(Above: Shop till you drop!)

Shelter Bay, Colon, Panama - Jan 2014 - Preparing to transit the Canal: After a wonderful time at home seeing friends and family in November and December, we flew back to the boat in Panama on January 2, 2014; ready to start new adventures! We had 15 days to prepare for our Canal transit and a ton of things to do.

Shelter Bay Marina is a very nice facility with 5 piers, about 150 boats (half sail and half motor boats); a lift and boat repair yard; a restaurant; pool; showers; a mini-mart and a chandler store. Located at the northwest end of the Canal, across from Colon, it is surrounded by jungle. Our friends Hans and Liv (from Norway) that we met in Bocas del Toro were here and also getting ready to transit the Canal. We started our days with a 3-4 mile walk in the forest and saw tons of birds, hawks, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, butterflies, anteaters, and wild pigs. We also saw leaf cutter ants, which can carry leaves 100 times their weight, and they take them to their underground garden to grow their own food - fungus! One day, Liv and I saw what we thought was a black panther, but someone else authoritatively said it was a tayra. (See Photos) (See Videos of the ants and monkeys)

Mechanical preparation usually consists of fixing things. Tony and Greg, our mechanic, removed the small Panda generator and installed the new Kuboto generator. This turned into a much bigger project than anticipated because the generator they shipped to us had an internal and external regulator, which we did not know about. When we turned it on for the first time, it blew fuses and fried the alternator! So, Tony had some terse email communication with the retailer and they finally agreed to send a new one. But, we weren't going to receive it until after we went through the canal. That was OK, but then Tony would have to install it, along with the new inverter (they shipped the wrong one and were shipping another one). When outside the US, it is always one step forward, two steps back. Tony also located a leak underneath the galley on the outside of the port engine. This is not an easy place to access. But, he managed to get through the galley countertop to get to the leak. (see photos of Tony - the contortionist!)

Provisioning for the two of us for a month - no problem! I've got that down. But, provisioning for 7 people on board for a week PLUS provisioning for 3 months was a challenge. Do you know how much cereal, milk, juice, spaghetti, toilet paper, shampoo, laundry soap, etc. you use in 3 months? Well, Gail being the anal person on board, created an 11-page spreadsheet of all of our food, supplies, office, paper, personal items with estimated quantities used per month. We took the shuttle to Colon (20 minutes) and went to the Super 99 grocery store, which is like a disorganized Walmart. But, they don't stock all the things we are used to, they don't organize grocery stores the way we are used to, and half of the labels are in Spanish! We shopped for about 3 hours, loaded 5 grocery carts, paid >$1,000 and had most of what we needed. For the most part, food is cheaper here than in the US (ie: Carr crackers $1.99), but cleaning supplies and housewares are more expensive (ie: Tide laundry soap $35.00). To get back to the marina, we had to hire 2 taxis because they are so small we couldn't fit everything in. It was a shop till you drop day!!! And, then Gail had to do her magic act, finding places to stow everything! (See Photos)

Our crew arrived on January 15 - 16, 2014: our son, Garrow, friend from Colorado, Paul Simpson, and our friends from Houston, Chris Gross and Bryan and Bonnie Sawyer. We had an excellent agent, Roy Bravo, to assist with all the paperwork and scheduling to go through the Canal. Tony and our crew changed the oil in the engines and large generator. Gail was so happy not to be involved in that oily job! They guys got the tires, wrapped in tyvac, all positioned on the sides, the 150 foot lines all arranged on the deck and the dingy secured in the davits. We enjoyed several last good meals at the marina with our crew and our cruising friends. We were ready! (See Photos)

More later - G&T