Waiting for Weather in Panama (Lots of Pictures)

[NoRain]

You have to ask yourself: when you're old and feeble and confined to a wheelchair with a colostomy bag tied to the armrest, do you want your last memory to be you saved a few hundred bucks by not being easy walking distance to Key West.

I gotta believe most folks on this list are going to die with money anyway. Coffins don't have pockets.

Easy for me to say. I'm crew.

Peter

…and hearses don’t have ski racks

 

[Wtrguy]

Peter,
Thank you for letting us tag along. Best cruise I've never been on! While I've spent 7 days without touching land before, never covered that kind of water while doing it. It is very clear that we have a lot to learn before attempting such a feat. Standing by for the next adventure...

Kevin

 

[BoondocksHawks]

Great thread; good discussion points - thank you for sharing your experience specific to this trip as well as in general. Cool pictures, too!

 

[SteveK]

Peter, Were you able to walk on terra fermi without falling down. Looking for the post story.

 

[twistedtree]

I'll take the bait on FLIR. It's very expensive, and fills a very small gap in coverage between radar, your eyes, and a low light night vision camera. I doubt I would get another one if I were doing it again.

Where I have found it the most useful is operating in ice. I have had conditions with growlers that are polished smooth and appear more like giant clear ice cubes vs giant snow balls. In certain light conditions, they are nearly invisible. But on the FLIR they light right up. And if operating at night with potential ice, it would be great.

As for spotting floats, logs, or the mythical container, good luck with that. Remember, it's highlighting temp differences between objects, and anything floating around for any length of time will be the same temp as the sea. Also, just as a camera, it's about like a 1990s phone camera - hardly worth taking pictures with it. Even the better models are only 640 x something resolution. I think a high resolution low light camera like a Sionix would be much better at spotting debris and other inanimate floating objects.

And I can confirm that the reliability sucks. I had a "low end" FLIR facing aft on my last boat and it bit the dust, outside of warranty of course. And my current fancy dancy pan & tilt & stabilized.... well it's the 4th one over 2-3 years. A friend has the same camera on his boat and I think is on his 3rd. Only a government contractor would build such a camera and charge so much for it. And only government agencies would accept it's poor quality and poor performance.

 

[slowgoesit]

Our brand new FLIR from RayMarine is two years old, and has never worked. Not once. It's still under warranty. I've removed it twice to "trouble shoot" stuff they wanted me to do . . . Removing it entails going up the mast, first removing the 48" Open Array radar, just so I can get to the attach bolts for the FLIR, then remove the FLIR . . .TWICE! I still think it is a bad cable, but they won't replace it under warranty . . . I've got another year of warranty, then, before the warranty expires, we're going to have a come to God moment . . . .
I cannot in good conscience recommend a FLIR, at least not THAT brand to anyone.

 

[long-cours.62]

"...). We do an engine room check every couple hours. Yesterday we changed one of the Racor fuel filters..."

You left the 8 April and need change Racor the 9 April ?
Already clogged ? Deficient filter ? Bacteria ? Dirty tank moved during one day ? Witch reason ? Thanks

Also one more question is she stabilised or not ?

 

[mvweebles]

You left the 8 April and need change Racor the 9 April ?
Already clogged ? Deficient filter ? Bacteria ? Dirty tank moved during one day ? Witch reason ? Thanks

Also one more question is she stabilised or not ?

The Racor had around 230 hours on it so had filtered around 1200g diesel. Although we didn't do the acetone test another post suggested, a friend at Northern Lights (who used to work for Deere Marine Propulsion) said the crud was asphaltines. He was not overly concerned about the service life of the filter. When we arrived in Key West we had over 130 additional hours on the new filter without any appreciable increase in vacuum.

The boat is stabilized with TRAC/ABT hydraulic stabilizers (the brand favored by PAE/Nordhavn) which worked flawlessly.

We catch a flight this afternoon back home to St Petersburg area after being gone a month.

Peter

 

[long-cours.62]

Thanks for your precision.
I was surprised by the problem with the filter because you wrote "The owner is incredibly knowledgeable and festidious about prep." ...And I thinking the filter was new at the start.
230 hours it is ne "normal" recommanded time to replace the filter.
When we bought our actual trawler the filter was ....burkkk and the tanks with bacteria ...it was a "nice" job to clean them ( luckily we have an "man hole" each 50 cm section).

Even with the stab it was unconfortable and not aesy to move on board; did you think it was due to a too low speed or and undersised stab ?
For example for our boat stab are "undersised" for 6 kts speed may be they will work well at 13 kts ...but never move at this speed because $$$$

 

[mvweebles]

Moving around was uncomfortable due to pitching of the vessel in head seas, not roll. The stabilizers eliminated any roll so that was a non issue.

The one thing I wish my Willard 36 had was waterline, at least enough to bridge standard 3-4 ft wind chop and reduce pitching. Of course she would not be a 36-foot boat but you get the idea.

BTW - a Nordhavn 76 "Take 5" just docked across the finger from us. Delivery crew at the helm. She's for sale for $3.3m USD. Listing shoes cruise speed of 8-kts which seems very low so likely a typo.

NORDHAVN 76'TAKE 5' - Nordhavn Yachts

Nordhavn 76 TAKE 5 was built to cruise the world in luxury, with safety and redundancy playing a key role.

nordhavn.com

Peter

 

[rslifkin]

Moving around was uncomfortable due to pitching of the vessel in head seas, not roll. The stabilizers eliminated any roll so that was a non issue.

The one thing I wish my Willard 36 had was waterline, at least enough to bridge standard 3-4 ft wind chop and reduce pitching. Of course she would not be a 36-foot boat but you get the idea.

I definitely know that feeling. A short waterline boat on a hull form that likes to pitch significantly and quickly in steep, short period head seas can make for a miserable ride upwind. Similarly, if I could change anything about the hull on my boat, it would be to reduce the rake of the stem to stretch the waterline a foot at the bow and to either extend the hull under the swim platform a bit, or add on a 3 - 4 foot cockpit for more hull length, easier dinghy access, and less trim issues with weight changes (fuel and water tanks are very far aft, so adding more hull aft of that would reduce the significant trim change due to tank levels).

 

[ksanders]

We went to the Dry Tortugas on a friend's boat out of Key West 6-years ago. I too fell in love with the place, though back then there was no comms at all - no VHF, no cell reception. I wonder if Starlink has changed the remote feeling of the place? But yes, it's high on our list for Weebles when she eventually gets here.

Thanks for the local knowledge on approaches to Key West. I think we're committed to crossing the stream conventionally - south of Marquesas Keys. I'm eager to see how the weather shakes-out. Chris Parker forecasts fairly lively winds (upper teens) against the Gulf Stream and advises a 90-degree crossing. NOAA/OPC shows a large-ish hi-pressure over the area and reduced winds. Our current thinking is to cross quickly to the north side of the Gulf Stream. If the winds are acceptable, ride the current towards KW. If winds are high, we'll dump out of the GS. Looks like it will be late tomorrow night when we at KW so will anchor nearby.


Shelter Bay Marina (Caribbean side of Panama Canal) is indeed a graveyard of cruising dreams. Many boats for sale.

I've been noodling over getting Weebles up the Caribbean for almost 2-years. To my thinking, a very challenging run on a boat not made for long runs. I think Dos Peces would be workable but would take a lot of planning (as does Weebles). For both boats, goal is to convert the long 1200nm passage into short hops of less than 500nms. My current thinking is to head east towards eastern Colombia, then squirt up to Jamaica (440 nms) and then around east end of Cuba through Bahamas. I think your Bayliner 4788 would be workable but would require the patience of Job.

View attachment 163964

Sorry, I just got back to this thread, we've been on the move!

I love that map!

Lots to think about the future!!!