After you've been in a marina for a while you get to know many of the locals. Shelter Bay is an interesting spot because it is so far from everything. It makes the odds of running into someone on a boat in the marina during your day very high.

Bruce and April are a couple from the US west coast living on their cat in the marina. Bruce runs the dock and April is a representative for Marine Warehouse. They are a wonderful family with two great kids and some wild pets. They are currently rehabilitating a toucan and a little sloth. Both are very cute (sloth pictured).

We have met many folks going east and many going west and some planning to stay put for a while. Our new friend Ed just hauled out his Norseman 430 in the Shelter Bay yard. We met Ed our first day on the dock and have enjoyed his company when he has stopped by the marina. Ed has purchased Little Star for his place out in Bocas Del Toro and is likely to join us on the trip to the Galapagos.

Our friends Peter, Debbie and their kids Josh and Mattias on Sea-u-manana arrived a few days ago. They are spending a lot of time in town trying to replace a number of electronics items that some unscrupulous individuals stole from their boat in Columbia. The four of them have agreed to help us out tomorrow as line handlers on our boat as we transit the canal.

Nobu from Wakamizu has also agreed to join us for the trip through the canal. Including Hideko, that gives us four adult line handlers plus the skipper which is what the canal requires. After going through once I'd say that is also a minimum. It is nice to have one person to sweat the line and one to bring it in when you are going up at Gatun. If you end up with three or four lines on you boat (not likely but it can happen) you'll have everyone working hard.

There's a swap meet at Shelter tomorrow morning so we've collected a pile of stuff to get off of the boat. We'll sell what we can and then head through the canal. Very exciting stuff!