Lanikai Underway

We were invited to Dave and Judy’s (of s/v Revenir)  home for a US-style Fourth of July celebration, complete with barbecued hamburgers, hot dogs, fireworks and lots of food and friendship.

A large group of expat Americans and some locals enjoyed an afternoon of too much food along with beer, wine or pop.

Hamburgers were barbecued US-style by Dave and his helper’s wife.

There was a piñata for the children to break and the party ended with a small display of fireworks that frightened the nearby horses and David and Judy’s  dog.

On Sundays, when the restaurant is closed, the cruisers are allowed to use the space for sewing projects.  Our first Sunday in Ecuador I got started on making new clear plastic curtains for the cockpit to keep the cockpit dry in the frequent Panama rains.  The old ones had served us well since leaving Mazatlán Mexico in 2001, but were ready for replacement.  The next Sunday was Father’s Day so the restaurant here was open for a special meal for the dads - no cruiser projects!  This last Sunday found 5 of us in the restaurant area repairing our sails.  I was early - before others arrived - and got the luff of our working jib repaired before the tables and floor filled up with the other sails and projects. 

Blue Bottle is getting its mizzen sail repaired after it got torn in a storm as they were leaving the Perlas Islands, Panama, while Gem is getting a new cockpit shade and another sail is being folded.

See the Map!

Saturday we, along with Shirley and Frank, made use of a local taxi.  After making several quick stops in Puerto Viejo for various “needs” we took off to play tourist.  We visited the Panama Hat  town of Montecristi, not far from Puerto Viejo.  This is one of the small towns where the Panama Hats are still made by hand.  The taxi driver first drove us up the hill to visit a new museum and tomb to past Presidente Eloy Alfaro (1842-1912) .  He was the president of Ecuador that instigated all the railway lines and rail service in this country in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

There was a great view over the city of Montecristi from the museum site.

Down the hill into the town we visited the church on the central plaza.  Like most Latin American cities the plaza and church is the focal point of the town.

We spent some time shopping before we realized that we were all hungry.  Since it was already after 2:00 PM, we hunted for - or should I say the taxi driver found - us a nice restaurant with tables just off the sidewalk.  There we enjoyed roast chicken, rice and patacones.  The food for all 5 of us came to just over $12, not a bad deal.

Sunday we took the ferry across Rio Chone to the farming town of San Vicente just across the river from Bahía.  We took the car ferry over and walked down the beach to the center of San Vicente where we found the bus to take us the rest of the way.

There we caught a bus to the surfing town of Canoa,  where we stopped off to visit boating friends who have now settled and built a real nice home there - we call it ‘the castle’.

Wayne and Cher have built, over the last three years, a very nice home on the beach.  Cher has some very pretty gardens and plans for more flowers.  She fixed us a nice lunch before we continued, walking along the beach, to visit Scott and his new home (still under construction) and then on to the beach town of Canoa.  We arrived in Canoa in time to catch the last bus back to San Vicente and the people ferry back across the river and then home.

Bill tightening up the stern line for bow-and-stern anchoring.

Tripp has set up a nice area at Puerto Amistad for computer use with wifi service.

Judy and Dave’s (s/v Revenir) land home, where Bill and I were invited to dinner on Tuesday night.

Bill enjoying the wonderful shrimp ceviche at the small waterfront eatery.

After spending three days anchored behind Cabo Pasado we moved the 20 miles south west to cross the bar at high tide into Bahia de Caraquez.  We arrived only to discover that the anchorage was full.  The bridge construction across the Rio Chone eats up about a third of the anchorage area.  Today Saturday June 13, we moved our anchor again for the forth time trying to find a spot where we will not bump into other boats as we move about in the current and the wind.  We are in an an area that is decreed to be for bow and stern anchors, which makes for interesting anchoring.  A boat, bow and stern anchored, moves a lot further than you would think and it is hard to determine exactly where she will go.  Well for today we are here in a slightly different spot than yesterday.

Here is Bill on the stern dealing with the stern anchor line.

While anchored at Cabo Pasado Bill spent two days working on our engine problems. One day was spent flushing out the transmission fluid to remove the sea water that had gotten into that system.  Then, having discovered that the antifreeze we replaced while anchored at the Perlas Islands was again brown, we realized that the main heat exchanger was leaking sea water into the fresh water system.  A second bad heat exchanger on this trip.  Bill replaced the heat exchanger with our spare and we spent several hours flushing the system with fresh water before refilling it with new antifreeze.  After we got anchored here in Bahia Bill replaced the antifreeze again.  He also changed the engine oil and changed the transmission fluid again.  All looks good now!! 

Bahia is a very friendly town and we are enjoying ourselves ashore.  We have been to several of our favorite restaurants with friends and enjoy our evening beer at Puerto de Amistad visiting with our friends.