Thursday 31st May
Balboa
Panama.
8 56.162 N
79 33.296 W
Gerry was up and about in time for the radio schedule this morning, he heard Y Not clearly they were some 200 odd miles away, still motor sailing, had gone through some rain squalls during the night but the winds had dropped back down to nothing again. JJ Moon had overtaken them and were about 10 miles ahead, all was well which we were glad to hear. Today was to be our setting off day. We had a couple of things to do before leaving though and by 08.00hrs we were waiting for the water taxi to pick us up, as it approached us we saw that our agent was on board it, our plans changed immediately. We stayed on board and Enrique joined us to hand over our documentation for leaving the country along with our passports, we finalized our bill with him and handed back the cell phone to him, then it was time to recall the water taxi. Once ashore we found Alex, our regular taxi driver and asked to be taken to the hardware store, we had decided to try and purchase 2 more diesel jerry cans so we could carry a little more fuel with us. The first store was a dead loss and we continued on to the mall where the Super 99 store was, this is a store similar to Wal Mart and luckily for us we found the jerry cans there. Then it was on to the supermarket to do the last bit of shopping – the fruit and vegetable stuff, that didn’t take us too long. We decided to have a last coffee at Dunkin Donuts, along with a doughnut each, Alex was included in this treat. We then made our way back to the yacht club where we discovered to our dismay that there was no fuel to be had, our plans to leave had been thwarted! More than a little upset we made our way back to the boat and stowed away our purchases whilst revising our plans. I decided that if we were going to be here for the rest of today I was going to throw our pillows into the wash as they were getting pretty disgusting; I gathered up enough laundry for a load plus the pillows and took them into the laundry and began the washing process. Gerry had accompanied me and suggested that we go to the bar for lunch whilst the wash was doing its thing. We went and had terrific chicken burgers and a soft drink. By the time we had finished lunch the washing machines had finished their cycle, I emptied them but was disappointed with the pillows and decided to run them through the wash a second time, the rest of the wash went into the driers. Gerry and I wandered to the office to organize our bill and see about getting fuel early in the morning, there we discovered that there was actually fuel available - they had been telling everyone there was none as some big boats had taken on hundreds of gallons of fuel but not paid! The office lady called the fuel dock and authorized our fuel purchase but it was too late, our pillows were in the wash and needed to be dry before we left here, we re arranged the fuel purchase for the morning and silently fumed, we could have gone after all! I had taken my book with me so I sat and read whilst the wash did a second cycle, when it finished I went to put the pillows in the drier and noticed that the first drier wasn’t hot – after almost 30 minutes of running. Slightly annoyed I told Gerry, who was watching how the laundry gets done, he checked the gas ( they are gas driers) and declared that there was no gas getting to the driers or washing machines – kind of explained why the pillows didn’t come out too well as the water was cold! Anyway he chased the man who fixes things and within seconds the gas was turned on and we had heat to the driers! 2 hours later we had dry pillows, the clothes didn’t take that long! We took the washing back out to the boat, stowed it away and then had an afternoon nap. At about 17.30hrs we went back into the bar and had a couple of drinks with an Australian guy, Peter from W.A. he is traveling single handed back to Australia on his boat Yvonne Elizabeth. It was near 20.30hrs before we made it to dinner – again at TGIFridays, we had salads to negate the ice cream we had for dessert. Then it was back to the boat where we did a rapid defrost of the fridge and freezer ready for departure. By the time we got to go to bed it was near midnight, I hoped we weren’t going to be leaving here at sparrows fart!
Panama.
8 56.162 N
79 33.296 W
Gerry was up and about in time for the radio schedule this morning, he heard Y Not clearly they were some 200 odd miles away, still motor sailing, had gone through some rain squalls during the night but the winds had dropped back down to nothing again. JJ Moon had overtaken them and were about 10 miles ahead, all was well which we were glad to hear. Today was to be our setting off day. We had a couple of things to do before leaving though and by 08.00hrs we were waiting for the water taxi to pick us up, as it approached us we saw that our agent was on board it, our plans changed immediately. We stayed on board and Enrique joined us to hand over our documentation for leaving the country along with our passports, we finalized our bill with him and handed back the cell phone to him, then it was time to recall the water taxi. Once ashore we found Alex, our regular taxi driver and asked to be taken to the hardware store, we had decided to try and purchase 2 more diesel jerry cans so we could carry a little more fuel with us. The first store was a dead loss and we continued on to the mall where the Super 99 store was, this is a store similar to Wal Mart and luckily for us we found the jerry cans there. Then it was on to the supermarket to do the last bit of shopping – the fruit and vegetable stuff, that didn’t take us too long. We decided to have a last coffee at Dunkin Donuts, along with a doughnut each, Alex was included in this treat. We then made our way back to the yacht club where we discovered to our dismay that there was no fuel to be had, our plans to leave had been thwarted! More than a little upset we made our way back to the boat and stowed away our purchases whilst revising our plans. I decided that if we were going to be here for the rest of today I was going to throw our pillows into the wash as they were getting pretty disgusting; I gathered up enough laundry for a load plus the pillows and took them into the laundry and began the washing process. Gerry had accompanied me and suggested that we go to the bar for lunch whilst the wash was doing its thing. We went and had terrific chicken burgers and a soft drink. By the time we had finished lunch the washing machines had finished their cycle, I emptied them but was disappointed with the pillows and decided to run them through the wash a second time, the rest of the wash went into the driers. Gerry and I wandered to the office to organize our bill and see about getting fuel early in the morning, there we discovered that there was actually fuel available - they had been telling everyone there was none as some big boats had taken on hundreds of gallons of fuel but not paid! The office lady called the fuel dock and authorized our fuel purchase but it was too late, our pillows were in the wash and needed to be dry before we left here, we re arranged the fuel purchase for the morning and silently fumed, we could have gone after all! I had taken my book with me so I sat and read whilst the wash did a second cycle, when it finished I went to put the pillows in the drier and noticed that the first drier wasn’t hot – after almost 30 minutes of running. Slightly annoyed I told Gerry, who was watching how the laundry gets done, he checked the gas ( they are gas driers) and declared that there was no gas getting to the driers or washing machines – kind of explained why the pillows didn’t come out too well as the water was cold! Anyway he chased the man who fixes things and within seconds the gas was turned on and we had heat to the driers! 2 hours later we had dry pillows, the clothes didn’t take that long! We took the washing back out to the boat, stowed it away and then had an afternoon nap. At about 17.30hrs we went back into the bar and had a couple of drinks with an Australian guy, Peter from W.A. he is traveling single handed back to Australia on his boat Yvonne Elizabeth. It was near 20.30hrs before we made it to dinner – again at TGIFridays, we had salads to negate the ice cream we had for dessert. Then it was back to the boat where we did a rapid defrost of the fridge and freezer ready for departure. By the time we got to go to bed it was near midnight, I hoped we weren’t going to be leaving here at sparrows fart!
Labels: Panama
posted by SV Orpailleur at 5:39 a.m.
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