JUST A LITTLE BIT OF SAN BLAS

I know, I know, I know, it’s time for an update!!! (I was almost done and posting this blog when data service went out for 2 days)
Let me continue with the motor problem we had. 

Sandial needed to get on the hard and Greg had to take some motor parts out to be able to get to the leak. We heard the boat is fixed but no date of departure yet.

Meantime Sid was still working on our motor. It was a frustrating process but  nothing worked. The RPMs still went down. He finally unhooked everything and narrowed it down to the fuel pump. Yikes where are we going to find that her in Panama. Sid was sure he had to finagle something with a different pump. From previous experiences running around town to chase down parts we at the end always found it at Panama Auto on Transistmica. I guess with time and age we get smarter so we went there first before all the other places and WOW they didn’t just have a fuel pump but the exact same, awesome. After a month of trying to figure out the problem the motor is running just fine now. Well an occasional hiccup but so far so good. We are holding our breath.

I don’t think I brought up the marina we are in Puerto Linton Marina is at this stage not a running marina, Sid calls it a parking lot. There is no facilities no water or power, only floating docks. No matter what size the boat , it costs 10 dollars a day or 300 a months. The marina filled up fast with mainly charter and backpacker boats. Adam the doc master has no VHF radio nor dinghy and is rarely around so it’s a help yourself slip situation and whoever sees them come in helps the new arrivals to get on the dock. (In the meantime he did get a radio but still when a boat comes in nobody is there to help).

We enjoy watching the marina slowly getting together. Work was done 7 days a week and the progress is amazing every day. What we cruisers all said was impossible is actually coming along much faster than we had thought. But they are about 2 months if not more behind schedule. It is still far from being a functioning marina.

The docks are nice floating docks and are anchored with chains a really interesting concept and needed in this little bay as when the N or NEwinds blows it can get a bit rolly in here. Between the docks are rubber buffers to protect them from hitting each other and cracking the concrete.

The cruisers pulled all their hoses together so that we have water on the dock and it was very organized who will get the hose first but still cruisers were fighting over who gets the hose first. We just sat back and watched them and told them that we will be last, no worries. Sometimes we finally had the hose about 10 pm sometimes at midnight.

And each day we wonder how we get on and off the dock.

To

to

I think this was the worst

Back in Shelter Bay when they cut some palms down I rescued a beautiful bundle of orchids and had them hanging on the bow of Paradise. The day we left Shelter Bay I was going to leave them behind but I noticed 3 flower buds and took it with me instead. The very first day in Linton Bay Marina they opened up, they were beautiful and my pride and joy until a storm blew them off the bow, I was bummed.

When I realized they were taking trees down for the electrical poles for this marina I went on an orchid hunt and rescued a few. Not one week later the orchids started to bloom and one started showing a stem with 3 knobs, it looked like an alian plant. But look what became out of it. To this day I have no idea what it is called.

A tree in the Marina produces these flowers. No idea what it is, but it's beautiful

There are some fun folks here in the marina. Rob and Lauren organize a potluck every Friday on their boat. One time 4 guitarists were in the marina so we had a jam session on the dock which was so much fun. In the mean time we had more jam sessions.

Ida wanted to come visit on her day off and wanted to have seafood for lunch. The only good seafood place here is Adrianas so we took her there and as always it was wonderful. After lunch we returned to Paradise and relaxed in the cockpit as Roman stopped in. Roman was going to leave for San Blas and picked up all the stuff we had for Deb and Reg.  We were just talking about Ida’s dog Alfa being in heat. She is a Rotty/Lab mix and Ida wants a puppy but wanted a pure Rottweiler to breed her as they make great watch dogs. Roman knew a couple that had a Rotty male, comes out they are Jean Claude and Monique we know as well. Two days later Ida had an appointment. She picked me up as I knew where Monique lived. We drove the short distance to their house, Monique opened the gate for us in pouring rain. She looked into the car and saw Alfa and said that she was so excited that her dog will breed with such a beautiful male. Ida’s jaw dropped. You have to know Monique’s English is none existing and her Spanish is limited, but she speaks perfect French. Ida looked at her and said, but she is a female your dog is a male. Unfortunately both were females. We got a good laugh out of it. As we drove back I told Ida that I wondered what Monique was thinking of Ida when she called her that she wanted to get her male dog layed. Ida slammed the breaks and sat there for a few minutes just laughing. There was a Rotty I knew in this area so we drove there. The wife called her husband for permission and then let us in. Alfa played hard to get, so the owner called her husband what to do. A few minutes later he called back and had the Vet on the phone for Ida. He told her tie her up on the house post, get in your car and watch. We did that. She snapped at him one more time then let him sniff her rear end and that was the end of it. The vet told her to leave her there for the night. Ida thought it was not possible to leave the dog that she would run after us. Wrong she sat next to the Rotty dude panting and looking at Ida as to say: Go mom and please take your time!

Ida said that Alfa was exhausted when she picked her up and she slept all the way home. The next morning as Ida went into her car Alfa jump into the car something she’s never done before. Guess she wanted more!

Unfortunately Alfa did not get pregnant and will have to endure this horrible experience again in about 6 months LOL.

By the way for all the sailors needing sewing projects done Roman is excellent in fixing sails and any type of canvas work. My sailrite sewing machine was not working well and all my sewing projects were on hold. When he learned about my problem he came over and spent a whole afternoon on our boat fixing my sewing machine with Sid’s help. The machine is fixed but the projects are still on hold.

We had a new neighbor pull in across from our dock. Seemed like they had everything under control but we saw the dinghy had a long painter and just yelled across to them: Pull in the p…(too late)..ainter. I’ve heard of this happening but never really witnessed it. Let’s say it this way, it’s really not fun for the owner but for the watchers it’s amusing and makes a great photo opportunity.

Apropos dinghy last January while in Shelter Bay we bought a new dinghy as the boat store had 20% off on anything including things to be ordered. So we ordered the 10 foot Aluminum Ultra light AB for $3000.00. We were asked to put half the price down so we pulled our credit card out to pay. We then were told to come back on Monday to do so. We went back on Monday but now were told they did not give us the right price, well then give us the right price. They did not know, so find out. I went into the store daily but no price so when I got a little upset the girl called the boss to inquire. Boss said he call back later. Later never came so I insisted on talking to the manager myself. He said he would check into it. Never did either, by now two weeks have passes. I called the AB dealer in Colombia myself and found out what the dinghy was worth and actually that they gave us the right price. Went back to store and insisted to talk to the owner again. His excuse was that they could not order dinghy right now, not till they order a big shipment which will be in a couple of months. I told him no problem we can wait, we live here and were not in a real hurry, so we made a verbal deal and I put the $1500 dollars down. Whenever we went back to Shelter Bay I would inquire but by now a new girl worked there and we never got any answer. 7 months later we still did not know anything about our dinghy so I tried to call them, the phone number on receipt was wrong. Even name on receipt was not the one from Tri Marine the owners. It took me a while to find the company which is also DIMAR. Sent an email to them. One month later I received an email from the same guy I had talked to that they had a problem with some criminal employees at the time and they have to give us our money back. I wrote him back that the people were already fired when he himself made the deal with me. Again many days before he wrote back this time a short note that he wanted to find out how to give the money back to us. I was going to the better business buearue and turn him in when Debi sent me an urgent text that Shelter Bay is trying to reach us as the Boat store is closing its doors and they need to give me my 1500 back. I was Panama City at the time so not to loose the money in bankruptcy so I told him to deliver it at my hotel. Which they did early in the morning. Cesaria Diaz had my phone number but decided to talk to the hotel’s operatior instead, what a coward. Anyway, we got our money back but I still will report him to the Better Business Bueaue  Guess we’ll keep patching our dinghy until we find somebody that sells them here.

Paula and Franco on Arcadia were our neighbors when Sid was in Shelter Bay for the delivery that didn’t happen. During that time they had me over almost every night. Paula asked me where she could buy a live chicken and I gave her the info. A couple hours later she walks by my boat with a plastic shopping bag with a live chicken sticking her head and tail out the bag. Paula cooked the chicken that night, man was it good. Since then every time they come back to the marina we get a live chicken and cook it. I hide when she wrings the chicken’s neck but help her with plucking the feathers and the rest. 

Paula also makes the best Paella I’ve ever had.

And Sangria

Their friends on a Diesel run

Anita came back from Arizona and same day her friends Don and Teri arrived from Italy. Last year we spent a month with them in front of Anita’s house. Anita wanted us there again but we learned the hard lesson that this time of the year is not a good time to be in Portobelo weather wise so we commuted back and forth with them instead. I can’t believe they brought me a huge bottle of one of the best Olive Oils from Italy, yumm.

Beautiful Vacation homes

After lots of fun and watching the marina getting together and all our repairs were done, I provisioned and we finally headed to the San Blas.

The weather was perfect the winds have subsided and we had a pretty calm motor sail to the San Blas. We dropped anchor in Chichime and after a half an hour of relaxing and enjoying the scenery Sid brought to my attention that there was a lot of drug dealings going on here. Wow it was pretty amazing and pretty obvious. We pulled anchor the next morning with not returning here ever again. Not a good place to be. 

We at first were going to stop in the East Lemons but Debi has been waiting forever for us to get to San Blas so we headed straight to the Hollandays and anchored near them. She was so happy to receive all the goodies we brought for her.

It was great to see them and were immediately invited for dinner on Runner. As always Deb outdid herself. There were not many boats in the anchorage and I told Sid that all I wanted is to relax for an entire week, well it turned into 3 weeks of relaxing and not thinking of other anchorages.

Every morning at 11 weather permitting Debi and I went snorkeling. Debi’s got this place down. Between her and some other cruisers they came up with a map and started naming every reef. She knows them all and what she does is she snorkels them counter clockwise so she remembers every rock, coral, plant and which fish lives where. It’s amazing. In the three weeks we were there I did not snorkel one place twice and we snorkeled every day. Debi has 4 fish tanks in her cockpit with local fish from lion fish to even lobster or crabs but she has to get food every day. I helped her and bought my own net. I think I laughed more than catching fish, it’s darn difficult. I was a master in getting the krill but the little fish no way.

This is named the Waterfall

Lion fish

Debi the bag lady weather shopping or in the water

Every reef had something else to offer, whether it was nurse sharks, a turtle, lion fish, squid. One of the lion fish on the outer reef was amazing he hung above his hidyhole and showed off all his beautiful fins that looks like feathers. He ignored us until Deb swam over to him, wow his color changed and he puffed up even more so. Just beautiful. I found an old pearl necklace of mine (fake) that I was going to toss so we brought it to a coral head that she had not named yet and name it “Pearl Rock”.  I had so much fun with Deb.

Manuela at Pearl Rock

Debi

The other activity painting our toe nails:

Deb's

Mine

The weather for most was beautiful, not much rain but overcast and only saw one incredible sunset. We did have one night with horrendous lightning with close hits on the reef nearby. One right behind Runner which I thought got hit. One boat in the East Lemon was hit.

Runner

This is the season when the Panamanian mega yacht owners bring their boats to the Caribbean side. Every weekend a group of 6 to 14 boats showed up which was always fun to watch. Especially one boat was better than to watching TV, he would anchor and right away drift, re-anchor and on and on. We counted as many as 12 attempts to anchor. We noticed too that they only put about a boat length of chain. The anchor was just bobbing along the bottom and the captain probably cussing out the holding of the anchorage. But every weekend he did the same over and over. Guess some never learn. One evening at 8 we heard one calling all the other boats and warning them not to go in the water that he had 2 crocodiles next to his boat, one was 3 meters, YIKES!!!!!

I told Debi that I will not snorkel the reef close to where they were anchored anymore. Well we did anyhow, haven’t seen the croc yet, but Sid did find a hidy hole from one when we went claming.

Conch for dinner anyone?!!! I found these puppies within an hour

It's a lot of work to clean them but sooooo worth it

 After cleaning they are cut in narrow slices then pounded. Then they can be sauteed or breaded. I tried something different this time. I grated an onion, bell pepper and garlic then rubbed the pounded conch patties with this and let it stand for an hour. Then I heated a frying pan added extra virgin olive oil and some curry and sauteed the curry for a little before I sauteed the conch. Then I added coconut milk to it and simmered it a few more minutes and served it over steamed Jasmine rice, wow was it good. 

After thunderstorms you can see the main land

Behind Reef you can see the Coco Banderas Islands and mountain of mainland behind it. 

Panorama photo of entrance to the Holandays

and the oposite side BBQ island

BBQ Island

Party with Franco and Paula's charter guests

Franco and Paula

One of our dinners we had Reg brought up that our mail forwarding place had changed our addresses. They are using the same company. We knew it was sold in June but somehow we never got the memo that they moved us from Islamorada to Key Largo. Our mail forwarding service always automatically renewed our documentation papers and since ours was due I sent them an e-mail and ask them send me the renewal. There was no renewal!! The local post office screwed up in the transition time and lots of mail got lost as they did not forward them. One lost item was our documentation renewal and Sid’s new credit card since his was expiring (and who knows what more was lost). Time to go back to Internet land and straighten out this mess. Besides Sid needed to do taxes and I needed to renew our cruising permit in Panama (which was September 11^th, we renewed our paperwork on the 24^th of August online and received message it will be done in 2 weeks, two weeks have passed so tried to call them and found out the office was closed for two weeks and opened on the 12^th of Sept. I had to take the receipt to the cruising permit renewal office but they did not accept it. The lady who works there knows me by now and just told me to come back when I get it and not to worry that I would get a fine, ufffff thanks!) Still waiting for permit.

Before we left Debi had a great shopping day on Paradise

We had a rough start on our trip back. Heavy rain that soaked us to the bone and everything else inside cockpit and under dodger. It was miserable. Some darts out of the sky luckily missed us but we had this weather for several hours before the sky cleared. 

Sid bailing water

From then on it was a beautiful motor sail back to Linton. I missed taking photos of some dolphins on the bow by the time my camera was ready they were gone. I guess two of them had a change of heart and came back after 5 minutes and posed for the camera. My best photo ever of dolphins and imagine with my cell phone. 

As we turned into the opening at Isla Grande the weather took a turn. I had watched the Accu weather radar on my cell and it looked like we were in for some stormy weather so we opted to head back into the marina instead of the anchorage. Turned out the following day we did get a good blow and lots of lightning. Paula What’sApp’d me and told me from Chemmie they had 50 knots of wind, several boats were hit by lightning and two local pangas were thrown on the reef. Glad we were in the marina for this. This year’s weather has been pretty benign and we should have had a lot more rain and it looks like it’s finally trying to catch up.

It’s amazing to see how much the marina has done. The travel lift to haul boats out we watched them getting unloaded, now Sid was watching how they were put together. This is a monster of a lift. The 160 ton haulout lift is the biggest in Panama, our boat would look like a toy sailboat hanging in it.

The dock master is still missing in action but the marina seems to survive with the cruisers running it. So here we are again, straightening out the paper mess and catching up on dental work, shopping, seeing friends and catching up on other things.