Back to Panama
06 June 2009 | Empire, MI/ SB Marina, Panama
Amy
The time has come. Jim is leaving tonight for Detroit to catch a 6 a.m. Flight tomorrow for Panama w/ the usual layover in Houston. He'll arrive in Panama tomorrow at 1 p.m. Sunshine is going back up on auction tomorrow, Sunday, for a 10 day auction. A guy from Maryland is most likely buying Sunshine and is arriving Tues. to give Sunshine a looksie. He is bringing 2 friends w/ him and they are all going to help Jim in the final painting of the barrier coat & bottom paint. There may also be others coming to take a look at her. Then Jim and Lee & Leah, the couple who live in Portobello and were available to assist in the delivery to Florida, will join Jim & help him move Sunshine to Bocas del Toro, about a full 24 hr. sail away to the West. There is a new marina going in called Red Frog Beach, which is giving a great introductory rate for dock service w/ electricity & security for $5/foot/ month! Jim has talked to Dan Cranney the marketing director there and has been very impressed with what he's finding out. Bocas sounds like a wonderful place to visit. Both from what we've read & what we've heard from other cruisers. We've already decided we're going there sometime in the future for a vacation. I'm really sad I'm not going. Dang this is hard. I wish we could keep her. We even toyed around w/ another option. Keeping Sunshine in Bocas and rent her out as a "staging place" for people to rent out weekly to stay on, not take out sailing, while they explore the Bocas area & inland Panama. We could probably get $500/wk. for it, until we got her even more fixed up & then could increase our rate. That would cover any expenses. But to get that started with advertising, and get the word out to get her booked enough in the beginning seemed a big task that may or may not work out. Could we get her booked enough right away in the beginning to make that happen?? We didn't feel we were up to giving it a try, as much as we want to make that work. Even as I write this, I stopped, and Jim & I discussed this more- again.
Jim will send me photos while he is down there and I'll write & post some more over the next week