CAPTAIN'S LOG
BY ED PETRILLI
PREFACE
The following Captain's Log was written by Captain Edward J. Petrilli, between June of 2007 and June of 2008. It chronicles the adventures of Carnivore and her crew. The log was originally posted on carnivorecharters.net.
Carnivore is a Chadwick Boatworks 57' cold molded sportfish boat. Builder and designer Jamie Chadwick is a third generation builder from Harkers Island North Carolina. True to traditional North Carolina sportfish designs, Carnivore sports a large flared bow, sharp entry and moderate 6 degree deadrise. She is powered with twin 825 HP MTU Detroit Series 60's diesels. She cruises at 30kts and to the pins runs a smooth 33kts. She is truly a great seakeeping boat.
The Petrilli family commissioned Carnivore in December 2003, with both serious blue water fishing and extensive travel in mind. She is tournament rigged and boasts many creature comforts including ice makers, water maker, entertainment center (cd,dvd and ipod ready), sattelite TV and phone/internet. The boat was splashed in June 2006. Carnivore is berthed at the Morehead City Yacht basin, located in Morehead City North Carolina, just west of the high-rise bridge and across from the waterfront charter fleet. She is available for charters if the captain and his crew are not traveling somewhere on a fishing, surfing or diving adventure.
WELCOME ABOARD!
SUMMER '07
CAPTAIN'S LOG 15 JUNE 2007
Left Morehead City 6:00am - traveled through the night and arrived in Ft. Pierce Fla at 2:30 pm Sat. June 16th Sea conditions were 6-8'.Winds from the North, North East...following seas! Most appropriately spent our 25th anniversary with Mark Butterworth...he treated us to a nice dinner in Vero! For those who don't know...Ed, Mark and Talie met 27 years ago at Southampton college...and have been best friends since!
CAPTAIN'S LOG 23 JUNE 2007
Last entry was Ft. Pierce, Florida. Carnivore traveled 240nm day trip from Ft. Pierce to Key West on 6 20 07. Had a nice time in Key West - enjoyed the sights and people. This town has changed a bit since the last time Natalie and I were here about 20 years ago. But still a fun place for sure. Departed to Isla Mujeres, Mexico on tip of Yucatan on the 22nd. Great seas and weather for this overnight trip. All kids doing their part on 3 hour watches. Learning lots about night time navigating and the additional challenges it offers.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 26 JUNE 2007
Arrived Isla Mujeres, Mexico ("Island Of Women"). Great marina near the center of this very cool tropical town. Enjoying the food, sights and people. Waiting for a weather window to make another overnight (600nm) run to La Providencia (small Columbian island off of Honduras.) Until then......? Captain ED
CAPTAIN’S LOG 28 JUNE 2007
Still hanging out in Isla Mujeres. Weather window looks as though we can depart on Sunday for La Providencia. We have been enjoying the island. People are VERY friendly and the food is GREAT! Our favorite restaurant is Rene & Renee's - a husband and wife who are truly the nicest people you have ever met. In addition to great food Rene helps us with our Spanish !! The dux boat went in the water yesterday, so in addition to bikes the kids have another modus of transportation!
Spend our days on boat chores, swimming, swimming .... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SUZANNE, BROTHERS BIFF & ERIC AND DAD!!! AND NANA TOO.
CAPTAIN’S LOG 07 JULY 2007
Almost too much to say with such a gap between log entries. Since Isla we have had almost no ability to communicate via internet as there is no high speed hook up on Providencia and our ships sat internet is giving us some problems as well. I am writing this off line with hopes of getting through on our sat connection after some tweaking.
Isla was a blast. Vibrant, safe, friendly…but clearly a tourist turnstile from Cancún. We waited for near a week for a break in the wind, but it appears E SE15 -25kts with anywhere from 4-12’ seas is the basic clear weather wind and sea condition for the Caribbean Sea this time of year. So we pretty much just said what the heck and launched. With a 600nm run against a solid 2kt current we had to run at trolling speed the first 24 hours to manage our fuel appropriately.
About 50nm out of Isla we hooked up with a Blue Marlin and had a ball with it. Anthony angler, Natalie on chair duty, Justin wireman, Gianno cameraman and Taj my extra set of eyes. Well Oiled Machine indeed. Justin dumped the wire on four different opportunities with this spirited fish. It finally gave in and we got our hook back with a clean release after 55 minutes. This was really our first day on the troll of the entire trip other than wetting a line to catch mahi for dinner. Weather picked up big that first night and never let up. Steady 6-8’ seas with larger up to 12’ during the occasional squalls. We managed about 15kts against the current, but two overnighters was a bit of a grind for all. As luck would have it, I was the only one with sea sickness. I should have dosed prior to seas building. I seem to do fine during the day, but at night on watch, I lose my equilibrium. Oh well. La Providencia is a hidden jewel of the entire Caribbean. It is a Columbian island, but was originally British. So the locals speak both English and Spanish. The English is laced with Caribbean dialect, so you only understand when they are speaking to you, not to each other. One small concrete pier here which is for freighter deliveries is where we are tied up to. No power or water, but thank god for a great water maker and genset. We are well equipped and set up for this type of place. We thought we would stay here one or two nights, but it has been near a week. This island is totally safe and the locals are all very proud of that. By chance I met Francisco the moment we landed and he has been our guide, interpreter, advisor and quickly became our friend. A man of many talents and a heart as big as Montana. The kids have made quick friends with the local teenage boys and swim, snorkel and fish with them. Yesterday the boys hiked up a mountain above the town and harbor where we are. They got some amazing photos and had a blast. Stopped by their friends house on the way back so they could check out the fighting cocks and hens they raise. Very cool stuff and nice kids. (Like home we have a couple regulars that seem to be on board with us at all times.) These are real people with almost no pressure from outside world to spoil the good inside their souls. They may see a couple large power boats each year in this harbor, so it is a big deal when the White Yacht as they call it hangs out with them for a week. Almost celebrity status, but all good for the crew of MV Carnivore. Natalie and I met with James the Mayor in his office yesterday (James turns out to be Francisco’s son in law). I had bought a chart of Providencia in the states that was originally done with British survey in 1835. It is still the only surveyed chart for the island. The mayor had never seen this chart before. As captain of Carnivore I presented this chart to the mayor as a gift from Natalie and I. Photos, thanks and nice discussion…good stuff for sure. Two cargo freighters have delivered since our arrival with the food and goods for the island. An amazing process of off loading…of course all taking place right next to us. Yesterday I met the head of Narcotics for this region out of Bogata. Iho’s men were inspecting for drugs during the off loading of cargo. Sharp as a tack. Clean cut, super educated and about 35 years old. We spoke for quite a while using Francisco as an interpreter. Just amazing conversations and information. Wow. We enjoyed each others company, stories, information and opinions. He joked and asked if he could borrow the boat for a weekend or two. I gave him a Carnivore hat as a small gift. He invited Natalie and I to dinner out on the town in Bogata. Of course I told him he would have to supply security and protection for the boat and family. He said he would be happy to, but not to the degree they provided for President Bush during his visit which was 75 armed limousines with many from the army…. Of course we won’t go to Bogata, but I’m convinced if we wanted to, we could with his welcome and protection (for real). He is going to be in San Andres (another Columbian island 50 miles away) this week. We will stop there for fuel and stage up there for our run to Colon to cross the canal. He wants to come by with his wife for pictures and introductions. A couple days ago the inspectors dropped one of their inspection probes into the water. (The probe is a long stainless rod in which they insert into bags and cargo to check for cocaine and marijuana.) They asked if we could dive for it, so Justin and Gianno jumped in with masks like the fish they are. They found it in no time. More friends on the pier….
Richard is a good friend of Francisco’s and owns a small bar on the beach around the point from here. He is a great guy - RASTA MON. His bar is essentially a hut on a half moon beach that is almost exactly what I found in Tortola Cane Garden Bay 30 years ago at Stanley’s Welcome Bar. (Sadly Stanley’s is now surrounded by houses and condos.)
Nothing around with the exception of two very small inns with a few guests they told me mostly from Central America and some Europeans. They come to Providencia to scuba. Hung out here the other day for about four hours and saw about six people total. Million dollar views, fresh Mangos on trees, checkers, conversation, rum and cervezas. If that won’t keep you satisfied, don’t come here. Each Saturday there are horse races on the beach and all the locals come to watch and bet. It seems this is how Richards bar survives. Today is Saturday, so you know where we will be. The outside barrier reef around Providencia is the third largest in the world behind Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Belize. The surf looks huge and dangerous from the beach. The section that is now breaking has on shore winds, so I have been able to keep the kids from begging to go check it out. There may be a protected swell we will check today in the DUX. Francisco took Natalie and the kids snorkeling to some local spots. Justin captained the DUX tender boat throughout the inside reefs for them. They had some great snorkeling. Francisco took them to a ledge in which there is a cave to dive into. They enjoyed it and will bring a underwater light when we go again today. The day they went I stayed back at the boat to do maintenance in the engine room, which there is always plenty to do. Yesterday Francisco and I borrowed a truck from Felix and got two 55gal barrels of diesel. We siphoned it into Carnivore and that plus the 200 gallons we have on board will be plenty to run hard to San Andres. The mayor asked me how we could entice more visits from sportfish boats transiting in this area. I told him fuel and electricity is what the sportfish boats need. I told him: “I say this with reservation, because there are so few places left like this island, I would hate to see it change….AT ALL”. But of course he and the islanders want to see progress and the money it offers for their island.
For now……..that is all. ¡Adiós! - Captain ED
CAPTAINS LOG 07 JULY 2007
SAN ANDRES~COLOMBIA
We arrived yesterday around noon to San Andres. The 54nm run was in 6 – 10’ seas, but with a quartering sea we were able to make almost 20 knots. Unfortunately the two barrels of fuel we picked up in Providencia were not clean and our Racor Fuel filters clogged after about an hour or so. We switched over to our back up filters until they clogged. Best we could do with poor fuel pressure was about 1200RPMs and 10 – 12kts. Bummer. I spent many hours in the engine room today swapping filters both Racor and Secondary on motors and GenSet. I think I will transfer the 200 gallons of bad fuel off the boat today. That is if I can find a transfer pump and some barrels or maybe a local fisherman who wants the fuel can do that. (The cost of travel in remote places.) San Andres is only about 7 miles long, not much bigger than Providencia but much more industrialized and populated. (100,000 population versus 5,000.) We are tied up to a dock with a Bahamian style mooring. This entails a bow anchor with about 300’ of rode and the boat is tied up stern-to the small dock. This was a trick in a 25kt wind 45 degrees off the bow. We managed, but it was not fun and not very relaxing here with the constant 25kt wind off the bow with one boat on either side of us. We will fuel and run to Colon as soon as we off load the fuel and on-load fresh (fuel here is clean and plentiful). This information comes from Captains I met in Isla who use San Andres as a fuel and provisions stop over.
The last night we spent in Providencia was really a neat night out. After dinner the boy’s friend Pedro suggested we go to the cock fights. Francisco arranged to borrow a pick up truck and off we went across the island. Francisco, his wife, grandson, Pedro and the Petrilli clan off to the cock fights. The location was filled with locals who were all in the party mode. Blaring music, a small thatched roof arena with steep concrete seats that hold about 100 people max. We got there at 10:00PM first fight did not start until 11:30PM. The preparation of the cock’s was taken very serious. They attach very sharp and narrow spurs to the bottom of the cock’s legs. The spurs are made from carved turtle shells. They are measured by the millimeter so it is very exacting business. As the trainer tapes them on it is like a boxer getting his hands taped before a fight. The fight lasts for 15:00 minutes. If no winner by then, it is called a draw. The betting takes place among those around the fighting pit. I bet 20,000 Pesos (about $12 US) on the cock Taj liked. I wanted the other one, but went with Taj’s instinct. Turns out our cock killed the other in about 10 minutes. A very aggressive fight with constant action. Not too bloody. During the fight the crowd was pretty much wild beyond my expectation. A unique event for all. We headed back to the boat, stopped at Francisco’s house where his wife went in and provided Natalie with a gift of breakfast for the next day to cook. It was a mash that was kind of a mix of mashed potato, grits and biscuit with cheese mixed in.Turns out when Natalie fried it the next day it was great! Back at the boat we said our goodbyes and exchanged emails, music cds and Justin gave Francisco his guacamole recipe that he learned to make from our Mexican friend Reno in Isla. Francisco (and all of us) really loved Justin’s guacamole and was asking for the recipe all week. Pedro is destined for a NC visit for sure. Francisco may meet us in Cartegenia Columbia in February when we stop there on our way around South America headed to the Caribbean islands. Cartegenia is his “mainland” and he knows it well. It is safe at the marina and immediate town, but outside of this area it will be nice to have a guide and friend who knows the place and it’s people. I hope this up date can be attached to our Web Site while we are here in San Andres. Natalie will hunt for a high speed hook up today. ED
CAPTAIN’S LOG 13 JULY 2007
COLON~PANAMA
We arrived in Colon Panama last night at about 6:30. The trip from San Andres was rough...10-12'seas! Carnivore ran like a champ at about 20 kts. the whole way! The kids slept most of the way...but awoke and joined us in the bridge once we arrived in Colon amidst many freighters and ships awaiting their time to be called to enter the Panama canal. We found our way to the "Panama Yacht Club" where no one answered us on the radio, the marina was full, but someone motioned us to tie up at the fuel dock. Representatives from our agent met us this morning (they had been expecting us) and hope to have us through the canal tomorrow. We will keep you posted. Natalie
CAPTAIN’S LOG 15 JULY 2007
08 54 N Lat 79 31 W Lon
Carnivore and crew has safely transited the Panama
Canal and now rests at Marina Flamenca on Isla Flamenco just east of the Pacific entrance to the canal. We are well rested after a day of mostly lounging, dock talk with other sportfish boat and crews, finalizing our transit paperwork with our transit agent and taking care of some maintenance issues. We will likely be here a couple more days while we attempt to get our KVH Satellite Phone serviced. We have a stunning view of the skyline of Panama City about 3 miles distant from our position. At night from this vantage, Panama City looks similar to New York City. We will visit the city tomorrow or the next day. Prior to our canal transit, on Sunday a young man named Roberto accompanied Natalie, myself and Gianno into the town of Colon to see some sites and purchase some fresh meats, fruits and vegetables in the Sunday Open Market. This market takes place indoors in an open market setting each Sunday. It covers an area about two square city blocks in size. It is quite an experience for sure. There are rows and rows of vendors selling all types meats including, beef, rabbit, pork and also chicken. All the butchering is done right there and then all the product is either hung up in the open air or laid out on the butchers counter. We were told that everything in the place sells out by about noon. The sites and odors may have been a bit much for many folks, but this is the kind of stuff that revs up the crew of Carnivore. We purchased a very large and tasty whole beef tenderloin for about $18, in addition to fresh chicken, mango, papaya, pineapple, melons, shredded coconuts, fresh herbs and many other goodies. When you transit the canal, you are responsible for feeding both the Pilot advisor and also any line handlers you hire. So Natalie had nine mouths to feed. At any rate we had a great time in the open market. We were going to purchase avocados, but Roberto insisted he take us to his house where he said he had an avocado tree with huge avocados as big as melons. He was not exaggerating. We had never seen anything like them. Just what Justin needed to whip up another batch of his now in demand guacamole dip. The trip through Colon was an eye opener for sure, but should never be done without a body guard and by vehicle. This is a town with extreme poverty and crime and the local thugs pretty much rule. The only people who don’t get mugged when walking through the town are pretty much the people doing the mugging. Sad but true. Colon also has a large Free Trade zone, which is second only to Hong Kong. We did not stop to shop as we have no room for anything else aboard Carnivore. (That may turn out to be a good thing.) We took on two experienced local Line Handlers to assist with our transit. Roberto who we had spent time with the day before and his brother in law Tito. Great guys and very experienced. Roberto had made 283 transits over the past four years. Our canal transit was broken up into two segments. We began the transit on Sunday evening about 4:30PM. After picking up our canal authority appointed Pilot Advisor, we proceeded through the first three locks and then actually moored in the beautiful Gatún Lake for the night. The Advisor was picked up at the mooring by a pilot boat and Roberto and Tito spent the night on board with the crew of Carnivore. Natalie cooked a throw down Italian meal, we all watched a movie and then hit the rack. 0700 the Pilot Advisor was dropped back on board. The boys along with Tito and Roberto took a dip in the crystal clear waters of Lake Gatún prior to breakfast. It was a quick dip as the local crocks are quick to respond to thrashing about in the water according to Tito and Roberto. The setting at the mooring was fabulous. Perfectly quiet with the exception of birds and the occasional Howler monkey. The remainder of the canal transit was very enjoyable and went off without a hitch. As a captain, with many years of varied experiences at the helm, it was really a thrill to transit the locks in such immediate proximity to such massive ships. One ship we were next to held 5,000 automobiles on board and stood as high as a five story building. They call these large ships “Panamax” as they are built to the specifications of the maximum length and width of the canals. Very impressive indeed. All in all the whole transit experience was really enjoyable. The sites were spectacular and the canal itself fascinating and full of history. If you do not know the history of the canal, I would suggest doing the google thing and reading about this marvel of technology. After we depart from here in a couple days, we will be island hopping northbound along this rugged Panama coast over the course of three or four weeks. We will spend a lot of time in the Cebaco Bay and Coiba Island area. This is where we will hopefully do battle with Black Marlin, Sailfish and many other varieties of Blue Water and inshore fish. We look forward to catching many waves (a major understatement). We will also scuba dive. It will be entirely living on the hook, with generator, water maker and little contact with others. We hope our Satellite system is up and running so we can post the occasional update. But if you do not see updates, be patient and do not worry. We will at a minimum keep some key people notified of our whereabouts and safety by coming in close enough to shore so we can text message. ¡Adiós! Capt. ED
CAPTAIN’S LOG 26 JULY 2007
07 20.84 N Lat 81 36.04 W Lon
I can hardly believe it has been 11 days since my last captains log, but as the saying goes; “time flies when you’re having fun”. Since our departure from Flamenco, Carnivore has seen many sights and had some great experiences. I am writing this as I sit a solo watch at 12:30AM at a secluded anchorage on
Coiba Island, Panama. A good time for thinking and writing. We departed Flamenco on 17 July and ran about 100nm directly to Punta Mala, which is the end of a large peninsula heading west on the mainland of Panama. En route we viewed many whales breeching and on the surface. Incredible spectacle up close.
Once at Punta Mala, we then proceeded 12nm further west to to Punta Benao in search of waves and an overnight anchorage. Alas no waves worth surfing and the south facing anchorage was unsettling with a southwest wind. So we proceeded another 8nm to Punta Guanico which had a sheltered bay with an anchorage that was out of a story book. This was one of the most picturesque settings I have ever been to. Kind of what you would imagine in a story book. Steep mountainous hills above, with lush green all about, surrounding a bay below with crystal clear water below the hull. No one lives in this remote section of Panama with the exception of some locals in a very small fishing village nearby. In the morning some local boys came by in a fishing Panga boat to check out Carnivore. Major communication gap, but we attempted a morning chat best we could. They wanted us to know there was good Wahoo fishing off the point in deep water and that the best surf was back in Benao. Another panga boat came by and the men on board threw us 4 small snapper(thankfully for that is what we ended up eating for dinner that night, snapper scampi) in return we gave them sodas! After breakfast we in fact trolled for wahoo, but all we saw that morning was many turtles and more whales. We trolled back to Punta Benao hoping for improved surfing, but still no go.
We had made arrangements for a young man named Lee to meet us on the beach in Punta Benao that day. Lee works on the mother ship for Cebaco Bay Sportfishing Club, but since the mother ship is taking on maintenance in Flamenco, they will not be at their normal anchorage in Cebaco Bay. This means no fuel in this remote area where we had planned on staying and no local knowledge as well. So, Lee has spent the past five days on board Carnivore providing his local knowledge and great company. Lee is native South African, so English is his first language. Of course after four years in Panama he speaks the native Spanish tongue also. He is also an avid surfer and fisherman, so he fit right in with the crew of Carnivore. There is a means to acquire fuel in quantity in Puerto Mutis, but it is about a two hour run from Cebaco Bay. Lee will also guide us through the shallow area of Golfo Montijo and up the river for fuel tomorrow. Prior to this evening in Coiba, we have spent the past five nights in Cebaco Bay. This is a secluded untouched bay on the island of Cebaco, with just incredible views, scenery, wild life and nearby surfing. We will stay based out of there for a couple more weeks. While there with Lee we have inshore
fished with live baits and on the troll and also offshore fished. Inshore fishing has produced a variety of fish which have been great fun to catch and eat. The two days we fished off shore we have not done well. The first day we fished off Aguja Reef and missed one Black Marlin and two sailfish. The second of which ended up eating and swimming off with my squid teaser. I hate it when they win like that. The second day we fished the famous Hannibal Bank. On the way to the Hannibal bank on the south point of Coiba Island while scouting a surf point break, we spotted a huge Manta Ray. It was dead calm water and crystal clear. How many opportunities do you have to swim with a Manta with an 18’ wing span….so Gianno and Justin jumped in with snorkel gear and did their best to keep up. How cool is that?
At Hannibal we missed two sails and ended up catching a nice Wahoo for dinner. Oh well; we have many more days to chase billfish. We have managed to get a few surf sessions in also. Nothing too special until we got to Catalina Island. Overhead surf over a razor sharp reef. Very intimidating, but the boys ate it up. This was the first place we actually surfed with anyone other than ourselves, and the locals were fearless at this spot. Late takeoffs with super shallow reef right in front of them. Not for beginners. There is gentle surf as well. In fact a couple days ago in the gentle surf right at our anchorage in Cebaco, Taj caught her first real waves on her own. Talk about instant surf fever. Could not get her out of the surf…Another surf rat has been created. Cebaco bay is always gentle and manageable for a late afternoon mellow long board session, so it is perfect for beginners.
We had a pretty major problem with one of our trim tabs a few days ago and were lucky enough to do a make shift repair on it while at anchor in Cebaco Bay. The real repair will require a haul out, but I think our makeshift repair will last for as long as we need it to. The pistons that move the trim tab, actually broke through the piston casing and drove the trim tab down about six inches (just above the rudder). In the water we were able to cut the two pistons and crimp the trim tab in place with a stainless cable. I still think like a Yankee and am thankful for that. The repair took a few hours to do, but seems to be working great….So we press on…..
CAPTAIN'S LOG 28 JULY 2007
We are back at Cebaco Bay. Our trip up the Golfo Montijo to Puerto Mutis for fuel was almost uneventful. We made our run up the river on ¾ flood tide and with Lee’s local knowledge we had no issues with the skinny water. Although about 8 miles from Puerto Mutis our port engine went dead stop while we were running 20 knots. Big bummer. I had managed our fuel quite well, but I guess the 50 gallons in the port tank was not enough to keep the injectors happy. Yup….we ran out of fuel. Thankfully we had about 20 gallons more fuel on the starboard side than we had on the port, so we just finished the last eight miles on one motor. At least we now know when the motors run out of fuel. Carnivore’s boat builder Jamie Chadwick had told me he thought we could run the tanks right down to the last 10 or 15 gallons in each tank, but I think that must be at a dead idle. (Take note Jamie.) No big deal, we know for next time. After fueling up at Puerto Mutis, we had a nice dinner in their restaurant and grabbed one of their mooring balls for the night. Lee, Natalie, Taj and I all took a bus early next AM for Santiago. This is the second largest city in Panama. Not much to it, but they did have a great grocery store for our provisions. From Santiago Lee got a bus back to Panama City. We all enjoyed Lee’s company for the better part of a week. He seemed to fit right in with our family and enjoyed our adventures as much as we enjoyed having him on board. He is planning on meeting us up in Costa Rica for some surfing in a few weeks. We all look forward to that. That afternoon we caught the last quarter of the rising tide and had a great run out of the river. Of course we were confident following all the GPS waypoints we entered on the way in. Modern technology is great indeed. On the way back to our base camp in Cebaco we stopped again at Isla Catalina to surf. The tide was flood high and the reef had much less teeth. For you surfers who are reading, Catalina is clearly the best wave Carnivore has found yet, but we have many more places to explore.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 29 JULY 2007
Today Justin and I got up bright and early and took Herbivore (our Dux tender boat) out for some reef casting. We missed one Rooster fish (which is still on my life list of “things to do”, and caught a nice Dog Tooth Snapper for our dinner. In addition we caught some small Jacks and a variety of other fish we let swim free. Casting along the edge of these jagged rock structures is very cool The shore is laced with incredible scenery including caves, coves, beaches and just amazing wildlife. A turtle swam under our boat at one point and we were tempted to jump in and swim with it, but we had no snorkel gear on board. It stayed with us for a while. It is amazing how many turtles we see in any given day. Clearly no shortage of the critters in this region of the world. Later in the day Justin, Natalie Gianno and I made our first Hooka Dive. This is scuba diving with a compressor on a float that you tow. Three people dive at once and each has a 65’ air line. The system worked great, we had a very fun first dive and we look forward to many more.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 30 JULY 2007
We fished offshore again today on the Aguja Reef and with the exception of the Bonita we caught for live baiting Marlin, we never got a strike. Very disappointing. The water is very green, almost grey in color and I think this has much to do with the poor offshore fishing. We saw no Whales today and I think that is a good sign that they have moved off to where the cobalt blue water is. Also, today our saltwater wash down pump went dead. Of course when it died, the live Bonita we had in our tuna tubes died too. Major bummer! We use this pump for both our live bait well and our tuna tubes. Without these live baits, fishing for inshore species and Black Marlin fishing is done with a major handicap. We will likely chase waves and inshore light tackle fish for the next several days versus chasing billfish off-shore or live baiting for the larger inshore species. Today was also the first day that it rained almost all day. I guess this should come as no surprise since this is now the heart of the rainy season. We have in fact had rain almost every day since arriving in Panama, but it typically comes and goes and the blue sky manages to make it’s appearance in between. All in all the weather has been just fine. (The typical afternoon hard rain, actually makes it much easier to keep Carnivore clean.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 31 JULY 2007
This morning we got up pretty early with plans to make the 8nm run to the n/e side of Cebaco to catch the early morning surf swell prior to the wind coming up. About the time we were ready to launch, a panga boat came running hard into the bay direct for Carnivore. On board where three men speaking Spanish so fast it was nothing but a blur to my ears. They were obviously in somewhat of a panic mode. The message that came across was they needed to use my VHF radio for some type of emergency. It turns out there was a small vessel with young people on board that was overdue from the prior evening out of somewhere on the mainland. Willie, the fisherman who came on board Carnivore was able to reach the Coiba Island National Park folks and they relayed the last position they had for this small vessel. The Coiba National Park employees evidently were already in search of this vessel. I put the waypoint into my GPS and displayed it on the chart plotter screen where they were. It turns out they were about 12nm from our position. I showed Capt Willie that I had a hand held VHF radio and a hand held GPS which I had plugged the lat lon coordinates into as well. That’s all it took….I was now part of the search and rescue mission. I donned a life vest, jumped on the Panga with Capt Willie and crew and off we went. We were pounding along at 25kts in the 30’ Panga and had gone no more than 3nm when Willie was notified on my hand held VHF that the overdue vessel was found by the Coiba Island National Park employees very close to the coordinates we had been given. All aboard were fine from what I gathered from Capt Willie. With that, we made a U turn and headed back to Carnivore. Needless to say, any formal Coast Guard is non-existent in this region. People help others when they can, but if you get into a real scrape, you better have a back up plan of your own, a good EPIRB, life raft….. you know the drill. It amazes us that most of the small Panga boats that fisherman build themselves and fish these remote areas in, have no electronics or VHF radios. I guess they just loosely keep track of each others where abouts and know when each other should be returning to their village. Needless to say it was almost noon by the time we got to our surf location and the wind was up and the swell was blown out. Bummer!!
After a brief trouble shoot session on the saltwater pump, I determined that a condenser on the motor burned up and allowed the motor itself to is pretty much burn up. I have ordered a new pump which will be delivered to Los Sueños Costa Rica ASAP. With that, we have made a decision to chase waves versus fish until we get up to Costa Rica in another week or so. So tomorrow we will head to the Catalina Island area, find a comfortable anchorage to base out of and surf the Catalina region. You learn quickly while living on board in remote areas, to go with the flow and make the best out of any and all situations.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 01 AUGUST 2007
This AM we said our goodbye’s to Cebaco Bay and headed out to new pastures. We are now moored just off the northern tip of Isla Gobernadora. This small island of about 2 square miles, puts us within 5nm of the surf at Catalina and also at the foot of Golfo de Montijo. This is a great spot to hang for a couple days time prior to our island hop up to Costa Rica. The boys and I will try to surf twice daily at the mid to high tides at Catalina. Surfing anything less than mid tide is a bit too risky with the dry rocks at the base of each take off. After settling at the anchorage, Natalie, Gianno and I took Herbivore to the small village on Gobernadora. This village is very simple fishing village with maybe 150 -200 people total. They have a boat builder on the north side and a boat builder on the south side of the island. The Panga type fishing boats they build are all from teak wood they fell by hand right on the island. The men building are working with machetes and other small hand tools. I can’t help but think of Jamie Chadwick and his crew who built Carnivore and Duane Willis who did all the interior wood-work on her. No doubt, no matter where they are in the world, a true boat builder loves to work with his hand and just loves to build boats. No matter which way they do it, it’s a labor of love. We went into the islands small church with maybe 8 pews (hand made out of teak of course). We said a few prayers of thanks and enjoyed the local art work on the tiny alter. A couple of bats seemed happy to see a day time visitor in their church as they happily flew about us. We had hoped to score some fresh fruit on this island, as we were told and read that we may be able to, but no go. The 12x12 tienda had only canned goods, rice and beans…. Oh well. I’m off for a quick nap in the hammock in the cockpit and they off to surf. ¡Buenas Tardes!
CAPTAIN'S LOG 03 AUGUST 2007
08 08.37N 082 19.25W
ISLA PARIDA~PANAMA
Another cozy anchorage. We are about 70nm farther up the coast nestled among many little islands. Each seems to have a few white sand beaches and your choice of protected anchorages. It is just amazing what raw majestic beauty we continue to see wherever we travel and how many cool things we see on the water every day. More turtles, whales and dolphins than I have ever seen. The whales and dolphin really seem just as excited to see us as we are to see them, as they always put on a great show as we cross paths. We chose this particular anchorage because we spotted a small open boat in front of a little house on the beach (another fishing settlement – maybe?). Our four kids all jumped in and paddled surf boards with their snorkel gear out to the nearby rocky shore to try to spear lobsters or some fresh snapper. No go today. Later when Natalie had said she could pull out some frozen Wahoo or cook up some pasta, the small open boat appeared along side Carnivore. A man with three young boys on board, came to see if we wanted to purchase some Langusta. Yes, fresh lobster it is. The fisherman’s name is Carlos. Carlos and his wife Margarita along with Carlos Jr (about 2 years old) live in a small house on the beach. Carlos makes his living as a lobsterman. Very simple, but very happy. How cool…. It seems the islanders that live out on these small out islands are very happy and content. Is it that the less material things you have, the less you have to worry about? At any rate, we happily paid Carlos for six lobsters, gave him a coke and the three boys snickers bars. It’s times like these where I really wish I could speak more than the minimal Spanish I know. Maybe in few months I will be able to communicate a bit more.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 06 AUGUST 2007
We thought we would spend just a night here at this anchorage and here it is three going on four days now. We decided to stay because this place is just so cool. We take Herbivore out to fish around the rocky points and catch all kinds of snapper, grouper and other fish to eat. The nearby beaches are deserted and pristine. All seem to be the perfect half moon beach lined with coconut palm trees just above the high tide mark. Two nights ago Carlos, Margarita, Carlos Jr. and two of Carlos’s brothers came out to Carnivore, tied up their Panga boat and fished with us in the glow of our spreader and underwater lights. What a blast.
We caught plenty of fish and managed to learn a bit more about each other in spite of not knowing each others language hardly at all. Turns out Carlos is one of 13 kids. His parents and many of his siblings live over in Pedregal and David on the mainland; about 15 miles from this island. I think they must get plenty of family visitors, particularly on weekends, as we have seen people and boats frequently going ashore to their beach to visit. Last night Carlos, Margarita and Carlos Jr came out to the boat with fresh corn they picked from their garden, mangos, limes, hard coconuts (for meat) and yellow coconuts (for sweet milk). We invited them aboard for a visit and then ended up inviting them to join us for dinner. Justin and Gianno fried a load of fish in the fryer in the cockpit and Natalie went to work in the galley. We had a great meal and we all had a wonderful evening doing our best to communicate and learn about one another. I pulled out my charts of the area and attempted to get Carlos to show me where the surf was on the island. He says there is surf on the southern tip (opposite side). That is only about 5nm so we decided we would take Carnivore for a stroll this morning to see if we could score some waves. Alas the point Carlos described held some surf and had a nice bay for a day anchorage. Unfortunately right when we jumped in the water to paddle in to shore, the clouds got dark and the wind came up (winter in Panama strikes again). We surfed for about an hour until the wind completely ruined the surf and the weather got quite threatening. Bummer. Also, while surfing, Justin was bumped by what he is pretty sure was a shark, so I am glad we didn’t stay in the water too long anyway. The ride back to the anchorage was snotty with a capital “S”!! The 12 foot tide dumps out of the huge shallow in-shore bays and estuaries into the deep Golfo De Chiriqui. Most of it comes charging around this island in a half mile trench on the west side. Murphie’s Law, we came head into it with the wind and swell behind us (not a good combination). Before we knew it there where, ten footers breaking off the transom. Worst part about it, we were towing Herbavore behind us, so we could only make 12kts at best. Lucky for us it was only about four miles of that soup and even luckier we did not loose Herbivore to Mother Ocean. Always be ready for the worst. Tomorrow we will head to Golfito Costa Rica (about 65nm), of course with a couple of surf checks along the way. ¡Adiós!
CAPTAIN'S LOG 07 AUGUST 2007
GOLFITO~COSTA RICA
Back to semi civilization. We are now in Golfito Costa Rica. We scored some fantastic glassy surf (well overhead) today at Punta Burica Panama. What an awesome place. Not another sole in site at this remote spot located on the tip of the 30 mile peninsula that is the southern border of Costa Rica and Panama. We had read and been told that Burica is the best surf in Panama and without a doubt it is. So our last day in Panama produced the best surf. A great ending to a great adventure of island hopping Panama. We also stopped to eyeball the southern surf point (Pavones) of Golfe Dulce on our way into Golfito. Pavones is considered one of the longest left point breaks in the world. The surf was going off there too, but it was late in the day and we needed to clear immigration and customs once we got into Golfito, so we did not have time to surf it. We will be here for about a week, so we will make the 13nm run back to Pavones and also across the golfe to Montapala (another point break) to surf for sure. We are at the Banana Bay Marina here in Golfito and actually have electric and water hook up. Wow – after almost a month living on the hook, it will be nice to give our generator and water maker a rest. (The only time we shut the generator off during our island hopping was to check and change the oil in it. A testament to our Northern Lights diesel generator which never missed a beat and also our SK Water Maker after making almost 10,000 gallons of water during this run. Pretty neat stuff if that sort of thing turns you on like it does me and also if you like to have all of life’s creature comforts while living on your boat. We do have a high speed internet connection here at Banana Bay, so if you want to Skype or email, fire away. We will do the same. Pictures and updates to the web site should be more frequent now that we are in Costa. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Capt. ED
CAPTAIN’S LOG 16 AUGUST 2007
09 38 00N 084 41 00W
Carnivore and crew are now in Herradura Costa Rica at Los Suenos Marina. This is place is somewhat of a culture shock for us. Los Sueños Marina is part of the Marriot Resort. Los. Sueños is a very beautiful and well kept resort. We will be here for about 60 days and then head back south to Banana
Bay Marina in Golfito prior to our Costa Rica visas expiration in early November. Golfito was a very relaxing and enjoyable place to be. The town used to be the location of what was the largest banana plantation in Costa Rica. About 6 years ago the plantation was closed and the property subsequently sold to developers. Condos and Golf courses are on the drawing board in addition to a large marina. Who am I to say, but it would sure be nice if the town were left as it is. A bit run down, for sure, but a quiet place to hang in a beautiful port nestled against the rain forest. We surfed quite a bit while in Golfito and the surf was excellent. We will clear customs and immigration out of Golfito upon our departure from Costa Rica in November. Carnivore arrived here in Los Sueños yesterday about 4:00pm. We got ourselves organized in the marina, cooked a nice meal on the boat and were just relaxing at about 8:00PM when there was a knock on the door from a security person of the marina. He spoke very little English, but it was clear he was in a semi panic as he kept saying “tsunami, tsunami, tsunami is coming, you must leave”. As I was trying to bridge the communication gap, another captain from a large boat in the marina came up to me and explained that there was a large earthquake in Peru and that all of Pacific Central America had been put on notice of pending tsunami. Almost every other large boat in this marina is left here permanently by it’s owners and is run by professional captains. All of whom where making haste to depart the marina and get their vessels to deep water. Natalie was able to get on line and sure enough the warnings we coming across the internet loud and clear “get to high ground”. I quickly made a decision that Carnivore and it’s crew would run to the safety of deep water as opposed to us leaving the boat in the marina and trying to make our way up to high ground in a mountainous area we knew absolutely nothing about. The crew of Carnivore organized calmly and quickly as we prepared for our departure. This family has prepared and dealt with numerous hurricanes in our home turf in North Carolina and knows the seriousness of Mother Nature’s teeth. As a crew, we have done quite a bit of night time navigation prior to coming through the Panama Canal, but have not ventured off anchorages after dark here in the Pacific due to the mine field of debris in the water. There are many trees, stumps, branches and hosts of other assorted goodies floating in these Pacific waters due to the huge amount of run off from the rivers during the rainy season. In fact, in this region I never run the boat faster than 20 knots and at most any time I need a few extra sets of eyes to spot the partially submerged debris. There are many instances when we have narrowly missed submerged debris while running and a few instances when I pull the throttles back hard, throw the wheel hard over and glide over debris waiting to hear el cruncho. In some instances the mine field of debris is so thick, we just pick our way through it at idle speed. Not to mention, it’s mating season for the Olive Riddley turtle and they are scattered about the surface in loving bliss waiting to be hit by the unknowing propeller of your boat. On the 137nm run from Golfito to Sueños we probably saw upwards of 100 turtles on the surface and somehow managed to avoid their camouflaged bodies. At any rate, we dropped lines and off we went into the darkness among a slight drizzle. Where’s the clear sky and moon when you need it? All reports informed us that if the tsunami were to strike, it would likely be about 9:50PM. We had plenty of time to get Carnivore out 5nm to 50 fathoms of water I wanted to get to. The boats coming out of Sueños were communicating on the VHF, but were pretty close together in low viz. So like I do many times while Blue Fin Tuna fishing out of Morehead City in the cold, dark winter mornings, I flared off from the crowd to give Carnivore some space. During this time we were also concerned for my brother Michael who was in Quepos Costa Rica, no more than 30 miles from where we were in Herradura. As the evening progressed, we got reports from watching our satellite TV and the coconut grapevine on the VHF that the tsunami was likely not going to become a threat to the Pacific Region. At about 9:45PM I turned Carnivore 180 and headed back to the marina. We safely made our way back to port and into our slip. We did manage to run over some sort of debris, but it didn’t sound too hard or too big as it met our running gear. When I bring Carnivore up to speed Saturday when we fish offshore, I will know for sure that all is well if we run with no vibrations. So the adventure continues….. We look forward to seeing our first visitors from NC, when Henry and Anita Best and their four girls come stay in Sueños for a couple days on the way to their house in here in Costa. They will arrive tomorrow. We hope to surf a bit with them and fish for a day as well. In addition, my brother Michael will be aboard Carnivore for a few days this weekend as well. It will be fun for all I’m sure. Salute!!!!
FALL '07
CAPTAIN’S LOG 04 SEPTEMBER 2007
09 38 00N 084 41 00W
Carnivore still remains comfortably at berth at Los Sueños Marina Costa Rica. Since my last captains log in August, we have done very little sea travel. Surfing is the main focus for us boys and we are getting plenty of it. We spent a few days with our friends the Bests here at Sueños. My brother Michael was also in town during the time the Bests were in town. We all had a very nice visit together. We fished one day (big group; 6 Bests, 6 Petrillis, my brother and a local we met here named Tuti - made for 14 on board). The trip was fun as we went 4 for 8 on Sailfish which is quite good for this time of year. A few Dorado made for a festive dinner for all. Henry and Annita Best own a beautiful home in Santa Teresa which is about 40nm as the crow flies up the Nicoya Peninsula from where we are in Herradura. By land that equates to about a 5 hour car trip including the ferry ride across the Gulfo Nicoya. Henry and Annita were generous enough to let the Petrilli gang overlap with them for a few days at their house and then let us stay on for the better part of a week.
Santa Teresa is very remote and has a real “in the country” feel to it. It also has some great surf and we seemed to get more than our share. Like snow skiing for me these days; after a few days in a row surfing I need a day or so to recoup and let the muscles heal. I may be the “OLD GUY”, but I do my best to keep up with the three Petrilli amigos. The last couple days we spent in Santa Teresa we got a real taste for what the rainy season can be like at it’s heaviest. Man did it rain! I estimate between 6 and 10 inches in each 24 hour period. Huge amounts of water. Four wheel drive vehicles are a must in this region, but when it rains that hard even 4 wheel drives are a struggle at times. At best when the roads were awash we could make about 3 miles per hour in the mud and trenches. There were a few occasions when the water was about even with the hood of our truck while crossing the wash outs. Another few inches and it would have drowned the engine for sure. The time spent in this remote region was what I called our “vacation from our vacation”. Land travel did us good and it was a great way to end the summer season prior to getting into more of a routine with the home schooling. Speaking of Home Schooling, upon our return to Sueños, we jumped into the school year for the kids. Natalie is handling the bulk of this challenge on board. She has some subjects in which the kids work “on line” at a self study pace and others she will actually teach. I am teaching the three amigos a class in Navigation and Seamanship. I spend about one hour each day teaching the boys this class. It is based on all the course study, information and knowledge that one needs to have in order to pass the test for the US Coast Guard Captains License. I am using lots of information from “Chapmans Piloting & Seamanship” which is kind of like the bible of boating. I am also including many practical areas in the course including; Navigation With Electronics, Weather Analysis and Forecasting, and just tons of neat stuff included in General Seamanship and Boat Handling. I really have a passion for lots of this information, so the class is enjoyable for me to teach and I too will learn many new things along this teaching voyage. I obviously have a huge amount of information to cover in this class and it will therefore continue throughout the remainder of our year on board. We do expect a few more visitors while here in Costa Rica, so it is our plan to hit the books pretty hard so we can goof off for a few days when the visitors come. We will try to off-shore fish once every couple weeks or so, but until the fishing heats up later in the season we will continue to do most of our fishing off the Herbivore inshore and close by. Surfing is so good around this area, we seem to be spending most of our down time chasing waves and of course talking endlessly about them over meals. As always with die hard surfers, we all kind of rate the areas we surf and the daily swell. In fact, with the big tropical swell that came in from the hurricane crossing the Caribbean Sea, we found a left point break that only breaks with a very particular type swell. It is reachable by tender boat and is very close by. We have yet to surf it with anyone but us and the lucky few we drag with us. Justin being the only goofy foot in the group says “it is the best wave he has ever surfed”. That’s saying a lot, because over the past few months we
have surfed some absolutely world class waves, but also because Justin seems the most fickle critic in the group. At any rate………….COWABUNGA!!!!!!!!!
For those of you following Carnivore’s travels, that about brings you up to speed for now. We have heard many positive things from our friends and family who are keeping up with us through our web site. We will do our best to keep it reasonably updated.
CAPTAINS LOG 02 OCTOBER 2007
LOS SUEÑOS~COSTA RICA
Not much to report since my last update. Carnivore is still based in Los Sueños Marina here in Costa Rica. We are in the school, boat maintenance and surf mode. The surf has been a bit smaller the last couple weeks, but still consistent and fun. Offshore fishing is still poor and seems to be getting poorer as we move into the heart of the rainy season. We had some NC - Emerald Isle buddies (Roy, Dave, Chuck, Jimmy and Patrick) visit us while they were on a mini vacation in Jaco Beach. Took them fishing one day, but to no avail…. no billfish and little meat. But it was great seeing the boys from back home and catching up over cool drinks and cigars. Natalie, myself, Taj and Gianno took a little road trip to Quepos last weekend. We went horse back riding way out in the back country which was very neat. We went in the afternoon and rode up large streams and into the mountains.
Late in the day after a brief down-poor, the rain forest and mountains seemed to come alive with wildlife. We saw many beautiful and interesting birds heading to roost, including Scarlet Macaws, Hawks, Buzzards and Tucans. We also saw many Titi monkeys which are becoming quite rare. Watching the day wind down and the sun set in the mountains was quite a change of pace for us and we all enjoyed the experience. Cowboys and Watermen both have much to be thankful for. We expect Mark and Cathie Butterworth from VA to come for a visit this week. Bummer for the Petrilli kids; Mark and Cathie’s sons Joel and Trent had the likes of school commitments, so they will not be along for the trip. In a couple weeks myself and the three boys will make a surf trip to Nicaragua for a week or so. This will be a land trip, so I’m sure new adventures await us. Shortly after our return, Natalie, Taj and Justin have a brief trip planned back home to NC. They will of course all see their friends, Natalie will take care of some business affairs and Justin will hopefully get his drivers license. Upon their return we will be off to live on the hook in the islands of Panama here on the Pacific side for the month of November. December and a good portion of January will see us based out of Flamenco Marina on the Pacific side of the canal. From there we will explore Las Perlas Islands and Piñas Bay. As the rainy season wears off the fishing should heat up and we all look forward to that. I will likely check in once more via my captains log prior to departing Costa. Wishing all you folks out there all good things. Stay well.
Capt. ED
CAPTAINS LOG 08 NOVEMBER 2007
GOLFITO~COSTA RICA
Greetings from Golfito Costa Rica. We left Los Sueños yesterday and will spend another day here in Golfito prior to checking out of Costa Rica and heading back to Panama waters. Our final month in Costa was primarily a surfing safari in addition to regular boat maintenance and hanging out in and around Sueños, Herradura and Jacó Beach. Natalie, Justin and Taj had a great two week visit back to North Carolina. While in NC, Justin hung with his buddies, surfed and did manage to find time to get his NC Drivers License. Natalie and Taj did major socializing with their respective pals, in addition to Natalie tending to some business. While they were gone, Anthony, Gianno and I explored many new surf breaks by boat and got some of the best surf of the trip yet. Our new friend Jimmy Akana joined us in search of the perfect point break and it seems we found a handful of them. Jimmy works the cockpit of a traveling sportfish boat and splits his time between Australia, Hawaii, Mexico and Costa Rica. In the summer months he is based out of Alaska where he runs a charter boat fishing for Halibut. Needless to say, we have much in common and became good friends over the past month in Costa. Jimmy, myself and the boys spent multiple days doing recon missions by boat looking for decent Rooster Fish territory and that gave us an opportunity to recon some remote surf breaks as well. Between the local spots we surf close to Sueños and some of these more remote locations, the month was slam full of surf. With the exception of a couple local and more popular surf breaks, we never surfed with another sole in the water over the course of three weeks. Talk about getting spoiled. For those of you who snow ski, this kind of surfing is similar to Heli skiing. Perfect conditions…..with no crowds. Wow.
Costa really was great, but now we press on with the next leg of our trip. Actually a bit of a reverse leg. We will spend the remainder of November living on the hook in Panama waters still here on the Pacific side. We will be living among the islands located between northern Panama and Panama City…a stretch of about 350nm. We will focus more on fishing versus surfing now that the rainy season is nearing an end. After November we will be back to a marina for the month of December and most of January. This period of time will be spent still on the Pacific side of Panama and based out of Flamenco Marina near Panama City. I expect that we will take a handful of small, three to five day excursions out of Flaminco, into Las Perlas Islands and Piñas Bay. They are both very fertile fishing areas and we all look forward to chasing Black Marlin and Sails, mixed in with some great inshore fishing. It will also be a time where we can explore and get to know Panama City better and maybe even practice up on our Spanish. All good stuff.
I would expect that my next captains log will not be posted until the beginning of December since we will have limited internet access while living on the hook…(satellite internet is dog slow and mucho expensive per minute). If there is a big stretch between my next log…don’t worry, it’s all good. I wish all of you reading this a happy Thanksgiving. No question my family and I have much to be thankful for. We will celebrate this Thanksgiving while living on “mother ocean”, with great focus for all she gives us and also give thanks for our continued safety on this great journey. Wishing you all the best.
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 11 NOVEMBER 2007
ISLA PARIDA~PANAMA
Buenas Noches from Isla Parida – Panama. Carnivore and crew arrived back in Panama waters yesterday in the midst of rain, rain and more rain. The trip from Gofito was uneventful, including the fishing. We live baited Bonita’s for Black Marlin, at a couple spots along the way, but to no avail. Oh well, that’s fishing. We dropped the hook at about 4:00PM yesterday on the N/E side of Isla Parida. Today we woke up to a beautiful blue sky with the mountains of David, Panama off about 20 miles to the east. Our friend Carlos that we met here on Isla Parida in August came out in his dug out canoe to say hello first thing this morning. Unfortunately his wife Margarita and son Carlos Jr are both on the mainland in David for the next month. Carlos came with fresh yellow coconuts for a morning drink while we did our catching up. Our Spanish is a bit improved since our visit here in August, but still in need of much improvement. One way or another, we always seem to get our point across, so I guess it’s good enough to get by.
We launched the Herbivore after breakfast, took care of some boat chores and then Anthony and Taj took off to the palm trimmed beach to check out the scenes. It is neat to see the kids so comfortable in their activities on the water. All of them are dialed into being safe while venturing out and at the same time uninhibited. Any time any of us leave the main boat with the tender boat, we are sure the basics are on board. They include; the hand held VHF radio, flare kit, first aid kit, life vests, oars and water. Carnivore always monitors channel 16 while at anchor.
These remote areas of Panama are beautiful for sure, but at the same time you are pretty much on your own. It is rare to see any other boats or people other than the occasional local fisherman in a panga. So if you have any problems, you need to handle them on your own. Later today when the three boys were out casting in the rocks for grouper and snapper for dinner, they eyeballed a large (est 40’) Grey Whale taking a siesta on the surface. A resting whale…not seen before by any of us. It spouted a few times while they cruised the area, but never moved an inch from it’s resting spot. They checked it out from a distance for a while and then they couldn’t resist investigating this sleeping beauty. They slowly approached the behemoth, got within about 100 yards and then it spooked. In a flash, it flipped it’s massive tail in the air and made a quick dive and was not seen again. An amazing site for sure. It seems to never end in this area; one amazing site after the next. Turtles, fish, birds, crocks, sunsets and pure majestic beauty everywhere you look. This is an amazing zone and we are clearly blessed to simply hang out here.
We were wrapping up the day today enjoying the sunset, getting ready to grill dinner, when some shrimp trawlers pulled into our little resting hole for the night. Justin and I hopped into Herbivore to see if we could barter some shrimp from them. Turns out they were based out of Panama City and had been out at sea for a while. They really wanted cigarettes and any kind of solid food that didn’t taste like shrimp. They ended up cleaning us 3/4 of a five gallon bucket of fresh shrimp. In return we gave them 2 nice cigars for the captain, a six pack of Coke and a dozen burger patties with buns to match. They were super stoked and clearly appreciated our generosity. Next time I travel this pocket of water I will for sure bring a few cartons of cigarettes along. They are light, take up little space and go a long way with the local fisherman. Tomorrow we will attempt to get a bit of school work done. The next day we plan to bring Carlos and his brother fishing off-shore with us to chase some meat in the early morning and then hopefully some billfish. How good is that? Living on the hook is really a blast, but experiencing it and sharing it with the locals is even better. I hope I have a good report to type the next time I flip open the lap top.
Stay well……..Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 15 NOVEMBER 2007
We are still at Isla Parida. Yesterday we went offshore fishing and brought along Carlos and his brother Miguel. We fished out to Isla Ladrones, a beautiful set of two islands about 15nm offshore of Parida. Beautiful sites while fishing around these small islands. We caught Mahi Mahi, but no billfish. It was fun having Carlos and Miguel on board as it forces us to try to speak Spanish. They really know absolutely no English whatsoever, so it’s a challenge for sure. Carlos and Miguel are both fisherman and have spent their entire lives on the water, but we are certain have never been in a modern sportfish boat. It was neat to see their reaction to the boat, the way she handles and also the manner in which we fish. Keep in mind they only fish with hand lines in Pangas or dug-outs. Carlos asked to go into the engine room with me when we were back at anchor and it was fun to see his reaction to that as well. Two big engines, water maker, ice maker, hot water heater, generator running 24/7 and all the other bells and whistles…. all seem to be necessities for us to make life at see as comfortable as our life at home. For these islanders, they don’t have any of these things in their homes, so it’s quite a site for sure. We ate Longusta (lobster) tonight… a gift from Carlos. Yum. Carlos always seems to show up with some sort of gift in hand. Fresh papaya, watermelon, bananas, coconuts, sea shells. He never comes empty handed. We fish off the stern of the boat in the evenings with the underwater lights on. This is pure entertainment for us, but Carlos appreciates all the fish we toss into his dug-out. I can never seem to make it past 9PM, but the kids burn the midnight candle out there some nights. Gianno and Justin were out until 1:30AM a couple nights back. Youth…….
CAPTAIN'S LOG 16 NOVEMBER 2007
Today Natalie and I took Herbivore into a little village called Boca Chica for gasoline and possible provisions that we might find. Boca Chica is on the mainland and about a ten mile run from our anchorage on Parida. Herbivore is used almost constantly while at anchorage to fish and explore. Its 25 horsepower engine does not use much fuel, but we only have a capacity of about 15 gallons of gasoline, so it does seem to get used up rather quickly. At any rate, it gave Natalie and me a chance to get away on a bit of a recon trip and to get off Carnivore for a while. Again, the sites in and out of all the little islands between Parida and Boca Chica where par for the course. Simply fantastic. One empty lagoon or half moon beach after the next. You could go for days and not run out of secluded spots to explore without seeing another soul. It turns out Boca Chica is just a simple little fishing village. One tienda with the most basic supplies,….flour, rice, beans, soap, a few canned goods etc. One gas pump. One tiny little outside restaurant with a few tables under a tin roof with a few local dogs sleeping under. We each ate what was being served for lunch…a plate of rice and shrimp with a cold cerveza (Total cost including cervezas for two of us $5.) There are about 100 people who live in this village. Of course there is a boat builder who was building a panga. The neat thing about these small villages, is there is always a central place in town where the men build and mend their fishing nets. It is an open area, with concrete floor, about 50 feet by 25 feet and always under a tin roof. It is a place for fisherman to work on their gear, but of course is seems to be the central meeting place as well. I’m sure fish stories and local gossip are a plenty. Always seems to have some music blasting too. A neat place for sure. We ate a meal, walked to the edge of town (about a quarter mile) to see the sites, got our three jugs of gasoline, a few basic provisions, and were on our way. On the way back we stopped at a beach in a half moon bay to take a stroll and see some sites. Howler monkeys made lots of noise for us so they must not be used to visitors. Found a fresh water stream which was perfect for a fresh late afternoon rinse. How perfect. The ride back across the bay between Isla Boca Brava and Isla Parida was a bit like the Pamlico sound in North Carolina. Choppy and wet in the Herbivore, but no problem. Did the kids get their school work done while we were gone for much of the day????
CAPTAINS LOG 0330 19 NOVEMBER 2007
We are at anchor on the north end of Isla Jicorón. I am on the 3:00 – 4:00AM watch, so it is a good time to make an entry. This island is about 3nm across a big deep channel from the large national park - Isla Coiba. We left Parida two days ago. We fished our way from Parid to Isla Ladrones and then fished our way further off shore another 20nm to Isla Montuosa. At Ladrones we caught meat fish to feed Carnivore. Tuna and a 30 pound Pargo Snapper. Pargo is a trophy fish for any salt water angler. They are beautiful and mean looking at the same time. We were thrilled to catch the prized beauty. It is incredible table fare. When cooked just right, it has a similar texture to lobster. Between Ladrones and Montuosa we trolled for billfish, but only came up with a few Mahi. We are about out of freezer space so we just kept one Mahi and were then catch and release. Isla Montuosa is a spectacular island and one we all looked forward to anchoring at and fishing from. On the right swell it is also known to hold surf. So we were all stoked to drop anchor and dig in. Unfortunately Montuosa only has one good anchorage area and it is Northwest facing. Wouldn’t you know it, the S/W wind we have had for a week shifted to west N/W and the anchorage was blown out. It was about 4:00PM with the next closest island (Coiba) about 25 miles away. Thank goodness for the trusty sea anchor. For you non nautical types…the sea anchor is essentially a large underwater parachute which you deploy while at sea with a long line. It slows your vessels drift down to essentially the speed of the current regardless of wind. It also keeps the vessels bow heading directly into the seas to reduce roll. They work great. The good news was, we were headed to the famous Hannibal Bank to fish Black Marlin the next day anyway. Hannibal is between Montuosa and Coiba, so it all worked out fine. We ran about 8nm east of Montuosa, tossed the sea anchor over and drifted out in the open sea for the night. The swell was not too big but the 15knots of wind made for about 3-5 foot seas. Once again Carnivore and her crew handled the situation fine. Natalie cooked a nice meal of fresh fish and we all settled into our night watches. Being that we were out in the open sea, we did two man watches. In the morning we made our way to Hannibal Bank with hopes of Black Marlin. It took a while, but we finally hit pay dirt on a Black one. A nice 300 pounder inhaled a live Bonita bait from our left long rigger. What a thrill to hear the clicker on that reel start to scream. Fishing with live baits and big circle hooks, when the marlin eats the live bait, you simply wait 10 or 15 seconds while the marlin swims away and then push the lever drag up to strike position. This sets the big hook in the corner of the jaw and then the show starts. Very neat way to catch such large predators. This particular fish stayed on the surface in sight the entire fight. It shook his head a whole bunch, but never fully jumped out of the water. It lit up neon for a beautiful show next to the boat and after the release it swam along side the boat for close to a minute before swimming to the deep blue. A strange fish for sure, compared to any Blue Marlin I have experienced. We will head back to Hannibal tomorrow to hopefully see how other Black Marlins act. Our friend Lee called us on the sat phone this evening. He is on board the Cebaco mother ship in Cebaco Bay, so I think we will make our way over there in a day or two, only about 25nm from here. I could not think of a better place to spend Thanksgiving; on the hook in beautiful Cebaco Bay. With luck, we may even make a run to Puerto Mutis and then Santiago to chase down a Turkey to throw in the oven. If not? No worries, it’s all good.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 24 NOVEMBER 2007
CEBACO BAY~PANAMA
Ahoy from Cebaco Bay. We are comfortably laying on a mooring nearby the Cebaco Bay mother ship. We have been here for a few days now. Since my last log entry we have been enjoying a variety of beautiful anchorages. From Jicoron we went to Isla Coiba. What a great spot. We spent two days there and really enjoyed the place. Coiba is the largest island in Panama. In fact, it is the largest island in all of Central and South America at almost 22miles long and in areas nearly as wide. It was originally an island with a Panamanian penal colony on it. Sort of like our Alcatraz in California I guess. At any rate, the penal colony has been officially closed for about eight years now (so they say) and the island and its surrounding waters are now a national park. We have also heard conflicting reports of prisoners still kept on the island although I don’t think the government wants anyone to know. Needless to say, we won’t be picking up any guys in striped suits floating on rafts in these parts. No joke, this was a common occurrence when the prison was in full force. Coiba is about 25nm off the mainland, so prisoners were constantly taking their best shot at escape. The inshore light tackle fishing and snorkeling were great around Coiba. Grouper, Snapper, a variety of Jacks and plenty of Gar (“poor man’s sailfish” as we like to call them). They are long, sleek, fast and acrobatic. It has been great to re-connect with our friend Lee who is the manager of the Cebaco Bay mother ship. Mike Young, one of the Cebaco Bay partners who originally introduced us to Lee in Panama City, was also on board Cebaco Bay for the past few days. Mike is an avid surfer so, Lee, Mike and us Carnivore boys all surfed his local spot a couple of times. There is also a very mellow long board wave right here in the bay, so Taj has been back on her long board doing her Gidget thing. Go Taj. We managed to contact Lee when he was in Santiago the day before Thanksgiving and he was able to pick up some provisions for us, including a 15 pound Turkey. Yea! Mike and Natalie both did some great cooking and all six of crew Carnivore joined Lee, Mike and there crew of five for a huge throw down Thanksgiving dinner on board Cebaco Bay. It was really great. A classic pig out. No doubt, it was crystal clear to all of us, just how much we have to be thankful for. The good lord has watched over the Petrilli family over the past six months during our voyage and has blessed us with safety, incredible weather, surfing, fishing and countless experiences that none of us will ever forget. Every day is a gift and for that we are all grateful. Today we decided we would try our luck at live bait fishing for some big Snapper or Rooster fish. We ventured out all of about 1 mile from our mooring, put the troll valves on, inched in close to the rocks, put the live Cojenua baits in the water and five minutes later…..BAM. Taj jumped in the chair and slugged it out with what turned out to be a 40 pound Cubera Snapper. This is very similar to the Pargo Snapper that we caught off Ladrones last week. (It’s coloration is darker on top with a bit less red on the body.) I’m sure Natalie will get the pics of this great fish on the web site soon. What a great fight for any angler and a great fish for sure. Our freezers are pretty slam full, so we will do a Cubera barbeque with the whole Cebaco crew tonight. Great fun. When we get together with the Cebaco Bay crew, it is also a good time to practice our Spanish. We took on 600 gallons of fuel from the mother ship today, so we are good on fuel for a long while. Tomorrow we will run off to Aguja Reef about 15nm from here and live bait for Black Marlin. Then on Monday it will be off to surf Catalina and then off to the Secas. A small group of islands about 35nm from here.
CAPTAIN'S LOG 29 NOVEMBER 2007
ISLA JICARON~PANAMA
We left Cebaco on the 26th and spent the 26th and the 27th at Bahia Honda. This is a about a 3nm bay on the mainland just north of Coiba Island. There is an island (Isla Bahia Honda) in the middle of this secluded bay with a small village on it consisting of about 200 people. There are no roads that lead to the Pan Amenian Hwy from anywhere in Bahia Honda as it is completely surrounded by mountains. The folks who live in this area are completely isolated. The only way in which for the local islanders to get to any civilization is to take a boat out of the bay, run about 15nm south to Catalina and get a 2 hour bus ride to Santiago. Needless to say they are always appreciative to see visitors in the bay and also always in need of a variety of supplies. Dugout canoes are the only boats we saw in this bay in addition to a handful of fishing pangas and one gringo sailboat. The dugouts are all made from a single large tree and are amazingly balanced in look and the way they float and paddle. We made friends with a number of these natives who came to visit the boat. They are a very polite and reserved group of people and were extremely thankful for the T-shirts, ball caps and various supplies we provided them (soap, basic medicine including aspirin, hand lotion, motor oil, fishing line....). We spent a couple hours with a man named senor Domingo who later brought us fresh spinach, oranges, grapefruits, lemons and a huge batch of “red bananas” (which none of us had ever eaten before) – very good. (By the way, we fish with bananas on the boat now all the time and have found no bad luck associated with them regarding fishing or otherwise.) He also took Natalie, Gianno and I into the village to meet his brother and sister in law. We were lucky enough to spend some time in their little casa. They had a small house which they slept in and a separate house for cooking and eating. In this cook house there were no windows, but the side of the roof was open at the top on the side. This allowed for the smoke from the open fire which they cooked on to slowly drift out. The floor was dirt, but the area was very well kept and clean. A couple hammocks in the middle for rest between cooking and tables and chairs for eating and socializing. We hung out with them in this area like any American family would hang out in their kitchen / living room area. The main difference was probably the chickens wandering about! Above the wood fire we observed they had hung fish filets, fish skins and fish frames on bamboo rods, as a means to slow cook and smoke them….how cool. While we were there, Senor Domingo’s brother showed us a pendant type piece of jewelry he thought we may consider purchasing. It turned out that he had casually excavated this artifact in the nearby hills. It was plate like in shape and about 5 inches around. It was wafer thin, with intricate designs pounded into it. Obviously made of pure yellow gold. This was clearly a museum quality piece and who knows what it was worth. I believe he had roughly figured what its’ weight was and based his price on what it would sell for based on current price of an oz of gold. He asked for $1,200, which I’m sure is a massive fortune for them. I tried to explain to them to take the piece to a qualified art dealer in Panama City or get it to the Smithsonian folks who have substantial inroads at nearby Coiba Island. My take was, he would just continue to ask gringos who occasionally pass through the bay if they would like to buy this beautiful piece. Oh well. All in all Bahia Honda was just a wonderful little treasure, like so many of the places we visit in Panama. And of course the inshore fishing in the bay was great as always. Snapper and grouper abound and we eat them for many meals.
From Bahía Honda we crossed over to Coiba and found the best snorkeling of our trip yet on nearby Granito de Oro. We saw all kinds of marine critters, including fantastic fish, lobster, white tip sharks, green moray eels and a hawks bill turtle that allowed us to swim with him. Just amazing stuff. We anchored on the north tip of Coiba where we had the week before and once again enjoyed this secluded and beautiful anchorage. This morning we caught some Bonita for the tuna tubes and headed off 23nm to Banco Hannibal. Within 30 minutes we watched in awe as a nice 300 pound Black Marlin inhaled the live 10 pound Bonita before our eyes. Once he was locked up with our circle hook, he then proceeded to give us an amazing display of leaps and acrobatics before settling in to a 30 minute fight with Gianno in the chair. What a blast. A few hours later we really got the thrill of the trip when Natalie went one on one for close to an hour with another Black Marlin. But this one was a really heavy fish. Certainly in the700 pound range. Natalie did a great job working this fish, particularly the last 20 minutes when it was “up and down” off the transom and I could be of no help to her by backing on this enormous fish. When it finally gave in and Justin wired it along side the boat, we knew it needed some reviving prior to release. Justin and I spent about 15 minutes holding the fish along side the boat while we slowly moved forward, allowing for much needed water and oxygen to flow through it’s massive gills. Gianno, Taj and Anthony got some great pics of this beautiful fish which I’m sure Natalie will post on our site. Have a look and enjoy.
CAPTAINS LOG 30 NOVEMBER 2007
ISLA CEBACO~PANAMA
Today we left another pristine anchorage off of Isla Jicaron after morning coffee while watching dolphins feast on huge schools of flying fish in glassy water all around us. Any fish that the Dolphins missed the Frigate birds would catch in mid air as the flying fish fruitlessly flew for their lives. Just another day of Animal Planet on board Carnivore. We went 0 for 1 on Marlin today but it was still a great day on the water. After we settled into our anchorage here in beautiful Cebaco we unfortunately received a very sad call on the sat phone. Our dear friend and neighbor in North Carolina Buzz Mitchell had died today. As many of you know, Buzz was a huge part of our family and a very close friend of mine for the past 13 years. I am somewhat at a loss for words right now as the reality of this loss settles in. My family and I have spent most of this evening telling Buzz stories and consoling each other. The peace and tranquility of this anchorage is certainly a place that helps deal with this kind of situation. After dinner, as a family we all laid outside on the foredeck of the boat, under an awesome canopy of stars. Not a sound other than what Mother Nature dished out. When you are in a setting like that it really makes you realize just how small we are in the scope of our world and beyond. It is a fitting way to help start the mourning process and reflect.
CAPTAINS LOG 01 DECEMBER 2007
GUANICO~PANAMA
We fished Aguja Reef today en route to Guanico. We hooked up with a beautiful Black Marlin after fishing hard of most of the day. Unfortunately when it was thrashing about after we hooked in up, it apparently wrapped its bill on our leader and managed to snap the line. Big powerful fish going nuts can do that every now and then. It was a bummer, but there will be many more opportunities ahead. We are anchored up at Guanico, which is picture perfect. Just as impressive as the first time we stayed here back in early July on our way to Costa. It will be about a 135nm run to Panama City tomorrow. It will be good to tie up at a marina for a change as it has been close to a month living on the hook. A very memorable month indeed.
CAPTAINS LOG 04 DECEMBER 2007
FLAMENCO MARINA~PANAMA
We arrived safely at Flamenco Marina on Sunday the 2nd. We have a great view of the skyline in Panama City off to the Northeast from our slip. Really a great spot. We will catch up on some boat maintenance, school work, emails and re-provisioning over the next few days. I’m sure we will hang out in the city a bit also and then we head off to Pinas Bay on Friday. Pinas is about 110nm south of here and is home to the famous Tropic Star Lodge and Zane Gray Reef. We will spend about 5 days getting to know this region a bit and fish and surf hard I’m sure. The reports on both fishing and surfing have been good, so we are all looking forward to the trip.
CAPTAINS LOG 10 DECEMBER 2007
7 34 .76N 078 11.92W
PIÑAS BAY~PANAMA
Greetings from Piñas Bay Panama. Piñas Bay is 110nm southeast of Panama City. Just prior to departure on this trip we invited Pat O’Connell to join us. We met Pat at Flaminco Marina in Panama City. He had helped deliver a boat from Los Sueños Costa Rica to Flamenco and was getting set to return back to Costa Rica. Pat lives in Golfito Costa Rica and is the mate on a large sportfish boat which has traveled and fished this region extensively. Without a doubt he is absolutely crazy about fishing. Needless to say, it has been great to have him on board with the Carnivore gang. Pat is also an avid fly fisherman, so he has been giving team Carnivore some great instruction on the art of fly fishing, with our fly fish gear we had yet to take out of their wrappers. We sure hope to get a shot at a sailfish on the fly in the very near future. Team Carnivore was so fired up to fish and surf Piñas, we decided to bypass a stopover at Las Perlas this trip, which are about 38nm from Panama City. Las Perlas Islands are supposed to be spectacular, but we will have time to explore them during the Christmas holiday when we will be in the area for over a week. Instead, we ran a good portion of the trip to the fishing edge and then trolled for a few hours and then ran the final leg into Piñas in the afternoon. We did not raise any billfish that day which was a disappointment, although Mahi are plentiful on the troll. The Tropic Star Lodge is based here in Piñas Bay and has a number of moorings available for visiting sportfish boats. In addition to the dozen or so Tropic Star boats, there are currently about six boats in the Bay which makes for great chatter on the VHF and for swapping stories while on the mooring at night. The first day we fished out of Piñas we went one for one on Black Marlin and one for two on Sailfish. We hooked up with the Black Marlin within about 15 minutes of wetting the lines in the morning. In fact we were actually trolling for live baits when the Black came up behind the boat. We always keep a billfish bait trolling even when catching baits, just in case we get a welcome surprise visitor. It paid off nicely for us. Taj was all set to do battle with her first Black Marlin and did a great job with it. We released the est 200 pound fish after about a 30 minute fight. Later in the afternoon, Gianno released a nice sailfish and we missed one other. That was a great start for us at Piñas. Day two we went one for two on Blue Marlin and only one for four on sails. But the day was excellent. Natalie was angler on the first sailfish which we caught within ten minutes on the troll. The first Blue gave us a great shot with pitch baits, but just did not want to eat. He then took a massive jump after swatting at one of our trolled lures, but missed the hook. The second blue came into the corner teaser and Justin wasted no time throwing him a pitch bait and hooking him up. It was about 250 pound Blue that went as ballistic as any fish we have had on the boat. Twice it grey hounded behind the boat, then along side us and then directly at the gang in the cockpit. As it charged for the cockpit at ballistic speed, everyone in the pit dove for cover. It missed the corner by literally inches. You really have to be aggressive on the throttles when hooked up to some of these fish. What a blast. We have also enjoyed the local Indians in this bay. They paddle their dug outs to your boat and lay out all their crafts on the cockpit covering boards so you can check out all the neat things they make. Baskets of really intricate weaves that take about a month or longer to make, are just amazing. Easy Christmas shopping for sure. Our final day on the troll back to Panama City we went 1 for four on sailfish and 1 for two on Blue Marlin.
There are an amazing amount of Mahi Mahi in the water in this region this time of year. They are all gaffers and all aggressive. If you keep any more than two hook baits in the water, they will drive you crazy. Our final leg back to Panama City was really nice with slick seas and beautiful weather. We look forward to our next run back to Piñas for Christmas week. Between now and then, we will concentrate on some boat maintenance, school work and enjoying all that Panama City has to offer. Needless to say, all is well. The biggest issue we seem to be dealing with is poor or no internet connections at Flamenco Marina. Unfortunately that means that the amount of pictures we can download onto our web site is slim to none. Which is a total bummer, because we have some great pics to share with all of our family and friends. We will keep trying, but if you are wondering why our pictures are limited on the web site, that is why. Until next update……..¡Adiós!
Captain Ed
WINTER ‘08
CAPTAIN'S LOG 03 JANUARY 2008
PANAMA CITY~PANAMA
Carnivore is back in Panama City and I am writing a long overdue Captains Log. The primary reason for the gaps between logs has again been due to weak or no internet signal here at Flamenco Marina in Panama City. Since my last log update we spent about a week and a half at Flamenco Marina and caught up on some boat maintenance and got in the Christmas spirit. We all managed to do some Christmas shopping in and around Panama City and pretty much just enjoyed hanging with some new friends we made in Panama and catching up with old dockmates here at Flamenco. There are a handful of Captains and Mates who we had become friends with in Suenos who are also now based out of Flamenco Marina here in Panama. So there is never any shortage of great folks to hang with at the marina. A real neighborhood setting (maybe more dorm like –than neighborhood), where you never know who is going to stop by for a chat and maybe a cocktail depending on the hour. It’s all good and makes for time to really fly by. Justin’s lifelong buddy from North Carolina, Christopher Ritchie, joined us on the 17th and is just now planning to head back home tomorrow. It’s been fun to have Christopher on board and to share all that Panama has to offer with him. Chris is a fellow surfer, so he of course showed up with a couple of boards for the trip. I think that made our vessel quiver somewhere around 14 boards. Another board on the hardtop and another on the foredeck….good to go. Lucky for Christopher the swell showed up the same day he did. We had been without swell for a couple weeks, so the timing was right. The boys all surfed Malibu glassy and head high for two days with our new Brazilian friend Bruno. Bruno runs the Pipe Layer out of South Carolina, has a 4 wheel drive truck and knows all the local surf spots. So thanks to Bruno, for getting team Carnivore into some great surf. Unfortunately I was unable to join the boys in the water as I was busy visiting a chiropractor trying to deal with a pinched nerve in my neck. A bit too much work in the engine room one afternoon, led to me waking up the next day in “white out pain” and stiff as a board. The only way I got out of bed was with the help of a Natalie, Justin and a couple of fellow captains Natalie pulled off the dock. What a bummer. It is much better now, but still dishing me plenty of pain two weeks later, so I guess it’s going to be a slow healer.
We departed Panama City on the 22nd for Piñas Bay with clear skys and calm seas. That day was pretty much the only day up until the 28th that we saw strong sunshine and no rain. The rainy season along with it’s light southerly winds have been persistent far longer than they normally are. Not a big deal, but they put a damper on the billfish bite compared to normal. We got a handful of shots at lazy sailfish that were difficult to excite and a few marlin bites. We managed to lock Christopher up with his first battle on a nice Black Marlin and also a Sailfish that was part of a sailfish double header. Great fun. Christopher also released a beautiful and strong Jack in addition to a Christmas morning Dog Snapper he caught on the mooring in Piñas that went about 20 pounds. Taj insisted we release it since it was Christmas, so he happily complied. Of course chef Natalie was licking her chops as the tasty critter swam away. No worries, there is always wall to wall fresh Mahi for the taking all over Piñas while on the troll. In fact, when bordom sets in too deep while on the troll, one can always liven up the gang with some gaffer Mahi. Fishing was so slow we took two lay days while in Piñas on this trip. One day the boys scored some decent river mouth surf and another day was just a lazy day on Christmas.
Celebrating Christmas was really fun on the boat this year. We did Christmas eve with the normal Petrilli 7 fish cioppino feast. Christmas day Natalie cooked a 15 pound turkey with all the trimmings which made for a great day. She even cooked an apple pie for the crew. When you’re out on the hook in remote settings, it really allows you time to reflect on all we have to be thankful for. Maybe it is the fact that there are few distractions outside of the abundance of raw nature. Very unique and very nice for a change. Christmas 2007 was very memorable for sure and not likely to be matched for years to come.
We got back to Panama City on the 29th and have since been pretty much catching up on the normal boat chores and just chilling out. New Years was spent with an early dinner out to our favorite Italian restaurant in the city and birthday cake on the boat for yours truly (#48 wow). We had a midnight toast of beer (forgot to buy a bottle of bubbly – oops) on the boat, while watching the fireworks go off in and around Panama City. It was really just right. Why does it seem that life on the docks is a bit of a revolving party, new years or not? Catching live baits and stalking the elusive Corvina off the transom leads to great conversation, good cigars and relaxation. Yes we have much to be thankful for indeed.
I have a few of my buddies from North Carolina who show up in a few days for a “guys” Piñas trip. Justin will come along and run the cockpit for us, while Natalie and the other kids will go hiking the rainforest from the Gamboa resort. It should be a great week for all. I have high hopes for the fishing as the wind is now honking 25knots out of the northeast – just what the fish doctor ordered. I will likely update shortly after our return.
Wishing all of you a very Happy and Healthy 2008. Best to all!! Capt ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 23 JANUARY 2008
PANAMA CITY~PANAMA
It’s been a busy few weeks since my last Captains Log update. My buddies from North Carolina showed up on the 5 January for a week of fishing in Piñas Bay. Justin stuck with Carnivore to run the cockpit for the week while Natalie, Anthony, Gianno and Taj all were kind enough to jump ship for the week and went to Gamboa Resort for some R&R. Gamboa is about half way between Panama City and the Caribbean side of Panama. It is located along
side the central stretch of the Panama Canal and Gaton Lake. While at Gamboa they did a bunch of nature walks and saw all kinds of neat stuff in the rain forest. They also went Peacock Bass fishing in the lake a couple times and hammered the Peacocks. Most of the fish they caught they gave to the locals, but they did keep enough for a big fish fry for us and all our buddies on the dock at Flamenco. My fishing pals from North Carolina included Billy Farrington, Stan Frye, Bobby Bourquin and Teak Bell. Our trip to Piñas was a blast and went very smooth. All the boys seemed to adjust to living on the hook on Carnivore very quickly. The fishing was not red hot, but we did manage to catch plenty to keep all of us on our toes and having a great time each and every day. We released five Sailfish of multiple shots, went one for two on Black Marlin and caught a 154 pound Yellowfin Tuna, in addition to other smaller tunas and who knows how many gaffer Mahi (they are always in abundance). Our second day at Piñas a big Black Marlin shook off after a great display of jumps and a fast charge at the boat…BUMMER for sure. The next day the big Yellowfin managed to pull for about an hour and a half before we dragged it through the tuna door, so that fish was a really stubborn one, but neat because it was clearly the largest yellowfin any of us had caught. That same day we went one for three on Sails and also released a Black Marlin which went over 600 pounds. The Black Marlin was a thrill because we caught it on a 40 pound yellowfin tuna which had eaten a blue and white Islander. While we were reeling the tuna in, it was off the corner of the boat when this massive Black Marlin could not resist the live meal and came in and gulped in down. Justin got it on the wire almost right away and then it realized it’s meal was attached to string and men on the other end and it went nuts. The battle went on for over 90 minutes and finally the beast gave in. Right when we had her along side on the wire, she made one more thrust and coughed up the 40 pound tuna next to the boat. We pulled the mashed tuna in with Islander still intact in it’s mouth. How cool is that? To finish off this perfect day, Justin filleted some steaks off the tuna and we all enjoyed some recycled tuna sashimi along with much celebration. After we weighed in the big tuna on the Tropic Star scales, we gave all but a chunk of the meat to the local Indians in Pinas (which they always are thankful for). The boat ran great as always and I think the Tar Heal boys really got a taste of what the gang on Carnivore has been doing for the past seven months. The food we all prepared was great and the brotherhood of friends from back home was just what the doctor ordered for Captain Ed. The only glitch we had the entire week was when we ran out of beer on about day five. The next night we ran out of Rum, but in hindsight I think the timing was just about right. After our run back to Flamenco, Natalie joined up with us and we all spent our last evening together in Panama City seeing the sites. Hopefully Natalie will get some of the photos from the trip on the web site soon.
Two days after the NC boys departed we hauled the boat out of the water at Flamenco to do a bottom paint job and a bit of repair work on the trim tabs. It all went smooth and we were back in the water on the morning of day three after hauling out. A few days after that, our partner / General Manager Sean Porcher along with our District Manager Rudd McClory came into Panama City from California. We conducted business for a couple days and of course mixed in some touring of the City. It was a short three day visit, but we all enjoyed it and got some needed business affairs taken care of.
We have kept in touch via email with our friends in Los Sueños Costa Rica and it seems the billfish bite and the surf is going off in Costa Rica. Never ones to keep a calendar, the Carnivore crew has decided to spend one more month on the Pacific before transiting the canal back to the Atlantic. This will mean we will cut a few islands off our return trip home in the Caribbean, but we figure it will be a long time until any of us are back in the Pacific on our own boat. The fishing is great, the people are great, the surf is great…..and that’s what we are all about. In a couple days my brother Christian will join us in Panama City from the states, we will spend a week in and around Cebaco, Coiba, Hannibal Bank with Christian on board….send Christian on his way back to Panama City and then head back to Costa Rica. Christian may be a bit tired after his journey home, but it will certainly be a memorable one. From Cebaco Bay, we will get him a panga boat ride 20nm up to remote Puerto Mutis, he will then take a taxi to Santiago and then about a 2-3 hour bus ride back to Panama City.
I expect to update my Captains Log upon our return to Costa Rica. As always, best to all of you reading this.
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 24 FEBRUARY 2008
COSTA RICA
Another delayed captains log update……oh well. My last update was given just before our departure back to Costa Rica about a month ago. My brother Christian joined us in Panama City for about a weeks stay on board with the Carnivore gang. He had only one night in the city before we took off to Cebaco Bay area. As planned, we did about five days of fishing and then Carnivore pressed on to Costa Rica and Christian back tracked to Panama City. We lived on the hook the entire time Christian was with us which he did very well with. It takes most people a few days just to get their sea legs, but Christian got in the groove of living on board almost immediately with no ill effect…. a natural for sure. We almost exclusively marlin fished around Coiba region and did fairly well each day. Decent marlin bites with plenty of sailfish and of course mahi mahi mixed in. Christian had never been on board a boat for this kind of blue water action, so I think it was plenty good for him. Our highlight day we went one for three on Black Marlin and went 6 for 7 on sails. We had great action almost every day we fished. We finished our week in Cebaco Bay with the “Cebaco Bay” mother ship, which is a favorite spot of ours. Lee and his Cebaco Bay crew always treat us well and are in the perfect mid way zone to re-fuel. Christian was lucky enough to grab a boat ride back to Panama City on board a friends boat the “Done Deal”. So he did not have to do the 10 hour up the river, taxi and bus grind back to the city as originally planned. Once again, things just kind of fall into place on board Carnivore.
After Christian left we took a lay day in Cebaco before departing back to Costa Rica. We fished and surfed our way to Costa, which included one overnighter between Isla Montuosa and Montapala. We arrived at Montapala at 6:00AM just in time to grab some waves and then pressed on to Los Sueños. We managed to catch a few sails along the way which was a bonus during the 140nm transit. It was great to get back to Sueños and see all our old dock pals. Of course when we left in early November is was still hard core rainy season and the fishing was poor. So it was a welcome change arriving in the peak of the fishing season with great dry weather. The second day we were here my cousin Carl Uvaro showed up on the dock as a great surprise. Again, sometimes the unplanned works better than the planned and this was clearly one of those times. We spent a few days with Carl and his friends and surfed a bit and also took them offshore fishing. The day we had them on board we went 4 for 6 on sails, which was not red hot, but sure a great time for all. Over the past few weeks, we have got some fantastic Costa surf and fished a bunch. In between our Carnivore trips, on any given day any of us can catch a ride on another buddy’s boat on the dock. Gianno, Anthony and Natalie have all taken advantage of that and gotten extra days on the water. Needless to say, the brotherhood on the docks here at Sueños is really great. Always plenty of dock talk and always a ride to the fish.
About a week ago we made a three day trip up to Carillo Bay, with our friend Jimmy Akana and his friend Alisa on board. Carrillo is about 60nm from Suenos and has a pretty strong marlin bite in addition to good Sailfishing. Our best day on that mini trip we went 1 for 1 on Stripe Marlin, missed a Blue and went 3 for 5 on sails, with the usual Mahi mixed in. Of course we managed to get a few surf sessions mixed in with the fishing too, which is always in the plan on any Carnivore trip. Yes indeed, there’s never a dull moment on board Carnivore. Another recent surprise visitor on the Sueños docks was our boat builder Jamie Chadwick. Jamie was in town with some North Carolina buddies for a bit of R&R and by chance we were here at the same time. Of course we took the Tar Heel boys out fishing and went 10 for 16 on sails that day. It was great that Jamie got to see one of his boats in action and lived aboard. A testament to Jamie’s boat building skills, I was happy to report that we have put almost 9,000nm under Carnivore’s hull since we left NC last June, 1,000 hours on the MTU motors and over 2,400 hours on our Northern Lights Generator. We have had no issues with the boat or its power plants along the way. The boat is a pleasure to handle in any sea condition and solid as a rock. It spins great on fish and is as trustworthy as any boat I have ever run, traveled or worked on. Needless to say, we are very very thankful that we chose Jamie Chadwick as our builder. If your reading this Jamie….thanks again and I mean every word. I still can’t understand some of those Harkers Island words that come out of your mouth, but it’s always a pleasure to be with you. You da’ man.
We are planning to depart Sueños back to Panama City the day after tomorrow. Our good friend Lee from Cebaco Bay came in to town yesterday and will stay on board Carnivore to fish and surf with us between here and Panama City. We plan to get back to Panama City / Flamenco Marina on 1 March and will stand by to transit the canal any day after that. From there we will have about three months to cruise around the tip of South America and then up the Caribbean chain. It should be a great finish to a great trip. It is incredible that we have been on board our one year adventure for over eight months. Time flies when you’re having fun. I imagine I will update the Captains Log within the next month or so. Until then, regards to all…..
Capt. ED
SPRING '08
CAPTAIN'S LOG 08, APRIL 2008
CARTAGENA~COMOMBIA
We are in Cartagena Columbia waiting for a weather window to get to Bonaire. All is well with the crew on Carnivore. Ed will update this site shortly. We ended up having to stay in Panama for a month because of the port side transmission failing on us on the trip from Cebaco to Panama City on March 1. We finally left Panama City (with a brand new transmission) on March 28th, spent a few days at the Shelter Bay marina on the Atlantic side of the canal and then headed to the San Blas islands for a few days. For you fishing enthusiasts...we caught a blue marlin 10 miles off the coast of Colon en route to the San Blas and then another blue marlin 15 miles from Cartagena en route to Cartagena! There are fish on the Atlantic side too!!!
CAPTAIN'S LOG 13 APRIL 2008
CARTEGENA~COLOMBIA
Hello from Capt Ed. It’s been well over a month since my last Captains Log entry on the Carnivore web site and lot’s has happened since then. For starters we had our first pretty major mechanical issue arise on our way back to Panama City from Cebeco Bay. Just after rounding the infamous rough water point “Punta Mala” (translation - Mean Point), we lost oil pressure on our port transmission. Unfortunately that led to the clutches slipping and essentially a burned up transmission. Bummer. We motored at 10kts on one motor in 6-8 foot seas for the last 90 miles and ended up getting into Panama City at around 10PM. After coming in and out of Panama City ie Flamenco Marina a bunch of times with numerous transits to Piñas Bay, I was comfortable doing this at night. The challenge was our path led through the shipping anchorage used for ships waiting to transit the canal. At that time there was a northbound backlog of over 200 ships in the anchorage, which we had to weave our way through. A challenge and a bit stressful for sure, but we managed to skinny through with no issues. Our Twin Disc transmission was thankfully still under warranty and it was decided that the transmission would be replaced with a new unit. Arrangements were made to ship the transmission from Miami FL to us in Panama. Long story short between diagnosis, determining what to do for repair, shipping the part and replacing the transmission….we spent the better part of a month in Panama City. I must say, Twin Disc corporate was a pleasure to deal with and really worked with us to make sure the problem was resolved as quickly and painlessly as possible. Cheers to Twin Disc.
While we hung out in Panama City for the month the kids all had an opportunity to catch up on school work which they were frankly a bit behind in. In addition we all spent time in and around the city enjoying sites, new friends and good food. Justin was hired out on Reel Extreme…a 65’ Viking to run their cockpit and as an additional mate on board. He stayed on board for two weeks and finished up that trip with a few days of great surf at Catalina with some buddies from the city. Unfortunately his pal Jeremy dislocated his shoulder when he smashed into the reef at Catalina. Lee from Cebaco Bay was fortunately near by with the Cebaco Panga boat and ran them 20 miles up the river to Puerto Mutis in the Panga and then 20 mile car ride to the hospital in Santiago. That was no fun at all for Jeremy with his dislocated shoulder. The hospital was a classic third world nightmare, so the entire event was a learning experience for Justin. Justin got back just in time to transit the canal with Carnivore (almost got left behind with only a day to spare). All in all March was not so bad. No fishing and no surfing (except for Justin), but a good time to chill at the docks, catch up on a bunch of boat maintenance and the dreaded school work. With the right attitude and plenty of time, setbacks are not all that bad.
We transited the canal northbound on 27 March. No issues and a fun transit. We took on our new pals from Flamenco… Tula the big man better know as Shrek and Tonyo as extra line handlers. The canal is absolutely amazing and to transit it in your own vessel is an incredible way to view and experience a true marvel in engineering. Very cool. The Carnivore crew are all great on deck and did a superb job handling lines and fenders. If any of you sport-fish boys are transiting the canal and need experienced hands on deck…you know who to call.
We spent a few days at Shelter Bay Marina on the Atlantic side of the canal. This marina is located on the old US military base Fort Sherman. Some neat history there and it is nestled in a very cool national park and rain forest. If any of you “blow-boaters” are looking for a place to wait out or haul out for the hurricane season, this is the place. No hurricanes, well protected, secure and well kept facility. It is located across the bay from the rough and dismal city of Colon, so it is a complete contrast to that. From Shelter Bay we transited an easy 70nm to the beautiful San Blass islands. En route (as always) we dragged a billfish spread. No more than 10nm out from the breakwater we put em in and 15 minutes later were hooked up with a nice Blue Marlin. Gianno jumped in the chair and we were off and running back in the Atlantic. Twenty minutes later we released the 200 pounder. Later that day we missed a couple sails and caught a mix of Mahi and Tuna. That first day back on the Atlantic it blew about 20kts with six foot seas, a real contrast to the tranquil Pacific we fished and played in over the past eight months, but the shape of things to come for sure. The San Blass islands were beautiful and fun. We had a chance to come in contact with the Kuna Indians and Natalie managed to purchase a “mola” from the Kuna who lived on the island close to where we were anchored. The inshore fishing on light tackle was a major disappointment compared to the Pacific islands, (over fished we think) but the snorkeling was great. With the right swell, we are pretty sure there is good surf to be had in the San Blass, but aside from Justin sponging a reef in 3 feet of water, the swell did not cooperate. We did an overnighter heading for the Colombia coast about 185nm and again trolled a spread during the day. About 20nm out of Cartegena Colombia Taj did a great job on about a 400 pound Blue Marlin (her first Blue release). Another great day for the crew on Carnivore. I don’t want to jinx our run, but we have gone 24 straight fishing trips with catching billfish. The past four trips included Marlin releases. We are hoping to continue the streak moving up latitude in the Atlantic. We have been here in Cartagena for a week now. This city is a very safe and beautiful city filled with history. It is comprised of a section with new high-rise buildings, a charming residential community with $mil plus houses, a working class community and then the old walled city. The old walled city is clearly the gem. It was built over the course of about 100 years back in the late 1600s into 1700s. Just incredible architecture with buildings with balconies overlooking courtyards etc. It is clearly worthwhile visiting this beautiful place. The people are very nice and welcoming. Absolutely no English spoken, but we seem to get by. There are many great restaurants and just wonderful places to tour in this city. Colombia clearly has its bad places and issues for sure, but this place is not one of them. Tonight we are having a Bon Voyage dinner with our new friend Derrik from San Andres. What’s for dinner on Carnivore? Carne(beef tenderloin) of course!!
Tomorrow we shove off for a 515nm run to Bonaire. An overnighter, with two full days. We will troll and enjoy the expected rough and tumble ride. No doubt the worst seas we expect on the Atlantic with the longest run. The good news is we can make this run within about 30nm off the coast. Aruba and Colombia both have a strong coast guard presence in this region along with the US Coast Guard as back up. The bad vibes from Venezuela in this region are keeping everyone else on high alert, so that only helps the many cruisers in the area. I will try to keep up a bit better with my Captains Log updates over the next few months as we make our way back to the states. Best regards to all of you out there keeping up with the travels of Carnivore.
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 25 APRIL 2008
BONAIRE~NETHERLANDS
Hello from Bonaire. Our trip from Cartegena was trouble free, but wow it was rough. We did an overnighter out of Cartegena in about 8 – 10 foot seas right smack on the nose the whole way. The seas in this region are always rough and always confused. We had a long run so we conserved fuel and motored between 8 and 10 knots the whole way. This was certainly not the highlight of the trip as Carnivore took a constant pounding for the duration. As always, she took everything the sea had to offer. Thank goodness Jamie Chadwick builds a tough boat. The second day of this 520nm transit we made it around the tip of Columbia and headed for Isla Monje, a very very small Venezuelan island which is about 25 miles off the coast. We had been told about this small rock island by a new friend we met while in Cartegena (if your reading, thanks Tristin). It is a military outpost for the Venezuela Coast Guard / Navy and is honestly not even a quarter of square mile in size. A rock postage stamp, not pretty… without even a single tree or plant on this rock pile. Two small military looking buildings, rocks and a bunch of birds. A very strange place indeed. What was really strange is that they did not even have a boat on the island. How they got there, what they do there and how long the eight or ten poor buggers that are stationed there is unknown. They certainly don’t promote it, but they evidently allow cruisers to tie up between their rock piles for a night of rest. That is exactly what we did. Beat up and haggard after two long hard days at sea with the wind blowing a solid 25 to 30 knots with towering seas, we and the boat needed to rest. The seas don’t subside until literally you are tucked in tight to their cut out little cove between two huge rock piles. Between the two rock outcrops they have a line strung across, which you pick up and tie up to. Not pretty, but certainly restful. A couple military boys actually boarded us and cleared our paperwork. No English spoken here, in fact very few words spoken at all. We kind of got the feeling that they did not know what to make of us, but thankfully they did not turn us away in the dark. Natalie got some warm and needed food in us and we all crashed out. Deep sleep.
The next day we made our final 120nm to Curasao. Curasao is part of the Netherlands ABC islands (Aruba, Curasao and Bonaire). Dutch, Spanish and English are spoken on this Dutch island and the people are quite nice. The island has many European tourists and has a nice little city with many restaurants and shops. A nice place for sure with a real European flavor, but not really our type of hang out for more than a couple days. We acted like tourists for a few days and then made our way 40nm to the more subdued Bonaire, which is where we have been for the past five days. Bonaire is also tourist driven of course, but the island is much smaller with a much smaller population as well and is very low key. About the only thing folks do here is scuba dive. And diving they do have going on in a big way. We have done the scuba thing here every day and it is nothing short of spectacular. The underwater visibility is great at over 100’ and the reefs are all loaded with colorful coral and tons of sea life. Clearly the best diving I have ever experienced. Bonaire is situated on the western side of the island which is in the lee of the prevailing and constant easterlies. “Klein” Bonaire is a small island about a mile off the west coast of Bonaire and it too is set up for great diving. All around both of the islands you have about 50 yards of sandy bottom and then a reef which drops off down to over 300 feet. The park service has mooring buoys about every quarter to half mile all along the leeward side of the island. So the dive sites and opportunities are endless. Even if you don’t have a boat, you can access many of these sites by car to do beach dives. So for all you divers out there, if you have not done Bonaire, put it on your list. We have made dives off Carnivore and our Dux boat Herbavore has also been great for diving off of in smaller groups of three. All of us but Taj are scuba certified and after a day of just snorkeling Taj was about to come out of her skin watching us all doing scuba. She is an absolute fish and as strong and confident a person in the water as anyone I have dove with, so Natalie and I decided to ease her into scuba diving with us. With sound instruction and mentoring from all, Taj has taken to it like a pro. At 10 she can’t get legally scuba certified, but she is clearly ready both physically and from a maturity standpoint. She really is an excellent diver. I’m very happy she did not miss out on this portion of our trip. All four of the kids have also taken to the challenge of “free diving”. Justin can now hold his breath for almost three minutes. His biggest issue is clearing his ears, but free diving seems to be a natural thing for him. All the boys can now free dive to depths of 40 plus feet which is pretty amazing to see. Taj easily goes to 30 feet on the free dive. The Carnivore kids are all part fish for sure.
Last night we celebrated Gianno’s 14th birthday. So now all six of us have celebrated a birthday while on board during our trip. No doubt all of us have learned and experienced more in the past 10 months than most folks do in a lifetime of vacations. We are all very thankful for that and never take a day on board with good health for granted. It really has been a blast. Tomorrow we continue our easterly trek when we drop lines and head for the Windward islands. We have one stop planned along the way at Los Roques, a Venezuelan island. We will likely do some diving and possibly some fishing there too before we press on to Martinique. That’s it for now. Best to all….
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 14 MAY 2008
ST BARTHS~FRENCH WEST INDIES
As always, late again with my log update. The time just flies by and when I check my ships log and look at dates, I can hardly believe how quick another month goes by. My last update was done just prior to our departure from Bonaire. We had a pretty decent weather window for our multi day transit between Bonaire and the Windward Islands. Our initial plan was to transit via island hops east bound in the Los Roques Islands above Venezuela and then shoot up northeast to Grenada. A few things influenced my decision to make one direct two day transit to St Lucia and skip Los Roques. First of all, we would have spent at least an extra three days in Los Roques doing day hops. As our time is becoming more critical to get to USA prior to hurricane season around mid June, we really have no choice but to weed out some of our originally planned stops. Secondly, after talking with local captains and reading about some not so pretty incidents in and around Venezuela I had some serious reservations about anchoring up in Los Roques. Venezuela is a beautiful place with great islands and fishing, but it is frankly not a safe place right now outside of protected gated marinas if you are doing overnighters at anchorages. It is a sad situation and after talking with some local Venezuela business people while in Bonaire, it is apparent that very, very few Venezuela natives are happy with the political situation right now and all seem to be very concerned with the current state of affairs. The guys I spoke with said it isn’t even safe for locals. It just doesn’t matter; “if you have or look like you have money…you’re a target”. Nuff said. So with that in mind, Carnivore headed 90 degrees True, right for the island of St Lucia. The first day the seas were not so bad. Twenty knots of easterly wind with six foot seas. In fact, we trolled for a good portion of the day and hooked up and shook off a nice Blue Marlin. That night things took a major twist as the wind picked up to 30 plus knots and we pounded into 10 foot plus head seas for the next 24 hours. The second night the wind dropped down to a manageable 20 knots with 6 -8 foot seas. A piece of cake compared to the prior night. Once again, Carnivore and her crew performed like champs.
We spent 5 great days in ‘English speaking’ St Lucia in Maragot Bay. It has been a long time since we carried on in our native language and frankly, it was great. Sooooo easy to get stuff done. We met some really nice local folks and absolutely enjoyed this island. It is all volcanic with massive structure all around leading right into the ocean on all sides of the island. It has some very nice interior rain forest as well and is supported by it’s number one crop - bananas. The locals are extremely friendly and overall the island has a great flavor to it. Maragot Bay is a natural hurricane hole so the protected harbor was a welcome relief compared to some of the wind blown harbors we have been to over the past couple months. Gianno and I caught a couple waves (first in a long time) at a nice little point break we found close by, but the swell died as quickly as it came up and was just not enough to make it really have a push. (We are all missing the consistent Pacific surf and seriously getting the itch for surf.) While in St Lucia hooked up to shore power (what a nice break to shut the generator off for a spell), I took the opportunity to replace the generator main seal which had been leaking for quite some time. I had the part on hand so was just waiting for the right moment to attack the project. The job was a classic situation of making due with what you have. I needed a “puller” tool to get the main crankshaft pulley off the front end of the generator. No way it was coming off without one. The yankee came out in me and I ended up taking an aluminum mounting bracket off a piece of equipment in the engine room and drilled the holes with the correct pattern to act as a puller. I then robbed a few steel bolts off the transmission that fit the mounting holes on the pulley and bingo….I had my custom puller and off she came. The rest of the job was a cinch and that put an end to our oil leak. Life is good! Our last night on St Lucia all of us, but Justin, went to the local fish fry in a small local fishing village. It is kind of like a once a week farmers market they have for the locals. It was a nice evening for all of us and we very much enjoyed the locals and their music. Justin as always hooked up with a local guy who works at Maragot. They went out to hang with the local crowd and in typical island style, burned the candle late. They got back to the boat at about 6:30AM. Turns out their designated driver drifted away at some point in the evening and Justin and his new buddy ended up staying at his buddy’s house on the opposite end of the island. They took a local bus back to the boat in the AM, versus driving at night on the island. Good choice, good sense and I’m thankful for that. From Maragot Bay St Lucia we went to Martinique. First stop was St Anne which is a nice little seaside
town which we enjoyed. We went to a French Catholic mass while in town and it was quite beautiful with great music. Next stop on Martinique was St Pierre. Small town at the base of volcano. We went into town and got some good French pizza, but overall St Pierre was nothing to write home about. Dominica was next on the list. We dragged a marlin spread on the way during this short 30nm hop and hooked up and lost yet another nice Blue one. (Not like Carnivore to shake two off in a row. Oh well, there will be more shots.) Dominica is quite beautiful and well known for it’s rain forest, nature hikes, waterfalls and rivers….365 of them they say, one for every day of the year. Natalie and the three boys did a hike with a guide and had a fantastic day. The water fall they visited was huge and generated 30kts of wind at it’s impact zone below. They finished up their hike with lunch at a “rastarant” and met the infamous Rasta Moses who cooked up a vegetarian fair served in calabash gourd bowls. Very nice locals on Dominica with great spirit and appreciation for the natural abundance of nature around. We all had a chance to take a “river tour” through the mangroves and up a river where part of the second Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, of course we headed back to the boat and had to watch the movie AGAIN to see where we had just been. Very cool!
From Dominica we visited a tiny but beautiful French island call Isla De Saints. What a gem. The local beaches were gorgeous and the town was well kept and very low key. Great French bakeries and local food. I think this island tiny and compact as it is, may be a bit like St Barths was 25 years ago. Very local, very French and very low key. We spent three great days just relaxing on the hook here. The boys got into some pounding beach-break surf, but I passed on it. That kind of surf is not my idea of fun anymore. Isle De Saints is a place we would definitely come back to another day if we are so lucky. Next, we made about a 90 mile run up to Montserrat. As you may recall, about 10 years ago Montserrat had it’s volcano fully erupt and the capital town and most of the structures on the south side of the island were buried in ash. Very sad. The volcano chilled out after a couple years and is now a sleeping giant again. They have moved the main port, capital and built new houses on the north side of the volcano, but it is obvious this place with a current population of 4,500 down from over 11,000 has a long way to go to rebuild and attract tourists and their dollars. As we approached the island we could see a big cloud hanging over the volcano and then as we got closer we could tell it was not just a normal cloud. It was a cloud generated by the vapor / steam puffing up from the volcano. As we got down wind the smell of sulfur was super strong. This is a common ongoing scenario even though the volcano is dormant. Not really our idea of a place to chill. There is in fact a reasonably protected anchorage on the southwest side of the island, which we nestled ourselves into for the night. Honestly it was a bit spooky laying anchor, as there was not another boat in sight. All the houses (most quite substantial homes in fact) were boarded up. But we did see some local fishermen on the beach hauling their skiffs out for the day, so we knew there was some life on the island. Obviously just off, off, off season. No worries, we fired up the Barbie in the cockpit, cooked some steaks and watched another great Caribbean sunset. While getting ready to pack it in for the night a lone sailboat came in, dark as it was, and dropped a hook next to us. So we ended up not so alone after all.
St Barths was next on the list and we eased into Gustavia harbor in the afternoon. Absolutely the easiest and quickest customs and immigration check in of the entire year….Ah the French. The customs agent took a look at our crew list had me fill out one short sheet of info and never even glanced or touched our passports. When I questioned him about the lack of stamps on our passports, he smiled and waved it off with ‘ no worries my friend, it’s all fine’. I had to laugh. When you realize just how local, expensive and exclusive this little island is, it makes perfect sense that they don’t care who is coming or going off their island. If you are not a St Bart local there is obviously no employment for you and unless you have scads (and I mean SCADS) of money……your not staying for long. My folks had built and kept a house on St Barths for about 20 years. Unfortunately for us they sold it a couple years ago. Natalie and I have visited a few times over those years, so we had a pretty good fix on this island and looked forward to sharing it with our kids. We rented a small truck and did some touring about the island, visiting all the local surf spots (bummer, still no swell) and many of the beaches. St Barths has changed in that it is clearly more populated and more developed, but it is still as pretty as ever. Beautiful people….beautiful place. We enjoyed the great food and the bakeries especially. The “scenery” on the French beaches is also as beautiful as ever, which I will never get tired of. On Mothers Day we splurged and ate dinner at a beautiful restaurant right behind where we were ‘stern to’ on the wharf. I made the reservation while sipping my rum and smoking a cigar up on the fly bridge. When one of the staff came out to the patio to set up their outdoor area for the evening, I waved him over and asked if they could take a party of six for the evening dinner. Oui Oui no problem….We really had a great meal and a memorable 2008 Mothers Day evening. As an added bonus for us while in St Bart, we happened to be there for the finish of the hugely popular trans Atlantic sailing race from France to St Bart. The race is called CONCARNEAU – ST BARTH and crossing the Atlantic is over 3,100 miles. The sailing vessels are all exactly the same and rigged identically. They are about 32 feet in length and manned by two very top notch sailors. It is an absolutely grueling / marathon type event, that is as high end a sailing race as there is anywhere in the world. Major sponsors, owners and major money go into this prestigious event which is tracked and watched throughout France and the sailing world alike. The whole town was abuzz with the anxiously awaited arrival of the boats. The big news was that the two man team with local boys from St Barths was jockeying in and out of first place over the past three weeks of the race. There was a big area on the Gustavia waterfront set up with 24 - 7 live music, live radio and tv….you know the drill. Lots of partying and lots of activity. The first boat was expected sometime in the wee hours of the night or morning so we kept our ears open while we slept. Sure enough about 3:30AM we started to hear the horns blowing and sirens ringing. We all went up to the fly bridge to see the harbor absolutely filled with every size boat imaginable jockeying around like nuts and people lining the entire waterfront. The place went totally nuts as the boat came into port under full sail in 20kts of wind. Everybody blasted their horns for a half an hour. The boat literally got a hero’s welcome. The second boat which came in about half an hour later got all the same. It was not the St Barths boat that came in first or second, but the third boat in…there she was. The folks went ballistic. Champagne covered the harbor, including all the sailing vessels and men in them as they peeled their way into the harbor with wild tacks, including one extra semi-victory lap. Great fun to watch and lucky we were there. The party continued and the hero’s welcome continued for every boat as they came in over the course of 24 hours. Really neat to be a part of. We got some great pictures of the action, which I’m sure Natalie will get on the web site at some point. We spent our last day and night on St Barths anchored up at beautiful Columbier. We snorkeled with many, many loggerhead turtles in crystal clear water, as they use this bay as a feeding ground. Very cool.
I’m writing this as we are trolling our way to Tortola BVI (no marlin bites yet). With the price of fuel now around, and sometimes over, $5 per gallon in this region, we are basically acting like a trawler. In fact, I call us a trawler in disguise. The fact is, by trolling at 9 or 10 knots we not only get to fish our way up the Caribbean (not that the fishing has been good), but we are saving at least $20,000 in fuel expense. Most of our island hopping is well under 100nm a day, so no worries…it is good to be the turtle sometimes. We will spend about 5 days in the British Virgin Islands and look forward to some great diving and beaching for sure. A sizeable north ground swell has picked up today and we are all anxious and hopeful that we can get to surf Cane Garden Bay and some other BVI hot spots while it’s firing. The boys are about out of their skin to get into some meaty Caribbean surf.
Best to all reading this. FYI, we expect to be in south Florida around June 15 and back to Morehead City, NC around July4.
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 24 MAY 2008
ISLA CULEBRITA~SPANISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
The past week in the BVI was very enjoyable. We arrived in Tortola from St Bart on 15 May. (Yes, we did hook up with a Blue Marlin that day too.) As we had hoped, we got very lucky with a late season northerly swell. Our first day on Tortola, the four boys all got up with the roosters and grabbed a cab over to Cane Garden Bay. The cab ride was a total rip off, but the waves were smoking - solid head high, with plenty of overhead sets thrown in. The wind cooperated too and stayed light offshore all morning. After almost four hours of non-stop killer surf, we were all spent, but absolutely had a fantastic session. Turns out it has been over ten years since a solid north swell came into Tortola in late May. The surf gods were clearly looking out for us and we plain old just got lucky. There were no tourists around since it was off season and at max after an hour or so about 10 locals joined us in the water. What a memorable session (even if I did get rolled over the reef once). The next day Cane Garden was dead, but Apple Bay was still holding a chest high swell and Justin and Anthony got it good. Justin got his chance at getting reef rolled at Apple Bay….dings, nicks and cuts, but no worries. Gianno and I needed a break that next day to lick our wounds and let our muscles rest, so we slept in. It’s funny how many days I take a couple Advil with my vitamins at breakfast after beating myself up the day before. Oh well, it beats sitting around and getting soft watching TV.
While in Tortola I was able to get the injection O-Rings I needed to fix a minor fuel leak on the Generator. The leak was minor but persistent and I was stoked to get the parts and do the repair. On the 17th we headed off to Norman Cay for some more BVI fun. I had spent a month diving the BVI back in 1978. This was during a winter session class while a student at Southampton College. The class was Underwater Photography and obviously we were all over the BVI and had a blast diving and in general raising hell. In 1984, Natalie and I spent our second anniversary sailing the BVI out of Tortola and had a blast. In fact, it was on that soul searching trip that I decided to jump ship from the insurance business and become a full blown… lunatic entrepreneur. (Glad I did.) We were both a bit hesitant to come back to the BVI after almost 25 years, not knowing what we would find. What we found was still a very beautiful BVI. Things were clearly more developed, but not over developed by any stretch. Of course Road Town Tortola was a total hole, but that we for sure expected. The only thing that is absolutely OVER developed, is the bareboat sailboat industry. This is the off season and still all the common anchorages were slam full of sailboats (Many with over 100 boats in an anchorage.) Thankfully the industry has planted moorings in all of the main anchorages, so the not so seasoned folks on these rented sailboats can pick up moorings versus anchoring. But even with as many moorings in each anchorage, there were still many late arrivals each evening that would have to drop hooks. Entertaining yes, but worrisome and a danger to those vessels around them as well.
My brother Michael and his partner Jeff joined us on the evening of the 18th and spent a few days with us running around the islands. It was great to see them and we all enjoyed a few relaxing days in and around the beautiful BVI. They were staying on a few extra days at Pussers Inn at Marina Cay - just off of Tortola. They were kind enough to insist that Natalie and I take their room overlooking the bay for a night. That was a nice moonlit evening for us and much appreciated. The only other time I had been off the boat in the last year, was when we did some land travel in Costa Rica over in Santa Teresa. There is no question, we have become fully accustomed to living aboard after almost a year.
I am writing this while we are at anchor in Isla Culebrita. This is a tiny uninhabited island with about a one mile perfect half moon bay with white sand and crystal clear water. It sits about 20nm off the east coast of Purto Rico. It’s big sister, Isla Culebra, is just a couple miles west of here. Culebra has a bit of a tourist influx and has customs office, restaurants, etc… We had planned on spending just one night here and then jump over to Culebra to clear customs into Puerto Rico. What we forgot was that it is Memorial Day weekend and it turns out this little bay becomes a major hang out and weekend getaway for folks from PR. When we arrived here yesterday (Friday) there were maybe 10 boats in the bay anchored stern to the beach. By 10:00AM today there were 30. Now there are At least 75. The boats range from sportfish boats like us, to small center consoles, but most are big sport-fish boats. Funny thing is, there is only one blow-boater in the bunch. So the wheels have finally turned for us, as we are among our sport-fish brethren once again. We figure that the much more popular Culebra is a total zoo right now, so we will sit tight and spend another night here and then head for Fajardo PR, to check in with US Customs (wow, US Customs, that sounds strange). From Fajardo, we will do an over-nighter to the Ocean World Marina on the north coast of the Dominican Republic where we will spend a few days, before pressing on to southern Bahamas. Chink, chink, chink…..we’re getting there slow but sure.
Until next time…..stay well and Happy Summer days to all of you.
Capt. ED
CAPTAIN'S LOG 09 JUNE 2008
En-route to HOPE TOWN~Elbow Cay
ABACOS~BAHAMAS
The past few weeks since my last captains log has pretty much been daily transits. We went from Culebrita PR to Fajardo PR, where we cleared customs, got some provisions at none-other than the local Walmart and spent just one night. From Fajardo we did a 300nm overnight transit to the west coast of the Dominican Republic, Ocean World Marina. We got lucky and caught a Long Billed Spearfish on this transit. We had never caught one of these before, so that was pretty cool. Near the end of the day, we also came across a pod of Orca Whales feeding fast and furious. That was really neat. We had heard that Killer Whales could be found in this area of the Atlantic and none of us had ever seen them in the wild before, so we were all stoked. There were a few large males in the group and one alpha male that had a dorsal fin that stood up a good six feet. While they were feeding they put on a great show for us and we all had a blast with our front row seats. (Clayt, if your reading this, we doubt you no more. Ha!)
We ended up spending three days in the DR and really enjoyed our stay. It was like we jumped right back into Central America. Our Spanish came back quick and the locals were super friendly. We rented a car and toured around a bit which was well worth the effort. Santiago was a couple hours away and the ride there was over and around some of the most beautiful mountains and rain forest we have seen all year. Along the way we stopped at a local shop that sells Amber jewelry which is mined locally in the DR. Once in Santiago we had a great local meal and then took a personal tour of the Leon Jimenez cigar factory, which is the oldest cigar factory in the DR. Of course visiting and buying some cigars at a cigar factory was high on my list of things to do while in the DR and as it turned out was sort of a history lesson of cigars and the DR as well. The third generation of the Jimenez family has also built a very substantial cultural museum on this site, which was very nice to tour through. The day was very enjoyable for all of us and a nice change of pace from so many days aboard Carnivore. The next day the four boys all got up early and took the rental car about half an hour to the local surf break. We got lucky again and scored some fun chest to head high waves.
After just a few days, we all felt that the DR is a great place to visit and clearly under rated by the cruising crowd. No question, the next time around, I’ll dedicate a good long stay in the Dominican Republic. We ended the month of May with a 320nm overnight transit to Long Island Bahamas. During this two day transit we went 1 for 4 on Blue Marlin. Not a great ratio, but we had a blast just the same. We had planned to stay at Long Island for just a night or two, but once again…met some great locals and extended our stay for nearly a week. We were on the southern portion of this 80 mile island, at Flying Fish Marina. While on Long Island Gianno and I decided to hire a local Flats guide for a day of Bonefishing together. I had given Gianno a Bonefishing trip for a Birthday present and Long Island and it’s Exuma Bank turns out to be the perfect place to catch a Bonefish. We saw hundreds of the little buggers that day. We had a great day together and each caught at least 40 Bonefish. Wow, what a blast. Thanks again to our guide Elvis.
It turns out that a leg of the local Bahamas Regatta was during the week we were on Long Island. This is the premier event of the year for this island of 3,000 people. The boats they race in this regatta series are all locally built, with traditional Bahamian rigging dating back many generations. Since we heard so much about this regatta, we decided to stay an extra day or two to check them out and partake in the festivities. While hanging out at the marina one afternoon I struck up a conversation with a local named Nick Maillus. Nick and his wife have 6 kids ranging in age from 23 to 11, so obviously we had lots in common. Nick and I had a great chat and in short order I could tell he was a super guy. That evening Nick showed up at the dock with all six of his children and invited the Petrilli gang to play volleyball. While the crowd of kids were off playing volleyball, Natalie and I had a great chat with Nick and got a good history lesson of the Exumas from Nick. It turns out, three of the Maillis boys were crew on the regatta boats and Nick invited all of us to join them on their Allbury Brothers boat to spend the day watching the races. What a great day we had on the water. We really got the full flavor of these unique races and how much fun it is for the locals to show off their boats and sailing talents. In between the races we all did some swimming and spearfishing at a local rock island. Just another great day on the water with some great local folks. If any of you reading this have ever been to the Bahamas and seen the “Bahamian Calendar”, found in all the local stores, this is done by the Maillis family. Better know as The Calendar Family. The Maillis family have been producing this beautiful calendar for 22 years. The calendar has beautiful water color paintings of many local scenes mixed in with local cooking recipes placed throughout it’s pages. It was certainly a pleasure and a privilege to meet and spend time with this warm and hospitable family. (If your reading this guys, thanks again.)
From Long Island we made a 70nm day troll to Cat Island – Hawks Nest Marina. Very remote, very quiet, but a great outpost for a sportfish boat to base out of. But time is ticking and we departed the next day for southwest Eleuthera – Powel Point, Eleuthera - Harbor Marina. Another remote outpost which is a great home base to fish out of for sure. Again, we are limited on time and press on the next day for Spanish Wells. We crossed the beautiful banks on this route in anywhere from 6 feet to 12 feet of water. (Dodge the black spots…ie coral heads, in the clear green water and enjoy the ride.) Simply beautiful. We spent a night on the hook in a beautiful spot just outside of Spanish Wells North Eleuthera. Another white sand beach and tranquil anchorage…..life is good. Next day (today) 9 June, we troll 50nm across the Northeast Providence Channel to Elbow Cay, Hope Town, Abacos Bahamas. We had spent a week or so in Elbow about 5 years ago on our old express boat and really enjoyed it. So we plan to spend a few days here before we make our final run up the Abacos and cross the Florida Straights to Fort Pierce around 15 June. Our good friend Mark Butterworth is jumping over from his house in Vero Beach and joining us in Hope Town for a few days aboard Carnivore. It should be lots of fun. Of course us boys have our fingers crossed for some rare summer surf in Elbow. Who knows? The surf gods have been on our side for a year now….it could happen.
My next report will likely follow our return to home port in Morehead City, North Carolina…. sometime around 4 July. Wow, times flies when your having a blast. It will be sad when this year long journey comes to an end. But reality and responsibility call.
Best to all….Capt. Ed
CAPTAIN'S LOG 26 JUNE 2008
MOREHEAD CITY~NORTH CAROLINA
Home again. Home again. Carnivore and her crew arrived back in our home port of Morehead City, North Carolina on Monday June 23 2008. One year and eight days later.
My last log left off at Hope Town, Elbow Cay - Bahamas. We spent about 4 days on Elbow Cay and just relaxed. The boys got some small surf a couple days, but not too exciting. Our friend Mark Butterworth flew in from his home in Vero Beach and joined us on Elbow, chilled for a couple days and then decided to stay on for a couple more days as we made our way to Fort Pierce FL. Day one on the troll from Elbow we never raised a billfish, but had a very enjoyable night on the hook at Monjock Island. Day two we got Mark on a nice Blue Marlin between 350 and 400 pounds. He did a great job as angler and the Carnivore crew cheered him on until the release. Way to go and congratulations Mark!! Good fun for all. That night we did an overnighter in calm seas across the Florida Straits to Fort Pierce. We spent the next week hanging out at Mark and Cathie’s place in Vero Beach. During that week the kids all took their required end of year tests for the State of North Carolina. None of them were too thrilled to spend the first week back on US soil sitting indoors taking exams. Oh well, life is rough…I know. They all survived and all did fine I’m sure. While in Vero, we celebrated both Taj’s and Gianno’s graduation with a nice night out to dinner. Taj from 5th grade and moving on to Junior High School this fall and Gianno from 8th grade and moving on to High School with his two older brothers Anthony and Justin. Time does fly by.
From Fort Pierce Carnivore did a double overnighter on it’s last 500nm leg up to Morehead City. We trolled almost the entire way. Day one we went 0 for 1 on Sailfish and day two we went 2 for 3 on White Marlin. That was really neat as we got to fly two release flags after our final leg and return trip into our home port. About the only event worth noting on this transit was a magnificent display of mother nature at work. We saw some huge water spouts develop and grind away at the ocean for a couple hours. No sooner would one fizzle out, then another would develop. At one point we had five spouts formed under one cloud at the same time. Great stuff when your 15nm away, but would not have been much fun any closer.
We are now back in our home and of course slammed with getting things back on track and re-connecting with all our friends. We are very thankful for the great year we had together as a family. We saw some amazing things along the way. Of course, we met some fantastic people, some of whom we will surely remain friends with forever. We surfed some awesome and truly world class waves, in fact - a whole bunch of them. Most of the surfing we did was just by ourselves or with a handful of close friends. How cool is that? God knows how many inshore fish we caught on light tackle, but it was a whole lot of em’…mostly multiple varieties of snappers and groupers, but also Jacks, Gar, Rooster Fish, Corvina, Snook, Bonefish, Tarpon and many more. You get the point. The inshore fishing on the Pacific was second to none. And of course, we caught a whole bunch of Billfish. We caught Black Marlin, Blue Marlin, Stripped Marlin, Sailfish, White Marlin and even a Long Billed Spearfish. Our best run at billfish was 24 consecutive fishing days of at least one billfish. Not bad for a family just having fun on their boat.
We all learned a tremendous amount about ourselves and what it takes to remain tolerant and respectful to those around us in tight quarters. Anyone who can master that and really enjoy every day for what it is and what it has to offer….is truly blessed. We all saw plenty of places and met plenty of folks who don’t seem to have a lot of material things, but seem to have abundant happiness in their lives. I think we all learned that sometimes the more possessions a person has in their lives, the less at peace they can be. Essentially there is a balance that is right for everyone and finding that “balance” is the key. Our four children undoubtedly learned more about life in general in one year living aboard, than some people learn in a lifetime. I am ever thankful that we had the opportunity to be a part of it and to share so many experiences together as a family. Yes indeed, we are truly blessed and thankful for our many experiences and especially for our safety throughout our one year voyage. We appreciate so many of our friends and family keeping our safety in their prayers throughout the year. Thank you. It worked.
Carnivore logged 12,775 nautical miles under her hull during our year away. She handled everything mother ocean threw at her and handled very well. We always felt safe as she carried us in many far away and frequently remote places. Maybe more importantly, the crew of Carnivore handled all the challenges and opportunities we faced throughout the year, with steadfast determination and in most cases while smiling. It is bitter / sweet that I write my last log of our voyage. It will take some time to get used to main stream life in America once again. I think all of the Carnivore crew will always look at things for the remainder of our lives just a bit differently because of the experiences we had throughout our year aboard. For that I am thankful.
To those of you who have followed our experiences via my captains log and wanted to see more pictures of our travels (we heard that a lot), now that we have real internet connections, Natalie will do her best to add some more pics in the near future. Fairwell to all.
Captain Ed - “OUT”
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