Ready and raring to go

We've loaded the boat with mountains of food, piled the aft berth with toilet roll (well you just never know!) and slowly but surely ticked off the to do list. OK so we haven't finished all the chores but there is a point when one comes to terms with the age old saying that cruising is fixing boats in exotic places. Well La Playita is hardly exotic but more on that later.

We drew a line under our to do list and decided that the time had come to leave Panama and head for the big blue Pacific ocean, the rest of the chores could be done en route. A last minute veggie shop and we were off, Panama City skyline in the distance the plan was to sail to the Las Perlas for a week before making the jump to the Galapagos.

And boy were we relieved to leave La Playita anchorage behind. The pilot boats zoom in and out of the anchorage all day long with no regard for the many sail boats anchored off the breakwater. This results in being violently thrown around by their large wake, grabbing onto anything you can and steadying any items that may be on surfaces /floors. It was funny the first few times but it soon wears thin, especially when attempting to put provisions away and you see a perfectly stacked tin castle come tumbling towards you. Similarly with getting in and out of the dinghy, if you timed it just right with the wake of a big pilot boat, there was no need to step up from the dinghy onto Orion, a mere step across was more than sufficient.

Isla Contadora was our first stop in Las Perlas and we were joined by Legend IV. Anchoring away from the rest of the fleet, to the east of the airport we got our head around the tides (yes we are from the UK but have never actually done any sailing there, only racing) and dropped the hook near a lovely looking reef. That same reef rewarded us with a 7lb red snapper when Dylan went to try out his new speargun. Getting our final internet fix we went ashore to the resort and then the next day headed to Isla Bayoneta.

Pelican following us

Dolphin coming to say hello

Our new pet

Isla Bayoneta was chosen as the cruising guide described it as having 'large cowrie shells on the western shore'. I'm still uber keen to add to my shell collection so it was a must have stop for me and a day sail away. Did I find any beauties? Yes although not what I was expecting. Many small cowries and the best of the bunch, a pink murex. The dinghy ride to the spot is not for those with small outboards, a good 3 miles away you punch into the waves to get there.

Rio Cacique was our next stop, again with Legend IV as we fancied a trip up a river. It was no Dominica but a welcome change of scenery nonetheless.

Fly landing on Dylan's cheek

But onto the more poignant matter...when approaching the anchorage motoring into the current...our gearbox went (again). This had already happened to us when in Puerto Rico so we recognised the signs straight away. One minute we were doing a comfortable 5 knots into 2 knots of current and the next, we are doing 1.8 knots. Now we did think hmm maybe it is a very very strong tide but when revving the engine further, we did not move anywhere. Eeeek. Sailing onto anchor is no big deal for us as Dylan has made us practice on many an occasion so thats what we did.

Engine off, everything out of the lockers and down Dylan went to inspect the damage. No line around the prop, no visible breaks but when taking the oil stick out of the gearbox he saw iron filings. Not good and exactly what happened to us only 100 engine hours earlier.

So what do we do? Become like the Pardey's and shrug off the engine? Attempt to fix it ourselves with the spare thrust washers we have on board? Sail back to La Playita where we have just fled from having been there for 3 weeks too long and employ professional help? After a long discussion roping Legend IV into our decision making process, we opted for the latter. A 50 mile beat back to La Playita with no engine and potentially no wind.

Now in the previous blog Dylan mentioned how impressive Legend IV and she sure proved it to us. Jean and Alan very kindly offered to tow us into some wind to get us on our way so attaching a tow rope to our forward cleats, we were towed at up to 6 knots against the tide until we found a puff...some 30 miles further north! Jean and Alan saved us hours of frustrating tacking and wallowing and we owe them a box of wasabi peas a thousand times over.

Letting go of the tow we get the gib out and zoom off, beating into 30 knots in a flat sea...very pleasant and nice and fast. We stayed with this wind well into the night and only when we neared La Playita did the wind start to die. Anchoring on the Las Brisas side of the causeway we earned a new badge - anchoring under sail and in the dark in one of the worlds busiest shipping ports!

Now they say these things happen in threes...the next afternoon we are sulking on the boat waiting for Monday to come around so we could palm our sick gearbox off to a mechanic. A friend invited us for ceviche, we accepted and thought it prudent to once again back down on the anchor before we leave as Las Brisas anchorage is renowned for its poor holding. Yes our gearbox is sick but reverse works just fine! We whack her up to 2000 revs and poor Orion starts to drag (for the first time ever). Enlisting the help of a friend with a 40HP outboard on their dinghy (thanks Patrick), he zooms around to help us out of our predicament and whilst doing so our windlass decides to stop working (another first for Orion). Arrrrgh we are being tested to the limit! I swap positions and take up the helm whilst Dylan manually secures the chain.

We decide Las Brisas isn't so welcoming and opt to be towed around to La Playita. Although swelly at least we know the holding there is way better if you have enough scope out. Beers all round we check the anchor and then go ashore for some well deserved pickled raw fish!

The gearbox goes in on Monday and we get it back the following day, now how is that for service! So why did it break after only 100 engine hours of usage? Apparently the gearbox is overheating and we have a cooler we can now attach to the gearbox to stop it from happening again. Although a frustrating situation, we are very glad we know the root cause of the problem and that it happened when it did. Can you imagine if it had broken when going through the canal?! I shudder even contemplating it.

A scenario that put a major downer on our Pacific adventure actually turned out to be a minor blip that only put us back by 3 days. They say every cloud has a silver lining and for this cumuli nimbus it was in the form of a tablet. Very impressed by the ipad's ability to function as a back up chart plotter, we have purchased a cheaper version (Acer) and look forward to navigating now via Navionic's en route to Galapagos. The gearbox drama was obviously the universe's way in telling me that I had finished shopping yet!