We caught 3 gigantic fish on the way here!!! The largest sierra we've seen yet, plus another, which was one of the largest sierras, we've seen. Then we got another bite, Loyal reeled it in after a bit of it pulling away from us. It was a HUGE fish. We think it was a jack, but aren't totally sure. -- Probably 20-30 lb. fish. Did a little anatomy learning with the kids as we filleted it. It was an awesome white meat also!!! -- Really great fish. We shared some with our friends on Armagh when they arrived to the harbor and are running the fridge to keep it. Also eating some nice fish sticks for lunch and garlic Parmesan fish for dinner.
We left for the islands on a little bit of a whim, so I didn't have a chance to go "provisioning" (shopping for normal people). We are out of oats, which we have for breakfast 6 days a week! Crisis! Fortunately we had some cereals. This morning grandmother made fish soup for some of us. We also have pancake mix and can make pancakes and waffles. We certainly won't starve, but we are missing some of our favorite and/or typical foods. Getting the butter allowed me to make a crust for a couple of dessert recipes we have since I don't have any prepared cookies, etc.
A guy met us on the beach the first day and asked if we wanted fruit. I said yes, so he came again yesterday and climbed a coconut tree and cut us down about 10 coconuts. I have no idea what to do with 10 green coconuts, but we bought them from him for $0.50 each for the experience. He then went and cut some limes for us, a large bag of them for $3. I thought he was also getting some oranges, but they were "naranja limones" (orange limes) as a type of lime, not oranges and limes as I had understood. So we loaded up in our kayak and just as we were leaving another guy came down with 10 oranges (which are green here) bundled in his arms hollering for us. We went back and he wanted $3 for them. I told him $2 and we made a deal. We can get a huge bag of oranges for $3-$5 on mainland, so he knew he was working us, even at $2. Not to mention, I think he just picked them from a tree on the way to us. We found a papaya tree that was knocked down or cut down or something. Didn't look like a clean cut. After looking at the papayas on the ground for 3 days, we finally brought 4 of them back to the boat today. They aren't ripe yet, but may be nice.
There is a lot of development going on this island. There is a clubhouse with a map plan of the island. It appears a development group bought the entire island. Patty on Armagh says the same company owns the ferry company also. They donated 1/3 of the island to a biologic reserve. They are putting in a marina and a marina village, a service port, an airport, a club with condos and private residences, a pool and tennis courts. It looks like a very pleasant plan if they pull it off. The marina breakwater is being built as well as they are terracing the hill adjacent to us and working on it every day. There is a nice outdoor structure straight in from us at the beach with a cute little bridge and two small 'houses'. If it's any indication, the materials and construction look very nice!! I think the security guy that sits there all day indicated that it cost 500 million dollars before building any of the houses. I could be wrong though since he only speaks Spanish.
Yesterday we tried to rescue a pelican without much success. He was on the beach and struggling. He had a rope on his neck and foot. We threw a towel on his head and beak, Courage held him while I cut the rope from his neck and leg. He had a gimp right foot and probably a wing issue although it didn't seem broken when he'd flap them out. He still couldn't get moving. We tried to give him a fish we'd found on the beach, but he wouldn't eat it. Maybe it was too big? So we cut up chunks from our fish we'd caught and tossed them to him, but he didn't eat them. I think today he was dead on the beach, but not totally sure.
We have been playing volleyball most days since heading to the islands with some other friend boats. We made a volleyball net out of our old fish net that we used to make lifelines for the kids on the boat. We tie it up with rope to a tree or bamboo post. Yesterday we had some good teams! The aero-naval vessel came in and anchored. A bunch of 20-year-old guys came in and went to shore to jog and swim and exercise. A couple came to our game and watched for a minute and we called them into the game. Then a couple more came. We had 5 on 5. Easiest we've had it as far as coverage. Made for a good game. We had 4 from Lil' Explorers, 1 from Armagh, and 5 aero-naval guys all intermixed. We have been playing with a rubber bouncy "Tigger" ball and it goes great. Today it's windy, so we used Armagh's real volleyball. We decided it was just too hard, so we went back to Tigger and quit after one game.
We then just walked the shore. Tons of gorgeous white shells and some crystal type rocks. We have taken way too many rocks onboard. Need to come up with a plan for them. Integrity would like to "sell them for money." He was going to take the first dollar to buy candy at the Shopette in Panama City, and then let me have the rest for laundry coins.
We are still going back and forth on the Galapagos. Currently we are more in the "let's go" plan. I think we're more likely to regret not doing it than doing it. It's a lot of money, but a one-week tour once you get to the islands is $1000 per person for the cheap tour. Then there are tips, drinks, trinkets, or whatever. That would be $10,000 for the likes of us. Besides that, it's $400 per person to fly to the islands, etc. It will cost us about $1500-$2000 for permits, visas, etc for 5 islands for one month. It's right on our way to French Polynesia (which is going to cost us $1500 for the 6 month visas for the 10 of us in contrast), so could break up the trip nicely and give us a good land break. We can also buy fresh fruits/veggies to restock once we're there, giving us a nice resupply just when we're about to run out. It's also quite unique as a set of islands, which we've seen many of. I also think that it would be really cool as the kids are learning about the Galapagos to have actually seen it and know what they are talking about in a very literal sense.
Anyway, there's a brief update to where we are currently. We are thinking of going back toward the end of the weekend to mainland. I have some serious shopping to do. We would like to get our tarp fitted to our new roof so that we have sidewalls to protect us from sun and rain in the cockpit. We also need to get our applications in for our French long stay visas. We need passport pictures, copies of things made, etc. I also need to start getting supplies for our offshore trip. 10 months of staples, then get them vacuum packed or otherwise sealed safely from bugs and the elements. That's going to take some time and effort and money. Lots of work ahead of me! Enjoy a few more days at sea. . . I will also be looking at making plans for Cassidy as well as for our last 2-3 months here. We need to have a lot of coming and going from the boat, preparing supplies, and checking out of the country. We are very excited - there is another boat going to the South Pacific with a 15 year old boy and a 13-year-old girl on it. They are from the states and just came through the canal Tuesday. We weren't there of course to greet them, but we talked on Facebook as we were leaving the harbor. They leave for the states on the 16th, so we may miss them until they return on the 6th of Jan. (Then Cassidy may be leaving).
Excited to meet them whenever it works out!
Shannon
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