Crab, lobster, molas and friends

We've been in San Blas now for about a week. Our check in last Sunday was delayed (Immigration man MIA) so we needed to spend a night in Porvenir. That turned out to be a good stop as shortly after we got the bad news on the check in we learned that our friends Christian and Josiane on Astérie would be arriving the next morning to check out. And then Fay bought a massive crab from a passing Kuna and we had a great dinner of fresh crab.

Monday morning we went ashore early and checked in. There had recently been two large drug busts ($40M of cocaine) in the general area, intercepting boats from Columbia so Porvenir was full of Policia decked out in fatigues and carrying all manner of automatic weapons; but happily kicking around a soccer ball and enjoying themselves!

Later in the morning Christian and Josiane arrived and we had a great lunch with the mandatory wine in the French tradition. We had hoped to buddy boat with them to French Polynesia but learned their plans had changed and they now intend to be in Bali by September; 11,000 nautical miles in eight months! Too fast for us.

Our friends Steve, Oliver and Gary had sailed down from Florida, almost non-stop, and Patty and Marla had flown in on Friday night. So we departed Porvenir for Cambombia to meet up with them amidst thick gray clouds and growing seas. By the time we reached the Canal Mayflower the swells were quite large, very much like Pacific swells, long and tall, unlike any we have seen in the Caribbean. The light was too flat to try cutting through the outter reef so we went around to Canal Mangles which took even longer and by the time we reached Cambombia is was 5pm. With the thick clouds it was impossible to see through the water to read the depth. Steve came out in his dinghy and with Oliver throwing a "lead line" they found a spot for us to enter the anchorage. We cleared the reef with just 1.7' under our keel! We quickly anchored in 60' and joined everyone on Hanalei Moon for cocktails!

We've spent our fair share of time on boat chores and Fay has New Morning looking very nice. After two days in Cambombia we moved to Green Island. Fay did some snorkeling with Steve, Patty, Oliver and Marla, but a crocodile sighting dampened everyone's enthusiasm. Yesterday Hanalei Moon departed for the Hollandes to break up the return to Porvenir where they will drop off Oliver, Marla and Gary for a 7am flight on Sunday.

Shortly after they departed we were visited by Venacio, a highly regarded mola maker. While I tinkered with the engine wiring Fay spent an hour going through every mola and then laboring over the decision of which ones to purchase. While trying to make up her mind she was visited by a Kuna fisherman selling some "tulup" or lobsters! She used Venacio to help her negotiate with the fisherman and secured two medium sized lobsters for $20. Fay eventually settled on four molas and completed her business with Venacio.

Fay cooked up the lobsters in the afternoon, combined them with a papaya and avocado she had purchased in the morning and served up a beautiful lobster salad for dinner; complemented by the last glass of wine left from Christian's visit. After a very intense six weeks of boat chores I think we're starting to get back into our cruising rhythm.

We escaped!

Check out our new position in Linton! After almost five weeks we finally got off the dock. Time to see Steve, Patty, Oliver and Marla on Hanelei Moon, and maybe Christian and Josiane too!

The rain let up a little earlier in the week but yesterday was rainy again and this morning was a flat gray raining sky. It broke for about two hours when we departed (and then spent an hour calibrating our autopilot), but started up again and rained for most of the trip to Linton. It got quite intense close to Linton but we could see it lightening up so we slowed down, headed a little further offshore and let the worst of it pass.

Fay was still getting her sea legs, and the anchorage is now a bit rolly. We still have a bunch of stuff to fix, but it's so nice to be off the dock!

Solar makes three

With lots of help from Ramone on Monday I was able to remove and remount the four defective solar panels on the starboard side. The replacements were not exactly the same. First, the cells themselves are clearly different, the new cells looking black where the original panels were more of a navy blue as you can see in the picture. Then they are laminated more completely than the previous panels which made them a little bit larger so we ended up with a small overlap between two of the panels on top of the dodger, but they seem very secure. And the connection boxes on the panels are placed a little differently so the white boxes we had to protect the wires from wayward toes don't quite fit. One of them we managed to make work, but Ramone is trying to fabricate three others. And then finally the replacement panels also have a different cell protector so the wiring was more time consuming and I didn't complete that until yesterday. Hopefully Ramone will have the finished boxes today and we can call the job complete, having replaced three of the four panels on the starboard side. It started raining about an hour after we finished on Monday, there were a few squalls on Tuesday and a pretty good rain last night. There is no evidence of any water coming below so it looks like the wiring is well sealed.

We'll wait until we return to Shelter Bay next month to swap out the port side. Now, on to our more mundane commissioning tasks so that we hope we can actually depart for San Blas by Saturday.

Two down, one to go

We had three big problems to solve when we got here and we've now addressed two of them. Yesterday and today were mostly sunny, in fact yesterday we put up the bimini, the first time we've really needed it since we arrived in Panama. The sun dried things out a bit and that gave us the opportunity to begin the on deck jobs.

Today we solved one of our compounded "self inflicted wounds". When we were de-commissioning New Morning I was removing the reef lines to stow them out of the sun. Nice idea, but I botched the execution and pulled one of the lines all the way through the trough without a messenger! Then we compounded the problem when Fay decided she would fish it through with some wire we have onboard, then managed to jam the wire in the trough! So today we opened up the trough (and Fay found a second opening in the starboard deck locker), cleared the jammed wire, pulled the reef line through and closed it all up.

The last problem is replacing the solar panels. Let's hope for a few more sunny days! We'd really like to get out of the marina and back to San Blas!

And it rained

And rained some more.  Shortly after we finished our Christmas day walk and it began raining.  It stopped raining 36 hrs later!  In between it rained steady and hard.  So hard that I had to turn up the music fairly loud to be able to hear it over the sound of the rain striking the boat.  And when it seemed like it had stopped, it really only just lightened up to a "normal" sort of rain that calls for an umbrella. The picture doesn't do it justice; it was really coming down in sheets.

The water treatment systems have been overwhelmed by "turbidity", basically silt and dirt in the water. The government has advised people to not drink water from the tap and to boil it before cooking. We had a charcoal filter on the hose for the water we're getting from shore and just added a ceramic filter which is supposed to remove 99.99% of harmful bacteria.

We just spoke with someone who drove through Portobello this morning and reported a waterfall and mud slide right through the center of town. When it stopped raining it started blowing. We've 15-25kts since last night. The normally lake like harbor at Linton has breaking waves; breaking right into the restaurant we're told. Heavy rain is forecast for later today and tomorrow.

Too much wind and rain to do our on deck projects so we're doing indoor projects and making steady progress.

Christmas Day Toucan

While it was nice and cool this morning we went for a walk back into Fort Sherman. The transition from the marina to the jungle is almost immediate; literally just a few hundred yards of walking. Fay had hoped to see one toucan, but we saw many as they swooped in and out of the trees. We also saw huge vultures perched with their wings spread wide and their backs to the morning sun. Monkeys, parrots and numerous birds rounded out the morning walk. This isn't my best photograph, but you get the idea.

Furuno's Christmas surprise

As we were about to prepare a cocktail and enjoy some hors d'oeuvres that Fay had prepared before we headed over to the BYOD Christmas Eve dinner with all the yachties in the marina, we heard a knocking on the hull. Not quite the sound of tiny hooves on the roof, but surprising none the less. Who could that be? I stuck my head out the companionway and saw someone on the dock. I went out on deck and it was the FedEx delivery man. He spoke no English, but held out a box. I looked and sure enough it was addressed to me and "Yacht in transit: New Morning". I signed my name, printed my name, and gave him $3.30 for I don't know what.

Earlier in the week when I took the covers off the boat instruments it was clear that they were severely UV damaged and two of them shattered in my hand. I mentioned this to a contact at Furuno and he said he'd be happy to send some new ones. I told him it wasn't urgent, we could pick them up from a dealer in February in Panama City, but if he wanted to send them I'd give him our address. He sent four new covers and there were delivered to the boat on Christmas Eve. Incredible customer support and service by both Furuno and FedEx!

The cocktails were great and we're off to dinner.

Our home again

Fay and I spent a couple days in Panama City last week, shopping and provisioning New Morning for a couple of months in the San Blas islands. Then we returned to New Morning on Sunday to finish commissioning and repairs, with an entire mini-van full of parts, clothes and groceries. Oh and a couple bottles of champagne, rum and gin!

Each day has been two steps forward and one step back. But today we got New Morning really cleaned up nice. It was such a relief to have six months of "on the hard" dirt and dust scrubbed off her decks. The deck lockers were emptied, cleaned and re-loaded. The deck is now sparkling, the cockpit clean and she's feeling like home.

We still have more projects before we can get underway, but we're making steady progress.

Back in the water and nice words from Chuck Paine

It was never certain, but we got enough time with no rain, notice I didn't say sun, to get the second coat of bottom paint applied.  Then yesterday, with New Morning in the slings they applied a second coat in the spots where the jack stands had been and it started raining again.  It rained pretty steady for about an hour, but it eventually took a break, the wind continued to blow and New Morning was back in the water and into a slip by 2pm.  An hour and a half later I was on my way to Panama City.

On a separate subject, Chuck Paine has said some very nice things about New Morning in a paper posted on his web site.  I've posted it on the Design page, look towards the bottom of the page.

Paint vs rain

Fay is arriving on Thursday mid-day, I depart for Panama City tomorrow afternoon, and we need a place to live when we return. New Morning needs to get into the water! But first she needs a new coat of bottom paint. The bottom paint cannot be applied in the rain and the sun has been out for only 4- 5 hours in the last nine days.

Yesterday it quit raining about noon and the sun never came out, but by 2pm the hull was sufficiently dry to start painting and they got one coat of paint applied. This morning is again blowing a steady 25-35 with intermittent rain. The wind helps dry the hull so that's not as big a problem as the rain. If we can get the second coat on today, we can launch first thing tomorrow morning and I can get New Morning tied up, the refrigeration started, water tanks filled, etc before I depart for Panama City. We just need 3-4 hours with no rain.

Channel surfing in Panama

Still apparently under the strong influence of Rome, there is no happy hour on Domingo; well drinks (the only kind available) are $4. But there is live music, and on the TV (not turned off during the live music) there is widespread flooding, landslides, road closures and a few helicopter rescues, all related by perfectly coiffed news babes in prom dresses. Even accounting for my poor understanding of Spanish, there is still a disconnect there.

As my bar tab hits $12 and I enjoy the only reliable thing on the menu, a cheeseburger, we watch the Bears play New England in a snow storm at Soldier Field; also a bit disconnected when it's 75F at 8pm.

The sun played peek-a-boo today, intermixed with squally rain. If the weather is at least that good tomorrow we'll get the bottom painted and be back in the water on Tuesday. Life on the hard is - well - hard. It would be nice to be back in the water.

Arturo comes through!

The gating item on getting back into the water has been getting the bottom painted. The paint arrived in Panama City, but the crazy weather had closed the road. Yesterday, in a driving rain, I heard knocking on the hull. Arturo had arrived with the bottom paint (and a bunch of other stuff). The normally hour and a half drive had taken him four hours! The road was one lane in many places due to mud slides and conditions were the worst he had ever seen.

But now we have bottom paint, and today there is a hazy sun peeking through the clouds drying things out a bit. Once the bottom is painted we'll wait a day or two and be able to get back into the water. New Morning feels so much better in the water than on the hard.

Plan B1-2-3...

The last 24hrs was pretty wild weather. There was so much rain that yesterday they closed the canal, or more accurately they opened the lock doors, so they could drain water out of Gatun lake. This was only the third time the canal has been closed in its 96yr history. The last time it was closed for weather was in 1915. This was the heaviest rains recorded in the 73yrs that they have kept weather records in Panama. With the canal closed we were temporarily cutoff from Panama. Even after they opened the canal (and the bridge across the Gatun Locks), the road to Panama City was closed and our delivery was turned back.

It blew 25-30 all day and kicked up to a steady 35 for awhile in the late afternoon, but there was not much rain. There is a large breakwater, 4 miles in length, that protects Colon and the Gatun locks from the ocean; large waves were breaking right over the top of it. Shelter Bay is a protected lagoon off of the main harbor and there were 3' waves from the outer harbor breaking adjacent the entrance to Shelter Bay.

The cloud cover and wind kept the temperature down to the high 70's so I continued on with my projects inside New Morning. Yesterday I was able to complete part 1 which was to put the damaged pump back together to be able to use it (though it will be leaking) to limp across the marina after we go back in the water.

Yesterday I also started part 2 which was to separate the shaft seal vent from the engine sea water plumbing. I was able to dismantle the existing plumbing and work out the new solution. In the process I realized that the Lyman Morse plumbing was fatally flawed, it was more complex than just plumbing to the wrong side of the anti-siphon vent. Since the "T" they installed to bring the shaft seal vent into the engine was mounted below the waterline, it would either siphon into the cylinders, or siphon out the impeller cover; two bad choices. Today I ran new hose from the heat exchanger to the anti-siphon valve and then to the exhaust mixing elbow. Unfortunately the location of the anti-siphon valve and the path for the hoses made that much more difficult than it needed to be, but I'll spare you the details. I brought 6' of 1" hose and used exactly all of it; how lucky was that!

Finally I temporarily strapped the shaft seal vent about 10" above the waterline. That should be sufficient to get across the marina to a slip. Fay is bringing new vent line hose and then I'll be able to mount it higher and have a permanent solution.

But the weather has shifted our schedule. The delivery of the bottom paint was delayed by the road closures and it's not clear when it will get through. So we'll be on the hard longer than expected, I'm stuck in the Shelter Bay "hotel" and Fay has rescheduled her flight to Panama. We must be cruising again.

Plan B

Plan A was to replace the pump, but since I've learned that it requires removing an engine mount, I'm going to try Plan B. Plan B is to insert a heli-coil, basically a new set of threads. I'm told the hardest and riskiest part of the job is removing the broken screw.

But first is plan B1, which is to put things back together (hoses and bolts), enough to be able to limp from the haul out slip to our real slip. And this takes us back to the original problem which is that once back in the water we'll be siphoning water out of the ocean and into New Morning through the incorrectly plumbed shaft seal vent. So Plan B2 is to re-plumb the shaft seal vent before we go back into the water.

The incorrect installation of the shaft seal vent by Lyman Morse two years ago has led to an amazing series of discoveries and problems; none of which they consider to be their problem.

Yanmar debacle

Today did not go so well. I bought the service manual. I bought the parts catalog. And then I bought the parts. There is nothing in the Yanmar 4JH4-HTE service manual that says to replace the water pump I need to remove the engine mount! What kind of bogus service manual is that? What kind of design is that. Some engineers in Japan should be fired! Remove the engine mount to change the water pump? I guess they must believe that their water pump (made by Johnson in Sweden) will last longer than the engine, or that engine mounts are easily removed (I was advised to unbolt it from the stringer to avoid changing the alignment)?

Unbelievable!

It makes the canal work

Rain. Torrential rain. Lots of rain today. Steady, warm, driving rain. And wind; a steady 25kts at the masthead, gusting higher. The boat is "shivering" a bit on the jack stands where we sit adjacent the travelift.

Yesterday was a good day. I identified the exact nature of the problem behind the water siphoning into the boat through the shaft seal vent (Lyman Morse plumbed it to the wrong side of the anti-siphon loop), cleaned off all the hard growth on the shaft, prop and prop gears that had accumulated in Bonaire, and replaced all (but one) of the zincs on the shaft and prop. Unfortunately the Spurs line cutter needs a special zinc which I had not identified previously and don't have. It will have to wait until next time. Fortunately we don't spend too much time in marina's so the zinc doesn't look too bad.

Today is water pump day. Last May, when I attempted to replace the impeller in the water pump for the third time, I managed to snap off one of the small bolts that hold the cover in place. Apparently in my previous attempts to replace the impeller, when I did not yet understand that the bad plumbing was the source of the river running through it even when the thru hull was closed, enough salt water got into the thread and around the bolt to cause it to corrode in place. Then I cleverly applied too much force and snapped it off. As usual, an accumulation of errors. So now I need to replace the entire pump. I haven't been looking forward to this job because the pump is supremely inaccessible. But it's a good day for an indoor project and the temperature is a nice cool 79 so this is about as good as it's going to get.

Time to get to it.

Packed for Panama

Just finished packing for a 6am flight out of SFO tomorrow morning. A full day of travel and I should be in Panama City tomorrow night. A little shopping on Saturday and then to Shelter Bay on Sunday.

Next week I've got some critical work to do while New Morning is on the hard, like replacing the raw water pump on the engine. Then the plan is to go back into the water on Friday and then move back on board. Back to the boat means back to boat projects!

Log book

The last two years we've used a log book that we purchased from the Mystic Harbor gift shop. But in practice I crossed out many of the headings and put different information into the columns. So this summer I was motivated to create my own log book. Fay and I discussed what information we wanted to have and used the same general format as the Mystic Harbor book, but with columns for what we wanted to record. Then we added some additional pages for frequently requested general boat information, emergency communications, the location of through hulls, and our abandon ship procedure. We printed it on our little HP printer, had it bound at FedEx Office, and then Fay grafted it into the Mystic Harbor book so that it had a nice hard cover. If you'd like to make your own log book, you're welcome to start with ours which you'll find on the Downloads page. A year from now I won't be surprised if we revise it again.

Carte de sejours

Yesterday, on a balmy November day, we visited the French consulate in San Francisco and received our "long stay" visas for French Polynesia. Technically they are just 90 day visas with a request for a "carte de sejours". But our documents have been sent to Tahiti, and approved, so we are told it is just a formality to receive our "carte de sejours" or "residence card" which will allow us to spend more than 90 days in French Polynesia. Our plan is to spend all of next season there (May - October) and leave New Morning in Raiatea. But you know about cruising and plans....

Yanmar service manual and parts catalog

I was able to find the Yanmar service manual and parts catalog on the web. The parts catalog covers the Yanmar 4JH4-TE and 4JH4-HTE. The service manual covers all the 4JH4 models, including the 3JH4-HE, 4JH4-AE, 4JH4-TE and 4JH4-HTE. Verbosity for the benefit of Google. You'll find them on the Downloads page.