Prepping for the crossing, etc.
21 November 2017 | Shelter Bay Marina, near Colon, Panama
Bill/Partly cloudy
It's now Monday morning and we've been at it since just after 0800. I pulled out our special water hose)white special vinyl that leaves no taste in the water) and hooked it up to the dock then while Tracy was pulling up the floor boards and opening the vents on the top of all of our water tanks, I connected our filtering system to the hose(one charcoal filter and one paper sediment filter) to the end of the hose so we should get even better water. Our tanks were half full again after filling them in Curacao a month ago so after a good bit of waiting(low pressure), our tanks are full again and ready for out next voyage.
I then took the hose and hooked up what we call "ear muffs" which are meant to have a hose hooked to it and then the "muffs" placed on either side of the water intakes for the outboard. Tracy helped me get the hose so it would be long enough as we're 45 feet(hose of just 50 feet) and there is a space between the boat and hose bib. The Tohatsu started up on the first pull but all the throttle joints and linkages needed a healthy application of WD40. Ran it for quite a while getting all the salt water flushed from the system. Always good to do it when you have lots of fresh water.
Then off to the yards workroom where they have a wire grinding wheel and with it's help, I got most of the rust off our prop shaft puller and all it's parts. Now to spray it was a rust inhibitor so it will be clean when we need it next. This afternoon, back to the market for last minute food for the crossing.
We heard from our agent this morning and he will be by tomorrow some time to pick up our papers for finalization of what needs processing for the canal transit. Still don't know when we will be setting off but it should be sometime this week.
It's now Tuesday afternoon and we have been at it since 0800, cleaning, fixing, cooking, washing and clearing space on berths so our crew will have some where to sleep. I started out in the cockpit straightening out the mess we normally have out there. While the last passage was only 6 days, we had plenty of time to mess up the cockpit. Wrappers, small chunks of line, bungie cords(both good and broken ones) and just general mess. We've been so busy with other projects there just wasn't time. I stowed chemicals in our outside locker that we used when we did the bottom, line in the forward hold and buckets of just trash. The DuoGen has started making some squeaking noise so I dismantled the wind blade section and regressed it and now it's quiet. The deck got a thorough washing and scrubbing and we pulled the spinnaker sail out from the forward head(stow things where ever there is room) and put it right in front of the mast and covered with a tarp to keep the rains out(good luck with that). Tracy was cooking down below in the galley and handed me a bag of marinated chicken breasts to barbecue for the line handlers that will be coming on board. She was cooking hamburger down below in the galley so that job is done. She has quite the menu for our "crew" --Caesar chicken wrap served on a flour tortlla along with soft drinks. Breakfast of eggs with bell peppers, onions and cheese served on a toasted bun. Lunch of Toasted cheese and tomato with chicken slices again served on a roll. Boy, are these people going to be eating well.
The cockpit is now clean and most of the cooking is done so we are waiting for our agent to come by and take our paperwork and tell us when we will be going through. Till then, it's a waiting game.
For those of you that have been following our posts, you might remember the problems we've had with our Highfield dinghy(Puff). Highfield has been very responsive to our problem(hypalon peeling off the aluminum hull at the bow due to peeling paint and paint peeling all over the hull)and are trying to get a repair man here before we leave but if it's tomorrow, I see little chance of that. When we bought Puff, we had her "tricked" out with some special add ons. A fiberglass step glued to the top of the hypalon tube at the bow so we can get on and off when we come back to Zephyr and we had a steel lid for a small section of the forward interior hull so when we stepped into Puff, it was a flat surface and not the "V" of a traditional hull. We also had a magnificent set of "chaps" made that cover the topside of the tubes. Highfield has offered us a replacement for ours but we have no idea how to get what we had done to our current dinghy done to the new one. Highfield is working on that. A friend of ours that has a Highfield got theirs replaced for free when they were in Curacao. He had a problem with his hypalon also peeling but far worse than ours. ours doesn't leak leak so we aren't that concerned at least at this point. From what I've heard, they have no vendors in Mexico so other than taking it clear up the San Diego, not sure what the future holds for poor Puff. Late this afternoon, a rep from the company that fixes Highfield dinghies showed up and took a look at poor Puff. The original person that was supposed to comes father died so he sent a different person from the company. He looked at her and took some pictures and agreed that the problem was the paint and how badly it had held up. He was going to report back to the main man and now we will see what happens.
It's now 2100 and after waiting around all day, doing this job and that job as we waited for our agent to show up. He never came so now we are in limbo as to what is happening as far as when our crossing is going to happen. We'd thought it would be tomorrow but since we've heard nothing, we have no clue. It's all a waiting game as of now. I suppose he could show up tomorrow and tell us that we can go now but since he still has a bunch of paperwork to do, I'm guessing that's not going to happen. Time will tell. We sat at the restaurant this evening drowning our sorrows of not going in beer. I even drank three and it's one of the first beers I've had in a long time and this time, it called for three. We even ordered some of the worst nachos we've ever had. We even added chicken to it and it was still horrible. The only thing hot or even warm was the refried beans and it was buried at the bottom of the pile of chips. The jalapeƱos were stone cold as was the cheese and chicken. When our wait person brought it, we tried a bite and once we found it cold, we sent it back to try and have it heated. Instead, they made a new one exactly the same way. Cold cheese and jalapeƱos with warm buried refried beans. We didn't have the heart to send the second plate back so we just ate it in peace while swigging beers by the bottle. Not about to order that again. We had a "Phillie Cheesesteak" sandwich there at lunch as we've been working so hard and we didn't want to make a mess of the galley again(I'd just done the dishes from all the cooking Tracy had done all morning). Now we both love Phillie Cheesesteak sandwiches with all the cheese and onions and all the other spices envolved in the sandwich. This one was a chunk of chopped meat, some onions if you looked carefully and some melted cheese on and very nice roll. The entire sandwich was about 6 inches long and the best part was the roll. While the meal(sandwich, fries and a small salad)was just $9.99, it wasn't that bad a value(just a small sandwich).