Once a month or so the Gem needs the bottom cleaned, the hull and keel, and depending on what waters we are in, warmer or cooler, we have different kind of growth to deal with.
Having spent several months in Panama’s warmer waters, we had LOTS of stuff growing on the bottom of the boat. All sorts of grasses, barnacles, muscles and even worms… crabs and snails were hitching a free ride too.
The Las Brisas anchorage in Panama City wasn’t the place to really clean the bottom as it had a pretty murky and dirty kind of water. Clearer water is much preferred to do that sort of job.
Our scuba tank compressor that we usually use for these kinds of bigger underwater jobs, somehow, we believe, contaminated our tank. So breath holds it would be, or… beaching, careening the Gem!
Looking at our weather window to continue our journey, we had some time before we could go, and took the chance to explore and sail over to the Las Perlas Islands.
The tidal range there is about 12feet (almost 4m). Perfect for what we wanted to do!
The Islands are about 40nm (75km) away, so we set sail and had a beautiful trip sailing, seeing some many dolphins and even some whales in the distance.
We found an anchorage away from any settlements, a wind and surf protected bay that we had all to ourselves. We stayed put for a good week.
We took care of our “maintenance” (we’d like to call it lawn mowing and exterminating 😳🤣) as soon as we found the perfect place!
We prepared the beach on the previous day by laying some rocks in a line in the sand at low tide.. The next day we used the rocks to align the Gem in the right direction. It was a special spot that had a big rock to lean her against. At low tide we could make sure she would stay on her keel, nice and upright, and refloat again 12 hours later at high tide.
We made a YouTube video showing how we did it and about our time in the Las Perlas.
We hope you watch and enjoy it! Thank you again for supporting us!👏🏻
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