If you remember in the last episode, we were just about ready to drop the boat back in the water…. BUT (and there’s always a but) the “Biocide-free” paint we used didn’t dry. Ever.
What are we suppose to do now? Sail away? Wait in the boatyard? Start going crazy on the paint manufacturing company? We’ll see. Watch and find out.
We made sure to follow the directions perfectly, but after 27 hours it’s still wet. Damn. So we let her stay up on the trailer for another 5 days while we try to get a refund for the paint, and see if it will ever dry (it didn’t, we got a refund 6 months later).
After we finally splash Zingaro Kimmi is in heaven being out to sea again, and the boat is WAY faster than it had been, and much safer.
We now just need to check out of Costa Rica, and head for the PIRATE ISLAND of Isla Del Coco 🙂
Every cruiser’s nightmare: thieves. They stole our drone, radio, tools. Now the police are here investigating, taking fingerprints, and for what? Watch and find out…
See how the crew of Zingaro handled it in this installment of the life and times of Zingaro!
I take a Tico (that’s what they call a local Costa Rican guy – girls are Ticas) on a 200nm sail from Isla Caño to Isla Murcíalagos. What a great time. Here’s the real story on that one…
So we get up to this beautiful island chain, the “Bat” islands – named because of the shape of a bat made by the second island (you can see this very clearly at 2:39). This island chain is very rarely visited, mostly because it lays in a very dangerous zone – the Papagayo wind zone. This is an area of the Central American peninsula where the eastern trade winds from the Caribbean shoot through the mountains and make their way (very strongly) to the Pacific. Within 5 nm of land you are subject to 40kt catabolic winds, sometimes out of nowhere. Needless to say, it’s a dangerous place to bring a boat… so we went!
I laid out two anchors, about 60degrees from each other, and faced the boat dead east in a little cove (also visible in the drone shot). Super cool spot, but ass puckering dangerous. We were so close to the rocks that I barely slept, always coming out to shine a light and check to make sure the anchors were holding. It’s one thing to be anchored in 40kt winds, it’s another to be anchored 20ft from rocks, in 6ft of water, in 40kt winds.
But OMG the diving! It was amazing. We talked to the rangers, and got permission to spearfish. I actually took a shot at a mahi-mahi while we were out. We ended up getting lots of fish, and bringing the rangers a bunch, to which they were very thankful, as they had no boat to fish so were eating canned foods for weeks. Ugh. Great view though.
Bottom line: If you are ever in Costa Rica, try to get out to the Murcíalagos Islands. They are very special. Bucket list item for sure. Climb to the top of one of the islands and watch the sunset. You may get lucky like us and see whales breaching right afterward. What a night… Why is this not in the vid, you ask? We had the footage on our failed hard drive, not backed up. 100 videos are gone. That sucks, but you get the real story here.
The rest of the film is pretty self explanatory, Kim comes back (Happy Captain!), and we haul the boat…
– James
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In this episode, Kimmi leaves for Berlin and when the girl is away the BOYS will PLAY! We welcome our friend Steven aboard, sail to Isla Caño, and even meet another crew-member when we get there!
See how our Patron Steven liked his week on Zingaro complete with dolphins, diving, spearfishing, boat work, and sailing!
Kim and I had a chance to visit one of the outlying islands of the Gambiers last week: Isla Taravia. Wow, the coral here is amazing, but the really amazing thing is the size of the fish here!! Most of the reef fish have ciguatera, and because nobody eats them they get HUMONGOUS! We saw a world record triple tail, and grouper the size of Kimmi.
Since we’ve arrived to Gambiers we have been hanging out with our friends on Agapé (you can visit their Instagram and Blog). We met Josh and Rachel in Boca Chica (Panama) and it’s been 8 months since we’ve seen each other. But, as all good things must come to an end, they left a few days ago and we’ve been working like little dogs!
After sailing all the way to Costa Rica just to find a cheap yard to haul out, they kick us out!?!?! The dude does not abide. What are we going to do now? We need to repair the bottom of the boat and nobody will let us in!!! Well, there’s only one thing to do… We hoist the sails and go SAILING!
Much love
James and Kim
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Can you see what’s wrong with this picture? Find out in this week’s adventure sailing around Costa Rica on a plywood catamaran. The where, why, and when of one of life’s most intriguing questions: When will Zingaro’s dinghy die??
In this episode you’ll see “the incident” that finally killed our outboard. We ended up giving it away to a dock worker when we arrived in Ecuador. Funny enough, I needed some parts off of it later on and we were able to track it down and get the little pieces I needed for the new one.
Hope you like! This is a LONG episode, and took us quite a while to make. We think it’s got just about everything you’d need to get your sailing/maintenance/adventure fix today!
-James & Kimmi
PS: Big thanks to Sue and Pirate Pawl of Pitcairn island for the hospitality, food, drink, and love. We have some lifelong friends on one of the most remote islands in the world.
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Ever wonder how long line fishing works? We met Arturo while we were hanging out in Costa Rica, and asked him what he did all night. He invited us to come along, and we couldn’t say no (though when he told us what time we were leaving we had second thoughts).
We hauled in a lot of fish that night, slept on a lancha (Spanish for dinghy, uncomfortable as hell), almost got stuck by numerous hooks, and got a very fast ride in/out of the bay.
We are exhausted by the end of the day, but pull in over 40 mahi mahi, and even get to take home the biggest one! It was definitely an experience.
Big thanks to Arturo for inviting us into his life and taking us on this adventure! Muchas gracias Arturo!
Much love, Pura Vida!
Kim and James
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In this episode we finally got to Costa Rica, so we fill up the diesel tanks (we motored almost the whole way there) with 30gal of petrol and head out to the protected anchorages of Isla Tortuga, Isla Cedros and point Oregano. We do some much-needed surfing, and the fish are jumping in our boat!
Costa Rica was pretty amazing. Really cool parks, clear water at the islands, and FISH. We caught 5 mahi mahi in 1 DAY once. We were throwing them back…
In the next few episodes we’ll take you to Isla Caño, Mercialagoes, and Jaco/Herradura. Stay tuned for the fun!
Thanks, Kimmi, you did a wonderful job with this episode.
Pura Vida!
James
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We’re loosing our crew! You guys have no idea how bad it’ll get without Lucie. She was the only cook aboard. She came, she cooked, she conquered. Bye, bye Lucie!
We’re just getting to Costa Rica at the end of this episode, and good times await us here! We’re going to sail the entire coast, all the way to Nicaragua. Islas Caño, Merciàlago, and even the elusive Cocos… Stay tuned!
We had some amazing adventures in CR. It was beautiful, expensive, crazy, locals came to the boat, Kimmi went back to Berlin, and James and a local went on a spearfishing/sailing adventure with a friend. We can’t wait to share all of this with you.
But, first, hope you like this one.
Pura Vida!
James & Kim
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This is the very last Panama video, it is our longest (and best) episode to date, and it has a bit of everything you guys love in a sailing video: storm sailing and spearfishing on this uninhabited island (Isla Montuosa), when we run into the navy! Watch what happens, you won’t believe it!
We also go to Isla Coiba and show you some amazing dive footage from there. What a beautiful place.
In the next episode we’re finally leaving for Costa Rica.
Much love!
James & Kimmi
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Lucie comes back from Chile, and we head out to the islands again (I see a recurring theme).
We spearfish and sail through the south coast of Panama as we prepare for our journey to Costa Rica! We visit Islas Secas, Montuosa, and Jicaron, and have another cruiser over for a catch & cook fish taco dinner.
This is the second-to-last video in Pacific Panama. We decided to see as many of the islands we could before leaving. Great idea.
Stay tuned for next episode, where we visit Isla Coiba and leave for Costa Rica!
Hope you like! Much love from Kimmi and me!!!!
James
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Remember the $5k boat? Well the guy that owns that boat came down to get a taste of cruising. This whole episode is about our time together, and at the end he gives us an “exit” interview.
Cleveland records his REAL thoughts before departing and gives YOU guys a heartfelt, no BS description of the two weeks he spent with us cruising southern Panama.
We love ya Cleve! Had a blast with you bud. Good luck on all your future adventures!
Got a bit of everything in this episode. Hope you guys enjoy!!!
James & Kim
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[Sponsored post] How cool is it that? We’re the first and only channel to be sponsored by Spectra? Wow.
You’ve ever wondered how watermakers turn saltwater to fresh, drinkable water, how to install one in your boat or how much work this really is? This video will teach you everything you want to know about watermakers. We’re installing a Spectra Ventura 150C watermaker including layout, plumbing, wiring, operation, and connecting wirelessly through your computer/phone/tablet.
Took me all week, and a lot of sweat equity, but man it’s nice to not have to worry about water anymore.
This video is brought to you by Sailing Zingaro and Spectra Watermakers.
[Sponsored post] Took me a few days. I’d say 16 hours to install and 4 hours to source parts. Now she’s done, she purrs, and she’s filling our tanks on SOLAR 6.1gph @ 12.6vdc.
Sponsored by SPECTRA Watermakers | Our new watermaker means fresh water freedom. Sailing Zingaro is ready for Pacific crossing.
I’ve been sweating my ASS off in our engine room for 5 days. Totally worth it. This watermaker is sweeeeeeeet.
Fresh water independence! We’re finally ready to set sail for Easter Island.
I’m going to edit the install video and upload it for our sponsor’s (SPECTRA Watermakers) approval. Then as soon as it’s public we leave Puerto López (Ecuador).
Much love guys, stay tuned, Zingaro’s watermaker video is coming soon.
Fishing fail: That mahi mahi threw a knife at us! Tune in to find out just how the heck we got ourselves in this precarious situation, and if we got the fish if the fish got us…
We’re sailing in the Seca Islands, Panama: Cruising, fishing, storms and diving – This one has a bit of everything.
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Cleveland contacts me, and tells me he’s living on a sistership in Sausalito Bay (San Francisco Bay Area) and if I’m ever in town, look him up.
So I was in town, and holy moly he’s not lying. He paid $5,000 for a Crowther Spindrift 37′ and we’re about to go on a tour of it.
This thing is CRAZY. It’s a “fixer upper” for sure.
How to buy a sailboat
I thought it might be fun, since we have internet right now, to take everyone on the buying journey for my boat – and look on the internet to see if we can find a good deal on a cat.
Is it the sailboat deal of the century or a boat buying nightmare? You decide in this walkthrough.
Much love.
James
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The Episode of our USA visit last year is here. It was Kim’s first time in the USA! We didn’t film nearly as much as we should have, but I guess that’s the way it goes when You have fun 🙂
There’s always trouble when you leave two Berlin girls on the boat by themselves. See why in this episode.
We leave the boat in a Panamanian river and go home to California for a few weeks to get parts and attend a wedding. We build a stack-pack while we’re there, and go for a little sailing trip to Catalina Island. Kimmi likes sailing on OPB’s (other-people’s boats)!
Best wishes and much love from us!
James & Kim
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Theres nobody here. It’s paradise. The weather is perfect, the sea is calm, and the spearfishing is amazing. Follow us for an amazing journey into the untouched and rarely visited Isla Secas.
They’re often passed up by cruisers, because it’s hard to slog up the coast towards Costa Rica. Furthermore, there isn’t any widespread knowledge about these islands.
That is the kinda place I want to be. And this time it worked out so well… What a beautiful island chain. It’s very close to Isla Coiba (World Heritage site and same underwater archipelago as Galapagoes). Just amazing.
Hope you like!
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The $7,000 sails don’t fit. We have trouble adjusting to them, and trying to beat to weather with them for the first time was a nightmare. We altered course and downwind sailing with them worked fine.
The roach on the main is far too big to fit through the backstays. Even double reefed it hits. I’ve since installed running backstays, but this issue is still not solved. Now I can use the sail double and triple reefed, but fully up there’s not enough clearance.
