Sweating in Bahia

Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador

We have been back in Bahia for a week now. Major decisions have to be made.

The first thing we discovered is that we are no longer able to handle heat and humidity. We remember back when we arrived in Bahia last May, coming from Panama, how much cooler we found it here, and it probably still is. But this time we arrived from Chile and Argentina, where it was sometimes hot but rarely so humid. Also disconcerting are the shorter days, back to the 6 AM sunrise and 6 PM sunset of the equator.

It is rainy season here but so far we have only had a couple of decent downpours. Most of the time we have seen at least some sunshine each day. Our solar has been able to keep up with all of our demands.

The boat seems to have fared OK during our absence, except that my attempt at pelican-proofing the bowsprit was a complete failure. The accompanying picture was taken after several hours of cleaning - I don't think it will ever be the same again.

The batteries fared much better this time, with the solar keeping the house bank at a full charge the entire time. We already knew that the windlass battery was toast before we left in December, so job one was to find a replacement - there was no way we were leaving here without a good working anchor windlass. We anticipated a challenging journey to the nearby town of Manta or possibly all the way back to Quito to source a suitable battery. However, by some sort of miracle, a new "Hiper Market" opened here in Bahia during our absence (think Superstore). It is only about 2 blocks from the marina and when we paid a visit, I spotted this amazing display of batteries. Admittedly they are not high-tech deep-cycle AGMs or anything, but really all I need for a windlass battery is a maintenance-free battery with enough capacity and the right dimensions to fit in the space I have for it. A brand new Bosch 34HP-980 fit the bill exactly.

Outside of just general organization and cleanup, the other main jobs on my list were; getting the bottom of the boat cleaned, topping up the water and diesel, and some routine maintenance of the usual trouble spots on the boat. The bottom cleaning was done by a couple of young guys from the marina, we got purified water delivered for a cost of $2 per 5 US gallons. As a foreigner, we have to pay a premium for fuel, which set us back $1.50 per US gallon (50 cents Cdn per litre).
One item that Susanne noticed was that one our main turning blocks for our jib-sheet line on the port side of the boat had stopped turning. Indeed it had totally ceased up and the line was wearing a groove in the pulley. I have no idea why this thing seems to be disintegrating while the identical block on the starboard side seems fine, but I was able to get it working for now - a replacement could be hard to find around here so hopefully it will hang on for a while yet.

What little is left of the nut

Water delivery

Diesel Delivery

At this point we are just about ready to leave Bahia, but we are having some serious second thoughts about our plan for the season. Originally we had thought we would just reverse our course from last spring and return to Panama City, via the Perlas islands this time, then return here again in May. We thought we had found an almost perfect spot here for leaving the boat but recent events have got us a little concerned.

Over the last few months, the marina has had some issues with moorings breaking loose and causing some damage to the boats - if that were to happen to our mooring during a flood tide, our boat would be quickly swept into the bridge next door and I am sure that would be the end of it. More concerning recently however is a series of thefts that are happening to boats around us, with equipment and money being stolen from locked boats, appearing to be an inside job, but no one seems to know who is doing it. On top of that, the marina has decided on a big increase to the rates here; hard to justify when the security seems to be getting worse. We are not sure we want to come back.

Rainy season

Meanwhile, Susanne is busy cooking up a storm, preparing some passage meals that we can keep in the freezer. The new supermarket has sure made the task of re-provisioning a lot easier. Rather that a big shopping trip, we have been making almost daily walks to the store, buying only what we can carry each time. If we do need to buy anything heavier or bulkier, a taxi ride to the marina is only $2.00.

We should be ready to leave sometime next week, weather permitting, and depending on where we are going, of course.

The bridge is pretty but now looks threatening

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