Perlas again

Aug 14 2013

Greetings,

We’re back out in the Perlas, anchored in a beautiful cove, on the NE side of Isla Pedro Gonzales, that is surrounded on one side by a sandy, palm tree lined beach, on another side by a jungley, rocky cliff, on the third by the open water, and the other side has a construction sight :(. They’re building a new resort here. There goes the neighborhood . 
In the middle of the cove there’s a small, rocky island that we snorkeled around yesterday. The water was a little murky so the visibility wasn’t great but we saw lots of fish and, again, some of them were new to me. I’m also proud of myself that my spotting ability is getting better. I spotted two octopuses which are incredibly good at camouflaging them selves. The first one was exactly the same color and texture as the rock it was on but it moved a little and caught my eye. It was hard to see even after I knew it was there but when I showed Sharon she got close enough to scare it and it moved quickly back into a hole. The second octopus had white patches and, when we first saw it, it was “standing up” a little way off the rock, which made it easier to see. Very cool.

Sharon and Johne have gone off fishing this morning. Right now we’re running the generator and water maker and I’m enjoying my coffee and the beauty around me. Life is good…

July 22 2013

I meant to get back to this sooner. I get caught up in living life, and don’t always get around to writing about it.

Back to where I left off…After Johne and Sharon got back (with one small fish) we ate the lunch I had waiting and then we all put on tanks to finish the bottom work. We got the hull in really good shape and, after clean up, we decided to try fishing again at a lower tide. 
When we first set out Johne saw a splash quite a way up ahead that we weren’t sure if it was a rock or a whale. As we got closer it became clear it was whales. A mama and baby, and the baby was frolicking and jumping and playing. It was fun to watch until they headed away. Then we fished until sunset, catching a couple more nice grouper, then headed back to Second Star. We had a wonderful dinner (hard to wrong with fresh fish) and turned in early to get an early start in the morning.

It was a lovely morning for the run back to the city. We had calm seas and more good wild life shows on the way, including dolphin and, the best part, another mama and baby whale, not far off, who both breached for us one right after the other. It was a great way to see the size difference. As big as the baby was, it looks small when the mama breaches right after it.

We got back to the anchorage and took Sharon in to shore to catch her ride back to Colon. Johne and I then had several days with just us in which we installed the new inverters. 

Now Johne is back in Colon working on finishing up Kokomo Kat. I think Sharon will be coming back over, one more time, for another run to the Perlas. I expect them back on Sunday. Until then I’m holding down the fort here and monitoring the new inverters. So far, so good… 

More work

Aug 9 2013

Greetings,

Well the more we make plans, the more they seem to change. Going to Ecuador has been put off until I return from the trip I will be making to the States in Sept. 

Work continues on Kokomo Kat. After my last entry, Johne and Sharon work for a week but had to wait for one more part to arrive so they came back here last Tuesday (July 30) and we went back to the Perlas for more relaxing, fishing and bottom scrubbing. It was a lovely few days. We anchored in a new spot and had no current to fight when we did the bottom work. The trips out and back were full of dolphin and whale sightings including some whales very close. The last pair we saw were coming toward us and, maybe 50-100 yards away, they surfaced, blew, then gave us great fluke before going down. It was awesome! They say we’re not supposed to get too close to them, but it seems to me that it’s up to them how close they get. I’m not chasing them but even if I was, they can swim faster than Second Star goes and they can dive deep. I can only get as close as they chose to come.

When we got back Sharon returned to Kokomo Kat. Capt. Johne stayed here for a few days, working on Second Star, until the part they were waiting for got here. It’s good he was here because, aside from missing him, we had a couple of leaks spring up. No, not the water maker. That’s still working great since we installed the new parts (knock wood). This time the fuel line on the generator had a small crack right by the hose clamp. It was an easy fix for him once he had found the problem but it squirted diesel fuel all over the engine room so it was a big clean up job. Also, the night before he was leaving to go back to Colon, at about 0200 hrs, the water pump started running. Johne got up to find that the pressure cylinder was spraying water into the bilge. This meant shutting down the water system, cutting the PVC pipe to the cylinder, adding a ball valve, draining the pressure from  the cylinder, sanding down the little hole, applying JB Weld ( two part epoxy) to the hole and going back to bed so it could set. The next morning He re-pressurized the cylinder and attached the PVC pipe coming out of it to the new ball valve. Over all not that bad a job if it hadn’t had to be done at 2AM. I’m a great “scrub nurse” for these jobs and, if I had to, I’ve learned enough I could take care of them. But I’m just as glad Johne was here for those events and I didn‘t have to deal with them without him.

Yesterday Johne returned to Shelter Bay to finish up on Kokomo Kat. I expect him back on Sunday or Monday, hopefully with Sharon, for another few days in the Perlas. After that, when one more part for our inverters arrives, Johne next project will be swapping out the inverters. No rest for the wicked…

Aug 10 2013

Foot note:

The news from Kokomo Kat is that the part that was sent was not the right one so another part will need to be shipped…more waiting and another trip to the Perlas will occur in the meantime.