THINKING BACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

MARYLAND MY MARYLAND

THINKING BACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

By Mike Descheemaeker, captain aboard the goodship SV WHIRLWIND

I moved to Washington State over 20 years ago and when people ask, "is their anything you miss about back east?" I have one simple answer: the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake Bay was formed by the southern extent of the polar ice cap depressing the ground.  The mighty Susquehanna River and the lesser rivers dredged the rest over a long time.  The Bay has been home to diverse and abundance of flora and fauna and the setting for so many stories in the founding of the United States of America.   I grew up motorboating and sailing on the Bay from the age of nine until I graduated high school. Most of my mucking about was on the Elk River in the northern Bay but a few times a year we would cruise to Baltimore or Annapolis with stops along the way at Worton Creek or Fairlee Creek.  At least once we went all the way down to Crisfield and really got to experience the magic of the Eastern Shore and the Bay.


The Eastern Shore is a place where time seems to stand still and older traditions are still alive.  If you come in by water, especially if you come in by water...the magic is can be found.  Stop and talk with a waterman and try to understand his mix of old English and southern draw combined; their dialect sounds old; it is very unique and difficult to understand if you speak modern day English.  If you are lucky, maybe you can see the last of a working sailing fleet, like a Skipjack, the Maryland State Boat, dredging for oysters.  In the 1800's Chesapeake Bay oysters were considered a white gold and people flocked to the bay to make their riches on this resource.  As with many a gold rush, there was a fever mixed with greed, hard work, and turmoil.  A range of harvesting techniques was followed by substantial depletion and attempts at regulation to preserve the stocks in the Bay.   Maryland made it a law back in the 1900's that oysters could be harvested by dredge under sail or hand tongs.  On a recent trip back to see my dad we stopped at Harris Crab House at the Kent Narrows for crab cakes and hush puppies.  We asked the young waiter about the Skipjack fleet and he looked at me like I was speaking about a ghost he'd never seen.  Fortunately, the old watermen unloading crabs at the dock knew. They said there was only one or two still working from Kent Island but the upkeep cost and lack of crew was making it difficult to operate. It’s not surprising and really amazing that these old sailing oyster dredges are still at it.

The Skipjack is an older fishing boat used to dredge for oysters under sail.

Another piece of bay magic: the Drake Tail work boat.  This narrow, long, open motor boat has a small cuddy cabin and wheel house forward. These boats also date to the early 1900s and were used for going out to the oyster grounds.  One or two guys with long tongs would lean out over the edge of the boat to work the bottom, usually 5-10 feet below, and tong up oysters.  This was back breaking work.  In the summer months lacking the letter 'r' oysters are not in season these same boats were used to run trot lines for the Blue Crab, also a local delicacy.  Even today, looking around the docks up a backwater you can see an old classic workboat tied to the dock or better yet out working an oyster bar or running a trot line.  Trot lines are long lines between two buoys with eel bait tied in with a clove hitch every 4-6 feet.  When the trot line was loaded you dip the crabs with a wire net on a long handle. When it’s happening it’s happening fast and can be a dangerous thrill.  The danger is in the jellyfish, which come up with the net and inevitably get flung about with the dip netting.  When I was a kid, my neighbors ran a trot line and we got to go with them sometimes.  They did not use a classic workboat to run their lines but a 16’ Jon boat trailered down to the middle eastern shore from our elk river home waters. The most memorable day for me was a great day when the crabs were coming fast.  Well, when the crab are coming in fast the jelly fish are getting flung all over the place.  In a quick moment amidst the bumper harvest, my friend, Billy, actually had a jelly fling right into his open mouth!  Billy's day, Bill, ran the boat and always had a cooler of Busch beer and Mountain Dew to fuel the crew.  In this instance, we kids had already drank all the Mountain Dew so Billy got to drink Busch beer for the rest of the day.  Needless to say we were jealous but glad not to have chewed on a jelly.

Restored and active 1925 Draketail workboat

Eventually crabbers moved up to crab pots which called for a bigger boat which gave rise to the now more common dead rise workboat.  These workboats typically have a large cover over the open cockpit. The narrow beam was widened eventually a lot and the elegant drake tail was flattened out the beam carried aft. These boats were first built in wood and some of these are still around.  Time marches on, designs and materials for fabrication have changed.  In the case of old wooden crab boats: many have been replaced with fiberglass and single screws have been doubled which is handy for turning a boat into the slip.  This video offers a glimpse at the history of workboats in the Chesapeake Bay: https://www.soundingsonline.com/news/chesapeake-working-girls

There are lots of fun traditions that live on and commemorate the ways of water life for those that live on the Chesapeake Bay.  For example, the docking competition at Crisfield and Pocomoke city.  If you feel like you are timid coming along side a dock check out a docking competition where captain and a crew member are judged and timed coming in hot turning and backing down into the slip.  The timer stops when four lines are on the pilings. This is a place where paint and piling really get to know one another.  Annual docking competitions happen in Pocomoke City in the end of August or in Crisfield in the beginning of September. A lot of boats, watermen, and water women come together to compete so this a great time to check out different styles of bay boats prideful water people.

A visit to the bottom of the eastern shore of Maryland in the end of summer or the beginning of fall is a great time to explore the tidal tributaries that make the bay so unique.  The Pocomoke River is one of the most northern places where cypress trees grow in the United States. The Pokomoke River Canoe Company rents boats and provides a shuttle service.  The River can be paddled from its headwaters all the way to the mouth at the bay.  The Pokomoke River Canoe Company rents boats and provides a shuttle service for and small boat adventure meandering through a cypress forest lined creek.   Because of it's long life of living in swamps, Cypress is extremely rot resistant and therefore ab important wood for boat and ship builders. The tannins from the trees dye the river waters a dark ice tea hue giving the water a mysterious and haunting look.  This is prime wood duck habitat and their whistles can be heard often before they disappear bending and twisting in flight to screen themselves with the trees.  Again, in my youth, I remember paddling along the lower Pocomoke one spring morning.  I pulled into a wooded inlet and slipped quietly under some over hanging limbs on a point.  Two river otters were playing on the bank a short distance up in the woods.  When they saw me they bolted for the water.  They shot down the bank right at me to dive into the water beside my canoe.  The first one did this in style. The second one ran right into a tree needing a moment to shake off the daze before escaping in the tea colored waters.  As one paddles out of the thick cypress forests the creek slowly widens and shifts from a meandering creek to a tidal river.  The forest gets broken by sections of marsh grasses and reeds.  A low bridge marks the town of Pokomoke City where you may have rented your craft.

Tidal tributaries are what make the Chesapeake Bay so unique.  Rivers that are navigable ,especially with shoal draft vessels, have their starts in beautiful northern hardwood forests.  Sassafras, beech, walnut, oaks, and white pines are some of the trees you might see on these wild waters. The Sassafras, Bohemia, Chester and other rivers on the bay give you an opportunity to see some truly spectacular landscapes slowly changing from forest to marsh.  While draft and bridges will limit river exploration with the big boat, there are many dinghy adventures that can be taken once anchored in a sheltered cove.

Speaking of draft: the Chesapeake has lots of places to experience soft groundings as the Bay is known for it's mud bottom and shallow depths.  It is always best to explore on a rising tide so the tide can assist with refloating. There are definitely some hard sandbars and oyster bars but a lot more mud shoals and shallows. Growing up on the Elk River gives me a different perspective of shallow.  We used to go into some secret spots by running on plane in the Jon boat with the motor set to kick up and skid across mud flats and then drop into deep water on the other side motoring on.  I wouldn’t try that in the big boat!

Mariners who love history will find much to explore.  On the head of Elk in the Scotland Marsh Trojan Yachts were built not far from Fort Defiance.  Fort Defiance is where there was a small gun emplacement visited by George Washington as he escaped from the British and headed south.  The Chesapeake has been used by others to escape as it was a main artery of the Underground Railroad, it’s marshes and wooded tributaries excellent for escaping to the north. Both the Elk River and the Susquehanna flow from the hills of Pennsylvania the Susquehanna actually coming from New York.. This of course was a major route for indigenous communities to move from the north and south trading frequently occurring between the northern woodland tribes and the tidal tribes of the Chesapeake.

As a mariner, an outdoor adventurer, and history enthusiast, the Chesapeake Bay stole my heart at a young age.  I look forward to getting back there someday.  Hopefully, the magic lives on!

 


SV GARGOYLE TRANSITS THE CORINTH CANAL IN GREECE

SV GARGOYLE TRANSITS THE CORINTH CANAL IN GREECE

The Corinth Canal offers vessels a much shorter and more protected route over the Peploponnese Peninsula.

This week SV Gargoyle shares their final stages of their cruising season in Greece with the Ocean Posse:

Gargoyle and her crew are enjoying the last few weeks of the season cruising with family in Greece. This week we've made the transition west from the Saronic Gulf to the Ionian Sea via the incredible Corinth canal. To make things perfect, our daughter and son-in-law have joined us for a ten day stay before we head towards our winter home, Malta's Manoel Island Yacht Marina. Cheers from warm and sunny Greece!

Heading through the Corinth Canal. Hard to believe the idea started in 60 BC and it finally was finished in the late 1800's?!
The Corinth Canal is a tidal canal.

The Corinth Canal connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, making the peninsula an island. The canal was dug through the Isthmus at sea level and has no locks. It is 6.4 kilometres (4 miles) in length and only 24.6 metres (80.7 feet) wide at sea level

SV GARGOYLE 🇨🇦 Kevin & Carla - Beneteau 50'


OCEAN POSSE REPRESENTS AT ANNAPOLIS BOAT SHOW 2024

OCEAN POSSE REPRESENTS AT ANNAPOLIS BOAT SHOW 2024

Vessel 200 signed up at the Annapolis Boat Show this week!

MARINE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS

MARINE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS

Quick to spot and easy to grab Lithium specific fire extinguisher in case of an emergency

No matter where one is in their cruising season or in the world checking and maintaining marine fire extinguishers onboard is imperative.  The USCG keep an up to date log on product recalls.  See this link: USCG PRODUCT RECALLS

Carrying out a visual inspection.

Check for rust, dents, or chemical deposits. Even the smallest leak will render your device useless. It's important to inspect your fire extinguishers on a monthly basis to check for any signs of a leak or corrosion.

EXPIRATION

Disposable (non-rechargeable) dry chemical fire extinguishers, must be removed 12 years after their date of manufacture. These extinguishers generally have their year of manufacturing stamped on the bottom or have its year marked next to its UL label.
Refer to the date of manufacturing stamped on the bottle; for example, "11" means "2011."

Fire extinguishers are charged differently depending on their use. What kind do you have onboard?

Units needed 

For vessels between 26 and 40 feet, you need either two 5-B fire extinguishers or a single 20-B fire extinguisher.

For vessels between 40 and 65 feet, you need either three 5-B fire extinguishers or one 20-B fire extinguisher and one 5-B fire extinguisher.

Got Lithium  ?

Lithium powered toy.

Honestly, it would be quite surprising to go onto any cruising vessel today and not find any lithium batteries in some electronic device, tool, or toy.  Lithium batteries are a huge innovation in the battery industry powering everything from small fans to large motors.  Lithium batteries present a distinct risk onboard because the 2 of the 5 fire extinguishers above do not put lithium fires out.  Water and foam extinguishers are NOT effective and can make a lithium battery fire worse.  Only Class D fire extinguishers are effective against lithium-metal battery fires. Lithium-ion battery fires are Class B fires, indicating the presence of flammable liquids, so a standard dry chemical or ABC extinguisher can put them out. Plus New high performance battery fire blanket are now designed for lithium ion battery packs.  With lithium smoke and expanding batteries you will also need Safety glasses Safety gloves

High performance fire blanket to put fire out lithium battery fire

Dr Adam Best, Principal Research Scientist at Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, is a leading lithium-ion battery expert.  He says, ""lithium-ion batteries are statistically a very safe technology and that fires caused by lithium-ion batteries are also a statistically rare event."  Not all lithium batteries are the same.  In terms of safety profile, experts make a clear distinction between the high-energy lithium-ion batteries found within portable devices, and the lithium iron phosphate [LFP] batteries that are recommended for the marine industry as a vessel power source. LFP batteries are widely regarded as more stable than other types of lithium-ion batteries with a better safety track record.

The biggest Lithium battery risk is over-heating that can lead to battery damage, instability, and / or fire.   That said, cautious person will take certain measures to ensure they are using their lithium batteries carefully by

  1. Only charge lithium battery devices while onboard.
  2. Once a battery reaches 100% take it off the charger.
  3. If a battery feels hot, let it cool.
  4. Inspect batteries, if they look misshapen, dispose of them properly.

KEKADA II SAILS INTO NEW ZEALAND FOR THE SUMMER

SV KEKADA II CLEARS INTO NEW ZEALAND 🇳🇿

FOR THE SUMMER

Recently, SV KEKADA II and her crew just finished their third Pacific Crossing and cleared into New Zealand.  I asked Don and Anja if they would share a bit of their experience as there are many members of the Ocean Posse that do not have three Pacific Crossings under their keel...and just might some day.  So what's it take?  Read on to find out.

Kekada II Wallis Island South pacific

Don shared:

We cleared into New Zealand at Opua.  Very quick.  Had done the notice of arrival and inward passenger cards online prior.  Customs entailed answering a few basic questions while they completed the TIE (Temporary Import Entry) (very handy for GST free boat stuff).  They also gave me a biosecurity master's declaration form which I could have also finished prior to arrival but simply forgot to.  Two minute inspection and all finished.  We can work, stay as long as we like, no visas, etc.  Biosecurity was a few minutes later and I had time to finish the declaration.  He checked the fridge but we really did not have anything left.  We showed him some shell necklaces we had been given, all good.  Basically, he accepted our word for everything else.  Our last stop had been Norfolk Island 🇦🇺 (Australia) which probably helped.    

This is our third Pacific crossing so after French Polynesia we did the Samoa, Wallis, Fiji, New Caledonia route for a change.  Previously, we have done the Rarotonga, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia route.  The boat will spend summer in New Zealand.  We will have some home time in Adelaide.  

(Preparing for our passages) I check as many sources as I can re: weather but do my own passage planning.  Since French Polynesia the coffee machine has not had to be moved from the bench top.  (There were) a couple of days where it came close but basically a milk run.  If this is your first time then I suggest Tonga, Minerva Reef, New Zealand even if you backtrack to Tonga from Fiji.  The passages are shorter to one has a better chance of accurate weather predictions than Fiji to New Zealand.

Best advice: Be patient and wait for weather windows.  NO SCHEDULES

SV KEKADA II 🇦🇺 Don & Anja – Leopard 53’


People'ing in the Americas

THE DISCOVERY OF THE LANDMASS OF THE MODERN AMERICAS did not begin with Christopher Columbus.  The most long-standing and widely held theory has been that people entered the Americas in the north at the tail end of the last ice age some 10-15,000 years ago and began to settle across the land.  This long standing theory holds that homo sapiens came across the Bering Straight on a now extinct land bridge from Asia.  However, recent finding across the Americas are questioning this theory and proposing other theories.   Interestingly, the study of Home Sapien migration through science, archeology, geneology and more continues to uncover more and more clues that cloud the picture of how and when homo sapiens populated the Americas more than they are shedding light on the mystery.    Basically, people came overland by foot or people came by water from the east or the west.  Experts have and continue to piece together the past with new findings and new ideas, yet sometimes the mystery just gets bigger.  Regarding the 'by water theory from the west' according to Megan Gannon from Sapiens.org,

"According to this coastal migration theory, some 16,000 years ago the ice had retreated from the coastlines of the Pacific Northwest, such that seafaring people could take advantage of coastal resources like kelp forests to navigate all the way down the shores of California, eventually reaching sites like Monte Verde in Chile.

Proving the coastal theory is tricky. No wooden boats from that era have been found along the shore. The earliest campsites along the ancient Pacific coastline may be lost for good due to erosion and sea level rise. Yet scholars have some clues that people were living along the Pacific coast, including the footprints at Calvert Island.

Evidence of human habitation from at least 13,000 years ago on the Channel Islands in California suggests that people had the skills to build boats and reach these land masses, which were islands even then. In the last 15 years, archaeologists at Cedros Island off the coast of Baja California in Mexico have found traces of a nearly 13,000-year-old settlement. Some archaeologists, such as Loren Davis of Oregon State University, are turning to methods such as coring—removing of a long column of soil—to search for hints of now-underwater prehistoric sites along the Pacific continental shelf."

*NOTE: Cedros Island is on the southbounders route down the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula.  Multiple anchorages can be found.  The fall is often a good time to use the southern Anchorage: https://goodnautical.com/mexico-pacific/anchorage/isla-cedros-s

This stone artifact is one of many found on the Channel Islands off the coast of California that suggest mariners have traveled to this site for at least 10,000 years. Photo Credit: National Park Service

Nonetheless, while their daily life was not recorded or documented as ours it today, humans were in the Americas for likely over 10,000 years before the first life-changing contact with Europeans occurred in the end of the 15th century.  A that time the Americas were the home to more than 50 million, perhaps as many as 75 million highly evolved communities of people.  These ancient civilizations had experienced many changes and many catastrophes during their long history in the Americas, yet it seems certain that none of these experiences was as tragically transforming as the arrival of Europeans. In the long term, European settlers came to dominate most areas of the Americas.  But even in the short term—in the first violent years of Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest—the impact of the new arrivals was profound.  Battles between Natives and Europeans in the Americas continued but there were also many other interactions through which these very different civilizations shaped one another, learned from one another, and changed each other permanently and profoundly.

An early map of the continents

Europeans were almost entirely unaware of the existence of the Americas before the fifteenth century. A few early wanderers like Leif Eriksson, an eleventh-century Norse seaman, and perhaps others—had glimpsed parts of the New World and had demonstrated that Europeans were capable of crossing the ocean to reach it. But even if their discoveries had become common knowledge (and they had not), there would have been little incentive for others to follow. Europe in the middle ages (roughly 500– 1500 A.D.) was not an adventurous civilization.  Europe was divided into innumerable small duchies and kingdoms, its outlook was overwhelmingly provincial. Subsistence agriculture predominated, and commerce was limited; few merchants looked beyond the boundaries of their own regions.  The Roman Catholic Church exercised a measure of spiritual authority over most of the continent, and the Holy Roman Empire provided at least a nominal political center.  Even so, real power was for the most part widely dispersed; only rarely could a single leader launch a great venture.  Gradually, however, conditions in Europe changed so that by the late fifteenth century, interest in overseas exploration had grown.

15th Century: WHY EUROPEANS LOOKED WESTWARD

Two important and related changes provided the first incentive for Europeans to look toward new lands. One was a result of the significant population growth in fifteenth-century Europe following the Black Death.  The Black death was a catastrophic epidemic of the bubonic plague that began in Constantinople in 1347, which had decimated Europe, killing (according to some estimates) more than a third of the people of the continent and debilitating its already limited economy.  By the early 1500's the population had rebounded.  With that growth came a rise in land values, a re-awakening of commerce, and a general increase in prosperity.  Affluent landlords became eager to purchase goods from distant regions, and a new merchant class emerged to meet their demand. As trade increased, and as advances in navigation and shipbuilding made long-distance sea travel more feasible, interest in developing new markets, finding new products, and opening new trade routes rapidly increased. Paralleling this rise of commerce in Europe, and in part responsible for it, was the rise of new governments that were more united and powerful than the feeble political entities of the feudal past. In the western areas of Europe, the authority of the distant pope and the even more distant Holy Roman Emperor was necessarily weak.  As a result, strong new monarchs emerged there and created centralized nation-states, with national courts, national armies, and—perhaps most important—national tax systems. As these ambitious kings and queens consolidated their power and increased their wealth, they became eager to enhance the commercial growth of their nations. Ever since the early fourteenth century, when Marco Polo and other adventurers had returned from Asia bearingexotic goods (spices, fabrics, dyes) and even more exotic tales, Europeans who hoped for commercial glory had dreamed, above all, of trade with the East. For two centuries, that trade had been limited by the difficulties of the long, arduous overland journey to the Asian courts. But in the fourteenth century, as the maritime capabilities of several western European societies increased and as Muslim societies seized control of the eastern routes to Asia, there began to be serious talk of finding a faster, safer sea route to Asia. Such dreams gradually found a receptive audience in the courts of the new monarchs. By the late fifteenth century, some of them were ready to finance daring voyages of exploration. The first to do so were the Portuguese. They were the preeminent maritime power in the fifteenth century, in large part because of the work of one man, Prince Henry the Navigator. Henry’s own principal interest was not in finding a sea route to Asia, but in exploring the western coast of Africa. He dreamed of establishing a Christian empire there to aid in his country’s wars against the Moors of northern Africa; and he hoped to find new stores of gold.

Duke of Viseu (4 March 1394 – 13 November 1460), better known as Prince Henry the Navigator
The ships of Prince Henry the Navigator's day

The explorations Prince Henry began did not fulfill his own hopes and yet, they ultimately led farther than he had dreamed.  Some of Henry’s mariners went as far south as Cape Verde, on Africa’s west coast. In 1486 (six years after Henry’s death), Bartholomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope); and in 1497–1498 Vasco da Gama of Portugal proceeded all the way around the cape to India. In 1500, the next fleet bound for India, under the command of Pedro Cabral, was blown westward off its southerly course and happened upon the coast of Brazil.

 

Map made by Juan de la Cosa in 1500, first representation of the New World

But by then another man, in the service of another country, who had already encountered the New World. Christopher Columbus, who was born and reared in Genoa, Italy, obtained most of his early seafaring experience in the service of the Portuguese.  As a young man, he became intrigued with the possibility, already under discussion in many seafaring circles, of reaching Asia by going not east but west. Columbus’s hopes rested on several basic misconceptions. He believed that the world was far smaller than it actually is. He also believed that the Asian continent extended farther eastward than it actually does. He assumed, therefore, that the Atlantic was narrow enough to be crossed on a relatively brief voyage. It did not occur to him that anything lay to the west between Europe and Asia. Columbus failed to win support for his plan in Portugal, so he turned to Spain. The Spaniards were not yet as advanced a maritime people as the Portuguese, but they were at least as energetic and ambitious. In the fifteenth century, the marriage of Spain’s two most powerful regional rulers, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, had produced the strongest monarchy in Europe. Like other young monarchies, it soon grew eager to demonstrate its strength by sponsoring new commercial ventures. Columbus appealed to Queen Isabella for support for his proposed westward voyage. In 1492, having consolidated the monarchy’s position within Spain itself, Isabella agreed to Columbus’s request. Commanding ninety men and three ships—the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María — Columbus left Spain in August 1492 and sailed west into the Atlantic on what he thought was a straight course for Japan. Ten weeks later, he sighted land and assumed he had reached his target. In fact, he had landed on an island in the Bahamas. When he pushed on and encountered Cuba, he assumed he had reached China. He returned to Spain in triumph, bringing with him several captured natives as evidence of his achievement.

Replica ship of the Santa Maria, one of 3 ships captained by Christopher Columbus in 1492

(He called the people he found in what was to him The New World' "Indians" because he believed they were from the East Indies in the Pacific.) But Columbus had not, of course, encountered the court of the great khan in China or the fabled wealth of the Indies.  A year later, therefore, he tried again, this time with a much larger expedition. As before, he headed into the Caribbean, discovering several other islands and leaving a small and short-lived colony on Hispaniola. On a third voyage, in 1498, he finally reached the mainland and cruised along the northern coast of South America. When he passed the mouth of the Orinoco River (in present-day Venezuela), he concluded for the first time that what he had discovered was not in fact an island off the coast of China, as he had assumed, but a separate continent; such a large freshwater stream, he realized, could emerge only from a large body of land. Still, he remained convinced that Asia was only a short distance away. And although he failed in his efforts to sail around the northeastern coast of South America to the Indies (he was blocked by the Isthmus of Panama), he returned to Spain believing that he had explored at least the fringes of the Far East. He continued to believe that until he died. Columbus’s celebrated accomplishments made him a popular hero for a time, but he ended his life in obscurity.  When Europeans at last gave a name to the New World, they ignored him. The distinction went instead to a Florentine merchant, Amerigo Vespucci, a member of a later Portuguese expedition to the New World who wrote a series of vivid descriptions of the lands he visited and who recognized the Americas as new continents. Columbus has been celebrated for centuries as the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” (a title he struggled to have officially bestowed on him during his lifetime) and as a representative of the new, secular, scientific impulses of Renaissance Europe.  Columbus was also a deeply religious man, even something of a mystic  His voyages were inspired as much by his conviction that he was fulfilling a divine mission as by his interest in geography and trade. A strong believer in biblical prophecies, he came to see himself as a man destined to advance the coming of the millennium. “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth,” he wrote near the end of his life, “and he showed me the spot where to find it.”

A map showing areas the Portuguese and Spanish came to and claimed for their crown as they explored the ocean westward from Europe.

A similar combination of worldly and religious passions lay behind many subsequent efforts at exploration and settlement of the New World. Partly as a result of Columbus’s initiative, Spain began to devote greater resources and energy to maritime exploration and gradually replaced Portugal as the leading seafaring nation. The Spaniard Vasco de Balboa fought his way across the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and became the first known European to gaze westward upon the great ocean that separated America from China and the Indies. Seeking access to that ocean, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese in the employ of the Spanish, found the strait that now bears his name at the southern end of South America, struggled through the stormy narrows and into the ocean (so calm by contrast that he christened it the “Pacific”), then proceeded to the Philippines. There Magellan died in a conflict with the natives, but his expedition went on to complete the first known circumnavigation of the globe (1519–1522). By 1550, Spaniards had explored the coasts of North America as far north as Oregon in the west and Labrador in the east, as well as some of the interior regions of the continent.

While Humans as a species have been in the Americas for well over ten thousand years, the effect of European explorers upon their arrival in the late 1400's to the mid 1500's was staggering and swift.  While Christopher Columbus was not the first person to come to the Americas, he and his compatriots put a proverbial stake in the ground and claimed their discovery for their crown, their nation and the world.  Prior to this, the world outside of people's immediate environment had previously been so obscure.  European explorers came from their distant land, charting the ocean along the way, and encountered both lands and people they did not know existed and yet as a species humans, homo sapiens had existed on this round planet for hundreds of thousands of years.  How had they spread out so far and wide? How had they become so isolated from one another?  How had their stories been shared and lost?

Piecing together the past through the lens of today, available historic records, and scientific findings is no easy task.  In fact, it leads one to the Paradox of Knowledge that Albert Einsein described with “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” 


MUST SEE: LA RUTA DEL CAFE in CHIAPAS MEXICO

MUST SEE: LA RUTA DEL CAFE  🇲🇽 CHIAPAS MEXICO 

FINCA HAMBURGO >> The sun rises over the Chiapas mountains around the Tacaná volcano

One cold January morning in the late 1800's, Arthur Erich Edelmann, his wife Doris, and seven other colleagues set sail from Hamburg, Germany, all from Perleberg, a small town an hour and a half from Berlin. Erich had a coffee machinery factory in his hometown, owned by his family, which was facing financial problems when they received and invitation from the Mexican government to bring their machinery and their expertise to the fertile region of Chiapas, Mexico.  It would be amazing to know what they felt when they read that letter of invitation?  That is a story that we do not know and perhaps we never will.  What would you have thought to go from the deeply familiar to a place that seemed like a different world.  Would you take a risk, abandon your business, your city, your people, your country, your language to start from scratch in a place so far away, so different in culture, language, nature and climate?

Erich traveled for three weeks across the Atlantic until he arrived at the Port of Veracruz, where he took a horse-driven cart with his people to go to Soconusco, Chiapas to the wild and untouched lands that he and his family would soon call home.

Before arriving in Mexico, we suppose that Erich had to have read all the information available about Chiapas, about Mexico and its culture, its people, language, nature, its history. However, there was nothing that could have prepared him for the intensity of his new life.

Erich, Doris and their people arrived in Huixtla, a small village with some houses built in adobe and palm trees, inhabited by friendly indigenous families who gave them the mules and human capital necessary to reach their final destination.  From there, it took them another 8 hours to be able to transport along the newly created dirt roads, which looked like tunnels through the dense jungle. On their way they could observe the Tacaná, a volcano whose eruptions transformed the land around it into a fertile paradise.

With the help of workers from San Cristóbal, San Juan Chamula and Guatemala, Erich and his team of architects and engineers began to harmonize the land, build the first houses for the workers, the mill, roads. Erich and Doris lived for 11 years in one of these simple houses, couldn’t afford a bigger house, not yet. The priority was to prepare the land, build all the necessary infrastructure to work, keep people working, provide money and work, houses and food. The priority was its people and the priority was coffee.

They put a lot of work into investing in this long-term project so far from home, a lot of determination and hope, a great risk and a gamble. All that work, all those years, until finally: the first harvest and the start of Finca Hamburgo.

Finca Argovia

This exemplary coffee Resort Located in the Sierra Madre of Chiapas with More than 130 years of history and culminates  as a cultural and extremely worthwhile experience

Argovia is a partner and initiator of the Coffee route in Chiapas, with  cabins, outdoor pool, Spa, Yoga area, Restaurant,  Bar, Event areas and tours.

Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, and it borders the states of Oaxaca to the west, Veracruz to the northwest, and Tabasco to the north, and borders Guatemala to the east and southeast. Chiapas has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

The lowland, tall perennial rainforest has been almost completely cleared to allow agriculture and ranching. Rainfall decreases moving towards the Pacific Ocean, but it is still abundant enough to allow the farming of bananas, coffee and many other tropical crops near Tapachula. On the several parallel sierras or mountain ranges running along the center of Chiapas, the climate can be quite moderate and foggy, allowing the development of cloud forests like those of Reserva de la Biosfera El Triunfo, home to a handful of horned guans, resplendent quetzals, and azure-rumped tanagers.

Chiapas is home to the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilán, Bonampak, Chinkultic and Toniná.

How to get Argovia?

To get to the Finca you have to take 8th Street north (reference: intersection with 17th Street west) located on the border of the city, which will take you north, right at the end will become Road to New Germany. 40 minutes of road without changing your way to find the 39km, you´ll find a signal that says “Argovia 5 minutes” turn your way to the right. You will continue by Finca Eduviges paved road better known as New Germany and only 5 minutes more you’ll be in Argovia. We guarantee that any vehicle from compact to mini sedans can access our Finca with no trouble.

Or sit back and relax on this day trip leave early from marina Chiapas with Miguel Angel of Discovery Tours +52 962 133 6820 toursdiscoverchiapas@hotmail.com

Miguel and Tony lead fabulous, custom tours from Marina Chiapas.


SAFETY: THE DREADED DIESEL BUG

THE DREADED DIESEL BUG

Fear not! The dreaded diesel bug can be remedied.

ABOUT THE DIESEL BUG 

Usually, fuel can stay in a usable condition under storage for up to a year, after which it may begin to develop sediments.  Vessel in the the tropics are wise check any stored diesel before putting it into action.  Fuel in tanks deteriorates over time as it reacts with the oxygen in the air.  Water in a fuel tank harbors bacteria and fungi that feed on diesel.

Water can form in fuel tanks due to condensation from the tank heating and cooling over a 24 hour period.  This creates the perfect petri dish for bacteria and fungi.  One of the most common microorganisms that can grow under these circumstances is the diesel bug.  The diesel bug deteriorates your fuel and creates a sludge capable of damaging your engine.

Once you get underway the sediments slosh around and the fuel pickup hose quickly gets clogged. The bug clogs the fuel system.

The diesel bug clogs the fuel system

ACTUAL CAUSES

  •     Humidity in the air
  •     Fuel tank condensation
  •     Fuel tank insulation
  •     Air leak on seals on fuel tank filler cap inc damaged o-rings
  •     Poor fuel station storage quality
  •     Low volume of sales at fuel station
Avoid buying fuel that has been stored in tanks for too long.

REMEDIES

Once you have the bug ...

1) Separate the water from the diesel

2) Shock and kill the diesel bug with biocides

3) Remove sediments from the bottom of your tank

A biocide will quickly and effectively kill the problem

 
To Prevent the bug

1) Fill the tank

2) Use a fuel filter to take on fuel from the pump

3) Use Enzymes to prevent the bug from forming in the first place

*For ongoing maintenance. Fuel Doctor, Soltron and Star Tron have result oriented enzyme formulations.

A full rundown on tests and solution lives here >>


SAILING NOTES FROM THE SOUTH PACIFIC FOR OCEAN VOYAGERS

Sailing Notes from the South Pacific for Ocean Voyagers

Geologically young and dramatically, steep, mountainous Marquesan islands jut skyward out of the Southern Pacific Ocean. Tikis and coconut palms look out to sea.
The Ocean Posse is working to bring three posses together: the Atlantic posse, the Panama posse and the Pacific Posse so that we will have better overlap to share information and benefits across the oceans that we sail.  Some have crossed oceans that others are considering crossing.  Here, I will share notes from the South Pacific for people considering sailing to the South Pacific, or for those that just want to vicariously enjoy the cerulean blues, coconut palms, island communities spread throughout the South Pacific.
Presently, SV WHILRWND is underway in the Tuamotus, the second of five island groups in French Polynesian that we have visited since making landfall from Panama in May 2024. The Tuamotus, are sometimes referred to as ‘the dangerous islands’ for all the low lying fringing coral reefs boats can and have run aground on which require careful navigation.  So far, with a person on bow watch, the charts on Navionics, and multiple satellite overlays in OPEN CPN navigating the Tuamotus has been very fun.  There is a timing element one must consider when entering and exiting the atolls, between atolls we are sailing in the open ocean with ocean swell instantly, and within the atolls we are sailing in lagoons with little to no waves navigating coral bommies looking for a calm spot in the sand to drop our anchor.
So many different shades of blue in the Tuamotus atoll lagoons.
Slivers of fringing reef encircle blue lagoons studded with coral heads called "bommies"
Over the past two months, We have had the good fortune to see an abundance of coral and undersea life, more blue hues than I knew existed, and a few of the Southern Hemisphere Humpback whales that come annually to the oceanic islands of the South Pacific to breed and calf.  According to a cruising marine biologist friend the Southern Hemisphere Humpback whales will be turning back towards their summer feeding grounds off Antarctica in the next few weeks. There is a singular raised atoll in the NW part of the Tuamotus called Makatea where, in settled conditions, one can anchor outside the atoll on the leeward side and possibly see whales this time of year.  Looking at the weather with this possibility in mind we saw a sweet weather window that looked perfect for an adventure: two days of downwind sailing from Fakarava to Makatea in time for the wind to die off for three calm days anchored in the lee of the island, followed by wind from the south to carry us north to Tikihau where there is a manta ray feeding station, and on Rangiroa the second larges atoll in the world.  We have friends coming in on October 11th and as all cruisers know this hard stop commitment presents an added element into every sailing schedule.  Guests visiting the Tuamotus fly into Tahiti and then take an inner island flight to the Tuamotus. Interestingly, many atolls have airports: Fakarava and Rangiroa being the two largest atolls have airports that are more frequented than others. So, (Option 1) we could stay in and around Fakarava until our guests come (very relaxing) or (Option 2) we could go on a little atoll tour and make our way to Rangiroa to meet them (an adventure). We decided that the weather window looked good for an adventure and the plan was sound.
Our 'plan' was to sail from Fakarava for two days, spend a few days on the leeward side of Makatea, then sail to Tikihau for a few days and around to Rangiroa to pick up our friends.
Downwind sailing with the mainsail, mizzen, and spinnaker
We weighed anchor in time to catch the high water slack and sail through the exit in the southern pass.  After exiting the atoll, one is in the ocean immediately and we noted a long slow 1m southerly swell. The conditions were great and we set our kite for a smooth downwind sail.  A few hours in our buddies received an email from a French weather service sending out an alert to all mariners of a significant southern swell developing and moving north into the Tuamotus. We pulled up the weather and, sure enough, although the wind was still forecast to be settled in a few days around Makatea the swell was going to be too big to comfortably anchor on the outside of the atoll much less enter through the pass of an atoll.  We decided to reroute to Tikihau and save Makatea for another time.
There is a 'plan' and then there is the reality that unfolds when new information comes to light, conditions change, and the route must change as well.
We arrived outside Tikihau in the night, hove to outside the entrance, and waited for the low slack at first light. Upon arriving in Tikihau the weather forecast changed multiple times over the course of the day. In the southern hemisphere winter has just turned to spring and now this northern hemisphere sailor can say the spring weather down here is as fickle as one might expect in the spring: changing so often it’s hard to hang you hat on much beyond the immediate conditions. There are significant blows coming in and out of the forecast and still a large swell coming with mixed forecasts on how long it will affect this part of the Tuamotus. Based on these changing forecasts and the expected conditions in the passes when the swell arrives we have now determined that today, seems to be the best day in the next ten (when our friends are to arrive) to make our way from Tikihau to Rangiroa, so we are underway once more.
No matter the ocean, the weather calls the shots.  So far, sailing in the South Pacific has been nothing short of a dynamic adventure demanding that we constantly keep an eye on the weather and a sharp lookout over the bow.  While on lookout this morning we saw manta rays entering the Pass into Tihihau and dolphins surfing our bow as we set out into the ocean to Rangiroa...and we still could see a whale.
Sailing to Rangiroa: the second largest atoll in the world.
For cruisers looking to the South Pacific for adventure; crossing the ocean to get here is an epic adventure in and of itself.  Most people set sail for the South Pacific from points west in the late winter/early spring.  Presently, many cruisers are beginning to rub their palms together, eyeing up routes and weather patterns, running through their inventory of parts and spares, making lists, reading about storm tactics and high sea debacles, and/or taking care of a host or pre-departure maintenance or upgrades.  Shaking down our fears can also be a big part of mentally preparing for a ocean voyage.  Some, like my friend, may be wondering, "What were your scariest moments on the passage (to French Polynesia)?"
Taking a panoramic shot aboard SV WHIRLWIND out at sea while rocking and rolling.  Fear can feel like this: exaggerated and out of control.
In jest, my husband and our captain said, "the day we realized we didn't bring enough rum."  That was more sad really, but nothing we can't get over.
More sincerely, he said, "The day the autohelm and went a little wacky and (he) had visions of the rudder breaking loose."  Terrifying!  Indeed, one of our worst nightmares.  That 'wackiness' was rectified at sea with no major drama.  And we installed a back up autohelm before leaving Panama Bay.
In my most sincere and more lengthy response, I shared:  We spent 30 days at sea: they were both utterly glorious and unexpectedly difficult at times. A huge realization for me was that the infamous Coconut Milk Run starts west of French Polynesia….or maybe in French Polynesia…or maybe to the east...it’s the Eden out there somewhere, the Fair Winds and the Following Seas of every sailors dreams.  As we set out to cross the Pacific we actually thought we were on the Coconut Milk Run from Panama to the Marquesas.  So when we got out there and spent far longer in confused seas than we ever imagined could be part of a 'Coconut Milk Run' we joked, desperately at times while tossing chaotically in a confusion of seas and open sky, saying “this is coconut milk!? I imagined something sweet and smooth not a frothy mess" Or, "If this is coconut milk, I’ll stick to beer (or rum)!” Crossing the ocean can easily be romanticized…in my experience it is with the adventure ahead of me or behind me that I can romanticize really well about it.  When I am in it, it is usually....well...a Whirlwind of calm joy, uncertainty, chaos, thrill, or somehwere in between.
In preparation, I tried hard to be realistic, to plan for the worst and hope for the best, to be ready for the voyage and not simply long for the destination, to pack the boat full of provisions and spares, to check everything twice sometime thrice.  While the dream to cross the Pacific was years in the making for us and I had years to consider the magnitude of this voyage, still he scariest moment for me was somewhere SW of the Galapagos when I realized how far offshore we were, how much further we had to go, and that there would be no real rest until we were in French Polynesia.  It was nighttime and I woke out of a sleep to my husband, Mike, and our 13 year old son, Russell, reefing the main in sloppy seas and having a heck of a time.  I hopped up to help and the sky was SO big and SO black, spotted more stars than I had ever seen.  I could not immediately see Mike or Russell but somehow the wavetops were illuminated, so swift and heaving.  I was struck with a desperate feeling knowing there was no turning back, still so far to go, and only us to make that happen.  In that moment reefing the main felt goliath, possibly insurmountable, and I had to have a serious talk with myself!  I had to take the task at hand for just the task at hand, not the hundreds of miles we had come or the thousands of miles to go.  I had to just focus and reef the main.  'Stay calm.  Stay Steady.  We got this,' I reminded myself.  Finally, we prevailed.  For whatever reasons, reefing was more than difficult that night and with some mighty cursing and some steady determination we did it.  And then we just moved right along.  The boat settled nicely due to the reef, mind you the seas did not miraculously settle, but the motion certainly improved.  The boys went back on watch, and I to easily slipped back into bed.  For whatever reason, that was my scariest moment.  Basically, when the breadth of what we had set out to do actually hit me like it never quite had before - we were in the middle of the ocean and I felt like an absolute imbecile for only then realizing what I had gotten myself and my family into?!  I thought I had thought it through but in that moment I did not think I had.  I felt enormously overwhelmed by how easily we could get swallowed up.  I also felt that there was no turning back.  (Now in hindsight I know that is not entirely true, but it was certainly how I felt and continuing west was certainly the best option.)  Still, I felt I was stuck and incomprehensibly vulnerable which was truly scary.  The other side of these completely humbling feelings was how absolutely beautiful the stars, the ocean, and the sky were.  Steering away from the overwhelm of fear I definitely made a point to take comfort in the grandeur and holdfast.  It is wild when terrifying can also be infinitely impressive.  There is no doubt the ocean is mighty!  The colors and the expansiveness are nothing short of awe-inspiring making the trials of the adventures worth it....especially when I am on the other side of that particular part of this adventure and can romanticize all about it.
Romantic and Real: Tuamotu sunset.
Lagoon sailing can be exceptionally pleasant.

SY WHIRLWIND 🇺🇸 Maurisa, Mike, Russell & Josea – Alajuela 48’

WHIRLWINDWHIRLWINDWHIRLWINDWHIRLWIND


EXPANDING POSSE PERKS: YACHT PORT CARTAGENA, SPAIN💰 Save real money at Marinas with discounts

ANNOUNCING: NEW MARINAS SIGNING ON WITH THE OCEAN POSSE

EXPANDING POSSE PERK:💰 Save real money at Marinas with discounts

Ocean Posse's new cruiser friendly and liveaboard friendly sponsorship marina in Cartagena Spain 🇪🇸
Dietmar tending bar. Thanks Flor de Cana! The 12 year old rum was a hit!!!

SV QUESO GRANDE II and Captain Dietmar kicked off the first Ocean Posse event in Yacht Port Cartagena, Spain!

Dietmar says: Thank you Sherri for all the event support and promotion to the international cruisers who came! AND THANK YOU LANCE FOR SOME SUCCULENT RIBS !!!

Sherri from SV QUESO GRANDE II says: Great fun, great cruisers, and great grilled meat by my darling husband Lance.  

Thank you for securing the Cartagena, Spain marina. We loved it so much, SV PATHFINDER

Currently, the Ocean Posse has ????some number of marinas in ????some number of countries bla bla bla.  This represents great savings bla bla bla