****First let me say that we are so happy to hear everyone is enjoying our website. Sometimes it is difficult for us to update because our internet service is always questionable. Many of you are asking for more pictures, which I hope to update soon as I have about thirty to add. But they take the longest to update, so if I do not have good service I do not update as it is very frustrating to spend so much time only to loss all the data. I also have heard that many of you worry about us if the log is not updated in what may be a reasonable time to our land lubber friends. Remember, we are sailing around the world. No Starbucks to plug into....Please don't worry as more than likely we are doing fine, but just don't have internet access. We leave for the Galapagus the first of May and we probably won't have internet access again until we arrive in New Zealand the first of November. There are many people with whom we have contact through our SSB, so just ask a friend about us they may know how we are doing. PS Setting up website tracking. It should be in place by the end of May 2007. All our love always. s/v Emelia**

3/19/07, 3/31/07

Wow, the San Blas Islands are absolutely gorgeous. I’ll have to do my best to describe it as you can not go to Google earth to see it. There are many individual islands and thousands of acres on the main land surrounded by Panama and Columbia. Because these islands are within the intertropical convergence zone there are no hurricanes, so the islands are pristine. There are about 20,000 native Kuna’s throughout the area. None of the land has been or will be sold to anyone outside the Kuna population. Every coconut tree is owned by a Kuna and no other Kuna steals the coconuts. We as cruisers have be told not to take coconuts, even if they are laying on the ground. This has been agreed upon by all as in the past when a cruiser took a coconut the Kuna chiefs made it very difficult for the following cruisers.

We are in Isla Holandes, which are about eight islands of various size. This entire island chain is protected by a large reef with just two open passages, making it a very comfortable and well protected anchorage. We are anchored in front of, what the cruisers call Barbeque Beach. Our friends on Escape Velocity are anchored next to us and Sea Star is just up ahead. There are about fifteen boats in this anchorage, while at the Hot Tub there are about six boats and around the corner there are twelve. At this anchorage on the hook is Risqué’ Affair and Hullabaloo. Who we also meet in Curacao. Barbeque Beach is unique because of the grass growing on the island. It makes for a great place to do Yoga which lasted two hours and was attended by twelve cruisers. There is one Kuna hut owned by Edwino, but he does not live here full time, so the island is cared for by a cruiser out for the last eight years. Although he does not live on the island and can not own land he treats it with care by pulling the dead palm fronds to shore to burn, piles up the coconuts for the owner and makes a palm frond place mat for the pot luck table he built and makes sure the logs stay in place for the round seating area.

Today Ryan and I went snorkeling on the reef between the cut to get in and a couple of islands. He brought his camera with him and went off to take pictures. We were anchored in thirty feet of water and as I swam toward the reef it continued to get shallow until the reef was a foot out of the water. The reef is very long, in fact to long for us to swim the whole length, but it is in great condition. The colors are beautiful with purple and gold fan coral, mustard color brain coral, green tube coral and fish of every variety.

Yoga on the beach again today. The grass is very cushy but prickly so as we warm up I lay on a tarp and then on my towel. We lay on our backs and look up at the sky. The view I have is through the palm trees of browns and green up to the sky of oranges, pinks and blues. We have seven in attendance today and everyone is friendly. As I do a standing pose and bend down and reach behind me I spot our boat in the distance to the back of the anchorage in calm waters. To the left is a cut with fast moving water in the distance with breaking waves and reefs on either side. There is an island with a sand beach and palm trees in the distance. It is very peaceful and quite as we do downward dog pose with sudden sounds of birds in the trees. After relaxation Edwino, a Kuna Islander, brought over fresh coconuts for all the yogis’. The juice inside is a little bitter sweet and the meet is soft and luscious. It is very refreshing and to watch him cut them fresh from the tree then open them with his machete is a wonderful treat. After yoga Ian and Bill go surfing and I tell them I may join them with my boogie board. I see them outside the reef surfing in the breakers four to six waves back, so I dinghy out but decide that it doesn’t look to safe for me. I anchor the dinghy and watch them for a while. Bill is good as he’s been surfing for a while, Ian has just learned. He gets up with a little wobble, but rides the surf well. I can hear them hooting and hollering and they look like they are having a ball.

Barbara Ann joined us today in the anchorage and all the kids are on Barbeque Beach playing soccer, tag and hanging out. Gene and I are sitting in our lounge chairs, on the bow, eating sunflower seeds, drinking Pepsi, reading a book, listening to the waves break in the distance with the warm sun tanning our bodies.

Bill and Ian went surfing again today, but the waves weren’t that great. So, they got out the ski line and surfed behind the dinghy. Everyone joined them in the water after a short time as we saw what fun they were having. Ryan got up right away and had a great ride. My first attempt was a small failure as I didn’t have a feel for the board, but my second attempt was with great success. I surfed behind the dinghy through the anchorage outside the circle of the anchored boats. Surprisingly I was able to go out and over the boat wake even though it had been years since water skiing. Austin, Tyler, Katarina, Jack and even Jackie tried. On Ryan’s second turn he used a smaller board and it took him a few tries to get up, but once he found his balance he was out doing tricks. He had a great time and we all had a awesome day. Surfs up dude. Like a‘, totally gnarly!!!

Monday is pot luck on the beach and most of the cruisers know this. So, this morning and early afternoon many boats anchored in the area to come to meet other cruisers. By 5 pm the dinghies started filling the beach. We arrived by 5:25 and placed our Lee’s Famous blue cheese and bacon dip on the table. By 6 pm there are over 40 people on the beach and I see chocolate and a lemon cake on the table along with fresh fruits, vegetables and many flavorful dips. Gene and I separate and we go around and meet as many people as possible. Since we’ve been in the area for several days and have done yoga we know a good many, but there are a few we just meet. La Bella was there with the owners and kids and they seem like a nice family. By 8:30 the party is almost over, but not before a couple of people strip down naked. Butt naked. They laugh and a couple of the kids looked stunned, but they’re dressed again before boarding their dinghy. Evan, Austin and Tyler decide to camp out on the shore, so we go back to the boat to get the tent. Jack picks Evan up at 9 pm and they are off to the shore. He tells them he’ll get them about 9 am in the morning. They have a hand held VHF in case they need us, but we don’t hear from them all night.

I woke about 7 am and made biscuit with butter and jelly, put them in a air tight container grabbed some juice boxes and dinghy to shore to feed the kids. I thought they would still be in the tent asleep. My plan was to take pictures, but they were already up and everything was put away neatly. Evan said we had to watch the tent as it may walk away with numerous ants that got in and attacked Austin after he ate a granola bar in the night. Apparently Austin woke to an ant attack in his blankets. They stayed up until 2 pm playing cards and talking. They had a good time and choice to stay on the beach until jack picked them up at 9 am. I went back to the boat to get ready for yet another day of Yoga. Twenty-four cruisers showed up today. One fourth of the class are our kids and we have more men then women. The class is a good one as the mix of people and the level of yoga knowledge is good. I meet Annemai from the boat Wakalele last night and I ask her to come join us. She has not done yoga before, but is quite good. She and her family are from Belgium and they speak Dutch. I love it. About three-fourth of the way through yoga I lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying and I had to walk away to clam down. I walked to the beach and listened to the surf, but as I joined the group again I couldn’t stop laughing. Jack who is not at all religious is doing yoga with us and as he does the pose he looks like he is in a church revival. I can’t stop laughing. Jackie sees him and them sees me laughing and she feels like we’re in high school again. Little girl giggling out of control. Bill brought watermelon so we could have a watermelon spitting contest, but the watermelon he brought is seedless. Needless to say it is still good and very refreshing.

Around 5pm today we saw a catamaran sail out of the anchorage in front of us with one crew on the starboard (right) hull. We couldn’t figure out why a boat would leave at this time as it is very difficult to see the bottom for reefs in the glare of the sun. At 7pm we heard a distress call on the VHF. The catamaran hit a reef and was stuck. They were not taking on water, but they were run hard aground. Five dinghies went to help, but with their long efforts of pulling and tugging they were unable to help. By 9pm a large steel hull rescue boat was on the move to push them off, but the owner declined as he felt it was to dark and the tide was not high enough to make it safely off without damage to the boat. The catamaran stayed put, not that they could leave, for the evening. The steel hull boat returned at 7am and pushed the catamaran off with ease. There were a few scratches to the bottom of the left hull, but nothing a little paint couldn’t repair. It turns out we meet the people on the catamaran a few weeks later and the crew was not happy that the owner decided to move. The crew member on the right hull was more than 20 feet away from the left hull that they misjudged the open to the cut they were entering and hit the left side of the very small opening needed to enter. Lesson learned. The owner said he will wait tell morning next time and have his second crew member on the other hull.

We just anchored in the Lemmons and Venancio the best Kuna mola maker is at our boat. I’ve severed him and his helper Pepsi, nuts and cookies while I sort through over a hundred molas. Ryan and Evan decide to go for a swim. They practice their free dive again and are getting deeper each try. They finish swimming and hand up their gear to Gene before boarding the boat. I am still with Venancio on deck trying to decide which mola I want. A few minutes after Evan and Ryan go down below an irate Kuna comes to our boat. He does not speak English and we ask Venancio to translate for us. But Venancio tells the Kuna to go and Gene is upset because he understands that the Kuna is saying that someone stole a lobster. We finally get Velancio to tell the Kuna no one stole anything and the Kuna leaves, but he is not happy. Gene is not happy either, so I tell him after I am done we will go to shore and see if we can find someone to help us straighten this out. I pick my mola. It has ten colors with beautiful shapes of flowers. Gene picked one as well. His has three colors and is more traditional in shape. Gene and I then head to shore. We decide to try to find someone who speaks English and Kuna. If we can not we will leave the situation alone. As we tie up to the dock the Kuna that accused Ryan and Evan of stealing lobsters arrives. I ask if anyone on the island speaks English. He says yes he does. I go over the situation with him and he apologizes for the confusion. His buddy saw Ryan and Evan swim down and pass something up to Gene. Their lobster pot was full this morning, but is now gone. Not jus the lobster, but the pot too. We can’t figure out how they could know so quickly that the pot is gone, but we decide to leave with his apology. This situation really upset Gene to know Ryan and Evan were accused of stealing and then to know we were leaving our boat in the anchorage for the day unattended. We had no more run ins with this Kuna, but we kept an eye out every time he rode by.

Alright, today was the most fascinating, culturally educating, fabulously funny day. A few days ago Jack arranged a tour with Raul for us to visit one of the large Kuna islands. Jackie’s sister Ann, her husband Greg, their two children Amanda 15, Lance 11 and Angie a very close friend from the states, Wakelele and Mary Constance joined us, giving us a total of 22 people. We were to leave on a fiberglass boat at 10am. To my surprise at 9am Raul showed up with his whole family in a large dug out canoe and invited himself and all his family to sit on our boat and wait until it was time to leave. An hour later and no real conversation, as the Kuna women wait for their men to speak, we head out the cut of the Lemmons. We sit three or four to a row on hard wooden benches. I was smart enough to bring a seat cushion which I offered to others before we left but they all declined, and my umbrella to shade me from the sun. Everyone was making fun of me, but I was cool and comfortable and they were not. We had to rearrange seating a couple of times to keep the boat level and Gene had to bail the bottom to keep our feet dry, but this added to the charm of the day. An hour later we arrived on the island of.....We were lead through a maze of very low roofed, the Kuna are very short in stature, thatch and bamboo houses, and narrow dirt roads to the house of Raul’s family. There we were treated to a beverage of our choice at a tarp covered patio over looking the trash filled water and the family toilet. The toilet was of most interest to us as it was built over the water. This one was made of a wood base, had a bucket over a hole to be used as a seat and bamboo walls for privacy. After seeing this and the other creative toilet coverings we decided to make a coffee table book, “Toilets of the San Blas”. We were then lead back out of the maze down a wider dirt road that served as the main road of the community. Here people passed quickly , children peaked through doorways and a naked little boy ran back and forth from one house to another. We passed the Kuna community hut, a school, more thatched roofed houses and a few small stores selling sodas and fresh Kuna bread. The bread is shaped like long fingers and if you are able to buy it right out of the over it is very delicious. We ended up in a covered hut with dirt floors and several benches centered around drawings, pictures, molas and artifacts of the Kuna culture. This is where the tour got interesting. Not many Kuna’s speak English, but the curator of the museum was pretty proficient and only mixed up a few words. He began by telling us about the Kuna’s God. Many, many, many years ago up in the heavens lived a family with an eleven year old boy and girl. The boy was told he would go down and be the Kuna’s God at age twelve. The sister was to go with the brother and share the making of the Molas so the women could make money and share the traditions of the culture. At twelve the boy, Orgon, and his sister boarded their coconut shaped UFO and landed in the Kuna village. This was the start of the Kuna religion and our introduction to their culture. Needless to say not only was I surprised and smiling so was everyone else. Next he explained that when the girls started their ministration (this is how he pronounced it) everyone in the village was told and a big celebration ensued eight days after the chichi beer was made. Here he told of the older men and boys dancing to a rhythm with sticks and poles. He then picked up a bayonet and began moving it back and forth in the sheath. This went on for well over thirty minutes. I could tell by the silence in the room that not only were the adults surprised, but the kids were too. He told us how the young girls and boys did not know this meaning, but we were sure they all did. At age fifteen the girls are tucked away and kept in a hut for four days while her hair is cut in stages. First the top right, then the top left, then the back right and then the back left. Again the chichi beer is made and a big party is had by all. He explained how the men work each day and do the work that is told to them by their wives. Bring home bananas, bring home fish, bring home fresh water and the men all obey or there will be no sleeping together that evening. Next came the explanation of the medicine doctors. Snakes are bad as they bring cancer and diseases not only to those who touch them, but also to their family members. When someone gets sick the doctor comes. The family of the sick person must have the smoke. If the family has the smoke the doctor sits for fifteen minutes smokes then gives his diagnosis. If the family does not have the smoke the patient is in bad luck. If the smoke is had then after the diagnosis the medicine doctor goes into the field and picks what is needed. All the while the patient lays in the hammock in the hut and waits to get well. As we sat there Angie and I kept talking saying we wanted to drink the chichi beer and be the doctor. We stayed in the museum hut for well over an hour and a half and found the whole experience absolutely wonderful. We were then lead back to Raul’s family house and sat to eat lunch together. Then... piled into a larger wooden canoe to head to the fresh water river. Jack was not happy as he wanted the fiberglass boat he was told we would have. No one else was upset. The boat we had added to the charm of the whole experience. We bypassed Jack as he spoke to Raul and loaded up to head to the river. In the river we saw beautiful birds, coconut, banana, papaya trees and gardens with wonderful, bountiful large vegetables. We were asked to put our cameras away as we passed the Kuna as this is their sanctuary. We were being taken to the Kuna burial grounds. Here the Kuna’s are laid to rest. First a large whole is dug and a hammock is placed inside. The dead are wrapped tightly into the hammock with the face exposed. Everyone in the village makes molas which helps the dead go smoothly to heaven, but also to greet dead loved ones and make their own transit to the heavens easier upon their death. Now here’s the catcher, two very small canoes about the size of ones hand are placed into the bottom of the pit. One canoe is for the food and drink needed for travel while the other is to carry the spirit up to the heavens. We were fascinated and in awe to see such a privative culture. Once we were done in the river we headed back to our boats, but not before it rained. The rain came pouring down in rivers to cleans our bodies. Ok, not so much my body as I had my umbrella and along with a the very small kids stayed warm and dry. This was the time I got to laugh at everyone else as I sat on my soft cushion under my dry umbrella. We were back at our boats by 4pm and went to Barbara Ann’s for drinks, laughter and friendship. Angie and I couldn’t stop talking about the chichi beer and smoke doctor while Evan imitated the museum curator. It was great. It was fantastic. It was everything we want to experience.

The following day we along with Barbara Ann and Escape Velocity moved our boats just fifteen minutes away to snorkel at a small sunken boat in about four to fifteen feet of water. The visibility was good and the fish and coral were brightly colored. Someone saw a small shark, someone else saw a barracuda and I saw hundreds of live sand dollars laying on the sandy bottom. We went to shore to try out skim boards. Amanda couldn’t get it at first so Katarina showed her how. What was really great was Katarina’s patients and encouragement as Amanda tried to understand the concept. In the end Amanda got it and had a few good rides. We all planned to move again after lunch a few miles away, but our anchor windlass (this is a mechanical devise which pulls the anchor and chain up from the bottom) wasn’t working and Gene didn’t want to island hop with out its use. So Ryan and Gene pulled the anchor (...lbs) and chain (100ft) up by hand and we sailed off to Colon, Panama.

Wow, what a fantastic night sail we are having. We decided it would be best to leave about 5pm so we can enter the brake waters of the eastern Panama Canal during daylight hours the next morning. The skies are clear, the moon is out and the seas are calm. My watch is from 2-6, but by 4am Gene is up with me because I can’t deifier the different ships. Ok, when I say different here I should be saying the overwhelming number of ships. We are nearing the entrance to the break water of the largest and most used canal in the world. This is where ships lay at anchor or heave to until traffic is clear and the canal authority calls them in to enter. Kind of like airport traffic control. All I can see are lights and silhouettes of these massive giants. The auto pilot is turned off and Gene is at the helm. We’ve called Evan up and he and I are watching for ships. He is responsible to watch our stern and I am responsible to watch the bow and starboard. Our port side is toward the shore and to shallow for large ships, but every once in a while I glance over just to make sure no small vessels are out there. At one point I see lights moving, but I don’t understand and really can’t determine the ships movement. Luckily Gene does as he moves out of the way of a giant ship which first crosses our bow and then passes on out port side. Although it is only a few hundred feet away it looks dark and ominous in the shadows of the shore line. I want Gene to turn around and head back for an hour to wait for daylight for better views of the ships. He decides to keep moving forward but at a slow pace. As the sun comes up we have better visibility and we can not see what the ships are doing. There are at least a hundred waiting in line to enter and several come out when their turn is called. By 6:30 we are entering the break water. It is huge. Rocks pile high on either side with navigation lights blinking and range markers lining the shore. We enter quickly under sail as a ship is heading toward us. I can’t believe Gene doesn’t have the motor on. We are to turn starboard, but with this gigantic ship heading toward us from the port side and a giant building moving toward our bow Gene turns port to be sure to be out of these ships way. But to our surprise the ship coming across our bow turns away from us and the building like ship is just rolling at anchor. The whole scene is absolutely amazing as we head toward Shelter Bay Marina which will be our home until we transit the canal. As I hand a line off to a women at the dock I realize she is familiar and I say so as I remember we met in the Bahamas. She is from the boat Bare Feet. A catamaran we hung out with during our guitar pulls on the boat Nelly Bly. We are docked by 7:30 with the help of Sea Star, Bare Feet and the dock master. We’ve had an exhilarating night and we are off to the restaurant for bacon and eggs.

The marina is tucked away by itself at the end of what use to be the US Army and Navy base to the canal. It is surround by 14,000 acres of jungle. We hear the holler monkeys and have been told there are slow moving, slim and bug infested sloth in the tall canopy. As the days move on in the marina we have sudden rain storms, but we are warned ahead of time by the holler monkeys as it seems they do not like rain.

Our purpose here is to do work on the boat, but we find ourselves sitting on the patio having drinks or eating ice cream and talking to all of our boating friends. There are about forty-five boats in the marina and we know about twenty of them and find that at least ten are traveling with children. We decided to count the number of children and find from age fourteen months to eighteen years there are twenty-two kids. This is very unusually, but fantastic for the kids. They run around and have free range of the area as it is very safe and security is tight at the gated, armed guard oozy toting entrance. We have so much to do, but the bus into town crosses the canal and on a closed lock is a thirty minutes drive, but on an open lock it can take as much as ninety minutes to the nearest grocery store. Not to mention there is nothing in Colon worth buying, so any parts we need have to be shipped in from the states.

We have decided not the hire an agent to help us with paper work to transit the canal. This will save us about $500. Instead we give the responsibility over to Ryan and make him captain of the vessel. We decide it will be best for me to join him as he does all the leg work because I have already researched what to do, where to go and what to expect and because Colon is not a safe area and the spoken language is Spanish. Not that I speak it any better then Ryan we just figure in numbers it will be better to have someone with him. Our first stop is the Admeasures office. This is a bus ride into town, a taxi into the armed guard oozy toting port authority entrance to the end of the road to a three story building over looking the canal. I have gone over everything in advance with Ryan so he shouldn’t have many surprises. Our taxi driver does not understand us and we don’t know how long it will take so he drives away. We wait outside the gate until someone lets us in. We now have two very friendly male escorts opening doors and pointing the way to the second floor office doors. As we enter a women with a very nice smile, happy eyes and very friendly greets us in English. Ryan steps to the counter and charms her with his manners. She is very helpful and sees that I have stepped away to allow Ryan the responsibility of talking with her. There is only one question he can not answer so I help him along. He fills out the paper work needed and she gives the following day to be measured. The purpose of this visit is to get our vessel name into the Canal Authority system to get measured. All boats are measured and those under fifty feet pay $600 those larger than fifty feet pay $950 and those larger than sixty-five feet go through with their own pilot and pay over $2500. We are done in five minutes, but our taxi has left and there is no way we can call one to pick us up, so we start walking. The walk is about ten minutes in the rain, but in feels good and we are pleased with the beginning process. Next I suggest to Ryan that we stop at the Colon Yacht Club to get our rented lines and tires. Since we are being measured tomorrow we are required to have the lines on board to show we are prepared. We are required to have four, one-hundred and fifty foot lines. Two are for the bow and two for the stern. If we go through the canal by ourselves all these lines will be used to tie up to the cleats on the top of the canal walls. Tires are not required, but recommended so we decide to rent fourteen. Tires are three dollars each. The lines are rented for $60 with a $60 deposit refunded when the lines are returned. Since we don’t know where to get the lines we stop off at the bank to ask. I didn’t explain this part very well to Ryan so he is frustrated with me as we question the bank teller. He tells me to talk and figure it out. I do and we did. After leaving he explains his frustration to me as he did not know why the bank would know where to get the tires and lines. I apologize to him and tell him that that bank is the one and only authority of all the money being transferred by all the vessels going through the canal. Hundreds of millions of dollars a day. We grab a taxi and arrive at the Yacht Club in a matter of minutes. Taxi’s in Colon are about one dollar each. They are readily available. Some have air condition and some do not. Some have seat belts and some do not. Some have safe drives and some do not. Some have nice respectable drives and some are down right scary. We luckily have had a/c, seat belts and safe, nice drives. We find Noldo on the dinghy dock and Ryan proceeds to talk with him about our needs. Noldo speaks little English so he calls Tito over to translate. We get fourteen tires and four dummy lines. The lines will be traded to proper transit lines two days before we transit. Tito has agreed to take us back to our marina, but he can only fit the lines and nine tires in his car. This we find out after we make arrangements for him to pick us back up at the grocery store an hour later while he loads up his car and we shop. He drives us back and then he returns to the Yacht Club where he picks up five more tires then meets our bus at 4pm and sets the tires on the roof for transport. The dummy lines are on board the tires are stacked on the dock by Emelia and Gene and Ryan measure Emelia to see how much we should expect to pay. If we are over fifty feet it will not be by much. If so, we plan to remove the wind vane. The measurement is just under fifty feet and I see that our anchor hangs over by just a few inches. If we remove the anchor we are sure to be under fifty feet so our plan is to remove it if needed. The following day the Ad measurer arrives on time. We are floored as we have heard horror stories of long waits and rude people, but so far this has not been the case for Ryan. Emelia measures at forty-nine feet nine inches. Amazing! We make it at the low price of $600. Ryan’s next step is to pay the bank. Unfortunately the bank closes at 2pm so we are to late to go today as the bus does not leave until 1:30 and tomorrow is a holiday and the bank is closed. This means a wait of four days and right now time slots seem to be fourteen days after payment. This is great because our ideal date is Monday April 23. I won’t be around as I have planned a trip to the states so we agree that Gene will go with Ryan Monday morning to pay the bank. Ryan has been asked to be a line handler for one of the boats in the marina. This is a great opportunity for him, but the transit date is Monday afternoon and he has to go to the bank Monday morning. The owners really want him to go so they have agreed to pay for his taxi ride back from the bank to make sure he is on time for the transit. Gene and I talk and agree that he should give Ryan a choice to go to the bank or to rest to get ready for the transit and insure nothing will happen as he really wants to transit with them. Monday morning Gene arrived at the bank and he paid the fees. All goes smoothly and he is told to call the Transit Authority after 6pm to get our transit date. Gene calls at 6pm and to our absolute surprise and amazement we get Monday April 23 5pm transit. Yahoo!!! At this point everything is done. Upon my return Ryan and I will begin the ending process of our transit.

3/18/2007

Sunday April 18 at 6am the day before Evan and I left for Nashville Gene, Ryan, Evan, and I met up with Ian, M.J., Emma, Jack, Jackie, Tyler, Austin, Katarina, Max, Kendall and Quincy for a twelve mile hike through the jungle. It was still a little dark outside and high up in the trees I saw my first sloth. We all sat there in wonder over this strange, slow creature. We could see it in the distance as his arm moved across its face, but we couldn’t see any color and really we couldn’t tell if it was male or female. We then wondered what would happen if it was given speed. Think about it...a sloth on speed. It takes it ten minutes to walk across the path were on. Hikers are told if they see a sloth crossing the road they should help it across so it does not get run over by a car. This is done by handing the sloth a stick. The sloth grabs on and the hiker carries the sloth across the road. The stick is highly recommended because sloth’s are slimy and carry many bugs and small animals in their fur. We continue our hike and see many monkeys, beautiful colorful birds and hundred foot trees that were about thirty feet wide. The ground was wet from the hard rains from the evening before so our shoes were full of red clay, but we were enjoying the exercise and the cool rain. The kids left us in the dust and made to Fort Sherman way ahead of us. By the time we arrived they were on their way back. Ian, M.J., Jack, Jackie, Gene and I sat under a shade tree and had a snack as we looked out into the distance of the Chagres River. This is the river that feeds the Panama Canal lock system. The area is gorgeous. Jungle and forest for miles around. The fort is very well maintained with views of the ocean. It’s easy to see why this area was under attack so often. It seems no one was able to keep the fort safe as it was overtaken and destroyed three times. Our hike back was just a beautiful, but a little more humid as it was almost noon before we returned.

Evan and I went to Nashville. He had a great time with his friends. Unfortunately things were not what I expected at home so that was a little trying. Donnel my business partner is doing well and I saw everyone I could in the short time is was there. We then went to California to see my mom. We had a great time there. To many IN-N-Out Burgers and way to much shopping. My mom is doing well and I was so very happy to see her. She made sate’ dinner and Helen, Johnny, Lindsey, Bryant, Ozzy, Margie and Jeremy all showed up. My mom is a hoot. She is so much fun. She was having a great time....Evan and I left after our short six day visit to my mom waving good bye from her drive way. I miss her a lot.

Here’s the thing. You would think in all my travels I would know at least a little about geography. But as Gene says I went to school in California and I can’t seem to get a grasp on the way the world is laid out. So, when I found out my mom had broke her wrist I decide since we will be in Panama it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to California. Not! My thought was that the canal was right below California. Not! I also thought the Panama airport was just minutes from our marina. Not! The canal is below Florida and the airport is over two hours away. Soooo, my planned trip to see my mom ended up being a whirl win tour of Panama and the United States. I’m getting a little better at geography and we now have a map hanging on the main wall of our saloon. I am sitting here now looking at it and see my great mistake. The canal is clearly almost directly below Florida. The other thing the map shows is that we are not on the eastern side of the canal. In fact, once we get on the Panama City side we will actually be farther east then we are on the Colon side which is considered east. Maybe north would be better. Or the Caribbean Sea or the Atlantic side. See may dilemma in all this geography. It’s mind boggling to me to think that some people know all the countries, capitals, flags and governments. What really amazes me is that Emma on Sea Star had geography books sent to my moms for me to deliver to her upon my return. She is twelve and teaching herself all about the world. She hopes to be in a geography bee or at least beat her good friend Jesse at geography. I’m just happy to know that when we get to the other side we will be in the Pacific Ocean. This is brand new sailing territory for us, but also the ocean I grew up by. Hanging out at Hunting Beach between the pier and life guard #1 watching the cute surfers surf the big waves.

Gene also flew to Nashville, but on different days. This allowed Ryan much needed time alone. He had a wonderful time just hanging out, jogging and having quite time.

4/20/2007

Upon my return we changed the dummy lines to transit lines, tied the tires on the sides of Emelia, went grocery shopping and stored everything for the passage. Thursday night we called to make sure our date had not been changed. It had not. Sunday morning we called to make sure or date had not been changed. It had not. Monday at 1pm we called to make sure our date had not been changed. It had not. At 1:15 the port authority haled us on channel 7 with a time of 5:45 to be in the flats to pick up our advisor. Our date had not been changed. Yahoo!!!! This was absolutely surprising for everyone we talked to had problems or date changes. Our experience so far has been nothing but GREAT! As a boat in transit we will have an advisor on board. He/she is responsible for our crossing, being on time to the locks, and making sure everything runs smoothly. Our responsibly to the advisor is to have fresh sealed bottled water and feed him/her dinner, breakfast, lunch and snakes. Not only is the advisor on board, but we had to find at least one more person to be a line handler. Four line handlers are required in case your vessel goes through the canal alone there is one person at each line. We asked Bill and Katarina to join us as they were not going through this year. They gladly excepted and our crew was complete. For me the preparing of the meals was the most stressful, because I was responsible to make food for seven and we heard stories of the advisor not liking what was cooked and had a meal brought in and charged to the boat in transit. Oh, I forgot to mention. Not only did we pay $600, but we also had to pay a deposit of $850 just in case something went wrong. I.e. The advisor wants a different meal. This money is returned about six weeks after the transit is complete.

4/23/2007

We left Shelter Bay Marina with great fan fare as Barbara Ann waved good bye. Gene backed to far into a vacant catamaran slip and ran aground. Luckily we have bow thruster and we were off in a matter of seconds. Jack wanted us to change our date to Wednesday the twenty-fifth as that is the date they go through, but Gene was not willing to do so. His thought was that all along we wanted the twenty-third and we got it so we shouldn’t change. Also, our windlass parts were on the Panama City side and we wanted to get that fixed to insure we were ready to leave for the Galapagos by the end of the month. We motored to the flats and arrived by 4:45. We passed huge ships at anchor waiting for their transit time. We circled the anchorage for well over an hour as our advisor was not on our boat until 6:15 because our transit time was pushed back to wait for one of the big ships to transit with us. The ninety foot power boat “Sea Fever” was pushed back from 4:30 to 7pm. Our Advisor’s name is Roy and we find him to be very pleasant (even though he just got done on an earlier shift and has been working since 4:30am), knowledgeable (twenty-two years of experience and in a management position) and easy going. Sandwiches will be fine with him, but I tell him I’ve made chicken casserole and he gives a big grin.

4,23,2007

It is slowing turning dark as we head toward the mouth of the first lock. Ryan and Bill have gone through before so they know what to expect. The rest of us don’t so we all sit in awe as we listen to Roy’s instructions. We will raft up to two boats, Eos and Toboggan, they are smaller then us so we will be the control boat in the middle. We slow down just at the mouth of the brightly lit first lock. There is a ship ahead of us getting ready to enter. Eos begins her slow move toward our starboard side to raft up. She will through us their port bow line and stern lines which are attached to their boat. We will through them our two spring lines which are attached mid way on our starboard side. We begin with the bow line. It is thrown to Ryan at mid ship and he walks it to the bow. The stern line is thrown to me and I miss. (I think I closed my eyes.) It is thrown again but it is to short and I miss. (My eyes were open this time). Third time is a charm and I have the stern line attached with Evan’s help. Bill and Katarina hand the springs lines over and we are rafted up. We check our spreaders (Spreaders stick out toward the top of the mast like a cross from port to starboard. They serve to spread out the cables which run from the top of the mast to the deck holding the mast in place.) to make sure they are far enough away from each other so that if the boats rock side to side they won’t get entangled. Next all of our fenders and tires are moved to insure no damage is done to the sides of either boat. Next it is Toboggan’s turn. She comes up to our port side and the same technique is done. Everything runs smoothly and we are rafted up. It is now Gene’s responsibility to steer the boats into the lock. Eos and Toboggan keep their boats in forward gear as Gene keeps Emelia straight with her bow thruster. All three boats move slowly into the lock behind the giant ship. There are two men, lock line handlers, on the edge of each side of the lock. They are there to tie us up to gigantic cleats to keep our boat in line. The man closest to our bow throws a line called a monkey fist to the man on the bow of Eos. His 125 foot line is tied to the starboard side of Eos and he takes the monkey fist and wraps the bitter end of the 125 foot line around the monkey fist. The line handler on the edge of the lock then pulls on the monkey fist line and pulls Eos’s line up to the gigantic cleat. Our first line is tied to the lock. The same thing happens at the stern and then it is Toboggan’s turn to tie up. It is the responsibility of Eos and Toboggan to keep the lines tight and it is Emalia’s responsibility to keep the boats straight with her bow thruster and engine. We met Lars, one of the line handlers on Eos, in Curacao. He is a single hander on a boat named Luna. The owners of Eos will help him go through the canal in two days. Toboggan has paid line handlers, but the one on the bow is not doing his job correctly. This bothers us as the boats are not even in the lock, the bow of Toboggan is to close to the wall and if they hit we will all be in trouble. I asked Roy to get Toboggan’s advisor to get the matter under control and things run smoothly again. Bill explains to me that the bow line handlers should be talking with each other to make sure they stay even, but they are not so he and I watch to make sure things stay ok. The lock wall reads 63 feet deep. This makes Emelia’s mast just under the top of the wall. The massive lock doors shut slowly and we all take pictures as they do so. I laugh and tell everyone if we compared pictures with every other boat that has gone through these locks they would all be the same. It’s impressive as the doors close behind us. We are trapped within a huge enclosure encircled by water. Behind us is the channel, it’s water level still even with our lock. In front of us is another lock. It’s doors hold back tons and tons of water 50 feet above us. The turbines begin to move under Emelia and we see swirls of turbulents all around us. The water level begins to rise and we all have bug eyes. The wall reads 61 feet, 58 feet 50 feet...We move up and we do so very quickly. The wall now reads 30 feet, 27 feet, 20 feet. We continue to go up. We can make out the faces of the lock line handlers now and we can almost see above the lock walls. Wow, this is amazing and to think this was made almost 100 years ago is even more awe inspiring. The wall reads about 5 feet and the turbines have stopped. The lock line handlers release the lines and we are free to move forward as the next lock doors have opened waiting for us to enter. The big ship moves first. We can’t see the doors in front of us as the ship is to wide for us to see around it. Each lock is 1000 feet long and 110 feet wide. Our three rafted up boats are 50 feet long and 40 feet wide. Even though we have 30 feet on either side of us it is still scary to see the walls so close and a ship so massive in front of us. We move easily out of the first lock and head through the doors of the next. The wall reads 60 feet of depth and 950 feet at length at our stern. With this length we are just 60 feet from the closing doors. The monkey fists are thrown again, they land on each boat and the boat line handlers tie up and the lock line handlers haul them up. We are tied to the lock walls again and the doors start to close. Again we watch in awe as we realize that we are again surrounded by so much water with no control of our own. The turbines start again and we move up easily. No worries. We look for the camera, but we’re not sure if we are spotted on it. We hope so as we are doing a dance on the bow. We rise again to about 5 feet and the doors open and we are off again to the last lock of the evening. Everything runs smoothly. We have only 40 feet to move up in this lock and we all feel like old pros. Its’ nearing 9pm and dinner is in the oven. We’re all very hungry and can’t wait to go through this lock as we will all eat together once we are through. The water rises and I’m making a salad down below in the galley. I happen to look out the port hole and to my surprise everything looks different from this perspective. The wall looks closer, more ominous and darker. Green, black and brown slime are visible and scratches from big ships mark the wall. I’m use to seeing water, sky and light from this port light and it freaks me out a little to realize where we are. I’m climb on deck and start laughing. Everyone thinks I’m crazy. The last lock for the night is complete and the big ship moves through the open doors. The ship will continue on it’s way to the next three locks, we on the other hand, will not. It is our turn to move out of the locks. We are still rafted up and as we pass by the doors we see tunnels and bridges for passage to those on shore. We have passed the lock system and we are in Gatun Lake. It is time to unraft. We do the rafting procedure backwards and Eos unrafts first. No problems. Toboggan was next and for some reason their advisor took the wheel. This is not protocol, but we think he felt like he had not done enough when going through the canal as we were the control boat and our advisor was the one in command. So we think he wanted to show off and show us what he knew. Unfortunately, he didn’t know enough and almost ran into our bow. It was the stupidest maneuver of the evening. The lines were released and he should have turned the wheel to port, but instead he kept turning to starboard as we turned to starboard and every second he continued to get closer as he had the boat at almost full throttle. Luckily Ryan and Bill were at the bow and the fended Toboggan off. He would have taken out our bow lights had we hit. If we had it would have been the Panama Authority’s fault and we would have filed a claim. If it were our boat and the advisor wanted to take the helm we would have said no, but definitely if we had let him and he pulled this stunt we would have taken the wheel. Dinner is served and we all eat together. It has been a long night and an exciting night and we are all very tired. As we eat we continue on to the mooring buoys‘ and talk about our passage and about Roy’s job. Just a few minutes later we see a catamaran already tied up. We head over to the other mooring buoy where Eos is tided. A couple of them are standing on the mooring buoy ready to help us tie up. This is the strangest buoy we have seen. It is about 8 feet in diameter, red plastic outside and cement with a huge cleat in the middle. The plan is to tie up spring lines then tie a bow and stern line to Eos. This goes rather smoothly, but there are to many people trying to do the same thing, so Ryan jumps on the buoy and takes over our boat lines. This makes matter easier and we get situated. Roy has his bag packed and the pilot boat is ready to pick him up. He says he would like to try to change his schedule so he can go with us again in the morning. We encourage him by saying we would love it and telling him what will be served for meals tomorrow. He says he will try, but none of us think it will happen as he has been up since 4am and he won’t be home until midnight. There’s no way he’ll be up again at 4am to do it with us. We’re hopeful, he signs our boat book and we wish him well and thank him for his excellent advice. It’s hot in the lake, so we have the fans set up down below and pillows laid out for everyone to sleep. We are all worn out and asleep by 11pm.

4/24/2007

I heard a big thud last night, but I didn’t get up. At 5:20am it started to rain and Bill and I scramble to close up the boat. He tells me Katarina feel out of bed last night. Hence, the big thud. The rain was not a good thing as it was still hot outside and everyone was still asleep and I had to start breakfast. Bacon, eggs, carrot bran muffins, orange and coffee. This was going to make the boat hotter, but I’m sure we will all be ready to eat soon. Our advisor arrived at 6:15. His name is Ricardo, it’s not Roy again, but we find Ricardo just as pleasant, knowledgeable and very nice. He tells us we will be the control boat again and that we must be at the next set of locks by 11:10am. The next set of locks are about thirty miles away which means we will travel six knots for the next five hours. It continues to rain as we untie the lines from the mooring ball and we all try to get comfortable under the bimini. The channel is only 1000 feet wide and ships pass us on our port as we stay to the starboard side of the channel. The views are gorgeous with small palm tree islands and jungle all around. Every once in a while a small ACP (Authority of the Panama Canal) boat passes by. We find out that these boats are for security purposes to insure that the canal stay safe, but these boats also patrol watching for jumpers from the big ships. Apparently people from Haiti, Cuba and the likes take passage on a big ship as crew and as soon as they arrive in the canal they jump ship, literally, and become refuges of Panama. Our time has been moved up by twenty minutes and we have no problem arriving on time. We raft with Eos and Toboggan again, but this time we have them switch sides as yesterday both boats exhaust pipes were next to Emelia and we were being killed by the fumes in the cockpit. Sea Fever is already in the lock at the opening, Moon and Stars is tied up behind them and our raft goes in next. We are told we are to wait a few minutes because a tour boat will be going down with us. The locks close, but the tour boat is not yet in. The monkey fist is thrown again and we tie up with ease. We continue to wait, we see the boat arrive and the lock doors open and the tour boat enters, ties up to the side of the wall with crowds of tourist standing shoulder to shoulder on the decks. The rain has stops just as the lock doors close again and we see the wall is at five feet. We are to go down in the next three locks as we descend to reach the Pacific. The turbines start up and the turbulent pull our rafted boats side to side. The line handlers have to let the line out as we go down and they must do so evenly. Things seem to be running smoothly for all the boats and again we sit and watch in awe. When all is complete in the first lock the wall reads 60 feet. We watch the lock doors open in front of us and realize there is a wall of water behind the previous lock 60 feet above us. The lock doors are thick, but we still wonder what would happen if the doors broke. We also see water coming out of some of the holes in the wall and Bill and I joke in wonder of the Dutch boy holding the dike at bay with his thumb. We pass by the open doors and see the thickness of the walls. Massive amounts of concrete are used to keep the walls in place. The builders of the canal made the walls so thick that the lock doors when open sit recessed in the walls. We get to our spot in line and the monkey fist is thrown again. We travel another 60 feet down with no incident. Our only complaint is the noise from the advisor on Toboggan. He is talking to the advisor on Eos and neither one is paying attention. Our advisor ignores them and continues to talk with Gene and give advice on the on going progress of our transit. The loud advisor sees my Keens and really likes them. I decide I may be able to quiet him down by giving him my spring catalog. This helps for about 20 minutes until he is done and starts screaming to the other advisor about how great these shoes are. I pass the catalog over to the other advisor and the advisors are quite for another 15 minutes. They begin to yell again so I sit between them in hopes of being in the way of their view. This doesn’t help they just talk louder. We move to the bow of Emelia and Ricardo and Gene talk quietly at the helm. We’re through the second lock of the day. We have to travel for a few minutes to enter the third of the day or sixth lock all together and again the monkey fist is thrown and we are tied up. We spot the webcam and try to get in view. It is at a strange angle and we aren’t sure we can be seen, but Eos waves their flag while we do a dance on the bow. It seems none of the other boats see or realize the camera is there and they all watch and take pictures of us as we make fouls of ourselves. We’re having a great time and everything is going great. Katarina made brownies and it is time to get them from the oven. As I stand in the galley the wall comes down around me. Wow, it is so such a sight to know we are here. The canal is one of the wonders of the world not many people get to experience, yet here we are right in it. Everyone is on deck and the brownies have been served. The lock doors open and we all give a cheer and bite our brownies. We are on the Pacific side in the Pacific Ocean miles from the Atlantic Ocean, a whole new experience in darker colder water, but in the water all the same. We unraft from our new friends and they head toward an anchorage while we head toward the marina. Ricardo will stay with us for some time as he is not to leave the boat until we pass buoy number eight. We pass buoy fourteen and a half. This we find very unusually as none of us has ever seen a half buoy. We look in the distance to see if we see any boats that are familiar as this too is where many boats anchor, but we see none. Ricardo departs, but not before he signs our boat book and gives us his home number. We arrive at our marina and sadly say goodbye to Bill and Katarina. They head back to Colon to their boat where they will start their journey back to North Carolina. They plan to spend the summer there taking care of personal business with hopes of sailing off by winter. We hope to see them again in the very near future. Bill is a lot of fun and Katarina is one of those kids that everyone seems to like. The experience of going through the locks is one I will not forget. To have traveled such a distance with my children and given them the opportunity to experience a site such as this, one that not many people get to see, over mountains in a small sail boat just yards away from major ships is a wonder to behold.

4/25/2007

Sadly we missed Sea Star yesterday. Apparently they were in the anchorage by buoy fourteen and a half and we missed them. They tried to hail us and email us but we got their message to late and we were just to tied to get up. The three of them left for Hawaii today on their thirty five foot sail boat, which they believe will take them about forty days. Forty days!!! There is no way. I’m freaking out over twenty days. I can’t image what we’ll do on a forty eight foot boat during that time, but our thoughts are with them and we hope to hear from them on email every few days. We are all resting and really doing nothing today. Our windlass should be delivered tomorrow so Gene will start on this new project then. I’ll start provisioning food to last us five months. This will be a little more difficult then provisioning in the states as we are not sure what we will find in the grocery stores and we know that we won’t find much out their in our travels until we get to New Zealand. We hear even fresh fruits and vegetable will be hard to come by, so more canned food will be on board. The catch here is that when we reach New Zealand they will confiscate all of our food. All of it! We want to make sure we have enough, but we don’t want to have so much that when it is taken it is very costly to us. I will say though that I think we have enough Cruzan Coconut Rum and Mount Gay Rum to last us until we get there and I know there will be none when we arrive. By the way, the Cruzan is for me and Gene actually drinks Mount Gay and Coke every so often. Ok, every so often has become whenever he is doing a frustrating, time consuming, knuckle bruising project. And that my friends, seems to be very often. The windlass isn’t in, but Gene is taking the old windlass off in anticipation of getting the new one and he made a call to the States and find out that it is sitting and has been sitting at the Panama International Airport since yesterday afternoon and the shipping company sent it C.O.D. What? Cash on delivery, are they crazy? We paid over $600 to have it delivered to the marina, not to mention that we are paying $85 a day to dock at the marina and the shipping company said they wouldn’t send it unless we had a physical address, a marina where we and the boat will be. I’m letting Gene handle this one for now. In the mean time, Ryan, Evan and I go to what we have heard is the best mall in Panama City. Lisa, on the boat Vivid, who I meet yesterday asked me to do a trade at one of the shops at the mall and to my surprise it is a Champ’s store. Maybe the mall won’t be so bad. Vivid is a ninety foot sailing vessel whose owners meet up with Tim, the Captain, Gordon, the Chef and Lisa, Crew every few weeks. We arrive at Perimeter Mall and to our great surprise it is huge, clean and has almost everything we can image. Evan and I have been to the States, so shopping is not that big of a deal right now. But, Ryan hasn’t been shopping in over six months, and he is happy to see so much stuff. He is looking for several things, so I go off shopping by myself while Ryan and Evan shop together. They want a small T.V. to play game cube on and Ryan wants caprice pants, board shorts and a rash guard shirt. We meet up an hour later and have lunch on the third floor. We stay together now so I can pay for all their finds. Four hours later we’re off to Riba Smith Grocery store. It is great. It has everything we will need, but we decide not to shop for much as we don’t have a big taxi to get us back. We’ll plan to shop there another day as I think about what the bill will be for this store. Gene has had no real progress in getting the windlass delivered so I get on the phone and try my luck.

4/26/2007

We went to Price Smart today. It’s like a Costco with many American brands. Our taxi drive, Rubio dropped us off and will pick us up again by 10:30, but unbeknownst to us we arrived an hour before the store opened and we will have just thirty minutes to shop before he is back to pick us up. We found an Office Depot so we hung out there for a while and got on the internet and ate a candy bar. Rubio arrives on time and there is no way I am done. We ask him to stay with us as I have only filled one cart and I am beginning on my second. Soon I am on my third and Rubio pushes this cart. Almost $800 later and we are done, but not before I am asked for my membership card. Are you kidding? I was not told about this and no one asked for one upon our entry. Luckily I had a copy of my passport as their policy is those with foreign passports shop for twenty-four hours without buying a membership. That’s good for me and for them as I see no one else in line with the amount of purchase we have. We arrive back at the marina only to find out there are no carts to get our groceries down to our boat. The tides here are enormous. They change as much as thirty feet and right now the tide is down so much that the ramp from the street to the dock is at a very steep angle. A couple of dock hands carry our groceries to a waiting dinghy and dinghy our groceries to our boat. This seems to work and everything is down below. Now is the task of storing all of it and I’ve only bought about a third of what we’ll need. It’s passed three o’clock, but I start making phone calls again to find out about the windlass. After several hours on the phone we have figured out how to get the windlass delivered to us tomorrow morning by 10am. The delivery charge has been taken off of our charge card. We will pay the driver upon delivery just under $600, but it can’t be cash as Panama City is very, very, very,....(I could go on with very for ever.) dangerous. It really is and although we haven’t experienced anything as of yet, we’ve been told to get a taxi driver that speaks both Spanish and English as he may save our lives in certain situations. I’ll pick up a cashier’s check tomorrow morning. Barbara Ann arrived today. They are at the slip next to us and they too had a great time going through the canal. Barbara Ann, along with Jackie’s brother in law Greg who came in to help with the canal transit, and us went to a great restaurant tonight. Ryan, Evan and I shared the best seafood casserole while Gene ate fresh, whole grilled fish. Total cost for our meals $30.

4/27/2007

Rubio picked us up today at 8:30am to go to the bank to get the cashier’s check. Little does he know we are carrying $600 cash on hand. We arrive at the bank and find out that it is government pay day, so the line is out the door. I make Gene stand in line while I try to make my way to the front to ask questions. I’m able to finagle my way in to see a desk worker and get the cashier’s check paper work started. But to my dismay I find out I have to get back in line to process it. This is where Rubio comes in very handy. It seems that Panama takes very kindly to their retirees and has a special line in the bank just for them. Rubio walks us to this line and there is no one in it. We spend a total of twenty minutes in the bank which I’m sure would have taken several hours without this courtesy. We have time to stop at the flag store to order courtesy flags for the countries we will travel to. They are hand made at this shop and each costs about $15. We ordered six and they will be ready in a few days. We returned to the marina. Rubio waits while I fax a copy of the cashier’s check to the delivery company, then call them to confirm delivery. The windlass is on it’s way. Jackie, Austin, Ryan and I pile into Rubio’s car and we are off for more grocery shopping. We dropped our laundry off at the laundry mat. The cost is just $3 a load. Wash, dry, detergent, bleach and fold. What a deal! We found a sailing rig for the walker bay today, but confirmation of a delivery is in question. We shop at Rey’s and at Super 99 Grocery stores and $700 later I’m three-fourth done. We’re back to pick up our laundry and it is done well. It’s now time to store everything again. The windlass arrived and Gene has almost finished installing it. The brass is shiny and new and we all agree it shouldn’t be used because it is just so pretty. As a reward for Gene’s hard work we go out to dinner again. This time we find an Italian restaurant and again it is delicious. Gene had clam pasta, Evan had a mixed pizza and Ryan had a Panini. I ate from everyone’s plate and had a good helping of fresh made bread and Fuji water. Cost this evening $25. Such a deal.

4/28/2007

Jackie, Austin, Ryan and I went to Riba Smith Grocery today. This is by far the best grocery store in town. Jackie was beside herself. Ryan and I were laughing at her the whole time. She is very worried about not having enough snacks and Ryan and I come to the chip isle and discover they carry the chips she has been looking for. But, before she arrive in the isle Ryan has them all in our cart. The thing is we don’t eat these chips, but Ryan thought it would be funny to take them all and stand there as Jackie realizes she missed out. Jackie sees Ryan’s smile and she starts taking the chips out of our cart. Two workers start to laugh and then get very serious faces. I do nothing to stop them and stand and laugh at their antics. Jackie buys them all. At one point she declared and I quote, “THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!!”. Ryan and I lost it. We couldn’t stop laughing. She actually said that a grocery store and the food they carry is beautiful. Our grocery shopping is almost complete. The only thing needed now is refrigerated foods, which we won’t buy until the day before we leave. Gene has finished the windlass and it looks and works fantastically.

4/29/2007

We get to leave the marina today and we are so happy about this. We’ve been at a marina(Colon, & Panama City) now for one month and we don’t like it. We anchor just outside the marina and it feels so good to be on the hook. Dinner is made, scrabble is played, everything is working and everyone is happy.

4/30/2007

It’s been confirmed. We can get Ryan’s sails by Wednesday or Thursday, so we will stay on the hook and finish projects and wait until it’s arrival. Ryan is excited to know he will have a sailing rig and he helps with the cost of the purchase. We went to dinner with Barbara Ann again and found a Mexican restaurant which was equally good. When we returned I went to bed and read Anthem while Gene, Ryan and Evan watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and laughed so hard I had a hard time reading.

5/1/2007

More shopping today as we have decided that Gene hasn’t done enough and we find projects for him to do while we wait. He is making a shelf in Ryan’s room, a board to hold all the extra gas, diesel and water jugs and we will buy a tarp to go over the entire boat while at anchor to keep us cool and dry. We bought a 20x30 tarp and it is way to big. We can’t even handle it on the boat, so we had to take go back to shore to fold it. I’ll return it tomorrow and get two smaller ones.

5/2/2007

I’m off to exchange the tarp, stop by to see the progress of the delivery of Ryan’s sail and get the last of our food supplies. I have two big soft coolers which I will fill with ice to carry everything back to the boat as it will take me about an hour to taxi and dinghy the groceries their. The taxi driver I have today speaks about as much English as I speak Spanish. We learn each others names, we see an accident and in Spanish he says what it is. I repeat it in Spanish then say it in English. This goes on with several words and our communication skills are building. As we come to a stop light there is an absolutely, gorgeously beautiful women standing on the side of the road waiting for a bus. I say pretty. Oscar doesn’t understand. I point to the women and say beautiful. He says, yes beautiful and proceeds to tell me how to say beautiful in Spanish. I repeat it back to him. Then he holds up his hands, turns them toward his chest (I’m about to have a cultural experience here) and opens and closes his hands in a jest of squishing a women’s breast. Then he says, “La teta beautiful.” I was beside myself. I turned my head and started laughing. I couldn’t talk and I forgot how to say beautiful in Spanish and I wasn’t about to ask how to say it again. At 2pm I stopped by again to see the progress of Ryan’s sail. I found out it is still in Illinois with no guarantee of delivery. The funny thing is that not only this delivery, but the windlass as well, was not the fault of anyone in Panama, but the fault of those in the states. It’s driving me absolutely batty. Everything is stored. The new 16x20 tarp is up. It’s a little noisy, but I saved so much in time knowing I don’t have to make it and the cost was just $28 as apposed to $300. Emelia is ready to go. We have dinner out again. Sushi tonight. This is getting bad. We shouldn’t being eating out so much, but we’re all so busy and we know there will be no going out again until New Zealand. I’m looking forward to heading out again. I love sitting at anchor, spending time with Ryan and Evan, relaxing and just enjoying the quiet scenery and not spend money. We’ll wait one more day for Ryan’s sail. I’m so hoping it will be in as I know how much he wants it, but Gene doesn’t want to wait any longer.

5,3,2007

Ryan’s sail is not yet in. In fact it is in Illinois right now. The owner of the company can not guarantee a delivery with DHL, but can guarantee delivery with Fed Ex by Monday. I told him we won’t wait. Send it DHL if it comes we will pay for it. If it does not he’ll pay for it. I told him we will not wait passed Saturday.

5,4,2007

Ryan’s sail has gone from Illinois to Miami and is now sitting in Guatemala airport with hopes of it getting to Panama City on this evenings flight. If so, Arturo will pick it up from customs Saturday at 10am and deliver it to us at the dinghy dock. We went to the mall again today. This time we had an adventurous taxi driver. He, instead of driving us around the slums, drove us right through the them. We all had our seat belts on and about three fourths through the slums our taxi driver was cut off by another taxi driver. He quietly with grace removed his seat belt. Gene and I were well aware of this fact, but we weren’t sure what we should do. We kept our belts on and our eyes open. By the time we reached the end the taxi driver put his belt back on. Gene was nervous and said if our driver could understand English he would ask what that was all about. The taxi driver sensing our concern said, bad neighborhood I know many people there and I don’t like them. I was getting ready. Well shoot what were we going to do? Jump out and run? To where? Ryan and Evan were with us. I couldn’t believe it. I had over $500 cash on me. Help!! We made it out alive, and have agreed that we do whatever our taxi driver does and we’re also going to tell our future taxi drivers no slum driving. When we arrived at the mall we meet up with Barbara Ann and Ryan, Evan, Jack, Austin and Tyler went to the movies and watched Spider Man 3. They said it was awful. Jackie and I got our hair cut off. Way, way short. As Gene, Jackie and I walked around I noticed another cultural experience. Men in Panama grab their crotches with no thought of who’s watching. I started counting the number of men who did this and in a matter of thirty minutes I counted ten. Gene thinks that since it is so much hotter here the men grow bigger. I’m not convinced. We had cinnabuns and then I had a message. Wow, did it feel good. We got a taxi driver and had a non-adventurous drive back to the boat.

5,5,2007

Ryan’s sail is in Panama City. Arturo went to pick it up this morning from customs and the new customs official didn’t believe him that the sail was for a boat in transit. So at 11:45 we dinghied to the dock with all of our ships papers to meet the customs guy to prove it is for us. The thing here is that our papers were outdated. We were suppose to leave Panama City Tuesday and it is now Saturday. We waited almost two hours for the customs guy to show. I pulled out our papers of which he did not look at and then we were told he has to watch us put the sail on the dinghy and take it to our boat. He also said this has to be completed within thirty minutes or he will charge Arturo overtime. We’ll since we weren’t at our dock the customs guy mad that he had to drive elsewhere jumped into the DHL truck while we jumped into Arturo’s car and off we went to our dock. Now remember, the customs guy never looked at our ship papers and now that we are at the dock he didn’t watch us put it into the dinghy. Instead he drove away. Go figure? Two hours of our time, four hours of Arturo’s and DHL’s time, not to mention the custom guys time. We couldn’t figure it out, but we have the sail and we are off tomorrow morning to Las Perlas Islands. Ryan set up the Walker Bay and had a great time sailing around the anchorage.

5,6,2007

We have finally left Panama and we are off to Las Perlas. Apparently this is where one of the Survivor seasons took place and Barbara Ann’s crew has watched every season, so they are exited to explore. It is beautiful and we tuck away in a small cove in water about 9 feet deep. We all jump off the boat and Gene, Ryan and Evan swim to shore. It feels good to be in clean water again. It is not as clear as the Atlantic, but I’m told as we get to the Marquesas it will be clear again. At 10pm Gene noticed that the water level under us has changed to 6.8 feet. We need 6.7 feet to stay off the ground. He decided to move the boat, but there is a huge rain and lightening storm as we do so. We find ten feet of water and drop anchor again. An hour later we have to move again is the water has dropped to seven feet. We move again to fifteen feet of water, but we move cautiously as there is a big rock somewhere in the middle of the channel and we can’t see it. The anchor is set and we all go to bed. In the morning we find we now have twenty three feet of water. The tide has risen, but it will go down again shortly. There was another boat anchored by shore and he is hard aground. However, he doesn’t need help as he has decided to clean the bottom of his boat and wait for the tide to rise again and sail out.

5/7,10/2007

We left for the Galapagos today about 2pm with Barbara Ann not far behind. We have no wind so we are motoring. We’ll head south-west and go at least 75 miles above Moleta Island keeping it well off starboard. Moleta Island is known for it’s piracy. At little scary, but if we stay together and stay far enough away we should be ok. We’ll pass this island in about three days. Barbara Ann’s autopilot broke today, so we are changing course. We will head south and keep Moleta Island at least 75 miles off our port. The only thing is not only do we have to watch out on our port for Moleta, but now we have to watch on our starboard for Columbia as we will skirt the coast to make sure Barbara Ann is ok while they hand steer for the next five days. We passed Moleta without incident and everything is fine, but Barbara Ann is closer to shore then we are as they will stop in Ecuador to do repairs. Since they are closer to shore they see small fishing vessel and at 3am they had a little scare. A small boat pulled up next to them and circled them a few times. Then turned off their lights and Barbara Ann lost sight of them. Later it happened again with an other vessel circling them. We think what happened is that they got to close to the vessels fishing area and the vessel were trying to worn them to stay out of the area. We on the other hand are out pretty far, but we turned off our running lights so that if any pirates are out there they will not see us at a distance. We were fine, but a little rattled as we continued to check in with Barbara Ann.

5/11/2007

It is Gene’s 57^th Birthday today and I have made brownies and we will get to the Equator today about 6pm. We have no gifts for him to open as this boat trip is his birthday present, father’s day present, Christmas present and more for all his days to come. It is a little before 6pm and we just finished playing scrabble. We made a scrabble board for our equator crossing and brownies are hot and have been served to toast our GPS reading of 00.00. Wow! That was amazing. 6:05pm The GPS went from N 00.00 to S 00.00 in a matter of a second. I yelled and screamed and Ryan and Evan rolled their eyes. What fun, we are in the southern hemisphere. Now our compass course will read differently. I thought at the equator it would be very hot, but we are in warm weather clothes as it has gotten chilly. Barbara Ann crossed a few hours before us and is now heading to Ecuador. We have made our turn right to the Galapagos and it will take us about four days more before we arrive. Barbara Ann will catch up to us in the Galapagos or Marquises.

5/13/2007

We’ve had pleasant weather expect for last night. The winds clocked to 35 miles an hour and Gene was up all night on watch. He was worried something may happen, so he wanted to be available immediately. Turns out he did every ones watch and at about 3am he saw what he thought was an oil tanker. He had me call the ship, Oil Tanker, Oil Tanker, this is Emelia...to let them know we were out here and to let them know we wanted to pass port to port. It turned out to be a huge fishing boat with lots of nets trailing behind. Luckily we were in front of it and we were able to pass it port to bow. The fishing boat flashed it’s lights to let us know it knew we were out here, but it did not come on the radio. The only way we figured out what it was and what way it was heading was by the large number of birds following it in the dark. Now it is morning and we are not far from the Galapagos and we are in fog. Fog and cold weather. Just Great! We can’t see to the horizon, but we can see some distance, so we are keeping our eyes and ears open. By 9am it has cleared off and we can see one of the islands. We arrived at Santa Cruz by mid-afternoon and to our great surprise we saw Vivid, Mary Constance, Wakaleee and Buuvier. We are greeted and helped to anchor by Silver Girl and we set anchor next to Mary Constance with Wakalele just to their right. Bart from Buvier came over and helped set our steer anchor. The boat was already clean and everything was stowed away, so Gene and I called an agua taxi and headed to shore. We ran into Lisa and Gordon fromVivid and walked to a few stores with them.

5/15,24/2207

We hired an advisor this morning. His name is Ricardo and he will check us in at customs & immigration, check us out when we are ready to leave, arrange fuel, water & laundry service and give advice as needed. His service is $150. We paid $60 to have the boat fumigated, but he recommends not having it done, instead just to get the certificate because it is very toxic to our food. This certificate is good also for the Marquises. We paid $245 for a harbor pass and $30 for immigration. There is a $100 per person one time fee if you tour any of the other islands which is paid to your travel agent. This can be avoided, but the fine is quite large if the Galapagos Park Police catch you without it. We arranged two tour boat cruises with a travel agent. One will take us to North Seymour, cost is $70 per person, where we will see birds in all stages of life and the other will take us to Bartelome, cost is $85 per person, which is suppose to be the most beautiful of the islands and very different in looks as it is all volcanic. We also arranged to take a small tour with Felix on his boat Rey de Reyes, cost is $25 per person, to see seals, sea lions, sea iguana and sharks.

Felix picked us up at 11am along with Paul and Julian from the boat Dartanian. We had snacks, drinks and snorkel gear packed and we were wearing our wet suits. It took just a few minutes to motor over to Isla Coamano a small island just outside the harbor. The sea lions were posing on the rocks and the seals were frolicking in the current just near shore. Evan, Ryan, Gene and Paul jumped in and Julian and I slowly slid into the water as it was take you breath away cold. Evan swam right up to the seals and they played with him and they let him pet them. Ryan had his under water camera and took several pictures of this absolutely amazing sight. Although the seals never allowed any of the rest of us to get close enough to touch them, they took to Evan and allowed him stay close to the rocks with them for well over the thirty minutes we were in the water and seemed to watch him to make sure the currents didn‘t pull him over the rocks. Next we motored over to a small cove with a high black wall of lava rock. Everyone jumped in and started up the cove. Julian and I took our time as this is where the sharks were suppose to be and we were a little nervous and wanted Gene and Paul to check it out, but they swam up the cove and left us out of sight. Julian grabbed a wake board and we went off into the cove. The entrance was narrow and the current was strong, but once we were inside the water warmed and the current ebbed. We swam in for ten minutes and then we were greeted by Evan as he showed the way to the sleeping sharks. There were three of them and I couldn’t believe I was in the water with them. They were from six to eight feet long and looked ominous laying at the bottom. I stayed well away from them, but everyone else swam pretty close. We exited the cove, but not before seeing a sea lion laying on the rocks in the sun. He was crashed out and took no notice of us. After swimming we motored over to a small island and walked the well marked trail to the ocean side to see land and sea iguana. The sea iguana were as black as the rocks and we were unable to tell them apart. They laid with their head facing the sun, neck stretched high, breast out and legs strong while they warmed their bodies in the hot sun. They were so still in this pose that they became one with the rock in this camouflaged state. The cactus on the island was none that we have seen before. The young cactus has prickly spikes all up and down its base, but the mature cactus is as hard as tree bark with a beautiful orange, brown texture. With our trip over we thanked Felix for a wonderful day as he dropped us back at our boat.

Today we walked over to Tortuga Bay. This is a free beach walk and all the locals seem to go at least once a week and many go everyday to surf, swim or just jog the trail. We took a taxi for $1 as we weren’t sure where or how far away the entrance was. It took just two minutes to drive over. The park entrance is steep with over fifty high, wide and long rock steps. There is a gate which is open in the morning and closes at 6pm. We had to sign in as we entered. We thought this neat as now there is a record of our time spent here. Little did we know that when we left we had to check out. This we found fascinating as the park ranger will go searching for you if you are not checked out. Some locals on the beach told us of stories of snorkelers drowning in the surf and the ranger finding them. The thirty minute walk down the pink pavers path was so gorgeous. The time and money spent to make this beautiful path is a true sign of the Galapagos and Ecuadorian governments foresight in keeping the place pristine. As we came over the last path hill we could hear the surf and see the water in the distance. The waves were large and the surfers were out. We watched for a few minutes then walked the beach. We noticed past the shore on the right side of the path looked like California, but the left side looked like the sand dunes of North Carolina. The contrast was amazing as Gene remembered as a child playing in the North Carolina scenery and I in the California scenery. Thirty minutes later when we reached the end of the beach and we saw over thirty sea turtles swimming in the surf. Ryan and Evan walked the well marked trail and saw more iguana. To our right was a large swimming cove surrounded by mangrove trees with small sharks swimming at the shore line. Kayak rental was available, but it was a little to late for us to get started. We headed back to the beach and walked the shore line in the cold pacific water. Upon our return to the entrance we checked out and headed to Eat Street.

Eat Street. First all the streets in town are made of pink and brown pavers and the side walks are made of tile, brick or rock. The streets are well marked for cars and bikes. Many families drive motorcycles with two to five people on board. Bikecyclers have a small seat attached to the sissy bar for small children and the taxis are all white Mazda plus cabs trucks to haul both passengers and all of their gear...back packs, surf boards and groceries. Back to Eat Street. We were invited by Mary Constance to join a group of boaters to have dinner at Williams on Eat Street. Now this is not the actual name of the street, but because of the number of restaurants along the road it has taken on the nick name Eat Street. At 6:30pm each night the Galapagos police close off the street to traffic with big orange cones and all the tables are set up in the middle of the road. Because we had a party of 22 our table was quite long. Small kids sat on one end and the adults and teens sat on the other. I had lobster w/ rice and a wonderful butter sauce slightly flavored with coconut. This was the most expensive item at $10. Gene had fish for $5 and Ryan and Evan both had shrimp for $5 each. Soda and water was .50 each so our total meal was $27 and it was delicious. The company we enjoyed and the atmosphere on the street was so much fun that we have decided we’ll definitely go back.

We took a tour to North Seymour today at a cost of $72 per person. We left at 8:45 am, rode a bus across the island and jumped on a large power boat which took us an hour across the ocean to the most amazing sight of an island of many birds. There were Blue Footed Boobies, Frigates, Galapagos Seagulls and Galapagos Doves. They were all in various states of mating, laying eggs and hatching. The Frigate males sat in the open or flew in the sky with their bright red air pockets at the base of their throats ballooned large to attract a mate. Blue Footed Boobie males did a mating dance which they did very near the female while she sat in a nest made on the ground. The male lifted his grey head, bringing his white neck up high, his wings folded and pulled back and his aqua blue feet at an angle (pigeon toed) while making a double whistle sound. The female lay on her nest seeming to basically ignore him until she allows him to advance slowly and move onto the nest. We saw a few Blue Footed Boobies with pink/yellow eggs, a tiny hatchling just a day old with it’s eyes still closed, a hatchling a few weeks old and awkward adolescents with white fluffy down. These birds were not afraid because they are protected in the Galapagos so we were right next to them in their natural state. After leaving the nesting sight we had lunch then headed to shore to snorkel. Gene saw a large sea turtle and across the beach in a small salt water pond we saw bright pink flamingos. Before our tour began Gene thought we would be on with a bunch of old foggies, but it turned out he was the old foggies. When we stepped on the bus we were greeted by one friendly thirteen year old and her four friendly twelve year old classmates. I befriended several of the twelve year old kids from Quito, the capital of Ecuador who were on a four day school field trip with their class of nine and two teachers. They spoke pretty good English and taught me many Spanish words. The one I remember best is Lobo Marino, Sea Lion. I pulled my note book out and together we wrote Spanish words so I can go back to my notes to help me speak better Spanish. When we arrived on the boat they asked me to lay with them in the sun and they told me of their school and where they were from. After our trip they asked me to come to their hotel to visit them. I did and I invited them to come with me to have ice cream. Only three came as the others were not feeling well either from the long boat ride or to much sun. Genesis, Krystel, Nathalia and I walked to the ice cream store then we took the water taxi to Emelia as they were curious to see how we live. I had a wonderful time with my new friends and we exchanged addresses to keep in touch.

Our tour today was to Bartelome at a cost of $85 per person. We left at 5:30 am again rode the bus across the island and jumped on a boat. This time our boat ride was two hours and fifteen minutes and I befriended two girls from Switzerland. I say girls, they were in their early twenties each traveling separately for a year exploring the world. Barbara had been here for a little over two month and is heading to Chile. Sarah has been volunteering at a horse ranch in Quito helping children with disabilities. Upon arriving at the island we were greeted by dolphin and seals swimming near the boat and birds over head. This island is very different from any other of the Galapagos islands. Although the islands were formed by volcanoes, this one stands out and looks like the moon. We slowly approached the shore by dinghy and we’re greeted by eleven small penguins and the brightest black and yellow tip angle fish which we could see at the bottom of the fifteen foot lagoon. Upon shore the sights of the land were fantastic. There was a wooden trail which kept the landscape pristine. There were lava boulders that had blown from the volcano lying sporadically about and sand dunes with colors of browns, reds and greens. We hiked to the top and to our great surprise the scenery was breathtaking. As we looked down the slope of the mountain of colors of red and orange ran right into the black shoreline which ran right into the bright blue water. The water changed shades of blue until it reached the white sandy shore on the next island which was a contrast to where we stood. The island across was flat with two huge but different color boulders in the for ground with an orange peak to the right and a black peak changing to brown at the tip of an old volcano. It was so clear out with no clouds in the sky that the scene almost looked unreal. I stood and stared as my eyes took in what my brain could not image. It was totally and absolutely the perfect picture. Upon leaving the mountain top we were greeted by sea lions at the shore and they lay at our feet and allowed us to touch them. The penguins were still in the water along with several more sea lions and angle fish. Pelicans swooped down to feed and seagulls, scavengers that they are, tried to take the fish from the penguins. We dawned out snorkel gear and swam from shore through lava formations both above and below us. We saw two types of star fish. One was soft yellow with black spikes and the other was red and more than eighteen inch wide. We saw large schools of fish entwined with more schools of fish all swimming and feeding together. Gene swam down to them and they didn’t move out of his way. They just continued to feed on the rocks. We swam around a bend and ended up in a small cove where we found five small Galapagos penguins and swam with them as they zipped through the water. The whole adventure was the best we’ve seen and done. Our trip ended and sadly I had to say goodbye to Barbara and Sarah, but not before getting their contact information. They invited us to meet them in Switzerland next year and we plan to go to a restaurant they raved about. It’s called Blinde Kuh, Zurich translated The Blind Cow of Zurich. It is run by the blind foundation and you literally sit in the dark to experience life without sight. I can’t wait to try it and meet up with them again.

We went walking in town today as we heard of a shoe maker man who also sews. We found him in his shop with the grey door across from Mechanio Geardo and we have commissioned him to make two canvas awnings to both shade us and keep us dry in the rain. He plans to have them ready in two days and has charged us for the cost of materials $250 and his service fee of $60 for the small awning and $90 for the larger one. Although we have a sail rite sewing machine on board there is no way I could make them both in two days and his fee is so small we just can’t beat it. We also went to the marina/hardware store. Gene was so excited. He found everything he needed. The store was better stocked then Panama City. We even found the material for our awnings and confirmed that our shoe maker is not making anything off the cost of materials. I stood outside for several minutes and watched a women dismount her motorcycle, pull a basket wrapped in a large cloth napkin off the back rack, open the cloth and pulled out a the most delicious looking bread. I salivated right there on the side walk. I followed her back in the marina/hardware store and signaled to Gene to look at that bread. She handed it to a man behind the counter and he held the bread out for everyone to taste. It was wonderful. He said she used to own a restaurant on the island, but closed several years ago and now she makes bread and sauces for the locals. I turned around practically running after her. I introduced myself and she said her name is Silvana. I ordered one loaf with plans of her dropping it at the marina/hardware store after 4pm but before 5pm today and I got her number to insure I could order more at a later date. We went walking again and at a quarter to five we arrived back at the marina/hardware store and the girls behind the counter were waiting for us to arrive. They were very excited to have the bread delivered to the shop and made sure, since the bread was still hot, that the plastic wrap stayed open and they showed us how we should carry it so it stays moist inside, but hardens on the outside. I’m not sure they realized that the bread would be gone within a matter of two hours, but we held the bread as instructed and shared it with the kids and munched on it until it was gone.

Barbara Ann arrived today and we all meet up to walk to Tortuga Bay. It was great. Gene and I went body surfing, Ryan and Evan walk the beach, Tyler and Austin tried their new surf boards and Jack and Jackie watched. Body surfing took me back to childhood when we spent hours in the water at Huntington Beach. Gene and I caught a couple of small waves as the tide was out and the waves were small. It was good practice as we have planned to go back tomorrow to try our luck on the big waves. We along with Barbara Ann went to dinner at Eat Street and we were joined by the boat Phoenix, a family from New Hampshire Giff and Patty with an eighteen year old daughter Andrea and Laura their crew from Panama to the Marquises, by Moon Dog John and Ruth from Atlanta and their guest heading to Ecuador and by....Donika and Sten also heading to the Marquis. After dinner I saw Barbara and Sarah and invited them to see Emelia. They thought she was beautiful and are amazed and excited to know what we are doing.

We received an email from Buvier today and they told us of several boats misadventures in the harbor of Isabella. The harbor was over crowded and many boaters refused to put down a stern anchor which made the boats roll and come either to close or hit each other as the swells moved the boats around in the water. (Stern anchors are used when boats anchor in waters without winds or tides. The stern anchor keeps the boats all at the same angle avoiding damage.) Blackwaddle and another vessel ran on the reefs, Mary Constance ran aground and Fantasy I broke the skeg off of their rudder. (The rudder is in the water and moved the boat from side to side. The skeg protects the rudder.) Everyone but Fantasy I left Tuesday with no real damage, but Fantasy I had to stay behind and try to repair the damage. We hope to talk to them and see when they can leave and ask them to join us as now they are far behind the group they intended to travel with to insure their safety while out for twenty days sailing to the Marquises. Since we received this email we have decided not to go to Isabella with Emelia. Instead we bought ferry tickets, hotel tickets, food tickets, horse back riding tour tickets to the top of a volcano and snorkeling tickets for three days and two nights for Ryan and Evan. Yes, we’re letting them go alone. We thought they may have fun without us and let them taste the adventures on their own. They will leave Sunday at 2pm and return Tuesday at 8:45am. We plan to leave the Galapagos Tuesday afternoon so, Gene and I will stow everything and get Emelia ready with fuel, water, fresh vegetables and clean laundry while we wait anxiously for Ryan and Evan to return.

Jill swam over to the boat today. She, John, Geniveve and Skye took the same tour as Ryan and Evan, but left a day before. She told us they had dinner with Ryan and Evan last night and they are having a good time. John, Geniveve and Skye are on the boat next to us. Jill is Johns mom. The boat was John’s parents and has been in the family since he was three. His mother gave it to him and he and his wife and three year old daughter are sailing it from England to New Zealand where they plan to live when they arrive. They are all very nice and Skye is a real cutey.

The Galapagos Islands are so very nice. We have been anchored now in Santa Cruz just over two weeks and we don’t want to leave. Every evening at about 5:30 in the park next to the town dock volleyball posts and nets are anchored in the ground and all the towns people come out to play. Men line up outside the lines of the two nets set up and in groups of three. As one team loses another comes in to play. The game is somewhat intense, but casual as there is not spiking and sometimes the ball is held for just a split second. On the cement bleachers sit those who cheer, watch, laugh and referee. The side walk is filled with food carts of varies delicious foods such as a vinegar salad with corn, green peppers, onions and beans, tacos, croissants and soft serve ice cream. Kids of all ages play in the large sand filled playground near the water as bright red crabs walk up the side of the breakers. Friday is the most special night of the week as this is the night the moon walk is set up and the brightly lit up motorcycle train drive small children around the town. It’s great fun and Gene and I watch with smiles for everyone.

We’ve decided to try all the different foods served here, so anytime someone has something we have not yet seen we stop them and ask about it. We usually end up talking for several minutes and have made many new friends this way. We have also found on Eat Street we make new friends sitting at the outside tables which are just a little too close for privacy, but great for having an entertaining evening with so many different people. For instance, last night we had dinner with a couple from Argentina. They have been traveling for several months and plan to go to Indonesia next month. They make these very cool pants/skirts in soft colors then do a unique hand painting on each. I plan to meet them at their hotel tomorrow to buy one. I’ve picked out a white pair with fish, but I’ll see if they have something I might like better. We also sat with a couple, she from Calgary Canada and he from the states. She just graduated college and he quit his job to travel for several months. We also ate with a man from Germany. He’s been traveling all of South America and is a special needs teacher on sabbatical for one year. Our conversations move easily and everyone seems to enjoy meeting each other and hearing about each persons adventures. We’ve also meet many locals and all have been very helpful and friendly. Sergio is a local surfer who’s lived here over thirty years. We find him on the beach almost everyday and on Eat Street cooking up meals at night. He works on a weekly tour boat, but is off for the next few weeks. We’ve nick named him Surfer Joe as he looks and acts the part so well. Joed is in his early twenties. He was raised here by his Ecuadorian mother and his father from North Dakota. He speaks both Spanish and English. His English is spoken with no accent. It’s beautiful and he is so nice. He is a guide on the island and can be contacted through any tour agency.

The thing we have found we love to do most is walk to Tortuga Bay. As mentioned before it takes just over thirty minutes to walk the path. Ryan has been going every morning to jog the path and the beach. Jackie and I took Tyler and Austin back to surf a few days ago. I got Jackie to boogie board, so she was playing in the water having a good time while Tyler and Austin swam out just a little farther to try to catch bigger waves. I think Jackie and I had the best run though. The waves weren’t good for surfing, but for boogie boarding they were great. We were hooting and a hollering’, laughing and just having a great time. Then Gene and I went again yesterday and walked to the lagoon where we rented kayaks for $5 for an hour. It’s the best deal in town. We weren’t out there for more then five minutes before we were surrounded by twenty sea turtles. They were huge. Their heads bobbed up out of the water and they made sounds like humans as they took in a deep breath then slowly swim down. Once in a while they didn’t notice us as they came up only to be startled and swam away with speed and grace. Their shells looked green from algee, but their heads and necks were brown and bright red. We saw five large manta rays swimming just below the surface and seven smaller mustard rays not far behind. Gene spotted a shark and I freaked out. I sat as still as possible on my kayak, but soon I got into it and made a point of finding one. I did. It was a five foot long white tip just on the surface not three feet from us. It was awesome. It was huge. I couldn’t believe I sat there as it swam by so close. Why cool!!

We have added a new email address svEmelia@hotmail.com which will be best for everyone to use as we heard many of your emails were bouncing back because we didn’t have enough space to hold them before we could reply. Please remember, it may take us a while to write back, but we will as soon as we have internet available. We have also set up a tracking devise as we heard that several of you were concerned when you did not hear from us for a while. The following link has been set up for you to view our travels. It starts in the Galapagos and we'll update daily as we travel around the world. http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=wdd4085  
Best wishes to everyone. s/v Emelia