Outward Bound at last

Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 30 Apr 2008 12:44
Outward Bound at last
 
29th April 2008
 
Dear All in cyber space,
 
After a few hectic days which included , picking up the Hawse pipe and fitting it under the anchor winch , testing the new hydraulic auto pilot , big shop to fill the boat with two months supply of food , tins of Spam being high on the list but not with the rest of the crew, taking the Whitlock auto pilot to the Ray marine agent who also happens to be the whitlock agent , striped the motor and found that the epicyclical gearbox had cogs that were seized , this was all freed up and reassembled , we were given it back at 10 o/c Tuesday , they could not fix the motor side as Whitlock don't send out spares to there agents just new units six weeks later ! our taxi driver who we have used to gather all our spares and is a wealth of information on spares and  where to get them , he is  well worth the ten bucks an hr as he would interpret into Spanish and vice versa the technical info both sides wished to communicate , anyway we mentioned the Whitlock motor and e took us back to the alternator man, he said he would look at it and would get back to us at two o/c we rang at two and he said that it was possible to repair , three hr later it was delivered the dock by our taxi driver , a quick test across some car batteries showed it to be working and it was promptly taken back to the boat for further tests which at the moment look positive .
 
 We then started to get the boat ready to go tomorrow , usual thing lines and ropes etc ... 
 Later on that evening we had a pleasant suprise  , on our daily SSB calling time to Rhythm 1900 hrs we made contacted we have not been in communication since Thursday last week as the atmospherics have been bad but tonight we made contact at 800 nm , Rhythm is 170 nm short of the Galapagos with light winds and making 80 nm per day , I hope we make more than that .
 
 The fishing nuts on Zephyr , Lyn and Rob have been out on the town , they have amassed a large array of colourful lures stronger lines , teasers and all manner of gadgets , will we have fish by the Las Perlas ! we live in hope , if they don't catch anything by the Galapagos the Mickey take on arrival and telling the Rhythm crew will be unbearable as they only seem to put there line over the side and the fish are queuing up to get on it !
According to Rob we are heading into prime marlin country , if we hook one of those he may tow us to the Galapagos ..
 
Since our visit to the Smithsonian Institute we have been keeping an eye on the two toed sloth who has been perched up a tree by the entrance , we pass this point every day tooing and frowning with gear for the boat , anyway on our way back today he had moved a few yards out of the institute , that's taken since Saturday , the rain came down , and low and
behold it was gone !   
 
As we are about to leave Panama the rainy season is approaching, it rains about four days out of five , that would make it very humid with the heat reaching 32 Dec C in the shade , and not a lot of wind !
 
 
The Crew Panama City