Crawling Back to Bocas – 3

More boat problems

So you guys would expect us to be on our way back to Bocas wellll…

We were definitely ready to leave Linton Bay! We did a hull clean on the Wednesday (23-10). And dad went to pick up the gearbox early on Thursday morning. He got back before lunch and spray painted the brand new gearbox, so it was ready to be installed on Friday morning (25-10).

But, while dad was putting in the gearbox he discovered the engine did not budge. It was stuck in one position and had raw water (salt water) in it!!!

So we asked a neighbour of ours (who is a mechanic) to help us find out what is wrong. He said that the most likely explanations were:

• A broken heat exchanger, which is a very expensive piece to change,
• That with all the rolling around we’ve been doing, the exhaust goes under the water and scoops up water. We haven’t been running our engine to spit out the water. As a result: 5 liters of salt water!?!
• It could be a cracked head and all sorts of things could be damaged inside. It might even be cheaper to get a new engine.

Whatever the cause might be, it sounded like a huge problem and dad didn’t want to waste time on halfhearted solutions. He wanted a clear explanation of what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again.

To make a long story short, the engine had to come out of the boat! And we had to be in a protected area for that.

Reluctant ride

When the mechanic left we went to Panamarina so we could get on a mooring (they don’t have docks). But to do so we needed someone to tow us. It was decided that the next morning we would get towed in. But eventually it ended up being the following day because the weather was not playing along. There were wind & waves, it rained on and off.

The lancha arrived the next morning. It had 2 outboards on. The driver had his 2 kids on the boat. The younger boy to keep an eye on the tow rope and manage communications on the phone (not sure with whom). The girl, a little older than me, taking over the driving if dad had to do something such as climb on board and attach his tow rope.

At first we needed help to get the anchor up. Remember that we were anchored in more than 11m water and that with all the storms we had dragged a couple of times, so we had added rope to the chain, and all of that had to be pulled up before we could get to the chain and use the anchor winch. And with all the bad weather and rolling around, the anchor was dug in properly, so the lancha had to pull to get the anchor loose.

When the anchor was up and we were ready to leave, the lancha left quite forcefully, breaking the tow rope and leaving Exodus adrift. Luckily we had a long strong rope ready, and watched how the guy pulled it through the holes under the seats and above, so it looked like it was tied properly.

Being towed was quite the experience and I am not sure I want to relive it. Panamarina is in the next bay, so you have to get out of Linton Bay, around some volcanic boulder islands with corals around, into the ocean, and then into the next bay. Outside Linton bay there was a lot of swell so I had to be everywhere at once because we forgot to secure the buckets. Mom was holding on for dear life up at the bow, as she had to keep an eye on the tow rope and communicate with the driver if necessary. Dad was steering. And the guy who was towing us was going really fast so we were practically flying. Capo was hiding (he never was much of a fan of big swell. When you go up a wave there is this weightless feeling you get and Capo absolutely hates it). And the tender was nudging Exodus.

As soon as we got into Cacique Bay and behind the big reef, things calmed down. Mom and I kept a sharp eye out for shallow reef because although the lancha asked several times what the draft of the boat was and confirmed he knew the area quite well, we were not so convinced. We arrived at Panamarina without further incident.

Chitras & Chocolate mousse at Panamarina

What was funny was that once we arrived in Panamarina, we got an extra escort. There was this guy with a small two person dinghy that shoved Exodus into our spot between a bunch of other boats and tied up the mooring ropes for us.

It was remarkably quiet in the anchorage, having had a few weeks of rolling around and nightly patrols to check for dragging anchors.

Going swimming around here isn’t a very good idea because it’s highly likely there are crocodiles, but it is a good place to go kayaking.

Once the heavy weather cleared up a bit, the chitras became horrendous. We can’t walk around in our undies any more🥵 and you can only go outside when the sun is real hot. There are enough chitras to fill up the whole area that Alexander the Great conquered.

(Editor’s note: if you want to know what most days on the mooring felt like, it was like being consumed day and night by a chitrillion of chitras, a mass invasion of invisible enemies, a chitra Blitzkrieg, that smirked at our incense sticks, mosquito candles, lotions and potions and extra layers of clothing. Hot, bothered, itchy from top to toe).

At the restaurant they do have a superb Chocolate mousse😋(yumyum).

There are a lot of French people here. There are like 2 times as many French as all the others put together. I guess it makes sense because the managers are French. There are a lot of people out on the hard, working on their boats.

At some stage a bunch of young adults set up a fashion show. It was very interesting. They called it Panamarina’s first nautical fantasy fashion show. There were two girls and two guys walking the runway/dock. 1 guy dressed up as a gladiator and the other as his emperor (who did an awesome back flip into the water, but forgot he also had to get out). I have no idea what the 2 girls were, but one of them started like this: will she break your coconuts or will she break your heart.

Cacique

We took a walk to the village of Cacique. I think you could easily compare it to Carenero island, in the sense that the houses are small and there are several places where trash is just lying around.

On the way back we saw some strange looking monkeys we haven’t seen before. They were very small and could jump really well (almost like flying). Later we discovered they are called Geoffroy’s Tamarins.

Engine removal and refitting

Shortly after arriving in Panamarina we took out the engine. The marina people tied up next to us. There were enough hands to help, so I didn’t have to do much. We hooked the engine to the chain block, hoisted it up, swung the boom out to the side and dropped the engine in the lancha. And watched the marina helpers drive away. They lifted the engine up from the lancha with the forklift and drove it to the workshop.

We left the engine in the hands of Nelson, a mechanic from Uruguay who works in Panamarina and one of the marinas on the Pacific side.

Then mom and I went to Bocas for Halloween (see previous post)

We got back on Monday and had good news. The engine was running again just fine. It had taken quite a lot of effort to get it going, but everything had been cleaned. No broken heat exchanger, only a diesel injector to replace. Nelson was sure the water came in through the exhaust and told us what to do to prevent this from ever happening again.

So luckily, we don’t need to get a new engine. And dad started immediately with rebuilding the exhaust (adding another bend).

We did discover that our engine mounts needed replacement, so we had to order new ones and wait for them to arrive.

Dad was going to start installing the new control panel, but then discovered the company in the US had forgotten to send the engine octopus. So again we had to wait for that to be sent, and first they sent it to the wrong address 😠.

On Wednesday (20/11) we put the engine back in. The marina people tied up next to us. We hooked the engine to the chain block, hoisted it up, swung the boom back into place and dropped it on the floor. Then the guys left. Dad attached the gearbox to the engine. Then I (manning the chain block) lifted and dropped the engine and mom and dad wriggled the engine until it was neatly on its new engine mounts and dad was satisfied.

The next day was spent on replacing all the wiring on the engine that links up with our brand new control panel (the engine octopus I spoke about).

Once the wiring was done we ran the engine for a bit (it scared the life out of Capo) and Nelson the mechanic came to check if all was well. Over the next few days we were running the engine and changing the oil until all the water and cleaning liquid came out.

Escaping chitraville

We also went to the AirBNB for a second time because we were dying from boredom and chitras and we had spares to pickup (the engine octopus). Dad went for a third time too because he wanted to get a US visa.

After Dad going to Panama city for the last time we started preparing to go home (Bocas).

Storm front at Golf of Mosquitos

We left a few days later (30/11), only to discover the autopilot wasn’t working, so we went to Portobelo and managed to fix the autopilot (it was just a connection problem, luckily).

And the next day we left. It is always exciting to pass the shipping lane and the entrance to Panama Canal, as small and slow Exodus has to weave it’s way through huge and fast container ships. Some look like apartment blocks, towering over us. That sea in that area is also very rough. Past the shipping lane I didn’t see much cause I was trying to sleep off the nausea.

At first we were doing ok (speed wise). The sea was rough and very uneven but we were moving in the right direction and approaching Veraguas. In the morning of the second day, however, trouble started as both me and mom were ill. Mom worse than me. She was seasick as well as some other stuff. And each time she worked the sail or moved she threw up, which was a lot. We decided we would sail to Escudo de Veraguas because there was a lot of swell and we were unable to move in the direction we had to. We spent the whole day and part of the night, tacking up and down Mosquito Golf and landing up at the same point. This weird spot where winds are blowing from all directions and current and uneven waves are that strong that the engine doesn’t make a difference. To me it felt like we were stuck in some sort of system and we kept going in circles.

To make matters worse, the weather picked up, and we had storm around us. We hove to for about 5 hours to let that pass, but we drifted 12nm back in the wrong direction at that time.

There was only one choice, to go back the closest safe place, which was Shelter Bay (returning about 70 nmiles). And wait for better wind and surface conditions.

When we arrived in Shelter Bay anchorage (late afternoon) we dropped anchor and ate a little and then just dumped ourselves in bed and went to sleep.

We decided to wait until the right winds came (there had been strong westerlies for a long time). We planned on staying until the weekend and then checking for the right conditions.

Visit Steve and Katie

The next day we put the tender back in the water and went to visit Steve in Shelter Bay marina, get some more provisions at the “Mini Mart”, go swimming in the pool, and went to look at the book exchange.

I got lucky and got 8 books from a series called Wings of Fire.

• Fun fact 1: the author of wings of fire was part of the Erin Hunter team (a bunch of women who did different things 1 was the plotter, another was writer, another was editor… together they wrote Warrior cats a series of 90 books). I think you can guess I LOVE Warrior cats sssssooooo much😍.
• Fun fact 2: the kitten whom stayed with us for a while shared names with the main character of warrior cats Rusty (we named the kitten before I started reading warrior cats.

But anyways, back to the story. After getting those books, we got stuck in the rain and then hung out at Steve’s boat. When the rain stopped we went home.

The next day dad went to buy more diesel and go to Colon for meat (to BBQ) and more provisions.

When dad came back he sorted out more of the engine wiring, replacing wires and taking things out we no longer need.

That night we braaied (BBQed) with Steve and Katie.

The next day we lifted the dinghy on board in a rolling windy anchorage, so that we were ready to leave the following morning at 6am. With all the rolling we bumped a piece off the outrigger of the tender. Just one more thing to fix for captain fix all.

The last trials and tribulations…

We learned our lesson from the previous weekend, that you cannot fight the current, wind and surface conditions all at once, so we had to wait for the wind to be more favorable.

At 6am when we wanted to start the engine, we discovered the starter battery is finished so dad had to jump start the engine. Then while we were lifting the anchor, the anchor remote was messing around, so dad had to pull up more than 30m of the anchor chain while mom was feeding it through the windlass. We were busy packing away when dad hollered ‘drop down the anchor’. The engine was overheating!!! It turned out some valve was closed while dad was fixing other stuff, so once he realised that, it was easily solved. While we waited for the engine to cool, dad fixed the anchor remote and by 10.15 we lifted anchor the 2nd time, called Cristobal Control and waited for a gap to leave Colon Port. At last we were on our way, weaving through all the big container ships and out into the big blue…

On the first day we did over 100 NM, as we had 20+ knot winds the whole time. There were HUGE waves and even then we were making good speed and good news I didn’t get sick and neither did mom! We were averaging over 6 knots the whole time.

At 60nm away from Bocas we were going to sail the northwesterly winds to Bastimentos, but the predicted wind was nowhere to be felt. We were being tossed around once more, fighting current, big waves and wind. The sail plan kept changing, from Bastimentos to Blue Fields, Tobobe, Zapatillas. At some stage it looked like we were not going to make it!!!

But in the end, the wind allowed us to sneak closer. We anchored at Zapatillas at 10pm something and went to sleep immediatly.

The next day we motored through Crawl Cay An update to the maps removed our track through crawl cay so we redid that, on 2 devices this time, with me playing Ipad holder while mom was spotter on the bow and dad did the steering.

Passing through Crawl Cay the weather cleared up, and Bocas was finally welcoming us home…

Then we sailed to Bocas. The whole time I was smiling, I couldn’t help it. We were almost home! And Capo came to sit with us for the last stretch.

In the anchorage we went through our normal routine: pick up the mooring, take mom’s hook/stick, give thumbs up to dad, put mom’s stick away and then watch mom and dad hook the mooring line on.

I am so happy to be back!!! It was too long now.

Every day when wake up and go outside I can’t believe we finally did it. We are home!😊😊😊😊😊😊
Needless to say Capo’s also happy the ordeal is over.

Happy Gitane & Hairless Capo