.....and tribulations. I don't often feel down but Ooroo doesn't feel like the same boat now.

Lots of little issues are plaguing her and with that my confidence is somewhat low right now.

Her maiden, post strike voyage to Provenir, the gateway to the San Blas Islands began with both engines filing as we left the marina. My bad. While I had checked and checked again the engines, navigation system etc, I had simply forgot to open the fuel lines. Xavier, while waving Ooroo to us with Alexandra was quick to act, commandeering the marina dingy to assist us if we drifted into the reef. I had one engine again started by the time he got to us so it was a clumsy farewell. I spent the next 30minutes in the engine room bleeding the fuel on the other engine before we had both powering along quite nicely.

We calibrated the new Auto Helm and set course.

Calm, still seas abruptly showed who was boss when a thunderstorm shot out from the mainland, obscuring visibility while dumping heavy rain in 25 knots of wind. Then it disappeared as fast as it came leaving us enough wind to sail at 6 to 8 knots for the last two hours of the trip. That was delightful. The sails hadn't been up in almost 5 months .

Untying from a dock is a pleasure, Sleeping while under anchor is a dream.
The check in at Provenir the next morning was a sinch as was the short motor to Lemon Cay.

We anchored near new friends Cecile and Javier, shot a small Snapper , swan in turquoise water and shared a sunset Pastis. All I need is a delightful accent and I could be French now.

We motor sailed to Green Island where we will meet other friends who will do some cloth work on our new rain catching bimini. Both the engine driven fridge system and the DC system then stopped working. These systems are completely unrelated. I managed to bypass the switch on the DC system to get some coolness back, but this is a new system and shouldn't play up. The new GPS is way off in its accuracy and is running very hot, the port engine failed again....this time not my bad....I had to bleed the fuel while underway and will try and source the fuel issue when anchored tonight . All this while baking bread, which I might add was the only highlight today.

Now in secluded paradise surrounded by reefs and an island as big as the average Aussie home, Oli and I can spear fish and swim when not fixing stuff. We purchased a bag of lobster for $8 from a dug out canoe that typifies the simple life the Kuna people here live. I'm looking forward to learning more about their culture. They are a happy people who only marry their own kind. Culture remains in tack. The few words of Spanish we know fall on death ears....only adding to the seclusion.