09.33.2150 N 79.39.5890 W

We have had about a week here in Portobello now. We have been concentrating hard on getting jobs done and getting the boat ready. We have just had our new spray hood finished – which looks great. We are super grateful to Ray at Casa de Vela for his hard work and producing something so good. 

We have made friends with another boat called Galactic, they have 2 boys one 6 and one 10years old. They are a wonderful family and have given us lots of excuses to get away from the boat and explore. We have had fun at all the forts that are in the bay. Incredible history here as it was one of the main Spanish strongholds for gold back in the day. Apparently there was so much gold here that silver was just left lying around in the streets. As you can imagine this attracted its fair share of pirates – including sir Frances Drake. Some amazing stories! There is also a black Jesus here – which is one of the main reasons the town is famous. 

Galactic needed an extra pair of hands to line handle for their canal transit so I volunteered and left Nick on the boat. We had a fun few days and I really enjoyed going through the canal again with such a lovely family. 

We will head along the coast soon to Shelter bay marina to get our canal date organised.