Saturday, March 17 We are READY. We spent the day at anchor cleaning and making everything ship shape. I got the new VHF hooked up to the GPS so it would stop yelling at us. (A “safety feature” that cannot be defeated is that all new VHF radios sound a very irritating alarm every 4 hours if they do not have a position. This is for the DSC emergency transmission which broadcasts your lat/lon in case of emergency just by hitting a big red button.) However, when we are at anchor, our position does not change and it is a waste of electricity to run the GPS just for the VHF. Oh well, now that it is hooked up at least it will not alarm during night watch or any time we are under way.) Deb put away every thing and cleaned up a storm. I made rye bread for our St. Patty's day dinner, fussed over the refer and freezer to make sure they were holding the right temp (they seem to be), and dived the hull to clean the knot meter (It fouls after more than a few days at anchor and was not working on the way to Tierra Oscura.) We had a great St. Patty's Day dinner at Cynde's. Juanita made a traditional boiled dinner to go with the rye bread. Panamanian “corn beef” was actually smoked beef, but tasted fine and since she cooked it in the right spices, it almost tasted like corn beef! There were 9 of us in all: George & Juanita from “Clair de Lune” who just bought the plot of land next to Cynde's and plan to build, Roger & Frankie from “Infinity” who were out for their first sail since Frankie finished chemo for lung cancer, Colleen who just returned from a full year away in the US taking care of her newborn grandson, Capt. Ron, Cynde, and us. The sunset was fantastic – the best we have seen in Panama! Frankie is a watercolorist too and we marveled at the “water color sky” and sea and discussed the patch of cerulean peaking through the alizaron crimson and the ultramarine alternating with the sienna and crimson on the water depending upon whether or not there were ripples. We had a great time and are ready to leave tomorrow.