Where Have We Been

We returned to Panama via Mexico right after 9/11 to visit Patricia and Don Lewis, SV Ragtime, who have a great house in San Miguel Allende, north of Mexico City.  They   took us on a whirlwind tour of the countryside including the annual bullrun through their city square. 

After our return to Heather K., we headed back east to Portobello, Panama, for the Negro Christo festival on October 21.  What a spectacular religious festival mixed with ancient local traditions.  During Spanish times, Portobello was the port from which all the Inca gold was sent back to Spain.  Supposedly there was so much gold in the warehouses that silver was left to lie around in the streets.  The forts around the city are still very visible.

Then it was on to the San Blas Islands further east.  They are spectacular and are as "South Sea Islands" as those in the Western Pacific.  The Kuna Indians have a paradise that is unspoiled except on a few islands where they crowd into villages occupying every bit of land area.  They have their farms on the mainland while their villages are on less than a dozen islands.  The total number of islands is 365, so you can imagine how unspoiled and deserted most of the islands are. One of our cruising friends described the area as "one of the few places left in the world where at night you can't see the land because there are no lights or fires".

We had hoped to then continue on to Cartagena, Columbia, before heading north to Isla San Andres  The day before we had planned to leave, our insurance company sent an email that we were not covered for mainland Columbia.  So we returned to Colon and flew to Cartagena for Thanksgiving 2001.  Kathy and Barry Devine, SV Joss, flew with us and we all celebrated a great Thanksgiving with several other cruising friends who had taken their boats to Cartagena.  It's a world class city.

After flying back to Colon, we found a new crewmate.  A ex-cruiser was driving through the jungle from Portobello to Colon when she saw a small kitty in the rain along the roadside. She stopped the car to check on the kitty, which promptly jumped into the car.   She brought the kitty to the Panama Canal Yacht Club where other stray cats were kept to keep the rat population under control.  The new kitty was much smaller than the other cats but he was doing a good job protecting his raw fish handouts from the other larger cats.  He came running towards us the first time we saw him, so there was no way to leave Colon without him. We named him "Panama " and guessed that he had been born on 9/11/01.   Panama is now "El Gato Rey" (King Cat) of Heather K. 

Our first attempt to leave Panama (the country, not the cat) on December 6, 2001, ended six hours north.  Our autopilot decided to stop working.  In a quick decision, we decided to turn around and head back to Colon.  After hand steering for 6 hours, we arrived back at the entrance to the breakwater at 10 PM local time.  The confusion of lights from ships anchored outside the breakwater, very dim lights on the breakwater, and the bright lights from Colon harbor, made the entrance difficult. But we managed to dodge all the obstacles and find the entrance between the rocks walls to enter the harbor.  Many thanks are due to our trusty Furuno radar.  

Thanks also to Robertson/Simrad and their dealer in Panama City who got the problem fixed within a few days.  We then decided to stay in Panama until January to celebrate Christmas at the home of our new friends Carlos and Bettina Mata and also celebrate New Years Eve at the swank Melia Resort Hotel overlooking the Panama Canal.  It was formerly the Armed Forces Staff College of the Americas. 

Finally on January 12, 2002, we found a weather window to start for Isla San Andres.  After a 36 hour, 350 NM, journey north with 5-6 ft beam seas we arrived at San Andreas.  Our original intention was to stay only for a few days until the wind and seas calmed down.  Unfortunately, the wind kept getting stronger and we could see huge waves crashing crashing against the reefs forming the lagoon.  We experienced constant 25-30 Kt winds, but inside the lagoon here was only a light 1 ft chop.  We spend many days walking around, sightseeing, and touring the island.  We did have a slight scare when one morning the wind piped up to over 50 kts and our anchor started to drag through the soft coral sand.  Most of the boats in the anchorage did the same thing but we all were able to quickly re-anchor and prevent any serious damage.  Finally, three weeks later, we found a small weather window and left for Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras.

We made the 450 NM trip to Roatan via Cabo Gracia a Dios (so named by Christopher Columbus after trying to head around the Cape in the other direction for several weeks) in 2 days.  It was a bit rolly heading north but a gentle following sea once we turned the corner and headed west.

The winds piped up again after we got to Roatan so we ended up staying for three weeks in French Harbor.  It was a delightful stay where we met many new friends.  We had intended later to cruise through the islands in Belize, but since we were running behind our schedule to be in Boston by July, we ended up heading directly for Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

The 340 NM trip north was one of the more rock and roll trips we have made.  We had 8- 10 ft beam seas with an occasional 12 footer thrown in.  A sailboat that followed us a few days later had most of its sails torn out.  We had decided to take a direct course hoping the currents that eventually become the Gulf Stream  would help us.  We later found out in discussion with other boats, that the northbound current was much stronger along the Belize and Mexican coasts.  

Arriving in the large, shallow lagoon between Cancun and Isla Mujeres just after dark, we piloted using our GPS and computer navigation program as well as the radar to locate the buoys.  The lights on the buoys in the lagoon are impossible to discern against the shore lights.  Had we lost either the GPS/Navigation program or the radar, we would have dropped the anchor and waited for daylight.

Isla Mujeres turned into another three week stop for us.  First, our autopilot motor quit working just before getting there, and then the wind remained unfavorable for the crossing to Key West.  After doing the importation cha-cha-cha for a new motor and remachining the drive-chain gear at a local shop, we were able to spend some time sightseeing.  We even took a trip to the Mayan temples at Chizenitza to see the shadow of the snake climbing up the temple staircase at the spring equinox.

We finally took off from Isla Mujeres in the early afternoon and after a 36 hr trip arrived at the entrance to Key West at 6 AM on March 27, 2002. It had been almost 2 years and six months since Heather K. left from San Diego.  We only stayed in Key West for 2 days before heading on to Cape Coral near Ft. Myers.  There we stayed at the dock in front of Tom and Molly Tiemann's fantastic house for about two weeks.  During that time, we took a trip to visit Disneyland in Orlando with Sue and our three granddaughters.

More details of our summer will have to wait till later.  Suffice it to say that we got to Captain Ed's 45th college reunion at MIT, followed by a cruise up to Maine and beyond.  We were able to enter Canadian waters off Campobello Island on August 20, 2002, to complete our semi-circumnavigation of  the North American Continent.  We had left Victoria, British Columbia, on August 16,1998.  We now can say that we have "Cruised Around America from Canada to Canada".

During our trip to Maine and beyond, we visited or were visited by many friends including the Archambaults (Sue's parents), a host of MIT classmates and fraternity brothers,  Norma's Wellesley classmates, and Ed's Severn High School classmates .  

We left Heather K. in New Bern, North Carolina for the winter and came back home to San Diego for Christmas and the New Year of 2003.

In the Spring we flew back to New Bern to head back north for Ed's 50th high school reunion at Severn School just up the river from Annapolis, Maryland. It was great to see many of his classmates. Then we spent a few days in Baltimore's Inner Harbor before heading through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Philadelphia. There we tied up right next to the U.S.S. Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay over 100 years ago. She used to be tied-up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard when Ed was living there. We had a whirlwhind tour of Philadelphia and a visit to Friends Select School which Ed attended for the 8th and 9th grades. Unfortunately, he missed that 50th reunion.

Then back down the Delaware River and on to New York for the start of our circle tour to Canada. It started up the Hudson River to Troy, New York. Here we entered the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal before crossing Lake Ontario to Kingston. From there the Ridedau Canal starts on it's climb up to Ottawa. We had to go through 45 hand operated locks (done by lock operators that were mostly young college students) to reach Ottawa. There we spent a few days sightseeing while tied to the lock wall just below Parliament.

From there we passed through the famous 7 step locks to drop down to the Ottawa River. Three days later we arrived in Montreal for Canada Day and fireworks right in front us on the island by the Old Harbor. We visited Quebec City by hydrofoil before continueing down the St. Lawrence River to Sorel and then up the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain.

After a visit by our two oldest grandchildren, we continued down Lake Champlain and the Canal back to Troy. The summer had been a glorious trip through some of the most historic countryside in North America.

We especially enjoyed the company and visits with many of our old high school and college friends. To tell about each exciting vist with them would take up most of this page, but we do want to let them know that we shall try and get together more often and not stay separated for so long.

We came back home in late October and left Heather K. in Connecticut to have the boat yard get her spruced up for sale. It will be hard to sell her, but we want to do some land travelling and Heather K. need to continue her cruising life and not sit at a dock waiting for an occaisional visit.