The first steps on a boat that has been sitting for six months
could be chocking. Especially when you left your boat in the water and the
marina hauled it out as one the first boats ever hauled out. When I returned to
the marina, ten days ago, at 9:30pm, I stepped into a flooded cabin. The
batteries were dried and shut, as a result, the bilge pump stop working and rainwater
down the mast and other leaks flooded the inside of the boat. Luckily, the
water was lower than the engine. I was pumping out water and cleaning till
early morning hours.
 |
| Turtle Cay Boat Yard |
The way it seems, Earthling will remain on land
for at least 3 more weeks. Turtle Cay Marina has a beautiful boatlift, that is
not working, it never has been working in this marina. They must order a crane
to come in and put the boats in the water. This is a new marina, remote from
anywhere. Closest village is down the curvy dirt road in the rainforest to the
main road, and then another ten minutes drive to Nombre De Dios. The first big city, for
provisioning and boat parts is Colon. You can take a chicken bus from Nombre De
Dios to Colon, but you might sit next to passengers that are holding a chicken
on their lap! It makes it all more adventures. Finding boat parts in Panama is
not as easy as walking into a major chandlery in the U.S. Even though there
are a few chandleries, but if they don’t carry what you looking for, you can’t
really order it either! You have to search to find things! That requires going
to Panama City, which is 2-3hrs drive from the marina. The best option for me
was to rent a car from the airport and gather supplies and do a major provisioning. Otherwise, things would have taken much longer time. I purchased "Petit
Trinidad" antifouling paint, but they didn’t have it in red so I had to buy it in black at the highest price ever. After a
few days of searching, I found good deals on 4DM batteries, but I still haven’t been
able to find fuel filters!
 |
| Settled Base |
There is a list of projects that I hope
to accomplish before start cruising again.
The list is long and it goes by priority.
Before getting launched, everything below has to be done, such as getting the bottom ready for paint. Which includes scraping off the barnacle shells and lightly sand the hull. The keel has to be faired, since we hit reefs in Kuna Yala.
A friend of mine lost his boat 3 weeks ago on a reef in San Blas. The Garmin
charts are "off" in this area and sailors must keep a careful outlook. In our
case we were lucky! Furthermore, two stern through-hulls leak and must be re-caulked.
The propeller and shaft have to be cleaned and new zinc put on. Then everything is
ready to apply the bottom paint. After that, the top of the hull needs to be polished and waxed.
Priority number two is to service the engine,
which includes changing fuel filters, oil filter, and oil. I must also take
apart and clean the starter from rust debris. In addition, the starter solenoid
must be replaced since we’ve experienced difficulties starting the engine
before. Also, the auto syphon must be inspected since it sprays out too much
water.
The next priority is to recaulk the stanchions and
shroud fittings, a job that needs four hands! And then there are zillions of
other small things to do. This part of "Cruising Life Style" is not as pretty as
it looks on the pictures of white sandy beaches with palm trees. But I have to
admit, this marina’s location is just like heaven, there are two long beautiful
beaches just by here and there are monkey families living up the trees not far from the boat. It’s as
isolated as it can get on a deserted Island.
 |
| The tent is setup and utilized as storage area, last time we used it in Barbuda |
Love from Turtle Cay Marina in Panama
