October 2009
Shelter Bay Marina
Colon, Panama
We left Independence at 1:00 pm on
October 3, arrived at the hotel at the Rome airport and
were checked in by 2:00. Because the Hilton provided
complimentary shuttle bus service into Rome proper, we
opted to hop on and do a quick (hah!) walking tour past
the highlights. We’re sure glad we did – the bus let us
off in the old district a 10-minute walk from the
Coliseum, and in just under five hours we managed the
Forum, the Vittorio Emmanuel Palace, Mussolini’s Palace,
the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and pasta at a local
sidewalk café. Next time we’ll have to come in a few
days early, or leave a few days later, to take advantage
of seeing the insides of all of these wonders!
After flying from Rome to Madrid,
to Guatemala City, to Panama City, and overnighting at
our favorite little Hotel Milan in the City, we took the
early morning puddle jumper on October 5 to get back to
Bocas and Emma Jo. We were delighted to be met at the
airport by Brian, our boat-sitter, cat-uncle, and chef
extraordinaire. He helped us catch the marina lancha,
and joined us for coffee and a de-brief. We sincerely
don’t know how we could manage to spend so much time
away from Emma Jo without him. It’s great not only to
leave the boat with someone who knows enough to call in
help when systems fail, but who also enjoys and spoils
the cats rotten. The girls were upset to see him
leave!
We spent the first few days going
through every locker and cupboard below to sort out our
things, determining which could be laundered or aired
and which could be given away. Our rule has become “if
it’s not used within two years, it’s not useful.” The
ladies at Bocas Marina had first crack at the bags –
then they were given to a local charity.
I took the bus to David for a
couple of days to get the requisite annual medical
checkups due a woman of my age…and given the current
political climate in the US, was grateful to be in
Panama. All labs, plus a visit to the Gynecologist,
Radiologist for mammogram and ultrasound, General
Practitioner for checkup, then ultrasound for thyroid
and consultation with the Radiologist and an
Endocrinologist – all done in less than 6 hours, all
results in, prescriptions written and filled, grand
total: $300. I can only imagine what it would have
cost back home, and the $300 wouldn’t even have covered
my deductible! I also got the chance to ride out to
Caldera and look at the progress on our house –
foundations are almost ready to pour, corner columns are
up, and the lot is leveled. If all goes well, we should
be able to have Christmas there next year! A clean bill
of health and a pleasant bus ride back found Ole up to
his armpits in the forward cabin.
This boat was built in 1986, and
the wall coverings of choice for a semi-luxury cruiser
like this was textured vinyl – after 23 years, the last
five of which have been in the tropics with the
portholes open and occasional sea-spray, the vinyl had
begun to peel away at the seams, allowing for the growth
(and smell) of mildew to permeate the forward living
spaces. We did a lot of research about alternatives –
and found online what we hope will be a great solution:
textured, paintable fiberglass. The product goes up
like dry-hung wallpaper, and can be painted 10-12 times
before it loses its texture. It’s mold and
mildew-resistant, and the primer and adhesive contain
mildew-killing agents. It comes in one-meter-wide rolls
of 50 meters length, so we ordered an entire roll,
planning to do all of the vinyl surfaces over time. Ole
had stripped and masked the forward cabin, and I got
back in time to help him prime the surface and hang the
product. It’s a small space, relatively – but it’s a
boat. Given the complex curves of the hullside, our
relative inexperience at wallpaper hanging, and limited
selection of tools, it took just about a day and a half
to get it up. We let it dry for a day and a half, then
ventured into the hardware store in Bocas and found, to
our amazement, custom color mixing of Glidden acrylic
latex and rollers and edging tools to make the paint go
up in less than four hours. We picked a color from
memory that we hoped would go with the yellow, beige and
cream swirl pattern of the overhead vinyl – and got an
almost perfect color match. The shelf and trim were put
back up (again, damn those complex curves) along with
all of the hardware – and it looks like a new boat!
(Smells much better, too.) The next space to tackle
will be the master head – small space, small pieces to
hang, but more fussy cutouts for the portholes, shelving
and shower. We’ll tackle the master stateroom last, as
it’s not in very bad shape. If you’d like more
information, drop us an email at Pedersens at emmajo dot
net and we’ll forward our contacts to you.
Another great surprise on our
return was the addition of a canvas and upholstery
business right at the marina. We were able to take our
pilothouse cushions and the ten yards of fabric we had
purchased last year over to the seamstress and have all
of the cushions redone within a week for less than
$200. What a country.
While I painted the forward cabin,
Ole kept busy installing new starting batteries for the
engines, and fixing the motor on our pilothouse
CruiseAir conditioning unit. What a project – Ole’s
motto being “somebody had to put this together;
therefore somebody HAS to be able to take it apart!”
Like the boat, the a/c unit is at least 23 years old.
To get at the motor, he had to go through the fan,
grinding out an opening in two opposing fan blades to be
able to get the allyn wrench down to the motor housing.
That project done, he installed a third water pump such
that for a few hours, we actually had three fully
functional air conditioning units!
With all projects done, we figured
we’d have a couple of days of local cruising and
anchoring overnight to test all systems and make sure we
were good to go for our 140-mile passage to Colon and
Shelter Bay for haul out later this month. But Friday,
October 16 was a rainy one so we opted to shorten the
shakedown and spend a last Friday night at the Calypso
Cantina to listen to music and say goodbye to our
friends and acquaintances at the Marina. Bless Dyllan
and Darian – they persuaded Patrick and his friend,
Kevin, Andy the Drummer, and a local bassist to let me
sit in for a few – gave my last official performance of
gin-fueled blues singing to thunderous applause (these
people are easily amused).
Saturday morning, October 17, we
cruised over to Starfish Beach and found everything in
order – including the fact we had the place to ourselves
for the first time ever. The weather was overcast, and
with the breeze, almost cool! We sat up on the sundeck
for dinner, and enjoyed the quiet time out.
Sunday we cruised about two hours
down to Isla Solarte to pay our last visit to Brian,
thanking him again for his help, and touring the great
digs he’s secured for himself while he’s between cooking
jobs. He’s refinishing some wood on a 38-ft sailboat
owned by the owner of an honest-to-goodness villa on top
of a hill, with a sweeping view of sunrises and sunsets,
walking path, private marina, and covered veranda. And
bless his heart; he’s got a little apartment in the
villa complete with a six-burner gas stove for cooking.
It was so great to see that he’s taking care of himself
well – and was so delighted to share his good fortune
with us.
We had planned to leave Monday
morning, October 19, but although the weather forecast
was for calm wind and seas, there was an ugly looking
cell of thundershowers right over Bocas del Toro. We
postponed our departure until Tuesday morning, October
20. We have had a wonderful time here in Bocas del
Toro, meeting some wonderful and eccentric people,
feeling very safe and secure, and enjoying some fine
cruising. We will miss this place.
October 20 Crossing to Colon
What fabulous weather- another
“silver box” crossing! We fueled up, paid up, and left
Bocas at 1100, planning to arrive in Colon by daylight.
Given the following current of 2.5 knots, mirror calm
swells with light and variable winds of less than 10
knots, even the cats had a good time – Maggie sacked out
on the couch for the entire 15 hours, and Barclay found
a spot on our bed. We made great time, arriving in
radio range of the Cristobal Signal Station by about
0300. The Signal Station controls all vessels in the
Canal Zone, and you can barely visit the head without
radioing ahead for their permission. We made ourselves
known as we glided past about 15 ships waiting their
turn, and were directed right into the approach channel
with a 90-minute window between ships. As we made the
turn, the red and green lights lined up like airport
runway lights – and we could see the Gatun Locks rising
uphill. It was quite a stunning sight, in spite of our
weariness and lack of sleep. We had the anchor dropped
in about 35 feet, shot back our mandatory “anchor dram”
of iced Stoli, and crashed.
October 21
The Flats, Anchorage “F” in Puerto Cristobal, Colon
After a brief 4-hour nap, we awoke
to the parade of ships coming and going through Gatun
Locks, and definitely had a “look where we are!”
moment. The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) Admeasurer
came aboard about 2:00 pm to gather information for our
eventual Canal transit some time in the third week of
November. Our 49’8” vessel admeasured to 51 feet for
Canal transit purposes (and an additional $250 transit
fee). Ole spent the day puttering, finding that the
generator starter battery was boiling over, the
alternator wasn’t putting out what it should, and the
tachometer for the port engine crapped out on us. I
spent the day reading, fetching and helping as needed.
Had a much-needed martini at the usual cocktail hour,
threw together a teriyaki salmon dinner, and tried to
watch a movie but the 5-6 hours of sleep we had in the
last 36 hours took its toll – both of us conked out
before 9:00.
October 22
The Flats, Anchorage “F” in Puerto Cristobal, Colon
While Ole was up at 0530 (doing
what, I don’t rightly know), I slept until 0645, and as
I was enjoying the first cup of coffee, wiping the sleep
from my eyes, Ole shouted, “look at who’s coming down
the channel!” and lo and behold, there was RCCL’s
Serenade of the Seas, with Captain Stig Nielsen
aboard. Stig and his wife live aboard a renovated
Swedish rescue boat in Bodo, and when we’ve been in
Norway we’ve always missed them. Ole hailed on the
radio and had a nice chat with Stig – and as Serenade
glided past we were treated to a three-blast salute
(thank goodness he repaired the horn yesterday so we
could salute back!)
Today was more puttering, with Ole
calling ahead to Arturo at Marine Warehouse in Panama
City to order a new battery for the generator. My day
was spent doing laundry, puttering on the website
update, and generally enjoying the sights out the
window. Note, though, to mariners – the pilot boats
coming and going from the ships throw up more of a wake
than the ships themselves!
October 22
Shelter Bay Marina, Colon
At 10:00 we lifted the anchor and
motored across the approach lanes of the Canal over to
Shelter Bay Marina, which is just inside the western
breakwater. At first glance, we like it. The
facility is clean, in good repair, and fairly civilized,
with daily trips to provision in Colon, just over an
hour away by road. Our haulout is scheduled here
for Monday, so we had a preliminary meeting with the
yard manager, Dave, to go over expectations and
procedures. We've contracted the same agent that
Royal Caribbean uses for its ships, and Reuben visited
us this afternoon to help us with permits, visas, and
anything else we needed. We expect him back
tomorrow with passports and boat documents.
On Saturday, we opted to take a
walk through the property - which is located on the
grounds of what used to be Fort Sherman, the US Army's
jungle warfare training center. The buildings look
as if they had just been emptied and the keys turned
over - with roads, landscaping and everything almost
still intact. The walk was productive in terms of
wildlife sightings - we watched cappucin monkeys larking
around the trees about 50 yards away - walked under
sleeping (thank God) howler monkeys, saw a coatamundi
scurrying into the brush - and saw numerous blue
morpheus butterflies - and DIDN't see the sloth that
friends just emerging from a path saw on the ground only
moments before. Maybe next time. The chance
to just get out and walk was wonderful, a nice break
from boat concerns.
Last week I received some sad news
from home, regarding my Uncle Bob, that may require a
trip to Bremerton to say hello and pay respects.
It looks like I can get a fairly reasonable airport
connection from right here at the marina, go home for a
short visit, and relieve Dale and Linda Bixler of the
responsibility of carrying our mail back to us next
month.
Oct 26-31
On the Hard, Shelter Bay Marina
With the advice we were given from
cruisers who have had experience hauling out here in
Shelter Bay, we approached the haulout with a firm game
plan – in on Monday the 26th, out on Friday
the 30th. We came prepared with our own
paint, supplies, drop cloths, rollers, masking tape,
spare parts, sandpaper and what-all, needing virtually
nothing from the yard. We asked if help was available
for hire, thinking if I was going to take a trip to
Seattle for the family, Ole would be faced with a
mountain of a boat to scrape, sand and paint. We were
assured help is available for hire, just not very
available, as they are the same guys that operate the
travelift and pressure washer.
We left the slip at 9:00 am, and
were up on the blocks by 10:30 on Monday, as planned.
Boy, were we overdue for bottom paint! The pressure
washer plus the monthly cleaning we’ve had done since we
arrived in Panama pretty much took off all that was
necessary, leaving just a few patches of stubborn
barnacles to hand-sand or grind off with the machine.
The running gear looked fair to good, requiring a couple
of days of serious machine grinding to tame the
calcium. The yard guys were not available to help on
Monday, so while Ole did the majority of the grinding
work, I moved us and the cats into the hotel rooms above
the marina offices. Note – while there is nothing in
the literature that forbids pets from living in the
hotel, they weren’t too happy. However I’m a believer
in “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it comes to
animals…begging forgiveness is easier than getting
permission.
Tuesday opened with rain squalls,
so the yard guys were not available. We needed a couple
of things (zincs) from Colon, so I was able to catch a
ride in with one of the guys here, get escorted round to
the grocery, hardware, marine, and battery stores and
pick up what we needed. We decided it was best for me
to go on up home to Bremerton and be with the family,
which was in retrospect the only decision to have been
made.
Tuesday night, we realized that if
we had relied on the yard’s help to prep and paint the
boat, we would have been out two days with none.
Luckily, the guy I caught a ride in with had been using
independent help on the two boats he had here, and
wasn’t using them Wednesday or Thursday, so for the
exorbitant rate of $40 A DAY plus $10 per guy per day to
the yard, Ole hired them to scrape and paint, and polish
stainless. He opted to stay out one more day, getting
back into the water smoothly on Saturday, finding no
major surprises.
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