Outward Bound at last
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 30 Apr 2008 12:44
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Outward Bound at last
29th April 2008
Dear All in cyber space,
After a few hectic days which included , picking up
the Hawse pipe and fitting it under the anchor winch , testing the new hydraulic
auto pilot , big shop to fill the boat with two months supply of food , tins of
Spam being high on the list but not with the rest of the crew, taking the
Whitlock auto pilot to the Ray marine agent who also happens to be the whitlock
agent , striped the motor and found that the epicyclical gearbox had cogs
that were seized , this was all freed up and reassembled , we were given it
back at 10 o/c Tuesday , they could not fix the motor side as Whitlock
don't send out spares to there agents just new units six weeks later ! our
taxi driver who we have used to gather all our spares and is a wealth of
information on spares and where to get
them , he is well worth the ten bucks an hr as he would interpret
into Spanish and vice versa the technical info both sides wished to communicate
, anyway we mentioned the Whitlock motor and e took us back to the alternator
man, he said he would look at it and would get back to us at two o/c we rang at
two and he said that it was possible to repair , three hr later it was delivered
the dock by our taxi driver , a quick test across some car batteries showed it
to be working and it was promptly taken back to the boat for further tests which
at the moment look positive .
We then started to get the boat ready to go
tomorrow , usual thing lines and ropes etc ...
Later on that evening we had a pleasant
suprise , on our daily SSB calling time to Rhythm 1900 hrs we made
contacted we have not been in communication since Thursday last week as the
atmospherics have been bad but tonight we made contact at 800 nm , Rhythm is 170
nm short of the Galapagos with light winds and making 80 nm per day ,
I hope we make more than that .
The fishing nuts on Zephyr , Lyn and
Rob have been out on the town , they have amassed a large array of
colourful lures stronger lines , teasers and all manner of gadgets , will we
have fish by the Las Perlas ! we live in hope , if they don't catch anything by
the Galapagos the Mickey take on arrival and telling the Rhythm crew will
be unbearable as they only seem to put there line over the side and the fish are
queuing up to get on it !
According to Rob we are heading into prime marlin
country , if we hook one of those he may tow us to the
Galapagos ..
Since our visit to the Smithsonian Institute we
have been keeping an eye on the two toed sloth who has been perched up a tree by
the entrance , we pass this point every day tooing and frowning with gear for
the boat , anyway on our way back today he had moved a few yards out of the
institute , that's taken since Saturday , the rain came down , and low and
behold it was gone !
As we are about to leave Panama the rainy season is
approaching, it rains about four days out of five , that would make it very
humid with the heat reaching 32 Dec C in the shade , and not a lot of wind
!
The Crew Panama City
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