Shelterbay Marina, Colon

Kahia
Paul and Catherine Davis
Thu 8 Mar 2012 16:39

09:22.03N 79:57.06W

We had a fast sail to the Panama Canal Breakwaters and were soon allowed by Christobal Signal Station to enter the shipping lanes. No sooner inside the breakwater and after the comment that this will be the largest shipping port we will see our engine stopped.

Having to act fast Paul let out the staysail and under it we sailed at 4.5 knots to the anchored ships and requested permission to anchor and sort out the problem... not a good start to our Transit preparation, as this is when we solely rely on the engine for at least 12 hours running time.

Changing the fuel filter and bleeding the engine all worked again after an hour. The bay was choppy and we tentatively up anchored to motor between the ships, praying the engine would keep going. We motored successfully into Shelterbay Marina and spend the next days carrying out major engine and generator maintenance alongside the paperwork preparations for the Transit and several trips to Rey Supermarket for major stock up.

Here we caught up with Wolfgang and Corinna (Moin), who have had major problems with their agent Matchship, they had to use a new agent to help them get through the Canal.

We did everything ourselves and found the procedure straightforward and efficient.

We used the Marina bus shuttle into Colon and then taxis to get around. This is not a town for tourists to walk around...