25 January 2010

Day 20: Panama – 25/01/10

We are wakened by Jim calling to for Mike to go with him to look for the missing fender that we think we have spotted on the far side of the marina last night.  They get the dinghy down, and as luck would have it, it is ours.  By the time I get up, a watery sun has broken through over the marina.

P1020133Photo:  Sunrise over Flamenco Marina

As we have not managed to get hold of Ruth, the guide we hope to book for a couple of days, in time for a trip today, we decide to have an easy day.  Peter books her to take us to the Indian village tomorrow and for a Panama City tour on Wednesday.

I put lots of photos of Brown Eyed Girl on my memory stick and set out to search for her in the marina.  Luckily I spot Joe walking towards me and with his help manage to find Judith and Tom at the WCC office.  I tell Nick about being fleeced by the government yesterday (the ‘Sanitation Inspection’) and he tells me that it is legit but a new regulation that they knew nothing about and that they will refund our money.

During the morning we are visited by two more legitimate bandits.   The first one is Customs.  Ok, that’s normal.  The second mob is ‘Quarantine’.  More money (of course) and more paperwork.  When we tell WCC they then start to tell all the WARC boats to remove their flags as it is obvious that we are being targeted!

It is a stifling hot day in the marina.  I watch the temperature rise to 35 degrees.  I am desperately trying to sort the blog out which has decided to duplicate everything – almost.  Everyone else goes to the bar for a cold drink and I sit in a bikini and sizzle over a computer.  When they come back we have lunch then we all have a nap.

Late in the afternoon, Mike and Peter sort out the genoa.  At the bottom Mike inserts new internal bearings into the genoa furling gear then he goes back up mast and adjusts the genoa halyard deflector (no I don’t know what that is either).  He fully intends sorting out the mast navigation lights once and for all but runs out of time and he is lowered just as the sun is setting.

P1020137  Photo:  With the light failing, Mike gives up for the day

P1020135 Photo:  Sunset over The Causeway

While they have been busy, Penny has being dying my hair and I have to say she makes a pretty good job of it.  I have bought all the right equipment from the wholesalers in the UK and mixed up the right proportions of dye and peroxide and it turns out well.

In the evening we go to the bar at the marina as we can’t be bothered to cook.  It’s quite an early start tomorrow.

P1020143 Photo:  The crew, drinking again!

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