Shelter Bay to Bocas del Toro
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Mon 7 May 2012 22:25
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We stayed longer than we had intended at Shelter Bay Marina.
Two reasons really, one, it gets cheaper per day the longer you stay and
two, we needed some alternator belts and oil filters before heading off on
a long motoring trip to Bocas. For some reason the starboard engine
had eaten through three of the four belts we'd bought in Guatemala, each one
lasting just a few weeks before shredding. The Yanmar agent in Panama carries
very little and Mastry in the USA would not ship into another distributor's
territory. There was nothing for it but to take the marina courtesy bus into
Colon and get dropped off near a recommended engineering supplies
store called Garcias which, apparently, would have just about
anything you needed provided you took a sample of the original with
you. We had one last Yanmar belt and a filter we had recently changed so took
those. The Admiral, meantime hopped off the bus at the
Millennium shopping mall to buy some towels and Damp Rid
(De-humidifier crystals) before taking a taxi back to the Rey Supermarket
to undertake a final stock up.
Garcias is every engineers dream and run with
very strict security to ensure the owner actually stays in business as a
quick peek at the stock room revealed plenty of scope for shrinkage. There is
only one cash desk which is behind protected glass screens - this is Colon after
all! A strict system of dealing with customers had Skip running up and down
the long counter with his sample belt and oil filter whilst around him muscular
mean-looking locals looking as though they were buying parts for their getaway
cars were slumped on the stools in front of the counter waiting for their
turn. Skip did his best to also look hard and mean, but soon gave
up. He subsequently ordered a 150 lb rated torque wrench for
$13 which would be useful on the boat but
could also come in handy outside the shop should the worst
happen whilst waiting for his taxi to the Supermarket.   Two newcomers to the marine world - Aldabra (It's
on Google) and this new fast day charter catamaran. Know which one we
prefer!
We were relieved to get back to Shelter Bay in
the courtesy bus which, as usual, was heaving with other cruisers and their
shopping bags. One 'famous' name amongst the passengers was Laura
Dekker who had just arrived in Shelter Bay in her boat 'Guppy'
having recently completed a solo circumnavigation of the World. Laura
who was controversially denied by the Guinness Book of Records the accolade
of being the youngest person to ever sail round the world is putting all
the fuss and bother behind her and heading to New Zealand to start a new life,
although she is no longer single handed!
 Laura's boat Guppy at Shelter Bay - we never
took Laura's picture but there's no shortage of them on the internet and
her story is an interesting one
Three young men have joined her for some of the trip including
her new 'beau' Bruno who Laura met up with in Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles. One
thing that struck us being in the same marina was that she is extremely mature
for her age (not yet 17) and that in Bruno she has met up with one mean guitar
player. We had a chance to see him play when the 'Shelter
Belters' a resident trio of musicians augmented by any visiting minstrels that
care to join in played in the restaurant one evening. We grabbed a table with
our friends and enjoyed some good music including a rendition of Thick
as a Brick a classic from Jethro Tull in the 70's.
  
The 'Shelter Belters' featuring Bruno from 'Guppy' and a not too bad flautist
from another cruising boat all watched by us old sods
We were delayed a further day at Shelter Bay when we
discovered that it was a Public Holiday in Panama and there was no
service on the fuel dock. This was annoying as we needed to take on
more fuel to get to Bocas. This part of the Caribbean is seldom windy
enough to sail for any distance especially heading west. So we had another day
to enjoy the pool and generally relax having fully prepped the boat the day
before. We enjoyed the company of some new friends we'd made in San Blas who had
arrived in Shelter Bay ready to lift out for the summer whilst they flew home.
They kindly donated some of their overstocks of food to us whish was much
appreciated. They also introduced us to 'Table Cribbage' one evening which
is a different game to the standard Crib we play onboard.
With the Public Holiday over and done with and the Marina
invoice paid up we cast off, having called the fuel dock to inquire if it was
available. It was confirmed over the radio. When we did arrive a yacht had
nipped in front of us so we had to stooge around in a stiff breeze for 30
minutes in tight quarters with a few million squids worth of megayachts docked
behind us to keep Skip's mind focused on maintaining station. When we did
eventually get alongside the fuel dock which is an old tug or maybe that should
be 'tub' called the 'Panama Star' we found that the delivery
nozzle they hand to you looks like an anti-tank missile launcher weighing about
30 lbs excluding the weight of the thick hose attached to it. The crew of
'Panama Star' must take perverse pleasure in seeing poor
yachties stagger around their decks wielding this thing before
then blasting diesel all over their precious craft when the attendant
turns the pump on. As we filter every drop of diesel we take onboard this
makes it worse as we can't get the nozzle into the tank where it should be. At
full output our 40 gals would have taken about the equivalent number
of seconds to take on but as the next boat after us was due to
take on 3000 gals it was hard to complain about the flow rate. Skip was left
ever so gently squeezing the two foot long nozzle looking like
an whimpish version of Rambo. The 'Admiral' was standing by with a
roll of valuable kitchen towel.
Eventually we motored out of Colon Harbour clearing the deck
of spilt diesel as we went whilst trying not to get in the way of incoming
canal-bound shipping. With so many anchored ships showing on AIS on our
navigation screen it looked like the Battle of Hastings with arrows depicting
each commercial ship. With so many 'targets' it's sometimes difficult to
pick up the one at the back of the fleet that has got underway and is heading at
10 knots for the entrance. It didn't help that the entrance itself was a turmoil
of incoming wind driven waves colliding with outgoing current which gave us a
rough but quick exit as we headed to the west and for Bocas. At least the
wind was from a favourable direction but for how long was anybody's
guess.
 
And finally - The 'Admiral' enjoys a final plate of excellent Shelter Bay
Fish ''n' Chips with poor old 'Ajaya' dwarfed by a Lagoon 500 bound
for Australia
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