It's now Sunday early morning and the day started early with both of us up before 0600. My mind was spinning around on our auto pilot and Tracy just couldn't sleep as she's been concerned about what we on board or need to buy to take care of the line handlers and supervisor that have to be fed as we make our way through the canal. Hot meals--breakfast and dinner and a cold lunch. She's talked to others that have made the passage as well as out agent and got good ideas from them. She returned from the grocery store yesterday with a case of water and two cases(12 cans each) of Cokes as it's apparently the drink of choice for the line handlers. Now we just have to get a menu together for the meals and make sure we have what we need on board. The "hot" breakfast has thrown her as even we rarely get a "hot" breakfast but I'm sure it will have something to do with tortilla and eggs. I met her at the bus with a cart not knowing what she would come back with and I'm glad I did with all the liquids she returned with. From what she's told me, the "4 Altos" store has narrow aisles and there were a ton of people there as it's a holiday weekend with Friday being one and Sunday(today) being the second but just like the US, if a holiday falls on a Sunday, well, it gets carried over to Monday so we can write off tomorrow. She also came back with lots of paint pans and rollers for the up coming bottom painting we will be doing next week. The yard can get us the paint but not sure about the thinner we need for the first coat so it sticks better. The Yard Master is looking and should be getting back with us on Tuesday.
When we pulled in last Wednesday, we were met shortly after tieing up by a young man that was looking to see if he could help out in any way. We sent him on a pilgrimage of finding more cat food for Snowshoe. He came back on Thursday with info that he still had a few more places to check but would be getting back with us. Being a holiday weekend, I'm sure he's found most places closed and now that we've moved to an actual slip, I'll be calling him early next week to see what he may have found, meanwhile one of the other cruisers I ran into has the number of a vet school that is in Panama City and she getting us the number or contact info. Snowshoe is just about out of his dietary food he needs to keep himself "regular". He still gets some "Friskies" canned food(none at the grocery store Tracy went to) and some other special treat dry food that both kids really love. We do have some other dry food that we bought in Grenada that's supposed to be good for his digestion but he doesn't really like it's taste so we will see what he does once we run out of his "normal" food. Blue will eat just about anything we put down. For her, food is food and she's not that picky like he is.
We were early and started in or trying to fix the Simrad autopilot I screwed up yesterday. We've gotten some good help from a man up in British Columbia. He's sent me several emails and we went at it as the sun was coming up before the sun and heat really set this place on fire with heat and humidity. It poured last evening so todays going to be another hot humid day. With Tracy looking under the stern bunk, I spun the wheel back and forth as the rudder indicator looks like it was working fine. Next came calibrating the brains of the unit. Following the instructions I got, we got into the software on the unit and spun the wheel to starboard and spun the small knob so the degrees of angle were matching and did the same to port and calibrated the measurement in the software and exited the program. Now when I spin the steering wheel, I can see on the screen of the autopilot the position of the rudder which I hadn't been able to do if I was turning to starboard so at least we got that corrected. With that done, I turned on the "auto" pilot and turned the small dial on it to make the rudder move as I spun the knob. Here's where it goes wrong. If I turn the knob to starboard, the auto pilot turns the rudder to port. If I turn the knob to port, it turns the rudder all the way to starboard with no stopping. It goes from the rudder stop blocks on each side instead of stopping where I turn the dial to plus it's turning the wrong way. I've sent this info to the Canadian man and now we wait to see what his next suggestion is. At the worst, I can do a "factory" reset that puts it back to when it left the factory so we will get this fixed sooner or later but we will get this fixed. So far, the replacement head cost $1,000 and the Fed Ex to get it here was another $661 so it's adding up.
This afternoon we have a game of Mexican Trains scheduled for 1300 so we will see how that goes. A new group to play with. Curacao players were few and far between with only Johanna and Timo from Finland to have fun with(we miss them both)so we will see how it goes. I'm sitting upstairs in the marinas office building in a huge cruisers lounge. A/C, a big screen TV, all the power plugs to keep our electronics up and running plus numerous couches to relax on and tables to play games or work at and a half dozen cubicles dedicated for use of computers. Only problem with their internet is that it's all WiFi and no cables for plugging into computers so as more and more people get on line during the day, it slows down everyones speed. Late night is the best time to get on line. We've had problems posting to Sailblogs with posts with any pictures. It took we five times to get some posted yesterday of shots from out trip here. Cost--$10 per week but unlimited usage but if it's slow, well it may not be cheap but it's all that's available out here.

We just got back from one of the organized events at the marina and that was a Pot Luck dinner at the local open air hut. Huge with a fire place for barbecuing and at least 20 people showed up. Supposed to start at 1830 but the fire wasn't anywhere near ready till long after 1900 so dinner was delayed a bit. We got set upon by what looked to be flying ants or may termites but no one really knew and after a while the floor was littered by dead bug and few survived by the time we sat down for dinner. We had hamburger patties and curry fried rice with raisins(oh so wonderful). Other brought potato salad or salads or other side dishes and some brought nothing. Talk was loud and different clusters of people sprung up. We were asked questions about the Pacific and having pets on board. Several boats here have dogs and were concerned.

This afternoon, we had a game of Mexican Train dominoes with four other cruisers. A small gathering and they were surprised that anyone one else showed up as there aren't that many here that play the game. I'm happy to report that I won!! We came back between rain storms and it poured again as we were having dinner. It's the rainy season and for good reason. Boy, it can really come down but it's sure doing a great job getting all the dirt and saltwater off the boat.

It's now Monday, another holiday so now much was happening so I took off for the laundry before 0800 as I wanted to be there when it opened. I was outside the door when Laura(runs the place) showed up along with three cats that live here at the marina. I made friends with the cats as Laura opened the place and I made sure the cats got their food before we started in on the laundry. Never hurts to be a cat person when the person that's going to help you is one too. It took a while--Three loads of wash and then four loads of driers before all was done. As she was also doing laundry for some of the cruisers, I couldn't take all the machines so we didn't get done till close to 1100. We hauled the now clean clothes back to the boat and started discussing our situation with the auto pilot. We were going to start back in on it after lunch. Heck, it didn't work now so how much worse could we make it. We read the manual as we went and turned dials and spun the steering wheel and hit lots of buttons and we think we've figured out part of the problem. First, we got the digital readout to be correct so that when we turned the wheel to starboard it showed us going to starboard and vice versa. As for the huge swing that the rudder was doing when we turned on the auto pilot, we thinks it was doing that as since it was trying to put us on that course but since we are tied up to the dock and not moving, well try as it could, we were never going to get on that heading. Sounds logical doesn't it? We think we have it all fixed--sure hope so.

By 1530, we were off for the showers as we'd put out a good bit of perspiration as we sat in the hot cockpit with lots of anxiety going through at least my brain. Again, it sure felt great to just stand under the shower head and let it drench the body. Tomorrow, we may be getting pull but not sure as we never heard back from the yard master about his finding the paint thinner we need to really do the job correctly. With luck, we should be on the hard by this time tomorrow and then sweating buckets in the heat of the day getting the bottom prepped and ready for paint and then painting it. It shouldn't take more than three to four days(we think unless the heat and rain get the better of us).