Guess it’s a little late to wish you all a Happy New Year, but
here it is anyway Happy New Year.
On December 12th we hauled out. Still being rainy
season it seemed like we got the full brunt of it. Not 50 feet away from our slip
and dock a squall pelted us with heavy rain and wind, we both got soaked. We
looked like wet rats when 2 minutes later we arrived at the lift. I did pack
some cloths to change into, which was a good thing as the wind didn’t give up.
You’d think a little rain in a tropical place will not give you chills, well we
changed our minds. It WAS freezing.
Haulouts are never fun, especially when you find out you have to
pay 75 cents per foot to work on your own boat, which comes to $30 per day for
our 36 foot Paradise which they charge 40 feet due to the davits sticking out.
They then add a $15 per day charge on if you live on the boat, but don’t get anything
for it, except to live in the dusty yard peeing in a bucket at night and having
to fight over power and water hookup. Sounds like fun hah?!!!
If you have Shelter Bay Marina worker working on the boat you have
to watch them like hawks including the bill as many things are added that were
never used like overalls and masks.
The lift cost is for our size boat $500 then a mandatory $180 for
pressure wash and when you are done painting the hull you have to move the pads
the boat is resting on they charge an extra $5 per pad to have it moved so you
can paint those parts. You’d think that is part of the paint job??!!! We had 9
of those stands. Now add the $45 per day to the bill for working and sleeping
on your boat. $45 per day in the yard versus $16.00 per day in the slip.
Our dear friends Bob and Debbie offered us to stay on their boat
that is vacant, knowing what a pain in the butt it is to live on the boat in
the hard. Can’t just run water in the galley or doing dishes, which has to be hauled
down the ladder and when washed back up, can’t use the toilette either that’s a
bucket in the cockpit deal at night and in the morning you try to schlep that
bucket very early in the morning to the marina bathrooms hoping nobody sees you
walk your pee bucket. We gladly accepted their offer and saved the 15 bucks per
day live aboard fee.
While Sid worked on the cutlass bearing and adjusting the prop I
sanded the bottom, which is hard work. I was outfitted with a paper overall and
a mask for the toxic dust from the bottom paint. Funny the second morning I put
my overall on but since it was so hot the following day I was only wearing my
bra and underwear. After a couple hours of sanding I did a bathroom run, then
went to Laura at the laundry to say hi while one of the waitresses walked
behind me and giggling told me my whole butt was exposed. Sure enough there was
a rip in that darn suit. I looked pretty funny on my long walk back to the boat
trying to hold that rip together and on came the cloths again and a new overall.
Sid painted the boat and we were done with the haul out in 5 days,
wow a record time for us.
On the 18th we got splashed and as Sid put
the engine in reverse the whole boat shook like crazy and there was this
god-awful hammering noise. As we turned around Sid put it in forward but same
god-awful hammering noise plus the boat was barely moving, what the heck. We
turned around and drove right back to the lift, from there we were pulled
around the corner to the yard slip. Sid checked everything even the prop but
could not find anything. Thought maybe it was the shaft that needs to be
aligned so for another 50 bucks we were towed into our slip. Yes they charge
for towing too. And go figure in high winds when boats have a hard time getting
into the slips they have no dingy to stand by and aid the boat into the slip.
Many boats here in the marina get hit by a neighbor boat trying to come in. Not
sure if this is a record but 4 in just 1 day getting hit, I would think it is. If
you think that boating is romantic, it’s far from it, but you just have to have
a sense of humor.
Xmas was coming up and a Xmas boat decoration contest was announce
while we were still in the yard. We had this idea to make a giant Xmas tree with
beer cans, so every morning just as the sun came up I went dumpster diving in
the recycle bin. I went early before I had to fight the bees and sticky flies
but also didn’t want to be seen by anyone = “Manuela the dumpster diver”.
Of course they had to be washed out so not to attract the bees,
and by the time we left the yard I had well over 300 cans collected that were
now cluttering our deck.
But the end result was incredible, Sid tied the cans together in
the shape of a Xmas tree, it looked great. Of course made some noise in the
high winds we still had and now and then a can’s tab broke and clank another
one hit the cockpit or dodger or anybody sitting in the cockpit.
The Xmas caroling was a big success, every dock had a table set up
with drinks and food provided from the cruisers on that dock. We were easily 60
people, young and old, going from dock to dock caroling and enjoying the
wonderful appetizers and wine, beer, dangerous shots and hot toddies.
Our boat got a lot of attention with the shiny beer cans
glimmering with the many lights and on the dock poor frosty who didn’t listen when
I told him not to come visit us in Panama.
Every decorated boat made such an effort there was no winner, we
all were winners.
Here is a ling to JoAnne on Ultra's Xmas video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moKwHEYj_Ds
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| N"Aimless |
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| Our Food table |
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| Unhappy Frosty but no worries we sent him back with all the drops of water. |
The restaurant organized a potluck at the restaurant on the 24th.
Restaurant was cooking the turkey and stuffing with gravy and everybody had to
bring a side dish. Cost $24 per couple.
For me the 24th is when we celebrate Xmas in
Switzerland, it has always been family time for me. I invited Debbie and Bob as
a thank you for letting us stay on their boat and Diane and Richard of Sila and
made a traditional Swiss Xmas feast. It was a beautiful evening sitting under
lit up and decorated Paradise.
New Year’s Eve we decided to have an elegant dinner at the
restaurant. Their New Year’s Eve special was fantastic. I was amazed though
that we were the only ones enjoying a wonderful dinner as nobody else was in
the restaurant. My glass of bubbly was several times refilled. The steak melted
in the mouth like butter and the rosemary gravy was to die for, oh and the
dessert, yummy.
About half of the cruisers gathered at the palapa for a potluck
and the others half had private parties on their boats. Dinner was amazing but
I have to say the rest of the evening was boring, seemed like everybody was
just sitting around waiting for midnight. And I can’t believe I forgot to put a
bottle of bubbly in the fridge.
New Year’s Eve Swiss tradition is a nice Fondue Bourginonne dinner
then TV entertainment and at 9pm wonderful snacks. At 23:45 we open the balcony
door and step out into the freezing cold and listen to all the church bell
chime in unison. Then waiting for all to do the 12 gongs at midnight and you
hear from balcony to balcony champagne corks popping. By the way it’s cold
enough to keep all the champagne or beer bottles including left over food on
balcony. I miss that so I invited 3 couples on the first for a New Year’s
dinner celebration.
Gagi was funny, her and hubby Rudy went for Margaritas to Bill and
Joanne on Tika. (We know how potent Bill’s Maggies are as we were invited a few
days prior, I had two small glasses and wow, I could feel it. Gagi had three by the time she arrived at our
dinner. I made us all Silver Fizzes, she loved it and had 2 after that we 4
girls drank 3 bottles of champagne and Gagi switched to red wine. The following
day she swore that she never ever, ever will ever have another glass of any
alcohol LOL.
Dinner was wonderful all enjoyed the Fondue as nobody ever had one
before.
Carole topped dinner off with a wonderful blueberry cheesecake,
yum.
That was far from the end of rainy season. Colon was under water
again so was the coast up to Puerto Lindo and the southern coast here. End of
January the rain finally left but now we had heavy winds and gales as cold
fronts came down. The high waves broke over the breakwater of Cristobal an
incredible sight.
Our planned January transit didn’t happen we still had the motor
issue and Sid just could not figure out what the problem was. My almost 2 year
old root canal tooth I could still feel and no matter what the dentist did I
could still feel it. Decision was made tooth needed to come out, and replaced
with an implant. When the doctor pulled it out a small abscess was on the roots
end, the culprit of the problem. I now have a titanium screw in place and have
to wait 3 months for the healing then the replacement tooth. So for now I look
like a redneck with a tooth missing. Ida picked me up after the procedure and
took me to town. We had a blast for 2 days, where I probably should have been
resting my tooth, hmmm Ida is a dentist and knows best. She did take me to the
Soho Mall for a movie. OMG that movie theater is the bomb. Leather recliners a
little table lamp a button to push for service and a waitress or waiter takes
an order then delivers it and not just cheap cinema food, gourmet stuff,
including the caramelized popcorn.
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| Ida and her friend Manuel |
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| Soho Malls beautiful Xmas deco |
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| wonderful Italian dinner |
The following weekend the two of us hit town again this time for
the Carlos Vives concert, we could not miss that. Before we went to town she
had her old school friends and husbands come to her house for a fun day. One
lady owns a Spanish restaurant in Colon and at lunch time had a huge paella
delivered to the house. OMG best paella ever. It was a lot of fun.
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| Ida's new palapa |
A couple days later I had the worst sinus infection and since it
could interfere with the implant I had to see the dentist, he scolded me that I
need to rest and not talk and prescribed antibiotics. Ida told me giggling
later he said I was too active, little did he know that she was the instigator.
Going to the concert was worth missing my open mike night at the
marina. Every Saturday night we have open mike where anybody with a musical
talent, telling jokes, poem or any other talent is welcome to join in. Some
Saturday’s it was just Collin and myself, others with Steph and Stu, Bill on
Tika drummer is back as well. Frank the dock master of course always plays his
bass guitar I think he lives for the Saturdays, actually so do I, huge fun. And
other times we have several players and we jam until 1 or 2 am.
I will sure miss this fun evening. When we arrived here I had
maybe 8 songs, but it was such a challenge to deliver a new song each week I
have quite a repertoire now. Sid absolutely loves it and bought me an amp and I
also acquired a mike and mike stand, you should see the stuff I cart up to the
restaurant every Saturday. I think we need a trailer for the boat soon.
For 3 weeks every time I was taking the bus into town I saw that
cute little dog walking on the lonely jungle road, each time he was a bit
closer to the marina and at the third week, I saw him in the marina. I tried to
have him come up to me, but he was very shy and scared. The second day same
thing, then I went for the concert. As I returned 4 days later, here was the
same dog running towards me and jumping up and down wanting to get pet, wow. I
loved it. In the meantime he has gotten so much food and love from everybody in
the marina and one of the cruisers even organized to get him fixed and the
doctor gave him all the shots needed and a passport to travel, all he needed
now was a home.
All the girls in our Diva group love dogs and on several occasions
one or the other has taken a stray dog in, so I posted Lucky (the name
everybody chose for him as he was lucky to find us) on our whatsapp chat.
Melania lost her dog a little over a year ago so thought hmmm maybe they are
ready for a dog again so she got that text twice with the Divas and a personal
chat. She called me 5 minutes later saying what a coincidence her and Jim had
just said to each other that they were ready for a dog and when they looked at
the photo Jim said he looked like the dog they had lost so they took him. Lucky
found himself a wonderful home. It actually was very cute when we put him in
the car. Melania sat with him in the back seat, he snuggled right up to her put
his head on her lap and his paw in her hand and stayed like this for the entire
2 hour trip. They did stop at the pet store and Melania said he was just
looking through the window watching them never barked or tried to get out. He
knew he was going home. He gets along very well with Blacky the 14 old almost
blind dog, he even likes cats but their cat does not want anything to do with
Lucky.
Begin of February the ARC (Around the World Rally 18 months)
arrived, Juan at the restaurant asked me if I would do Karaoke for them and in return
I was invited at the parties. I looooove Karaoke and so did all the ARC people
it was a huge success. I had 3 mikes set up and at one time 20 people were
singing into them at the same time.
One mega yacht also joining had so much fun that a months later
when the crew returned to the boat the chief engineer asked me if I would do
another karaoke for them. Another fun evening was had by everyone.
Best that came from this, at a potluck the crew showed up and the
chef asked question where to buy this or that, I had an answer for everything
so he asked if I would like to go shopping with him and show all my gourmet
stores. 2 days later a big van picked us up and took us to Panama City. Let me
tell you this was my best shopping day ever. He had so much fun and bought so
much stuff and said he never thought he would be able to find all he needed
here. He was ecstatic when he found not just green curry in big containers but
all the other curries as well. It was a successful shopping trip. Of course we
talked recipes the whole entire way.
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| Cold cuts that would last a year on Paradise |
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| At casa de Jamon all three coolers FULL |
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| 5 shopping carts full of stuff at Riba Smith |
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| All the boys getting everything to the van |
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| Price Smart |
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| Glad we had a Van. He is sooooo happy |
Two days afterward he asked me if it was too early for me to come
to their boat before 9 am. No not at all I said ,he said OK be there at 8
sharp. The chief engineer invited Sid. So there we were at 8 am getting, Sid
and engine tour, and I got the royal galley/kitchen and crew quarters tour,
wow, makes you want to crew on one of those luxurious mega yachts.
The Yacht has since departed and is on their way to Galapagos,
Marquesas, Tahiti, Vancouver, Alaska then back through the Canal to the
Caribbean and on and on.
Sid is getting very popular for transits. He has done 13 Panama
Canal transit as line handler and loves it. I have a feeling there will be a
few more until we go through. In between he repairs odds and end on Paradise
which is an endless story.
We still had the motor to worry with and after all this time
fiddling with it, changing the donut and working on this and that, Sid was sure
it was the prop. He had changed the pitch but now figure out the pitch it is in
now we would need a 54 hp boat. February 17th we got hauled out for
1 ½ hours and Sid with Greg’s assistance put the pitch back to what it was,
while we were in the sling.
While Paradise was lowered into the water we watched one of the
yard guys throwing his fishing net in the water from the haulout dock and a
juvenile cormorant was following his every foot step then eating whatever he
caught for him. I couldn’t believe it. Hope I can download the video for you.
It was a tense moment when we were back in the water and Sid
turned the engine on, put it in gear and oh wow, engine ran smoother than ever.
We took a spin in the Cristobal harbor and all OK now, yeah.
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| our buddy Greg |
Right after that Rogelio organized the addmeasure as the waiting
list to transit was at this time a 2 weeks wait. The addmeasure guy came 2 days
later and a few days after that we received our date March 14th,
they are up to one month now on waiting list. Time to do last minutes project,
like restitching the sails and hoisted them back up, cleanup and other odds and
ends.
We already had line handle set up and decided to order a new
battery charger as this one was getting winky. The new charger arrived and Sid
hooked it up and oh no, the batteries would fill but they would not hold the
charge, so Sid looked at the batteries and a big ouch 3 out of the 4 batteries
on this bank were bulging. So 5 days before our transit we had to cancel and
are now waiting for new batteries being shipped as they are not sold here and
will arrive on April 4th so once again we are stuck. Kinda funny as
we remember trying to leave Colon the first time we were here in 2000, it took
3 attempts and seemed like everybody else had the same problem. We came up with
Colon is definitely the colon of Panama. In order to leave colon you need an
enema. Colon is like Hotel California can check in but not out.
The
camaraderie of the cruisers makes this one of the best marinas but the BS of
how the marina is run, you don’t find it too hard to leave. Been here way to
long.
It’s been all of 6 months now since we last checked into the
Shelter Bay Marina and the depressing news about batteries was soon forgotten
as I really do enjoy the open mike gathering in the marina. Frank had asked me
for over a year ago to play Pata Pata, so I did learn that song Including the
clicking sound this African language uses. You tube is amazing, tutorial this
or that and I found a tutorial on the African language and managed to learn the
click that was needed for this song. It’s a very catchy song and now everybody
is singing along. The other song Frank wanted me to play is “Don’t worry be
Happy” well, I really can’t stand this song, so told him no. He insisted that
people will sing along. Well after some of the mishaps that happened while we
were here I told him I would, but I surprised him with changed lyrics. Change
it to:
“Don’t worry, shit happens!”
Don’t worry shit happens you can hear at least once a day someone
sing it on any dock, it’s turned into a very catchy song, and shit does happen
not just on our boat LOL. Oh and yes the batteries have been added to it.
We met the new owners of Mischief. Kelly, Darren and Mizzen the
cutest dog, but very, very skittish. Nobody can pet her. Kelly and Darren
needed to go into town and needed a doggie sitter, which I love to do. They
left, I opened the hatch to get Mizzen out for a walk, but instead she zipped
through my legs and off the boat and by the time I hit the dock running after
her she was loooong gone. Just good the two were still here and met me half
way. I walked her at least 5 times that day but never took the leash off her.
After every walk I would sit with her and oh what a cuddle bug she is. I now
can’t walk by her boat without her scrambling on deck jumping off the dock to
be pet. And don’t dare to walk by her boat without saying hi to her she will
run after me and nip me in the leg looking up at me like “What the heck were
you thinking!!” We still miss Crystal and Tika but we do get our pet fix in.
Some day…..
Just waiting for the batteries, while we get a few projects out of
the way. As soon as we have power again we will get another transit date and
Paradise will start new adventures.
So until then I probably should wish you all Happy Easter already
plus Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms.
PS: still don’t have the dinghy chaps, begin of January I was told
it takes 6 to 8 weeks to order them, I looked at the boss and said so why did
you not order them when I told you so in September I would have them by now! They
say soon but I don’t hold my breath.
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| My friend Debbie's BD |
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| Redneck Bill and Manuela |
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| amazing how fast the new Canal bridge is being built |
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| Dinner at Ida's |
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| Sabine from boat that was hit by lightning in January |
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| At Ida's with Ultra |
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| our bus trips to PC |
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| My buddy Carol, Gregt's wife |
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