and Again... and Again

We decided it was time for a second opinion and called another mechanic that was highly recommended by other sailors in the anchorage. He was known as El Profe (The Professor) and was in very high demand. However we explained the situation and El Profe came to take a look. The minute he stepped on the boat our anxiety lifted and we felt we were in good hands. After five minutes, El Profe assured us that this was a good engine and he could get it started again. He made up a special mixture of oil and sprayed it into the cylinders. With a little coaxing, we heard the sweet sound of our engine running again. But we weren’t out of the woods yet. El Profe was not satisfied with what he was hearing. He looked at the video of the injectors that the other mechanics had sent us from the shop and said “that spray is not right”. He removed the injectors and took them to his preferred lab. It turns out the water that had entered our fuel tank, probably through condensation and questionable fuel, had made its way to the injectors and clogged them up. The shop replaced the nozzles that spray the fuel out and the engine sounded better than it ever had. El Profe, our hero!

Cartagena Christmas Decorations

This only left the question of the water remaining in our tank. We pumped out as much water as we could into plastic jugs and replaced it with new fuel. A somewhat respectable weather window for Jamaica had presented itself so the next morning we headed hauled up the anchor and headed out. We made it about a mile before the engine died. As there was no wind and we were still in the Cartagena harbour, James lowered the dinghy and towed us back to the anchorage in shame as I steered. We immediately dialled El Profe and while he was not exactly happy to hear from us he came out right away. “There is still water” he exclaimed after spitting a mouthful of watery diesel into a plastic bottle. The ghetto solution that followed was to buy a big plastic fuel tank that would sit in our bathroom and be filled with good diesel. The engine would be connected directly to that tank and we would refill it with our jugs on deck. Doing the math, this gave us about 33 gallons to burn, about half of what we usually had.

So when the next weather window came along we were hesitant to say the least. But we started out with the external tank working well. After about five hours of motoring we started to get close to the part of Colombia which is notoriously windy. And, unlike our weather forecast, the 20 knot wind was directly on our nose. Our speed slowed to about 3 knots and James furrowed his brow. Once we got an updated weather forecast (which had changed, and not in our favour) we realized that our meagre 33 gallons of fuel was not going to get us to Jamaica in these conditions. We turned back and entered the Cartagena harbour yet again.

Gazing north towards Jamaica

Just as morale was at an all-time low, we discovered CineColombia. In what can only be considered a miracle of capitalism, CineColombia can show the same new releases that we pay $15 to watch at home for as little as a dollar. In English. In an air-conditioned theatre. This was our salvation. While we watched all the matinees we possibly could we waited for better weather and brainstormed how to improve our odds. (BTW, if you want to confuse a Colombian, make him wonder why we are spending every afternoon of our vacation watching the same movies we could see at home…) We followed up on one of El Profe’s contacts that might be able to polish (clean) our fuel. This is a procedure where the fuel is sucked out of the tank, filtered, and put back in and, in case you were wondering, in spanish is more appropriately known as “dialysis”.

Boxing Day Spread, Colombian Style

After our first round of dialysis did not suffice, we opted for the ultimate solution. The bad fuel would be removed and disposed of (in Colombia this means it would just be sold again at a discount) and we would start from scratch with all new fuel. We would also have the external 33 gallons as a backup. After numerous tests, we knew we had solved the problem! All that was left was the weather. Cartagena is lovely around Christmastime, all lit up and with parades and fireworks. We enjoyed it even though we had wanted to be in Jamaica for Christmas. Our best Christmas gift of all was the updated forecast with the gale-force winds in the Caribbean calming down to something a little more manageable. It finally looked like we could head north!

Merry Christmas from Cartagena!

and we're back!

How many of you thought we were no longer cruising? Were missing? Had fallen into a black hole? Nope! We just got super behind with boat repairs and then had no or terrible internet for five months in Cuba. The good news is we have about a dozen blogs written, they just need photos and we can start posting them for you!

A LOT has happened since our last post. We are currently in Isla Mujeres, Mexico and will catch you up over the coming weeks. In the meantime here is what we've been up to in our first week in Mexico...

Eating the best ceviche on the planet!

Celebrating a birthday!

Eating delicious blue corn tortillas!

Drinking margaritas!

Eating mountains of Pitaya fruit!

Hanging out at the beach!

Drinking watermelon mimosas!

Enjoying breakfast out!

Swimming with manta rays and whale sharks!

Stay tuned as lots more to come...

Colombia Again...

 Let me preface this entry by reiterating that we loved Colombia. The people are friendly, the climate is perfect, there are lots of amazing things to see, do, and eat, and it’s safely out of the way of any potential hurricanes. But we arrived back in January 2017, stayed until March, returned to the boat in July and stayed until the beginning of September. We had seen more of Colombia than any Colombian we had spoken to. In our eyes, and the eyes of the department of immigration, we were getting close to outstaying our welcome.

Which is why, when discussing how we were going to get from Panama to our post-hurricane season destination of Jamaica, we were hesitant to make any plan that included the word Colombia in it. Our initial plan was to sail to the offshore island of Providencia which is under jurisdiction of, you guessed it, Colombia. From there continue north to the Cayman Islands, then turn into the wind and current to get to Jamaica. At this time of year (November) this should have been a perfectly feasible plan. But as usual the weather was uncooperative and the winds were blowing hard in exactly the direction we were headed. Those winds were uncharacteristically providing a smooth ride back to good old mainland Colombia and from there a nice sail up to Jamaica. It seemed like a no-brainer so we stocked up on cheap liquor, checked out of Panama, and set our sails for just south of Baranquilla where there is a quiet little bay where we could rest between passages.

We were enjoying a very pleasant two-night passage when on day two the wind dropped and the sails hung motionless. We fired up the engine to keep up our progress and were shortly greeted with silence again as it sputtered and died. We were exactly halfway between Panama and Colombia, over 100 miles from any land. Recognizing this as a fuel issue, James changed the fuel filter and bled the engine. It started up and shortly died again. We repeated this several times with the same result and upon closer examination the fuel filter bowl was full of not fuel but dirty water! As everyone knows, fuel and water do not mix.

Thank goodness we have sails and the wind was starting to pick up again. After much discussion we decided to adjust our course towards Cartagena since we knew the city would have the services we needed in case this was a serious problem. In what was one of our best passages for sailing we arrived at Cartagena in the early morning hours and waited outside the harbour since we did not want to enter in the dark under sail. In the morning after several more filter changes we were able to limp into the anchorage at a very slow speed and drop the anchor. We were back… in a country that we loved but didn’t want to see again anytime soon.

They say cruising is a series of high highs and low lows with not much in between. It’s true. Although we didn’t expect any sympathy from back home where it was becoming chilly and getting dark at 4:30pm while we were “stuck in paradise”, we commiserated with our fellow cruisers that understood what it’s like to be broken down watching others come and go and having your home torn apart in shambles while you desperately try to find the cause of and solve your problems. Trust me, we were not sitting on the beach sipping cocktails - we were busting our rear ends trying to troubleshoot our engine problem.

We changed the other engine filter and the engine would not start no matter what we did. James disconnected and reconnected all of the fuel lines and we pumped what looked like the rest of the dirty water from the bottom of our fuel tank. It still would not start. Recognizing that we were over our heads we asked around to find a good diesel mechanic. We were recommended to a group of guys that maintained the engines on the submarines for the Colombian navy. It sounded like a good shot so we gave them a call.

The first mechanic to come out was able to determine without a doubt that we had water in the system and this was the source of the problem. Another mechanic would come out to work on solving the problem. But after what seemed like hours of just cranking and cranking we were no further ahead. The new mechanic then suggested that the fuel injectors needed cleaning in a shop. But even after a good clean, nothing.

The next group of mechanics (yes, three of them) made no more progress other than to suggest taking the injector pump to the shop to be tested and repaired. In the diesel world this is a fairly big deal, requiring sophisticated timing devices and knowledge well above our heads. Oh and they also needed to tear out part of a wall to get this pump out!

Crazy Cruisers in Panama

Portobello Anchorage

After two years of cruising, the state of the boat’s cockpit enclosure had degraded from “embarrassing” to “nonexistent”. On a centre-cockpit boat such as ours, the cockpit is in the centre, as opposed to in the stern, to allow for a massive master bedroom and ensuite bathroom. But because the cockpit is closer to the front we are much more exposed to spray and waves when we are bashing upwind, which we usually are. The Endeavour 42 is supposed to have a full wrap-around plastic enclosure with panels that can be unzipped and removed as necessary. When we bought the boat, two panels were missing, and the remaining panels were well-worn and cracked.

Old enclosure

Approaching Mainland Panama

We had planned to have the enclosure replaced once we were in one place for long enough but found the wait times too long in Florida, it too be too expensive in Grenada and couldn't find anyone in Colombia. By the time we reached Panama, the clear tape holding the front panel together had started to disintegrate in the sun and we knew the situation was getting desperate. We still had about a month before the end of hurricane season and happened upon a marine canvas shop in Portobelo that could fit us in for a reasonable price. As we waited for our new enclosure we set about exploring Panama.

Playa Blanca - Not sure about the namesake beach but the crystal clear water was lovely!

As it turned out, that did not take very long.

James asked me to make a face summing up how I felt about our time in Panama thus far...

Bird raft

There are two main anchorages in eastern Panama: Puerto Lindo and Portobelo. Puerto Lindo has a marina and it rains a lot and is uncomfortably rolly in October. Portobelo has a town with a few shops, it rains even more, and is even more rolly. We split our time between the two and filled our days visiting with our friends on Lalamanzi and trying to improve our drinking water catching system. Most cruising boats that don’t have a reverse osmosis water maker have some way to catch rainwater. The coolest cruisers have a hardtop fibreglass roof over their cockpit with a drain that connects directly to their water tank. We, however, are not that cool and just have a tarp with a hole in it that drains into a bucket. Nevertheless with rain falling almost every day or night we were able to easily keep up with our water demands. Not to mention that rainwater tastes better than both marina water and bottled water!

Spanish Fort at Portobelo

The other pastime we developed was observing the local cruising community. You see, Panama is pretty much the end of the line for folks cruising the Caribbean. Because of the  prevailing winds and currents, when you get to Panama your options are (a) go through the canal and continue west around the world (b) sail north (c) stay in Panama forever. We are aiming for Option B. Most cruisers go with Option A, but a surprising amount default to the last option. Both Puerto Lindo and Portobelo have a decent number of these “lifers”, including “The Boat With the Chicken Living on It”, “The Guy That Wears Just a homemade Loincloth”, and “The Lady That Spends Half the Year on Her Boat and The Other Half in a Panamanian Prison”. These are all 100% real and are just the tip of the iceberg. Very entertaining. Side note: if you want a great deal on a boat, Panama is the place to start your search. 

Waiting for Bananas to Ripen

We spent some time visiting the howler monkeys in Puerto Lindo (which as an aside is not very "lindo" - Spanish for beautiful). I mastered making different kinds of curds - lime and passionfruit were by far the best. Banana curd should never, ever be made.  I also started making homemade courtesy flags to fly in the countries we plan on visiting this season. This gave me great hope that we would indeed leave Panama one day. We celebrated James Birthday here and since there isn't a whole lot to do for a birthday celebration I decided to make him a sponge cake filled with homemade passionfruit curd. Panamanian flour and I just do not get along - the cake was as thin as a cracker. 

Passionfruit curd

We also made a couple of day trips to Panama City. The travel time from Portobelo is about three hours each way, leaving you a solid four hours for exploring Panama City. We had a hot tip on an Indian restaurant whose owner had immigrated to Panama from Pickering. The food was incredible and was as close to a taste of home as a curry made by an Indian-Canadian in Latin America could possibly be. The best thing about Panama City has to be its modern new metro system which can take you from one bland paved concrete neighbourhood of the city to another for a mere 35 cents! We skipped the famous Canal Museum in favour of a waterfront view of all the ships waiting for transit in the calm blue Pacific.

Panama City

Ships Waiting on the Pacific Side

Of course we realized that unless we had a drastic change of heart we realized that at 37 miles this might be the closest our little sailboat would get to this vast expanse of water. We had very mixed feelings about that and it was hard to see all the boats transiting the canal knowing that we weren't going to cross through the canal.

Our Completed Enclosure!

No more getting wet underway...

Ship leaving the Panama Canal with a fiery sky

Boatwork in Exotic Places

After our time in busy Cartagena, the quiet and solitude of Kuna Yala was most welcome. We sailed 100 nautical miles without seeing another cruiser. Although it was incredible to have our pick of beautiful deserted islands near which to anchor almost every day we also had to use caution. With the exception of the Kuna we were truly on our own here. We were on constant lookout for the plenty of uncharted reefs that could have punctured the hull and stopped us in our tracks. Not too mention our first exposure to the sort of jungle wildlife not found anywhere else. Pumas, wild boar, snakes, monkeys, and crocodiles were all to be watched out for. The one crocodile we did spot from our dinghy was at least ten feet long and ruled out any plans we had to snorkel in that anchorage!

We spent weeks swimming, snorkelling, exploring the isolated villages and watching the strs at night. One night in particular felt like we were anchored directly under the milky way - with zero light pollution in the jungle the stars felt like they were right on top of us! Since our outboard was acting up we also spent our fair share of time paddling our dinghy around - thank god for Arkin's hand carved paddle! When we grew tired of paddling one of us would hop in and push the boat along.

Aside from being off the beaten track the lack of other gringos was also because it was still the end of rainy season. You could set your watch to the dark black afternoon clouds that formed over the mountains and dropped a couple of hours worth of rain (and usually thunder and lightning as well) on the islands. Although we had a few intense squalls, we did not encounter the feared Chocosana, the sudden intense storms with tropical storm force winds.

 

As we worked our way west at a leisurely pace, the traditional villages gave way to larger, more westernized settlements. At Nargana, there were hostels, small shops, and a cell tower (but no SIM cards available for purchase). There was also a bakery and a place to buy fresh fruit and veg and it couldn't have come soon enough! At the Hollandes and Lemon Cays we found the couple dozen other cruisers at anchor and we sadly realized that the short break we enjoyed from the rest of the world was drawing to a close…. or was it?

Anchored amongst the backpackers - sailboats from Panama to Cartagena are one of the most popular ways for those backpacking Central and South America to cross the Darien Gap - at Chichime, we discovered a steady leak coming from our engine’s seawater pump. We had encountered this problem before, almost two years ago while motoring through the “Dismal Swamp” in North Carolina. Since we were such newbies at the time, another cruiser kindly helped us rebuild the pump, but now we felt confident we could do it ourselves, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by coral reef. It was a close call when we damaged the threads on the pump shaft (maybe bashing it with a hammer was not the best way of removing the old bearings) but sweet relief when we found a spare shaft buried deep in a drawer. We would be able to leave Kuna Yala after all.