Living close to nature is a really wonderful thing. The howler monkeys were celebrating the passing of the weather this morning. They make a horrific shriek, and there were hundreds of them going about it as the sun was coming up. Their howls are usually annoying, but I could relate to them this morning. I wanted to howl with them at the approaching sun.
The past 4 days have been windy and rainy. Two boats drug onto the beach, and dozens more dragging around the anchorage. My neighbors looked pretty beat up yesterday morning as they didn’t get any sleep on anchor watch all night. I slept like a baby knowing my oversized Manson would securely hold Splendid where she lay.
The squalls had a violent nature. It would blow like hell from the north, and 10 minutes later it would blow like hell from the east. If your anchor doesn’t reset well you’ll end up on the beach or bashing into your neighbor. It’s still grey and rainy but the violence seems to have past. As I’m writing this it just started raining with a good gust of wind so 
maybe I’m totally off base. Oh…, here is goes, got to run outside…
I’m back and took the following picture, kind of a weird sun squall. the sun was kind of out but raining and blowing the boats about.
I took a break from writing yesterday and worked on my electrical system. I found that my motor was not grounded to my battery, not directly anyway, and instead grounded to the dynaplate. How could I have over looked that? The batteries take more of a charge now but unfortunately don’t seem to hold it. The batteries are at about 12v in the morning having had very little load on them during the night. They are only a few years old, bummer. Once I get a DC voltage regulator that I can equalize with I’m going to cook the hell out of them and see if I can bring them back.
The squall has already passed.
New batteries are not cheap. I have 4 Trojan T-105’s. When I bought them here 5 years ago for Namaste they were $100 each, not they are $240.00 each, how does that work? I don’t think I’ll buy Trojans again as I think buying brand names is a waste of money. I’m going to look into some of the local Panamanian wet celled battery manufacturers.
Another big gust of wind!
Life is quiet these days and I spend all of my time writing and thinking. My book has been helpful putting everything into perspective for me. I still get sad about the girls but life is so. Love passes like a squall, and the aftermath what you make of it. I choose to make something positive.
I’m still messing around with the Kubota and have it charging nicely. Something is leaking and i think it is the coolant, I have to look into it today. I’m also going to take a dinghy ride a few miles to the east to the village of La Guiera. There is a small Chinese store where I can buy some things. I’m out of everything and have been living on oats, rice and bread with no butter. I hope they have some fruit & veggies, its usually hit or miss.
I’m hoping to be off to Panama City in the morning to get the Laptop that I got from my buddy Paul. I’m looking forward to getting some video posted. I tried crunching video with this little Acer aspire one, but no way, it’s just too much for it.
Remember when I got hired onto the cruise ship as a carpenter last year? Well I have the opportunity to do it again in March and think I’ll take it. I need some money for some medical stuff and should have enough left over for batteries, chain plates, a scuba tank, and paint and supplies. Once I get a drifter I’ll be good to go.
My visa is up on Dec 22 and I’m thinking of taking a bus up to Coasta Rica for a few days soon. The bus is $15 each way and I can get a hotel room for about $15 bucks a night as well. When I was here last time i used to have to spend three days out of the country, now I hear it is only 24 hours. That makes it a bit easier to deal with and my stamp coming back in is good for 6 months and my cruising permit is paid up for another 11 months so I’ll be on easy street for a while :) At that point I’m going to head off to the San Blas for a few months before I take this job.
I thought I’d want to spend longer in Panama but I’m really looking forward to moving on. I thought I’d want to spend years in the San Blas but sailing far is calling pretty hard. I want to cross another ocean and spend long amounts of time at sea and discover new places. Going through the Canal is expensive (about $1,100) and I’m thinking of going across the Atlantic to Bermuda, Azores, Canarias, Cape Verde islands, and down to the Falklands and on to round cape horn. I’ve been intrigued reading Annie Hill’s book “Brazil and beyond”. I’d have to get another diesel heater as mine barley kept me warm during the winter in Florida. I’d have to get a good wool sweater and some real foul weather gear (Grudens). I have nice expensive “breathable” gortex fowlies and always seem to be soaking wet in them, and I don’t believe its sweat. A total waste of money.
What I really need to do before taking a long trip like this is to replace the stainless piece that my forestay attaches to. It is the piece in-between the two anchor rollers in the picture. I think I could have it manufactured for about $400.00. I’d like to have the chain plates strapped to the hull (About $700.00), and I need to either make or buy new stanchion bases, stanchions, and life lines. I’ll do the life lines out of galvanized rope to keep it cheap. That’s about another $800.00. I need a drifter, and that’s about it. Handling a spinnaker is just too much work for me and I cant go to weather with it in light wind.
My other projects like a bottom job and getting my big refrigerator working are not so important. I want to make sure there are no “weak links” in the rig, and I want to make sure I don’t go overboard. Since not to many people have been interested in Charters I’m thinking to go to a US territory (The states, USVI’s, or Puerto Rico and maybe finding some work for a few months before i set off. I could run backpackers here but I’m just not so motivated to have so many (5-8) strangers on board. With backpackers comes cockroaches, and bed bugs from the hostels. I also want a hard sailing & rowing dinghy. I can sell my Yamaha 9.9 for around a grand.
I’m really looking forward to sailing far again. Sometimes I really miss having a small boat like Namaste. I do believe once I can manage to get Splendid into “maintenance” mode as opposed to “restoring mode”, I’ll be just fine. She was, and still is a big project!
Well it’s almost 8am and i should have something to eat and start my day.
Sail far and live slowly.
Alex