Notes on the Las Perlas, Panama to San Cristobal, Galapagos Run

The first 5 hours after we left was done under the asymmetric spinnaker in light winds. 

I thought I’d drop a few notes for our cruiser friends coming this way. Since I’ve only done the passage once and only at one time of year, take it all with a grain of salt.
Overall it was one of the easiest passage sails we’ve had. The course we laid out was about 890 miles. We sailed about 960 miles per the log. It took us 6 days and 6 hours. The first 2 1/2 days was a nice downwind sail with winds in the 12-20kts range. The higher range being nearer Punta Mala (Bad Point) exiting the Bay of Panama. Our course was laid out to pass Punta Mala at about 26 miles offshore. The actual course had us about 11-12 miles off. Seas were small the entire way, all less than 1 meter.
The next 3 days days was mostly close hauled with light winds. We had 2 nights of no wind that we motored through. This ended up with about 25 hours of motoring, including the last 17 miles coming up the inside of San Cristobol island heading into the anchorage at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.
Daily noon-to-noon runs were: 182, 145, 141, 153, 123, 108 miles

Our course took us past the west side of Isla Mapelo. A Columbian Island about 250 miles offshore. It is located about 2 miles NW of where it is charted on our electronic charts. Pretty desolate looking place.

Our basic weather plan was to wait till their was a north wind blowing in the Bay of Panama and the ITCZ was north of us. This time of year the north winds seem to blow about once a week or so and the ITCZ moves around a lot. When we left it was actually south of us, but pretty much dissipated by the time it got to the longitude of the Galapagos. You can a  prediction of the ITCZ from the surface chart RadioFax online (or broadcast) from NOAA Hawaii. The rest of our plan was to sail the north winds as far south as we could, motor through the doldrums and then take the S or SE winds onto the Galapagos.

This is the OSCAR view of the currents running from Panama to the Galapagos. It was fairly accurate till about 250-300 miles from the Galapagos when we got almost 2 days of current against us that did not show up on the OSCAR display. You can pickup an OSCAR grib by sending a request e-mail to query@svsarana.com with the body of the e-mail the same as you would for a normal grib files, with the word OSCAR in place of GFS. The body would look similar to (all on one line): send OSCAR:11N,03S,091W,078W|1,1|0,6..180,192..240|WIND,WAVES,RAIN

We arrived at San Cristobol in the late afternoon. You could go in here at night, especially with prior experience, but it is probably better to wait till day light to make your approach. Above is a small freighter from Guayaquil aground on the reef after having engine failure when picking up their anchor. The white boat next to it is assisting the salvage and you can see the oil spill protection boom in the water. The salvage operation is expected to cost the owners US$5 million – the limits of their insurance.
There are yellow mooring cans (made of plastic, not metal) with large bitts on top of them located on the port side of the bay for cruising boats. Create a lasso with each of your bow lines and drop them over the bitt. 
We arrived with an Autografo that we had setup with agent Bolivar Presente about a month before our arrival. The total cost came to $1265 for us for 3 ports. He met us at the boat that evening to get our passports and discuss the inspection. After 2 days of visits from various officials and two separate video inspections by divers of our hull, we were officially cleared in.
The bottom needs to be clean BEFORE you arrive. I dove ours 3 times in the Perlas island with the Hooka and got it really clean. But by the time we stopped just offshore San Cristobol to recheck it, it had grown a fair amount of green slime. I dove it twice offshore to get that off. If you get your bottom rejected by the officials, then you can be told to head offshore approximately 40miles and have the boat cleaned there, probably by local divers. Alternately, you may arrange a less pc way to have the hull cleaned before inspectors arrive.
You also definitely want to have a Fumigation certificate before you arrive – available from Tito in Panama for $25. If not, you’ll be paying for fumigation in the Galapagos.
The food inspection was pretty extensive, with the most effort put into looking for weevils in the rice and pasta. Be prepared to give up any citrus you have onboard. And, be sure you have your trash separated into recyclable, organic and ‘black’ waste.
If you show up without an Autografo, then your stay is at the whim of the Port Captain. It sounds like depending on the port captain you actually get, you will pay the entry fees and get anything from 3 - 5 days or 20 days.
The only thing we would have done differently on this passage would be to drive a little further south, if possible, before heading west towards the Galapagos, giving us a little better angle to the wind as we approached.
Paul

Galapagos passage- pictures

We’ve completed our approximately 890 mile passage between Las Perlas Islands, Panama, and Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, crossing the Equator on our way. Many people think the equator is an imaginary line that wraps the belly of the earth and separates the northern hemisphere from the southern. Of course, many people think that NASA faked the Moon landings. Others think the equator is a raised bump, a little like a speed bump, that wraps the waters of the earth. They are all wrong. It is actually a small dip in the waters, as you can see in this photo. The dip is small enough that you hardly notice it when you sail over it.
I know this photo is a little racy for this family blog, but I wanted to show how important it was to prepare properly for the Equator Crossing ceremony. Here I am showering in the cockpit for the occasion. Plus, Chris likes to memorialize the rare times that I shower.
Here’s our GPS position readout at N00* 00.750 – pretty darn close to the 00* 00.0, i.e. the Equator.

Pouring King Neptune's shot of rum over the side of the boat. This is the payment required to pass the Equator. Lots of bad kharma can accrue if you attempt to run across the Equator without paying the toll.

A passenger: a Red-footed Booby, with his blue beak, bouncing along on our bow as we sail along, about 125 miles off the Galapagos.

We made a stop offshore to check and clean the boat’s bottom. The middle of the ocean is not my favorite place for bottom cleaning– kinda rolly and the home of great whites. Before we left the Perlas islands in Panama I did 3 one hour hookah dives to clean the boat bottom. So it was just about as clean as she gets when we left Panama. The Galapagos park officials actually bring a diver with them to the boat upon entry to inspect and GoPro video the bottom. If you fail the bottom smell test, then you can be sent back out, 74 km offshore, to have the bottom cleaned professionally. So, as we approached San Cristobol island, eastern most island of the chain, I jumped in to re-check the bottom to make sure it was clean after our 6-day passage. Much to my amazement, it was covered about 20% on the starboard side and 10% on the port side with a dark green slime. How this stuff grows on a boat bottom that is constantly moving is beyond me. Maybe we painted the bottom in September with fertilizer paint instead of anti-fouling paint. It took a 40 minute dive and second 30 minute dive to get the green off all the way to the bottom of the keel.

Our first Galapagos landmark: Kicker Rock, a famous dive site. Known locally as Leon Dormido, or Sleeping Lion, seen as we cruise along San Cristobol island, approaching Port Baquerizo Moreano, our first stop. San Cristobol was also Darwin’s first stop.

As soon as you tie up on one of the yellow mooring cans in the port’s harbor, you are assigned a set of sea lions. They’re very friendly and like to come by to visit. This is one of the assigned younger sea lions being very lazy on our swim step. He could care less that I just leaned over him and took his picture. Late last night Chris was woken up by a loud ‘sneeze’. I went to the companionway to investigate and there was a very large sea lion napping on the cockpit seat cushion with his head about a foot from the companionway! This one spoke English and when I yelled at him to get off he slowly looked up at me and then slithered under the pulpit and launched himself back into the water.
We’re now trying to devise ways to limit their entry into the cockpit and later on today we plan to go into the small town and look in the stores for some Seal-Be-Gone spray for the cockpit.
Paul

San Cristobol

We arrived at Puerto Baquerizon Moreno on San Cristobol island, Galapagos late this afternoon. Took one of the yellow mooring buoys. It is just off a beach that is filed with sea lions, along with some people who are also trying to use the beach. Now to find our agent and start the check-in dance.

Paul


----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galapagos Passage Day 6

We passed the equator last night at 23:25. Gave up some rum for Neptune as the toll to pass the big line into the Southern Hemisphere. Yesterdays noon-to-noon run was 123 miles. The winds were light and the current was against us overnight. The sun finally came out for most of the afternoon. Right now there's a large white bird with black wing trim and a blue beak riding the pulpit at our bow. She's been there for a few hours. Looks like if the wind holds we will make it into San Cristobol before dark. We want to try and stop and do one more bottom clean before the Galapagos inspection police take look.
Paul



----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galapagos Passage Day 5

We've been sailing close hauled for the last few days. This morning the winds are about 13kts from the S. The current has been against us for the last few days. The OSCAR current grib that I download daily shows the current with us -- not sure what that is about, but it would be easier if the current followed the rules and gave us a push. Noon-to-noon run was 153 miles.

We are 27 miles N of the equator right now and 127 miles from the tip of San Cristobol Island. Looks like we will make Wreck Bay before dark on Thursday -- if not, we'll have to hang offshore till the morning.
No ship or fishing boat sightings. We have a few sea birds that stop by and carefully evaluate the solar panels as nice place to stop.

Paul



----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galapagos Passage Day 4

The rains stopped mid-morning, the overcast stayed all day and the winds were still blowing out of the south giving us a bouncy ride as we sailed to weather close reach. Noon-to-noon run was 141 miles. Probably a bit longer on the path we actually sailed.

Last night and this morning were the first AIS targets since we left the crowded Panama Canal entrance area. Looks like they are cargo ships heading toward the main shipping port on the Ecuador mainland, Guayaquil. We haven't visually seen any boats since Panama.

Still on schedule to arrive on Thursday morning.

Paul


----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galapagos Passage Day 3

So I hear there was a football scrimmage yesterday afternoon along with some advertising awards ceremony. So who won? We'll need to know so we can make it past the Washington State border guards when we try and return.

Yesterdays noon-to-noon run was 145 miles. That includes the overnight motoring. The winds picked up in the early morning and we had a good downwind sail all day. In the early evening they shut down again and we decided to motor toward the equator to try and get through the ITCZ and get some S winds. About 4am we hit the S winds. Blowing about 17kts and lots of rain. Plus it is cold out, 75*F. We are now 133 north of the equator.

The other day we decided to setup a whisker-pole to hold out the genoa headsail while going downwind. I never really like using these things. They take time to setup and tear down and its always on a bouncy foredeck. We set the pole up with fore and aft guys and a topping lift so it could stay up for a long time and we could still furl the headsail, etc. We got the genoa flying on the windward side for all of about 15 minutes before the internal control line that adjusts the length of the pole let loose at the inside fitting. The pole then collapsed inward and we started the process of taking the pole and gear down. Oh well.

Looks like we will make Wreck Bay, San Cristobol Island in the Galapagos sometime on the 5th. If I calculate correctly, that's Thursday.

Paul



----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galaagos Passage Day 2

We had a great run the first 24 hours out of Panama. The noon-to-noon run was about 182 miles. In light to medium north winds. The winds held out till about 4pm, then it went dead. We motored through the night in zero wind and flat seas. At about 5am the winds picked back up out of the north and we are back to a nice downwind sail.
Right now we are passing about 12 miles off of Isla Mapelo. This is a big rock that juts out of the water about 150 feet and is 200 miles off the Colombian coast. It is apparently manned by a Colombian armada contingent. It is interesting that it is actually about 2 miles NW of the charted position on my electronic charts. Sea birds from the island have come out to check us out. Not sure what they are, sleek white bodies with black wings (storm petrels?)
I expected the winds to come up out of the S or SE after we had nothing overnight, but the wind gods decided to have them come out of the N. So we'll see how the sailing goes today.
We are 483 miles north of the equator.
Paul

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Galapagos Passage Day 1

We left the Las Perlas Islands in Panama Bay yesterday morning around 10am. After a couple of hours of sailing we got to put up the asymmetric spinnaker -- big red. Had a nice 4 hour spin sail. The big ship traffic to and from the Panama Canal is like a busy highway -- with us sailing down the median strip. As we approached Punta Mala around 12 miles off, the winds picked up and we got rid of the spinnaker and put a reef in the mainsail. The seas are small, so the rides been pretty good so far.
We had a big inbound freighter just abeam of us in the early hours of the morning. Another cargo ship was on the same course but about 5 miles further out. The further out vessel called the closer in freighter on the VHF and immediately went into a long conversation in what I believe was Hindi. The only thing we could understand was when the closer vessel explained to the other one "its a sailboat, Georgia, red light". The further away boat changed his course to miss us by a mile.

Winds have lightened up this morning, but we are still making 7.5kts.
Paul



----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Checking Out of Panama

After we got through checking out of Panama we sailed the 28 miles to the Las Perlas anchoring behind Isla Chapera at sundown. It was a good sail with Georgia doing 7.5kts the whole way or better. We had a nice visit from dolphins who came over to play in the boat wake. Also saw a whale spouting as we approached the islands.

Checking out was a little more complex than it should have been – welcome to Latin America. After a 1/2 hour wait, the very helpful and friendly Flemenco port captain showed up and got us our Zarpe for Galapagos, Ecuador. Then we headed to Immigration to get our passports stamped. The immigration lady was having nothing to do with it. She insisted we head to the main Immigration office and get our Tripulante (crew) visas paid for and put in our passports (these are actual stamps they stick in your passport) before we check out. We had already paid for them -- $100 a piece – in  Porvenir in the San Blas islands when we checked-in. The visa in the passport had hand written next to it ‘Tripulante’ by the Immigration officer there, but no stamp. That wasn’t enough for her. The immigration officer had no English, so we were struggling a bit on the language side. We knew where this other immigration office was and didn’t want to spend the day getting out there, being told the right person wasn’t there and having to come back the following day. Just as I was getting a bit feisty with the situation the Port Captain stuck his head in. Despite his translation and encouragement we were at a standstill with Immigration. Then Chris found the receipt for $200 from Immigration in the San Blas. This broke the log jam – although the Immigration officer still wanted to see a receipt for an additional $5, but she finally relented on that. A dozen photo copies later and we had our exit stamps dutifully stamped into our passports.

Before we left, though, we needed a fumigation certificate to enter the Galapagos. A dozen phone calls, one more day, and Tito, the guy we rented Canal lines from, came by and with our $25 certificate. comment redacted for now..
A couple of days of cleaning the bottom, as it has to be spotless to enter the Galapagos, and cooking up meals for the passage, then we will take off – probably on Friday.
Paul