28th Feb 2013
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| Butterfly orchids growing on a coconut palm |
After a hectic month in Cape Town, catching up with family,
and friends, enriching doctors, dentists, optometrists and the like, fighting
with odious and obnoxious governmental bureaucrats, as well as some incredibly
inefficient banking personnel
at Standard Bank,……. we
returned to Panama, to face an equally
alarming list of things to do, and jobs
to tackle before we were able to transit the canal.
We had to
collect and fit the big new Raymarine hydraulic ram which we had ordered for
the Pacific before we left, fit the new Class B AIS transceiver and our
serviced / repaired chart plotter, take delivery of the new Genoa, and repaired
genaker from Quantum, refuel with 450lts diesel , re commission the water
maker, and restock the boat for a full 5 month period in which we will be
sailing by far the longest leg of our
circumnavigation.
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| Courtyard of the Riande Hotel |
We landed at Tocumen airport after what seemed like 48 hours
flying time! Our clothing luggage had missed the connection and was left behind
in the chaos in Amsterdam, caused by the heavy snowfalls. We spent the Sunday
night in a very nice hotel, close to the airport called the Riande, which quite
frankly, we were too knackered to appreciate!
We had arranged with Protecsa, the Raymarine agents, with
whom we had ordered the new kit, to stay over in Panama City for the Sunday
night, and visit their store on the Monday to collect our goods. We had also
arranged for our reliable Almedo, the taxi driver from Shelter Bay, to meet us
at the Riande at 9.00am, and take us to Protecsa. Almedo was amazed at how empty he found the
roads…… that should have been our clue! We arrived at Protecsa to find it
closed! Tuesday was Carnival day, and the whole of Panama had taken the Monday
off to create a long week end ! Protecsa included! I pulled out my email from Robert, my man at
Protecsa, confirming our appointment for the Monday. In it, he had pointed out
that he would be in the USA, but that his boss would be expecting us. I showed
it to the armed security guard (sawn off double barrel shotgun), and asked him
for the bosses phone number. I phoned him on the taxi drivers phone and asked
him why there was nobody there to receive me. Carnival, he explained. When I
read him Roberts email, he asked me to wait a couple of minutes, during which
he phoned Robert in New York for confirmation, and then made a plan to open the
shop especially for me!
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| Back to Shelter Bay Marina |
In half an hour we were on our way back to Shelter Bay with
all the Raymarine kit. The manager had made a decision to look after a
customer!! Well done!! Its a pity that Standard
Bank seems have forgotten that they too, have customers!
During the next week, I removed the old B & G ram, and,
with the help of a fellow cruiser with on board welding facilities, modified
and reinforced the mounting pad to fit
the stronger and bigger Raymarine unit.
I then fitted and commissioned it, as well as the new AIS, and the repaired
Chart plotter. There had been no charge for the plotter, which I took as an
acknowledgement that the problems were gremlins in their software all along!
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| New hydraulic ram (autohelm) |
The hull, with our relatively new antifoul, was encrusted
with barnacles, and the prop looked like a soccer ball. Two hours later, thanks
to the little 12v dive compressor, it was all smooth and shiny again.
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| Stock taking and provisioning |
Then began the daunting task of taking stock of all food
remaining on board, and preparing anticipated requirements , subtracting stocks
on hand, to create a shopping list which would see us through the next 5
months! At this time, we also had 30 plus Oyster yachts in the marina, who were
all restocking for their next stage in their “ Round the World Rally”. These 60 footers,
with their full 6 man crews, went through all the shops like a plague of
locusts, making our more modest replenishment very difficult indeed! We
eventually decided to wait until they had left, and the shops had had time to
restock their shelves!
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| The World Oyster Rally in Shelter Bay |
We finally manage to get our missing luggage back from the
airport, 10 days later. This was not due to any efforts by KLM, who frankly, did
nothing to help. Instead, it was thanks to our very large and persistent taxi
driver, who, armed with copies of our ID’s, tickets, luggage coupons, and
letters of authority, good Spanish, and
a $50 incentive, REFUSED to take “NO” for an answer, and argued his way through
to the bowels of the airport, and pinned the little clerk to his desk , demanding action! Bingo! It had
indeed arrived on the next flight, 9 days earlier, but that had been during
carnival!!
KLM, have finally acknowledged the inefficiency, and
refunded my expenses, by way of an apology.
Bit by bit, things were falling into place, to the point
where I could finally take off two days to experience a transit as a line
handler on a fellow cruisers yacht, with Bear and Pepe Millard, on Beez Neez.
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| Preparing Sheer Tenacity for the transit |
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