The Bus to Quito

It is supposed to be a 12 hour journey by road from Salinas to Quito. Our bus driver, who I believe must be related to Schumacher, made the trip in just under 9 hours, if you don't count the stop for security check and the stop for a bathroom break. It was a good thing it was night time, or I'm sure I would have had heart failure. Anyhow, we rolled into Quito at five AM on Monday morning, took a taxi to the hostel we had booked and dropped into bed for a few hours.

We had a welcome phone call from a Tetra Pak colleague who is now based in Ecuador and arranged to meet him for lunch. It was so nice to see Philippe again and catch up on old times and what he has been doing since he left Morocco. Since he has lived in Ecuador for just over a year norm ha was able to give us some really useful information, giving us the lay of the land and the key places to visit. With his help, together with a Lonely Planet book and the folks at the hostel, we have started to plan out our next two weeks.

Quito is at an altitude of 2,800 meters (9,300 feet) and when going to such an altitude it is wise to take it easy for the first day or so. Which we did. We had an early dinner and an early night.

Today, however, we both had itchy feet and needed to do something. So we took the gondola up to the volcano and went for a six hour hike. The gondola takes you up to 4,000 meters and you then hike the remaining 650 meters or about 5 kilometers there and back. Which is no small feat at that altitude. Some parts were so steep that it was all you could manage to take 20 steps before stopping to catch your breath and let your heart rate calm down a little. At least it was like that for this almost 55 year old slightly overweight and out of shape gal. The last big exercise that Jens and I had done was a canoe trip in Algonquin Park last summer.

It was a really spectacular day. The scenery was breathtaking. Even though it was physically challenging, it was a fantastic experience. We stopped on the way back for a nice cup of coffee before taking the gondola back down. There is something so rewarding about feeling completely exhausted, don't you agree?

So, now we have kicked off our Ecuadorian exploration. More to come! We will visit Cotopaxi, the cloud forest, and we are looking at a trip into the Amazon. Time now for a little shut eye, and let my legs and my lungs recuperate from today.

 

 

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Isla de la Plata, "the poor man's Galapagos"

Isla de la Plata (or Silver Island), is a small island off the coast northwest of Ecuador and is part of a National Park.  The island came by it’s name because this is where Sir Francis Drake had buried his treasure, but others say that it refers to the guano, or bird droppings, that cover the rocks and then shine in the sun and moon light, giving a silvery glow.  We stopped on our way to Ecuador and were given a tour of the island by the Park Rangers.

We now know what a Blue-footed Booby looks like and we know what their eggs and their young look like.  We had a fantastic close up look at dozens of pairs with their young as we walked along the island.  They are really curious looking birds.  So, as a result, I have lots and lots of photos of these guys.

A young Albatross

We also had the chance to see a baby albatross.  What a sight that was.  They are very large birds and the young chicks are also very large – and clumsy.  I know very little about these birds so I had to look them up and found some good information on the National Geographic website.  The adults have a wingspan of up to 11 feet (3.4 meters) They drink salt water and can glide for hours without rest or even flapping their wings thanks to their huge wingspan.  They live to about 50 years of age and gather only to breed.

Then we took a walk along the beach and saw a lot of red crabs and as this is a Nature Reserve, they also take care of the turtles that are laying their eggs on the shore. 

It was a great day, a chance to stretch our legs after 5 days at sea and a good break and a quiet night at anchor before we set off again for the next 4 days of the journey to Salinas, Ecuador.  

Crossing the Equator

At around 7AM on November 19th, SY Segwun and crew crossed the equator. We'd had our sights on it for a few days and were eagerly anticipating the "crossing". That morning, As we watched the GPS and looked out to sea searching for that invisible line, our Captain was getting in touch with King Neptune using the VHF radio to inform him that three virgin souls were about to cross the equator.

Just after we passed over the equator, much to our surprise, out of the cockpit comes, not the Captain, but King Neptune himself complete with crown, cape and trident. He had a big blustery voice, striking the fear into us. 'Who were we to cross the equator and what did we want?", he demanded of us. We asked for safe passage, calm seas and good fishing. He agreed but only if we in turn swore oaths not to "piss against the wind, or whistle behind the mast". He then proceeded to baptize us.

Christian went first and Neptune said he had heard from the captain that Christian was always asking questions, and many that the captain himself couldn't answer, so Neptune christianed him 'Christian the Curious' pouring salt water over his head.

Next Anna had to kneel before Neptune and the Captains' complaint was that Anna was always so quick to leave the boat once we had reached a port that he felt she didn't enjoy being on the ship. So Neptune baptized her 'Anna the Explorer' as he poured salt water over her head.

Even the Captain's wife and first mate did not escape the ritual. The Captain's complaint to Neptune was that at night I spent more time gazing at the stars than watching the sea. Neptune baptized me 'Evelyn the Star Watcher' and I too had salt water poured over my head.

With the ceremony over Neptune vanished back into the cockpit and I assume back into the depths of the sea. Thankfully, our Captain reappeared and with him he had our Baptism certificates documenting the event from Neptune. Mine says; "I, Neptune, King of the seven ocean hereby confirm that this day seafarer and crew member of the magnificent SY SEGWUN, Evelyn Rasmussen, has crossed the Equator and has been baptized in my name, she shall from here on be known on the seven seas as Evelyn the star-watcher."

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Panama to Ecuador - The Journey

Panama to Ecuador – The Journey

Monday, November 12, 2012

We’re preparing to set sail expecting at least 5 or 6 days at sea with a stop at Malpelo Island off the coast of Colombia.  Malpelo is said to be the “Galapagos of Colombia”.  The pictures we have seen show a group of barren steep-cliffed rocks but everything else we have read about them say they are a haven for sea and bird life.  They say it is a deep and difficult anchorage so we may just end up sailing past them, but I hope we have a chance to stop and at least anchor for the night. 

The preparations for the journey include some last minute maintenance jobs and food preparation.  We always like to have some meals ready to eat in case of rough seas.  That way we don’t have to spend too much time in the galley and we minimize the amount of dishes and cleaning up we need to do.  We’ll be sailing through the night so we will be taking shifts – two and two.   The grab bag is packed and ready to go, we have reviewed our emergency procedures and abandon ship procedures going through each crew members role so we are ready for a worst case scenario. 

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

This morning it is raining – thunder and lightning.  The crew prepare to get underway.  We hope the rain will slow down a little and it does.  It is around 9:30 AM when we set sail from Isla Contadora.  Slowly, the rain clouds disappear and we have a nice day for sailing.  The winds are steady at around 8 to 10 knots for most of the day and into the night and we are running with a current, which helps us with another 1.5 to 2 knots.  We motored for an hour or two when the winds died.  We needed to charge the batteries anyway.  Today we spotted lots of turtles.  No whales, no dolphins – only turtles.  

We had the fishing lines out and caught a huge tuna.  What a catch!  This is the biggest tuna we have caught so far. 

After watching an episode of Boardwalk Empire (we are just about finished Season 2) the nightshift starts.  Jens and Anna take the first shift at 9:00 PM.  Christian and I take over at 1:30 AM and keep watch until 6:00 AM.  That seems to work well for everyone and we’ll probably continue this way for a while.  It was an uneventful night with clear skies and good winds. 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

We’re coming to the end of Day 2 and we are just about half way to Isla Malpelo.  It has been a smooth and easy sail thus far.  It started raining pretty hard in late afternoon.  We had noticed some small birds would come by the boat and look as if they were about to land, perhaps seeking refuge from the wind and rain.  But then they would set off again only to return with a few more birds in tow.  This continued during the afternoon and the hour before sunset, we noticed them actually coming in larger groups and landing on the railings.  Before we knew it there were about 50 or 60 of these small birds, all looking for a place to roost for the night.  The wind had created some pretty big waves and the boat was rolling and listing constantly.  These poor little birds were slipping on the chrome railing as their little feet weren’t big enough to wrap around it completely.  They spent a lot of time looking for the perfect place.  They ended up clinging to the binimi, the ropes, the winches, and the plastic rail.  One little guy decided that Anna’s head would be the perfect place to spend the night.  Another spent the night on the plotter.  As the sun set, we had about 30 birds on board.  They seemed to be quite comfortable and didn’t mind being in such close proximity to us.  It was nice to spend the night with a few citizens of the seas.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

The birds stayed with us till morning light and then one by one they flew off.  Hopefully, fully rested and ready for another day at sea.

We reached Isla Malpelo around 8AM.  We tied up to the buoy normally used by the Coast Guard.  The islands are very steep and it doesn’t look like it would be possible to get to shore.  The military hail us and tell us that we can’t stay there.  So, we rest for a couple of hours before pulling up and heading out.  The winds have changed and we have to adjust our course accordingly. 

Isla Malpelo, "the Galapagos of Columbia"

Friday, November 16 to Monday, November 19, 2012

Strong and steady winds these days but from a slightly wrong direction which means we have to tack regularly and hit the waves at the wrong angles.  We travel at 5 to 6 knots consistently.  For the most part the days are uneventful and there is not much to see.  We come across some small fishing boats now and then.  The highlight was the whales on Monday evening.  It looked to be a mother and her baby.  It was very nice to see them because they are normally only in this area from June to September.   The crew is getting a little worn and exhausted as it has been tough sailing making it difficult to sleep.  The weather has been good though – cool with some clouds but no rain. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

We have reached Isla de la Plata at around 9:30AM and picked up a mooring.  Finally, a little rest and relaxation.  Isla de la Plata is a nature park and; yes, you will get a kick out of this, it is called “the poor man’s Galapagos”.  How many more versions of “Galapagos” will we run into?  We’ll visit the island for a tour after a bit of rest.  There are three or four large turtles swimming about the boat.  Anna and Christian jumped in the water to swim with them.  The water temperature here is a wee bit cooler than it was up in Panama.  It has dropped to 24.7 degrees.  We have been spoiled with temperatures around 29 and 30 degrees.  The cooler water is due to the Humboldt Current, which is coming up from the coast of Chile.  Jens and Anna took Squirt to shore to talk to the park rangers to see if it was ok to spend the night on the mooring and if we could visit the island.  Normally you would need a park permit, which you would get at the mainland.  But they were kind enough to let us stay and agreed to take us on a walking tour of the island if we came back at 3PM.  This worked out perfect for us.  It gave us all a chance for a little nap and to tidy up the cabin a bit. 

At 3PM we went to shore and had a fantastic tour of the island.  You’ll have to wait to read my blog about Isla de la Plata to see more about this.  We got back to the boat and made dinner, watch an episode of Game of Thrones and went to bed.  Oh how nice it was to sleep in a cool cabin (20 degrees) in a bed that wasn’t jostling you around all night with just the sound of the wakes on the beach to lull you to sleep. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

We are getting ready for our last leg of this journey.  Another 24 hours of sailing should take us to Salinas, Ecuador.  We have been in touch with our agent and he will meet us at the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club tomorrow morning.  I’ve cooked our dinner so we just need to warm it up.  We are about 56 nautical miles from our destination, if you go in a straight line.  However, given the wind conditions it looks like it we will be tacking.  We have one more night shift ahead of us. We’ll soon be to Salinas in Ecuador and getting ready to do some land explorations. 

Thursday, November 22, 2012

We have arrived.  We made good time last night and actually had to take some sails down so we wouldn’t arrive in dark.  It is much colder here than we expected.  We are all a little ignorant of Ecuador and somehow assumed the weather would be similar to the Caribbean.  Warm and balmy – shorts and t-shirt weather.  However, the temperatures are 21º c during the day and can go as low as 8º c at night.  We are just now waiting for our agent to meet with us to start the clearing in process and then we will arrange to moor up at the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club.  We have a list of practicalities to get done – first on the list is laundry and grocery shopping.  Nine nights at sea makes for a lot of dirty laundry and a very empty pantry.

This has been the longest that Jens and I have been at sea.  We covered over 750 nautical miles (including the tacking), crossed the equator, saw whales and turtles, and visited a couple of islands.  Overall, we had everything well under control and SY SEGWUN performed exceptionally well.  

A Year in Review

It has now been one year since we set sail in SEGWUN from Rock Hall, Maryland.  And on November 1^st, we marked the one-year anniversary of when Jens and I started living together.  What a year it has been.  4,300 nautical miles of sailing and 12 countries visited.  We talked about what the highlights of the year were and as we are both always focused on the positive, we didn’t dwell on what the low lights were.  But maybe I will come to that later.

In October of last year we were two very independent people, living alone and working long hours and most weekends.  I was living in Istanbul and traveling almost every week.  I think I was probably home about six nights out of the month.  Jens was working in Iran, getting to know the staff, the customers and the customs and language of the country.  He was at work before everyone else had arrived as was his usual modus operandi; and often was the last one out at night.  Well, that was until his new boss Ashutosh arrived.  Then it was a bit of a competition as to who would be the first to arrive at the office in the morning.  Anyhow, I think you get the picture.  Work was important to both of us.  Our schedules were quite full with business meetings, travel and deadlines. 

Then, even though we had given a six-month notice, it seemed that suddenly we were planning our lives for ourselves.  We had already bought the sailboat, done the preplanning and preparations, and had reached the moment when the “rubber meets the road”.   We had never spent more than four weeks in each other’s company before.  And in reflection, we realized that much of that time we actually spent talking about business.  What a quick and sudden change was about to happen. 

Luckily, we had a new adventure to talk about.  I had a lot to learn about sailing and “living aboard”.  Jens had never owned such a large sailboat with so many “gadgets” and he had lots to learn about the equipment on board.  In fact, he had two huge binders of Users Manuals to read through on top of getting to know how the boat moves and reacts to winds and waves.  So, suffice it to say, we had a lot on our minds, a lot to discuss and a lot to keep us busy. So much so that we didn’t have too much time to think about the work we had left behind. 

The adjustment to living together was surprisingly easy.  It has been a joy to be together and despite all the well-intentioned warnings, we have not had any moments when we didn’t know in our hearts that we had done the right thing.  I’ll get a little mushy now and tell you that we still delight in the fact that we can start every day together and finish every day together. 

So, back to our year of Highlights.  Best to try to narrow it down to our TOP 5.  In no particular order, this is Jens’ list:

1.     Seeing the humpback whale breach and splash down about a boat’s length away from us. 

2.     Meeting up with friends and family during our sailing trip.

3.     Crossing the Panama Canal

4.     Doing the trek to Ciudad Perdida in Columbia

5.     Breaking the toilet during our crossing to Puerto Rico.

My TOP 5 are:

1.     Doing the trek to Ciudad Perdida in Columbia

2.     Having Eric and Liz on board and meeting up with family and friends in BVI, Curacao and Panama.

3.     Traveling down the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) in the US.

4.     Changing our plans and getting to visit Sweden and Denmark and spend a couple of months at the cottage in Canada.

5.     Getting to the Pacific Ocean.

If you have been reading our blog, you probably get the Top 5.  However, I have been criticized for not talking about any of the negatives.  So, let me try to put together the Lowlights for Jens and I. 

Now of course, it is difficult to be away from family for such a long period of time, and it is a challenge to stay connected with intermittent email and phone calls.  And even when you can make a phone call, it sometimes makes me even more homesick and lonely for my dear family.  But that was a given when we decided to go on this journey.  So I don’t count that as a lowlight.  But what was more unexpected for me was the challenge of being confined to a small space.  I relish my freedom and growing up in Canada, I am used to a lot of unencumbered outdoor space.  By that I mean if you want to go for a walk at any time of the day or night, you just open the door and go.  There is nothing stopping you from finding a quiet street, a small forest or riverside to walk along.  Living on a boat means you have to first get to shore if you are at anchor or if you are in a marina in a strange country, you need to be aware of your surroundings and take that into consideration.  If you are out to sea, don’t even think about it. 

As for Jens, he really has no lowlights.  This has been his dream for so many years.  I see the contentment in his face every day, especially when he is at the helm.  He is just happy to be gazing out at sea with wind in the sails and waves slapping against the hull.  I understand that, because I feel the same way when I am sitting on the deck at Wildwood gazing out into the forest, enjoying the sights and sounds of nature. 

We have had our share of challenges during the past year.  We always compare notes with other sailors and I think overall, we have been quite fortunate.   Considering we bought a 19-year-old boat, she has done us well. 

Jens has learned not to worry about so many things and although he still doesn’t like when things break down, he has learned to take it all in stride.    Generally, we have learned a lot along the way, about each other, about ourselves and about traveling in a sailboat.    It’s been a very good year. 

Exploring the Pearls

NOTE:  Article is after the photos ....

NOTE:  All the photos are at the beginning of the article. 

It is time for you all to get out your atlases or open up Google Earth and check out the islands that are about 30 miles off the coast of Panama.  They are known as Las Perlas (the Pearls in English) and they are beautiful.  We have been exploring the islands and I am so happy that we decided to spend a little time here.  They are very different from the San Blas, which are primarily coral head islands. Apparently, The Pearls appeared some 3 million years ago when the earth’s plates shifted and created the islands.  The colours and types of rock are quite diverse and the rising of the tide has created interesting formations.  The tide levels here are much more dramatic than they were in the Caribbean coast rising almost 9 feet.  We have to be a little more cautious when we anchor and also when we take the dinghy on shore because if it the tide comes in while we are ashore, Squirt just might get washed out to sea. 

We have snorkeled around many islands and have not yet found beautiful corals.  The few we have seen so far are rather dull and small with little variety.  However the fish are larger and we have seen many, many schools of larger fish such as mackerel, jack fish snappers and groupers.  The reef fish are also slightly larger than what we have seen on the East coast.  We spotted large humphead parrotfish, moray eels, angelfish and wrasses.  One of our favourite things is to watch the Dolphinfish or Mahi Mahi as they are hunting.  They jump clear out of the water and in again several times as they chase down their prey.  The colours on the Dolphinfish are quite beautiful – shimmering green, yellow and blue.  What a beautiful sight.  We’ve also seen Eagle Rays jumping out of the water but we’re not sure if they are also hunting or doing it just for pleasure.    

Most of the islands are uninhabited and we can explore them to our heart’s content.  We enjoy walking around the islands looking for shells or other treasures.  Too often, we just find plastic bottles and other miscellaneous junk washed up on shore. 

So let me give you a summary of the islands we have visited and a comment or two on each. 

Isla Contadora:  A popular hang out for the rich and famous with a busy airport, decent shops and restaurants.  Fredrik and Johan joined us having taken the ferry from Panama City.  We had a nice dinner at Casa Tortuga where the Italian chef cooks for you in his home.  No menu to be had, he just prepares what he feels like cooking and despite the black out for the first hour (suddenly the power went out) we were served a delicious dinner with plenty of beer and wine.

Isla Bartolome (uninhabited):  I also think of it as bird poop island – lots of birds hanging out and the smell of their poop was a bit disgusting.  However, the snorkeling around this island was the best we have seen in Las Perlas.

Isla Mogo Mogo (uninhabited):  This is where they filmed Survivor, Pearl Islands (I think it was the third season of Survivor).  We came ashore to find the beach littered with pink shells.  It was all I could do to stop myself from collecting them all.  The guys found some oyster shells and we opened them with the hope to find a pearl.  But, no  - no pearls for us. 

Isla Bayoneta (uninhabited):  We sailed to this island with the hopes of finding a lot of large cowries as described in Eric Bauhaus’s Panama Cruising Guide.  Yes, we had to look up cowries on the internet as we didn’t know exactly what they were … we guess shells or maybe birds.  Cowries are in fact shells and unfortunately, we only found a couple, most of which were already inhabited by Hermit Crabs. 

Isla Pedro Gonzales:  This is an island with a huge ambition.  They are building an international airport, a hotel and condo complex.  The town as it exists today looks very much like a shanty town and is not too impressive.  But the construction that is under way looks first class and will mean big changes for the locals. 

Isla San Jose:  This is one of the largest islands in The Pearls and is privately owned.  The island is also one of the more southern and western in the group so you can really feel the swells coming in from the Pacific.  It also makes for quite the surf on the beach, which doesn’t necessarily make for good swimming.  Instead we had a nice long beach to walk along.

Isla Del Rey:  The last stop was Isla Del Rey where there is a larger town and where we had hoped to do some last minute provisioning for our sail down to Ecuador.  It turned out to be nothing more than a large fishing village with a lot of scurvy, flea-bitten dogs hanging around and the smell of garbage wafting through the air.  Not exactly the place I would like to buy my food supplies.  We could have managed without food supplies for our onward journey but the deciding point was the lack of internet.  So we headed back to Isla Contadora.

We will now spend the next two days shopping, doing maintenance and prepare a few meals before we set sail to Ecuador.  The entire journey will be about 680 nautical miles.  We want to stop at Isla Malpelo off the coast of Colombia along the way if we can.  If the wind is good, it will probably take us 5 or 6 days of sailing not counting our stop at Malpelo.   We won’t have internet access till we reach our destination of Salinas, Ecuador. 

Till then, enjoy your Atlas and Google Earth.  By the way, you now also have to look up Isla Malpelo and Salinas, Ecuador J. 

PS:  Regarding whales – Jens was truly lucky as we heard the whales had pretty much moved on and we only spotted some far off in the distance.   The locals said the season runs to end of October and this had been one of the best whale watching seasons they have had.  I hope we have a chance to see some on the way down to Ecuador.