We slept until 0740 hours, on Tuesday, 11th March and awoke to blue skies and no breeze. We spotted another Westerly, an Oceanlord, named Annabelle, anchored about 150 metres behind us. We went over in the dinghy, on our way to the marina but there was nobody on board. Later, we would find the owner, John, on board and introduce ourselves. We climbed the stairs to the restaurant above the marina office and chandlery and ordered coffee and juice, only to find that they didn't serve breakfast there. However, the view over the marina and the anchorage was very pretty. Our next stop was Customs, where a friendly man cleared us in for $30 and applied for our cruising permit. It was $185 dollars for the permit and $65 for his service as agent but it ensured we were legitimate in Panama, without going through the rest of the 'online' process. Then we made a visit to Karla's Fruit, which we had passed on the way, where we bought a banana smoothie and a ham and cheese toastie, for $5.
We decided that we would have to bite the bullet and have new batteries fitted and that it would be sensible to replace them with lithium, if possible, so we went to the chandlery to find out whether they offered this service. Annabelle, from Seville, spoke very good English and told us that her husband, Alex was a Vectron approved supplier and installer and that we could speak to him at 5.30pm, when he would return from fitting lithium in a catamaran on the dock. Annabell hadn't heard of arbor seal and suggested using sikaflex instead.
From there, we took the dinghy round to the next bay, where Google Maps showed a small supermarket. We tied to the dock and took a short walk through the village until we came across the store. We passed several people but nobody acknowledged us. We bought provisions, including more bug spray, were ignored by the woman on the checkout and returned to the dinghy. Back on board, it was time to catch up on jobs. Pete filled the diesel, while I removed everything we had stored in the forward heads during our passage and repacked everything into the forward cabin. We would need to use the forward heads now we were at anchor, as that's where the holding tank is. Next job was to syphon out the old antifreeze and replace it with new, as Pete thought this could be causing our engine overheat problems, as he had topped it up with water when we ran out of antifreeze. I had the job of mopping out the bilges. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it. Then we had dolphins at the back of the boat but they were just passing through. After the jobs, we had a swim and a shower, before returning to the marina, with measurements of our battery spaces. The chandlery didn't have pink antifreeze, only blue, which isn't right for our engine. Pete spoke with Alex about the batteries and Alex said he would come out to the boat tomorrow to look at our setup and provide options and prices. He laughed when we said we only had 320 amps but we said we're a very simple boat, with no TV or mod cons.
We had dinner at the Black Pearl. We had hoped that Graeme and Aye would join us, as they had arrived from Portobello but in the end, they were too tired. The ribeye steak was $12 but it wasn't up to the standard we had become accustomed to in Colombia. We had a bad night on board. It was ridiculously hot and we kept hearing scraping noises. Pete said it was the anchor chain but when I looked out, we were stern on to the reef. We switched the instruments on and our depth was showing as 4.3 metres and Pete could turn the rudder so the noise probably was the chain but we weren't entirely comfortable.
We slept late again on Wednesday and I felt under the weather when I woke up. We had breakfast at Karla's again, checked out Charlie's mini-market, which was quite well stocked and bought sikaflex from the chandlery. Alex was there and asked to go to our boat right away, so Pete took him in the dinghy and left me sitting on the pavement, as the dinghy is only big enough for two. When I realised he wasn't coming back for me, I went upstairs for a cappuccino and used the wifi. When Pete returned, he said Alex loved our boat and appreciated that we were true sailors, with no more gadgets than we needed. He would prepare the options and quotes as soon as possible and could also arrange for someone to extend the a-frame to mount the extra solar panel we have. Pete had a beer and then we picked up beef empanadas from Karla's to take back for lunch. Back on board, we moved anchorage, as we didn't want a repeat of last night. A large yacht had departed from close to the shore of the mainland, so we went over there to look and managed to find a place to drop with 8m under the keel. We held with 40m of chain out, more than we had used for a long time. We had planned to change the gib for the genoa but there was too much breeze to safely do so. Pete used the sikaflex to seal the window, on the outside and made a good job of it. Then we returned to the Black Pearl for tea, with Pete having cerviche and me having thai green chicken curry, both of which were an improvement on the steak. We had a better night on board, with a cooling breeze through the cabin, although the noise from the monkeys and dogs was much louder here. At 0130 hours it rained and the window didn't leak.
We were up late again on Thursday. We went to the Black Pearl for a cup of tea and to use the wifi and to Karla's Fruit for breakfast. The fresh fruit bowl was lovely and refreshing. With having the new batteries fitted and because we were loving Panama, we were toying with the idea of staying in the country for the rest of the season and lifting the boat here, instead of heading north to Guatemala, via Providencia and Grand Cayman. I believed we could stay for 90 days but we went to see the lady in immigration to confirm that. We provisioned at Charlie's and met Polish, a tall, young, skinny, blond guy, on the dock, who said he was baking bread in the afternoon and would bring some to the boat. Back on board, I set to dusting, vacuuming and cleaning the heads and galley, while Pete went over the side to scrub the boat bottom and the log wheel. Then we went for a drink and to buy a supply of beer from the Terpel shop at the gas station. The quote arrived from Annabelle, so we went down to the shop to discuss it and pay a 50% deposit, so they could order any parts that they didn't have in stock. Annabelle and Alex were sailing to San Blas on Saturday for a holiday and we were heading there tomorrow, so we agreed not to talk boat jobs if we bumped into them. We returned to the Black Pearl and ordered dinner, beef bourginan for me (it came with pasta) and Pete had octopus and we both agreed it was the best food we had eaten there. While we were waiting, we successfully booked our US visa interviews, in London, for the 11th July; one more job off the list. Back on board, we lifted the dinghy and engine and completed what preparations we could to set sail the next morning. The breeze had gone and it was a sticky night on board but we did sleep.