Behia Caraquez

 Bahia de Caraquez is a cool easy going Ecuadorian beach town built on a sand spit extending into the mouth of the Chone River.  The people are relaxed, happy, friendly and mostly honest.

Bahia's tranquil tempo picks up a bit weekends, as people from Quito and Guayaquil return to weekend condos that line the shore.  Beaches are crowded,  jet skis and runabouts slash through the water around the moorage, streets bustle,  restaurants fill and music booms through town ALL THE TIME.

But the real reason Bahia is cool is because it is cool.  Just a few miles south of the equator, it is cooled by a large pool of cold water rising from the depths of the ocean.  Climate wise it's like a perfect Seattle summer day.  The air is cool and the sun warm.  And unlike Seattle, that gets almost three or four of these days a year, Bahia gets them all the time.  Well, almost all the time.  It does rain every now and then.
.   
Cruisers coming to Ecuador have pretty limited choices on where to come ashore.  There are only two marinas that I know of in the country.  One very expensive full service marina in Salinas, and the Puerto Amistad marina here in Bahia Caraquez.  Puerto Amistad has a mooring field with 18 or 20 moorings.  The new mall, gas station and restaurants are a short walk away.  In fact everything in Bahia is a short walk away. The monthly rate for a mooring is a bit over $400.

Approaching Bahia, stay offshore.  Shifting sand bars block most of the entrance.  We did not close with land until we reached 00 35.780S, 080 28. 300W then headed directly to the "waiting room" at 00 35.305S, 080 26. 832W to meet our pilot at high slack tide.  You should email ahead and let the marina know when you plan to arrive so they can arrange for a pilot.  Approaching Bahia, contact them on channel 69 after about 9am.  Unfortunately, there is a hill between the marina and the waiting room that blocks the marina's signal.  Relays from cruisers in the moorings are frequently required.  From the waiting room the pilot took us straight in toward shore, aiming at the base of a large hill to the south of town.  When we were several hundred yards off we turned north and paralleled the shore around town and into the bay.  As you come around the point the mooring field comes into view about a mile to the south.

Most boats moor bow and stern.  There are a few swing moorings available, but they are more expensive as the boat swings over a larger area, and they are usually reserved for cats.  Boats moored bow and stern are very close to each other.  Tidal currents of three plus knots can bring boats even closer at times.  We have been brought to within ten feet of our neighbors.  Rudders should be locked amidships lest they drive boats together.  Twice a day high tide covers protective sandbars allowing choppy waves to wrap around the spit into the moorage. You won't have to worry about losing your sea legs. 

Shore side facilities here are very nice.  The marina office, showers and restrooms are in the building close to the road, a beautiful restaurant extents from the shore on the muelle. 

 

The food is good by Bahia standards.  Happy hour from 5 to 7pm with $2.25 well drinks usually draws a good crowd of cruisers making for delightful evenings.  Wednesday evenings a group of expats will welcome you and your money to their weekly poker game. 

 

Dingy dock at low tide

 

 

The good stuff:

 

The marina office and restaurant staff  are very friendly and efficient. 

 

Good shopping now that the new mall has opened.

 

Wacho.  Wacho is the diesel mechanic everyone here uses.  He is as good as the great Kenny Breazeale in Panama.  Wacho is also beginning to take care of boats left here for long periods of time.  His phone #is 0997914250.  Refrigeration mechanics, electricians and machine shops are also available locally.

 

No lightening.

 

Great social life. Cruisers usually get together at the end of the day at the restaurant for happy hour.  Sunday the restaurant is closed.  Cruisers have access to the restaurant's BBQ and usually have a potluck dinner together. 

 

Good place to leave the boat for land travel.  Inland Ecuador is stunningly beautiful.





Great wi-fi from the boat.  Puerto Amistad recently upgraded their service.  It is the best marina wi-fi we've had since leaving the US.

Clean showers and restrooms, good laundry service, beautiful facility.  The on demand hot water heater for the showers short cycles causing the water temperature to constantly go from hot to cold to hot again.  The firing rate of the heater needs to be reduced or if that is not possible a smaller unit installed.

Great fuel prices.  Regular gasoline is $1.40 per gallon.  Diesel is $1.04 per gallon.  Fuel purchases should be arranged through an agent, in this case Puerto Amistad, but it is possible to dingy to the gas station.  There are steps up the sea wall.  Go at high slack.  Or it is possible to take a couple jerries to the station using a pedicab for $1.50 round trip.  Some of the service station attendants will limit you to two jerries per trip since it is technically not legal for foreigners to purchase subsidized fuel.

The not so good:

The consensus amongst cruisers is this is one of the worst places in the world for barnacles.  Not the worst (Cartegena, Columbia) but close.  .  Bottom cleaning can be arranged through the office, and should be done every three weeks.  Visibility in the water is very bad, so it is very hard to do a thorough job.  Ask to have your prop cleaned, greased and bagged.
Changing zincs may tax the diver's mechanical talents.

Like almost all anchorages and marinas in Central America, Puerto Amistad has had theft problems.  Boats should be well secured. 

Last year marina mooring lines parted three times.  In the one case I know of personally, a bridle line failed, the boat veered toward it's neighbor, but rapid action by the owner using his dingy as a tug prevented a damaging collision.  Should one of the single moorings fail completely on a flood tide a boat could be swept under the new Chone River bridge immediately to the south of the marina.  The bridge is low to the water.  Dismasting or worse would be a sure thing.

Tripp, the marina owner, has assured us that maintenance has been stepped up and all lines are in good condition.  As far as I know he has not personally inspected the moorings to verify that this is the case.  The guys working on the moorings seem to be self managed, and one in particular has a checkered work history.

I will be relieved when we leave and get away with no damage.

Grace will be leaving soon, heading to Golfito. Costa Rica.

I would come back to Puerto Amistad.

Been Busy

Apologies to my reader (sorry mom) for not writing.  I'm gonna do better.   Manana.

Third Attempt

This time things turned out different.  Not necessarily better, but different.  We are no longer in Panama, we are not in the Marquesas either.  We are in Behia Caraquez, Ecuador some six or seven hundred miles south.

We had a really great run out of Panama, motor sailing south at very low rpm's to escape the convection storms with their thunder and lightening.  When we cleared these we turned right for the south Pacific and had several days of really good sailing.  We sailed more on this leg then we did during two years in Mexico.  The wind was usually from about 220 ranging from 15 to 25 knots, our course was 270 so we were close hauled punching into the wind and waves. 

We did a lot of experimenting with sail combinations as the wind speed rose and fell, looking for a nice compromise between speed and comfort.  I really would rather be comfortable then fast, but our son Kris was all about speed.  I drove him crazy with my old man style of sailing. 

Besides trying to satisfy my need for comfort, our wind vane autopilot needed to have the boat's sails adjusted so they were "balanced".  The force the main sail develops tries to turn the boat into the wind while the head sail turns the boat away from the wind.  If the balance between the two turning forces is equal it is possible to let go of the wheel and the boat will continue to sail straight ahead.  This is what the vane needs.  It does a great job when all it has to do is make minor corrections.  Actually that's all it can do since it can only turn the wheel about half a turn either direction.  I did find a way to get the sails balanced, but I must be doing something wrong because I had to depower the main to the point that it contributed very little to moving the boat.  We could have dropped it and not lost any speed.  I need to talk with some of our friends who own BaBa 40's to see how they did it.

Another thing we experimented with was fishing.  Neither Judy nor I fish.  We figured that landing and cleaning a fish would be difficult and messy, leaving us with blood stained teak decks.  We were right.  It is hard to land a large fish.  It is messy filleting one, there are blood stains on deck.  But having fresh dorado for dinner makes it very worth while.  Thanks Kris for showing us how cool fishing is.

One of the cruising notes on the passage between Panama and the Galapagos warns of a small Columbian island, Malpelo Island several hundred miles from the mainland.  The note says stay away.  Malpelo, a nature preserve and site of a Columbian military base, may not be visited without prior arrangements, Occasional tour groups do go there to swim with it's famous schools of hammerhead sharks.  Its like a mini Galapagos island,  whose ecosystem evolved in it's own unique way. 

The military maintains a 6.6 mile restricted area around the island.  And wouldn't you know it, my excellent navigational skills brought us within 6 miles to the south.  They knew we were close, we heard them talking about the "barko on the border" but it was a blustery day with choppy seas. Perhaps this discouraged them from sending anyone out to chase us away.

We had one other mini adventure before disaster struck.  The day after we snuck past Malpelo, we were buzzed by a civilian helicopter shortly before sunset.  About an hour after dark we saw three fast launches come over the horizon heading right at us.  This was a bit disconcerting since we were only a few hundred miles off the Columbian border.  I had visions of drug runners taking over Grace.  About the only thing I could think of was to break into the cruiser check-ins taking place on the Marine Maritime Net at 14300 KHz. and report our situation to the net controller.  He took our report and asked what they could do for us.  I asked them pass on our position and what was happening to the Coast Guard if we did not call them in an hour with an "all ok".  The net controller and a couple old hands that were tuned in decided to give the Coast Guard a heads up right away pending our call in an hour. 

Well, thank Goodness, nothing happened.  The launches altered course, each one heading in a different direction, then a few minutes later a large vessel came over the horizon from the same direction the launches had come.  It passed by about 5 miles away before disappearing below the horizon again to our rear.  We started speculating about what we had seen and reached a tentative conclusion that the big boat was a fish processor, the launches were out chasing fish, and the helicopter was their fish spotter.  An hour later I was back on 14300 giving them the all ok message.  It was nice to have someone out there to call and know they would spread the alert.  The Coast Guard has a ship off Panama, so there could have been a fairly timely intervention if that had become necessary.

And now, the disaster that caused us to turn back.  Since turning west Judy and I kept getting whiffs of fuel in the cabin and out in the cockpit.  At first I thought the smell was coming from one of our jerry jugs filled with gasoline, as it had a small crack in the cap.  But the smell continued after I fixed the cap.  I started looking around and quickly found a small pool of diesel in the drip pan beneath the engine.  I looked at all the connections in the fuel lines and found nothing, so I turned the engine on and immediately found the leak.  One of the high pressure pipes between the fuel pump and injectors had a split.  It was spraying out a high pressure stream of diesel.

.

Hey, no problem.  I got out my Marine Tec epoxy, the most expensive epoxy I've ever bought.  It claims to be strong as steel when it dries.  I thought this was going to be a slam dunk fix.  I prepped the metal pipe per Marine Tex instructions, slathered on the epoxy, let it set overnight and the next morning......started all over again.  Mechanically talented readers are probably laughing their asses off at my stupidity after checking out the picture and know why I had to strip off the Marine Tec epoxy.  If you don't see the problem with this fix, welcome to my world.

I spent a great deal of time grinding off the epoxy, and managed to leave a thin layer of it over the split in the pipe.  Since I had used up all the Marine Tec, I applied 4 layers of fiberglass cloth using conventional epoxy, then wrapped this with self bonding "Rescue Tape" then clamped up the repair with band clamps.

The system pressure is 2600 psi, so I was not expecting a permanent fix.  I was hoping for an hour or so, enough to get over the bar at Behia Caraquez, Ecuador, but fuel started seeping out at the edges of the repair in about a minute.  We would have to get a tow across the bar into the behia.

We continued to have good winds on our way to Ecuador.  We were hoping to arrive in time to catch the morning tide, but as we closed with the coast winds went light.  We thought we could make the afternoon tide.  We had to break out the asymmetrical spinnaker and relearn how to fly it. 

We sailed to the waypoint where we would meet our tow, arriving about an hour early.  We dropped the hook and waited.  But not for long, a large panga appeared, tied up to the port side of Grace and began the 30 minute tow to our mooring at Puerto Amistad.  Everything went well as we made our way through the choppy sea. 

 

 

Behia Caraquez
 

A big thank you to Oliver on Mary Ann who called the marina and made the arrangements for our tow.  Also thank you Jacques on Nave, who along with Oliver gave us weather and moral support while we were under way.

Behia Caraquez
The condos along the waterfront are
owned, in most cases, by well to do Ecuadorians
who visit occasionally.
 

Second attempt at leaving

Our second attempt to leave was another bust.

We hit a storm, tore our headsail a bit, lost our wind instrument sensor at the top of the mast, and found our spreader lights had both burned out. 

We had also used quite a bit of fuel clawing out of the Gulf of Panama against the current.

The storm, with sustained winds in the high 30's with gusts into the mid 40's was totally unexpected.  Our weather report predicted light winds.  We expected to be motoring.  After about 6 hours of high winds, total darkness, waves about 5 seconds apart and a thunderbumper with lightening ahead, we turned around and run with it.  Ending up back where we had started the day before, we anchored, got some sleep, sewed up the tears in the headsail, then decided another attempt to head south against light wind and big current would leave us short of fuel.  Since we depend upon diesel to generate power as well as moving the boat, we decided not to use up what was left of our reserves just to get out of Panama.  Back in Panama City we have refueled, and replaced our wind sensor and spreader lights.

We will be leaving again real soon for the third attempt.  Since I never get anything right until at least the third try we are hopefully optimistic.

We left with two other sailboats.  Maryann, a beautiful one-off custom boat had to turn back early in the day, and rode the storm back to Panama City to repair their engine's high pressure fuel pump, the pump that gives fuel the last push through the injectors into the engine cylinders.  Nave, the second sailboat, managed the storm well and continued on westward toward the south Pacific.  They had several days of excellent progress until they hit a whale, damaging their rudder and cracking the fiberglass of the hull near the rudder causing a small water leak.  They have reached Salinas, Ecuador and are waiting to be hauled out of the water for repairs.

Maryann left this morning again with a freshly rebuilt pump,  We just got off the radio with them and found that the pump has failed again.  They are now about 15 miles out essentially adrift in very light wind.  They are hoping to get through the night without any conflicts with the numerous ships transiting the area on the way to or from the canal.  They have been in contact with a local who may tow them in tomorrow.  If this doesn't work,out we will volunteer to tow them back.

We've left Panama City

We haven't gone far, we're about 40 miles south.  We are anchored off Isla Contradora in the Pearles Islands waiting for a weather window.  It looks like we might make the big break Thursday.

Kenny called the evening we arrived here to check on how things were working.  Thanks Kenny for your concern.

Dare I say it...we're leaving.

We have a date picked out....sometime soon, maybe Sunday. 

We will leave the Yacht Club and re-anchor in Los Brisas on the east side of the Causeway.  Total distance: two or three miles.  We need to clean Grace's bottom of scum that has formed from the almost daily diesel slicks and remove barnacles that have attached themselves during the last several months.  I suppose I could dive on the bottom here, but this water is so retched there is no way I'm gonna do it.

So, around to the other side, clean the bottom a shove off.  Finally. 

I have to admit to being nervous about this.  I don't have much confidence in the repairs we have been making on Grace.  I'm pretty sure the engine is ok, but need to run it for a while.  Same with all the other things we have worked on: water maker, SSB radio, autopilot, refrigerator, batteries, autopilot etc. We will be underway for some 40 days getting to the Marquesas' and I wonder what is going to break next.
I
And then there is the radio.  We have an ICOM 802 marine shortwave radio that we will use to communicate with other boats that will be leaving about the same time as us.  We will also use it to pull down weather reports. 

When I was going to school I had the bad habit of trying to cram a semester's worth of knowledge into my head the last couple of days before the finals.  I never liked studying much and would put it off as long as possible.  I remember chastising myself for being so immature and making promises that next semester would be different.  Never happened.  I forgot the pain of those few days, and regressed to my usual mode of just hanging out.

Well, the radio is a return to those old days.  I don't like it, don't understand it.  All the buttons and dials have a purpose and even though I have passed the ham test, I don't know much beyond how to turn it on, and that I must push the "push to talk" button on the mike.  So I have been in the cram mode learning how to get our weather.  And the fellows who have set up the system, call Winlink" have made it a non trivial exercise.  I think I have it figured out and have been testing the email service.  I still have to figure out what weather reports we want to receive over the radio while underway.

Wx

We're working on a departure list.  Actually have most of it done. the list that is, and we are working it.  We both went to the dermatologist last week, big checkmark for this one.  All is well.  Pharmacy, Price Smart (Costo-lite) bulk, Vegies, Meat,  Oil change (no filter), Chandleries.

And then there is Wx.  Weather conditions in the central Pacific have been dreadful.  We have already had 11 named storms.  Two hurricanes hit or come very close to the Hawaiian islands so far. And there are two additional suspects out there that may threaten the Islands again.  The first is an area of low pressure about 1100 miles ESE of Hilo, the second is Tropical Storm Karina heading west from Mexico and there  is a new storm brewing up east of Katrina that the Weather Service says is huge.  It looks like this one will stay off Mexico rather then head out west. 

This will not impact us too much.  We may have to stay in the Marquesas Islands a bit longer to be sure the Hurricane season is over before heading up to Hawaii.  Tough duty hanging out a few extra weeks in Paradise.

And then there is el Niño.  This could be a pain.  El Nino's weaken the SE trades and can sometimes cause them to reverse and become Westerly's for a time.  It also becomes stormy; thunder lightening and squally winds.  Just like here in Panama. 

There seems to be a consensus emerging that if the el Nino occurs it will be nowhere near as strong as originally thought.  One speculation is that the warm water that was making it's way eastward toward South America has begun emerging along the North American coast instead.



Variance of the Sea Surface Temperature from
 average

So overall the wx picture looks better now then it did a few months ago.

One thing has stayed consistent however, there is no wind here in the summer.  Panama is tucked out of the wind behind the northwestern shoulder of South America.  South winds  coming up the west coast of South America spread out as land falls away to the east, and loose speed.  There are few times during the rainy season that winds reach higher then ten knots.  A rule of thumb is that it is necessary to get to 3N before the sailor finds decent winds.  We are at 9N so we are facing the prospect of a long motor unless we catch a break.