Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Colon, Panama to Port Antonio, Jamaica, Days 1 – 4

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Tuesday, February 25, continued… After bypassing the battery protect device, and having Zeus set to 60% max load (~100 amps at cruising RPM), it was time to do some testing. First, Eric ensured switching to emergency power would work. He turned off the house bank via the BMS (simulating what had happened earlier), and then initiated emergency power by paralleling in another battery bank. It worked. Then Eric simulated being on a passage. He turned the main engine on, revved up to 1750 RPMs, and had all underway systems on. He watched the power readings like a hawk. This is where it got a bit weird. Every 400 seconds the Zeus restarted itself. Charging went to zero; but it had restart delay, so it took about 30 seconds to start charging again.

In general, we use about 60 amps underway, and this was actually enough charging for us to do the passage. However, watching the Zeus reset over and over made Eric nervous. He ran the engine for almost two hours, checking and watching. Eric had to made a decision: try to make it to Jamaica with a questionable alternator regulator, or re-check-in to Panama and try to troubleshoot more. Since the weather windows here were few and far between, he did not want to give up this window.

Now that we were certain that emergency power via paralleling another battery bank, we knew we could utilize the generator and the secondary alternator to charge the batteries. If there was a problem with the Zeus again, Eric would switch to emergency power, restart the LiFePo battery system, and run the generator to continue operating Kosmos via the LiFePo battery bank. He wanted to keep the secondary alternator in reserve and the other battery banks in reserve, as well. He also wired the ignition trigger voltage to a breaker in the pilot house, so if things started to go awry with Zeus, he could shut it down easily.

Keith and Christi helped with the testing/rewiring. Once Eric was done, Keith did archery with his friends. We had dinner in the marina restaurant.

On Wednesday, we didn’t need to wake up until 0500 to do the last minute things before going to sea since Kosmos was still mostly ready to go. Eric was feeling confident that that if there was another issue with the Zeus, he could turn it off via the switch that he’d wired up yesterday.

We untied at about 0600. This morning was much gloomier than yesterday, which felt ominous. We passed through the channel from the marina into the bay at low RPM’s, just as we had yesterday. When we were far enough into the bay that we felt like we were safe from any potential obstacles, Eric revved up the engine. All worked fine. 

We exited Limon Bay via the east entrance. The big ships only use the west entrance, so we’d anticipated less traffic. Here were two ships passing in the west entrance.

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Getting Ready to Depart Panama

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Sunrise on Sunday February 23

When we arrived in Shelter Bay Marina on January 19th, we’d expected to move on in the first few days of February. However, the weather has been uncooperative, so we’ve stayed about 3-weeks longer than anticipated. We were happy to see that the weather was finally cooperating and we could leave on Tuesday in the very early morning.

The majority of Sunday was spent getting Kosmos ready to go to sea. Since we’d been at Shelter Bay so long, we’d unpacked a lot of items from the assorted deep, difficult to access storage spaces. Getting it all put away was a Jenga game, as everything needed to be carefully packed so it wouldn’t shift when the boat was rocking. 

Eric also led a kids’ D & D session. In the evening, Christi and Eric went for a walk in the jungle, following the road to Gatun Bridge for about 3/4 mile, until we got to a small bridge over a stream. Unfortunately, there was no walkway for part of the bridge, and being a blind curve, we decided it best to not walk in the road. We turned around and went back to the marina. The expanse between the T-intersection and the bridge where we turned around was mostly jungle. 

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Keith’s Perspective on Site Seeing in Panama/Le point de vue de Keith sur les visites touristiques au Panama

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This week it feels like not a lot of stuff happened, even though a lot of stuff happened. On Saturday, a bird pooped on mom’s arm. After that we got on the bus and went to a really good pizza place. We had gelato for desert. On Sunday, I did D&D, but one of my friends was DMing. He made his own version of D&D (which isn’t really D&D because it made no sense). On Monday, I convinced my friend to have dad DM. In the evening we did Civ VI. 

Gelato in the suburbs of Colon

On ne dirait que rien ne s’est passé cette semaine mais beaucoup de choses se sont passées. Samedi un oiseau a fait caca sur le bras de maman. Après ça on a pris le bus et on a mangé à une très bonne pizzeria. On a mangé une glace pour le dessert. Dimanche, j’ai joué à Donjons Et Dragons, mais un de mes ami était le Maitre Du Donjon. Il a fait sa propre édition de Donjons Et Dragons, mais c’était pas vraiment du Donjons Et Dragons parce que ça ne faisait pas de sens. Lundi, J’ai convaincu mon ami de laisser Papa être le maitre du donjon. Le soir, papa, nos amis et moi avons joué à Civ VI. 

Coffee and smoothies in Panama City
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Portobelo, Colon Province, Panama

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Thanks to cloud cover, the sun itself was not visible on Wednesday, February 19, but it was still a colorful sunrise.

We decided to keep the car for another day to go to the town of Portobelo, which was about 80 km (50 miles) away from the marina. Portobelo was a small town with a nice bay and protected anchorage that was popular with the cruisers. It was a pivotal part of Spain’s colonial rule, so it was historically significant. Since we wouldn’t be going to Portobelo by boat, we thought it would be fun to go by car. 

On our way out of Ft. Sherman, we decided to make a quick stop at the public beach. Since we’d driven by it so many times, we felt like we should at least stop and see it up close. It was a man-made beach, south of the Coast Guard base, along the road to the bridge. It was usually packed on the weekends. The US military had put in, and it was lined with more of the same housing structures that we’d seen at the loop… except these were in much worse shape. 

We parked in the small parking lot and ventured in. Maybe it was the gloomy weather, but the beach felt sad. There were dilapidated buildings, sunken ships and a lot of trash strewn around. Someone had put up a series of palapas, but most of them had fallen apart into hunks of debris that added to the trash.

Taken from the south end of the beach, looking north. The buildings at the tip of the peninsula are the coast guard base
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