Miguelito - my new old friend

We took a tricycle (a big three wheeled bike connected to a square basket with a seat in the back) to a school that had the one and only Galapagos tortoise that was not in the Galapagos but lived here in Bahia de Caraquez.

As we got to the gate it was shut. There were a few people around. We asked them how to get in. They tried to help us in but the door was locked so they told us to go talk to the person across the street in the “tienda,” that’s Spanish for store.

Ruth found the caretaker and he unlocked the gate. He led us through the garden then finally we found Miguelito, the Galapagos tortoise. As we got closer to the tortoise I asked him if I could get on him, he said yes. I climbed on top of Miguelito and sat on his hard thick shell. He started to move forward slowly and he was taking me for a ride!



Ruth asked the man how old Miguelito was and he told us that Miguelito just celebrated his 100th birthday! Wow, almost as old as my great -grandmother Anita. He said the tortoise is actually pretty young since many Galapagos turtles live to be 250 years old! As we sat there for a while in awe of this old creature, we wondered whether he was thirsty? We gave the man our water bottle and he poured water down Miguelito’s nose. Miguelito seemed to love the water and inhaled it through his nose. He has two big holes in his nose. The holes are about as wide as a pencil.



Then we went back to the boat. A few days later I went with Ruth and Maya to a Columbus Day parade only they don't really celebrate Columbus but they celebrate people from all over the world. We rode our unicycles in the parade. Afterwards, we went to visit Miguelito again and again and again.

He is our new, but old friend.

Isla de Cañas - turtles

This story takes place on our last night in Panama before we sailed to Ecuador

Kamaya skimmed across the long island known as Isla de Cañas, Panama. It is a long island which, at first sight, may look like part of the mainland and it's known for its turtles, who come through the gigantic surf to lay eggs. The species of turtles most commonly found here are the Olive Ridleys.

As I stared at the surf from the dinghy, I wondered how the Olive Ridleys managed to do this three times a month during the nesting season. Once the wheels were down on our dinghy, the dinghy lurched forward and went to depth enough to stand. Everyone got out, a few seconds later a big wave came and nearly flipped the dinghy over! At least, it got a few gallons of water inside. We bailed out the water and then changed into dry clothes. I wondered if we'd see any turtles.

We walked along the beach for at least a mile. There was nothing, no sign of turtles. Maybe tonight wasn't a good night, what if we wouldn't see anything?
Finally we saw a land mark signifying the beginning or the end of the reserve. there was someone sitting at the landmark. But we hadn't noticed that yet, for we heard the sound of churning sand! A turtle! Just then the high pitched whine of my brother Kai broke the tranquility and beauty of the turtle scene. He kept screaming, "Let's go back now." We hissed back to him to stop yelling and that there was a turtle coming up to nest. It took a little time to get the message across about the turtle, but finally he quieted down.

What he saw was amazing. Her larger front fins were shoveling and propelling her body across the sand, when I looked back, the tracks of the sea dweller went back a long way, she had come far from the sea.



By now she had made it parallel to the post, which we had just noticed and we went over to see what was there. This proved to be good, for there was a person leaning against it. She told us that this post marked the line to the reserves and we had been walking in the "non reserves" where the turtles are not protected from poachers. We also learned that she worked with the biologists here, but was not one herself. The Kamaya crew had met some other people who worked like her.

After reporting this new information to everyone else, we noticed the turtle had made some digging progress, she had a half foot and was shoveling out sand with her powerful front flippers. She splattered sand everywhere. The nest was complete! Now she began laying eggs, one by one. There were some more people looking at her, you could see the tears in her eyes. It reminded me how much alike turtles and humans are, yet she was prehistoric. A marvel of evolution.



The woman at the pole walked over and dug out the sand layer, in which covered the secret pouch where she was laying. She wanted to show us the eggs which were the size of ping pong balls, coming out one at a time. Making an unheard yet loud noise as they fell into the pouch where the fellow eggs lay. With each egg, the turtles' body heaved with the effort. She layed about thirty eggs, and then turned back to the sea. During the nesting season, she would lay about a hundred eggs total! But that's nothing in comparison to the Leatherback turtle, which can do 450 to 600 eggs total!



Meanwhile the Olive Ridley had stopped laying eggs and was covering her nest with sand. She walked all the way around the nest, spraying sand everywhere to cover up the eggs. It looked pretty camouflaged. Satisfied, she dragged herself back towards the ocean. About midway there she staggered towards the light of the nearby town, confused. Turtles often mistake city lights for the moon, and travel towards it. We aimed her in the right direction by blocking out the false light with our bodies. She understood and clambered towards the sea on her flippers, plunging into the surf. As she went in, out came another turtle, about to make the same journey as she had, the journey she was born to perform, one after the other.

Kai just got published!

Kai just had an article published in the October issue of Latitudes and Attitudes magazine. It's a great account of our crossing of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Here's a link to his article.

Life in Ecuador

Less than a week after arriving in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador, we enrolled Maya and Kai in school, joined the local tennis club and started a routine life. The kids take tennis lessons everyday at our new club, Ruth takes yoga and is coaching two girls for a regional spelling bee and I am helping the school set up some physics demonstrations. We feel like a normal family with a normal routine.

Here's a typical day. We get up at 6 am, have a quick breakfast, Maya and Kai put on their school uniform of jeans and polo shirt and we dinghy over to the dock at Puerto Amistad, our home on land. From here, the kids walk across the street and take the bus to school at 6:45 am. School, which is 5 kilometers away, starts at 7am and sometimes they do miss the bus. Then we have to take a taxi.


Can you tell how Maya and Kai feel about school?

Classes include Spanish, English, math, science, PE, art, music, and a really interesting one called "development of thought." During English class which is everyday for two periods, the kids are tutored in Spanish.



Maya and Kai come back in the school bus around 1:40 in the afternoon and quickly change into tennis garb. We jump on a 3-wheel bicycle taxi...which takes you anywhere in town for .50 cents...and head straight to the tennis club.



The local pro, Coco, teaches Maya and Kai tennis, while Ruth and I play on the clay tennis courts. After tennis the kids love to play with the other boat kids here at Puerto Amistad, while Ruth coaches some of the girls on their upcoming spelling bee.



It's comfortable and relaxing to be back in a routine. The stormy skies of Panama have been replaced by stable cool weather. Surprisingly, even though we're living on the equator, the weather is cool, almost like San Francisco. We actually sleep with a sheet AND a blanket at night and sometimes wear a sweatshirt or long pants during the day!

Passage to Ecuador

In the early morning of September 2nd, after a night with the turtles (Maya’s next blog entry will detail our incredible night), we sailed off the hook from Isla Canas, Panama and made our way to Ecuador. In front of us was the powerful Humboldt Current, the cold ocean current flowing north from Chile to Peru. For that reason, we opted to sail about 100 miles southwest out to sea for relief and a better wind angle. We also wanted to by-pass the coast of Columbia which is known to have a few pirates lurking around.

Kamaya was loaded with oodles of bananas, yellow-finned tuna and lobster that the locals had given us within a few minutes after we set our anchor in Isla Canas. Our refrigerator was also stocked with a tasty fresh caught Sierra. We also had heaps of mangos, and tons of dried goods like pastas, beans and rice that we had purchased in Panama City. No one was going to go hungry on this 600 mile leg of our journey.

During our first night at sea, we faced thick rain, lightning, thunder and plenty of wind. The lightning would flash and light up the ocean for a few seconds and then, even though we had a nearly full moon, the sky would be dark from the clouds. Fortunately, the lightning was miles away from us, but it still kept us alert and nervous, especially since we had already been struck once and had just repaired our radar.

The strong wind continued throughout our journey and oscillated from the south to the southeast, which meant we were sailing upwind with the sails closely hauled in. At times we had a double-reef on our main. The second day, the lightning and thunder ceased, yet the sky stayed grey. We enjoyed the cooler weather, especially after the heat and humidity in Panama. We saw lots of flying fish. One whacked Tim in the back while he was standing on the side of the boat. Sailing upwind with 20 knots on the bow impeded our cooking -- that meant bananas for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the fish had to wait for calmer days. The current was so strong that it kept sucking us into the coast, making it hard for us to round the island of Malpelo that we had plotted as our initial course. We ended up sailing inside the island, leaving it about 60 miles to our starboard side.

Nothing really noteworthy happened until the fourth night, Sunday, September 6th, when we crossed the Equator. September 6th also happens to be our one year anniversary of living on Kamaya. It's pretty amazing that one year ago, we pulled up our anchor in Sausalito and sailed out the Golden Gate Bridge with Zach, Stef, Eli, Ari, Dave and Cole. It doesn't seem that long ago that the same night that we waved good-bye to them in Half Moon Bay and they drove back to their routine lives, while we didn't have a crystal ball guiding our future.

Anyway, a few minutes before 10:00 pm that night, Maya counted down the minutes of the longitude on our GPS. We each had four blue M&Ms for a sacrifice to Poseidon. “Save the turtles,” Kai said as he threw his M&M into the sea. “Don’t sink our ship” Maya requested. “Be kind to us,” I said. Then Tim took a cup of rum and reiterated the plea to keep us safe on the sea as he poured the sailor’s grog into the surrounding waves. We then blasted songs from Finding Nemo and danced on the deck, celebrating our passage to the official South Pacific.

We're now drying out our sea legs a bit in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador where thankfully there is no lightning. Tomorrow, Monday, Maya and Kai will go to school for the next month and immerse themselves in this very friendly country. We make our way around town getting rides on a three-wheeled bicycle cart and we've even joined the tennis club. It's been an incredible year for us and I'm sure the next year will be equally adventurous.

We end this blog entry with a special wish to my Grandmother who just turned 102! Happy Birthday Grandma Anita. I can't believe that it's been two years that we were all with you for your 100th birthday. Stay healthy and wise. With love from the Kamaya crew.

Ruth's Update

Lightning, Radar, Kittens and Impetigo. The Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) question would ask what do they have in common or something of that sort and then there would be an option for none of the above or in our case, all of the above. Maya and Kai have been doing sample SAT questions online this morning because the Oregon School District warned us that if Maya doesn't take her Third Grade SAT test, then she might not be able to get her driver's license. Well, keeping 9 year old Maya out of the driver's seat is something I support fullheartedly, especially since she can't reach the gas and brake pedals.

But, back to the hypothetical SAT question. Lightning, radar, kittens and impetigo have a lot in common in this month's life on board Kamaya.

Lightning and Radar

Lightning and radar don't go well together, and when they do, the result spells trouble. Somewhere in Costa Rica, probably when we were sailing around Drake's Bay, and encountered a big storm where lightning blazed the sky and thunder banged and cracked loudly, we experienced a "near-hit" that fried our radar. Caput. It didn't work anymore, making it difficult for us to spot ships and understand the lay of the land at night. So we "blindly" made our way to Panama City where thanks to insurance, we were able to get a new radar installed as well as do lots of work on the boat. Now we're back in action.

As I write, we've made it out of Panama City and are now anchored in Contadora, one of the few developed islands in Las Perlas where the posh Panamanians come to swim, fish and play. The water is clear and warm and teaming with food for the humpback whales that frolic around. The Shah of Iran called Contadora home for a short time and this small island is also the place where secret political talks occur in the very fancy homes built with stellar views. One of the most famous talks included former General Manuel Noriega just before the US instigated Operation Just Cause. Remember that? With characters like Oliver North and loud rock music that US Marines blasted in Christmas 1989 around the house where Noriega sought shelter.

Impetigo

Somehow Maya has impetigo, the same contagious skin disease that infected some of the kids in the Gorge while we were visiting this summer. Once you've learned to say the word, you're half way there to curing it. It's fairly common and can start with an irritated insect bite and then it grows fast, especially if itched and not treated with bactroban or some sort of strong ointment. If it's severe, which Maya's was, then antibiotics cure it pretty quickly. Fortunately, Maya is on the mend and today, she can finally jump in the clear water.

Mochito the Kitten



Lastly, we've agonized about the possibility of adopting a cute little kitten that our friend Roger and his wife Gladis found near the anchorage in Panama City. The little tiger kitten was abandoned by his mother and had a broken tail. Roger has a huge heart, especially for cats, and he was feeding the kitten and bathing him. He had brought him to the Balboa Yacht Club where there are a lot of stray cats who Tito, the manager of the yard, takes care of. They had named him "Mochito" which is related to the fact that the tip of his tail was cut off.

One day, Roger and Gladis graciously took me to a number of grocery stores in Panama City so I could provision the boat. At the end of the day, they were were going to take Mochito to their home in Panama City for a flea bath. Maya and Kai came along for this part of the journey and took a quick liking to the kitty. For the week, we kept Mochito on the boat and didn't get any sleep, but had such fun playing with him. Maya and Kai stepped to the plate and took incredible care of Mochito.

We made lists of the pros and cons of keeping Mochito with us on Kamaya and we agonized over the decision. On the positive side, the kitten was cute, fun, needed a home, would come in handy if mice ever boarded the boat and, most important, he was a bundle of love and the kids were super excited to have a new friend to play with. But on the negative side, Mochito was nocturnal, needed feeding, attention and kitty liter and some of the places where we're going like Hawaii and New Zealand require quarantining animals. Moreover, when we travel inland, we would need to find someone to take of the cat. So all this combined, we opted to leave the kitten with Tito. Fortunately, when we brought Mochito to the yacht club, Tito's eyes lit up and the other workers seemed super happy that Mochito returned.

But all this has made us realize the importance of neutering cats and we encourage all to help minimize the number of unwanted animals roaming the earth.

Message in a Bottle

In November, my grandparents sailed with us to Espiritu Santos in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. During the passage I wrote an old fashion style of communication, a message in a bottle.

The message was carefully rolled so it could fit neatly into the Kahlua bottle. I took out the message again, I had forgotten to put an email address on. Then I rolled it back up and put it in the bottle, and corked it. I walked from the main salon to the companionway and then walked outside. I took a few steps out to the deck. Extending my arm I held the bottle out over the water. Was I littering? I thought. Maybe. What if this is just going to end up on some island where no one ever goes, or maybe an unknown island. Maybe it will just drift in the ocean forever until it smashes against the rocks somewhere. No, I told myself. Someone would find it. And with that I dropped it into the water. Though I didn’t really think anyone would find the bottle.

Much later, in late July, I checked my email. There was one message entitled “Bernado Castro Moreno.” I clicked on it, and in spanglish it read:

HOLA MAYA I was strolling the beach and VI BOTTLE YOUR CURIOSITY TO SEE ME CAUSE THAT WAS AN INSIDE AND ROLE THAT DATE broke dropped HAVE THE BOTTLE TO THE SEA 30 YEARS AND I AM MY NAME IS BERNADO DE LA PAZ BCS MEXICO I told your parents that I that I wrote you NOT TO BADJUST THINK QUISERA respond. SALUDOS

Then I remembered the bottle dropped on the way to Espiritu Santos! I quickly replied. I supposed it wasn’t littering after all. And it didn’t end up on an unknown island, or smashing against the rocks, it ended up being found. What are the chances of that?