In this weeks Fleet Update
- Save the Date Panama Posse Awards Finale
- Country Updates C19 Extraordinary Line Call
- Vessel Locations
- Kissing the dock in Costa Rica
- Termites oh my !
- Puerto Angel, MX
- Marina Chahue, Fuel Dock
- Happy Cinco de Mayo – Taco Tuesdays Pictures from the Fleet
- Sign up for the next season of the Panama Posse – 50 !
- Please reply with updates
- Opt out
1) SAVE THE DATE
Saturday May 30th, 2020
is the end of season Panama Posse Awards Finale
LINE CALL at 23:00 UTC
Among other things we announce the following awards
🥥 Picture of the Year
🥥 Biggest Fish caught
🥥 Highest wind recorded
🥥 Biggest Mishap
🥥 Most un-welcomed visitor onboard
🥥 Speedy Gonzales award
🥥 Panama Posse YODA OF THE YEAR
2) Country Updates C19 Extraordinary Line Call
As of today here is where each country stands
Mexico 33,460 3,353†
– border closings between USA and Mexico but commercial entry permitted
On April 21, the Mexican government announced the start of Phase 3 of the pandemic, meaning widespread community transmission, thousands of cases of infection, and increased numbers of patients requiring hospitalization.
Schools are closed until May 30 in most municipalities.
Non-essential activities have been suspended. Essential activities include medical services and supplies, public safety, fundamental economic functions, government social programs, and critical infrastructure.
Meetings of 100 participants or greater have been suspended.
Individuals should practice good hygiene such as frequent hand washing and social distancing.
Those not involved in essential activities should self-isolate at home.
People over age 60 or with high risk medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, compromised immune system, pregnant, or post-partum should self-isolate at home.
States and municipalities may implement additional closings and restrictions on public gatherings, transportation, business operations, and government operations.
Guatemala 967 24†
– full lock down – no entry permitted – Curfew extended to April 28th
Event: The United States Embassy in Guatemala City advises U.S. citizens that United Airlines has opened multiple flights from Guatemala City to the United States throughout the month of May, including the following flights through Friday, May 8:
Sunday, May 3 – 12:00 departure (Flight 3011) from Guatemala City to Houston, TX.
Tuesday, May 5 –12:00 departure (Flight 3016) from Guatemala City to Houston, TX.
Friday, May 8 –12:00 departure (Flight 3017) from Guatemala City to Houston, TX.
El Salvador 889 17†
– full lock down – no entry permitted
Honduras 1,830 108†
– full lock down – no entry permitted
https://hn.usembassy.gov/
Additional Flight Opportunities
The U.S. Embassy has worked with United Airlines and the Government of Honduras to secure the following commercial flights.
Departing from San Pedro Sula to Houston, Texas:
Friday, May 8 Thursday, May 14
Saturday, May 9 Saturday, May 16
Departing from Tegucigalpa to Houston, Texas:
Friday, May 15 Sunday, May 24
Sunday, May 17 Tuesday, May 26
Tuesday, May 19 Thursday, May 28
Thursday, May 21 Saturday, May 30
Saturday, May 23 Sunday, May 31
You should contact United Airlines directly at www.united.com to take advantage of these flights.
Nicaragua – closed as of this week
Nicaragua 16 5†
Several airlines have extended their suspension of regular service between Nicaragua and the United States. The following dates for resumption of service are current as of April 28, 2020 but could change:
* Aeromexico service suspended until June 01, 2020
* United Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Avianca Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Delta Airlines service suspended until June 13, 2020
* American Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Copa Airlines service suspended until June 01, 2020
* Spirit Airlines service suspended until July 05, 2020
everything is closing –
Costa Rica 780 6†
Costa Rica – Extended their lock-down to June 15th
Costa Rica has announced that it will close its borders (land, air, and sea) to all foreign travelers entering between March 18 and June 15 (at midnight on both dates).
Panama 8,282 237†
Panama – no entry permitted 14 day quarantine has been obtained by some in internal movements – curfew w 1 hour movement x day for mots with 30 minutes based on ID number and day – no alcohol sales –
restrictions – we do not – in Panama city have been breaking curfew – in particle – the area – show every single infected person – 20 km – from this location – feel rather safe here – stay on lock down – how – rhapsody – opening up as many curves violations –
The Embassy arranged for a commercially-operated humanitarian flight on May 8 for any U.S. citizen or other qualified traveler able to enter the United States who had expressed wishes to depart Panama. That flight is now full.
The Embassy is continuing its efforts to identify future flights. However, there are no other planned flights at this time. We encourage you to be prepared to remain in Panama for the next 30-60 days, or perhaps more.
For now, please closely monitor Spirit’s website (www.Spirit.com) for any openings due to cancelations on the May 8 flight from Panama City, Panama (PTY) to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA (FLL).
Sales of alcohol to start up again in Panama!
3) Vessel Locations
| NUMBER | NAME | LOCATION |
| 1 | BAJA FOG | Barra de Navidad, MX – northern californai is oing fine – finally back to work – back in sales – next |
| John & Monique | ||
| 4 | THISLDU | Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua |
| Garrett & Audrey | ||
| 5 | LUNA | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Bob & Kris | ||
| 9 | CARINTHIA | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Dietmar & Suzanne | ||
| 10 | SEAGLUB | boat is in san jose del cabo – driving around – business as usual – live is normal – strict rules in Baja – noone out an about – word is the hotels are going to open on june 1st |
| Chris | ||
| 12 | JEAN ANNE | Chiapas, MX |
| Steve & Chelsea | ||
| 13 | SINGULARITY | Vista Mar, Panama |
| Robert & Carol | ||
| 16 © | ENJOY | we in red frog marina – will be here until |
| Don & Nina | ||
| 19 © | KNOT RIGHT | Vista Mar Marina, Panama who knows – as far as vista mar – little drizzle everyting is the same – as far a salcohol is concerned – you will obide by rules |
| Walt & Jeariene | ||
| 22 | DUE WEST | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Kirk & Heidi | ||
| 23 | TOP CIDER | Chiapas, MX |
| Chuck & Sharon | ||
| 25 | HALF MOON | Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua |
| Brain & Elizabeth | ||
| 26 | MADELEINE | Vessel in El Salvador |
| Huibert & Maaike | ||
| 29 | DELTA SWIZZLER | Barra de Navidad – food deliveries – restaurants – staying in barra – has |
| Mark & Cindy | ||
| 40 | AVANT | incredible bored – broadbad cable – what is yoru thinking at this stage – wait and see – worried about an echo reurgence – at this point – |
| Rob & Debra | ||
| 50 | ANDURIL | Chiapas, MX |
| Alice & Greg | ||
| 51 | GREEN FLASH | still in so cal – opening up – boat parts – stock up – return to vista mar – dana point lot;s of sail boats out on day sils |
| Bob & Joan | ||
| 52 | BONZAI | Miami – picked an Anchorage at belle isle – 1 week worth of weather chris parker – monroe county – we are in dade county – 30 – 50 % of activity ft lauderdale – jump to georgia outside |
| Don | ||
| 53 | GARGOYLE | half moon wait for Costa Rica – |
| Kevin & Carla | ||
| 56 | NAMAHANA | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Curtis & Jill | ||
| 58 | KATHLEEN | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Robert & Karen | ||
| 59 | RAVEN | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Neil, Tammy, & Jan | ||
| 60 | BLUE OASIS | Shelter Bay Marina, Panama |
| Barry & Kathy | ||
| 61 © | WILDEST DREAMS | Puntarenas, CR |
| Grant & Michelle | ||
| 63 | SECOND WIND | heading back to the US leaving the boat in NIC |
| Laurin | ||
| 67 | CHIMERA | Bahia Drake / Quepos Pez Vela |
| Dennis & Margaret | ||
| 85 | FOLLOW YOU FOLLOW ME | MARINA LA CRUZ, MX |
| Allan & Rina | ||
| 86 | CONTEXT | in San Diego |
| John | ||
| 87 | EL GATO | Northbound from Barra |
| Jules & Jeff | ||
| 88 © | SEA LARKS | Barra in Navidad – fling back to cali |
| Jeffrey & Paula | ||
| 99 | HO’OKIPA | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Lisa & Lucky | ||
| 100 | VOLARE | Chiapas, MX |
| Jessica & Adam | ||
| 109 | JOY | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Jeff & Roxanne | ||
| 117 | PILIALOHA | good morning – vessel is in Huatulco – no new cases in Hawaii – looking at partial reopening – 35 % unemployment rate – 2 week quarantine – |
| Rick & Maria | ||
| 121 | ANKYRIOS | Barra de Navidad, MX |
| Dennis, Brandy & Crew | ||
| 129 © | NESHUMA | on the hard at Mazatlan marina |
| Carl & Cynthia | ||
| 131 | MAR Y SOL | Marina Vallarta, MX |
| Bob & Marisol | ||
| 138 | BLESSED LIFE | quepos costa rica pez vela – we are going to stay – we got a tip – 2 year used ernesto – 900 for the documents – one could do it on themslves – july 17th – weather is ramoing up – regular thunderstorms – lots of lighting – quepos – aside from the marina – the rest of quepos seems unconceredn – tourism is shot down – 3 days ago – flower in the rain everything is open – place is pumping – |
| Bob and Margie | ||
| 143 © | SEA GLASS | Panama |
| Chris | ||
| 152 © | SUSIMI | la paz marinas are full – anchorage 30 – 50 feets |
| Paul & Hazel | ||
| 161 © | SPREZZATURA | you can move around within the area – the federal govt removed the restrictions on sales but municpailutes contiune to ban it – |
| Eric | ||
| 173 © | BISOU | bocas del toro – rainy season – talking about lifting the ban – rainy season – rumor is that airports will open may 22nd |
| Robin and Tad | ||
| 176 | REEF DANCER | Barra for the foreseeable future |
| Jerry & Debra | ||
4) Kissing the dock in Costa Rica
As my wife and I were sitting around this week under California’s stay-at-home orders with spring weather and a cool beverage, we were fondly recounting all that we had experienced on our adventure south before COVID-19 forced an unplanned early departure from Panama on an Air Force C-130. One of the things I really enjoy about Cruising is sitting around with fellow sailors hearing their experiences and sharing ours. Since there is no group fireside chatting these days I thought I would share one of our more memorable stories from this past season via e-mail.
I watched in slow motion as the marina staff on the dock were yelling and waving for us to slow down. We entered the slip next the large sailing vessel sharing our double wide berth and I still remember the look of disbelief on the faces of our soon to be neighbors; I remember the dock in front of us pushing up high enough to see it above the bow anchor; I remember the pangas on the far side of the dock bouncing violently and I remember the splinters flying. What I do not remember seeing is my wife disappearing from the deck at the mid-ship standing rigging. I had accounted for wind and cross-current and had a perfect line coming into my assigned slip at Banana Bay Marina in Golfito, Costa Rica. There would be no entering at a bad angle and scratching the gel coat, no fending off the neighbor’s boat; the yachtistas sipping their cervesas and tropical drinks at the bayside bar would be disinterested at the clean entry and would be back to their drinks after a quick glance; the way that conversation pauses and all eyes point toward the new boat coming in, waiting to see if any drama is going to unfold. Well, I did not disappoint. The sight of a sailing vessel hitting the dock at 4 or 5 knots was my own version of shock and awe!
In calculating my entry to the slip I failed to account for a suddenly sheared clevis pin, unbeknownst to me, inside in my all-in-one throttle/shifting lever. When I did not seem to slow down with the first burst of reverse, I gave it a lot more reverse, which only mad me go much faster. By the time I reluctantly grasped what was happening, it was too late to do anything about it except kill the engine. I was already committed and any turn would have me hitting the vessel to port or starboard on my abort attempt. So I held course and yelled to the 3 marina staff on the dock “NO REVERSE! NO REVERSE!”, and braced for impact. Despite the surreal slow motion of the event unfolding before me, I do not remember any actual jolt or impact, though it was enough to catapult my unsuspecting wife onto the dock. Fortunately nobody on the dock was injured, though my wife had a nasty bruise on her leg for a couple of weeks following. It is the kind of thing that we can laugh about now, but was shocking at the time and caused us both heart palpitations docking at our next marina.
As I jumped off the boat to quickly tie off, things went from slow motion to very rapid motion, my mind was racing and I was imagining the damage done to the dock and boat, the marina manager was yelling at me that I should not be entering a marina without reverse gear (interesting but little known fact), and my wife was giving me a wide-eyed look like “what just happened!?” after getting back up on her feet.
As it turned out, I hit the dock at a joint, which caused a fair amount of local dock damage, but also seemed to absorb a lot of the collision energy. Green Flash, our Beneteau 351, seemed to have only suffered some deep scratches to the bow gel coat where the metal dock hardware dug in and matching gel coat smiles on both sides of the bow where it flexed a bit on impact.
After his initial anger, the manager and his marina staff were very gracious about the whole mishap. I spent a couple of days making trips to the local hardware store to pay for repair materials, but the marina completed the repairs using their own staff. We stayed almost a week, but I did not have the thick skin to ask for the Panama Posse discount rate! First, I felt bad about destroying their dock and felt it would be bad form; secondly, we were one of the first Posse boats to arrive in Golfito this year and we did not want to give the rest of the unsuspecting 2019-20 Posse, who was yet to arrive, a bad name! So after paying for the final dock repairs we checked out and uneventfully left for Panama. We have had a few laughs about the incident since and it made for a good story sitting around the BBQ with fellow cruisers over a beer before the COVID-19 gauntlet fell on all social events!
We are now back home in San Clemente, California longing for things to settle down and open so we can return to Green Flash at Vista Mar Marina, Panama and continue our adventure!
Cheers!
Bob and Joan
GREEN FLASH
5) Termites oh my !
Aaaaahhhh! My neighbor informed me that the “flying ants”are not that. They are flying termites! I have discovered shedded wings. That means that they have flown into our boat, shed their wings and are setting up a taco stand. ANYBODY have a suggestion on how to now trap them and then mitigate! When I asked him he just shook his head. 😱
Bob and Margie
BLESSED LIFE
Friends had termites take residence. Very hard to get off the boat. They fumigated twice and still have them. The damage they can cause is huge if they get a foothold. Keep an eye out and if you see them aboard use any and all means available to get rid of them. Perhaps the best means are either aggressive fumigation or an ozone generator (neither of which is particularly good for humans, either).
Did a deep dig for my friends. Sadly, there is no magic cure. Poison is the only way. Once they get established, poison is very hard to administer effectively because of the nature of their nests. So step one is vigilance, and if you see them (even one), step two is going nuclear with either fumigation or ozone. Both fumigation and ozone have side effects (fumigation typically damages metals like SS due to its chemical nature, and ozone attacks natural rubber and some plastics due to its nature). Ozone is less dangerous to humans overall IF you ventilate well after a treatment because it leaves no residue.
The problem is that once established, they eat wood on your boat from the inside out. All wood, plywood, mahogany, oak, etc. They don’t leave many access points to their nests to use to get the poison of choice in, so it’s hard to reach them. And if you have 1,000s aboard in a big infestation and kill 9,995, the 5 that got away start up the infestation all over again.
Here’s an article with some proposed solutions. Problem is, the poison application(s) they suggest only kill those that go out of the wood and nest(s) aboard. It doesn’t take a very large residual population to do serious damage on a boat or re-infest a boat. Do look at the discarded wings at the top of the article to confirm termites vs. Flying ants.
https://thebugskiller.com/how-to-kill-termites-and-get-rid-of-them-forever/
AVANT
DEBRA & Rob
6) Puerto Angel, MX
Taliesin Rose anchored briefly in Puerto Angel for fuel transfer and breakfast.
Waiting for sailing eleven-11 and will continue soon to Zihuatanejo with possible stop in Acapulco.
Victoria & Rowan
TALIESIN ROSE
7) Marina Chahue, Fuel Dock
Yes you can enter to the marina and get diesel, they have a fuel dock, also you can
leave your boat there for a while to get groceries, there is a big grocery store like 1 km from the marina
Jim & Zyanya
LILY ROWAN
8) Happy Cinco de Mayo – Taco Tuesdays Pictures from the Fleet
Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s May 5,
1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.
While the French and Spanish did loose Mexico as a dominion they (unfortunately) bequeathed Mexico with their legal structures.
Mexico is working to completely overhaul its justice system…
Tacos by MAISON DE SANTE
Keenan & Nicole
MAISON DE SANTE
Tacos by SEALARKS
Jeffrey & Paula
SEALARKS
Tacos by TRANCE
Dan & Marlene
TRANCE
Tacos by TRANCE
Dan & Marlene
TRANCE
9) Sign up for the next season of the Panama Posse
– simply reply with “sign me up again”
Registration fees will stay at $100 for those who “re-posse” before July 31st,
50 vessels are already signed up and for our kick of week schedule visit
10) Please reply to this email w
It all starts Dec 3rd 2020 at Barra de Navidad, MX
50 vessels are already signed up and for our kick of week schedule visit
10) Please reply to this email with
– your updates
– contenders for picture of the week – links to your favorite SONGS
– relevant blog posts – and of course your valuable suggestions
The Panama Posse philosophy is to pass on nautical knowledge via the gestalt theory…
Dietmar & Suzanne
SV Carinthia
11) Opt-out from Fleet Updates simply reply with “REMOVE“
[…] 2020-05-10 >> […]