Cruising: fixing your boat in exotic places
06 November 2011 | Bocas del Toro, Panama
Cloudy, Air Temp 86F, Water temp 78F, Wind W@5
Well, I have now crossed six items off my repair/to-do list, and it still has six more. Every time I cross one off, another appears. Today's new job appeared first thing this morning... the propane breaker tripped off, leaving us with no propane for the stove. After some fiddling, it was clear the solenoid in the propane locker was kaput! So this afternoon I took it out and by-passed it. Its not a major issue, except we now have to manually turn on and off the propane each time we want to use the stove. I'll try to find a replacement, but if not, add it to the growing list of stuff coming back at Christmas. Not much other excitement to report. The town is as quiet as we have ever seen it. All the celebrations ended last night, and today's biggest excitement seems to be a cruisers game of Mexican Train Dominos in the marina. Unfortunately we had a prior arrangement. For our major project of the day we headed in to town to confirm our part order... 2-3 days delivery... can you believe it??? We can't, but we will see. Tomorrow's projects will be finish fan installation, repair leak in forward head and time for shopping again. We are quickly eating through our supplies for our trip. Yesterday I began varnishing the teak that got missed by the marina. I managed about half of it with a first coat. Because it is weather dependent, it can float to the top of the priority list if the day looks fine. Otherwise it falls back on the list. Lots to do... With any luck we'll be off later in the week, just a weeks delay. In the mean time we are gabbing with family and friends on our satellite phone whose minutes expire next month. Not too bad considering...