HAPPY NEW YEAR from us in Shelter Bay Marina,
Fort Sherman, Colon, Panama!
Ed, Harry, Hannah & May ready for a day at Thorpe Park
What a wonderful 3 weeks we had at home, catching up with family and friends - it all went by far too quickly.
Zoe and Harry joining the exhibits at London Zoo!
We arrived back at Panama City
airport in the evening of Thursday 15th November. The queues were not too long & John and
Harry’s bags soon arrived, but mine did not.
2 hours later the Iberia staff finally admitted that 3 bags were missing
– forms were filled in, phone numbers exchanged and we finally got on to the
mini-bus to our hotel. Luckily I had
enough packed into hand luggage to last a couple of days. The next day we called Iberia, the hotel
staff called Iberia but no-one answered – I started listing all the things that
were crammed into that bag – 5 metres of canvas for our new sunshade, Harry’s
English course for year 8, Christmas presents and unobtainable boat essentials
of Marmite, & HP sauce to name a few.
Panama City view from our hotel
On Saturday I caught the early bus to
the airport, arriving at 8am to discover that the Iberia office opens at 4 pm. We had planned to go back to the boat on
Saturday so had to book the hotel for another night and re-book the car for the
next day. When I arrived at the airport
later it was to discover that Iberia are closed on Fridays hence the lack of
contact. There is no system for
collection of lost baggage but I was assured that my bag was just coming off
that evening’s flight from Madrid but I had
to wait outside the baggage area with everyone waiting for friends and family – eventually it arrived, towed by a pretty Iberia lady, such a relief.
Gatun Locks visitor centre
We drove back to the boat on Sunday
18th then decided to use the hire car to go and see the Gatun Locks, on the
Caribbean end of the canal, then Shelter Bay Marina on Tuesday. The roads
are dire - the potholes are huge, deep and frequent. We saw a wheel in
the road then 100 yards later a 3-wheeled taxi in a heap! It had been raining and raining to celebrate
the end of the rainy season so the roads were waterlogged and driving was
difficult.
The locks work 24 hours a day all year round - the nearest ship in the photo is heading to the Caribbean
The canal is as magnificent as ever –
we came through it in February 2000 on Sara Jane, tied alongside another
yacht. We watched some ships going
through the locks with only a foot or so clearance on either side. When we go through it will be behind a ship
so we will have the combined turbulence of the lock water thundering in or out
and the propeller wash from the ship.
There are cameras at Gatun and Miraflores locks which can be viewed
on
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html?cam=Gatun
I will post the date & time of our transit of the canal when we know
it, so you may be able to see us when we go through.
Not even enough room for fenders - that's why they call them Panamax ships.
To get to Shelter Bay Marina you have
to drive across the locks and then it’s about 20 minutes through the jungle and
up to the abandoned US Air Force base, Fort Sherman. Past the derelict houses, and then yes, we
hit one of the many huge potholes and burst the tyre. John did a quick
change to the tiny spare tyre and as time was getting on we decided not to do
our big shop and just head back in daylight (it is a long way on bad roads).
Still torrential rain and mad drivers to contend with until the tiny tyre
expired about 5 miles before Portobelo. We rolled into an isolated bar, walls
painted with improbably buxom naked women, bar area shielded with metal bars,
and came to a halt by a destroyed taxi. Luckily we had Tommy's number
(Pirate's Cove) and he was on his way back from Colon with 2 yachties -he
stopped to take the burst tyres as he thought he could get them fixed in
Portobelo, but did not have enough space in his car for the 3 of us. So
we had a drink, swiped at bitey insects as darkness fell, played all the games
you can think of without any props, and waited. He returned but the tyre
man had closed. We opted to leave 3 wheeled car there and went to his
place for supper and to stay in the backpacker room again - at least he gave us
soap and towels and I introduced Harry to the art of cleaning your teeth with a
finger and water. Next day we called the car hire people and after a long
wait a lovely man, with gold front teeth, came out with a new car and spare
tyres for the old one. We got back to Turtle Cay late on Wednesday, the
roads land-slidey and the trees ankle deep in water, so relieved we didn’t
break down on this stretch of desolate track.
Farewell Turtle Cay
Hello Cristobal breakwaters at the entrance to the canal - the original ones were built from blocks of stone taken from the Portobelo forts in 1912
We sailed round to Shelter Bay Marina
via a night at Isla Grande, and arrived on the 4th December,
delighted to meet Freddie on board ‘Shiver’ just down the pontoon. And 2 days
later ‘One World’ arrived with 4 children on board – Christmas had come early! Great
fun for all 6 kids, with a swimming pool, miles of Fort Sherman to explore with derelict buildings
galore, and, of course, the jungle.
Freddie, Harry, Solomon and Max - celebrating Max's birthday
‘Sara Jane’ was lifted out on the 6th
December and we moved into the hotel, working on the boat each day, so she
looks very smart now with waxed and polished topsides, sanded and anti-fouled
hull, new echo-sounder and many other repairs.
Below barnacle level we found interesting growths of orange & yellow sponges on keel & rudder
Sara Jane being towed to the hard
I did a long day trip into Panama City on the marina mini-bus for a big
Christmas shop, which was great as we could leave our shopping on the bus as we
went from place to place.
All clean and shiny
The ‘One World’ family have
gone home for a snowy Christmas in Wisconsin but ‘Voyageur’ has arrived with
Nikolai and his parents, Michael and Maina, so we planned Christmas dinner with
them and Liz, Red and Freddie on ‘Shiver’.
We all brought food, and shared a delicious feast. The
marina hotel had a hog roast and games in the pool, many people had their own
picnics and meals around the marina so it was a happy, relaxing and enjoyable day.
2013 arrived in the company of friends and to the sound of many ships horns & whistles out in the anchorage.
