Collectively we contacted the mast manufacturer, Remi in France, Lagoon USA, Gary at Cajun Ropes, Garth Hichens, and Adrian in SA did his research on all cause of rapid chafe. I can’t thank all these people mentioned above enough!!!!! It was comforting to know we had access to such great people that amongst them have so much valuable and relevant knowlege, and most importantly, cared enough to try and help solve our issue. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!

Well, many emails/phone calls later, all while trying to keep us safley moving to Cayman, and it seems a consensus of opinions existed that this was not entirely an uncommon problem with big catamaran main sails under huge stress loads. The bottom line is that we believe our leach tension was a bit loose which likely caused the entry point of the main halyard not to properly enter the sheeve at the top of the mast at the correct angle, plus some other factors (sorry getting too technical for most I am sure), and this resulted in the rope being over stressed, and ultimately broke/chafed. Rather discover this now than 1500 miles from no land in the middle of the Pacific!!!!!

Also a big thank you to Adrian who tracked down a rigger in Cayman Islands while we were at sea. It’s a small world for sure....the rigger turned out to be a fellow South African, Mike Farrington (Compass Rigging) that I had raced against many years ago in SA!!!!! How lucky was that!!!!! It turns out Mike had been helped by Garth Hichens (similar to our story and who gave us our start in the USA 15 years ago in Annapolis!!!!!)...knew Ant Stewart and all my old mukkers!!!! Wow!!

Well, we finally arrived in Cayman yesterday early morning, and pulled into Barcadere Marina around 9.30am. Customs and Immigration came to the boat and cleared us in.....what a pleasant surprise how professional, kind and helpful and organised they were. It was a painless and easy task to check in, and within the hour we were free to set foot on land for the 1st time in 5 days ;)

Let me tell you how salt water/spray/mist gets everywhere when you are motoring dead into the wind and big waves.....EVERYTHING was covered in salt...even inside. While I started washing down the outside with fresh water, Guds stripped down the inside and assembled 4 bags of washing. It got sent off to the laundry (our poor little washing machine could never handle that load!) and she carried on wiping everything down inside......many hours later our boat looked clean again ;)

Mike came around and we discussed repair options...very comforting to have a fellow SA sailor to help us out. Plan is now to fix everything and we are waiting for a part from the USA that should arrive on Monday. If it does, hopefully we can fit it late Monday PM, and then we may be able to set sail Tuesday morning straight down to Panama.

Today was spent checking engines (those puppys ran flawlessly for roughly 30 hours each straight through some very rough conditions). We used 1/2 of each of our 50 gallon diesel tanks, so roughly 50 gallons used to get from west Cuba to Cayman. After thoroughly checking everything this afternoon while kids and Guds were at the marina pool, I discovered the dinghy chap (cover) had been chafed through against the davits, so installed some additional padding for our next 600 mile leg to Panama. Other than that, everything faired well! ;)

The Plan is to maybe rent a car and tour the island, and maybe take the dinghy to explore "Stingray City". More to follow.

Thank you to my family, Garrick and Adrian with whom we were in contact with through some dark times in the past few days, for all their encouraging words. I read every word you guys said, and took it to heart....it certainly helped keep us going and focused!!! Also a big thanks for everyone’s comments....soooo nice for us to read, and we all crowd around and read them aloud to each other ;). Also take a look at the “Our Boat” tab…we added some additional pictures of the inside of the boat.

Well that’s it for now.....we miss you all!!!! We are in high spirits and finally having some fun!! ;)

And we are FINALLY off!!!!! 3pm on 4/26/16 we left Key West

Well its finally happened...we are officially leaving US soil.....the last thing I touched was a dock pole as we left Key West after fueling up one last time in the USA ;)

So far so good after a crazy day yesterday!!! As you probably have read I blew up the invertor as we were about to leave on Sunday. I woke up yesterday at 4am...drove it up to Ft.Lauderdale to get repaired, and got back to KW at 4.30pm the same day. Quickly installed and tested it and then jumped in the rental car to return it to the airport. OH WELL did I learn a big lesson....do not speed in Key West!!!!! I was pulled over right at the airport doing 51 in a 30 zone.....all because I was trying to avoid the late car rental fee ;(

Fast forward to today after we stayed up till 2am doing the drivers course to avoid points on my license, I had to go to the court house to get the actual fine as I was so far over the speed limit ;( Well I took my sorry ass in there, presented my drivers education certificate, and had to cough up $281 in fine money....will never do that again, but thats all behind us now!!!

As we get miles under us and slide down the waves under sail I can already feel the stress fading....finally ;)))))))))

Here is a quick video of us sailing away into the distance a few minutes ago:

Us leaving Key West today on 1st big leg ;)

Bon Voyage everyone and all the best...we will miss you all!!! You can still track us on the "track us here" tab on the blog but we wont be able to send updates in word for about 2 weeks.

SEYA!!!!

The Best Laid Plans...

What was it I said in the previous post about the best laid plans...?  Well, according to "the plan", we should be anchored off the beautiful Dry Tortugas, enjoying some snorkeling and swimming, but instead we are still in a rolly marina in Key West!

Were were almost on our way yesterday morning:  dock lines untied, engines running, when Dave noticed that the inverter/charger was not charging the batteries.  We had no power.  We tied up again and he tried some quick troubleshooting.  Was it just a fuse that had blown?  We couldn't find anything like that. When we couldn't get it to work, we realized we had to come up with a plan.  I'll spare you all the stress of coming up with the plan, but here it is:

1)  We extended our stay at the Marina (ouch - talk about bleeding money, but we needed access to land, and anchoring off and dinghying in was not really an option)
2)  We identified an authorized Xantrex dealer and repair company in Ft. Lauderdale, about 3 and half hours from here by car.
3)  We also searched for, found and purchased a new inverter/charger through West Marine, and they are overnighting it to their store here in Key West so we will have it today...in case the old one cannot be repaired.
4)  We rented a car so Dave could drive to Ft. Lauderdale today to see if the inverter can be fixed, or if he needs the new one to install.  (Luckily West Marine knows that if we don't need it, we will "return" it, so we'll only be out the shipping costs).

Dave left at 4:30am this morning, so he could be in Ft. Lauderdale when the dealer opens, and also miss the morning traffic around Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.  I am waiting anxiously to hear the outcome.

On the plus side, staying in the Marina allows us access to their pool, which the kids have been dying to go to, but have not really been able to enjoy because Mom & Dad have always been "too busy" to take them!  So, since it's Monday morning, we'll knock out some school and then enjoy some time at the pool and explore Key West a little more on foot!

I do believe that everything happens for a reason, (the reason for this one, still to be determined!) and that part of this journey was about overcoming obstacles and becoming stronger because of them.

Cool Runnings waiting patiently in Key West

And Now It Really Starts!

Well, we've spent the last few days in Key West, making final preparations for the first big leg of the trip.  It's been amazing how long everything takes, and how much we still had to do.  It didn't help that Dave had to do a repair up the mast, 70 feet up in the air, with the boat rolling from side to side.  I know I have to get used to situations like that, but I was almost sick to my stomach watching him up there for about an hour and a half.  Luckily he was able to make the repair and come back down safely.  Needless to say, he was the spectacle of the Marina, with Benjamin counting the number of spectators (I think he said it was 67 or something!).

So now we've done a final grocery shop, final download of all apps onto all devices (weather and routing apps, that is!), downloaded weather forecasts, charged all devices, stowed anything that might go flying and that we don't readily need, transferred money to our agent in the Galapagos Islands, caught up on emails and enjoyed the last moments of fast internet access for a while!

Tomorrow morning early we'll fuel up, and then head out toward the Dry Tortugas, about a 70 mile trip.  Depending on weather we'll stay there for a day or two, and then the next leg starts.  That will be the approximately 800 mile trip to Panama, and should take us about 7  days.  It will be day and night, with just Dave and I splitting the night watches.

A number of people asked us what our route will be, and I realized that I never did really clarify.

We'll head to Panama and hope to transit the Panama Canal mid-May.  Once through the Canal, we'll head to the Galapagos Islands.  That will be our last stop before the really big crossing, the 3,000 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean.  That will take about 3 weeks.  Once we've crossed the Pacific, we'll explore French Polynesia and the South Pacific Islands, and make our way to New Zealand, where we need to be by December 1st.  We'll sit out the Southern Hemisphere cyclone (hurricane) season in New Zealand, and hopefully we'll be able to do some exploring there.

Then about this time next year, we'll leave New Zealand and head back into the Pacific.  We'll make our way toward Australia and over the top of Australia around August next year.  Then we have another big crossing...this time the Indian Ocean, and we'll head to Mauritius/Reunion/Madagascar/maybe Seychelles...all to be determined, but ultimately we'll be in South Africa at the end of 2017.

In early 2018 we'll start heading back across the Atlantic toward South America and then into the Caribbean and back home to Florida.   Well, that is the plan, anyway!  And we all know what they say about the best laid plans...!!

Since we will not have access to the internet for a while we will not be able to make any updates to the blog.  We will send updates to Dave's family via our satellite connection, and have asked his sister, Kim, to occasionally post an update on where we are.

So, until Panama, farewell!

Excited to get going

Sorry, one last sunset in Key West!