Her new owner took possession today. I will help him for a few days and then this chapter in our life is closed.

As you can tell from this blog, our cruising on Always & All Ways has been very minimal lately. Therefore, it is with a very heavy heart that I announce that Always & All Ways, our 2004 Belize 43, is for sale.
We ordered her new from France, took delivery in the BVI, sailed her to Belize where we had her in charter with TMM for 5 years, did extensive refit in 2008/9 for live aboard, then did live aboard for 1 1/2 years. For the past many years we have been dividing our time between our house in Panama and cruising the Western Caribbean in her.

We now have grandchildren and a summer cottage in NH and as a result have been spending less and less time on our boat. We have come to the conclusion that you cannot maintain a boat like this for only 1-2 months a year which is about what we have had lately. Rather than let her deteriorate from lack of use/maintenance, we have decided to sell her now.

Yesterday dawned calm and windless, just like Friday. We did not hurry, but got underway by 9:00 expecting the sea breeze to fill in by mid-morning. The first order of business was to re-calibrate Otto now that he has two rudders to work with. This was easily done by motoring in the flat water and pressing "Auto-learn". Otto steered back and forth until he understood exactly how much rudder needed to be applied for how much turn. Hit "Save" and it is done. Next was to cross the Atlantic Anchorage for the Panama Canal. The wind was only 5-8 kts, but was from the N and we were headed W to cross the anchorage most efficiently so raising the sails gave us about a knot more speed than without them. Since we were motor-sailing, I could easily vary our speed by controlling the speed of the engine (running only starboard engine to balance the starboard tack of the sails). Because we were motor-sailing, we had no special privileges. Had we been just under sail, we would have had right of way over motor vessels. However, when the "other vessel" is 991' long 150' wide, and her deck is twice as high as my mast, "Right of Way" becomes a realtive term. I gladly altered my speed to avoid any near approaches. Most of the boats were anchored and therefore only "dangerous targets" to the AIS which only considers closng speed, not who is or isn't moving. Several, however, including one of the "new Panamax" conatiner ships mentioned above, were underway and required my at least being aware of their speed (usually 26+ kts) versus mine. It took about two hours to totally cross the anchorage, but we made it without incident. By the time we passed the last ship (all the explosive LNG tankers etc. are placed at the extreme W edge of the anchorage so we went by them last.), the wind had filled in to 10-15kts so we could shut down the engine and just sail. When we replaced equipment after the lightening strike, I upgraded Otto to a newer model, and is he ever smart! He can hold a constant heading, he can follow a track keeping within about 48' on either side, he can even sail to the wind keeping the sails always at the same angle to the wind. That is what we used most of the day. I got us on course for Escudo (well, really Otto did) and then I trimmed the sails as closely as I could for that point of sail (about 78* starboard tack) and then I told Otto to keep that angle. He did a great job. Later in the day, when the wind suddenly shifted ~90*, he alerted me and allowed me to reset the sails on a new tack and then maintained that one. Really a great crew member and one I would not be without! I expected the wind to die with nightfall as it was mostly an adabiatic sea breeze, but instead it picked up. Our speed went from 4-5 kts. to 7-8 kts. and held much steadier than it had been all day. Great. That means we will arrive before dawn, but we've been there many times and have good waypoints so that is fine. The seas remained totally flat - like swells of 1-2' and not a white cap in sight. By midnight, the wind really did die. We motor-sailed for a while as the angle of the remaining wind was still good for a fraction of a knot and then it totally went away and we dropped sails and just motored. Now our ETA is about dawn. By 04:00, the wind returned - 16 kts. @ 30*P. Of course our speed was making some of that, but surely enough to put the main back up, so I did. It didn't really last and by the time we reached our "safety" waypoint off the tip of the island, it was back down to 5-6 kts. We dropped sails and motored in. At first it looked like another sailboat was anchored in "our" spot. It turned out as we got closer that he was quite a ways away so we were able to go back to exactly the same spot as we had anchored before to drop anchor. With so little wind, I set the anchor by backing on it with the engives. By the time we added the kellet and bridle, we were sitting directly over the anchor and the chain looped out and back to the kellet which was also buried and effectively serving as our anchor. The rest is just in case the wind pipes up. Exhausted, we went to bed after a toast to Neptune for safe and very easy voyage. We'll stay here a few days before returning home to Discovery Bay. Oh, and by the time we had inished breakfast (~10:30) the other boat left, so we have this beautiful place all to ourselves.

Today was just what we needed. The morning dawned with a glassy sea and hardly a breath of breeze. As the day went on the breeze built - mostly adabiatic from the intense sun on the mainland. By afternoon we had a good 15+ kts of sea breeze - very comfortable. In the morning, I took Goldie to shore in the dinghy which she greatly appreciated. We beeched dink on a spit of sand and then I tied Goldie off the the dink's painter so she quite a good distance to roam. I went into the shallow water and just enjoyed its washing over me. To my surprise, Goldie actually waded out into the water to see me. After a nice leisurely swim and stroll on the beech, we returned to Always. Deb was reading and doing Sadoku. After lunch all 3 of us returned to the little beech. I tried snorkeling some small patch reef nearby, but the visibility was poor due to stirred up sand and the coral was not all that great. Lots of reef fish however. Once again Goldie walked out into the water where Deb & I were laying. I'll bet we get her swimming this summer. Riding back to the boat, she had to perch on the bow and lean into the breeze. She is becoming quite a dnghy dog. After a little more reading and relaxing, it was time for cocktails which I will make in a few moments. After that, we will have lobster to celebrate (a couple days late) the 27th anniversary of our engagement. Not a bad way to do it.

Monday we spent the day sanding the Coppercoat - and just barely finished by dark. We were both totally exhausted. Didn't even want dinner. Margaritas, chips and salsa, bed. Yesterday we were scheduled to launch @ 8:00. In the slip we would re-attach sails and get everything ready to go. Except we didn't launch @ 8:00, or @ 9:00. Several other boats went first. Oh well, I re-attached all the sails and straightened out all the lines while we were waiting. We finally launched after lunch. Quickly I ran down and checked the new paddle wheel I had installed (to measure speed through water) and not a drop leaking in. I started the starboard engine, but the port refused to start. Long story short, the starter motor had broken - actually fractured the cone and jammed. Victor said we were the last boat to launch that day anyway, so we could just stay there until we got things fixed. However, at 4:00, John - the dock manager - showed up all upset saying we had to get out of there immediately as there was a barge coming in. They hooked up dinghies fore and aft and pulled/pushed us out of the travelift bay and onto a dock. It was a real thrash. And no barge ever showed up. I think John just didn't want us in the travelift bay. Not that we minded. The dock is much nicer and we have a great breeze, water and electricity.

Now about getting a new starter. First I tried repairing the nose cone with JB Weld. I didn't really expect it to work, but I've seen some amazing repairs with JB. It held for exactly 1 start. Fortunately, after 1 success, I shut it down and tried again instead of waiting until tomorrow AM when we wanted to leave. Well, Steve (from Red Frog) had a bunch of spares on one of the boats he cared for including several starters, but none were the right size. Edwin said he would check with TESA in Panama City and could get it in tomorrow if they had one. They didn't. He recommended ordering from Amazon or eBay and shipping expedited. The shortest time frame I could get was at least a week (@ $60+/day in the marina!) Finally, this morning, on-line, I found one in Panama City. The price was more than double Amazon and getting it here would be another $120, but it looked like the right one and Luis (our savior again!) was available to get it and bring it here. Maybe we will get out of here tomorrow.

Then the phones went down. No What's App, no voice calls, no texting. Nada. I used the marina office's phone and got Luis' voice mail to tell him what was happening. Hopefully he will just carry on and show up with the starter sometime this afternoon. If he doesn't.....???