Quick Update - Tuesday 11 March 2014 Portobello, Panama
Tashi Delek
Mike & Carol Kefford
Tue 11 Mar 2014 12:39
We dropped anchor here at first light yesterday and went to sleep! We had
both been awake for several hours negotiating our way round the vast amounts
of shipping gathering close to the canal entrance; a task made a lot more
difficult because our Automatic Identification System (AIS) had failed a
couple of days ago. No problem around a remote desert island, rather more
of an issue with lots of ships about. We still had radar, binoculars and
two pairs of eyeballs though so we just had to work a bit harder.
We only purchased AIS after we had crossed the Atlantic anyhow and having
big ships around is not actually as tricky as having big ships, small ships
and unlit fishing boats everywhere as was the case going through the Greek
shipping lanes so we have known worse. The AIS failed along with several
other electronic systems when we let our batteries run too low. Once they
were back up to full power most things self-corrected or we re-set them but
the AIS remained a mystery.
Happily, Mike mentioned it to one of our Magellan Net friends who
immediately knew the answer because it had already happened to him. Pressed
a few buttons and now it is all back up and running and we can see on the
screen exactly how many ships there are to get round!
We walked round the town for a couple of hours - more on that later.
Now having breakfast then up anchor for the 20 miles to Shelter Bay Marina
for however long it takes to get ready and get our slot for the transit. We
should have good wifi there which will mean we can put the photographs on
the blog, Skype and make some calls so we are looking forward to that having
been quite remote for a while.