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…