Day 32: Panama to Ecuador – 06/02/10

I sleep badly and wake when it’s still dark, then can’t get back to sleep, so I wait, and wait, and eventually Mike wriggles enough for me to say “are you awake?, which, by now of course, he is, so he gets up and makes the tea.  Result!

We have no plans to go anywhere today so Mike brings me my computer and I sit up in bed and catch up with more e-mails, and more importantly, use Skype to call back to the UK.

When I eventually get up I decide that today is wash day, and strip the beds.  Although the washing machine has made life much easier, not being automatic means it still takes an absolute age, but the results are better.

OK, it goes like this.  You have to put the water in the washer – it takes four bucket loads to do this – then put the stuff in, switch on and it does its stuff, let the water out (scrubbing the decks in the meantime with the water that pours out – after all, you can’t waste water), put the stuff bit by bit in the spinner, spin,put it back in the washer, pour over more water, let it swish again to rinse, let the water out (throwing the water over somewhere else to scrub because you still can’t waste it as it costs so much to produce), put the stuff bit by bit in the spinner … and that’s all there is to it. 

Photo:  Doing the laundry – sigh, a woman’s work is never done!!

See, now you can understand why it has given me so much pleasure!  But it all takes so much time, and all that deck scrubbing in the meantime is such a pain but you can’t let the water to to waste – oh, I think I’ve already made that point!!!!!

Mike and Jim go for a dinghy ride while all this activity is going on to see what is around the bay, and go a little distance inland up the river.

When they come back I organise them with jobs.  Mike is tasked with organising his work cupboards into the new boxes we bought and Jim fixes the hole in the ceiling of the salon.  I tidy the rear cabin on our side so that the bed can be made up as this will as usual serve as our sea cabin as we are starting the journey to Ecuador in the morning which should take 4 or 5 days.

In the late afternoon all the locals come out in their canoes again and come round to the boats, trying to sell stuff.  I bought all I wanted, souvenir-wise, yesterday, and Jim does a good job fending them off.  Again though, they are not pushy or aggressive, but sit patiently in their canoes when you don’t buy anything.  Someone does come along eventually selling oranges and Jim buys some.

There is no wind in the bay at all, and it is boiling hot.  Sweat just pours off when ever you try to do anything at all inside the boat, so by late afternoon we all take showers before heading over to Tucanon for drinks.  All the boats in the anchorage have been invited so there are about 20 of us.  Good job it’s a cat!

Photo:  Irene, Christine, Marie-Anne and myself

By the way, for those of you who think that what we are doing is exciting, you can join us for a taste of our life.  Just like we did in the British Virgin Islands, we are offering cruises around the area of Tahiti and Bora Bora in April and May this year, either on a full boat or cabin only basis, catered or captain only.  For information, please e-mail Jeannius@sailbvi.net but remember, we could be at sea so don’t worry if you don’t get an immediate reply!