Stories, News & Updates...

Western Panama, a Fly-By

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:34:35 -0500

We avoid schedules whenever possible. But there are times when dates have to be written on the calendar and appointment times honored. Hauling Pax out of the water for service is one of those times.
The big day, January 11, was committed nearly two months ahead due to the boat yard’s busy schedule. Facilities able to safely haul our 45-ton boat out of the water are few and far between, quite literally. On the whole Pacific coast of southern Mexico and Central America, Flamenco boat yard in Panama City is pretty much it, for the kind of work we needed done. She had her last haul-out in September of 2009 in Ventura. With the speed at which critters grow in warm tropical waters, the poor girl was sorely in need of having the barnacles scraped off her bottom, and several new coats of anti-fouling bottom paint applied.
There are numerous appealing anchorages in western Panama between the Costa Rican border and rounding Punta Mala for Panama City, on the mainland and especially on all the islands lying not far offshore.
With less than two weeks to get to Panama City, we only had time for a taste of a few of them. But it was enough to convince us we definitely want to spend the whole month of March back in western Panama in order to do these wonderful cruising grounds justice.
We went to a delightful Christmas potluck in Golfito, with rain pouring down the way it only does in the tropics. Although it was hot out, the downpour put us in a Christmas frame of mind.
First stop was Burrica anchorage, a day hop from Golfito. Most cruising guides don’t even mention this spot, but it was peaceful and pretty, with horses running unattended along the beach, and we were able to get a comfortable night’s sleep.
Horses on the beach, Burrica
Next we headed to Isla Parida. There are numerous lovely spots here, but we only had time for one. With the seasonal northerly winds beginning to blow, we chose the southern anchorage for good protection. It required picking our way around rocks and small islands, but conditions inside the sheltered cove were lake-like.
A Hemingway Daiquiri near sunset, Isla Parida
Next we visited Bahia Honda, the first anchorage where we had neighbors. There was one boat when we got there, s/v Encore from San Diego with Buzz and Maureen aboard. Then another one, s/v Atlantis, arrived a day or so later. We had met Jim and Carolyn of Atlantis back in Huatulco, Mexico. We stayed three nights in Bahia Honda, enjoying cocktails and appetizers aboard one of our boats each night. The intensity of the green is hard to describe, and it changes in tone with the changing light. Look at the two pictures below of the same view off our bow.
Bahia Honda is on the mainland. Although there are a few residents and even a ‘town’ of sorts nearby (a collection of homes, basically) there is no access by road. In order to reach a town with a store, the locals have to take a small boat, then ride horseback over the hills on a path through the thick jungle. As a result, when cruisers arrive to anchor, various pangas and dugout canoes appear, most with whole families aboard, wanting to trade or sell.
They want flashlights, batteries, spark plugs, aspirin, and most fervently, cookies. We traded some items with the family in the picture, for some freshly picked plantains and a coconut.
The last several nights were spent waiting out some bad northerly winds in the anchorages of Isla Cebaco and Ensenada Benao. These are billed as protected spots to hide out until weather gets calm enough to round the dreaded Punta Mala. We were surprised, though, to find that both anchorages were lovely and comfortable, with broad sandy beaches on which to walk. Punta Mala translates as ‘bad point’ for clarity, and it’s the roughest crossing in Central America. You can see it in the map above, it’s at the end of the great big downward protrusion of the Azuero Peninsula, after which you make a sharp left (north) turn to make for Panama City about 12 hours away.
Sunset at Isla Cebaco
A walk on the beach, Isla Cebaco
Finally the winds abated some, and we made a 3 AM departure to round the point. We hit it at 5:30 AM, and powerful currents immediately reduced our speed from 8 to 4 knots. After the turn, wind waves had built to a decent height. The wind was blowing only barely over 20 knots, but it was right on our nose, and the long distance across the whole Gulf of Panama provides a lot of ‘fetch’ which allows the chop to build steeper and steeper.
Three glasses shattered in the dishwasher when we went airborne a couple of times, but all told it was only a moderately uncomfortable passage, the last four hours of which were pretty easy. We arrived at Isla Otoque near sunset for a restful sleep before facing the tanker and cruise ship traffic coming in and out of the Canal the next morning.
Fishing boat collects his net in the anchorage, Isla Otoque
Above you can see our radar display, showing AIS targets. All those triangles with spears coming out of them are AIS equipped commercial ships, which we had to carefully thread our way through en route to our mooring ball at Balboa Yacht Club.
Bridge of the Americas above, with a huge ‘Panamax’ ship headed our way as it exits the Canal. Panamax ships are built to be as wide as the Canal locks. We had to pass very close to this ship. The Balboa Yacht Club sits very close to the Bridge of the Americas.
After all the stress, and the preparations lining up tradespeople to clean and paint Pax Nautica’s bottom, and qualified mechanics to perform scheduled adjustments on our main engine and generator, the haul-out went great. The team Stan put together were timely and tireless; as a result, we were able to splash again first thing in the morning on the fifth day.

Two hurried days of provisioning and laundry, after which we fueled up and headed out to the Islas Las Perlas (the Pearl Islands) where we now sit. We are excited to explore these beautiful islands, and are planning to visit the primitive Darien province of southeastern Panama, too.
Happy New Year everyone!

Cheeseburger Boat Projects in Paradise

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:00:00 -0500

In the final analysis, I’d have to say that the cruising life is MOST of what it’s cracked up to be.
We stay in beautiful places. We always have an ocean view. We hang around as long as we like, and then when we get curious about what’s around the bend, we simply move on. We meet an amazing variety of wonderful people along the way, from all over the world: fellow cruisers, locals and expats.
We take photos of our anchorages and our leisure activities and post them to this blog or to Facebook. No doubt the landlubbers among you picture your last vacation in a tropical locale... perhaps even your honeymoon. You extrapolate from there and imagine that we’ve left all our worldly cares behind, and are living one big, long extended vacation.
Islas Tortugas in the Gulf of Nicoya
But unlike a vacation, we can’t simply defer life’s little necessities. We still need to get our bills paid, and go grocery shopping, and get a haircut. When we go grocery shopping, as cruisers we get to call it ‘provisioning.’ That makes it sound more important to us somehow... but it’s still just grocery shopping. Made even more of a chore due to not having a car, not knowing where provisions can be found in each new location, and not knowing what will be on the shelves when we get there. Even when we do find ourselves with reliable internet, it’s no help at all in locating shops in a given town. For that, you must rely purely on local knowledge.
Last week Stan made a provisioning run while I readied the boat for our departure the next day. Having barely survived the transition to living without Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods for the past two years, he nonetheless included ‘sun-dried tomatoes,‘ and, even more optimistically, ‘martini glasses‘ on his list. (Turns out it really offends his sensibilities to pour our daiquiris freshly chilled from the cocktail shaker into... ACRYLIC! So he decided to embrace his inner snob and buy some glass martini stems.)
He returned from the store. With onions. Not very pretty onions, at that: they had some mushy spots and were covered with fruit flies. (Are onions fruit?? These flies said yes.) But we have learned that we get what we get. They also had fresh ginger, a welcome surprise.
It is often said that a life of full-time cruising amounts to doing boat projects in really exotic places. That does sum things up pretty well. Boat maintenance is ongoing, all the time, with minor repairs required not infrequently. When cruisers encounter each other, they always talk about where they were last, maybe where they are going next. And invariably, what system or piece of equipment currently needs repair or replacement. We don’t know a single boat that hasn’t been ‘stuck’ someplace, lingering longer than they would have, waiting for a critical part to be shipped. But that said, we do get ‘stuck’ in some fabulous places!
Lush and tropical Bahia Drake
In Drake Bay, we watched two pairs of Scarlet Macaws frolicking and cackling in the treetops. Bird watchers travel from all over and hire guides to catch a glimpse of these birds, pretty rare even in most of Costa Rica. Yet because of our ability to drop anchor in remote locations and stay awhile, here they were right in front of us. And since arriving in Costa Rica, it’s common for us to listen to howler monkeys making their haunting, primeval cries in the trees as we enjoy our morning coffee.
In the interest of full disclosure, Stan’s sweating it out in the engine room right now, upgrading the sea water pump to one of our air conditioners. I’ve been cleaning the galley and getting some laundry and online banking done. But let me leave you with some photos taken over the last week or two:
Los Sueños Marina

White Faced Capuchin Monkey
Basilisk. He wouldn’t turn his head for the camera, but he’s got a crest back there like a dinosaur.

More Monkey Business

A short video clip of Scarlet Macaws in the pouring rain. They mate for life, yet never seem to run out of things to talk about.

Dragonfly

Hornbill, I think. What kind? I don’t know... a pink one!

Stork
Someone is not flossing regularly. That IS in the wild, but yes, with a telephoto lens.
Golfito (means Little Gulf), on a misty afternoon

We truly are very lucky to lead the life that we do!

A Hectic End to Summer

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 01:00:00 -0500

Long time no blog!
When last we posted, we were readying to travel from the Czech Republic to Portugal, where we planned to spend 5 weeks before returning to the States in mid-September.
We departed Prague sadly. I know many of you are envious of the length of time we have been able to spend in our rented flats in European cities, compared to the average ‘vacation’ stay. But we felt we had taken too little time in Prague, and eastern Europe in general has piqued our curiosity mightily. We want to go back to get to know Krakow and Budapest, among other places.
But Lisbon did not disappoint. Or, well, I should say, other than the food, Lisbon did not disappoint.
View from the rear window of our Lisbon flat
It’s not that you can’t get good food in Lisbon, which is a large metropolis, pulsing with life, its streets and squares flooded with revelers all night long. It’s just that you have to work harder to find a good meal. Unless you really like sardines... a LOT... or heavily battered deep fried food, or an almost complete absence of seasoning, let alone heat.
We had three weeks in a fantastic little flat right on one of the main squares of the old city, Praça Luís de Camões. We’ve found that it’s after we’ve checked off all the must-see sites and activities, that we really get to know a city. For the first ten days or so, we enjoyed almost daily sight-seeing, walking our feet off and marveling at the history, the architecture, the culture. But the last ten days is when we fell in love with the place.
View from our front window around midnight
Our neighborhood in daytime
We left the city in a rental car to tour the countryside for a couple of weeks, mostly the Alentejo region, known for its wineries, cork-forested rolling hills and well preserved medieval walled towns, some of them made entirely of marble.
Evora, the plaza, with lovely clouds
Sunday afternoon gossip session on the plaza
But we didn’t get very far into that adventure. After a wonderful few nights in Évora and then one in Estremóz, we got news that Stan’s mother Maxine, whose health had been declining, was doing very poorly and we needed to get back. She had recently been diagnosed with a progressive, untreatable neurologic disease. She had deteriorated rapidly before our departure and we left knowing there was a possibility she would not make it through the summer. But the speed of her decline shocked everyone, and we found ourselves on the road in the hilly Portuguese countryside, with no internet and patchy cell service, trying to route our way back to the States in a big hurry.
It proved to be very costly, and truly exhausting, requiring us to drive all day and overnight without stopping for a meal, but we made it to Madrid in time for the only available seats to be had, and from there to London and Los Angeles. It was worth it for Stan to be able to sit at her bedside for her last few days. She was in no pain, but death is a difficult, emotionally draining process for all concerned.
We will remember Maxine the way she was only a year earlier, opting for an overnight passage with us from Mazatlán to Puerto Vallarta at age 88, and loving every minute of it.

Drained after her funeral, we scrambled to shift gears entirely, in order to focus on Stan’s daughter Kari’s upcoming wedding to Bret in Scottsdale on October 15. And we got to meet Bret’s parents, Gary and Chrissie from Colorado, for the very first time. Kari is quite a competent event planner, as it happens. The event was beautiful, inspiring, non-traditional, romantic, elegant and playful all at the same time... all the things they wanted it to be. Bravo!
Stan, Kari, Kristy and Val at the rehearsal dinner

By then we were well and truly ready to be back aboard Pax Nautica, chilling in Costa Rica and provisioning for a season of cruising.
Well, we didn’t get very far into that adventure, either. We were back aboard the boat long enough to fill the freezer and start on our boat list. But within 4 days, Stan’s heart rhythm was very abnormal again. He had been plagued with atrial fibrillation for ten years before having an ablation procedure performed before we left the States in 2009. His heart muscle is healthy, just incorrectly wired, as he likes to put it. The ablation procedure consists of snaking probes up the major vessels in his thighs all the way into his heart, then mapping the offending areas of the heart lining that are causing the abnormal rhythms and either freezing or frying them with the probes. There is a 30% risk of recurrence though, and Stan turns out to be in that 30%. So back to Cedars-Sinai we trekked.
A couple of weeks and eight hours of anesthesia later, we are finally back aboard with Stan tiring easily but recovering more strength each day. And his heart is thumping along flawlessly.
Our local friends Darrell and his Tica wife Nasira were kind enough to invite us to a feast in their condo for Thanksgiving dinner.
Darrell and Nasira
With Karen, and Nasira’s very first turkey
Darrell, Val and our wonderful marina manager Dan
It’s bad luck to start a passage on a Friday, so today we will do some last-minute provisioning of fresh food. Then Saturday night we’ll leave for points south. There are some anchorages in the Gulf of Nicoya we will be checking out, so no internet access for the next week or two.
But Pax is looking great and we are... finally... good to go! This has been a tough stretch for us so please forgive me for procrastinating, but I promise to update our blog more faithfully from here on.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Road Trip, Czech Republic and Beyond

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:54:14 -0500

The phone rang in our flat in Prague one morning at around 11, which for us is right after breakfast.
“No, there must be some mistake,” I heard Stan telling the manager. “We aren’t leaving today. It’s NEXT Friday.”
There was indeed a mistake, and it was ours. We simply had it in our heads that we had another week in Prague, and hadn’t bothered to check our calendars the entire time. I had meant to firm up some travel plans for a few days outside the city before heading off to Portugal. Rent a car, book hotels... but I hadn’t gotten to it yet. And new tenants would be arriving in our Prague flat the next day.
Oh, well! We made some calls, packed our belongings, and headed off to Europcar. But Prague had its hooks in us; there’s so much to see and do there, and the city has such a compelling personality. We vowed to return.
One part of Prague we had intended to explore more fully was the Jewish Quarter. We breezed through a couple of times on foot, but had never taken tours or even paused long enough to get very good photos. The history of the Jews in Eastern Europe is fascinating, especially to Val, having a Jewish heritage. In 1700, 25% of the population of what is now the Czech Republic was Jewish. As of 2005, there remained only around 4,000 Jews.
We did, however, spend a day in Terezín, better known by the German name Theresienstadt. Because of its fortress built during the late 1700’s, the town itself was evacuated by the Nazis during WW II and used as a ghetto to house Jews, the fortress becoming a prison for use by the Gestapo police. Today, the fortress and various sites and museums around the town itself form the Terezín Monument.
Theresienstadt was not a death camp, but served rather as a stop-over or pass-through point for Jews, most of whom were later transported and met their ends in one of several death camps. But many died here anyway from the appalling conditions, disease, and torture or execution by the Gestapo. 60,000 were housed at a time, in barracks designed to accommodate 7,000.
To outsiders, including a famous visit the Nazis orchestrated for members of the Danish and the International Red Cross, Terezín was presented as a model Jewish settlement. Embarrassingly, the Red Cross was fully duped by the Germans and rendered glowing reports of the conditions there.
Of course, the world abounds with reference material pertaining to this episode of history. But if you are interested in a very engrossing historical novel about World War II in general from an American perspective, and European Jews in particular, don’t miss the epic works by Pulitzer Prize winning author Herman Wouk, ‘The Winds of War’ and ‘War and Remembrance.’
We brought granola bars with us for lunch, knowing that we would not feel much like eating. And we’re glad we didn’t visit this place until after Jody and Amanda had left; a little intense for an 11 year old. Val did OK, even seeing her maiden name inscribed on the memorial wall; after all, it’s so common. And most likely, none of her father’s family members from Łódź in central Poland, and Zastavna in what is now western Ukraine, ended up here. They were no doubt transported to the Treblinka, Auschwitz or Chełmno death camps.
It wasn’t until we saw the wall of colored drawings by the ghetto’s children that we really began to lose it. Thankfully, that was near the end of the day. Reading only takes you so far; standing there lends a much greater sense of the reality. Meanwhile, the somber little town goes about its life. We wonder: did the parents and grandparents of the current residents step aside when the Jews were transported in, then return to their homes after the war? Honestly, we can’t imagine how one could choose to live there today, its walls having borne witness to so much cruelty. Bad Juju.
Switching gears in every sense, we headed southeast for a couple of days, into the Czech Republic’s wine country in Moravia.
The countryside is gorgeous: hilly, dotted with small, pretty towns, many of them with castles. It’s easy to imagine medieval feudal lords riding off to hunt game in forests dense with birch and black oak. The lords are gone, but the woods remain. And the wine is a surprise, especially the whites. Scrumptious, and a real bargain.
One of the small picturesque towns we happened upon in the heart of the wine country was Mikulov, which turned out to be the center of Judaism in Moravia for three centuries.
We visited the Jewish cemetery, dating from the mid-1400’s.
Being so close to the Austrian border at this point, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Vienna.
Vienna is a beautiful, sophisticated Old World city.
Tons of tourists, but we’ve gotten good at making our way to quieter neighborhoods, where there’s no English spoken or on the menus, but it’s less expensive, and more fun to linger in the authentic, if smoke-filled, atmosphere.
Vienna is famous for its cultural attractions, but we’re embarrassed to admit that the closest we came to cultural enrichment was sampling some Pez out of the Mozart Pez dispenser in our funky boutique hotel room.
In the morning, we had to leave to catch our flight to Lisbon.
But that’s a story for the next chapter!

Czech, Please !!

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:16:20 -0500

So, the Bourgeois Bohemians finally make it to Bohemia.
Faced with the same quandary as last summer, namely where to park ourselves while our dear Pax sits in rain, lightning storms and crushing heat, we decided on Europe once again.
Starting with a few weeks in Prague, Czech Republic. Valerie has been curious about this eastern European city since childhood. And as luck would have it, sister Jody and niece Amanda were able to join us for nearly a week exploring the city.
We rented a one bedroom flat in a perfect location: right near the Vltava River in the Old City, but away from the hordes of tourists that grace Prague’s Castle area, central Square and famous Charles Bridge. We were in a fairly upscale, vibrant neighborhood, with the so-convenient public trams and metro steps from our door. The ground floor Cafe was perfect: excellent food, a chill vibe and coffee brewed with serious decorum in vacuum pots, the latest rage.
Oddly, coffees and espressos in this neck of the woods are always served with an accompanying shot of fizzy water.
Our apartment windows are located, above, right behind the green banner on the building.

An afternoon in one of the City Squares
It’s easy to see why the tourists flock here nowadays. Architecturally, the city is a marvel. The country managed to bend the knee to the nearest dictator, hum idly and stare into space, or otherwise do what it took to avoid being bombed and decimated during countless struggles including two World Wars. So its gothic architecture has survived largely intact through the centuries.
No matter which way you turn, it looks like you are in Fantasyland, with a skyline of fairy castles.
That is, as long as you ignore the graffiti...
It is simply everywhere. In the most upscale corners of town, on the fanciest buildings and on every private home, restaurant and rubbish bin.
Even on post-Communist memorials
Under the communist regime, penalties for defacing property were severe. So ever since, the youth has been going crazy, scrawling happily all over every surface. It’s nothing gang related or hostile, just freedom of expression taken to the nth degree. Most people aren’t happy about it by any means, but the government is very reluctant to enforce against it in a nation still raw from the repression of the prior regime.
After only a day or two of getting oriented, Jody and Amanda arrived in town.
We spent the next 6 days exhausting ourselves, enjoying the sights of Prague and environs.
On the city Tram
A challenge to read the signs quickly, with long names and all those diacritics!
We checked off all the must-see places...
... like Prague’s Castle and St. Vitus’ Cathedral
A guard at the Castle. Not as much pomp as Buckingham Palace, but they do stand stock-still - a wonderment to all children - and change every hour.
Fruit, especially pears like above, grows all over and is free for the taking.
At the end of each day, we’d find some likely spot to sample cocktail hour...
...and enjoy dinner together and a lovely sunset.
Prague’s cuisine was a very pleasant surprise. Traditional Czech dishes are a bit on the heavy side compared to how we normally eat, although well prepared and tasty. Emphasis on sausages (ick from Val, yum from Stan), dumplings and ham. But in contrast to Mexico and Central America, the Czech people are adventuresome with regard to food and there are various ethnic dining choices. They have a particular love affair with Italian food. Their Italian restaurants stack up favorably against any you would find in the urban United States, and at a far better value. Produce in the city greengrocers is varied, abundant and excellent.
The big city can be a challenging place to keep an 11 year old amused, but we found some kid-friendly things to do...
... like paddling up the Vltava river
... making some new friends
... and riding a horse-drawn carriage through the cobbled streets at sunset.
One day, we felt like getting out of the city so we took a train to the medieval fortress of Karlstejn Castle.
A village in the Czech countryside
Karlstejn Castle
Amanda got to hold this huge owl and pose for the camera
We saw Jody and Amanda off to London. Then after a day of resting our geriatric bones, spent the rest of our time getting to know the city, its people and personality. We left thoroughly captivated, vowing to return.
What struck us most was the people. What a surprise! In contrast to, say, the Russian people who seem, as a culture, so bitter and downtrodden, the Czech people are happy and filled with hope. There is a noticeable baby boom going on, in Prague and all over the country. Strollers, babies and toddlers are everywhere. We overheard one young man with his pregnant wife in a cafe telling his friends he thought it just felt like a good time to become a father. Construction, remodeling and repainting are everyplace, from the inner city to the tiny towns. Streets are spanking clean, fresh flowers in every window. Boxy communist barracks-looking housing has been painted in cheerful combinations of bright colors.
The city is relatively casual in style, but sophisticated and with much to offer culturally. An active music scene, especially in jazz and blues; and we’ve already mentioned the restaurants. In an unlikely corner of the city, we found the very best Vietnamese food we’ve eaten, anyplace. It’s on track for a Michelin star, in fact. The Czech white wines are amazing, and a great value. If only I could remember their crazy names!
Stan even managed to get up super early one morning, to capture the Charles Bridge with his tripod in magic-hour light. Normally we’ve been getting up at the crack of 10:30 or 11, so this was an accomplishment.
More soon on our travels in the Czech Republic and beyond.

Stay tuned!