09.22N 70.57W
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Tue 5 Feb 2008 21:57
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Hello all
We are still in Flamenco marina rafted up 3 out on
a 300ft pontoon us being the 2nd out,this is another up market marina with a lot
of restaurants and designer type shops but very well designed apart from the
shortage of electrical sockets.
After yesterdays transit through the canal
which took some 36 hrs in total we are all quite tired because of the effort
both mentally and physically in keeping the raft in tact and central in the
locks plus travelling in convoy and governing our speed with both cross winds
and currents to contend with but all went well and no damage.
Jenny and Alan have gone off this morning to act as
Line Handlers on another boat a Oyster 47 called Moonshadow ,the wife of
the skipper was on our boat as a Line Handler.There duties are to keep the boat
central in the locks ,this means that each boat has 4 LH although only two
are really required when rafted as only one side on the two outside boats
is needed to be covered.The guide lines are passed to the boats by means of
a 4 men called a marenjero who stands on the side of the lock with a coil of
thin rope with a ball of lead about twice the size of a tennis ball attached to
the end,which they twirl around their heads like a lasso and hurl it at the deck
of the boat,it has been known to break hatches and solar panels.Anyway they are
pretty good with their aim although on one of our raft they did manage to tangle
the line in the rigging,fortunately the LH was a tree surgeon who shined up the
mast in double quick time to retrieve the the line and save the day.Once aboard
the guide line is attached by the LH to a thicker warp 125ft long which is
retrieved by the maranjero and put on a mooring cleat, the hard working LH then
has to pull in the line to take up the slack and all of them working
together keep the raft central and when you are moving through a height of 85ft
as the lock goes up it takes some holding if the raft veers one way or
another,so Jenny will be tired when she gets back.
I had an absolutely delightful day today with Ellie
visiting the jungle at Gamboa (a National Park) after registering in at the
marina and organising a mechanic to repair the starter motor on our generator (
a 2hr exercise) nothing ever moves in haste here.We walked through the
jungle along an unmade track and saw white faced monkeys moving through the
canopy ,parakeets and Ellie saw a snake,we also met some people who saw an ant
eater but he was gone by the time we arrived at the spot,mind you at one stage
we were still, listening to the jungle noises, when we both heard a low down
growling quite close, at that point we both looked at one another and
moved silently but quickly on, after that we saw some parrots and a
crocodile so it was an interesting trip.
Quite a lot of our time ashore is spent repairing
or maintaining the boat,sourcing parts and services in this respect Alan is
a treasure as he does most of the difficult jobs and those requiring a squeeze
into tight corners or up the mast,the lights in our cabin are a masterpiece.You
would not believe the amount of projects we undertake,some of which would have
been sorted out in the UK had we had time to sail the boat more but considering
the time scale of 8 months all who worked on her moved mountains to prepare her
( the boat not the wife ) for this voyage.
When we are stationary for more than a week various
bits of equipment go wrong just because they are not being used or like the
generator because salt water has found its way into the electronics,this being
due to not having a seal on the inside of the generator hatch,I don't no how the
boat builders expect to seal it off without one,I have asked the question,the
reply should be interesting.
In addition to the chores onboard there is an
endless amount of shopping mainly food and chandlers (boat bits) the chandlers
here are not like those at home they don't carry the stocks and its difficult to
con verse if you can't speak the lingo its not like the supermarket where
the bits just sit on the shelf .Are you getting the message.Of course everything
stops for sundowners normally sailor strength G&T the normally out to dinner
but that gets a bit boring after a week and expensive, even if the cost is
normally no more than 25USD a head,so we all are looking forward to getting to
sea.Next stop Las Perlas 35nm away 6hrs sailing or motoring.
That's all for now.
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