On the Sea Again
05 March 2018 | Narranja Abajo
Mark
FINALLY we are clear of Shelter Bay. Luis arrived last night with our starter. We fed him dinner as a Thank-you (in addition to paying him well.) but then he had to run off to get a client at Tucomen. I got the starter installed before dark and it worked just fine. This morning all I had to do was get the Zarpe (permission to move from port to port) and we were off. The Port Captain had told me yesterday to meet him at his office @ 9:00. (I had suggested 8:00.). He was not there. Nor was he at 10:00 or 11:00. I finally got John, the dock manager, to call him at 11:30. The Port Captain told John he hadn't planned on coming in today. When John reminded him that he had promised me a Zarpe yesterday, he agreed to come in - "In about an hour." Nearly 2 hours later, he showed up. I got my Zarpe. The charge was $20.00, no receipt. (A Zarpe should cost $1.50 and you get a receipt.) I didn't care. We were out of there. One last stumbling block - when I started the starboard engine, it wasn't peeing. (The raw cooling water goes into the exhaust to quiet it and comes out with the exhaust.) By now I am an expert at tightening the belt on the raw water pump. It took me less than 10 minutes. And we were off! As we approached the opening in the breakwater of the Panama Canal, I could see one container ship that would clearly pass in front of us. AIS confirmed this. I called Cristobal Control for permission to follow that ship out the breakwater and he came back saying he didn't have information right then, just use good seaman practice. What the f...? I never heard that from them before. But that is what we did. I sped up as much as possible to follow the container ship through and exit before the next one came. (Again, we could see it on AIS as well as visually and new just how much time we had to pass in front of it. Everything went smoothly. In no time we had crossed the anchorage and were at Narranja Abajo, a beautiful little deserted island with a very protected anchorage. We are SO happy to be here, anchored safe and very comfortable in totally flat water but with still some great Caribbean breeze blowing through. We are both exhausted physically and emotionally by all the thrash of the haul-out and the marina. I think we will spend two nights here and then do the 24 hr. crossing to Escudo. We need the rest and this is a perfect spot to get it. No other boats, a nice sandy beach for Goldie and nice clean water to swim in. Life is getting better!