Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Cocos Island, Costa Rica  05,32N 087,03W

Arrived on 22 Feb around 5pm to a glorious bay with the Sea Hunter tied up, a live aboard dive boat that brings divers from Costa Rica and stays for about a week to 10 days. Next morning, we awoke to a most amazing view in a bay surrounded by lush covered hills and rocky old volcanic mountains emerging from the sea. The mountain chain extends all the way under the ocean back to Galapagos.  The same magma hot spot created this chain similar to what is going on in the Hawaiian chain.  We all couldn’t wait to don our gear and jump in to see what we could see and organize ourselves for more serious diving. Anyhow, its also really pretty hot. There was a big school of circling jacks under the boat waiting for some scraps. We later found out they love onion skins or any kind of organic refuse. There was also a couple of white tipped reef sharks, the usual variety of reef fish and I spotted a ray in the distance. Not bad for falling off the back of the boat. We couldn’t wait to go for a real dive.  Robin took a pic. of a shark during a dive..............

Dive 1: I’m so sorry to say I forgot to fill Robin’s weight pockets with his appropriate weights so he missed the first dive after plopping in with all of us and then not being able to get down. Sorry Robin!!! We were patiently waiting for him below around 70’ checking out the rock boulders, and getting comfortable with our new environment. This is apparently a regular hangout for hammerheads but they were not around and the white tipped reef sharks were taking advantage of their chance to be the big shots on the block for once. Lots of them everywhere. We circled the rock island looking for hammerheads but none to be found. We ran into a couple of hawks bill turtles getting cleaned by jacks. The viz wasn’t so great. We had stayed so long deep waiting for some sharks to show that our guide got low on air and we went up after only 33 min.

Dive 2: We got out to the dive site and Ken realized his computer had gone dead so he didn’t dive. So we dropped down to about 70’ and went along the channel’s edge where a tiger shark was reputed to hang. Lots of white tips not paying any attention and viz not so great but suddenly, in my face a BIG shark belly!! White as snow, I saw his head just for a second probably the same time as he saw me and then veered up, thank goodness, to avoid me!! It all happened so fast and then it was over! So were cruising along and I looked around and could count only 3 when there was 4. We’re missing Robin! Ok, so another dive aborted, the name of the game for today…at least, I saw my first tiger shark and lived to tell the tale!!

We got to the boat and Robin was there, whew! He was wearing my old Aladdin computer , one of the least conservative but had come straight up and missed  his safety stop due to buoyancy issues and inexperience. OOOOPS!! So the computer locked him out for 24 hrs.  Now we had 2 computers down!! Got back to the boat to make a veggie curry and while making dinner was feeling kind of funny.   After eating we watched Incendies, a 2010 movie from Lebanon, and I started itching like crazy!!  UH, oh, skin decompression sickness.  Luckily, after a few hours it let up and I could sleep.   In the a.m. I felt ok but called DAN and they said “don’t dive that day” so seeing we only had one computer working and a sicky that became the new plan so here I am writing to you!!!

We moved the boat to get some wifi here it goes!! Also, Sea Hunter(the live-aboard boat that is currently here) has a battery for Ken so we’re all set for tomorrow’s diving.  We hope to go to a site discovered by Jacques Cousteau, an underwater pinnacle, that you drop down a line to and the action there is supposed to be amazing. Dolphins, sharks, rays, fish and even a whale shark was spotted only a day ago so keep your fingers crossed for us!!

Robin has just found a link to a short video of the Panama Canal crossing of our neighbor Matt's boat, Mojomo, same kind as ours, who left just one day ahead of us. One of his line handling crew members, Axel from Germany, filmed it with a Go Pro camera.  It’s only a few minutes long and really interesting so have a look!!  If you’ve seen it already in our Panama Canal crossing section, just disregard as I’m adding it just today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0-PHGGBcVg.

If you are wanting more info, here are a couple of links to the Cocos Islands and for the live aboard dive ship Sea Hunter which has some underwater shots and video:
<embed src='http://www.underseahunter.com/general/longtail/player.swf' height='406' width='610' allowscriptaccess='always' allowfullscreen='true' flashvars="&file=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FaVFAGbz9-GU&image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.underseahunter.com%2Fimages%2Ftripreports%2Ftri001629_tiger-shark_manuelita_-herreno.jpg&plugins=viral-2d"/>
http://www.underseahunter.com/tripreports.html?vessel=123&year=2011which is sitting next to us
and the Cocos Island official website http://www.cocosisland.cr/

Panama City, Panama to Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Panama City to Cocos Island, Costa Rica

After leaving the fuel dock we passed bird shit rock and some locals fishing.....

     We had an amazing first day out flying the spinnaker and getting 8-10 kts.  At the end of 24 hrs. we had made 161 nm. We noticed a small tear in the spinnaker.  When we took it down we engineered some repairs.  I am not sure if you can see it in this picture but here we find Joni wearing a small piece of the repair tape that was left over from the repair to the sail in the lower part of this picture under her breathing apparatus. Things do get a bit boring out there on the high seas!! Anything for a laugh!

Second day out the winds died and we had to pull the spinnaker down and put a motor on and that’s been the scenario ever since with only one night and early day of good winds where we were getting 6-7 knts. Winds mostly were very light but we did manage to fill the sails here and there and move along on ‘God’s Breath’.

Of course we’re having amazing sunsets every evening but so far haven’t seen the legendary “Green Flash” on this particular trip......

Now 5 days underway our trip has been rather slow.  The winds in this area are variable and light.  We have motored more than sailed.  We have only been running one motor at about 1000 r.p.m. which gets us about 3+ m.p.h. in order to conserve fuel as there will be no topping up the tanks again for 3 weeks until we move on from Cocos to Galapagos which is another 400+ miles to the S.W. of Cocos.

We have not seen very many boats or ships.  This is not much of a travelled route.  Late on the 18^th we saw a Lagoon catamaran sailed by a Japanese fellow.  He made radio contact.  We had our spinnaker up at the time and were managing about 3.5 knots.  He did not have a spinnaker and was motor sailing.  I asked where he was headed and he said to the Marquesas.  I teased him that he did not have enough diesel fuel to motor all of the way there.  He said that he had about 1000 liters.  He motored past us after dark that night and we did not see him again. 

Our guest Robin Berthet has been busy on board fixing things.  He brought with him from N.Y. 2 new cupboard doors that he installed over a 2 day period.  He also did a lot of engine room work.  We had an overheating issue on the port Volvo engine that had been an off and on problem since we bought the boat.  We finally isolated the problem to an anti-siphon valve which was easily repaired after several cramped and sweaty hrs. in the engine room. Robin’s even been doing most of the cooking, delicious veggies as he’s a vegetarian, as Joni decided to take advantage of her good fortune and do a long awaited fast.

No sooner was that repaired than the lower seal on the sail drive began to leak water into the gearbox starboard so we had to shut that motor down and just use the port motor which was now running fine without overheating.  Yesterday, Robin tried to get one of the outside radio speakers to work.  After a few hrs, it was determined that the speaker would not work.  A new one will have to be ordered from West Marine and delivered along with a few other needed parts by our next guest who plans to join us in Galapagos after Robin flies home.  Because we were moving so slow Robin decided to cool off in the water behind the boat while hanging on with his toes.......

Almost every night, there are amazing stars, and lots of shooting stars. It’s a phenomenon sailors are fortunate to observe out at sea where there’s so little ambient light and right now, a new moon.  It’s almost startling to see a completely dark night so well lit up by the stars.  Even light mirrored off the calm sea reflecting the light of a single star as bright as the moon!!  Its actually Venus or the Evening star and our guiding star going west most always ahead of us. It’s a fantastic opportunity to catch up on our stargazing!!

Ken thought he saw a drone hovering high in the sky off in the distance which then came directly above our boat and hovered there for about ½ an hour and then just took off. It had red and green nav. lights but its flight pattern indicated something very different from a normal plane because of its ability to hover in one spot for hrs at a time. Must be how they monitor boat movements these days.

The most amazing thing we’ve seen on our dark nights is the amount of phosphorescence in the waves coming off the bows, in the breaking waves, in the trail behind the boat, in our prop wash as we move through the water and even in the toilets as we flush them at night w/o lights on! If there’s a lot, any little motion in the water will light up the water with glistening, glimmering, shimmering tiny dots of light. One night, we were visited several times by a lone dolphin whose trail of phosphorescence extended out at least 50 feet behind him. We could see him dive deep down below the boat and then come streaming by across the bow. It was a beautiful sight and made me wonder how it must seem to the dolphins, living inside a world of shimmering lights like that!

We enjoyed many visits by dolphins ..............

 

and seabirds (boobies)..............

I have had fishing lines in the water every day but so far I have not caught anything.  We are moving very slowly and the water is rather flat which usually means ‘no fish today’.  We have lots of fish in the freezer that we caught on the way down to Panama from Key West anyway

We now have 120 miles left to go (10:00 a.m., Monday the 20^th).  We are doing about 4 knots motor sailing.  At this rate we should be at Cocos before dark tomorrow, Feb 21st.

9:00 a.m. Feb. 21 we saw ‘land ho’..... 

The island appears in a misty haze some 36 miles ahead.  What a beautiful sight after so many days at sea!  We are used to making 150 to 200 miles per day but this trip in the ‘doldrums’  so close to the equator is known to be windlass and therefore slow and it has been.  Our first day out of Panama saw 161 miles but since then very slow days.

The hitchhikers seemed relieved at the sight of land also...........

There are 2 Costa Rican dive boat operators that bring divers from the main land to the island.  Here is pictured one of them............

Daytime can be quite warm.  We all stay under the helm hardtop in the shade and not spending much time in the salon as it gets to the mid-90’s by noon in there.  Last night I got a little chill outside but generally evenings and night are quite nice.

Panama City

Panama City:

Thursday, 16^th Feb., 2012…………

Nice sunny day, we untied from the mooring ball at Balboa Yacht Club, Panama City and headed around the point to Flamingo Marina to fill up with diesel fuel for the 500 mile+_ crossing West to Isla de Cocos, Costa Rica.  This picture is of the Bridge of Americas at our mooring field in Panama City at the Balboa Yacht Club.......

This picture is of the pier and to the right the yacht club.....

Before leaving Robin helped string a new halyard for the main sail giving one of those rare opportunities to take this picture.............

We sailed around a long peninsula that was created when a causeway was built out to an island to get to the fuel dock.  This is the view of Panama City from this point.....

After waiting outside the fuel dock for almost 2 hours we were finally allowed to come in for fuel.  We topped up both tanks with about 72 gal. @ $3.70 per gal. and were underway by about 11:30 a.m. heading West across the Gulf of Panama (over 30 miles) and out into the Pacific.....

Panama Canal

PANAMA CANAL CROSSING

On Feb. 12, 2012 began our big day.  We were OK'd to do our corossing.  We left the marina and went over to a spot just outside the canal to await the arival of an 'advisor' to tutor us thru.  We had a friend join us a few days earlier.   'Robin Berthet' is from the UK living in Western Massachussetts robinberthet.com.  We met him last summer during our trip up to Boston.while staying in the Cape Cod area.  Robin was on his yacht in Province Town harbor.  We mutually befriended each other as most sailors in anchorages do.  As we came to know each other Robin volunteered to loan us his charts for the trip back down the coast,which he then traded for his Smart car and a stay at his home for a land trip that Joni and I wanted to do.  We drove through the area almost all the way up to Canada returning a week later to Robin's home where he hosted a dinner for us with his friends.  Anyway to make a long story short we invited Robin to join us and his first trip with us is now.  He flew down to Panama and is doing the crossing with us and on to Cocos and the Galapagos over the  next several weeks. 

We needed 4 line handlers for the trip through the canal so we inquired at the marina and found a couple from Finland and Holand called Kari and Helena, who were also planning a transit and wanted to experience a 'dry run'.  Off we went.........

On our way up to the canal we saw several large ships.  Here one coming out is seen (blue) headed past one that we were to share the locks with going up......

This is the first lock of 3 on the way up.  Each is probably about 30 ft..............

The locks authority required us to tie up with another boat that was transiting seen here..............

Once we entered the lock the lines people from the canal threw us a tracer line called a 'monkey fist' and we secured our lines to these lines and they drew them back and secured them to 4 cleats at the top of the lock, 2 on each side, front and back on our boat.

Our 'advisor is seen here with the hat looking back at the first gate in the first lock before closing.......

And now closing........................

This is a pic. of the couple that volunteered to help us.  He is Finish and she is Dutch.  It was a pleasure to have them on board.

You can now see the gate has been clsoed and the lock is filled and you can see the top of another ship getting ready to enter after we leave....

There are 2 locks paralell as can be seen here with another on the right.  The water from one is used to raise the other I believe..............

Here you can look back 2 locks with the back gates of the last lock in the foreground........

This first set of 3 locks is called 'Gatun' built around 1913.  You can see the railway tracks here.  There is a 'mule' locomotive that pulls the big ships forward thru the locks.  We motored forward.

After getting through the 3rd lock up we anchored for the night.  In this picture you can see a trench being excavated for the new locks being constructed for the really really big ships to go thru sometime around 2014.

The next day we motored through the inland lake and then through a 7 mile long cut that was created for the first canal 100 years ago to carry the boats through the highest part of the crossing.  Many people died digging this trench.  In total something like 30,000 people lost their lives due to various causes including heat and malaria.  Here is seen a bridge crossing the canal a few miles before the next locks down to the Pacific.  The work required cutting through this mountain seen here..........Paul Gaugin the French painter worked in this cut for $5a day working 45 minutes in the hole and then taking a break due to the intense heat !..

We managed to have some relaxing moments.  The crew stayed with us overnight so Joni had a big job feeding everyone several feeds............

Here is seen drilling for blasting to widen the canal for the extra traffic.............

We saw a big trimaran that was the US navy here coming from the Pacific to the Caribbean side.  These boats are reported to go 50 m.p.h.

Here we are entering the first lock on our way down to the Pacific............

We tied along side the forward one of these 2 tourist boats so we did not have to manage lines on the way down thru the 3 locks.  As a foot note I forgot to say that canal crossings are expensive.  Ours was just over $1,000 but nothing like the biggest ships which can cost something over $300,000.00

This is a view down thru the last 2 locks to the Pacific side..............

We were both happy and relieved...................

Our trusty advisor always pointing one way or another and once scolding me for not watching him closely enough while I took pictures....................

Our friend Robin with Joni................a hard days work all done...............

Me smiling too.....................

The 'Bridge of the Americas'

Our anchorage at the Balboa Yacht Club at Panama City........

We were sent the link to a 3 minute video of our neighbor Matt's boat, Mojomo, who went through the canal the day before us. It was made by his friend and linehandler, Axel, from Germany with his GoPro camera. It's really great and well worth a quick look:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0-PHGGBcVg Thank you, Axel!!

Thats all for now..................