We are in the water
18 January 2012 | Panama
Randy
We are in the water! Arlen who is coming to help me as crew, and I, were able to get a nonstop flight to Panama. Really nice not having to run around airports looking for departure gates while checking your watch wondering if your luggage made it too.
We spent a day in Panama City taking taxis picking up my shipment of supplies which included a new water maker. Something you don’t need in the USA, Bahamas or here in Panama in the rainy season. In the dry season the only option is to go to shore and buy river water. Bought a phone plan and an internet stick for my lap top at half the price of the set up in Canada. The e mail via SSB works great but for us to keep up the blogs, with friends, and family coming and going, we thought it was a bargain. The biggest challenge is understanding the Spanish terms on the menus. “Call not permitted” displays if it fails from no signal. Made me wonder why the call wasn't permitted for half a day until I figured it out. every time you gain signal it chimes and a mesage tells you to check operator messages. Theyn never come.
We took a taxi with our gear across Panama to Shelter Bay Marina in Colon where we left the boat for six months during the rainy season. It faired very well on the inside. We rented a dehumidifier from the yard and drained it out the galley sink. No mold anywhere! Dawn had laundered all things before we left and packed them in “oh my god” size zip lock bags from the hardware store. Everything was just as fresh as when she packed it. The cockpit didn’t fare so well. The wood lifted off the cockpit seats so bad that it jammed the wheel in places and pinched you in others. I had to take it all off and start again. We scraped the bottom and painted two coats on the afternoon we arrived and launched the boat the next noon.
The weather looks like it will moderate enough to get east to the San Blas Thursday. Still looks like a slug 75 miles to weather in 15kt winds and 2m seas on the bow. After we get out into it we will have to decide if we should break it into two days or keep on going overnight.
We had planned from home to fly our crew, friends and family in and out of the San Blas (Kuna Yala). Here I have found one of the two small airports is closed causing all flights to be booked up. The air carrier not responding to on line bookings didn’t help things. The Kuna Indians have closed the roads in their territory to everyone but Kuna. I was able to get a phone number for the Kuna District office from Gord on Island Dreaming, from Vancouver Island. A Kuna taxi can be arranged through them to get to and from Panama City. Their first language is Kuna, their second is Spanish. I talked to someone in English and got them to agree to a ride for Arlen. On second thought I got one of the marina office personnel to confirm Arlen’s booking and to book Dawn for the next day. After listening to him for ten minutes explain the travel arrangements in fluent Spanish he confirmed Arlen’s ride. When I asked him about Dawn’s he handed back the phone and said the Hotel can arrange it and ran off. That took half a day. Tomorrows plan is to find another unsuspecting translator while Arlen makes a grocery run. Then it’s fill the fuel and water, check the weather and cast off the lines. I’ll watch for you from the anchorages of the San Blas. Randy