And so to the Pacific
Spectacular storm clouds roll over Shelter Bay daily. At night deafening thunderclaps rattle the buildings and jagged lightning illuminates dripping rainforest. Add the to that eerie calls of the howler monkeys and it is all…
Category Archives: Panama to Tahiti
Thank heavens it’s Friday
Friday was one of those boat days when things went smoothly. How such days stand out. To be honest, I didn’t think it would all happen. When I arrived back in Panama the boat sat…
Canal Business
A word about transit of the Panama Canal. The Canal Authority makes a big deal of the 4 lock transit. That is quite understandable for a 100,000 tonne container ship whose fee may exceed $400,000,…
Onto Gatun Lake
Our line handlers arrived at 1 o’clock – 3 cheerful local blokes supplied, along with fenders and lines, by Roy Bravo. We motored across to flats anchorage and jilled about for an hour until our…
Maxine and the crocodile
After breakfast pancakes Miss Perfect and I went for a swim. I was already out of the water when the lads pointed out a crocodile approaching from the shore. A big fellow – perhaps 3…
Bad end to a good day
After a long, interesting day on the lake and in the locks, we entered the Pacific Ocean just at dusk. Heavy rain and increasing wind against current made for a lumpy sea as we attempted…
Recovering Equanimity
The Balboa locals tell us that the weather for our arrival was highly unusual. Our pilot was unable to transfer to the tug supply boat to go ashore, which is apparently unheard of. As he…
Things could be worse!
While Maxine is ashore flirting I sit in the cockpit, watching a spectacular lightning show to the north. With a gentle evening breeze and a small cervesa, I find that Act 2 of Walkure is…
Almost a Saga
Almost a saga indeed. It has been a week since the rubber coupling replacements arrived from USA. Maxine and I got the old coupling off the prop shaft and reassembled it with the new rubbers,…
To sea at last!
We have now run the engine under power and all seems to be OK. We depart in the morning for the Colombian island of Malpelo, about 300 miles southwest. The trick is to get across…
Contadora
Anchored on the south side of the island, famous both as a refuge for the Shah of Iran and for the protracted negotiations which took place here under the palm trees, settling the status of…
Isla Canas
I’ve written before about the delight of snugging the boat down in a secure anchorage after a passage. It doesn’t seem to matter how brief the journey. It was only 20 downwind miles from Contadora, with…
Rio Cacique
We left at the top of the tide to clear the sandbar south of Isla Canas and motored south through the narrow, reef-strewn Santelmo pass on the southern side of Isla Rey. Here at Rio…
Malpelo Island
After a splendid romp out of the Gulf of Panama we settled into the familiar business of motoring. We will need to complete a thousand miles under power before I can trust our prop shaft…
Ecuador at last
A tired tern hitchhiked across the equator with us yesterday. We anchored for the night in an open bay 15 miles north of Caraquez, allowing arrival at the Bahia pilot pickup point at high tide…
A pelican
Just after dawn it is cool in the cockpit. Coffee and la Testament Francais make my tiny bit of a hangover quite manageable. Miss Perfect is asleep back aft and will, I expect, stay so…
Maxine’s take on our Volga journey
If you’re in London, and curious to hear Little Miss Perfect’s account of our trip through Russia, you may like to attend her Cruising Association lecture. Details can be found at http://www.theca.org.uk/node/28774. I can make no…
2 days Isn’t Enough
Two Days in Quito isn’t enough. On $75 tickets we flew up to Quito to bling up and kick our heels for Maxine’s farewell. I’m sure it is a lovely city, but after Cartagena and…
Yet more delays
My gorgeous Rosie bounced into Caraquez jet-lagged to buggery but raring to go. She hasn’t been on board since the Volga River trip but was immediately at home on board, organising things and cooking to…
Off at Last
At last we are at sea, after a departure which was not without incident. The tortuous channel out of the bay has only enough water for deep drafted vessels at the top of the tide.…
And then there were 4
They talk about the sea lion Galapagos welcoming committee, but our welcome took the form of red-footed boobies. Three more joined our pulpit sentinel. They took up residence 200 miles out and settled in for…
Wreck Bay
Wreck Bay at Puerto Moreno is a pretty little harbour open only to the NW. With constant southerly winds it is a secure anchorage. There are many small local boats, some cruise ships and two…
Sea Lions
Elegant, agile and curious, sea lions own this harbour. You can’t leave a dinghy in the water because they will be aboard it within minutes. 1,000 of them inhabit the bay and they have taken…
Solipsism
It has been a quiet week. Tainui is the only yacht in the bay and I have had few interruptions to the business of boat maintenance, repair and drug abuse. With a constant offshore (southerly)…
Enough Solipsism, already
If you ask me, solipsism is alright in small doses, but I prefer to share it. To paraphrase HW Tilman, what I want is silence, but not too much of it. 3 weeks in Puerto…
Into the cruising mode
Well, we’re well settled into the cruising mode. After and omlettes with Anna’s fresh baked bread for breakfast, we fell into the dinghy for a snorkelling trip into a channel between the islets. A parks…
A word about iguanas
They are not nature’s loveliest creatures, but they deserve our sympathy and support. Here on Isabela they have 2 problems. First, El Nino has warmed the waters hereabouts by up to 2 degrees. That has…
Cruising life
If you ask me, solipsism is alright in small doses, but I prefer to share mine. To paraphrase HW Tilman, what I want is silence, but not too much of it. 3 weeks in Puerto…
Isabela
Well, we’re well settled into the cruising mode. After breakfast omlettes with Anna’s fresh baked bread, we fell into the dinghy for snorkelling in a channel between the islets. A parks official tried to chase…
Exchanging pain for shame
Senescence is a wily beast, constantly creeping up. While I am still immortal, as I approach my 8th decade I am feeling progressively less so. It is 9 years since Tainui crossed the Southern Ocean.…
Back in the big smoke
Our 40 mile passage back to Academy Bay was a delight – a fast close fetch south of the islands, over smooth seas. A solitary whale sounded, rafts of storm petrels flitted about and manta…
night life and flamingoes
There are no other yachts here now, and beyond wildlife the little town of Puerto Villamil on Isabela has limited offerings. But there are surfers and an occasional backpacker who come out in the evenings…
John’s thoughts (that’s John Little, not his ageing skipper)
Day seven. Isla Isabela. Or is it day eight? The days seem to merge with one another out here in the Galapagos. We sit in Tainui’s cockpit in this lovely, protected anchorage and watch…
… and Anna’s
Thanks to John and Tainui, we have just spent two wonderful weeks in the fabled islands of the Galapagos, and found them every bit as romantic and astonishing as promised. The boys have adequately…
We have found out what it is
If you sail across oceans you get to know your seabirds. At least, the major groups. Of course, sorting out one species of petrel from another can be well nigh impossible unless you’re an expert,…
Departure
A cloudless and windless dawn, our last in the Galapagos. This morning’s nature checklist in Puerto Villamil lagoon is typical – young sealions cavorting around the boat, imperious reef sharks, fluttering storm petrels, frigate birds…
Dispiritude
Not a breath of wind for 6 days. We just sat. Rain squalls brought cooling deck baths and seductive promises of a wind which never came. Tainui rolled and lurched in the swells, moving slowly…
But we finally got here
That southerly wind stayed with us all the way to Nuku Hiva. 24 days from Galapagos to Marquesas, 6 of which we spent becalmed. For the remaining 16 days we averaged 7.2 knots, for dear…
Nuku Hiva
Ashore the little town of Nuku Hiva is extremely relaxed, to say the least. Everyone is large and type 2 diabetes must be thriving here. Cockerels crow, large Polynesian women with flowers in their hair…
Ennui
It is a relief to be at sea again. We slipped out of the bay at noon, into a cooling SSE sea breeze. The lofty volcanic spires of Ua Pou lie 15 miles to port…
to the Tuamotus
The Marquesas islands lie to the north of the cyclone belt. April signals the end of the cyclone season but this being an El Nino year our departure in late March was considered early and…
Target Practice
From Tainui’s galley it is a simple matter to toss orange peels, squeezed limes, eggshells and other biodegradables up through the main hatch and out over the side. Our deck is surrounded by two stainless…
Kauehi atoll
Tainui is anchored in the Tuamotus at Kauehi Atoll. 500 yards to starboard, 20 village houses nestle among the palm trees. The lagoon is fringed by dazzling white sand and its crystal waters are absolutely…
Fakarava atoll
Yesterday we were alone at Fakarava atoll, but this morning there are 4 yachts and two big gin palaces here. The ARC rally fleet – a collection of some 30 boats cruising in company from…
Ali Baba and sundowners
At the end of the course, our 6th dive was a fast drift at 28m through Ali Baba Canyon, in the north pass. Sisu, our instructor, had positively spooked us at the pre-dive briefing, but…
Crew
Jochen, an industrial chemist, is a competent and careful sailor. He and Axel hit it off immediately and he provides an excellent foil for my curmudgeonliness and Axel’s youthful and at times chaotic exuberance. The…
Tahiti
Light tail winds allowed us to sail SW from Fakarava in blissful silence. Our little CPT autopilot has performed faultlessly, silent and drawing only 1.5 amps. The Aries servo wind vane cannot manage light following…