Fai Tira Blog Thursday 25th February

Fai Tira Isla Chepillo  08:56.60N 79:07.2W

Well we have fixed it.  What a job it was, the foil (this is the bit that the foresail raps around) was in a worse condition than we first thought.  Nearly all of the joints were so warn that they needed re-engineering.  We set about the task with the help of David from Enchantress and Bill from Camomile.  The first task was to take down the stay foil and strip off all the usable parts.  We decided that we are going to hank on the stay sail when required; the modifications to enable this cost $400!!!. 

We then set about the task of lowing the forestay, John was up the mast whilst David, Bill and myself were on deck man handling 56 feet of wobbly metal.  Once on deck John and I dismantled it and came up with a plan to get it back into a usable state.

Three days of working from dawn till dusk saw us in a position to re-erect repaired forestay.  The team was recalled with one additional member, Hans from Natibou, and we all set about the task.  After about two hours we had our rig back together and in a workable condition. 

It was then time to celebrate; Phyllis had arranged another outing into the old town so we met her and the crew from Mercury Rising.  We found a Restaurant / Bar  and ate only to find out that later they were having a pub quiz in English (American) so after a meal we went for a walk around and came back to find the bar packed with Americans and British expats.  We decided on a team name of the “Moby Dicks” and joined in.  The only problem was that the Rum and Cokes were BOGOF (buy one get one free) so some of us indulged a little to much.  It was only John who was sensible sticking to a couple of G&T’s.  We didn’t do too well with the answers coming last out of 12 teams, but our excuse was that the questions had an American slant to them, the exception being  the Geography question naming as many African countries as we could.  We got 6!!!!!!!  We returned to the boat at midnight to find out that the wind had changed and a massive swell had started. Apparently we had missed loads of boats dragging anchors and bumping into each other.  Fai Tira had been OK and watched over by Enchantress and Scott Free, thanks guys.

Yesterday saw us doing what we really hate.  SHOPPING.  We set off to a huge cash and carry with a borrowed store card.  After a mammoth session we eventually found our way back to Fai Tira with the help of a taxi that only just made it due to the fact we had grossly overloaded the poor old Toyota.

Today saw John help out Hans with his engine before we set off for the Isla Chepillo 25 miles from Panama City.  We arrived in a thunderstorm but we were so pleased to get away from La Playita our last anchorage.   

TTFN Pete and John