As I said in the last entry, rather than rush to get the prop cleaned and get across to the Zapadillas for what would be now only a couple of hours, we decided to stay, take our time and then HAVE A PARTY!!!!

Sheralee and I threw together some salads, buffalo wings, rice, beans and other bits and bobs and we invited everyone on board. We had 13 to dinner that night. It was a lovely evening, with lots of chat, jokes, drinking and more drinking and music and laughter. Beaujolais as usual, accommodated everyone quite comfortably.

The next morning, at 11am, we said our goodbyes (again) and cast off. As Dylan joked that we were star trekking…..never going forward only in reverse, we set sail singing the Star Trek song.!!

Before I close this part of the blog I must say a few words about Casito!! Casito is the marina dog, a lovely little chap who is no trouble at all.

He stays on Dylan & Darrien’s yacht when it rains and they feed him. But he took to turning up at our yacht (and others no doubt) whenever we were cooking. He would stand on the dockside, give one bark and wait.

Well, just as we were preparing to cast off, he came running down the dock to say goodbye, just one bark  for my attention, then after I had said goodbye, he did the same to Roger. I would have loved to have him on board.

 Speaking of having extra passengers, we have a gecko that has stowed away, he’s a little yellow one and so far I haven’t been able to get a photo. I hope he survives the fumigation at the Galapagos.

The passage down to Shelter Bay, Panama Canal, was relatively uneventful, except for Rob feeding the fish (if you know what I mean) but to his credit he held his watch despite his sea sickness.

We had been trawling for fish, we even got one on, but it must have been something huge as it took all the line, went straight down and ate the lure!!! Probably just as well we didn’t get it on board??

24 hours later we were at anchor in Shelter Bay Marina. Not ideal as we had engineers due on board, so Roger managed to persuade the Marina to get us alongside, even if it was in the haul out dock. The engineers arrived the next day, berated the efforts of the 2 previous ‘engineers’ and told us they would be back on Thursday. I sincerely hope so, because we now have NO refrigeration at all.

Sheralee and I victualled yesterday. We also went clothes shopping. Seriously, the clothes are sooooo cheap here (cheaper than Stein Mart Lynne!!) so I am going back to browse.

Roger fixed the water pressure on the boat and he and Rob ticked off quite a few items from Roger’s list. He then went and got us moved to another berth and what a berth.

We are currently tied up behind another yacht!!! Or should I say Mega Yacht, Lady M.

We were told it was Mel Gibson’s and that he was due onboard last night, but, despite staying up, we didn’t see him. So watch this space.

If you look carefully at this next picture of Beaujolais (with the green sail cover), you can see a Mega yacht in the foreground

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