The Geriatric Crews/Cruise
23 March 2010 | Bocas del Toro, Panama
Carol - sunny, breezy
Dave Hewitt arrived from St. Thomas on Thursday, March 18, and we had an arrival party at Pirates Bar in Bocas and on Alaunt. Thanks to Sharon Allen for arranging Dave's travel plans, we have the final member of Alaunt's Geriatric Crew: I'm 60, Ron is 65 and Dave will be 70 on April 4th. We partied for two days, including our last Friday night at Calypso Cantina. Baby back ribs for dinner, live entertainment and Dyllan and Darrion's fire dance show. We had so much fun with our Bocas friends, including Chuck and Ann on "Mirage". Chuck is the General Manager at Bocas Yacht Club & Marina, and he helped me with input on writing an article about Bocas del Toro for Latitudes and Attitudes Cruising Magazine. I'll let you know when it's published.
We've started our departure check-outs for Alaunt: Aires windvale, rigging check (Ron went up the main and mizzen mast), ditch kit, plus safety equipment (EPIRB, an Electronic Position Indicating Radio Beacon monitored by NOAA internationally, and our SPOT), and provisioning (can we really carry enough wine, beer, gin and rum?). We've also been showing Dave around Bocas town and dinghying to nearby islands for sightseeing. Our last day on Isla Colon, we hired a taxi driver to take us around the beaches, and coast line where the surfers were catching some very big waves. We stopped at the Hotel Coralina for a drink and had this picture taken by Carlos, our taxi driver. We hate to leave this cool town, but we're ready to go home. We're sailing to Portobelo and will post our next sailblog from there. Keep checking our sailblogs and we'll keep having fun.