Getting Her Ready

4/14/2010, Wednesday


Woke up this morning to the sound of screaming monkeys which made me realize I was in the middle of a jungle. Shelter Bay is in the former U.S. Army Base in the Canal Zone where the Army Rangers used it for Jungle Warfare Training. They still have many of the old barracks around.

Went to Living Water and started off by taking count of the food store and cleaning out expired canned goods and making a shopping list for provisions for the next three weeks. Terry left me in charge of meal planning and cooking and basically let me do whatever I want to his galley. I wonder why I always get stuck with that job on boats. Anyway, he needs some fattening up as he has lost weight since his arrival last month.

After a quick lunch, we set off doing chores on deck. I had to clean and scrub the dodger and Bimini and Terry actually has to finish diving the boat, something that he couldn't do two days ago when there was this 4 foot barracuda with teeth showing hanging around the keel while Terry was trying to scrub the bottom. He had better luck this afternoon without the intruder and was also able to grease the prop. I also cleaned and helped put away the dinghy and stowed things for the journey. Working in the heat and the humidity has taken a toll on me as I have to stop every 30 minutes or so to catch my breath and get hydrated.

Tomorrow we are going to the market to do provisioning and laundry and entering all the waypoints in the chart plotter. Terry has called a weather service and got clearance for good weather for the next several days. We'll get our “sappe” on Friday morning but probably won't leave until first light Saturday morning so we can take advantage of the daylight hours to avoid all the commercial traffic making their transits to and from the locks.

We both work very hard but are pleased that we are getting close to setting sail. We marvel the fact that 20 years ago Terry and I just met at the sailing school and learned how to sail. Since then we have done many trips and races together. Now we both have our own boat and this will be our longest trip double-handling together. More later.....Frank


Final Checks before Leaving Panama
4/16/2010, Friday


Yesterday was shopping day. We took the free shuttle bus from the Marina at 8 AM and took over an hour to get into town. Even though it was only a 25 mile run, but we had to cross the Gatun Locks to get onto the south side of the Canal. And of course, we had to wait at the locks for a couple of container ships to clear the locks before we could proceed. It was such an amazing sight seeing how they fit a 600 ft. boat with inches to spare on each side into the lock.

The closest market to the marina in Colon is called Rey and is like a super Safeway store and has everything you need. We bought over 20 bags of groceries and will have food for 3 weeks. We have chickens, steaks, pork chops, ground beef and various canned goods and snacks. We plan to catch some fish en route to supplement our diet. Took a taxi back to the marina but took 90 minutes to get back on account of the busy shipping traffic at the locks.

After unpacking and stowing away all the grocery items, I took a nap and woke up to the excitement of Terry who just got back from the nearby dock seeing two local helpers diving to clean boats. One of the helpers was holding this giant spear gun at the dock safeguarding the one in the water. He was telling Terry there were sightings of crocodiles in the water the last few days therefore he was keeping his buddy safe with the spear gun. You should have seen Terry’s face when he told me as he was in the same water the last few days. And he thought seeing the 4 ft barracuda was bad.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lubricating blocks and tackles and freeing up the whisker pole at the mast to make sure it will be properly deployed when underway. We also changed the furling line at the staysail. A few more little things and we’ll be ready. We also went over our watch system. There’ll be a 3 hours-on and 3 hours-off watch around the clock when under way. I’ll have some food cooked before departure as it will take about 3 days to let our bodies get used to the 24 hour watch system and get our ¨sea legs¨ so to speak. We also went through the content of the survival bag and abandon ship’s procedures. As I said Terry is a meticulous and prudent sailor. You should have seen what was in the survival bag, but that is another story…….

I made Osso Bucco last night and spaghetti and meat balls the night before. Tonight will be curried beef stew. Terry was eating up everything I served and was easy to cook for. Among our grocery list was a bottle of 12 year old SMS (Single Malt Scotch) for me, being Terry is not much of a drinker. But, I made the mistake of giving him a small tot last night before bedtime and he really liked it and he wants to incorporate that into our nightly routine. Guess we’ll run out of SMS before hitting Galveston.

We’ll put up the safety jack lines this afternoon and give the old girl a good scrub and wash, top off her water tanks, pay the bills at the marina, get our sappe and weather fax and will cast off first light Saturday morning.

We have 150 gallons of fresh water plus a 4 gallon per hour water maker, so we’ll have plenty of water. The fuel tank holds 58 gallons of diesel and we have an extra 30 gallons in jerry jugs stored on the foredeck. That translates to over 700 nm (nautical miles) of motoring, i.e. if we have no wind at all; but the weather forecast is good and we’ll be sailing most of the way. (With our fingers crossed)

My next entry will be from Sailmail on Living Water.

Talk soon....