Panama

After arriving in Panama City we set about locating the parts which we had been assured were all available here. The first lesson is that it probably is or can be ordered in but it requires many taxi and bus trips to find things. People have great advice and send you to various places only to find that what you require isn’t there and they send you to yet another place. It is a hot, noisy and brash city and makes Quito in Ecuador seem like a refined country cousin.
We located a refrigeration person so that was dealt with relatively easily. I also bought an ice maker which remains to be seen if it will prove to be a wise purchase or not—it weighs 35lb and requires the generator working but when I use the washing machine we can have slushy drinks so the jury is still out on that one.
We caught a bus through to visit Judy and Jack who were on their boat on the other side of the canal to spend a night and have a visit with them and collect our mail which they had bought from Canada. It was great to catch up and visit overnight with them as they prepared for a 1000 nautical mile trip to the BVI’s. Ken Huechart was there to help them as well as another friend of theirs. They have been having a great time cruising in the San Blas Islands on the Caribbean side of the canal, unfortunately we are unable go there—the culture seems very interesting unlike that of the locals on the islands of the Pacific side who are the black descendants of the canal workers and seem to eke out an existence. The San Blas islanders make molas—an intricate layering of fabrics to create art work. We were able to buy them in the city but it would have been more fun to have gone out to their islands.
Judy, true to form had found us a boat to transit back through the canal on—we had mentioned we would like to do it and by the time we caught our bus there she had organized us leaving the afternoon of the next day.
We boarded the 46 foot catamaran which was like a large hobie cat---definitely a minimalist style boat which the owner and 2 crew had sailed from Jamaica. They had had some very strong winds and had buried their bows in the water several times and a huge wave had crashed into their side which later proved to have cracked the fiberglass. They had got up to 16 knots of speed and made us feel fortunate to be sailing on our substantial catamaran. It was a great boat to motor through the canal on though and we enjoyed our time with them. We left the anchorage at 6pm with two advisors (they are responsible to make sure you don’t screw up too much). Went into the first system of locks just at dark and followed a large boat into the locks. We were centre tied which involved 4 of us, one on each corner leading a rope to the canal workers on shore and tightening them so we were secured in the middle as the water came in to lift us the 28 feet each lock would raise us---there were 3 locks. We then motored to a huge mooring bouy on a lake which we spent the night attached to. It was a beautiful quiet peaceful night—we had considered swimming but the stories of alligators deterred us.
In the morning we motored through the pretty lake to the locks on the Pacific side. Unfortunately we went quicker than we had anticipated so Kristen who was monitoring the live website missed seeing us---we did wave so maybe someone else was watching. We then descended the same height in the next set of locks. This time there was no other boat so they did it all for us—very cool. The catamaran was anchoring at our anchorage so they dropped us off at our boat. All in all it was a great experience and awesome being such a little boat surrounded by the hugest of tankers—a few days later we watched the Queen Victoria cruise ship come through on it’s maiden voyage---it was built to go through the canal with only 2 feet to spare on each side and was an awesome sight as it sailed by us all 10 floors alight.
We got back and were back in the thick of trying to find parts, some of which they order from the states and choosing fabric to recover our salon cushions. This is the last place we will be with cheap labour and materials for a long time and as our cushions are starting to show wear we decided to redo them. The whole thing is $740 and we had been quoted $1000 in Comox for labour alone. I got a 30% discount on the fabric it is already cheap. Sunbrella fabric is $12 99 a yard unlike the $40 in Canada.
We have entered the black market economy of Panama---bought fuel for $2 25 a gallon—don’t ask—we don’t want to know!!!(normally $3 50 or so here). Also got some bottom paint for $250 for 5 gallons—the going rate for the same paint at the dealers is $130 a gallon. No choice of colours—we have brown which appears to be a mix of black and red siphoned off after some tanker gets painted. We had decided to beach our boat and redo the bottom—the barnacles of Ecuador had done a huge job on our hull and in scraping them off chunks of paint had come with them.
We heard from Judy and Jack that they had struck some bad winds so had decided to return to Panama and try again when the season is more favorable so they are back on the Caribbean side of Panama.
We sailed back to Espiritu del Santo where we had successfully beached at Xmas only to find another catamaran was going to beach the same day as we were so it was like a mini boat yard. The tides are biggest at the full moon which is why we chose that time—14 foot tides over a 4 day period.
We took ourselves onto the beach the first night and anchored ourselves holding ourselves firmly so as the tide came in again and out by early morning we would be in the same spot and could get the remaining barnacles off. The other cat had tried to come in on rubber tires to avoid sinking into the sand, because of the current he was unable to land on them but we borrowed them for the next morning and Ken dove under our boat just as we were aground the following morning and secured them under our boat which meant we could access almost all of it to paint. We washed the salt off and painted like crazy getting 2 coats on which had a 4 hour drying time before the tide came in again---was that enough??? Time will tell but so far it is not peeling off. We had considered staying on the beach one more night to do the 2nd coat allowing more drying time but by then were exhausted and only wanted to get back in the water and be done with it--it was very windy so did dry fast and with minimal sand painted on the hull. The next day was spent getting the sand out of every corner of the boat—that’s why boats stay in the water!!!
We decided to relax and spend a few days in the anchorage—Ken building his battery box for the new batteries we have coming and me inventorying our food on the boat. My next challenge is to figure out how much food to buy to get us across the Pacific. How much flour does one eat in 4 months??? We will see!!! A lot of stuff is apparently either unavailable or very expensive in the Pacific---hope Ken’s fishing skills come to bear as spam will get tiresome. We have been told beer is $80 a flat (we will not be drinking a lot of beer) and rum is $80 a bottle. We were also advised to get a large container and fill it with rum and then fill water bottles with it later and trade in Poynesia for fruit and vegs.
We are heading to Panama next and will get all of the items we have on order from the States and buy the provisions for our trip to the islands and then directly to the Galapogas via the Cocos where we hope to dive.
Carnival will be on in the weekend---a plus-minus situation---it should be fun and we hope to take in a couple of parades but everything will be closed so will not allow us to get anything else done.
Judy and Jack will join us in the Galapagos for a while and help us sort out whatever hurdles the Ecuadorian government put in front of us.
We heard it is -27C in Calgary at present—hope for all of you that is over already and a Chinook is on it’s way.