Our two weeks with family in the Santa Cruz Mountains flew by. As we will soon be heading back into the Southern Hemisphere, it was important to us to enjoy a little more time with our US clan and of course there was more boat shopping to do - both at West Marine and via Amazon! As always with Anne & Les, we enjoyed an eclectic mix of entertainment. We managed to squeeze in a movie session - loved the fact over 50's are entitled to a seniors discount in the US, very BTY (Bl**dy Thieving Yachties). We grooved along to a fantastic show at Kuumbwa - the very funky Sammy Miller and The Congregation - a fun time with great showmen! We saw the Swedish drama "Dance of Death" at the stunning Colligan Theatre, home to the renown Jewel Theatre Company. The JTC moved into their new, purpose built premises at the former Salz Tannery in late 2015. Once a major Santa Cruz employer, the tannery operated from the 1800's through to 2001 when production became unviable due to cheaper overseas options. The disused industrial site has subsequently been converted to a specialist fine arts centre using local governments grant funding and is an incubator for local artists in residence. We revisited Seth Finkelstein, the quirky clock repairer, to retrieve our ships clock and took time out to lunch at the Crows Nest at the nearby Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbour. In March 2011, this harbour suffered significant damage following the tsunami triggered at Honshu in Japan - 17 vessels were sunk with a further 50 damaged; the marina dock and infrastructure devestation was in excess of USD17M. We even managed to enjoy a local wine or two at Bonny Doon - the former "Lost Weekend Bar" on Highway One now provides tastings to showcase wine from the Beauregard Winery (loved their Zinfandel). Loaded up with luggage, we said a sad farewell to our family and flew back to Tocumen Airport where our favourite driver, Rogelio, was waiting to meet us.

The trip from the airport to Colon was a serious Panamanic experience as we hit the most horrendous peak hour traffic near Panama City. When the pressure is on, the locals manage to make 5 lanes out of three on the highway, utilising the emergency stopping lane plus squeezing an additional lane in by ignoring lane markings - it all somehow works, everyone is calm and courteous and the traffic flows as best it can. The average Panama driver can certainly teach Perth motorists how to merge effectively! We arrived at Shelter Bay a couple of hours later, checked into the marina hotel and hit the ground running to cover off our "on the hard" job list. We stowed our luggage and sorted through all our spare parts, new electrical items and other miscellaneous Elevation bits and pieces whilst we waited for our Marine Warehouse order to be delivered. Arturo Romero, their local agent, had very kindly offered to drop off our items to the marina, even though it was his day off. He arrived with his wife and family, and all our goodies, as promised - awesome customer service and very much appreciated as it enabled us to work nonstop over the weekend. If you're in Panama and looking for marine items, we highly recommend his services - his contact details are:
Email: arturo@marinewarehouse.net Cell/Mobile: 6702 9256

We painted and polished; installed our new Forward Looking Sonar transducer; applied new Propspeed; cleaned, cleaned & cleaned and made Elevation ready for her next Happy Splash. Arduous and time consuming, but our hard work ensured that we were back in the water within 5 days. How glorious to be back onboard, in the water, and sleeping in our own bed once again!

Our next task was to arrange for Elevation to be measured for our soon to be Panama Canal transit. Our agent, Roy Bravo, very efficiently ensured that the PanCanal representative arrived the day after we splashed - he arrived early, completed LOA measuring and issued our Canal certificate making us official for transit - Exciting! There is enormous yachting traffic here at the moment and the earliest date that Roy could arrange for us is Sunday 23 April. This actually works in our favour as we have just discovered that the master screen for our watermaker has died and we are waiting for the local agent to import a replacement.

We've just spent a full day with Rogelio in Panama City doing bulk provisioning and picking up various necessary items including a new battery for our Iridium Extreme Sat Phone. Roger is a very knowledgeable guy with over 25 years of taking care of cruisers and he's invaluable in sourcing and locating all manner of goods and services. He speaks excellent English, is happy to interpret and make phone calls on your behalf, is prompt and reliable and is a great person! If you're in Panama and wish to touch base with him, his local number is 6717 6745. It's been a long day on the road and we've now got to vacuum pack meats and other bulk buy items and stow everything in readiness for our departure. We will spend the remaining time here at the marina checking systems - HF Radio, Sailmail, Iridium Axcess Point - plus installing cabling and screens for our new Echo Pilot FLS (it replaces our now defunct Interphase FLS). Hopefully there will be a little time to enjoy some of the activities on offer at the marina - the very lively cruising community here are very proactive with several potlucks, BBQs, movie nights and Open Mic nights happening throughout the week plus yoga, nature walks and aqua aerobics sessions.

Adeu Bethany Smith
We were extremely saddened to learn that Bethany Smith lost her life in a tragic onboard workplace accident on the SV Germania Nova where she had been employed as a junior deckhand. We first met Bethany in Trinidad in 2014 where she was living onboard the Smith family vessel Cape with her parents Sarah and David and brother Bryn. A bright, bubbly young lady with a sense of adventure and a passion for the sea, we were delighted to be able to assist her financially when she volunteered to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Dominica following Tropical Storm Erika. The support and love offered to Bethany's family by the cruising community has been extraordinary and certainly makes us proud to be part of the Saltwater tribe.
Fair Winds Beth.