Finally .....time to go!

We returned to the boat early October, relieved to avoid the colder weather back in the U.K. The boat yard had moved Orion out of the security pen ready for us to start work on her. The blisters that we ground out before leaving looked good, dry and no smell which I'm told is a good sign we now had to wait for a few dry days to fill the holes and apply our Coppercoat. Waiting for dry days in Panama in early October is no mean task. It rains, really rains most days and evidence of this was the colour of our ropes....all black, our dinghy covered in black mould and generally the outside of the boat was fifty shades of green and black. It took a whole day to clean up the dinghy and we after scrubbing our lines we hung them out on a line under the boat to let them dry between showers! 
We had our Coppercoat safely stored away in an inside locker, or so we thought. As we opened the locker together it out we realised that one of the bottles of resin had split in the heat depositing it contents in the bottom of the locker. A horrible sticky,gloopy mess stuck to the bottom of the locker and to anything in its path. We realised quickly that this meant we did not have enough Coppercoat for the job but for once we realised that luck was on our side as a really nice Canadian skipper who had put Coppercoat on the bottom of his catamaran came over to us in the yard and on the off chance asked us if we needed any! Coppercoat has a shelf life and really can only be kept for a year or so and as he was going through to the Pacific side his 'spare' would not be useable by the time he got to New Zealand ....so result ......we had our Coppercoat! We now just had to wait for the rain to stop. This is particularly important when applying Coppercoat, as its water based and rain will just wash it way. We needed one day  without rain to apply our four coats and we had wait patiently for over a week before the got the right weather window . Up with the lark or in Panama it's the Howler monkeys, we got our four coats on, the heat helping to set the thin layers of Copper within an hour or so for each coat. However our fingers were still crossed for no rain for 48 hours after application ....a tall order! So we covered all the bits of the hull we had treated with black bin bags and hoped the would stay on ....they did. 
Finally after nearly three weeks in the yard we could splash back in the water and wait for our new anchor chain there. After a false alarm when one of the hoses went on the Travel lift we eventually made it into the water, a day later than planned but ...relief! 
Whilst in the water Tropical Storm Otto decided to hit the region, tucked up in Shelter Bay we were safe enough. It is exactly what the name would suggest, good shelter. The winds in Shelter Bay never really got beyond 40 knots but the rain was torrential for around two days and the flooding in Colon was a problem along with the palm trees blown knocking out the power. The power was down for two days and whilst there is a generator for the hotel we were without power for just over two days on the dock. Some people were getting a bit twitchy about that and the thought of being without air con was more than some boats could bare. One boat bought another generator (their third!) as they thought they would be without power for quite a few days only for the power to come back on hours after the order was finalised. Well as I said to them ...you can never have too many generators! He failed to see the humour in that statement having just spent $900 needlessly. 

Our anchor chain arrived a week or so after and after marking it and after general checks we felt we were hot to trot but John being John did one final check and... almost afraid to tell me he finally owned up to the fact that he thought we had a problem with our heat exchanger....what the hell? John revealed that whilst down in the engine room he had felt air blowing out of the heat exchanger and on closer examination after taking the heat exchanger to bits we found that there were small holes in heat exchanger where the exhaust water injection takes place.... What next!!? By this time we had already checked out of Panama but hey ho if we couldn't leave we couldn't leave so after much deliberation and with the help of JB Weld we filled the holes so that the heat exchanger worked perfectly and we set sail for Porto Lindo trying to get as far East as possible before heading North to Providencia.It was good to be back on the water again! 
Whilst waiting for our chain we hired a car and spent a day in Panama City. Panama City is quite different to Colon, money has been spent on renovation and there are some pretty squares centred around the churches, reminiscent of Cartegena, though if I had to choose between the two I would choose Cartegena. Hopefully some day Panama will invest some money into Colon.

The joys of boat ownership

So it has been a long time since the last blog and a lot has happened .....not all of it good. Having got back to the boat after a great week in Gibraltar visiting Sarah, John's daughter and her family and then a week down in Kent dog sitting for my sister, we were pleased to see that the interior was mould free and whilst she needed a good clean nothing too serious. However, the heat had taken a toll on one particular area of the interior. John and I had spent a long time when we were in Gibraltar all those years ago replacing the headlining and relieving Orion of what is known by other Amel owners as 'Amel droop'! It was a pig of a job but we took comfort in the thought that it was a job once completed would no need to be revisited.......how wrong could we be. The intense heat of both Colombia and Panama has taken its toll and now virtually all of our efforts those years ago in Gib have been in vain.....the bloody linings all coming off! The problem is not the adhesive but the sponge lining has just degraded to dust with the combination of heat and humidity. I have to admit I shed a tear with the thought of having to do that particular job again! 
Well we decided we would come out the water replace the anodes and check the bottom. Once out we replaced the anodes no problem but we were dismayed to find small osmosis bubbles start to appear once we had been out a day or so. I know that boats don't sink as a result of osmosis but we had a decision to make do we grind all the bubbles out ( around 30 or so mainly on one side and around the water line ) and then leave the to dry or do we carry on? After a lot of deliberation we decided to grind the buggers out and leave the boat on the hard for a couple of months. Returning back to the UK for a couple of months would enable John to get his eyes fixed, something we had been toying with for a while. John has glasses that fix in the middle over the bridge of the nose with tiny magnets joining up the two halves......leaning over the compass with those glasses ......not a good idea when trying to navigate! They drove the compass wild. The plan was to have lens replacement in both eyes but we needed to be in the UK for at least three months to get the surgery done. The procedure itself takes no more than a day but the after care would involve regular check ups. This seemed to be the ideal opportunity to get the work done. 

We left Orion on the hard but not before discovering yet another problem. When we leave her John always empties all the anchor chain out of the anchor locker and when we attempted to do it this time we discovered that having been in the Marina for so long and as a result yet again of the humidity rain and heat ....the last forty metres of chain was just one massive rusty clump impossible to free and get out of the anchor locker! Access to our anchor locker is via a small locker in the bow so armed with a lump hammer and hacksaw John wriggled his way into the locker and tried to hack solid ball of rust free. There was much sweat, cursing, swearing and blood sweat and tears but with a taxi due to take us to the airport in a couple of hours he had to admit defeat. The job would have to wait until we returned when we would also have to buy new anchor chain. Bliss and Joy! Something to look forward to on our return!

CapeTown Capers

It has been several months now since the last post and whilst we have not been back on the boat we have been busy! After Italy we moved on to visiting John's brother in South Africa. I had been before and had been telling John for a while that we should go. John has not seen his brother for quite a time and then it was under sad circumstances, his Dads funeral. So after some discussion it was agreed we would meet his brother Arthur and his wife in Western Cape. John and I were there for over two weeks. The scenery was spectacular the weather great and the prices unbelievably cheap since the Rand has taken a nose dive. We spent five days touring the area around Stellenbosch and just had to go on a wine tour. It was a great day out, we visited five vineyards tasting a variety of beautiful wines, bought a few bottles to drink whilst we were there and finished off with a bottle of Port. If you go it's a must, every vineyard is different....different setting, different wine and all very welcoming.

We also went to Fishermans Wharf, Hout Bay, travelling along the beautiful coastline watching the yachts sail into the Bay,it did not look an easy sail coming in along that coast. The seals here seem to be well trained at hopping onto the quay for fish as the boats come in! The wharf has modelled itself on the area with the same name in San Francisco and whilst it is somewhat smaller it was a good place to lap up the sunshine with good food and of course excellent wine! 

After we said goodbye to Arthur and Lynne, it was so good to see them, we made our way along the coast to Hermanus. I had been there nearly thirty years and wow how it has changed! Then it was a small town where at the right time you could see the whale flipping about in the sea coming to feed off the abundant krill in the area. Not the right time for this in March but there is still lots to see regarding the whales in the area and Hermanus is a busy, bustling town with lots of tourists. We were staying outside Hermanus in a great little B&B, the Amakhosi Guesthouse, good value, a lovely breakfast and a good spot to use as a base to explore the region, and explore we certainly did.....
Off to Betty's Bay to see the penguins 

A beautiful meal in a great location up in the hills above Gans Bay, the Bella Vista, where we both had a delicious meal, a stunning bottle of red, a sweet and coffees all for the outrageous price of £33! 

The CapeCanopy Zipwire tour located in the Hottentots Holland Nature Reserve, we zipped our way across eleven zip lines into a previously inaccessible and pristine part of  this amazing World Heritage Site. Whilst I have to admit to being a little wary about the thought of zipping across ravines it was actually the journey up to the top on the van that was more scary.......and that was before we had even started our zips down! The ride across this mountainous terrain was not made any better when John noticed that the handbrake on/ brake fluid low light was on! He did point this out to the driver when we got off, but I have to say we were mightily relieved that a different bus was at the collection point to take us down from where the zip lines had dropped us off! The drive down the hill was even worse than the ride up......not for the feint hearted! However a really great afternoon. I recommend it!

We were sad to leave South Africa and politics the Western Cape is a beautiful place. I am sure we will return. We left to return to the UK using Ethiopian Airlines, not sure why we booked it....well I do, it was cheap! This meant a stop off in Addis Ababa,only five hours but I was not sure what to expect. Well we found, a busy airport with not a Macdonalds or Starbucks in sight ( that's got to be a plus!) but restaurants with open bbqs selling local produce which gave the airport lounge a different smell, but the best things was the loungers where you could get your head down for a couple of hours if you weren't disturbed by the airport workers walking past shouting out various flights....' Beijing, Bejing anyone for Bejing!' No flash airline departure boards here! Well there was something but it didn't work! The flight itself was no problem and we arrived on time back at Heathrow just in time to catch the X26 bus to my Mums and for John to have his usual rant at Londoners who do not seem to know understand how to form an orderly queue....happens every time! LOL!