Puerto Amistad, Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador

0 36.511 S, 80 25.371 W, Puerto Amistad, Bahia de Caraquez

Monday morning we went into the office and Veronica helped us check in. It was easy, almost one stop shopping. The costs for check in were as follows:

Pilot                  - $30,
Health inspection and certificate - $5 - he came to the boat
Immigration      - $20, plus $40 for taxi to/from
Port Captain     - $40,
Agent               - $50
Boat extension - $100, to allow Windarra to remain in Ecuador for up to 1 year.

Boat that delivered the pilot in front of Bahia de Caraquez

Rich in front of Puerto Amistad

We provided the documentation to Veronica, she scanned it and sent it to the applicable agencies, and then she took our passports to immigration to have them stamped and to get our tourist visa. The only 'travelling' we had to do was to take the health inspector out to the boat and back. This was so much easier compared to Panama in large part due to the efforts of Tripp, one of the owners of Puerto Amistad Yacht Club. Tripp is an ex-cruiser who met a lovely lady from Columbia and the two of them came to Ecuador and with another couple started Puerto Amistad almost 9 years ago. Tripp definitely understands what cruisers need and want and he does a lot to provide it. Our mooring fee includes access to the very nice dingy dock (puts Las Brises to shame), wi-fi, showers and nightly security that patrols the boats. There is also laundry services, plus diesel, propane, bottom cleaning, deck cleaning. The yacht club also has a restaurant and bar open for lunch and dinner. So far, this is a great place to leave our boat while we do some travelling.

Windarra on mooring at Puerto Amistad

Tuesday we walked into town. We stopped at Claro, one of the cell providers in Ecuador, and we purchased a Sim chip for my Iphone, 5$ for the chip, $14 for 300Mb of internet download. You can recharge this at grocery stores, banks and Claro shops. So we will try it out. We also checked out one of the local grocery stores and took a walk around the point to have a landside view of the entrance to the bay. It was close to low tide and we saw a lot of exposed sand.

Today, Wednesday, we took in some laundry to be done and made airline reservations for the first part of our trip back to the US. Rich had some diesel delivered to the boat and he filled the aft tank and most of the forward tank. We will also have the water tanks topped off as well before we leave.

Even though we are very near the equator, the days are cooler and the nights are even cooler. The Humboldt current coming up the western South American coast, moderates the temperatures in Ecuador. Last night I even used a blanket which I have not used on the boat since we left the US in 2011.

I am trying to put in some of the photos from Panama so you may want to look at our previous posts.

Standby for more adventures.

Passage to Ecuador, Arrival

0 36.511 S, 80 25.371 W, Puerto Amistad, Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador

We are thankful that another passage is behind us and that we arrived safely. It took a little longer than we expected but we are here now. All total it was 613 miles in 120 hours or about 5.1 nautical miles per hour. Our best 24 hour distance was 134 nautical miles.

Yesterday we tried to make as much progress as we could. The previous night we had to motor as the wind had died, there was an adverse current and sloppy seas which made the going slow. As we rounded Punta Galera we decided to stay close to shore with the hope we would be less affected by the current. This worked for quite a while. At one point three large humpback whales surfaced within a boat length of us. We did have the engine on so they could hear us but we watched them carefully. They dove and that was the last we saw them.

At 10:36 pm last night we crossed the equator for our second time. We did not perform any ceremony and I am not sure if there is one for crossing the second time. If you find one, please let us know what the tradition is.

Since we would not be arriving on Saturday in time for the high tide, we slowed our pace and arrived at the Virtual buoy and the waiting room waypoints around 8:30 am this morning. Puerto Amistad is a mooring field up a river. The river entry is not marked by buoys as the shifting slit changes the depths frequently, so we waited for the pilot to come out to the boat at one hour before the high tide to direct us in. Rich steered following the pilot's directions. At one point we were a short distance from the beach where people are swimming but the depth increased shortly thereafter. We are now on a mooring and the current depth is 3.5 meters. There is a bridge behind us so there is no going any farther up the Rio Chone. But the water is calm, the boat barely moves and we are looking forward to a nice, long, restful night of sleep. The air is cooler even though we are just south of the equator so maybe we will not have to run the fans either.

Tomorrow we will check into Ecuador and find out the 'lay of the land', and some of the many things that cruiser want to know when they arrive such as where is the ATM, is there wifi, where is the grocery store, is there a laundry and for how much, can we get fuel, can we get potable water to the boat, etc, etc. We will let you know how it goes.

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Passage to Ecuador, Day 3

4 11.674 N, 79 41.619 W
Winds 10-13, Seas 2-3 ft swell, 1-2ft chop, Bsp 5.8, SOG 6.8

The weather has cleared up some and we are enjoying a pleasant sail south. We hope it will last. This morning we found a flying fish having gasped its last on the deck. We also had more dolphins join us for a while.

Not much else to report. We are of course anxious to arrive in Ecuador.

Elaine and Rich

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Passage to Ecuador, Day 3

4 11.674 N, 79 41.619 W
Winds 10-13, Seas 2-3 ft swell, 1-2ft chop, Bsp 5.8, SOG 6.8

The weather has cleared up some and we are enjoying a pleasant sail south. We hope it will last. This morning we found a flying fish having gasped its last on the deck. We also had more dolphins join us for a while.

Not much else to report. We are of course anxious to arrive in Ecuador.

Elaine and Rich

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Passage to Ecuador day 2

5 51.352 N, 79 42.892 W

Last night we had tremendous thunder and lightening. I counted 600 flashes during my 2 3-hour watches. Some were large forks hitting the horizon.

It's raining, it's pouring

Today we had winds from 3 knots to 28 knots with large sloppy seas and lots of rain. We were positively drenched so we put on our foulies. It has been a long time since we have done that. Now the winds are at 5 knots but we don't have an adverse current so we are making some headway. We covered 125 miles in our first 24 hour period.

Rich saw a killer whale pass us this afternoon. Interesting. Not much else out here but container ships and boobies.

Are we there yet?

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Passage to Ecuador day 1

7 29.400 N, 79 18.194 W

Three Sheets gave us a Bon Voyage dinner last night. We had a great time and we will miss them.

We waved goodbye to Reg and Phoebe

 

This morning we were anchor up at 8:40 am and on our way. We started by motoring but soon added our sails which is nice for a change. With a positive current we made good time. There have been squalls occasionally but they don't last for long. For a while some dolphins joined us which is great unless they are saying "So long and thanks for all the fish".

There has been very little traffic which is nice and we hope that will continue through the night. We have been trying to balance southern and western vectors to use the wind and position ourselves for the rest of the passage.

Cheers,
Elaine and Rich

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Isla Pedro Gonzales

8 24.024 N, 79 04.934 W

On Saturday the crews of Windarra and Three Sheets took a dingy ride to a small islet about a mile and a half from the anchorage. It was a great place to look for shells but you had to minds the sand flies which would swarm and be very annoying. We collected a bag full of shells and then rode over to another small island for more 'shelling'. The rock formations were interesting, more layered like sedimentary rock with colored patterns on the horizontal surfaces, Very unusual. We returned to the anchorage, just in time for happy hour, how convenient.

Rock and Sand formations

 

On Sunday we had planned to stop at Isla Bayoneta for more shells. We left a high tide andRich and I decided that the anchorage was a little too shallow for us as we are getting close to leaving for Ecuador. Reg and Phoebe decided to stay and we motored on to Isla Pedro Gonzales. It is a much large island with a village of over 500 persons on the north side. We are anchored on the east side, protected from the southern swell. On the shoreline we can see where there is construction to build a new resort and another area where 'guests' may enjoy the beach. The beach is long with off white sand. Rich and I walked the beach and added to our shell collections.

In the afternoon we returned to Windarra to relax and read. Unfortunately there are some small, black, annoying flies that have joined us. They don't appear to be biting, just annoying. We are burning a citronella stick hoping that will discourage them but they are still with us so far.

Thunderhead forming in the distance

Our plan tomorrow is to prepare for passage. We will lift the dingy onto the foredeck, deflate and secure it upside down on the deck. We kept two of our old jerry jugs and filled them before we left Panama City so we will put the fuel into the aft tank as well. Our passage may be as long a 580 nautical miles from here to Bahia Caraquez in Ecuador. We hope to find more favorable wind angle by heading first towards Punta Mala before heading south.

We are glad we came out to Las Perlas islands. It is giving us a more favorable impression of Panama than we had before.

Happy Fathers' Day to all you dads out there!

Cheers from Elaine and Rich

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