Segwun's 3,500 Mile Journey

Panama City remains to be explored as we head off to spend some time with family and friends back home.   As you can see by the pins on the map, we have a lot of the Caribbean still to explore.  We'll take that on the return journey.

The First Season of Sailing Comes to an End

Early this morning, we did the final cleaning in the boat, laundry and purged the fridge preparing to put SEGWUN on the hard for the next three months.  She looks a little naked now that the sails have been taken down and stowed, the ropes are off and we have removed the bimini to be restitched.  

We motored over to the travel lift where she was put in a sling and lifted out of the water.  Jens couldn't wait to inspect the bow thruster and the propeller.  The bow thruster looks like a minor repair; just replacing a safety pin.  And the problems with the low RPM's on the engine looks like it might be the propeller.  For some reason, the pitch of the blades was wrong.  We won't really know until we get back in the water.  

After a power wash, SEGWUN was hauled over to the storage yard and is now nicely nestled in with Snowaway and Milagro; a couple of Canadian boats we have befriended.  

Because of the high humidity in Panama, we arranged for a dehumidifier to be put in the boat for the duration.  This should avoid returning to find a layer of mould on everything.  Then Jens blocked the through holes with screen because we have heard that insects like to make nests in them.  We had already plastered all the windows with foil to keep the sun out of the cabin and we put a tarp over the boom to keep some of the harsh sun off the deck.  

After doing our last minute packing we jumped in a taxi to Panama City.  Thursday morning it's off to the airport and home for holidays.  

   

How to Make an Environmentally Friendly Wallet - step by step instructions

A few days ago, I posted on Facebook and here in our blog the wallet that was made from used Tetra Pak packages.  We have had a lot of interest and questions on how to make them.  Here you find a step by step instruction.   This one was made using a UHT Milk package.  We'd love to see your wallets or any other useful item you make from used carton packages.  

• Take a 1 liter empty Tetra Pak package with a screw top closure.  
• Lift the flaps and flatten the package. 

• Cut off the top and bottom sealed sections of the package.  The package should now form a tube and can be rinsed and dried.

• Flatten the package, this time so the screw top is in the centre of the package.

• Fold the top part 1/3rd of the way down, pressing to make a sharp fold on all edges.

• Cut the side edges from the bottom of the package, 1/3rd of the way up - just far enough to meet where the edge of the top package has been folded down.

• Now that both sides of been cut, fold it up and sharpen the fold by pressing your finger along it.  

• Now take the folded piece and tuck it into the top 1/3rd with the screw top facing out.  This will give your wallet two sections.  The other piece will be used as the front flap of the wallet.

• To make the wallet close, using the screw cap, take off the cap and fold the front flap over the neck to mark where your hole will need to be cut.

• Cut out the hole.  Don't make it too big - it should be just a little snug.

• Trim the edges of the front flap.

•  Fold down and put on the screw cap.  and Voila!!  You have a wallet.

Turkey Vultures and Howler Monkeys

An early morning ride into the rain forest together with Jens, my good luck charm, resulted in encounters with Turkey Vultures and Howler Monkeys.  

First we walked through the old Fort Sherman residential area where the roads are slowly getting taken over by the jungle.  The buildings have all been taken down long ago leaving behind only the foundations.  

This time we were fully coated with bug spray and I was equipped with my Nikon D70S with the Nikkor 70-200mm zoom lens.  

Jens spotted some Turkey Vultures just ahead so we got off the bikes, and I walked slowly up as far as possible before they got spooked and flew off.  Such large birds!  Not the most beautiful of faces, but rather lovely in flight.

Turkey Vulture sitting on a fire hydrant.  There were three of them nearby.

I wouldn't want his claws anywhere near me!

Turkey Vulture flying off.  

We continued on and after a stop at the beach and some shell collecting, we rode further into the rain forest until we could hear the Howler Monkeys.  They were very close to the road and were on the move.  We stood and watched as a troop of about 20 monkeys moved through the tops of the trees from one side of the road to the other and then off deeper into the forest.  We were treated to their barks, howls, grunts and clicks.  They are almost as intriguing to listen to as they are to watch.

Howler Monkeys on the Move

The baby holding on to Mom and keeping an eye on us.

Baby on board!

The cojones swinging in the breeze  ;-)  

Wallets Made From Cartons

On our trek through the Sierra Nevada mountains in Colombia, one of our fellow trekkers pulled out his wallet when we said we both had worked for Tetra Pak.  He proudly showed us the "Protects Whats Good" logo on his home made wallet.  Well, what do you know.  A wallet made from a 1L TBA package that used to contain soup.   Max is from France and has been trekking the Americas for a few months.  Unfortunately his backpack got stolen along with his wallet.  Being on a backpacker's budget, a friend of his offered to make him a new wallet and grabbed an empty package.  He cut and folded and voila.  No tape or glue required.  What a clever way to reuse a package.  I think I'd like mine to be made out of a used wine package.  :-)

The wallet cleverly closes with the screw cap

It has two compartments.

Max with his environmentally friendly wallet made from  a used 1L TBA package.

The Sounds and Colours of a Rainforest

Shelter Bay Marina is right next to a National Park and what used to be a US Army base called as Fort Sherman. The national park is known for bird watching, butterflies, frogs, sloths and monkeys. We've been here over a week and it was time to explore.

Jens and I took a bike ride down the road towards San Lorenzo hoping to spot a sloth. We heard the usual forest sounds of birds, insects and frogs. And then we heard the Mantled Howler. Their loud grunts and roars are something out of a horror movie. We stopped to listen for a while and although we couldn't see the Howlers we spotted some White-faced Capuchins in the trees. Unfortunatley we forgot the bug spray and the Mosquitos soon found us, forcing us to retreat back to the road and back on the bikes. We tried to spot a Toucan, but just saw a lot of butterflies. The easiest to identify are the Blue Morphus Butterfly. They are really beautiful to watch as they flit along, but so very difficult to photograph.

I decided to head back to the forest this morning determined to get some photos of the monkeys. I spent almost three hours in the thick of the forest, heard the Mantled Howlers but didn't see any monkeys. So instead I took some pictures of the flora.

I've not yet given up on the monkeys though. I'll buy more bug spray tomorrow morning and give it another go. Stay tuned...

I tried looking up all the flowers...this one is a type of wild ginger. I wasn't so successful with the others.

Above is a termite nest. Below is also some kind of nest, but I couldn't find a reference of it anywhere on the Internet. Some kind of wasp? It was growing on the trunk of a palm tree. If anyone knows what it could be, please send me an email.

My Favourite Apps for iPad

Ever since my Mac conked out on me, I have been totally devoted to my iPad. I have the original version and it is now 2 1/2 years old. This little guy has traveled with me all over the world, sits by my bed at night, goes on road trips and accompanies me in the kitchen.

I have always loved my iPad, but now that I have had the luxury of time to explore it's functionality and the apps, I am even more enamored with it. Apps are amazing things and there are some really good ones out there.

Travel Apps:

• Maps: One of my all time favorites is the Map app that comes with the iPad. Who needs a GPS anymore? It takes me where I need to go in any city in the world. I can get a walking route and a driving driving route between two places and it will tell me how long it will take to get there. I've checked out Routebuddy Atlas, which is cool, but I still prefer Maps. When we're sailing I like to use my GPS Data App which give me our GPS location, current speed, average speed and altitude (which I always hope will be zero!!!). I downloaded this one to give me the accurate GPS location for registering my pictures in iPhoto
• Conversions: I always use iCurrencyPad for foreign exchange, Calculator+ to help me add 2+2 when my brain just won't function, and Converter to convert feet to meters, etc. which comes in real handy as it also converts obscure things such as nautical miles to kilometers (which, by the way one nautical mile is 1.852 km or for my American friends 1.15078 miles...hah did you know that???).
• I have downloaded the Trip Advisor App from Expedia which is quite useful to help find nearby restaurants and hotels. Not a huge fan, but it has come in handy. We use Expedia a lot to book flights and hotels.

Cooking:

• My favorite cooking App is Epicurious. This had been a favorite website for recipes for me long before they came out with an App. Now I have the App and my favorite recipes are at a finger's touch. Surprisingly, there are still relatively few recipe books for eReaders

Entertainment Apps:

• My all time favorite besides Angry Birds, is TuneIn Radio. It is just so heartwarming for me to be able to listen to my favorite radio stations from back home. Hearing the weather reports and listening to the news and just hearing that wonderful Canadian accent makes me happy. Ah, home again.
• Yes, I love Angry Birds. There is something strangely satisfying about killing pigs with birds. I don't know why and please don't ask me to discuss with a phsychiatrist. Just accept that we all are a little weird sometimes. Gravity is also fun and of course I have the standard games - mahjong, sudoku, crossword and solitaire.

Social stuff:

• Of course I use Facebook, don't we all these days. The App for iPad is great. Easy to use and lets me upload photos from my iPad. Although I have recently downloaded the iLoader App to help me with that.
• Skype helps us with calling home. It is a very inexpensive solution for calls, but is not always so reliable unless the Internet connection is really, really good.
• Messages: I like this one a lot. I can text people like you would on your cell phone. Cool! Considering I don't have a cell phone anymore :(.

An example of a photo I took after using the MySketch App

Creativity:

• Ok, I am not the most creative person around, but I do like to pretend once in a while. For my photos I use PS Express to crop and do some simple stuff. It's an easy to use App and you don't need to be a professional to use this one. For those in the business this is a dumbed down version of Adobe Photoshop.
• Other Apps that I like to play with are My Sketch, Paper and SketchBook Pro. I used SketchBook Pro to create our journey map. You can draw over photos, which is kind of cool, and do other creative stuff.
• And for a little browsing, virtual shopping and reinvention, decorating and home projects, I like Houzz. It is like reading every interior design magazine available but without the boring articles. Check it out.

Ah, yes...the world of Apps. Always new ones coming in, better than ever. It's like a candy store without calories.

Our Progress on the Maintenance List (this one is for the guys)

We, well I should say Jens, because when it comes to this sort of thing I am just an innocent and ignorant bystander, had a long list of maintenance and repairs to do before we tuck SEGWUN away for the next few months.


THE LIST:

1. Pickle the water maker for storage. DONE
2. Check auto pilot (it gets a bit noisy when it has been used for 20+ hours consecutively). TESTED AND CONSIDERING HYDRAULIC FLUID CHANGE
3. Bimini restitched. AWAITING QUOTE
4. Change oil and oil and fuel filters on main engine (Yanmar). DONE
5. Repair generator (Northern Lights). AWAITING DELIVERY OF VOLTAGE REGULATOR
6. Repair crack on main engine silencer.
7. Repair and service bat-car system on main sail. WAITING FOR PARTS
8. Repair UV protection on stay sail.
9. Repair bow thruster (appears the propeller may be missing).
10. Dismantle and grease all winches. DONE
11. Service aft head pump.
12. Replace rivets for the latches on hatches.
13. Repair hand bilge pump in cockpit.
14. Repair hand water pump in galley. DONE
15. Sand bottom of boat. New antifouling paint for bottom.
16. Finish lacquer work on deck.
17. Repair pressure switch on fresh water pump. (Eric and Liz may remember the last time we had a problem with the fresh water pump and had no fresh water available on the boat for a couple of days. Fresh running water is a luxury we take for granted. That time is was a ruptured membrane. This time it appears to be the switch and luckily we have a spare switch on board.) DONE

After completing item 4 on the list above, Jens found a few more things to do...

1. Check raw water pump on main engine. DONE
2. Clean water cooler on main engine. DONE
3. Clean turbo charger on main engine. DONE
4. Change thermostat on main engine. DONE
5. Service injector valves on main engine. IN PROCESS

THE BIG JOB ... GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM:

Jens serviced the engine with an oil change and new fuel and oil filters. This went smoothly and as far as I was concerned it sounded just fine. But Jens wasn't satisfied. Over the past few months the engine output was not what it should be. It felt a little sluggish when engaging the motor and twice we had temperature water alarms when we were running a little fast. Basically, we weren't achieving the right RPM's getting maximum 2000 when we should get at least 2800.

We asked for a service guy to help trouble shoot the problem. He and Jens started by cleaning the turbo charger. It was dirty, but not really bad enough to think they had gotten to the root of the problem. Jens and the mechanic took SEGWUN out for a sea trial and managed to get 2400 RPM's out of the engine. After some time running at 2400 RPMs the high temperature alarm sounded. Back to the slip for more trouble shooting and more dismantling. They checked the heat exchanger expecting it to be dirty, but that was not the case. Next check was the functioning of the thermostat which was in fact faulty and needs to be replaced. This may the cause of the alarms, but not the sluggish engine. The search continues with checking the injector valves, so out they came. They definitely need to be serviceloft they go to a diesel lab in Panama City for cleaning and adjustment.

My job when all this is happening is to make myself scarce. The aft cabin is completely dismantled with the pillows and cushions stored in the forward cabin so they can have clear access to the engine compartment. On our Island Packet the engine sits under the cockpit between the galley and the aft cabin. There are three access doors to the engine; one in the galley, one under the stairs to the cockpit and one from the aft cabin. When all the doors are open and tools are at the ready on every available surface there is not much space left. So, I grab my book, computer, iPod and phone and head to the boaters lounge to chill out for the day. When they are finished, I step in and vacuum and wipe the greasy spots up, and hope that all the parts that came out of the engine are now back in where they belong.