Mammals, Reptiles, Insects…

          We’ve seen alot of animals since I last wrote (which, I’m sorry to say, was a long time ago), so this update is just going to be about the wildlife. Let’s start with birds. There were these cute little sea birds that were brown on top and white underneath, and they were trying to land on the boat. Sometimes, two of them would land at the same time and they would fight for the best spot, the consequences being that they both fell off. As they got better at slipping through the lifelines, their squuabbles became more frequent. At one point, Mom and Dad went below. A few minutes later, we heard a shriek, and Dad came out carrying a bird! We took pictures and petted it, and then let it go. Mom wasn’t very happy about it, because the bird thought her bed was the bathroom. A while later, I was in the V-berth with Mom when another bird dropped through the hatch… and landed on Mom!! I chased it around the V-berth, and, luckily, caught it before it made any messes.

When we went to Manuel Antonio , we saw monkeys in the National Park and in the town. Some small, golden monkeys were hanging out on the low roof of a restaurant, and I found a piece of pineapple and held it out to one. The monkey grabbed onto my finger, snatched the pineapple, and scampered back up the roof! In the National Park, a black and white monkey ran right past Mom. In the park, we saw alot of other animals. There were lizards, an agouti, a nighthawk, some small bats, coatimundis, and three- and two-toed sloths! There were also butterflies and a huge, freaky spider. We have pictues of all the animals we saw in the Media Gallery exept the spider, including shots of iguanas that I was feeding.

The iguanas at the resort in Herradura were easily persuaded to take hibiscus flowers from us, but the wild ones in Manuel Antonio are a different story. I was tempting one with a small piece of banana, when it lunged at me and tried to take the banana and my finger! Luckily, I pulled away quickly, and it only cut my index finger. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

 

I’ve always wanted dreadlocks

Somewhere, deep inside of me, is a tall, thin black woman with a beautiful set of dreads, yearning to break free. Well, I’m not tall, thin, or black, but I do have dreadlocks! It all started with a little sign posted on the beach near Manuel Antonio State Park. GET YOUR DREADLOCKS HERE – ASK FOR TONY. Well, Tony didn’t have dreadlocks, and he wasn’t answering my questions very well, but the guy who was selling bags and bracelets next to Tony had marvelous long dreadlocks and said he did dreads, also. He answered all my questions, so we struck a deal and I met Judah at the beach at 10:00 the next day. A mere 8 hours of scalp-yanking fun later, and I am dreaded! It takes a couple of months for dreads to get “locked”, and you kind of have to mess with them every day until they do so. It can take up to a year for them to look really good. The myth is that people with dreadlocks don’t wash their hair, but it’s not true. Clean hair locks up faster than dirty hair – you just need to use a shampoo with no fragrance or residue. Molly and Jessie and Jim are helping me work on my hair every day. Right now, there are rubber bands on the ends, but they will come off in about a month when the hair binds up on its own. What better place than on a boat in the middle of the ocean to get your dreads locked up?

Molly and Jessie and Jim took a surf lesson on that same day. They had two young “surfer dude” instructors who were very good, and all three of them got up after one or two tries. It is much harder than it looks, going from being flat on your stomach to standing up straight in a twinkling of an eye, while your board is climbing up an undulating wave. Plus, you have to smile for the camera. There are some good pics in the media gallery of our day on the beach.

Manuel Antonio State Park covers 1700 acres. This tropical wet forest has an annual rainfall of 150 inches, and is home to many animals like squirrel monkeys, three and two-toed sloths, wild boars, coatamundis and iridescent moths and butterflies. We hiked through the park for about 5 hours, and saw lots of animals and amazing trees and plants. We anchored right in front of the park, and could hear monkeys and birds throughout the night. One thing we have not seen is parrots or exotic birds. I thought Costa Rica would be full of them, but maybe we aren’t exploring early enough in the morning to see them.

Our next stop was a little bay called Uvita. It has an unspoiled charm about it, and a very nice beach. A short walk from the beach is the little town of La Bahia. We were wandering through town on Sunday morning, and I was wishing I could be in church. Just a couple of blocks up the main road was an English-speaking community church, who had only put their sign up the day before! Church started at 10:00, which is exactly what time it was, so we went in and had a great time. The pastor had Jim get up and tell about our family and what we are doing, we got to sing some familiar songs, and no one mentioned my weird hairdo. I think no matter where you are, you feel like you are with family in God’s house.

We are currently in Golfito, the jumping off point for our trip to the Galapagos. We will check out of the country here and head west. It may be more difficult to update our website after this – we’ll do our best.

I have heard the definition of cruising is “Doing boat projects in exotic ports”. That certainly seems true. If you check Jim’s update, you will see a list of all we need to do during the 5 days we have in Golfito. It is so hot and humid here, it’s hard to stay motivated to get through that big list. Molly and Jessie are having a hard time concentrating in school, so I have been assigning more homework, and shorter school hours. That way they can work at their own pace, and find a cool spot to work.

I am nervous about leaving these Spanish-speaking countries, and moving toward the islands where French is spoken. I was just getting comfortable with the lilting tones of the Latinos. I still have trouble in grocery stores, trying to figure out what I am buying. I’ve made a few humorous errors, but I haven’t killed anyone yet. I thought for a long time that ferrets must be the most popular pet in all of Latin America, and there were stores where you could buy them in every town we visited. When I finally looked it up, I discovered that “ferreteria” means hardware store…

Our e-mail is working well now, so feel free to drop us a line. We can’t take attachments or forwards, but greetings will always be welcome! Have a great spring!

 

SURF’S UP!!!

          When we were at the beach near Manuel Antonio National Park, we took sufing lessons! It was so fun! Molly, Dad, and I picked up our sufboards early Friday morning. I got a white one with blue stripes, Molly got a blue one, and Dad got a pink one! Two people from the surf shop came with us to teach. One of them helped Molly and one helped me. Dad was pretty much on his own, but that was ok, because on the first wave he stood up pefectly, longboard style ( stick straight, arms at his sides, feet planted close together one in front and one in back near the middle of the sufboard.) The way you are supposed to stand is crouched way down, knees bent, arms out for balance, feet spread way apart at either end of the sufboard. After that Dad was really on his own, paddling on his own and standing almost every time! The instructors could not believe he had never been on a surfboard before. Molly was doing really well, too. She got up after a few tries and stayed on for a long time; she opted for a stance somewhere between longboard and shortboard. I was the only one having a problem; on the first wave I could not stand up, I only got up on my knees. That kept happening, but finally I was able to stand up. When I first stood up, though, I fell off really quickly, and that happened a lot. When I was finally able to stand up the right way, totally shortboard, I went all the way to the beach, (yay!), then fell off. I was so happy! It was an amazing feeling. Mom said that I looked like I was concentrating really hard and looked very professional, but I did not feel that way, I don’t even think that I was watching where I was going. I felt like someone else was doing the work and I was just going for a ride. It felt really natural; maybe I was subconciously concentraiting.

          A couple rides and falls later we found the perfect wave, and Molly and I both caught it and started at the exact same time! Molly got up a little faster, but we were almost even and were really close to each other. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, (I was still looking straight ahead) and at that same moment she turned her head and looked at me. Suddenly we both said, “Hi!”, and at that moment Mom snapped a picture! Actually, Mom took a lot of pictures, but we only put the best ones in the Media Gallery, so you won’t have to look at 500 some-odd pictures. On another wave, all three of us stood up, but Molly and I were too close together, so we fell off really quickly. Dad, who was further away, was watching us and fell before we did. That continued for the remainder of our hour-long session, but we did not catch another wave together. After the lesson, we were very tired, hungry and water-logged. All three of those things were quickly solved, though, because our teachers showed us the secret rainwater reservoir and we rinsed off and let the sun bake us dry ( very fast actually). There were many returaunts across the street, so soon we were full of fruit and then we spent the rest of the day lazing around the beach trying to stay in the shade, watching Mom get dreadlocks. Well, you have probably heard the saying “Pictures speak louder than words”, or “A picture is worth a thousand words”, so head on over to the Media Gallery and you will find a new album called “Surf’s Up”. Enjoy!

FOR SAILORS ONLY II

          Salt and sand are the two most deadly elements for the cruiser. I started our trip by admonishing the girls about the dangers of these nasty compounds: be careful, sand and salt in your bunk can ruin your day! Being from Washington State, I wasn’t worried too much about the deck and rigging; the rain would wash it off. As luck would have it, we have not been rained on since we left Seattle.

          In La Paz, we discovered another pollutant – the town’s power generation system uses bunker fuel to fire its boilers. In the evening, a brown film would settle on the boat and rigging. South on the mainland of Mexico and beyond thru Central America, they burn everything from trash to cane fields. In El Salvador, we hade so much black ash (from the cane fields) on the boat in the morning, we had wash it off before walking on deck. The boat needs to be kept clean somehow, and at the dock it’s not a problem. But we haven’t seen a dock since we left Mexico. We have salt and fresh water wash-down systems, and these are very inexpensive considering the time and wear and tear it saves. We wash everything with salt water, then a quick rinse with fresh. It seems extravagant when you see how slowly the water maker trickles water at 20 gallons an hour.

          For years, I have been preaching the virtues of WD40 or LPS2: spray it on everything aluminum, stainless steel, the engine, each fastener where metals, especially dissimilar metals, come together. It seems to get into all the little crevasses and keep the salt and water out. Once the corrosion blossoms out of the mast fittings, it is too late to keep the aluminum like new. I also use it to get rid of the odor of diesel fuel and propane. I made the mistake of using another brand that I wasn’t familiar with, and it left a sticky film on everything. Luckily, the WD40 cleaned it off, and further sealed the metals from salt intrusion.

          We had our last maintenance stop at Huatulco, Mexico. We bought more WD40 and cleaned up the mast and rigging. Today we are headed for Golfito, Costa Rica where we will be at a dock, hopefully with water. This will be another cleaning, maintenance, and provisioning stop before leaving for the Galapagos, and will probably be the last dock we see before New Zealand.

          The to do list includes: engine and transmission oil change, oil and fuel filters, check the bottom for barnacles, remove the barnacles from the prop and shaft, change the Max Prop zinc, clean the knot meter impeller, wash the sand and salt out of everything, (soaking the lines and deck hardware in a bucket of water and drying and lubricating them), checking the mast and rigging, clean the standing rigging, inspect the running rigging, clean and wax all stainless steel, check the sails for signs of chafe, check the bilge for debris, clean all pump filters, change the filters on the water maker, inspect fuel and water tanks, defrost and clean refrigeration system, wipe down all the wood work inside the boat, check all long term stored items, (cans in the bilge, etc.) and reorganize lockers. All this sounds daunting, but with a little planning, we should be able to finish in a couple of days and the boat will keep that new look and smell.

          On to more interesting things. I have solved the problem with the refrigeration compressor. The wire-end fittings had a graphite paste for connectivity, and that paste turned to dust and the fittings became loose. After several tries, I got the right combination of crimp and clean. The contacts have been trouble-free for 6 weeks now. As for the performance, the system was designed around 90 degree temperature but it’s 97 in the water here, and bound to get warmer. So far, it continues to manage on two hours of running time a day.

          The water maker continues to perform well; no maintenance has been required. In Golfito, I will change the pre-filters and check the production level.

          I think I have figured out the battery capacity and charging system. There are three banks of four 110 amp hr. batteries, plus one for the starter. At 90 amps, the alternator likes to charge two banks at a time, so we save one for backup. As long as I don’t get too far behind in charging, the alternator will keep up with our needs on about two and one-half hours of running time per day. It works better if we run twice a day and run the water maker and refrigerator at the same time.

          The auto pilot is asking to be compensated, and this far south I guess it’s time. Except for the bad crimp on the NMEA connection, it has been working perfectly. I like the tracking feature; it takes care of any set and drift, and will be very helpful in the South Pacific with all the current that we will encounter.

          I tend to move slowly when it comes to drilling holes in nice big teak bulkheads, and mounting gear and equipment in woodwork. Once the pattern in the wood has been interrupted, you can’t fix it, you can only “feature” it. I resisted the obvious mounting of the flat screen TV on the main bulkhead, till I came up with a swivel mount at the chart table. After the fact, it seemed so clear. The boat had a tension rod from the traveler to the floor timber, and all I had to do was add a mate in a symmetrical position and build a mount for the TV. Now we have a flat screen that swivels from the chart table to the main cabin. We have found that the time we spend watching movies would not have justified having another screen onboard, and this solution saved the main bulkhead for something more nautical. I have discovered that the only way to have one really good idea, is to have many ideas.

          We are slowly getting everything in place – places to store or hide things that you need on a regular basis. My material of choice has been Textilene; it’s a woven fabric made for sun shade. You see it covering powerboat windows. It is strong, lightweight, and cleans easily. With the use of battens and batten pockets, it can make a rigid structure. So far, we have made a toothpick holder, fruit baskets, line bags, and lee cloths. The challenge was to build a storage system that has a consistent theme, is removable, required very few holes in the wood work, and adds convenience to the everyday tasks. Trying to describe each piece would not make as much sense as a picture, so I will start a folder in the media gallery called For Sailors Only and post photos and drawings of gear and ideas for gear not yet built. For more details, questions, or comments send e-mails to jim@rubyslippers49.com.

There are two scourges for the sailor

going down the coast of Central America: The Gulf of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, and the Papagayo winds, coming off Lake Nicaragua, just north of the Costa Rican border. The first scourge we came through unscathed, the second, m-m-m-m, not so much. We had decided head offshore, thinking that the predicted winds would come from behind us and push us right to our waypoint in the early morning. Instead, we were faced with 30-knot winds on our nose, and huge, very confused seas, which we slogged through at 2-3 knots for 20 hours. When we finally reached our anchorage, we were wet, exhausted, salty and grumpy. Nature can be a very strict and unapologetic teacher. Jim said I was to blame, since I was so cavalier about our Tehuantepec crossing in my last web update. I knew this was going to be my fault, somehow. Jim kept grumbling throughout our ordeal that he wasn’t supposed to be beating to weather – he was cruising. It reminded me of Tom Hanks as a women’s baseball coach: “Crying? There’s no crying in baseball!”

Our boat is fitting us like a favorite pair of shoes; not old shoes, but those shoes that are the first ones you reach for when you are going to be using your feet all day, and need comfort and support. We have tweaked it here and there, and added little improvements to make our lives easier. She has proven herself to be lively and capable on all points of sail, and in some pretty nasty weather. We feel very glad to have Ruby Slippers carry us across the ocean.

We stopped in a little bay called El Coco, and we fortunate enough to be there for the last day of a 4-day celebration called “The March of the Horses”. The highlight of that final night of celebrating was a bull-riding demonstration and amusement rides at the local fairgrounds. After a long and loud introduction of all the cowboys, a big Brahma bull came leaping out of a stall with a wiry bull-rider on top. The guy had both hands in the air, didn’t touch the bull at all, and stayed on until the bell rang. We though that was pretty amazing, until two cowboys came dashing into the ring to rope the bull and take him back to his stall. These guys were so impressive, as were the horses who carried them. They would ride around the ring, and get the bull positioned how they liked him, then one roper would start swinging his lasso around his head, get his horse going full speed, ride just past the bull, and swing his lasso up and back behind him and the rope would land neatly around the bull’s neck. This is a very small ring, mind you, so the horses were galloping at full speed in a circle, then coming to a dead stop as soon as the bull was harnessed. We stayed for a long time, mostly to watch those two cowboys and their roping abilities. I kept thinking how good they would be on a boat; they could hook a line onto a cleat from a long way away. The rest of the fair was just like it is anywhere in the states – cotton candy, scary-looking rides, food on a stick, and young people glad to be away from their parents for a couple of hours. The music we heard was good, solid ‘80s American music.

We are currently in a bay called Herradura, which boasts having the only marina in all of Costa Rica. Unfortunately, it is chock full and we can’t get a slip, so we are anchored out in a rolly nook close to the marina. There is a huge Marriott Hotel on the beach, and we are hopeful of finding a laundry (lavenderia) and good grocery store. Our crew mate, Jim, who has been with us since Puerto Vallarta, will be leaving tomorrow. It’s been great having him on board. Get this – he loves to do dishes! He is also great on night watches, and loves to play games. It’s been fun having him with us.

We want to find a good spot in this part of Costa Rica, where we can do some inland exploring and take surfing lessons. We have about two weeks before we need to head toward the Galapagos Islands. Thanks to all who have sent us greetings – our e-mail system seems to be working a lot better now.

There should be new pix in the media gallery – Jeanna