Refit

 Once Sarah had returned home, I re-varnished the galley, Tom’s cabin and the companionway.  Varnishing is not easy when the daytime temperature is over 30C.  During this time a gin palace in the Curacao Yacht Club caught fire and was set adrift  Happily the wind was kind enough to blow it onto rocks on the island a few hundred metres away, because the damage it could have wreaked in the anchorage in Spanish Water doesn’t bear thinking about.

 Once Moonbeam was ashore, her lines were scrubbed, rubbed down and re-painted.  Her hull was cleaned and polished and 4US gallons of Awlgrip antifouling applied to her bottom.  The antifouling had stood up fairly well in all but a few places, but her waterline areas were in very poor condition.  I was able to download some pictures of my new granddaughter.  I was yet to feel the joy of holding her as I was not returning until the end of the month.

 The sea cocks were serviced and the strainers renewed and new hoses put in the aft heads.  They had become calcified and we had only just discovered why boats in the tropics carry so much white vinegar.  Subsequently the forward heads were serviced; all the stainless cleaned and polished.  The max-prop was serviced and new anodes fitted

 We returned via a Miami nightstop in style on 4th January, laden down with spares once again.  Repairs to the sea cocks, heads etc. were completed, the hull and topsides polished and the galley sole re-varnished.  The immersion heater was found to be the cause of an earth leak and a replacement flown out from England by Fedex cost more than our Miami nightstop!  At last Moonbeam was ready for the water and she was re-launched into her natural environment on 11th January 2008 – in the sunshine!

A few days in Spanish Water allowed us time to make up our minds to miss out on Cartagena on the promise that we would visit on another occasion.  So on 19th January we set off for Panama with a benign forecast for the next five days. 

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Finally it was time to return to Curacao.  We had booked Moonbeam to come out of the water at Curacao Marine in Willemstad for early November.  Sarah wanted to fly home on 31st October so that she could be with Gemma for the last few weeks of her pregnancy and to greet Eloise Poppy on her safe arrival into the world on 19th November and I planned to go home at the end of the month.  On the way back we were just saying that this was about the place where Annabel lost her fish when the reel screamed and we had a strike probably from a tuna.  Whilst I was reeling it in the rod bent double and the line snatched off the reel.  This time a huge Marlin jumped out of the water.  Now how weird is that?

 During our time in the ABCs we had to come up with a schedule so that Willem and Jane Westermann could book flights.  They had planned to join us for the trip through the Panama Canal and out to the Galapagos islands.  By now a long term plan for us was what we were going to do after lunch so looking further a field was somewhat of a challenge.  We came up with the following:

 The Moonbeam Pacific plan for 2008

 Cyclone season is December to March.  Very occasional cyclones reach the Marquesas in March but have done so.  According to the Hawaii cyclone data bank very few have reached the Marquesas in the last ten years (didn’t help us with Felix!!!!!!)

 This means that we should plan our arrival in the Marquesas in the beginning of April 2008, to maximise our time in the South Pacific before we have to run for New Zealand to miss the start of the cyclone season in December.  Galapagos – Marquesas (Cruz – Atuora) = 2971nms which is approximately 20 days sailing +/- @ 150 nms/day.   This means departing Galapagos not before March 10th 2008.

 Allowing seven days for touring the Galapagos Islands this would mean an arrival there on March 2nd 2008.

Panama – Cristobal = 912nms which is approximately 6 days sailing +/- @ 150 nms/day, or 91/2 days @ 100nms/day.  The cruising guide advises that the weather can be varied at this time of year and that we should leave with full tanks in case the wind does not appear, also that south or southwest winds are common, and if time permits we should wait for the ITCZ to move north, however this is not a viable planning criterion.  If we allow 9 days for the passage Balboa – Cristobel then we should plan to leave Balboa on 23rd February or thereabouts.

 Transiting the Panama Canal is anybodies guess by the looks of it but being optimistic I would suggest that we leave ten days for the transit (a week hanging around and three days to get through).  By all accounts the hanging around is made most pleasant by visiting the San Blas islands.  That would mean that it would be good to arrive in Panama on or before 14th February 2008.

 Now before that I think we shall be there for at least a week to ten days so that we can be sure that we are organised – well as much as we ever are! 

 I wonder how the log will compare to the above??????????


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