The Vilisar Times

The life and times of Ronald and Kathleen and our voyages aboard S/V Vilisar, a 34.5-foot wooden Wm-Atkin-designed sailing cutter launched in Victoria, BC, Canada, in 1974. Since we moved aboard in 2001 Vilisar has been to Alaska, British Columbia, California, Mexico, The Galapagos and mainland Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica.

Friday, October 23, 2009

TABOGA MOORINGS
Wednesday, September 30, 2009


I need to clear up a misunderstanding that seems to have attained a life of its own.

Readers of this blog will recall that Vilisar left Panamá City twice for French Polynesia. Both times we had to put back. In the first instance, we made a planned, one-night stop at Taboga Island and picked up a mooring there, which had been recommended to us as secure. It was, I hasten to add, not one of Taboga Moorings balls. While we were ashore for a couple of hours in the evening, the mooring parted and Vilisar slowly drifted onto the rocks in front of the village. We pulled her off in the night at high tide. A couple of weeks later (when we could get a vacancy), we put the boat up on the marine ways at Balboa Yacht Club to repair the small amount of damage that had been sustained.

A few weeks after that, we left again, motoring out to Las Perlas Islands on the first (windless) day. When we checked the dip stick the next morning before lifting the anchor to make for The Galapagos, we discovered that we had lost nearly all of our engine oil into the bilge. We returned to Panamá City to discover that the engine’s rear oil seal had failed. We have been stuck here ever since trying to get this repaired.

Somehow the myth has developed that we were using one of Chuy and Susan’s commercial buoys over at Taboga Moorings, that their mooring failed and as a result of drifting onto the rocks, our engine was badly damaged.

Just so there is no mistake. We were NOT using one of Taboga Moorings’ balls. We had in fact left Vilisar on one of their moorings for two months while we were in Europe. I have nothing but good to say about the strength of their moorings and the service they provide. Chuy or Susan was out daily to check that the lines were not twisted or chafed. They dive on their anchors regularly. This all in addition to being them interesting and friendly people.

Hoping to bury this myth, we would recommend Taboga Moorings to anyone.

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