March 2010 Archives

One of the reasons we bought Tahina - a rather large catamaran for two people - was to have the ability to let other people share in parts of our adventure along the way by coming to stay on board. We have invited many friends and family, and recently people to help us crew, to join us on Tahina. Our friends Andy and Aliza were the first to join us in Aruba for a week (read about it in part I, part II, part III, and part IV).

Earlier this month, we met up with another traveling couple named David and Edel who have been traveling around the world for a year via planes, trains, buses, and their feet. They joined us in Cartagena for 10 or so days in San Blas, and over to the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. We really enjoyed having them on board, and they have just published a write-up of their perspectives on visiting Tahina.

We now have two new crew members joining us all the way to Tahiti. We wanted a couple of people to help with the long passages. But, we hoped to also find someone who would share our passion for this mode of travel and would enjoy our experiences. We found a perfect match in Jason and Lara and are already enjoying some amazing experiences (like the transit of the Panama Canal).

Our friend David Tryse captured more imagery during the second part of our Panama Canal transit from the Miraflores Lock web cameras. We were fortunate to have the canal authorities aim the web cam at our boat after we asked them if it could be done. We got a few images zoomed in to Tahina as shown here.

David also set up a script to capture many of the web cam shots during our transit time and you can see Tahina as the closer of two catamarans rafted side-by-side going through starting at about 20 seconds into this video:

Since we arrived through the Panama Canal to the Pacific side, we have been organizing, planning, and working on preparations for our move west. We have two critical upcoming passages: the Galapagos, and then, the longest passage of the year, to the French Marquesas. We need to make sure Tahina is in ship-shape - all major systems functioning smoothly, tanks filled (fuel, propane, and water), maintenance tasks performed, etc. We also need to make sure we have our paperwork in order to leave, and to enter the upcoming countries. And, we have to make sure we have provisioned everything we can because boat parts and food can be both expensive and hard to find in our upcoming destinations.

We have been ordering some important spares and needed parts and sending them to my friend Andy hoping to find a way to get them to us here in Panama. We finally decided to simply fly Karen home so she can bring the items back in her luggage. When we first looked at flights, the tickets seemed reasonable. But, because of our sliding schedule on the canal transit, we opted to wait to buy the tickets once we were through. When we went to buy the tickets, they were much more expensive. Karen is still thrilled to go home, since she can see friends and family during her three day stay in Raleigh. She left Sunday and will be back on Wednesday.

This anchorage - La Playita at the outskirts of the canal entrance - is missing usable WIFI, so we have to dinghy ashore and walk 1/2 mile to a Internet cafe. I purchased a SIM card for the phone so we have a working phone. Over the weekend, we not only got Karen's tickets, but spent time processing photos and blogging. We also went out to eat the first night and found an excellent ice cream store on the way to the Internet cafe! There's a chandlery near the dinghy dock with many items we need, but we're waiting until "discount Wednesday" for the bigger purchases (30% off day).

On Friday night, we coordinated a dinner get together with David and Edel (the couple who accompanied us to San Blas). They had finished touring Panama and were preparing to leave on Saturday to head to the US on their way home to Ireland. We had a nice dinner with them in the historic part of Panama City. The historic part is also in a rather run-down part of the city and we were kind of nervous riding through the town in the taxi. But, the restaurant was excellent with a 6 course meal. Read about it on Lara's blog.

Before Karen left, on Saturday, we hired a taxi to take us to a large grocery store in Panama City and Karen loaded two carts with more provisions for the upcoming months. Lara and I came along to help with the shopping, while Jason worked on a couple of boat projects back on the boat. The taxi driver is also a customs agent, and he will be helping with our paperwork to clear out of Panama. We also discovered we have to clear in to the west side of Panama (apparently you clear out of the east side as part of the canal transit paperwork). The taxi driver will also help us with our shopping and filling our propane tanks.

At the end of last week, we contacted an agent in the Galapagos to organize our entry into that country. Visiting the Galapagos by boat requires more significant paperwork (and fees) than any port I'm aware of on our circumnavigation. It's especially important to get a multi-port pass which allows us to move to at least three islands in the Galapagos. Otherwise, it can be both very expensive and challenging to see much while visiting there. For example, it can cost several hundred dollars per person to take a cruise to one of the islands with the most wildlife. Given that the Galapagos has more unique species and wildlife per square kilometer than almost anywhere in the world, we really want to make sure we maximize our chances to tour the islands properly.

On Sunday, after dropping Karen at the airport, I spent some time reviewing the boat systems with our new crew. We went over sailing procedures and crew responsibilities and I enhanced a crew review checklist in the process. Later in the day, when the wind filled in, we took Tahina out for a trial sail to review the learning. And, we all enjoyed the sail, although we had to keep a sharp eye out for the dozens of ships at anchor in the bay outside the entrance to the canal. The trip wasn't without incidents however. While we were off-shore, I discovered one of the pumps has a problem and will need to be fixed and/or a spare purchased. And, as we started to return back to the anchorage, a coast guard vessel approached us and asked us to stop and prepare for inspection. We had to lower sails and then came to a stop. They explained we should have radioed our position while moving in the busy port. A prudent requirement, which I should have realized they would have in place.

The rest of this week will be very busy completing all the shopping, maintenance work, provisioning, paperwork, and re-organizing the contents of the boat. These upcoming trips are a big deal, so it will be worth these days of hard work and preparation. If all goes well, we will do a final major provisioning run after Karen returns and try to stuff everything on Tahina properly. We then plan to move out to some lovely islands southeast of here called Las Perlas. There are reports of lots of marine life (whales, dolphin, even whale sharks) and idealic conditions at these off-shore islands. The islands also have Internet, so it will be possible to both enjoy the conditions while watching the weather closely for a good weather window to Galapagos.

As normal for all of Tahina's passages, I recorded our GPS track during the transit from Colon to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal. You can view the KML file in Google Earth and get a sense of the 3D terrain, or just check out the Google Maps version here:

We had quite a following of people watching our canal transit live through the web cams of the Panama Canal. Thank you to many of you who captured screenshots and sent them to our E-mail. If you captured your own view, and it's different from those shown here, please send them over and we'll add yours.

We had a class of 4th graders in Jacksonville, Florida (see photo above and video below) from Hendricks Elementary which watched Tahina's transit on a computer screen in their class room. The teacher of the class is a friend of our new crew member Jason, and they have been following Jason and Lara on their sailing adventures during the last few months. They also sent us some pictures of the class watching, and a video "hello" to Tahina and Jason and Lara.

Video from the class:

Here is a YouTube video showing a series of screenshots from the live webcams of the Panama Canal. The video shows Tahina rafted next to another catamaran (Tahina is on the right/closest) and you then see Tahina move forward to the next lock. All in the first 15 seconds of the video:

Here is a slideshow of photos of screenshots showing Tahina in the Gatun Locks, at Centennial Bridge, and the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific side. The last shot is the only one we've received so far (thanks Paula) showing Tahina when the live cam was zoomed in on us at the last lock. (If anyone has other shots during the zoom, please send them to us).

We celebrated with a bottle of champagne after successfully entering the Pacific Ocean courtesy of the Panama Canal today. We were watched live by many of our friends, family and readers of the blog. We also were followed by a classroom of 4th graders in a school in Jacksonville, Florida (friends of our new crew member Lara). They even sent us a photo of the class watching on a computer screen, and a video of them saying "Hi Tahina" and "Hi Jason and Lara". We'll put those up on the blog here soon, along with dozens of screenshots from the canal web cams thanks to lots of blog readers. And, we even have some video clips put together of the web cam shots thanks to David Tryse. We had a great time on the transit, and we have lots of other photos to upload from the boat itself.

We are thrilled to make it across both continental divides (north and south America, and the center of the Americas. Very cool! Our next major geographical point will be the equator on the way to the Galapagos.

We are anchored in the "La Playita" anchorages outside the Pacific canal harbor entrance. The map position should update soon.

Current plans have us passing under the Centennial Bridge around noon EDT and arriving at the Miraflores locks around 2pm.

Both of these locations have web cams and you might be able to catch us passing by.

Virgil from EarthNC.com took some screen captures of our Gatun lock passage yesterday which are shown in the slideshow below.

We're approaching the 1st Gatun lock with an expected arrival around 5:10pm EDT.

Try to catch us on one of the Panama Canal webcams.

We'd love to receive screen shots later if you catch Tahina on the webcam.

We just received an updated start time for 3:45pm EDT this afternoon and anticipate reaching the 1st lock around 4:45.

The 1st set of locks are the Gatun locks. We hope to post another update here and on twitter when we get close to the locks so that you can try catch us on one of the Panama Canal webcams.

We'd love to receive screen shots later if you catch Tahina on the webcam.

[UPDATE 24-MAR 10:30 EST Yesterday we were delayed by 24 hours. We have now been told we are to arrive at the staging area today at 2 PM EST. Look for a new post when we are leaving for the first set of locks - the Gatun Locks. You can watch us on the web cams in the link below. Please take a screenshot if you see our catamaran.]

Tahina is scheduled to appear at an anchorage outside the Gatun locks of the Panama Canal (on the Atlantic side) at 2PM today. (By the way, we got our fourth line handler, so we're all set!) Sometime after 2PM (it could be several hours) a pilot advisor will come aboard and guide us through the transit. We will then motor to a rendezvous point outside the locks and possibly raft up with two other sailboats. Then we will motor into the locks, have lines tossed to the boat and handlers on shore will tie us into position in the lock. The locks will then fill with water to raise us successively until we are at the lake level on the other side of the locks. We will then most likely anchor in the lake for the night and in the morning motor down to the next set of locks several hours later. Then go through a similar process and step down to the Pacific Ocean.

There are several web cams managed by the Panama Canal Authority allowing you to view boat and ships going through the canal. If you time it right you might see Tahina going through the canal. Please take a screen shot if you see us! We'll post them on the site later.

I hope to send some e-mails to someone who will post our position on the blog (and our Twitter) with approximate times when we're near the web cams . So, watch this blog for updates!

Several major milestones have happened for the Tahina Expedition in the last 24 hours. First a quick summary of both the good news and bad. The good news: We have new two new crew joining us all the way to Tahiti, we are confirmed for the Panama Canal transit this afternoon, we have completed the first ever night-time 360 panorama from a boat in the canal locks, we appeared on a National Geographic blog yesterday, and we have completed dozens of tasks in preparation for the transit. The bad news: we are one line-handler short, our fridge broke-down yesterday afternoon, and we still have dozens of tasks left to do.

We are thrilled to have welcomed aboard last night two new crew members who will help us with the long crossings in the Pacific to the Galapagos, to the Marquesas, and on to Tahiti. We have been talking to multiple crew candidates for some time, but we finally selected a couple whose goal is to get their own boat and wanted to acquire blue water experience while also making their way ultimately to New Zealand. Their names are Lara and Jason and they are young professionals (one in information technology, the other in marketing communications) and both have a passion for sailing and have raced sailboats in Florida. After getting references, we finally told them yes on Saturday, and they managed to get flights to arrive here last night in order to join us for the canal transit.

Yesterday morning we made arrangements to go to a bank in Colón and meet our canal agent so we could withdraw cash and pay him for the Panama Canal transit. We used a canal agent named Stanley who is a popular choice here at Shelter Bay. Later that day he delivered the long lines and fenders we are required to have for the transit on board Tahina. We also bought more provisions to make sure we had food and drinks for the extra crew during the transit. The agent also arranged for our fumigation certification required for the Galapagos. And, finally the agent let us know our transit time is to be at the anchorage outside the locks at 2 PM. It takes as long as 24 hours to get through the entire canal. Stanley always seems to come through with solutions to the transit process and makes sure to take care of the details. We want everyone to try and watch our transit via the canal web cams (and take screenshots). More instructions on the timing in a post later.

Last night I managed to squeeze in some time to process one of the several 360 panoramas I took during the trial transit I did over the weekend. The first transit was done at night, and as far as I know this is the first 360 panorama ever done at night from a boat during a Panama canal transit. Check it out here:

Panama Canal Transit (night) - Gatun Locks in Central America

We had asked a couple to help out with line handling - who wanted to come to get experience before their transit. But, last night they got word their boat will go through the canal in a few days. We understood perfectly their dilemma, and told them we would find someone else. That will have to happen this morning. We are required to have four line handlers and a skipper on board for the transit.

Yesterday while cleaning out the fridge, Karen managed to poke a hole in our cold-plate. Unfortunately, the refrigerant managed to escape before we could get a patch on the hole, so now our fridge is inoperable. We need to get it properly repaired and recharged very soon. We won't have time for that until we get through the canal. We have a cold-box in our cockpit where we can temporarily store the foods - and we hadn't bought all the cold stuff so we have room in our freezer as well. So, an inconvenience, but not a disaster.

We still have dozens of tasks left before we leave Panama for the Galapagos. But, all the important ones can be completed within a week. One of the most important is that we need to get a number of items delivered to us from the US. Our plan is to fly Karen home for a few days next week and have her bring the stuff back in her luggage. There are a couple of inexpensive airline options from Panama City to the US.

Watch for the next posts today for tips on when we are going through the canal so you can watch us through the web cams.

This weekend I was invited to be temporary crew on s/v Songline - a Lagoon 410 catamaran from Australia - by Phil and his wife Kristina. This was a great opportunity to go through a canal transit and learn what the experience is like before we take Tahina through on Tuesday. The process takes about 24 hours including a layover at anchor in the lake between the locks. It turns out that if you have a catamaran, they often will raft a mono-hull sailboat on either side of you and the line handlers from those boats take the lines from short for holding position in the locks. This means the line handlers on the catamaran have an easier job - so, I was free to take lots of photos! Also on board were Oscar and Graciela of s/v Zenitude.

You can read an overview of the canal at WIkipedia, which has a very interesting past and was the largest human engineering project of its time. The canal has three locks on the Atlantic side near Colón, Panama called the Gatun Locks. And there are three locks on the Pacific side near Panama City called the Miraflores Locks. There is a large man-made lake with a ship channel which was carved through the many miles causing a liquid continental divide between North and South America. Panama is in the process of building new wider and larger locks and widening the ship channel in order to let even larger ships get through the canal. It is at least a 10 year project.

We started on Saturday afternoon by motoring to an anchorage near Colón to await instructions. Pilot "advistors" are brought out to each boat from the Canal Authority who give instructions to the skippers and crew on what to do while navigating and going through the canal. We were sheduled to meet at 2:30, but half the boats had to wait until 6:30 for the advisors to arrive. Our small fleet of only 6 boats went through the three Gatun locks at night. We were pleasantly surprised there weren't more boats - or ships - going in the same lock with us. Therefore, we had plenty of room in the locks. We motored to an area near the locks and then the two mono-hulls motored to Songline and we exchanged lines to raft together. Each boat had plenty of fenders to make sure we were shielded from one another.

Next we motored into the locks. Lines from ashore were tossed to the boats on each side and their line handlers tied them and adjusted them as the locks were raised. The water in the lake is higher because due to a dam, and the canal uses this water to drive the entire process by generating electricity and using the water to fill and lower the locks. On the Atlantic side each lock has water added to raise the vessels about 30 feet. The process takes about 20-30 minutes for each lock. We were through the three locks by about 10 PM and dropped our anchor in the lake.

The next morning, a new advisor arrived by launch at about 6:15 and we were soon motoring in the misty dawn air through the lake. The area is all tropical forest jungle, so there were many interesting trees, birds, and animals to see. The clouds and mist made for some interesting scenery, but made photography a little more difficult. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spot any alligator/crocodiles, or even monkeys. Most of the time we were at least 100 meters from the islands and land.

Once through the lake, we arrived at the Miraflores locks around lunch-time. We again rafted up with two boats and went through the similar process only the locks lower the water and the vessels. The canal authority has web cams at each of the locks and at the Panama Centennial Bridge - the only bridge over the canal between the locks. There is another bridge near Panama City. If you watch when Tahina is going through, you might be able to see us live going through the canal! We'll update you with the approximate times when we get them later today. The father of a young man on a boat called "William T. Parquette" on the same transit sent me an E-mail with a web cam shot he took which shows Songline on the left. I took some photos of his boat during the transit. Look for the web cam shot in the photo album below at the end of the slideshow.

I took a number of 360 panoramas during the passage through the locks. It will take me a few days to get them processed. I also took a lot of static fish-eye lens shots with the same camera which I'm including in this gallery. Later I will warp the distortion of these shots so they look like very wide "normal" photos. But, you'll get an idea of how things looked from the photos as they are. I'll also be uploading other photos from another camera. But, I'll be very busy today preparing for the transit so I'm releasing the first batch now as they are (and while I have an Internet connection). Enjoy!

We are enjoying our time here in Shelter Bay Marina. The facilities are nice, they have excellent showers, a pool, restaurant/bar, WIFI (that mostly works), and lots of interesting boats in and out every day. See the photo here of Tahina in her slip here at the marina. It is a long ride into town to stores though - about 30 minutes or much longer if you get held up at the canal waiting for ships to enter/exit. There is a swing bridge that lets cars and trucks through when the locks are in use.

We worked this week on setting up for our canal transit. We hired a canal agent named Stanley (who often works with boats here in Shelter Bay Marina) to help do the paperwork. Initially I was concerned because he seemed distracted and was late on a few action items. But, there was extenuating circumstances due to several boats being delayed because of canal workers reporting in sick. This caused a backlog of work, and a lot of concerns by people waiting in line. But, the problem seemed to be resolved and boats started moving again.

David and Edel helped us clean up the boat upon our arrival, and after two days departed Tahina to go do some sightseeing in Panama. They were hoping to come back and help us with the transit, but we just found out they decided to do a hiking trip and may not be back in time. We were sad to see them leave, we really enjoyed having them on Tahina.

Here are some photos of Shelter Bay Marina, and a shot of David and Edel before they left:

We had our boat measured on Wednesday. Unfortunately, despite two tries at measuring, the results were that our boat was just 0.07 meters too long. We ended up having to pay an additional US $250 because we measured over 50 feet in length overall. Ugh! But, the good news is that we got a date scheduled for our transit of Tuesday, 23rd of March. So, we won't be delayed too long here in the marina.

We spent a day yesterday going to Colon to do major provisioning shopping. We ended up with well over 200lbs of goods after two trips. We are attempting to buy enough of the long-term supplies to get us to New Zealand in November. Food costs are high in the south Pacific. So, the more we can buy now (Panama is relatively inexpensive), the better. I had trouble again with our credit card not being approved. Had to run to find a payphone and talk to security people to get it cleared..and then it STILL didn't work. So, I ended up running around to find an ATM machine that worked and had to draw out cash. What a pain! The store was still happy enough with our huge purchases to have a truck transport us and our huge load back to the marina.

We hope to have an announcement soon with regards to our crew for the long passages.

Meanwhile, I have started exploring the jungle near the marina. There used to be a US military base here and I've found at least two gun batteries out in the jungle. Very cool stuff, and I'll be posting photos of them soon.

We left Chichime Cays in San Blas on Sunday morning in light airs and started motor-sailing our way to Isla Grande - about half-way to Colón. We wanted to break up the 80 nautical mile trip into two days. We were told by another sailor that Isla Grande was a nice little stop-over on the way. By 2 PM we shut off the engine and were making 6-7 knots sailing in 10-12 knots of wind. It was a very nice sail the rest of the way and we approached the very hilly and rocky coastline near Isla Grande which almost appeared to be enshrouded in mist - it was really thick haze. Even the little islands had enormous height with high rocky hills covered with trees and shrubs.

Isla Grande appears to be a resort island with several hotels and restaurants and access only by water taxi. We dropped our sails on the north side and motored to the southwest anchorage area by the beach. We had a constant flow of water taxis as the sun set, but they mostly stopped coming and going after dark. It was strange seeing so many people and buildings after nearly two weeks in San Blas. But, the real shock was seeing a few cars on shore. We hadn't seen a car since Cartagena! Many of the water taxi passengers took pictures of Tahina as they went by. We enjoyed the sunset and then prepared a nice meal, watched a movie, and prepared for a pleasant night's sleep.

The next morning we left around 8 AM and soon had our sail up. As we started to make our way southwest, the wind ended up being mostly aft. The winds were pretty steady at 12-15 knots, so I suggested raising the spinnaker. David and Edel helped out, and we soon had the beautiful sail up. They were really impressed with the beauty of the sail, as well as the pleasant ride. We were soon keeping an eye on ships approaching and leaving Colón and at anchor as we got closer. It was impressive seeing dozens of ships of all sizes plying the waters. This was by far the busiest port I've ever seen.

Once we were near the port of Cristobol, we put away the sail and motored into the break-wall entrance and over to Shelter Bay Marina. We arrived by 1 PM and were soon in a slip. We were sad to leave the solitude of San Blas, but it is exciting to be getting on with the next phase of our trip - the Panama Canal!

Here are photos from the trip to Colón:

You can also view our GPS track of our passage from San Blas to Colón here . I've also updated our map of San Blas with more GPS tracks and island maps.

On Saturday, we finally moved from West Holandes Cays. It was a beautiful clear day - with hardly any wind. So, we just motored out. We headed north first a bit to run into deep waters so we could run the watermaker a while. Along the way, we saw some dolphin and they even jumped over towards us (one of them went up at least 10 feet!). We also saw lots of wood and trash drifting in the wind calm waters. We then headed back southwest to Chichime Cays which were about 6 miles from where we were. The Chichime Cays have two main islands with a blue lagoon anchorage area in between. There are Kuna Indian dwellings on both islands, but the main structures are on the southern island. There is even a bar/restaurant and volleyball court. We saw a bunch of cruisers hanging out there on Saturday afternoon.

We mostly just relaxed on the boat enjoying the scenery and did some swimming while at anchor. In the afternoon, David and I did some exploring by dinghy inside and outside the reef. We even went out to a shipwreck we saw on the reef, and did some snorkeling nearby (that's where we saw the largest elkhorn coral I've ever seen - see the underwater photos gallery in this post for photos of the wreck and the elkhorn coral).

The water colors were really beautiful, every shade of blue and turquoise you can imagine, and watching all the other boats and Kuna Indians was entertaining. A bit of a shock after spending the previous several days in a much quieter anchorage. But, still it was very quiet and there were few lights on shore at night (just flashlights from cruisers going ashore, and someone actually lit a fire on the beach). The next morning we met the skipper on "Simpatica" - a Catana catamaran - and we exchanged some tips and plans for future travels. It turns out he was from Houston, and is also headed for the South Pacific. Soon after, we departed to leave the San Blas and make our way towards Colon, Panama - the entrance to the Panama Canal. More on this later.

For now, check out a few photos showing the Chichime Cays, and our trip over there:

The last day we were in the West Holandes Cays was a beautiful clear day. So clear we could clearly see the range of mountains on the mainland 15 miles away. It was a perfect day finally to shoot some 360 panoramas. So, around 7:30 AM I got the gear together and put it in a dry bag, then took it ashore with the dinghy to our favorite island - Acuakargana - and managed to take three 360s while I was there. One on the beach near the pass between the two islands (right next to the dinghy), one directly under a coconut tree on the southeast side of the island, and one on the northeast beach. I think these panoramas do an excellent job of showing you just how beautiful this location was. These are among my favorite 360s so far. The only annoying thing is that my feet keep getting into the picture after processing. Anyway, check them out here (make sure to use the full-screen version for maximum effect - and zoom in as well):

SE beach, West Holandes Cay, San Blas, Panama in Central America

West Holandes Cays, San Blas, Panama in Central America

North Beach of West Holandes Cay, San Blas, Panama in Central America

Map data and satellite photos are very sparse for the San Blas area - even in Google Earth. We have created a KML file from our GPS tracks (taken while we explored the islands), hand drawn maps of some of the islands we visited using the GPS and charts, and placemarks for the anchorages. I plan to add some additional GPS tracks here of our passage to and from the islands, and link in the photos once they have been properly geotagged. Check it out here . UPDATED March 19

Our favorite location in San Blas was the West Holandes Cays. We anchored near the two western-most islands which are called Acuakargana and Waisaladup by the Kuna indians. There is a narrow passage between the two islands to the northern side which is shielded by a reef about 500 meters north of the two islands. South of the passage are some excellent reefs and the anchorage. Tahina was anchored just south of the reefs. Close enough to easily swim and even drive the VideoRay ROV to the reef. Yesterday we released a number of underwater photos of the reefs.

We described our initial experience at West Holandes Cays here. Subsequent days there were filled with snorkeling on the reef, exploring by kayak and dinghy, taking photos, reading, watching sunsets, making meals, watching movies, playing games, and reveling in the most wonderful setting of our lives. One early morning, I took the kayak out and explored the very shallow reef waters to the north. While there, I stirred up a large Spotted Eagle Ray and chased him in the shallow waters for a few minutes. An awesome experience we'll never forget!

Here are some photos of our experiences of West Holandes Cays:

We tried snorkeling in each of the places we visited in the San Blas. There are reportedly 365 islands in the San Blas archipelagos - one for each day of the year. We only visited a few of them. We used the dinghy to take us to the edge of the reefs, and even outside the reefs trying to find good places to snorkel. Usually the western or eastern edges of the reefs were best in the places we went - when a passage led out to sea. We had one interesting snorkel a ways off a wreck on the reef northwest of Chichime Cays - there we saw the largest live elkhorn coral I've ever seen (nearly 30 feet across!).

Our favorite location though was in the western-most islands of West Holandes Cays (WHC). There were reefs near the pass between the two islands of the anchorage there. We anchored Tahina in a sand patch such that we were quite close to the reef. So, we could not only easily jump off the back and swim to the reef quickly, but we also were able to use the VideoRay ROV underwater video camera quite easily. We'll have some video footage from that to share eventually (when I find time to process the video). We spent several days in WHC and had a great time in the water, and exploring the islands! It was wonderful.

We saw many of the usual reef fish (parrot fish, wrasse, tangs, damsel, jacks, butterflyfish, hinds, etc.). But, the overall population was lower than we've usually seen on reefs like these. And, some fish we often see were either absent or in much lower numbers (angel fish, squirrelfish, jacks, trunk fish - only one seen, yellowtail snappers, etc.). We did have more unusual sightings like: triggerfish, spotted eagleray, spotted drum, lionfish (more on this later), reef squid, etc.

The following gallery of underwater photos are a mix of photos from all the locations we went (make sure to select the full-sized version of the slideshow). I've only roughly mapped the location of the shots. Most are from WHC, but a fair amount from Chichime Cays at the end of the gallery. There are over 100 photos - they tell stories all by themselves. Enjoy!

I've added a bunch of photos and a 360 panorama from the first few days in San Blas to the post about our "fun day" there last Monday. There is also a gallery of photos taken while we were using the kite to shoot aerial photography of BBQ island which has some cool shots showing us taking the photos all over the island, and some aerial shots of the surrounding islands and reef. And, some photos of the islands as we first saw them as we arrived to San Blas are in the last gallery as well as some cool shots of the scenery during the ensuing days. Check it all out here.

This is just a quick out-of-sequence update to let you all know that we left San Blas yesterday and are now in Colon, Panama near the entrance to the Panama Canal. We are staying at the Shelter Bay Marina and will begin the process today to organize our transit through the canal. It will take a few days before we get scheduled to go through the canal. I'll explain more about the process in an upcoming post.

We had a great time in San Blas (lots of pictures and more posts will be made on the final days there). But, we had no Internet for 10 days, and have just got back to the connected world. We each have hundreds of E-mails to process, and lots of phone/Skype calls to make.

More to come!

Yesterday I mentioned the large amount of trash we have seen on island beaches everywhere we have gone. Although we have only plied the Caribbean Sea so far, this problem is a global phenomena. In most cases, the trash we see on these otherwise pristine beaches - predominantly plastic items, but also glass, wood, and other floating items - can come from hundreds or even thousands of miles away from other lands who either directly dump their trash in the ocean, or allow countless tons of the stuff drain from their waters (rivers, or even drainage systems) right into the ocean. Another source are large ships - including some cruise ships - who dump their trash in the ocean thinking it will do no harm, or when container ships lose containers during storms (they stack them so high they are precarious and in a violent storm they simply fall off).

Plastic can last for years in the ocean floating even to other continents. The trash is often mistaken by animals - particularly birds - as food. Many birds have been found dead with stomachs full of small pieces of plastic - so full they died of starvation. In the sea, turtles see plastic bags and think they are jelly fish (one of their staple foods), and sometimes die of suffocation after being caught in the plastic. The plastic is particularly insidious because it takes years before it breaks down in the sun to smaller pieces. But, it still lasts and is consumed by birds, mammals and fish.

Some of you may have heard of the Pacific Gyre where millions of tons of trash have floated and swirled together in the large ocean currents to an area north of Hawaii. But, this is only the tip of the iceberg. In just one short mile-long beach, we've seen hundreds (possibly thousands) of plastic bottles, sandals, fish nets, and other trash. Multiply this times the number of islands we visited (more than two dozen so far on this trip), and multiply that times the hundreds of thousands of beaches we have not visited. It is mind boggling to think of how big the problem is.

You will occasionally find photos in our galleries showing examples of how widespread this problem truly is. There are steps everyone can take to reduce the problem: recycling plastic, re-using plastic bottles, bringing re-usable bags for your groceries instead of plastic bags, and making your politicians aware you would like your tax dollars spent to reduce trash into water-ways. Maybe someday it will be a true taboo to allow trash into the oceans. It will certainly take a long time to convince every nation, all ships, and every porson, to stop allowing trash to escape to the seas.

On Tuesday we decided to move at last. We moved a few miles to West Holandes Cays. We sailed over, and because the wind had shifted to the NW, we ended up having a nice long sail since we needed to tack to get up to anchorage. So, we sailed past the island a bit and tacked in. The winds were easing along the way which also lengthened the sail a bit.

We dropped the hook near what looked like some delightful reefs. The sun was coming out too! We immediately broke out the snorkeling gear and confirmed some nice coral reefs and fish. After an initial exploration, we got the VideoRay gear out and I showed David the works. We then took it for a spin around the reefs. Great fun!

We spent so much time snorkeling and with the VideoRay, we didn't have time to go ashore and explore the beautiful coconut-tree-lined islands with white sand beaches. In the evening, we needed to run the generator, so we introduced David and Edel to "Captain Ron". They really seemed to enjoy it.

During the night we had a big rain squall, and then the boat started turning. I was up several hours watching how close we came to the reefs. But, we were ok. The winds eased quite a bit and the rain stopped.

Yesterday was a great day! Although, initially I was worried because of how close we were to one of the reefs. But, the winds clocked and moved us away and the winds eased all day and the sun came out. We did several snorkeling trips, we also drove the VideoRay for quite a while. We saw trigger fish, reef squid, sting rays, a lion fish, and many of the more common fish and coral as well. I also took a lot of underwater photos.

What really made it special though was David and I took the dinghy ashore and explored the nearby islands. The island NW of us has a wonderful beach on the northern side with coconut trees hanging over the beach providing great shade from the sunshine. We had a great walk. The only thing marring it was the huge amount of plastic trash all up on the shore (something you see on all islands unfortunately). The worst offender is plastic water bottles, but another common item are flip-flop sandals. There are many other plastic bottles (sun tan lotion, baby oil, cosmetics, oil bottles, pill bottles, etc.). But, if you ignored the trash somehow, the scenery was wonderful! It was so wonderful having the sun back as well! We ended up taking the girls to the island later and doing the same walk. This time we brought our cameras and took lots of photos (which I'll put up in a week from now when we have Internet).

We had a visit from some Kuna Indians who sold Karen a "Mola". A quilt-like piece of fabric with a pretty fish design on it. She also got a little purse. The local indians are very nice and we often see them going to all the islands and either fishing or tending to plantings or coconut trees. They mostly use hand-made boats with just a pole, or sometimes with a small outboard motor.

The scenery is just fantastic, and is so much better now with the sunshine back. Karen gave me a haircut as the sun set ending a perfect day. We played some games after dinner and then shined a spotlight into the water to see what kind of fish we could attract. We also did some stargazing before bed as the stars were beautiful and clear at last with no city lights or clouds to block the view.

UPDATE: you can view the slideshow of photos from West Holandes Cays in this later post.

Yesterday was a much better day weather-wise, and we finally got out and did a few things. We had a few breaks in the clouds and had some sunshine, and finally managed to do some photography. We did some exploring by dinghy at nearby islands, and the evening "cook out" with many boats visiting the area was well-attended, and we met many folks there.

Here's a 360 panorama of the cook-out on BBQ Island:

BBQ Island, San Blas, Panama in Central America

In the early afternoon, David and I got the kite aerial setup out and went to BBQ island and captured the entire island from 250+ feet. Because we didn't want the kite string caught in the numerous coconut trees, we walked along the edges and even well out into the water to get the kite positioned over the island. Not only that, but we ended up taking the end of the string into the dinghy and maneuvering upwind to get the windward side of the island. The force of the kite was enough to pull us in the dinghy at about one knot if we didn't use the engine to counter-act it!

Here's a gallery of photos from the kite shoot:

We went to one island to confirm the banana trees we thought we saw there. But, there were some nasty biting sand flies on that island so we left pretty quick. There were no ripe bananas. We then went to another anchorage where we saw s/v Songline - the catamaran we met in Cartagena that is from Australia. They invited on board for a beer and we caught up on each other's trip to San Blas. We've explored about 10 islands so far to some extent, and its been a lot of fun.

In the evening we went to the "cook out". Only it was really just a finger-food pot-luck - so no substantial food. But, everyone had an enjoyable time meeting one another and comparing notes on boating destinations and stories. David and Edel said there were some "interesting people" there - an attribute often associated with cruising sailors - as well as many other descriptions. :-)

Here are some photos from our arrival at San Blas, the gathering at BBQ island, and the beautiful islands and boats:

Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until we get to Internet to see the photos (when we get to Colon, Panama on the 15th). But, have no fear, we got a number of photos of the activities.

We arrived here in the beautiful San Blas islands on Thursday morning during a break in the clouds. It was one of the most beautiful places we've sailed into to date. But, the weather has been cloudy and rainy ever since. Yesterday was squally with strong winds and rain all day. We never even left the boat and had to raise the dinghy because it was bouncing around so much. Weather forecasts have the winds easing some in the next couple of days, but there is still a 30% chance of rain during the next couple of days.

So what have we been doing during this time? We have done a few chores on the boat, read books, swimming, watched some movies, played board and card games, played computer games, and when the weather has been clear enough we have taken the dinghy to nearby islands and reefs and explored. We found one island has some banana trees, but we're not sure whether the locals would allow us to pick any. Tonight there is supposed to be a cook-out on the aptly named BBQ island with the boats anchored in the area. We're really hoping the weather stays clear enough for the cookout!

Hopefully we'll get some clear days here, because I really want to take some pictures - especially kite aerial and 360 panoramas. Wish us luck for some good weather!

We left Cartagena on Wednesday morning and had a very nice 24 hour sail to San Blas. Actually, at the start there was no wind, but I knew within a few hours we would catch up to some wind. We headed out through the Boca Grande passage (which is the one we passed up on our way into Cartagena due to the weather condidtions). Since there was no wind, the seas were flat this time, so we had no problem passing through the narrow port exit.

It seemed we were going slower than normal as we motored out, so we stopped when we got to some clearer waters about 2 miles from shore. I dove over to check the bottom - and, sure enough, we had some slime and a few barnacles and other growth. The port waters in Cartagena are a melting pot of growth. David jumped in with me and we spent about an hour cleaning off the growth. Once we resumed motion though, it appeared we only regained about .5 knots.

By 1:30, we had picked up some wind and started motor sailing. By 2PM we were under full sail and we sailed the rest of the way. David and Edel really enjoyed the sail and even took a night-time watch for a couple of hours. We had a few rain showers during the early morning hours the next day, but the wind stayed steady. We averaged 8-9 knots in the evening, and 9-10 knots during the morning hours. So, we completed the 200 nm run to San Blas in right at 24 hours. We first saw a couple of other boats headed in as well, and then spotted the coconut trees of these little tropical islands.

The San Blas islands are an archipelago of, supposedly, 365 islands (one for each day of the year). The islands are occupied by the Kuna Indians who still live a simple life with little influence from modern technologies. They trade in coconuts, fish the islands, and take care of their environment. As a result, these islands look much like they did hundreds of years ago when the Europeans first set sight of them.

We arrived at the East Holandes Cays and were stunned by the beauty. A thousand shades of blue and turquoise water colors. White sand, and coconut lined, beaches. A smattering of sailboats at anchor. We were in heaven!

We have been exploring the area, swimming in the super clear water, and walking the beaches. This is what cruising is all about! It's too bad that none of the online mapping sites have high resolution aerial photos of the San Blas islands. But, do a search on Panoramio, Flickr, or Google Images and you'll find many photos of these awesome islands.

We stayed in Cartagena a few days longer than originally planned because we were waiting for a part to be shipped to us. Our primary fresh water pump died an ignoble death on our passage down to Cartagena. It had been giving warning signs for some time, and I have no excuse for not having bought a spare earlier. We thought the original problem was simply a broken diaphragm, which was the subject of another parts shipment back in the Grenadines. We performed the diaphragm replacement and the pump stopped leaking, so we thought it was fixed. But, there was another problem.

Anyway, we identified a company which said they could get the part we ordered (two of them, one as a spare) in the US delivered to us in a week. But, they were not very good at "tracking" the package's progress. We essentially did not know if they actually had the product here in Colombia until Monday night. Then, we didn't hear from the until late last night - but, around 7 PM they finally delivered it to me at the marina. Whew! By 8 PM, I had removed the old pump and installed the new one. And, it works beautifully!

Now we'll be able to leave soon for the San Blas archipelago in Panama (click on thumbnail above to visit in Google Maps - Google doesn't have high-res aerial photos of the area - yet). These islands are some of the most beautiful tropical islands in the Caribbean. There are supposedly 365 islands there - one for each day of the year. The islands (and surrounding tropical forest-lined shore) are occupied by the Kuna Indians who believe in keeping their lives simple, live off the sea and the land, do not use modern technologies, and keep their culture separate from foreign influences. They are reportedly very friendly as long as you don't harm their environment or violate their rules. For example, each Kuna family owns specific coconut trees (they use coconuts as a form of trade, and a source of food and supplies). It is forbidden for visitors to pick up and use coconuts for this reason.

We are looking forward to being able to jump in the waters again. The port here at Cartagena does not have very appetizing water, so we haven't been swimming in nearly two weeks! We'll have a to wait a bit for a weather window and to get cleared out of customs.

As I've mentioned before, we will have VERY limited Internet connectivity while in San Blas during the next couple of weeks. I'll still hopefully squeeze out a few blog posts - but, you'll have to wait until we get to Colon, Panama for me to upload photos. We won't be able to reply to our E-mails during this time as well. It will be a vacation!

We started our expedition formally when we departed the US shores of North Carolina on November 14, 2009. Our first goal was to make it to the Caribbean island of St. Martin and begin adjusting to our new way of life as we re-visited many islands we had first seen in 2003 up until Grenada. We also needed to learn how to use new tools we brought with us like the VideoRay ROV for underwater video, 360 Panoramas, and our kite aerial photography equipment.

We began visiting new islands with the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao), and then continued west to Cartagena.

By the end of this month, we hope to be entering a whole new part of the world to us. We will be transiting the Panama Canal and sail in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Our first major destination will be the Galapagos Islands. After viewing (and sharing) the amazing variety of life that live on and around those mystical islands, we will depart for the longest single passage in our near-term voyage: 3000 nm from the Galapagos to the French Marquesas. It will take 2-3 weeks to complete the journey, without any land in sight, until we arrive (hopefully by early May). We are looking to have some additional crew on board to help with the passage.

We hope you are enjoying following our experiences so far. Since I'm a tech geek, we are making a lot of use of "new" technologies such as Google Earth and Maps (NOTE: our map has now changed to show a more accurate rendition of our recent path - in green), 360 panoramas, kite aerial photography, Twitter, and more. Hopefully, the resulting imagery and information enhance the experience for most of you. As we enter this new phase of our trip, we hope to begin sharing more observations of the life around us, environmental impacts of mankind on the ocean life and the land sharing the sea, and more of our experiences with the cultures we encounter. We hope you'll join us on our adventure!

We have been enjoying the sights of Cartagena and most of the atmosphere of this vibrant city. One part of the atmosphere we haven't been enjoying: it has been quite hot and humid for most of our stay. But, the view of the city at night is nearly as good as the one we had in Miami. Make sure you view the slideshow below for photos from our visits to El Centro.

On Thursday, last week, we woke up with arms sore from the vaccination shots. But, not too bad, but we didn't want to do much work. The pain went away after a couple of days. We went shopping at a local mall called "Caribe Plaza Mall". One of the main stores is called "Home Center" and is compared to garden/home supply stores like "Home Depot" in the US. They also have a store called "Carrefour" that was compared to "Walmart". We took a taxi, and were curious to see they had strong security with guards - and gates at the underground parking area - who actually looked in the trunk of the taxi before admitting us, and closed circuit TVs in many areas. We were pleasantly surprised to find a huge modern air-conditioned mall. It had three floors and a real food court, and a large variety of stores. A great place to hang out during the hot days.

We also did more research on San Blas and Panama, and contacted the marina where we will stay while waiting for our canal transit. We got contact information for agents to help with the transit paperwork.

We confirmed that a couple we have been in contact with - who are doing a second round-the-world trip (a 1-year trip without a sailboat) and documenting it via a blog and photos - will be coming with us to Panama. They both have taken some beautiful photos. We have been writing each other since last year because David documents his travels using Google Earth, and had previously developed KML files written about on Google Earth Blog. We had hoped to at least rendezvous somewhere along the way.

On Friday, Karen and I went to El Centro - the beautiful historic part of Cartagena - and did some shopping and museum visits. We especially enjoyed the free museum of gold which had some excellent exhibits and english/spanish displays about the history of gold here in Colombia. As you'll see in the photos, the place is very popular and beautiful and a great place to wander and shop. All the sailors here rave about the place, and we could see why. We had a wonderful lunch in a restaurant that was popular with the locals. We ate their daily special which consisted of a huge meal with soup, chicken, a cole-slaw-like salad, bread, and a banana for dessert. Karen enjoyed the shopping and got some items for herself and our daughters.

This weekend was the beginning of an international film festival, and we ended up at the beautiful historic Teatro Heredia. The theater was first built in 1911 and later restored in 1998. It has four stories of seating, incredible decorations, and is quite beautiful. We managed to get inside and watch a couple of festival films which at least had English sub-titles. I really wish I had brought the camera equipment to do a 360 panorama of the theater! See the photos in the slideshow below:

Unfortunately, Google Maps currently has a cloudy image of the area of Cartagena we were visiting in the slideshow. If you go in Google Earth, you can use the "Historical Imagery" option and see some better views of this part of Cartagena.

On Saturday we moved the boat to Club Nautico marina and gave Tahina a much needed bath in fresh water. We also cleaned up the inside. On Sunday, David and Edel arrived from Santa Marta, Colombia by bus. We took a taxi to Centro for dinner and got to know one another better. They are from Sweden and Ireland, respectively, and actually quit their jobs to take their year-long trip around the world. One of them has already been offered a job back with their same employer upon return in April. They spend a lot of time camping and hiking to help reduce their travel costs.