Time2 has now been hauled out at Shelter Bay so that we can have the bottom painted.  The marina facility here is very professional and the haul with the travel lift went very smoothly. The bottom paint we had applied in Florida did not perform very well at all. The barnacle grow was quite something as you can see from the pictures below.  We now have to have the boat sanded down and then repainted.  See pictures below

 

While the boat is out we have taken advantage of of our air-miles and flown up to Florida to pick up spare parts. It is cheaper and quicker to fly to the USA and buy them yourself, than have them shipped to Panama.

 

Our trip to the airport was something else.  The taxi was supposed to arrive at 11am, so that we had enough time to get to the airport by 2pm.  Although it is only about 100kms to the airport, one has to cross the bridge over the Panama canal – which is closed each time a ship passes – so extra time is always needed.  Our taxi was delayed at the bridge on the way to us and then we were delayed on the way back. After waiting at the bridge for some time, our taxi was diverted to the ferry which also had to wait for passing ships.. it took 90 minutes to travel 15kms!  . We were starting to panic, that we would not make it to the airport on time. However, our driver (A perfect double for Queen Latifah) rose to the challenge and drove like a maniac to Panama city. What a trip, the Panamanian drivers are very aggressive and squeeze into the tiniest gaps, how we did not crash is a miracle!  But Queen Latifah was loving it, she sang along to her Michael Jackson tapes, dancing in her seat, eating sweets and hooting away as we zoomed along.  We made it!