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American Spirit II - Day 30; In the Las Perolas Islands; Sunday, February 2, 2014



Departed Panama City at 9:35 AM today, en route to the Las Perlas Islands. The name means Pearl Islands. The northern islands are only 31 miles from Panama City. The islands got their name when in 1515 Spanish conquistadors Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro robbed a large amount of pearls from King Toe. The 31 carat 'peregrina' pearl of Queen Mary Tudor of England came from these islands. The Archipelago de Las Perlas consists of more than 220 islands and islets, of which only 90 are named and even fewer are inhabited. One of our pilot books states: "Existing charts of the Perlas are very inaccurate." Fortunately, Eric Bauhaus in his The Panama Cruising Guide supplies charts that he purports are accurate. As Ronald Reagan used to say, 'Trust but verify.'

There was almost no wind, so we had to motor sail the entire way to Isla San Jose, the second largest island in Pas Perlas. En route, we came upon a mostly submerged tree trunk with 3 birds resting on it. Hitting such an object would at a minimum mark you hull; and it could even damage your rudder or propeller. Thank you birds for allowing us to see it. However, at night you can't see such things. And half of all of our sailing is at night.

The water temperature in the Pacific is 79 degrees, 10 degrees cooler than the Caribbean. And the trade winds blow less much of the time, so it feels much hotter.

I'm still reading a book written by Tori Murden McClure titled A Pearl in the Storm. Its about a lady who tries to row across the Atlantic. Very good read. Thank you Diane Lantry-Erler for giving it to me before I left the States. I found a quote by Theodore Roosevelt in the book particularly prophetic: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

Today was laundry day. Joel and I tried out a new device called a 'Mobile Washer.' It looks like a sophisticated toilet plunger that pushes and pulls soapy water thru your clothes in a 2 gallon bucket. The device worked very well, except that I used too much water and will have to be more conservative in the future. Because we were motor sailing, we were able to use hot water to help clean the clothes. To each bucket of water was added 1/2 teaspoon of Tide detergent. After washing, we first spun the water out of our clothes by using a small (inexpensive, $75) electric centrifugal dryer; then hung them up to dry. The dryer is small and holds 2 shirts or 3 or 4 undergarments. The whole process worked quite well. Two hours to do a week's laundry. And plunging clothes is a real workout! Next time we'll have to wear sailing gloves because its easy to get blisters on your hands when pumping up and down.

We finally made it to Isla San Jose and anchored by 6:45 PM, about 300 yards offshore, on the lee or east side of the island. Nighttime anchoring is not fun and not something one wants to make a habit of when you know the charts are not correct. The island is privately owned, and it was eerie because we couldn't see any other boats and there were no lights visible. A small sliver of a moon, and tons of stars. Jupiter was easily visible. Even though the wind was from the north and off shore straight at us, a serf was heard all night on the rocky/sandy shore.

Reading by Kindle and typing this log was difficult because a million gnats invaded the boat. I gave up reading and went and reclined forward of the dodger looking at the stars. The Big Dipper was interesting as the North Star was only 5 degrees above the horizon, just at the top of the trees. Lot of activity in the water. Small fish being chased by bigger ones. Little phosphorescent sparkles visible as they all swam around.

Dinner was grilled by Chef Joel and consisted of blackened steak, potatoes, bread and chilled fruit cocktail.

Tomorrow we head north in the Las Perlas Islands. We need to end up at Isla Contadora by Tuesday afternoon, as we have WCC events there Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We are scheduled to depart for Galapagos on Friday at 11:00 AM. On our way there we're going to stop by an island called Chapera, where one of the Survivor TV Series was filmed.

Brian Fox




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