We are still in
Shelter Bay, and have taken the opportunity of our unexpected
sojurn here to take in the scenery.
Max went up to the top of our mast and took a range of pics of the
incredible mix of ocean, jungle, marina and Rumpelteazer
itself.
We also took a stroll around the now totally derelict accommodation
blocks for the former US Fort Sherman Naval Base here at Shelter
Bay.
We did a second BIG shopping spree in the supermarket near Colon on Friday, and have now bought and stowed away most of our heavy
goods.
All we
need to buy now is the fresh food – 25 days of meat/fish, veg and fruit for
the four of us until we get to the Marquesas – which we will buy when we finally
get to Panama
City.
In the past three days several important things have
happened – parts for our port propeller shaft arrived from the
UK on Thursday, we got lifted out of the
water (again!) on Friday evening and the Panamanian engineer, Anatolio,
worked far into the night putting in the new parts.
While we were in the dock awaiting lift-out on Friday
evening, our dinghy arrived from Panama City. This
had been severely delayed by the rather unpleasant riots and protests which the
construction workers (not health workers as we had said last time - apologies to
them!) have been organising in Panama City and Colon. The arrival of the highly specialised
delivery vehicle caused us much amusement.
You wait for a
bus for hours and hours and …… while we were high and dry and Anatolio still
fixing our propeller shaft, a flat-bed truck turned up carrying the tractor
tyres and long ropes without which we couldn’t enter the Canal. Things were really looking up, and the
tyres and lines are now safely on board
Rumpelteazer.
So then all we needed was a successful
testing of the new propeller shaft parts, and a confirmation that we can indeed
transit the Canal on Sunday. We
did our ‘sea trials’ yesterday morning and everything is fine. Huge relief all round. On our way back to the marina, we also took on
board 500 litres of diesel.
Finally, late
yesterday afternoon, we put even more pressure on the local shipping agent and
got a Canal slot confirmed for Sunday 17th Feb at 1845. We celebrated by watching 'Casino
Royale' (2nd half) in our on-board 'cinema' after a splended dinner of barbecued
pork tenderloin.
It’s now Sunday afternoon, 17th
February. At 5pm we set off for the ‘Flats’ off
Colon where we meet our Canal Adviser and
begin our ‘trip of a lifetime’.
