'Hard' times in Ecuador!
Songline, Puerto Lucia Yacht Club, La Libertad, Ecuador. 14 May 2006
Dear Friends
When we last wrote in December, we were still in Costa Rica and had just made the decision to come to Ecuador for extensive (and expensive!) repairs to Songline’s hull. For those of you who don’t know about osmosis in fibreglass hulls, it is the process whereby water penetrates the outer coatings of the hull. It then reacts with the resins used to build the boat, forming little pressure blisters full of an acidic fluid which is produced by the chemical reaction. If allowed to continue unchecked, the blisters can become larger and deeper, eventually threatening the structural integrity of the boat itself. We had found several hundred of these little blisters (mostly no bigger than a pin-head and all below the waterline) when we were renewing the antifoul paint in El Salvador at the beginning of November. Although the size of the blisters indicated that the problem was at a fairly early stage, we were keen to have repairs done as soon as possible and we gave ourselves until early March to get the work started here at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club.
We celebrated the end of 2005 in Costa Rica with a wonderful New Year’s Eve dinner at the Hotel Aguila de Osa in Bahia Drake. We returned to Songline before midnight, having received a full briefing on how to welcome the New Year in the Costa Rican way. And so it was that midnight found us both huddled under Songline’s dining table to avoid being swept away by the old year rushing past! Having survived the passing of the old year we then had a dozen grapes each - one to be eaten for each chime of midnight, and with each one a New Year’s wish (don’t think we managed more than two or three wishes in the allotted time - these grapes were not the seedless variety and the clock struck much too fast!). Finally we did a circuit of the deck with rucksacks strapped firmly to our backs - glad that the night was too dark for anyone who might be watching. The Costa Rican tradition is that the year ahead will bring plenty of whatever you are doing in the first few minutes after midnight. Many Costa Ricans pack their bags and walk round the house, hoping for a year full of travel. We thought that a year full of travel looked like a pretty good bet for us, but felt it was prudent to make sure. So far, that one has lived up to its promise - and the grapes aren’t doing too badly either!
Our final ten days in southern Costa Rica were spent in the Golfo Dulce, a long, fjiord-like bay fringed with tropical forest and several beautiful sandy beaches and, remarkably, very little visited by cruising boats. What better way to end our stay in this unique part of the world than listening to the calls of howler monkeys and toucans in the tree-tops, the huffing and puffing of dolphins cruising round the bay and the splashes of pelicans and boobies nose-diving for fish?
Our next destination was Panama. We had briefly visited some of the islands in the west of the country when we were there on Island Way in 2002, but it was good to have longer this time to explore more of this outstandingly beautiful area. There’s a huge choice of quiet island anchorages with sandy beaches and crystal clear water, though many of these are exposed to the ocean swell and, with the wind in the wrong direction, paradise can sometimes become a little rolly and uncomfortable! To guarantee a peaceful night’s sleep in totally flat water, nothing can beat the numerous river anchorages along the coast a few miles north of the chain of islands. On one occasion, with a strong ‘norther’ predicted, we took Songline nearly twenty miles up the Rio San Pedro and spent a couple of days securely and comfortably anchored while the north wind howled around us at speeds approaching gale force. We also spent time seeing friends near Panama City. We took a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club less than 100 yards from the channel marking the Pacific approach to the Panama Canal, and for two weeks we had a grandstand view of the seemingly endless procession of ships making their way under the Bridge of the Americas en route to or from the Miraflores locks. The Yacht Club also provided us with our first experience of wi-fi on board, allowing us to surf the internet from the comfort of the boat - just wonderful!
With our March deadline in mind, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time for the 550 mile passage to Ecuador and early on 20 February we left Panama in the middle of another (though relatively mild) norther. This was good, as we were heading south. For the first fifteen hours, with the wind behind us blowing at up to 25 knots, we covered a lot of ground. Then the wind died and for twenty four hours we had to use the engine to continue making progress. After that, the wind returned and at 1430 on 23 February we crossed the Equator under clear skies with all sails set, and travelling at more than 6 knots. That evening we were welcomed by a dolphin escort which stayed with us most of the way to our first Ecuadorian anchorage.
After a few days at Bahia de Caraquez, a small resort town 100 miles or so up the coast from here, we continued south, hoping to spend a couple of days at Isla de la Plata, a bird sanctuary which is part of the Machalilla National Park - known for its colonies of blue-footed boobies, red-footed boobies, frigate birds and pelicans and also (though not till later in the year) albatrosses. Unfortunately there was a heavy swell coming into the island’s only anchorage - we took one look, said “no way” and moved on without stopping. So we arrived here at Puerto Lucia Yacht Club earlier than expected, on 1 March. Our booking for Songline’s haul-out was not until 7 March, but there was no problem bringing that forward and by 1800 on the 2nd we were safely on the hard and ready for the repair work to begin. Canadian George Stewart runs a small but very competent boatyard at Puerto Lucia. At first sight our blister problem did not look too bad, but after the layers of antifoul paint had been removed it was apparent that the blisters went rather deeper than we had thought. The next stage was to ‘peel’ the hull. For this, a device resembling a four-inch wide high-speed rotary razor is used, which removes a set depth of hull material. Operator skill is all-important, and Nico did a fine job. Unfortunately the first peel revealed hundreds more tiny voids in the hull, so a second peel was done. Even this did not remove all the voids so, reluctantly (having already watched a lot of our boat disappearing before our eyes) we agreed to a third peel. This reduced the number of voids to a more manageable level, few enough to be to be individually ground out at a later date.
While all this was going on, we were getting more and more anxious about our next commitment. You may remember that we had a date with the top of a mountain on the other side of the world. The date (1 April) was the twentieth anniversary of our engagement at the 13,455ft summit of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, East Malaysia. We repeated the climb on 1 April 1996 and hoped to be able to do it again this year. By now it was 21 March and if we delayed much longer, there would not be enough time to get there. Our anxiety was increased by the fact that the drive belts on the hull peeler had a nasty habit of breaking - and Nico was down to his last spare belt. New ones would have to come from Quito or from Miami (taking at least three days to order and deliver). Much to our relief, the third peel was completed before the final belt gave way and after a couple of days getting the boat ready for a long absence, we left in the early hours of 25 March. Our route took us to Guayaquil, a 2.5 hour bus ride away, then to Miami with American Airlines and on to London the same evening with British Airways . As always, we were travelling standby, and both the BA flights to Heathrow were overbooked. However, half an hour before departure of the second flight, we found ourselves clutching boarding passes and were on our way again. We arrived at Heathrow at midday the following day with high hopes of continuing to Singapore nine hours later. However, this time there really were no seats available, and we had to come back the next evening to try our luck again. Happily there were a few spare seats, and we arrived in Singapore on the evening of 28 March. We transferred to Malaysia Airlines’s last flight of the day to Kuala Lumpur, to be ready for their 0400 flight to Kota Kinabalu. As we touched down at Kota Kinabalu, the view of Mount Kinabalu outlined against the dawn sky seemed like a good omen. It was now the morning of 29 March. In order to be at the top of the mountain in time for the sunrise on 1 April, we needed to start our trek in less than 48 hours. There was no time to lose and, despite the effects of four days of travelling and a thirteen-hour time change, we decided to press on to the mountain. Three buses and four hours later we were at the National Park Headquarters, ready to book our trek to the top. Never a problem in the past, we had not anticipated the mountain being fully booked, but fully booked it was, and not just for 31 March, but for the whole of April as well!! The normal route to the top is in two stages - the first starting from Park HQ at an altitude of about 8,000ft with an overnight stay at 11,000ft where there are several dormitory-style hostels with room for up to 120 or so trekkers. If you don’t have a booking at 11,000ft, you are not allowed to do the trek. We explained our predicament to the girls in the booking office and they promised to put us at the top of their list for any cancellations - and suggested that, in case no cancellations were received, we have a word with the Park Warden to see if he would give permission for us to do the whole trek from 8,000ft to the top and back down again all in one day. Secretly we thought it was unlikely that we’d be able to do it, but the Park Warden gave us the benefit of any doubt and agreed to let us try. His only proviso being that if, by 1300 hours, we had not made it to 11,000ft we would not be allowed to continue to the top. So, having done all we could, we set off to find a hotel. Two miles further on (the Lonely Planet guide book had told us it was less than a mile!) and already weary and a little footsore, we found the Rose Cabin. We instantly forgave Lonely Planet for misleading us about the distance, as the Rose Cabin turned out to be one of the best bargain hotels we have ever stayed in. For under £10 ($17) per night we had a comfortable room, good hot shower, balcony with spectacular views of the mountain and some of the friendliest staff we have come across - not to mention a restaurant serving excellent food. Needless to say, we were dead to the world within minutes of arriving. The next morning we phoned Mariam at Park HQ and, to our delight, found that she had received two cancellations a few minutes earlier and our beds up the mountain were now booked for the 31st. No more worrying about whether we could make the climb in a single day! It was bad enough worrying about whether we’d make it in two! To celebrate our good luck, we opted to do the first part of the trek along a recently-opened trail which starts from the other side of the mountain, beginning at 6,500ft and taking about 1.5 hours longer.
At 0700 on 31 March, we were all set. We were picked up from the Rose Cabin by our excellent guide, Maik Miki (Park regulations insist that all trekkers must have a guide) and drove the ten miles or so to the start of the Mesilau Trail. The trail began comfortably enough, taking us steadily up through the cloud forest, but then came a steep downhill section - not at all welcome when the objective is up! We began to understand why the new trail, beautiful as it is, takes so much longer than the old and attracts so many fewer trekkers! However, Maik assured us that we were making good time, and just after 1500, by now totally exhausted and with the beginning of altitude-induced headaches, we arrived at our overnight hostel at 11,000ft. We agreed a 0230 rendezvous with Maik the next morning, wolfed down a quick meal and retired to bed.
The route to the summit begins in scrubby forest with a series of steep wooden stairways built into the rock and trees - far too many steps to count! At around 11,800ft, the forest becomes sparser and soon disappears altogether. The mountain becomes a bit less steep until the final half mile, and fixed ropes are attached to the rock all the way to the top - sometimes necessary to haul up on, but mostly there to guide the way in case of dense cloud blowing in and blotting out the route. This year there was no moon to light the way, and we were dependent on torches to see where we were going. With a little mist swirling around in the early morning, we were afraid that the view from the top might be completely obscured by cloud. However, by 0530, dawn was beginning to break, the mist had all but disappeared and there was daylight for the final scramble up the rock pile to the summit. We reached the top at 0615, just in time for the 0620 sunrise - twenty years to the minute since our engagement! We’ll remember to book well ahead for 2016!!
Our success this year was not achieved without pain and we both agreed that it had been MUCH harder work getting to the top and coming back down again than it was in 1986 and 1996. There was jubilation all round at the Rose Cabin when we staggered back in late in the afternoon for an early supper and yet another collapse into bed! No trip to the top of Kinabalu would be complete without a visit to the nearby Poring Hot Springs. The hot springs are only a couple of hours away by bus, so after a day to recover some movement in our aching legs we packed our bags again. Two days at the hot springs (a series of pools of varying temperatures in a gorgeous jungle setting) plus a couple of excruciatingly painful massages were enough to restore the legs to something like normal. Our flight back to London from Singapore was not until 10 April, so we spent the remaining week exploring more of the National Park, visiting the city of Kota Kinabalu and rediscovering the delights of East Malaysia and the wonderfully friendly people who live there.
Back in England, the two weeks left to us passed in the usual rush of visiting Mums in Yorkshire and Wiltshire, trying to catch up on several months of post and paperwork and managing to find a little time to catch up with friends as well. We returned to Ecuador two weeks ago and since then George Stewart’s team have been hard at work again on Songline’s hull - this time grinding out the numerous little (and some rather bigger!) voids and then using an epoxy paste to fill them up again. This stage of the work is almost finished, and we plan to leave again on Tuesday for almost three months, which will allow more than enough time for any further drying out of Songline’s hull before the final rebuilding process begins in August.
Our next journey will take us back to Guayaquil, from where we hope to fly to Lima and Cuzco in Peru. From Cuzco we plan to visit the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, high up in the Andes - a trip we have been promising ourselves for many years. We aim to spend two weeks or so in Peru and then, when we reach Lake Titicaca we’ll move on into Bolivia. Lots more high altitude travelling in store, with Cuzco and the area around Machu Picchu at more than 10,000ft and Lake Titicaca and La Paz more than 12,000ft! From La Paz, we’ll head for Arica at the northern end of Chile, then 1,000 miles further south to Santiago, Chile’s capital. We are hoping that we will then have enough time left to take the bus trip across the Andes and on to Buenos Aires in Argentina. After all that, we are hoping that British Airways will have seats for us on the flight to Heathrow on 13 June! The following month looks equally busy, with Peter’s wedding in Scotland on 1 July and trips already planned to France and Germany a week or so after that. We aim to be back in Ecuador in early August, when the final phase of repairing Songline’s hull will begin. Depending on how long that takes, we expect to have several more weeks available to travel in Ecuador before the boat is relaunched at the end of October - destination: the Galapagos Islands!
That’s probably quite enough from us for the time being. Barbara has been adding some pictures to our website (www.geocities.com/gayfords), so we hope you’ll log on and have a look.
We look forward to hearing your news, and hope that we’ll have a chance to get together with at least some of you while we are back in the UK in June and July.
With love and best wishes from
John and Barbara