Thank you everyone who responded and liked the true story in the last post on my website! It was so nice to get so many heart warming comments, and this in itself has inspired me to carry on and get what is in my head, and heart, shared with dreamers and sailors as well.
As a matter of fact, I have been working on reading my log books, and writing more true adventures that KANDARIK and Andy Wall gave to me and Sammy and Jamie.
So, without further ado, here is one more Chapter, that comes directly off a very old, 1985 hand written letter, that I sent to my family. I didn’t even write anything different, I just copied what I mailed to my family those many years ago…..
If this is made into a Chapter, I have so many other letters that will certainly bring me back to those glorious days aboard KANDARIK, and little CARRONADE!
Thank you Denise Rolon Cope for all the long difficult hours of reading my handwriting, and typing all those many letters so I could share them. You are the BEST!!!
Pam
May 22
At sea, Bound for Galapagos, on my watch at 3:27 AM
Dear Mama and Daddy, Jill and John, Wendall and Rennie –
The radio has kept us all so well in touch I hardly need to send you any letters, but there’s a lot I can’t begin to tell you over the air, so I’ll start this letter, which will probably take a few nights to write, as I am doing it on my watch in the middle of the night!
It’s as dark as a sow’s stomach out in the cockpit tonight, a heavy overcast sky with a light drizzle, no wind, and we’re powering along at about 5 ½ knots, about 300 miles to go to get to the Galapagos. Andy and Sammy and Jamie are all sound asleep. They look so beautiful in their sleep, lucky ducks. I’d love to be asleep too, but Andy and I have been keeping 2 hour watches at night even though there’s not much out here. We are now at 0°55’ North, almost on the Equator, and I am wearing blue jeans, shirt, and jacket, as it is so cool out, it’s hard to believe! The Humboldt current keeps this piece of ocean so delightfully cool!
Every morning, the kids’ first job is called “squid patrol.” Lots of squid come aboard at night, and in the morning it’s like an Easter Egg hunt for the kids to find and throw back into the sea those unfortunate creatures that jumped aboard in the night!
We’ve been at sea for 6 days now, eating like kings. We’ve caught dolphin a couple of times, which is delicious, but we sure won’t need the fish as that beaut freezer is packed to the gills again, as I filled up once more in Panama, although the quality isn’t as good as what you got for me at Publix, Daddy!
The days out here vary so greatly; one minute it’s hot and sunny with just the right wind, and within a few hours it is overcast and almost cold with no wind at all! There is a zero percent chance of gales in this area according to the Pilot chart, and this 900 miles from Panama to Galapagos is famous for no wind at this time of year. Andy laid on 50 extra gallons of fuel to be certain we could power as much as we needed, but wouldn’t you know, after 2 days of calm and powering (which drives Andy mad!!), the wind freshened up, right on the nose and for 36 hours we were thrashing into 25-30 knots with reefed main and #2 jib topsail only! We couldn’t believe it!!
One boat we’ve been in contact with on the radio since we left Panama and heading the same way got so discouraged he turned back and sailed all the way back to Panama because his wife couldn’t take it! Poor guy, I feel so sorry for him. He’s a retired Eastern Airlines pilot, who sold everything he had to get a beautiful Hunter 54’ to sail “around the world” and half way to the Galapagos his wife said, “NO, turn around and go back!” Isn’t that sad??
Anyway, the “Yachtsman’s gale” blew itself out and pretty soon we were powering again!!! This has been a very frustrating passage navigation-wise for Andy as besides the calm, fluky headwinds, there are so many currents (Humboldt, Counter Equatorial Current, etc.) that set us every direction but where we want to go! Even though it’s a frustrating passage weather-wise, our spirits couldn’t be higher! During the blow on the nose, we were happy because it was wind! Too much out of the wrong direction, but it was wind!!
Sammy and Jamie have really surprised us! They are absolutely fantastic on this boat, no matter what the weather, even when it’s most uncomfortable for me and Andy! They play together all day so beautifully, doing such creative things together, like making tents from blankets, making sailboats out of baking tins, playing with their toys! I can’t throw any egg carton or box away before they make something out of it so adorable that I hate to throw it away days later when they finally tire of it! They are so at home on the boat, they play on deck and at last have started to be of real help to me and Andy in handling Kandarik. Sammy really wants to be cook, so we have started cooking school and today she made us our lunch!
Both kids are dripping with necklaces, bracelets, and ankle bracelets, the Kuna Indians made for them and gave them. Everyone thinks Jamie is a girl, naturally, with his long blond hair, as he wears the necklaces too!! Jamie is the darling of everyone he meets; a girl in every port or I should say “a woman in every port!” who doesn’t want us to take Jamie away!! And Sammy has, I am afraid, discovered her femininity! She spends hours brushing her hair and putting in the just right ribbon or barrette before going ashore, and I must say she looks striking for it, and must have a lot of her Grandma Jean in her, not like her mother!! But, I must say, she is completely unaware of the effect she has on people. Daddy, the people in Panama would come up and whisper to me “Si Belinda, si bonito” and hiss in their teeth when they talked about Sammy. She is still so shy that it is really becoming to her, but she does latch on to people she likes, and, of course, those favorites of hers fall over themselves being nice to her!
The two had the complete run of the Panama Canal Yacht Club, and I wouldn’t see them all day once school was over, although they would check in with me if they were on a different boat! It is nice when people go out of their way to be nice to your children, and then come and tell you what lovely children they are after spending hours with them! Anyway, so you want to hear about your grandchildren??!!!
I really can’t remember what I’ve told you about in my last letter, so I guess I’ll start with the San Blas Islands, although you may have read all about this before! You must know already about the fast, and very uncomfortable passage from Jamaica to San Blas, but we knew it would be so it was no surprise.
On a close reach KANDARIK would ride up the crests and capture the strong wind, and then rush down the face of the waves and loose the wind entirely in the troughs. Then up the elevator again, get blasted by the strong wind, and down into the almost windless troughs, and so it went on and on. But was it ever good to get into those lovely islands after 5 days at sea! The first thing we spotted in our race across the rough sea, were palm tree tops!!! The San Blas are beautiful islands, all tiny islets, every one covered in coconut palms and surrounded by white sand beaches, flat, no elevation at all, and nearly every single islet has a thatched hut or two where the Kuna Indians live what appears to be an idyllic life amongst gorgeous tropical surroundings with fish from the sea and fruit from their islands!
They are tiny Indians, all about my height. The women all have the same short black hair, gold rings in their noses, colorful beads tightly wound around their arms and legs. They were mola shirts and wrap-around skirts and a black charcoal line down the middle of their faces. The men wear mostly shorts and shirts and go about in magnificent dugout canoes that sail as well as paddle. They are very friendly and welcome you into their crude homes where you can buy molas, bread made from coconut, fruit if they have any extra, and beaded necklaces, etc. that they make. The only thing they would accept my money for was for the bread, as they showered the kids with gifts of beautiful molas, the necklaces, and bracelets I already told you about, and various bits of fruit I couldn’t distinguish, but it was delicious.
We got particularly attached to one Kuna Indian family in an anchorage that was so beautiful and the Kuna family so nice, it was very difficult to leave! We had the whole family aboard and one afternoon, to reciprocate their kindness to us, all 7 came aboard, and what a mess to clean up afterwards, although it was fun to see their reaction to the boat! Cookie crumbs, potato chips crushed everywhere, the baby, who had no diapers, naturally pooped all over my new carpet! They asked for anything they liked, we gave them many things, but if I said no to my pillows, etc., they accepted it graciously, but didn’t hesitate to ask for whatever they wanted! It was fun and very interesting having them aboard, but I was glad when it was over and could clean up the mess!
We stayed in the San Blas about 2 weeks, getting a few lobster and lot of conch. It was there that we blew the alternator and depth sounder, so a few days were pretty tense until we sorted that out!
Half way to Colon from San Blas is a famous port called Portobello! It was here that the Spanish stored all their gold for shipment back to Spain. It was also here that men like Drake and Morgan plundered the Spanish fleets and forts to get that gold for themselves. Drake is even buried here, somewhere in the harbor, in a lead coffin supposedly filled with gold beyond belief! We anchored under the magnificent forts that once so zealously guarded this harbor! Magnificent forts surround the whole harbor and the feeling of history is so heavy, Andy and I could hear the clinking of soldiers on the ramparts at night!!
I just got back from a tour around the deck to make sure we were on course etc. and to check the sails. It never ceases to amaze me how KANDARIK takes care of herself and us as well. As I have been down below at the chart table writing this letter, she is up there steering herself and carrying us along toward the Galapagos without a bother in the world to us! It’s like she’s a benevolent mother with no thought for her labor at all, just a marvelous drive to get us to our destination with as little work as possible for her crew!
Anyway, back to Portobello, while KANDARIK carries on further and further South and West! We spent a couple of days climbing up to and all over the huge forts! How fascinating! I was really amazed because it was very hot, and we had to climb up steep hills to get to the highest forts, and below me it wasn’t easy going as Andy and I were huffing and puffing in our old age, but the amazing thing was that Sammy, and especially Jamie, didn’t complain once! They were so enraptured with the forts that the hard, hot climb, and even the struggle going down to keep from falling, didn’t dampen their enthusiasm at all! And for Jamie, that is really something, he even had to encourage me a few times, “Come on, mom, you can do it, only a little further to go.” That sort of thing. Really amazing!! It was really a great experience for all of us. I just hope Sammy and Jamie will remember some of this! Do you think they will??
I can’t believe I’ve been writing and keeping watch for two hours now. It sure is a good way to make time fly! I’m tired now, and will wake Andy out of his deep sleep for his watch. I’ll continue this again, as I want to tell you all about Panama and our transit of the canal. Bye for now!
It’s the next night, or rather very early in the morning, 4:00 AM. Last night, just after our dinner, Andy declared that our track was on course as we went over the Equator from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere!! It was so cute. Jamie grabbed a flashlight and flew up into the cockpit. I asked what he was doing, and he very frankly replied, “Looking for the Red Line of the Equator!!!” Pretty exciting for all of us! It’s really remarkable, as it is really, really cold outside! Sweaters and jackets even during the day! The water temperature dropped 10 degrees in a day’s time! We are now in the grip of the famous Humboldt Current, but I had no idea it would be such a dramatic change, especially being at the Equator! Tomorrow morning, Andy and I plan a King Neptune ceremony for the kids are now real “Shellbacks!” Andy made out little certificates for them, and we’ll do something silly, like cover them with shaving cream or something! Andy just plotted our most recent noon fix and it looks like we’re about 30 miles from the nearest island in the Galapagos, pretty exciting!
I’ve just made 2 loaves of bread. I make it at night so we can have hot bread by breakfast time. The only problem with that is that we wolf down nearly a whole loaf for breakfast because it is so good when it’s hot out of the oven!! It’s really such a pain to make bread, but the end results are so delicious! It’s really dark outside again, kind of spooky, especially when you know land is somewhere ahead of you. Hold on a minute while I take a look around on deck! That’s really weird; last time I went on deck about 15 minutes ago, it was black and almost foggy. You could feel the mist on your face and visibility was just as far as the glow from the mast light around the boat! And now, every star in the sky stands out proud and brilliant! No clouds or fog at all!! But, we’ve noticed that all day yesterday, since we hit the Humboldt, one moment it’s dark and damp and heavily overcast, and 2 minutes later the overcast disappears and the visibility is really unlimited, but it’s always COLD!
Anyway, back to Panama, which already seems a long way back to me! Coming into Cristóbal Harbor and seeing all those huge ships anchored and waiting for transit is really incredible. We anchored in an area designated for yachts, and called Cristobal Harbor Central on the VHF as we entered the breakwater. Within an hour, a big customs boat had come alongside and had temporarily cleared us into Panama. Then we were able to up anchor and go into the Panama Canal Yacht Club. We spent about 2 weeks at this delightful spot., a really nice club with a delicious, cheap, outside restaurant that featured Chinese food, so I naturally had fried rice nearly every day for lunch! It has a small store for marine items, but best of all, the little store has fresh bakery bread and fresh farm eggs delivered every day and Eskimo pies for a quarter!! Very convenient! The people are all very friendly, the dockage very inexpensive (30 cents a foot a day or $11 a day for us), beaut showers and laundry facilities and just a nice quiet place. We never thought we would be there so long, but we were anxious to transit the Canal with John Maher and so we waited for him to come back from his vacation in the Bahamas! As it turned out, we had a marvelous time there and made some wonderful friends that we shall have for life!
Sammy and Jamie loved it, as they met 2 wonderful children just their ages who lived on a boat at the Yacht Club. We never saw the kids all day! They were playing with these 2 other children (a boy and a girl), visiting other yachts (they would be invited aboard to make cookies, or something like watching TV, by the other people on the docks!) as they were the darlings of the Yacht Club! Andy and I did a lot of work on “K”, varnishing, working on the engine, and doing lots of little maintenance jobs, but we sometimes could not get much done as there was a lot of socializing going on! We were right in front of the club house, so anyone who went by would naturally stop and start to chat! I must say, “K” looked very good and must have been a real eye stopper, but it didn’t help get the work done! It’s just as well we did stay for two weeks!
Colon is famous for being a very rough city, and we were advised to be very careful of our wallets, and not to wear jewelry when we went into town. The area where the Yacht Club is, is called Cristobal (the American section of the canal zone, it is all fenced in and guarded so it is very safe inside its compound), but the city itself is Colon and very rough indeed as everyone is so poor. Well, a cute taxi driver named Renaldo adopted me! He would take me everywhere I wanted to go. He would keep me locked in the taxi if he thought it was necessary and always stayed right at my side when I went shopping or to get the alternator and depth sounder repaired. He was also my Spanish interpreter! He really didn’t charge much at all and I don’t know what I would have done without him, as it left Andy free to work on the boat while I did all our leg work! The weather was simply beautiful while we were at the Yacht Club – hot, sunny, windy days, and most amazingly, lovely, cool, fragrant nights. So, you always knew that you would be very comfortable at night even though the days were bright, sunny, and hot!
One evening, Andy and I were watching 7 French boats getting ready to leave “ensemble” to transit the canal. It was like a circus or vaudeville act, everyone so excited, all shouting back and forth, all the men in their tiny bikini bathing straps (not suits). The commotion was incredible!! The only word I recognized amidst all the French babble occurred when one man dropped something over the side into the water and 2 observers shouted together at the poor guy “DUMPKAUF!”, or however you spell the German word for dummy!! It was so funny to hear that word ring out over all the babbling French!
Andy and I weren’t the only observers. We saw a nice looking young man watching all the commotion as we were. He seemed as amused as we were. This all was at another dock some distance from where we were docked. Andy and I eventually strolled back to KANDARIK. We were sitting in the cockpit while my spaghetti was cooking below when the same good looking young man came down our dock and stopped to look over KANDARIK. He stood looking for a long time, obviously interested in the boat, so I asked him to come aboard and have a coke with us. He was thrilled and came aboard, and after a half hour it was obvious that we really liked each other and became instant friends!
He told us he was in the Army and stationed here in Panama, and then he said “Look here, why don’t you come home to my place for dinner?” I said sure you wife would really love to have 4 unexpected people for dinner!! He was so insistent, and told us about his little boy and little girl, Sammy and Jamie’s age, that we finally gave in only if I could bring our spaghetti with us.
So, off we trooped with our newfound friend, back through the army base to his house. What a surprise, a huge gorgeous 3 story house, right in the jungle, beautifully furnished with magnificent grand piano in the middle of the living room. His wife, Marilyn, was playing at the piano when we all walked in. I could see her surprise, and maybe a bit of irritation, but she was very gracious, nonetheless. The children immediately got on beautifully and went upstairs to watch “The Black Stallion” on their VHS, and as we visited over dinner we all became good close friends! Paul is not just in the Army, it turns out he is in charge of, and top ranking Doctor on the base and specializes in Emergency medicine! They are keen sailors and have sailed their own boat in Florida and the Bahamas and we know several people in common and funniest of all, Paul loves poetry as Andy does, and knows so many of the poems and authors that are Andy’s favorites! Strange how things happen.
Marilyn and I get on famously, and by the end of the evening she said to me, “I couldn’t believe it when Paul came in the door with four strangers for dinner!! But now I am so glad he did. Let’s have a picnic dinner together tomorrow night?” And so began our friendship with Paul and Marilyn Broadbent, their daughter, Phoebe, and son, Adam!
To make a long story short, the next evening I took our last 6 sirloin steaks, brownies, and potato salad, and Marilyn brought cheese dip, drinks, hot dogs, and we went to a place I couldn’t believe existed. Their house, on the army base, is half a block from a finger of Gatún Lake, freshwater lake made for the Panama Canal. The part of the lake near their house is a beautiful cove surrounded by the trees and jungle. The water is clear and deep and so beautiful to swim in. They have made a small floating dock into the lake with barbeque, table and chairs, hammock, canoes, etc., all at the end of this dock. We spent the afternoon swimming and canoeing in this movie setting place. I couldn’t believe it; it was so wild and beautiful and in the jungle. We had a delicious dinner right on the dock. Then Paul walked the four children back to their house, only a minutes’ walk away, where they watched some more video movies, “Annie”, this time, with the maid downstairs, while Andy and I and Paul and Marilyn sat on this dock on Lake Gatún with a full moon, talking together and getting to like each other more and more. It was so beautiful out there in the peaceful moonlight. I shall never forget it!
Anyway, back at the Yacht Club, early one morning at 6:00 AM, John Maher, our friend the Port Pilot, came aboard, dropped off by a Pilot boat that stood by waiting for him while he talked with us over coffee in the cockpit, Sammy and Jamie still sound asleep. When John works for 6 weeks straight, he is on duty 24 hours a day piloting ships through the canal. It was impossible for him to take us the day we wanted to transit, but he said to us, “Have some sort of a breakdown in the first set of locks, and tell your advisor you want to stop in Gatún Lake at the Yacht Club to make repairs. Then I’ll come the next day with your pilot and pick you up at the Yacht Club! Well, that certainly turned a lemon into a lemonade, as you would say, Daddy, as that was just what we wanted to do, stay overnight in Gatún Lake, which is forbidden for yachts to do!
Marilyn, Paul, Phoebe and Adam came with us through the first set of locks, and Andy and I trumped up a transmission problem, and since it was raining cats and rats, the Panamanian Advisor was only too happy to suggest a layover for repairs at the Yacht Club! He got right off. I think he was thrilled to get off, since it was pouring rain. We had 4 children aboard, and it was pretty hectic to say the least, but no problem going through the 3 enormous locks with a huge freighter right smack in front of us, pretty awesome experience! Right on cue, the rain stopped and the 2 families spent all afternoon swimming in the gorgeous lake amidst the jungle, watching ship after ship pass by going through the canal, fantastic. It was a very sad leave taking when the families finally parted, and we all vowed to meet again somewhere, some time, such nice people. We are very lucky.
While I was below on KANDARIK, I heard someone dive into the water. In the evening, many of the members come to swim off the club’s floating dock. I poked my head out and the nice-looking man in a bathing suit said hello to me. He sounded Australian to me, so I said to Andy, “I bet that man’s from Australia.” Andy went to the cockpit and when the man came out from swimming Andy struck up a conversation with him and sure enough, he was Australian – lived and worked in Panama, lived a few blocks away from Andy in Sydney and knew several people in common!! Amazing! So, Andy and Bob spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on KANDARIK, talking, and drinking beer together like old friends! Ooooh, I just took out 2 loaves of bread from the oven, ooooh, do they ever smell good!
Land Ho!!! Andy woke up to the smell of the bread. It’s just dawn, gray and cloudy, and he just sighted the Galapagos right smack on the bow! Very exciting. I’ll continue this later. I love you!
June 3rd – The time has just flown by since I last was writing this! We have been so lucky to see the Galapagos, so it may be a while before you get this letter! The mail is appallingly bad from Galapagos, so it may be a while before you get this letter! Please show it to Jill and Wendy and family. We surely do miss everyone, but honestly this is the right time to show our children what we can of our world!
Love, love, love MOI!
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