Beachwalk on Caranero Island in Bocas area.
It has been several months since I updated our blog. Partly from being busy, partly from malaise, partly having an ongoing parade of issues, partly because of internet issues but mostly from uncertainty about everything. 2021 seemed to be the year that everything that could go wrong. Did go wrong. It has been 7 years since we bought this boat and have been living aboard cruising so I called it the "7-year itch." If you've never heard of it, the "7 year itch" was a 1950's movie about a theory that after 7 years people in a relationship reach a point of turmoil and point of reckoning. So I think our boat reached that point and we are having to deal with it. Well, that's my story
Lunch in Coconut Grove during our first quick Miami stop.
The seal we had to get called an ApistileWe continue to move on and look forward to getting back on our plan. Besides the gremlins on the boat the world has been in a constant state of change in dealing with Covid and the economic consequences. Looking ahead, new health protocols will play a big role in where we can go and what we can do as they have for many cruisers so far. So while passing through this vortex over the past 6-8 months we flew back to the States to do what we usually do in the summer time. We go back to take care of personal business; see family and friends; shop for things we need to bring back; and have a short glimpse back into our former lives.
This year going back to the US was unsettling. Living very remotely and mostly in a state of isolation when we return to crowded bustling highways, stores and spaces it's a big adjustment. As an example, last year when we flew back to the States we got in an airplane of about 200 people when before that the most people we had been close to at once for months was 5-6. We also don't hear the local news and are not subject to the influences of local media so how people are acting seems very different. The first few years was easy because we weren't that far removed but the longer we go the more removed we become.
As we made our travel plans there were many things to consider. We had events with friends and family that had been planned that we needed to consider, scheduling our medical appointments and time to visit the people we needed to see. We also were handed some business that should have been addressed by a firm we paid to manage our paperwork for our Panamanian residency. When the documents came back the Panamanian Consulate did not complete them correctly. So, our first order of business back in the US was to visit the Panamanian Consulate in Miami to correct this. So, we scheduled a day there and got the matter resolved quickly that gave us time to play a little bit before heading on.
The next day we had to leave for DC so we could drive to Pennsylvania to attend a luncheon for one of my nieces that just got married. With that air leg in mind we concocted a plan to do all our flying in one large loop. From DC we flew to Chicago, from Chicago to Dallas and from there back to Miami. The trip made it easy to see everyone we needed to and the airfare was very cost effective. Another one of the shocks we experienced in our trip was the high cost of hotels and rental cars. It took a significant amount of work to find good pricing and by mixing the use of points from my hotel and rental car
accounts to keep the costs down. For the first time we used Air BnB and used Uber much more extensively. We found off-airport rental car locations that in several instances saved us over a thousand dollars on rentals. We stayed in hotels when the prices were reasoanable, Air BNB's when they weren't. In several instances we reused hotel locations when we found ones with good rates. We also stayed with several friends that helped keep down the hotel costs. But, in the entire trip from Bocas del Toro, we used 8 flights, 5 rental cars, 60 nights in hotels, countless Ubers, most of our meals in restaurants or takeout and it was good to get back after getting everything done.
When we returned to Panama there was a requirement that travelers from the US needed to do a 3 day quarantine and get a negative test before reentering Panama freely. Panama had negotiated rates with 8 hotels that were published. Since I have elite status with Marriott I looked at those properties and the Westin at Playa Bonita had a reasonable rate. I figured if we had to be stuck in a room we would be stuck in a nice place. The hotel upgraded us to a huge 2-room suite with balconies. They
gave us a complementary fruit plate on our arrival and as a welcome gift the next day they gave us a bottle of wine with a cheese and cracker platter. As Sam says in "Casablanca," sort of takes the sting out of being occupied. We got to the hotel late Thursday night and Sunday morning tested out so it was really only 2 days and 3 nights. We got meals by room service. So after 2 months of nonstop go-go in the US a 2-day break was welcome. We had a great view of a beautiful beach and the ocean.
After leaving captivity we remained in Panama City to do what we needed to obtain our residency status and do some sightseeing. Panama City has a tremendous amount of history and of course the canal. Panama City is very cosmopollitan with restaurants of all types and for the most part everyplace we ate was very good. In addition to the ever popular Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) we walked from our hotel to Panama Viejo. Panama Viejo (Old Panama) was Panama City before Casco Viejo. It was the original Spanish port built in 1521 where the riches being extracted on the Pacific side of South America were shipped to Panama and then transported overland to Porto Belo where they were dispatched to Spain.
Panama Viejo was sacked by Henry Morgan and the townspeople burned it to deny the pirates any haven. After its destruction the new Panama was built at the current site of Casco Viejo. Since the opening of the canal the city has grown substantially and beyond the site of Panama Viejo.
It was wonderful to get back home after being gone more than 2 months. Being accustomed to our lifestyle of the past 7 years we tolerate the diversions back to the States and the tourism is fun but we really miss our home. Even though the boat is a lot of constant work. It's home and it's wonderful.
From the time we finally arrived back home in October until we left to go back to the San Blas in February we did some fun things and enjoyed socializing with friends but mostly we did work. We worked to get our boat ready for more adventures but we did some longer term projects as well. We replaced the anchor light that was dying before we left. I replaced the galley faucet with a new and upgraded one. I was able to finish an update on all of our boat teak to keep it fresh looking and tuned the rig which is an annual event. But on to the cause of our delays.
We had scheduled a routine bottom painting in October and after dropping off our dinghy for some canvas upgrades we motored over to the yard in Almirante for haulout to have the bottom repainted. That's when we began to discover issues. The first one we discovered on the way to the Boatyard. Our engine wouldn't go above 2500 RPM at wide open throttle. We normally run about 3000 rpm and the max is about 3800 rpm. So we needed to discover that issue and resolve it. Then while at the Boatyard
in checking I discovered we needed a new Cutlass bearing. The cutlass Bearing is a metal tube with a slotted rubber liner that supports the drive shaft where it goes through the hull allowing water in to cool it but not enough water to be an issue. I didn't have a spare for it. When the bottom work finished we motored back to our slip. I ordered a new Cutlass Bearing from the States and we chased down the engine issue. After some analysis we decided to replace the injectors. So, we ordered those. A seatrial after replacing them showed they were the culprit for the engine woes. One of them seemed to be defective.
Not everything we did revolved around the boat. There were other aspects of life. One day in November I was talking to my oldest son that now lives in Germany and he told me he had found a way to marry his fiance that lived in Vietnam. He could do a Zoom Wedding. He found a county in Utah that recognized them, he found an official who could perform the ceremony and he setup all the technical connections. So one Saturday in November we sat down to watch the computer wedding the power went out in town and knocked out the internet. We missed it. I later saw the unedited video of it. So I'm happy for them.
While we were working on our issues one of our good friends went into the hospital just before Thanksgiving for initially unknown causes but they soon diagnosed it as Prostate Cancer but nobody knew how bad it was. After being kept a few days he was released but only a few days later returned to the hospital and passed away. We went to Changuinola where the hospital was to be with his wife and have been helping her through the affairs.
Our friend Jim Baumgart who passed away in December.
While doing the engine analysis we debated about where to replace the Cutlass Bearing. I could do it myself but would need a yard with tools I didn't have and we wanted to be on our way to the San Blas. We thought about leaving and going to Linton Bay in the eastern part of Panama but we didn't want to do any damage to the engine and I didn't really get a sense of how good the work there would be. So, I decided to do it at the Bocas Boatyard. It was close, we liked being in Bocas and if we got stuck it
wouldn't be a bad place to be stuck. Initially things didn't go badly. We got the old bearing out and the new one installed. Everything reassembled and launched. But, when we tried to motor out the boat shook from the vibration. It was too late to haul us back out so we spent the night on a mooring next to the Chiquita Banana dock. The next morning they pulled us back out and re installed the prop correcting several issues that were discovered and relaunched us and we still had vibrations. The Boatyard wouldn't haul us out again because of other boats needing to be launched and not knowing exactly the cause we limped back out to the mooring and called for a tow back to the marina.
Perplexed, we discussed with lots of people searching for insight. A consensus seemed to be that it was that the engine was now out-of-alignment. I worked on that but it didn't seem to help. This was all happening over the holidays and the Boatyard was closed. After the holidays we scheduled a return and the Manager announced that the parts of the prop were not aligned properly. I'm not sure how he
suddenly arrived at that epiphany but, after hauling us out he removed the prop and reinstalled it. The next morning they dropped us in the water and we went backwards. Again they lifted us out but this time they were too busy with another boat so I removed the prop and reinstalled it myself. The next morning they dropped us in the water and it worked.
We still needed some tweeks to the engine alignment but we could now see that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't a train. What a relief having resolved that issue. Now that we could see a realistic exit it was a scramble to cleanup all the loose ends of tasks to be able to go. I had both of our outboard engines serviced, we started provisioning for long term remote anchoring, did a shakedown on all the systems, had necessary air conditioning reparis completed and checked out everything to avoid more surprises. So after too many months bound to the marina we left for Linton Bay Marina on 08 February 2022 as we went off to the San Blas. Or so we thought.
