November, 2007

Linton & San Blas, Panama

Cartagena, Colombia

The guys started playing music at 2 p.m. and continued until  after dark.   Four boats are from Germany, so country and western music is probably not their favorite music to listen to, but they were very gracious and enjoyed the music.

The ping-pong table was quite busy, as there are some excellent players around. 

	Bennie also has a ping-pong table set up and there are some very good players. Sonny and Suzanne (S/V Naughtier) played Sandy (S/V Little Bit) and Reed (S/V Sea Fever) in doubles.   Good games.

Happy 4th Birthday to our granddaughter,

We are at Linton, learning patience.   Even cruising, you have to stop and wait.   But what a beautiful place to  "have"  to stay.   We are not complaining, we are waiting for our bottom paint to arrive in Panama City, but, still no paint.   We will have to leave in the morning to head to Porvenir, as our time will soon be up with immigration.  We will just pick up our bottom paint, hopefully later.

But, we are finally in San Blas, the beautiful chain of over 300 islands on the Eastern side of Panama.  We have heard so much of the San Blas, it is so good to finally be here, and to see the Kuna women with their handcrafted molas.

Almost immediately after dropping the anchor, Valentina was surrounded with "ulus" (a large dugout canoe) with Kuna Indian women, dressed in their traditional clothing, holding up their molas to sell.   I had five different ulus surrounding Valentina with women and children draping their molas all along the deck and all calling "Senora, Senora" to get me to look at their molas.  I bought an eyeglass case with a mola ($3), some strands of beads ($1-3), a half a gourd that is carved and painted with a sailboat and fish ($3) and some small molas ($2 each).  I try to purchase something from each ulu.   They are very persistent and will just hang out by your boat hoping you will buy more.  Also, they ask for magazines, candy, and pencils and paper.

When they left, two men came up in their ulu selling lobster and crabs.   He said I could have all he had for $10.   He had two large crabs and seven lobsters.   We didn't really want the crabs, so we paid $3 for six of the lobsters.   (That is fifty cents a lobster!)  Life Is Good.....

Then, the guys returned from the Port Captains office, so we decided to head for the Lemons while we had good light to enter.

It is absolutely beautiful here.   All around you, you are surrounded by very small islands with palm trees, sandy beaches, and little bamboo huts where the Kuna families live. 

After we anchored, we went over to visit with Gene and Brenda on Queen Mary.  Several ulus came by showing us their molas, then, Lisa arrived.   Lisa is world renown as a mola maker in San Blas.  And, sells quality molas for around $40 - $50 each.  The molas are usually made in pairs, so that would be expensive.   Molas are 2 - 4 layers of colored material, that are intricately made by cutting the different layers of material and using very tiny hand stitches to create a beautiful design.   Lisa has been featured in Cruising World magazine several times.

We also met the bread maker on another nearby island.   They sell fresh bread, similar to hot dog buns with pointed ends for ten cents each.  Kay bought some nice molas from them and took pictures of them.   We printed some pictures out and took them back to them, and they were so excited.  They wanted us to take some family pictures, so we did.

Lydia came rowing out in her ulu this morning to our boat.   She handed me a bag with a cell phone and cord and asked if I would charge her cell phone for her.  On their island, they have no electricity.   They live in huts with sand floors, and sleep in hammocks.  No furniture, lights, or water, but, they have cell phones.

They did have a refrigerator in their small tienda that they power with propane.

We pulled up anchors and headed to the "swimming pool"  or BBQ island.   Did we say how beautiful it is in San Blas?  It is everything we have heard and more.

This afternoon, we got together on Queen Mary for some more music with Kyoko and her husband, Ed from S/V Oasis.  Kyoko is a very talented musician.   It is fun getting together with different people you meet along the way.

We had a great sail, and, sure enough, the seas did build before we arrived, but, it sure is good to be at an anchorage after a crossing.

Cartagena is somewhat overwhelming after being in the San Blas and Rio Chagres.   When you enter the ship channel, you notice huge skyscrapers in the "new town", cruise ships, cargo ships, and then you arrive near "old town"  full of old architectural buildings of cathedrals and forts.

But, Cartagena is where Dave and Yoli currently are.   They left Kemah six months ago, and we have been hoping our boats would  cross paths.   Finally, we did. 

Dave and Yoli from Kemah, Texas S/V High Spirits Currently captaining and caring for S/V Eclipse in Cartagena

Dave is a great guitar player and singer, so, you guessed it, we all got together on Queen Mary for another night of  good music.

It is good to be with old friends and new friends.

Happy Birthday to our sweet friend, Karen on S/V Bear Necessity.  I believe this one makes 54 for us, right?   It just keeps getting better and better.

Gene and Brenda have been here before and are close friends with some locals from the boat yard.  So, Gene, Brenda, Steve, Mary, and Sonny and I went to Albero's home this afternoon.  Albero and Gladys are such warm people and opened their home and hearts to all of us.  

Gladys prepared some fried chicken, salad, and French fries for us.  We had the privilege to meet their children and grandchildren.   Although there may be a language barrier, open hearts and spirits can communicate without the proper words.   We had a great time.

We are both (Queen Mary and Valentina) going to the Ferroalquimar boat yard for bottom jobs where Albero and Janer will perform the work.

It is a huge fort with tunnels underground  to pass from one area to another.

There is so much history in these countries with the early struggles for independence.  In 1740, Don Blas de Lezo was called  to lead the Cartagena army against attacks from London.  Don Blas had lost his left leg when he was 16 in a war, his right eye in another battle, then his right arm in another. 

Then, he was called on to lead the attack from the English.  After this battle, he later died of a leg wound, but is a hero for the people of Cartagena for their final independence in 1821.

Then we went back to "Old Town" and had lunch and walked around the rest of the afternoon.  Our lunch was corriente.  We had a bowl of soup, cole slaw, grilled chicken, potatoes, rice and juice for $2.50. 

We arrived at noon and Queen Mary was hauled out about 2:30 p.m. when it started raining very intensely.   They almost got Queen Mary in place, about 100 feet away, when the lift suddenly stopped.    They tried to nudge the travel lift with a forklift pushing it, but it would not budge, so Queen Mary was blocked where she was.

We were moored to a tugboat at the dock, but the tugboat had to leave, so the tug towed us out and assisted getting us into the travel lift in the rain.

Our Thanksgiving began by going down to the travel lift at 8 a.m., as scheduled, to get Valentina hauled out of the water.   With a lot of chiefs in the boatyard, well laid plans change very quickly.  Everyone stood around as the jefe's tried to decide where to put boats and move boats around.   

Although we were in the water, with the lift, we were not sure we would be next to be moved.  And the fear was, the lift would break completely down at any minute.  

We were told they needed to move two boats before they moved Valentina, and we said, OK, but Sonny told the jefe that if we did not get hauled out today, we could cancel our haul out, so, we got moved to the top of the list and, after three hours of waiting, we were finally hauled out.

The boatyard has small efficiency apartments you can rent while your boat is on the hard.  They are not fancy, but are clean and cool.

We got together for dinner at Gene and Brenda's apartment for Thanksgiving.  We did not have turkey and dressing, but we did have the Caribbean turkey, (Lobster).   We feasted on lobster Alfredo, a vegetable salad, and pecan pie.   It was delicious.

This has been a most different Thanksgiving.....but,  it proves, you can be thankful  in all things, and we are very thankful for so much.

 

For Our Cruising Friends Interested in Information on Cartagena: Checking into Colombia:  Capt. Manfred HH Alwardt, Eng.   Email: Manfred.Al@bmx.net   Email him before you arrive and he will email you back with a form to complete and return.   Upon your arrival, check in to Colombia will be much easier.   His fee is 130,000 ($60) and he will assist you with anything while in Cartagena.  Cell: 57 311 400 6394 Boat Yard:  Ferroalquimar                www.ferroalquimar.com                    Telephone:  3556634 or 3554921 (Talk to Pura).  Her email address is:  pruarey@ferroalquimar.com The boat yard is currently running a special.  For five days, for Valentina, haul in and out and an apartment, our cost was $438.00.   Of course, it took us longer than 5 days. Crew:  We used Pedro and Alvaro's crew.  Good workers, good people, and fair prices.  They sanded our bottom to the gel coat and applied at least 2 coats of primer, then bottom paint and polished the hull.    We are returning in February for a hard bimini when are not on a tight schedule. Contact Alvaro at alvarochacon17@hotmail.com  Telephone:  316 299 0549 or Pedro at  pedropintura@hotmail.com Telephone: 312 292 9083 and tell them we recommended them to you. Bottom Paint:     20 Liters (~ 5 gallons) Sigma Cofleet 530 Black Anti-fouling Bottom Paint cost 75,000 pesos per liter.   We purchased 20 liters for 1,500,000 pesos ($750), which was more than enough for Valentina.   We also used  3 gallons of primer for $150.   But, as you will see in our April, 2008 logs, the Sigma paint was not good.   We will not use Sigma again.  The company would not honor their guarantee, only give us a discount on more Sigma paint. As with any boat yard, you will need to closely supervise any work on your boat.

After sanding our black bottom paint off, the next layer was an aqua green.  Pedro, along with Reynaldo and Alvero Jr. sanded on side of Valentina all day to get this layer off.   Pedro looked like the Incredible Hulk when he finished.  He is a good guy.