The shaft and associated bearings for our port sail
drive are due to arrive from the UK today or tomorrow, Friday 15th. We hope to be lifted out on Friday to
have them fitted and, with luck, to be away from Shelter Bay on
Saturday or Sunday, subject to getting a new date for our
Panama
Canal
transit.
Shelter
Bay Marina - we've been told the new James Bond film is being shot
around here and Las Perlas as it looks like
Hawaii.
Max trying to re-commision the fuel
pump and fuel tank abandoned after the US Navy left Fort Sherman here at Shelter
Bay.
One of the benefits of our unscheduled delay in
Shelter Bay is that it has allowed much ‘job-doing’ in the
comfort of a marina. One of our
really useful jobs was getting the port heads to work properly (YES Piers - Andy
and Robert have finally replaced the old duck bill valves!!). We also
hoisted the mainsail to check reefing points.
Other
tasks include getting our gas bottle refilled, recommissionilng our SSB radio,
picking up useful cruising information from neighbouring yachts (aka Robert
disappearing for a chat), getting our new dinghy delivered from Panama City,
producing our detailed provisioning list (for 160 person days at sea) and buying
quite a lot of same in the Colon supermarket.
On Monday we had a ‘day off’, and explored the nearby
San Lorenzo Fort, overlooking the Chagres River. The
fort was built on the orders of King Philip 1st of Spain in 1593 and
then destroyed twice by the British -
first by pirate Captain Morgan in 1671 and then by Admiral Vernon in
1740. Not a great place to be a
British tourist.
Our walk back from the Fort took us just over 2 hours
– 4.2 nautical miles, as the crow flies, according to Robert’s GPS, but closer
to 6 miles in reality – the sweltering heat made more bearable by being in
the midst of thick Panamanian jungle.
A sudden cacophony of sound from a troop of ‘howler’ monkeys in the
trees above us frightened the daylights out of Pippa, but Robert, Andy and Max
were very brave. We decided that
the monkeys were more frightened than we were, and hoping we would go away, so
we took some pics and carried on walking.
Yesterday, Wednesday (13th), we were told in the
marina that there were ‘riots’ in Colon and in Panama City.
Apparently health workers are protesting, and one got shot dead, so there
is a lot of angst and unrest in the urban areas. This has seriously disrupted life in the
marina – no transport to Colon or Panama City for shopping or deliveries – eg of our new dinghy,
the gas bottle or the Fed Ex package of parts for our sail drive. 'Manana'
is bad enough already without this happening!
In the meantime, we are safe as houses
here in this enclosed marina, if increasingly eager to get started on
our epic voyage. Maybe tomorrow
the parts will arrive and we can finally leave
Shelter Bay....... next thrilling instalment coming
soon!
