Hello's and Good-byes
04 February 2011
"Moana" and "Vanilla" left yesterday for Linton, both wanting to re-provision and pick up boat parts. Unfortunately Vanilla's windlass quit the other day and Sylvain's been working on his bi-ceps winching and pulling up his chain and anchor himself.
Since I'm the one on our boat that has taken up the job of anchoring, I hope that doesn't happen to us. We have 200 feet of 5/8 inch chain (~310 pounds) and a Delta anchor that is beefy enough to hold this 14 Ton boat (that would be its naked weight, so who knows what it really weights with all the crap we have on board).
One night, Phil on "Cynosure" entertained us with his vast knowledge and love of Ecuador and South America, a place he's lived and explored for the last decade. It certainly conjures up the idea, that perhaps we shall go through the Panama canal one day to explore the other side of this continent. The majority of the boats in this part of Panama are heading for the canal and many have joked with us that we should follow. I just hold my breath, knowing how plans can change so easily aboard "Lion's Paw" however, Steve and I both know that we are not seasoned enough for a Pacific crossing...not yet anyway!
Dave and dog Tiger "Bijou Vert La Mer" called us on the VHF this morning to ask about Chichime's anchorage. He was heading our way. We met Dave in Santa Marta, Colombia when he organized a gathering for the boats in the marina. Before leaving Santa Marta, we encouraged him to tie off the paddle to his windvane steering (having shared the story of nearly loosing our paddle from our Monitor windvane steering if not for the rope that Steve used to tie it off with). It seems that Dave had taken our advise and is thankful that he did. On his passage to Panama, he experienced a similar situation and when he arrived to Colon, he had to have it welded back on, but at least he had the paddle.