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West Coast of Africa - South Atlantic
The beginning of February, 2008 saw us clearing out of South Africa for the run up the West African coast, aided by the cold north setting Benquela current.
After having run the three Capes on the East African wild coast it was now time for the notorious “Skeleton Coast” so called because of the numerous bones of ships sticking out of the sand dunes. This is an arid desert sand dune coast, though you don’t see much of it for the cold waters cause thick fogs many miles out to sea. We were back into fleece jackets and windproofs. It is also as short on anchorages as the east coast.
Our plan was to try and visit the arid Kalahari desert and Etosha Game Reserve in northern Namibia all be it the rainy season. The safest anchorage was Walvis Bay in central Namibia which is about 750 miles north of Cape Town. We did two hops calling in at Saldanha Bay to visit Kevin on South Moon, another Canadian boat, followed by a pleasant stop in Luderitz before Walvis Bay. These are the only really feasible anchorages on the whole coast.
We made landfall in Walvis Bay in the mid morning of February 20th bursting out of the fog into bright sunshine with a waterfront lined with buildings, containers and ships and picked up a mooring at Walvis Bay Yacht Club – not to move for another two weeks. Cold beers, hot showers – oh so good. Another pleasant club which welcomes visitors (as do all Yacht Clubs in Southern Africa) everyone is so helpful and friendly.
Walvis Bay is a very pleasant and safe (as is the adjacent holiday town of Swakopmund 20 km to the north) has everything needed for provisioning just a 20 minute walk into town. It also has the world famous tidal lagoon/mud flats, home to countless seal colonies and flocks of pelicans and migrating sea birds. And of course, endless sand dunes.
As it was a very wet, wet season the locals were advising against a trip to Etosha especially without a 4x4. But hiring these 4x4’s were prohibitively expensive and as our experience in Kruger had shown rental cars make the best 4x4 vehicles. So, we hired a tired VW Golf and decided to see if it was as good as the Kruger rental car we had (Toyoto Yaris) on the mud and gravel. As it happened we hit a dry patch and though some of the park roads were badly rutted we only had a few stretches of slithering and sliding on the tails of the thunderstorms.
The 800 km from Walvis Bay to the Westgate of Etosha is all paved and a leisurely two day drive with a Safari Camp stopover. The roads inside Etosha are dirt of which only a few were closed due to the rains. Being the wet season the Park was almost deserted and we saw only one other vehicle on our first day driving the western plains.
Our risk to go in the wet season was well worth it. Even though much of the game is hidden in the new green foliage of the scrub lands and a surplus of water means that the animals don’t collect at the standard waterholes the savannah areas were lush and rewarded us with some amazing sights. All that you could wish for in a few days self drive Safari. Herds of big game, topped off with a pride of lions (10), three cheetahs all within a few meters of our car. The seemingly endless vista of the Etosha pan – to be seen to be believed – awesome – not a dust bowl as imagined but filled with water and teeming with flocks of migratory birds, flamingos as a long pink line on the horizon.
As usual, budget constraints called us back to Matarua way too soon ending our time in Namibia, a place we should like to visit again.
A few days doing final provisioning, returning the car and preparing the boat saw an end to our African sojourn. On the 5th March we slipped our mooring and by dusk it was all but memories as the sand dunes slipped finally below the horizon.
It was passage mode again, ten days of light winds for the 1,200 miles to St. Helena for a water stop then the long 3,700 mile trans Equatorial leg to Barbados stopping in Brazil en route.
St. Helena , looking barren and forbiddingly steep as you approach from the East, was a true delight. Rounding the corner into the lee of the island, the wind and seas drop and the tiny town of Jamestown opens up nestled in its deep ravine. Drop the hook in 40' and deploy double flopper stoppers, call on the radio for the harbour launch to take you into the jetty. This is not a rubber ducky place. The surge runs high and you must time your tarzan swing onto the dock right or you are left hanging as the launch drops away. Fun Fun. Walk along the dock, through the decorated archway in the old city wall for the easiest, most pleasant check in ever.
We visited the house where Napoleon was incarcerated, visited his tomb, saw the old Boer prison camp and took a historical tour of the Island. An amazing wonderful, peaceful and happy place which reminds us of a small Market Town in England. Peter did a few hikes through the country, reminiscent of Cornwall. Our four day lay over was, as usual, way to short and we said a very sad farewell to the most pleasant rock in the midst of the ocean.
A broken fore stay three days out of St. Helena ( jury rigged with a norseman terminal and a 16 to one cascade) caused us to revise our passage plan and commit to the long haul straight to Trinidad where we knew for certain we could get new rigging swaged up.
The passage took us 32 days without other mishaps. After leaving the S.E. trades it was slow miserable going for 10 days or so as we made our way through the ITCZ. Rain squalls and dark heavy overcast day after day. Things improved as we left the Horn of Brazill astern and the N.E. trades slowly filled in. Sun at last. With a lift from the current and 15 to 20 knots on the beam Matarua was romping along with a few 160 mile days.
Trinidad, Chagaramous , was a shock to our senses as the place was full of boats. More boats than we had seen in years. It seemed like the whole of the Caribbean yachting community was there putting their boats on the hard for the upcoming Hurricane season, so that they can return home to UK/ Europe/US/Canada for the summer months. There is certainly a huge industry set up for the protection, storing and working on boats. Trinidad people seem to have a wonderful and pleasing outlook which makes it a pleasure to deal with them.
We replaced all the lower stays , dumped the airEx wind generator (Called 'Rude Boy' as it was so noisy) and replaced it with a new Kiss , made in Trinidad, This one is quiet and , aptly , named Sweet Girl. Also replaced the autopilot control unit . Again. This is the last piece of Raymarine piece of sh-- we shall ever buy.
Trinidad did not appeal as a cruising ground, it's a place to leave or work on boats so we departed for more pleasant cruising grounds to the west.
Venezuela, ABC Islands, and Cartagena in Columbia
Spent a wonderful two weeks in Venezuela mainly in the Los Roques islands. Peter went bone fishing and Joyce snorkeled, swam and hung out. It was great fun.
Sailed onto Bonaire one of the Netherlands Antilles islands called the ABC islands. Met some friends there and had a pleasant few days in the anchorage before sailing onto Curacao. These two islands are very European, and unfortunately we didn't have long to sample the wonderful Dutch cheeses and meats. Enjoyed our rest but unfortunately with time constraints we had to be on our way again to Cartagena where we wanted to spend some time steeped in history.
Cartagena was a fascinating place and spent about a month there immersing ourselves into the historical parts of the city. The old city and the battlements, forts etc. kept us very busy being tourists. Enjoyed the Columbian coffee and especially our mornings sampling dozens of types of local coffee and wonderful deserts in the coffee bars.
We didn't even get to the outer islands off the Columbian coast because of our fascination with the old historical city.
Panama
The San Blass Islands off the Panama coast was our first destination en route to Panamarina where we planned to leave Matarua for a visit back to Canada.
The Kuna Indians who live in the area are quite small pigmy like people with a wonderful smile on their faces full of humour. They wore their colourful traditional costumes when they came visiting. Our anchor had been down for a few minutes at the anchorage when the first dugout canoe arrived with four women and their molas for sale.
Mola panels consist of three to five layers of different coloured material with the cut edges which are then finely hemmed with the bottom layer becoming the background colour and supports all the other layers. The usual size of a mola is about 18 inches by 14 inches and they make stunning wall hangings. The Kuna people use the mola panels in blouses, dresses and skirts and they look very cheery and colourful.
There are more than 350 coral islands in the San Blas archipelago rising barely above sea level and the ones we saw were surrounded by turquoise blue lagoons. We are hoping to spend more time on our return in November. The islands are about 100 miles east of the Panama Canal and our Marina where we left the boat is only about 40 miles west of the islands.
Our final leg of this seasons journey ended in a torrential thunder storm creeping into the Marina in appalling visibility. The rainy season truly arrived. After a few days of stripping the boat ready for our departure we travelled overland bus to Panama City. An overnight stay and a day sightseeing in Panama City we arrived in Vancouver on July 15th. We were looking forward to a few months of Summer in beautiful B.C., the first in five years.
It has been a very busy Summer with very little time for us to see our friends. Family commitments and a renovation on one of our properties took up most of our time. We bought a van, managed a few weeks camping and fishing in the Chilcotin and Caribou areas, a short rock climbing trip to Squamish and Thanksgiving in Penticton. Thanks to Robin and Howie for putting us up.
It was still the rainy season with 32 deg. and 80%
humidity when we arrived back in Panama. Lots of heavy rain. Matarua was a
little grubby and grimy and the interior a fur ball of mildew when we returned.
A week cleaning and scrubbing, going through all the systems and we are back in
cruising mode again.
Spent a month in the San Blas islands just hanging
out and relaxing and swam a lot and snorkelled. We managed to do some
projects on the boat for our anticipated Canal Transit.
Arrived a week ago at the Flats anchorage in Colon and started the ball rolling
for our Panama Canal transit. Everything seemed to slot into place for our boat
to be measured fees, and linehandler organized. We have a firm date of December
23rd for our Transit which should put us in the Panama City anchorage on
Christmas Eve.
Writing this at the Panama Canal Yacht Club where we have unlimited WiFi. and now are able to upload the website - at last!!! It only took a year!!
After transiting the Canal will spend a few days in Panama City, being a tourist and mooching around all the historical stuff to do with Canal and the Spanish Conquistadors.
Our next stage of our journey will be cruising up the Central American coast starting with Costa Rica.
The adventure continues