Nordlys
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Fri 7 Mar 2003 13:36
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NORDLYS'S
ADVENTURES
From: Balboa
7th March 2003
Nordlys's crew now consists of David, Annette and
Christabel who joined us in Colon. for the journey through the canal
itself we had an American yachtie couple and one professional line handler on
board by the name of Victor. Our joint journey through the canal is well
written up on Troubadours web page so rather than duplicate it I will leave
anyone who wants to hear the story to click onto Troubadour rather than Nordlys
under members web pages. It was, looking back on it an enjoyable
experience and would have been so at the time if our Adviser 'Ernesto Cooper'
had not acted in such an arrogant and generally awkward way. By the time
he had turned up nearly an hour late, brought a cockroach on board and caused us
another hours delay so he could get overtime we were finding it hard to like
him. After being lectured on his rights re food and water it was hard to
get enthusiastic even when he made a point of saying how well Troubadour and
Nordlys were handled. He had also been the Adviser on the yacht which transited
in company with Pelican when Stuart and I went as line handlers to gain
experience so we knew what to expect of him.
Otherwise our stay on a mooring off
the Balboa Yacht Club is being spent mostly in stocking the ship. Every day
we get lower in the water. The point being that although food, drink and
dry stores are available in many places nowadays they are of unknown
availability and will without doubt be very much more expensive than they are
here.
On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we and the Troubadour
crew are heading for El Valle a mountain village about a hundred miles from
here. The car is hired, the hotel booked, so watch this space for
the story to unfold. Amongst the proposed adventures are horse
riding and a visit to Noriega's old home.
Pictures will follow when I have learnt to reduce
them to manageable size!
Our best wishes to you all
David, Annette and Christabel
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