Today did not go as planned. That is not unusual in the cruising world, but I had a surprise that I did not like.

It started to go off the rails when I was in the office trying to get a taxi booked for our trip to Panama. The phone rang while I was talking taxies with the lady working in the office. It turned out to be our friends from Better Days, calling to say they had their dingy stolen while in the Chagres River. They had gone to shore to do some exploring and when they got back, they were horrified to find their dingy gone - It was locked up and the chain had been cut. Connie called while filling out a report with the officials and they had no way of getting back to their boat. It was good Karma that I was in the office when she called. I talked with the manager here and he arranged for a truck to take me and a small rowing dingy out to pick them up and take them back to their boat. Connie was quite distraught when I arrived and was having problems communicating with the officials. Instead of rowing out, we paid a fisherman to tow us out to the boat.

I discovered another problem when I returned. I was checking the bilge pumps to ensure everything was in order and I found desiel fuel in the bilge and after pulling everything apart found that a seal was leaking after we filled the tank up the other day. We had to siphon off some fuel - It tastes terrible. And then start cleaning up the mess. Thank God I found it now and not at the last minute. We still have another day and half to clean up the mess.

We get hauled out at 7:30 tomorrow morning and then back to the cleaning.....