We had a glorious time in the San Blas,
plenty of lobster, champagne & white wine, but it was great to hit civilisation
again and buy a loaf of bread. Portobello didn’t look the nicest but it did
have a bus service every half hour so we kept it in mind and continued on to
Shelter Bay Marina.
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| French picnic on the beach in Coco Banderos Cays, San Blas |
Shelter Bay was like a formula 1 pit stop,
lots of work done, spares delivered, new & old friends met, and we were on
our way again much to the surprise of the other cruisers. It seems most people
in the marina had been there more in the months rather than days, they couldn’t
believe the work we got done and were out again, including lifting the boat out
of the water, all within a 7 day window.
No stainless work could be done in Shelter
Bay but they advised it could be done around Portobello. We dropped anchor in
Portobello putting all of our 60m of chain out only to have the motor melt
down, it seems it couldn’t handle the rusty chain through the gipsy! More chain
now on order, along with a new motor! Within 2 days, before we could really get
a handle on the what and where’s of Portobello it started raining, and rain,
and rain…..it didn’t stop for over 2 whole weeks! At the start it was quite a
novelty, but by the end the moisture was getting everywhere. Marion spent her
time wiping down a new section of the boat to get the mould off, while I
rested.
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| Portobello Bay |
Yep, rested! It appears that the formula 1
pit stop, and trying to pull the anchor in by hand, took its toll and my blood
pressure was creeping up. After a few visits to specialists in Panama City, a 6
hour round trip by various buses, I was given a couple of boxes of pills and
the all clear.
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| Portobello bus services |
So, here we were well into the second week
of dark, gloomy, wet weather. All the timber was starting to absorb the
moisture making doors and floorboards stick. It was getting quite depressing,
not to mention we could not get on with getting the stainless work done. To
break the monotony of it all we would go shopping, a 4 hour round trip if we
went into Colon, or a 3 hour round trip to Sabanitas at the highway junction (a
bit of a rough place where we were told to make sure were left before 5pm).
The rains abated, and we were offered
‘linehandler’ positions on an Amel going through the canal. We took the offer
up to get off Zenna for a bit of a holiday, and see how it all works going
through the canal. It was a great trip aboard Luna Blu, and our hosts Paul and
Lillian were fantastic. We returned to Zenna after one night away however, and
back to the grind.
The rains stopped, the sun shone, and the
work started. Things were looking up, so much so Marion decided to get her hair
done, in Sabanitas!. Whilst working away on the stainless I saw our dinghy
coming back to the boat, but not sure who was in it. When it got close I saw it
was Marion, but she was not saying much, and definitely not happy. It appears
her Spanish was not that good, and the hairdresser (hmmm,) was use to the
locals only, not fine Scottish hair! Apparently, this was the result of the
second go, after the hairdresser slapped on liquid (hair colour) into Marion’s
hair turning it black transforming her into an eastern European! Okay, now its
not funny…..i have never seen Marion in this mood before. Out came the internet
and the list compiled of how to rectify the problem. Flying to Miami and
contacting the British Embassy made it onto this list! Stop laughing, it really
wasn’t funny! A couple of days went by, and, well, you know, it can grow on
you!
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| Marion's local hair do! |
More parts arriving soon…….and back to
Shelter Bay, but not before a deal was struck with another cruiser. He could
have my anchor chain, but he had to give me my anchor back. This meant I didn’t
have to pull in the barnacle encrusted chain to lift the anchor, Ray from SY
Elsa gave me back my anchor and off we went.
More work back and spares back on at
Shelter Bay marina. Christmas was taken in with a great breky on the boat
followed by the spit pig stuffed with a couple of turkeys, then followed by
pool games. The greasy watermelon polo turned into a bit of a scramble.
New
Year saw Ian and Kirsty join us for the celebration, then off to do the canal
transit on the 3rd of Jan.
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| Christmas breky |
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| Ian and Kirsty enjoying a local bus to Portobello? |
A pleasant transit was had, with only the
pilot boat gathering the advisor on the Pacific side coming along side and
pushing one of stainless stanchions, now slightly bent. Pacific
side………..yahooooo! This was it! Now the game was on. We had a brief look at Las
Perlas before seeing our guests off. Contradora was great with warm water,
jumping rays, and plenty of fish but now it was back to provision, and final
spare parts to gather in Playita. Playita was exciting as we could go ashore
where there were plenty of shops, restaurants, and basic civilisation. After
the Caribbean side it was a relief. However, you can’t have the good without
the bad…..pilot boats!!!! Screaming past at all hours, and with the canal
traffic, we were constantly moving to and fro. It got so bad we went back to
Contradora for Marion to do some varnishing while I brushed up on my fishing
skills, go the mighty mite! Three weeks later and back to Playita to collect
our orders, and it seems Marion had found some crew, Matt.
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| Entering the canal |
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| Hello Pacific! |
Now Canadian Matt was a great guy to have
on board, but just before we were to clear out of Panama and head to Galapagos
and beyond we found out Matt’s passport was going to be out of date. So off
Matt went to apply for a renewal. No point us hanging around Playita so…..yep,
back to Contradora to set the boat up for the crossing and get Matt familiar
with it. Our last night ashore saw Matt staying in the pool bar with the locals
and a group of gay guys from Chicago. We didn’t see Matt till the morning, but
he did say he enjoyed himself even if he couldn’t remember what happened. The
scratches over his body provided some indication of interesting scenarios however!!
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| First crew, first catch, Matt |
Back to Playita to pick up Matt’s passport
saw the Captain, Mark, come down with a leg infection requiring several nights
in a hotel to combat the fevers, sweats, and chills with antibiotics. Matt
looked after Zenna and continued preparations for departure though had some bad
news from home resulted in him informing us he could not make the trip to
French Polynesia……back to square one for finding crew!
Now, it had been almost a month with Matt
on the boat so we had to re-provision the basics along with picking up the fresh
and frozen food, with or without crew! We had resigned ourselves that we would
not find anymore crew, particularly as good as Matt, in such a short space of
time but the gods were looking after us and no sooner had Matt left the boat on
the Friday than we were talking to a nice French guy, Florent, as a prospect. A
few discussions and visits to the boat over the weekend, bond monies paid, and
we all thought Florent would be a good fit. So, pick up last of provisions
again, and ……….yep, off to Contradora again!
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| Ceviche on the beach, Contadora |
This is it! We are now waiting on weather,
of which there is none, and then we are off! It was really really hard to get away
from Panama, so many false starts, and we even had to return on our way down
here to pick up Marion’s bicycle padlocked to the dock that we forgot about!
That’s it folks, 6 months in Panama and
plenty of stories to tell. Can’t wait for the Galapagos, and beyond.
