A LADY TRIP Sailing around the World , avoiding the recession, (presently in Shelter Bay, Panama)
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 27 Jan 2010 14:53
|
06.00hrs Kevin and the Skipper went for a long
walk, first around the old " Fort Sherman " residential buildings, most of which
were now derilict and vandelised, and the we went off up through the national
park, all part of the original " Fort Sherman" complex.
The woods or jungle was just that, JUNGLE, with
monkies and baboons screeching far inside the tree tops, and lots of wild life
evedent everywhere.
What a pity to see the place so run down,
apparently when the Yanks left in 1989 and handed over the Canal and enclosed
district to
the Pamamanian Government, it became a target for
Vandels and Grabbers, who ransacked the place.
Also the Americans paid $6 per hour to the workers,
now they only get $3 per hour from their Government.
Colon, a city across the bay from here is a
dangerous place to go, and totally run down, It use to be a very cosmopolitan
city when the Americans were around.
09.00 we had a light breckfast at the marina
restaurant, never again.
Aileen and Donal went by taxi and got some provisions for the ship, Not too
much, because the skipper wants to clean out
the deep freeze in the next few days.
Skipper went to the Marina office and got all the paperwork out of the way,
before meeting the admeasurement officer on board
to
measure the boat, me had to even measure from the deck to the bottom of the
keel, plus tell him how many litres of fuel we use per day
and how much fuel we had on board. ( to make sure we would not run out of fuel
in the middle of the canal)
12.00 Whaen Donal and Aileen returned, we had to
move " A LADY " to another berth, C30
We
were moored alongside a Super looking Dutch Barge, ( 56 years old) and spends
most of its life sailing around the world.
She had a fine white polished topside, with beautifully varnished cabins and Lee
Boards. The Skip, was impressed.
Grattan tried ,without success to rewire the electrical connections to the
shore, actually some were so burnt , that we decided to use the
generator
and not bother
with the shore power for now.
Later
,we had to go to the office and get our EXIT visa's $15 each. this took
about an hour, ( beaurocrats work the same the world over , Slow )
18.30 hrs We got a taxi to dinner in the "
Dirty old Town " of Colon, mind you it was a posh place and the meal was ok. and
good value.
we
returned to the bunks much later.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
|