Balboa a plesant suprise
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sun 20 Apr 2008 12:27
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"Balboa a pleasant suprise"
20/04/08
Hi Bloggers,
We are here at last , through the canal which was a
much less of a rollercoaster ride than Ikes one on Rhythm , we are currently
anchored off one of the Isles that are near Panama city, the atmosphere here is
much cleaner and friendly and is a lot like Spain , a far cry from the other
side , I suspect that the problems are a combination of ethnic mix and culture ,
this side defiantly has a very large Spanish influence , with a touch of the US
thrown in , the other side however has a much more Afro Caribbean flavour and
all that that brings with it ,Jamaican style its a throw back to the canal
construction period and is the sad remnants of a once beautiful city, I hope
they do resolve it as it would make the rest of the Panamanian experience much
more palatable I think everyone knows were Colon is but there aren't many
volunteers to go there , it is such a contrast to this side or the other places
we have visited , I am glad we have experienced it ,the wild bus rides , loud
samba music , shanty towns and the smoggy windless days !
Well the Equipment Failure Fairy ( EFF) has
struck again , the main alternator died on the transit through the canal ,
despite fitting extra cooling fans in the engine room ! then yesterday the
generator stopped working and we were down to one power supply from our our 40
amp engine alternator , I think it was our lowest day since the impact in
Martinique at the jetty .
Anyway , we soughted the generator set , the
impeller had split , thank god for the fail safes on the gen set which stop it
if the temperature rises on the engine , whilst I was on gen set repair
duties Rob and Ruth were running back and for refuelling and fresh watering they
shifted some 400 litres of fluid , and that was just the sweat !
In the afternoon we adjourned to the main
alternator problems and have come to the conclusion that its fried , our taxi
man here is a useful pool of local knowledge , so far we have soughted out the
botch up on the clearance papers , the agent at the other end cleared us out to
the Galapagos when I pacifically asked for Balboa , the port Capt here is
very flexible and we have now cleared in to Balboa officially , the other thing
nobody tells you is that the visas here if you arrive by sea are only valid
for a month ! they issue you with a cruising permit on the other hand for two
months , there are no warning stamps in the passport like most countries
to say how long it is valued for so Monday I have to go to immigration to sought
out , get fined and hopefully we can get on with our repairs , the main
one being the auto pilot followed by the alternator , but that is our days task
today ..
Ike Becky Dan and Etien will be off
today towards the Las Peerless Islands and then on to the Galapagos Islands , we
will be in hot pursuit once all our repairs are completed , that is just a time
thing , be it a much more pleasant one on this side that's for sure ..
The Pacific Noah's and Friends
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