Panama Arrival
30 March 2012 | Shelter Bay Marina
Kevin
After leaving San Blas late afternoon we arrive at the Panama Breakwater the following morning. We are given permission to enter and we pilot our way into Shelter Bay Marina.
We intend to stay here until we can transit the Canal. We guess 7-10 days. It's a good marina and we have hired an agent to do all our paperwork, transit, immigration etc and we are oh so pleased he is only going to charge $350 and the whole transit is only going to cost about $1600 + marina fees whoopee dooo! The marina is only $45 per night whoopee dooo. I guess they have a captive market. The marina has swimming pool jacussi restaurant bar showers etc and real toilet, so we are able to relax by the pool while our agent earns his dosh. Nice. Actually what really hurts is we need the heads working to transit, as we have had to hire 3 line handlers and a pilot for the transit, and apart from feeding and watering they will need the heads to work! The new heads pump that we have ordered from Florida is $120 but the Fedex cost is $185 ouch! ouch! ouch! that hurts more than our mosquito bites. Apparently 22000 people died building the canal ... mostly from mosquito borne disease.
Time for another swim.
Kevin