Well, I haven’t done anything really dumb in a few days. I haven’t shot any fish. No boat projects. I haven’t even been freediving. For the most part – I’ve just been running errands, hanging out, and enjoying some (needed) down time. I have a new crewmember joining soon, and Chels is leaving soon – so that’ll shake things up around S/V NOMAD.
Rain, Rain, Go Away
It’s back to monsoon weather. Which means that daily/nightly there are rainstorms. There were a couple that came in about 4AM, with 30 knots of wind. Those were interesting, and I was glad to be in a protected anchorage, hanging on a mooring ball. It starts slowly – a bit of wind, a couple drops of rain. I’m at the point, though, that I can tell when we’re going to get weather – you just feel it.
The wind picks up and starts whistling through the rigging. The night gets darker. Then the boat starts struggling against the mooring/anchor line. It’s a weird, jerky motion – and it’s the official sign that you need to be up and looking around. Other boats are probably dragging anchor, even if you’re not.
I won’t say who – but there have been several pretty salty folks pulling anchor, dragging hundreds of meters until they finally get hooked again. That’s some dangerous stuff. Even if you’re hooked, you really have to be watching out for the other boats in the anchorage. The French seem to be the worst offender, from a nationality standpoint. That’s a broad generalization, based upon a tiny sample size of evidence that I didn’t scientifically collect – so take that with a grain of salt.
Colon
My car’s trashed. There’s a U-joint or something that’s causing it to wobble around on the front tires. No bueno. The local crew won’t fix it, so I have to drive it to Portobello – but I’ve been lazy about that. Which leaves me riding the bus. That hasn’t been too bad – but it hasn’t been great either. Chels and I went into Colon with a small army of local cruisers. Then Rob and I took another trip. No biggie, but the buses here are appropriately named “Diablos Rojos” – the Red Devils. The bus drivers are nuts. Maximum capacity is stretched. The mechanical condition isn’t great. But we’ve survived.
I’m starting to get the hang of getting into and around Colon, without driving. It’s not bad, especially if you have a couple of people that need to go to the same places. That said – Colon is a shithole. If that sounds harsh, I invite you to go stroll around the streets there. But do so with the right amount of money, so that if you are held at knifepoint they won’t get too much. Be careful going without money though – because then you might just get stabbed out of spite.
Friends, Plans, Projects
I’ve largely decided that I won’t be sailing across the Pacific next year. Unless something changes again. Really, I just want to get the boat tightened up – there’s so much work to be done before I can be 100% confident in it and myself. That confidence is important.
After removing that schedule-pressure, I’ve started to chill out. It leaves me in San Blas for Christmas, with the family. Maybe from there I’ll head to Puerto Rico. Maybe Belize. Maybe Columbia. With another season on this side – the options are open.
I wrote a list of all of the boat projects. It was long. There’s so many, I can’t even begin to list them here. There are solar projects, engine projects, bilge pump projects, battery projects, refrigeration projects. The good news is that I have a dude coming down to help out. An extra set of mechanically-inclined hands onboard will be nice.
Aussies on the Boat
Well, Chels is leaving soon. Just about the time you get a crew-member trained, they need to leave. She’s got some surfing and such to do in other countries. Her last few days have been fun though. The big event around the anchorage is that Sarah showed up. She’s another Aussie chick and a friend of Chels’. Traveler, likes the ocean, etc. Anyways – having the girls onboard is fun.
The day after Sarah came in, I was supposed to be up at 6AM. I was heading back into Colon. But since it was a celebration night, we had a little party onboard S/V NOMAD. Sarah broke out the cards and we started a game of Kings (a drinking game). We had a great time. Maybe too good. Carla came over – I was completely outnumbered by both Aussies and women. Surrounded by estrogen. To be fair – these chicks are all the least girly chicks on the planet and they’re all rad. I wasn’t in bad company.
I woke up the next morning with a hell of a hangover. I blame the Aussies. While they slept in, I was up and headed to Colon with Rob. I was so hungover and late that I forgot my damn coffee. Three hours of sleep, a wicked hangover, and no coffee. Poor Rob was headed to Colon with a real monster.
When I got back to Puerto Lindo I wasn’t sure what to expect. The girls had made the catamaran into a cave by curtaining all the windows. There was mounds of chocolate on salon table, and they were watching movies. They were seriously suffering too. Apparently they didn’t even hear me leave in the morning. They’d had a productive day though – they’d managed to scrub all the decks and kayak into town. It’s nice coming home to clean decks.
Check out their candy stash. And check out how happy Chels is to get some chocolate.
The girls are pretty much at home on the boat. They’re sleeping soundly, eating well, and showering on the decks when it rains. When people love the ocean, this life comes pretty easily me thinks.
With all of the social activity (there’s a pizza night tonight, we did a lunch at Panamarina, we have monkey-feeding, etc) and the rain I haven’t done much as far as boat projects go. But that’s fine. I have time.
Chilling Out
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