Panama

So we finally found a decent weather window.....not an easy task in Colombia, either no wind, too much wind or wind going the wrong way it seems to me! We decided to leave early in the morning hoping that it would then allow us to get sixty miles or so before dark but also for us to be I front of the edge of the strong winds that were evident on Weather 4D our weather app of choice. As I let slip the lines I noticed that there were swarms of midges behind the stern sheltering from the wind! Usually the wind has been strong enough to keep the mossies and no seeums away but this morning they seemed to be out in full force and by the time we had slipped the lines and driven out of the marina with the gearbox behaving beautifully both John and I realised that we were both starting to resemble a pin cushion! The insects had had a tasty breakfast and the scratching that continued over the next two days had started! 

We had a good sail winds around twenty knots to start and then the wind moved around onto a reach..... we averaged six and a half knots covering about 165nm day one though we did slow down day two. The trip I'm glad to say was uneventful and we decided we did not want to go into Colon in the dark so we put into Portabello, dropped the hook and chilled over the weekend. It was like a millpond in there so we had plenty opportunity to catch up on some sleep. The anchorage at Portobello is disturbed by water taxis whizzing across the bay ferrying workers and assorted travellers to both sides of the Bay. It is also littered with 'dead' boats which is sad to see. We did not put our dinghy in the water but noticed that the water taxis came very close to the boats and particularly at night if your dinghy was not raised then it was possibly dicing with disaster! We lit up our cockpit to ensure the boat boys could see us as they ferried revellers back on Saturday night. Apart from the drumbeat that went on into the early hours and the unmistakeable sound of outboard engines the anchorage was still and we both slept soundly. 

We figured it would take us about five hours to get to Shelter Bay. Leaving early Monday morning on another good reach we got to the outskirts of Colon and the numerous parked large cargo vessels in good time. Going through busy anchorages like this is when AIS is really useful, it makes it so much easier to identify those parked and those still moving very slowly.you can also earwig in on some interesting conversations on the VHF......one interesting one we listened to between two large cargo ships ' Vessel A I have you on my AIS what are your intentions? ' ' Vessel B I am at anchor, repeat I am at anchor' ' Vessel A we have a cpa (closest point of approach).         of .5nm what are your intentions?' Somewhat exasperated the reply came back 'we are at anchor!' The reply was an increasingly concerned and edgy ' yes you are at anchor but we are not under command ( in other words drifting! ) stunned silence on the end of the radio and then came the reply 'Standby' .......we heard no more from these two ships and looked at the AIS monitor to see if we could work out who it might be ...but no luck they were probably out of our range but hoping the outcome was not too stressful! 
As you can see from the picture it is a little busy in Colon! 

However we are safely tucked up here in Shelter Bay and planning what next?!

Just about ready to leave!

Amazingly having been in Colombia for nearly five months ......has it really been nearly five months?! In that time we have painted the decks,replaced the gearbox as well all those boat jobs that are standard....oil change, fuel filters the list is endless but necessary.

We tried to source a gearbox in Colombia but all the advice we got was it was a logistical nightmare so in the end John hopped on a plane to Miami, picked one up that we had shipped down from Washington and bought it back in his suitcase! Fortunately our Hurth gear box weighed 20kg and fitted neatly into our hard suitcase so there were no problems with weight. John was three days in Miami and he was quite surprised by the place. The buses were free,the roads wide and tree lined and the hotel he stayed in was run by Greeks....it's a small world. He managed to keep himself in check as he perused West Marine chandlery where he got chatting to one of the staff who hailed from Cork and after a long chat with him he managed to get staff discount....I think it's called having the gift of the gab!

I had to go back to UK for a couple of weeks so John fitted the gearbox then and a fine job he did too! By the time I returned he had the thing fitted the shaft aligned and Dorothy, our Perkins engine was purring nicely and obviously pleased with the new addition in the engine room!

The week before we were due to leave we had some rough weather one night. The Colombians call it ..'pollos culo'...which roughly translated means 'chickens Arse'. Basically it's when the wind comes out of the South/ South West . The weather did not last that long but by daybreak the damage was evident. All the yachts had no problem but two of the fishing boats were sunk. It would seem that both of them had no automatic bilge pump. The heavy rain filled the boats and the wind slapped more sea water over their sterns which were close to the water line as they had large outboards weighing them down. Both were towed onto dry land in a sorry state .....it will be a long time before they get those outboards going again ....if at all!
Before we came to Colombia many of those that know us back in the UK asked....'Is it safe?' Well we felt perfectly safe but whilst in Puerto Velero the Armarda boys who guard the coast managed to impound a fishing boat that was full of drugs.They towed the boat in and it put along side the Catamaran that had been impounded a long while back for the same offence .....they were getting quite a collection! We got quite friendly with some of the Armarda who lived in a container at the end of the pontoon. They changed shift about every month but once a week a whole bus load would arrive for training which seemed to consist of going to the end of the pontoon and jumping off and the having to swim to the shore or drag themselves onto the pontoon. They would of course sing as they swam.....all good male bonding stuff.
Finally we figured we were ready to leave so asked JC if he would clean the hull and the propellor which he did free diving! He told us that an octopus had taken up residence on part of our hull and had had to evict him! Our prop cleaned we were finally hot to trot.

It's not all sun,sea and cerveza!

Is it a bird ?.....is it a plane?....no it's a dead gear box or transmission as they like to call it over here. 
For a while I have been saying to John ' you know our engine sounds different' john has shook his head and assured me 'I can't hear anything' ....so we both put it down to the odd vibration from something in the saloon. When we sailed into Puerto Velero John had remarked.....' There must be a very strong current I'm sure we should be doing more than 4.5 knots with this wind !' ....but we moored fine in our spot and truth be told forgot all about these warning signs. 
We should have suspected something when our morse became more difficult to put in gear....but John changed the morse for a spare we had and tested the gear box every day to check we were good to go for our trip to Panama. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! 

We caught a taxi to immigration and the same pleasant guy who stamped our passports in stamped them out. He wished us a pleasant trip and said he hoped we would return to Colombia....
It was afternoon before our zarpe arrived....we were good to go. John sorted out the lines and I was going to take her out. I put the morse into gear and to say we crawled away from the dock is no exaggeration.....something was not right. However, we persevered and got as far as the green buoy at the entrance and John had had enough, there was little wind and it was obvious there was something wrong so turning into what wind there was we dropped the hook and John started to investigate. It was clear there was something wrong with our forward gear, up came the engine lid, out came the spanners(or wrenches for our American friends) and after many Anglo Saxon expletives from both of us, we declared it knackered! 
'Ahh!' says John 'but we have still got reverse....so this is the plan. We stay here tonight and tomorrow unless by some miracle the gearbox sorts itself out, we will reverse into our former spot' 
At this point we notice the Marina rib on its way out to us. That's good we both thought and really thoughtful of them to come out and make sure we are ok. On closer scrutiny we saw that Christina, the nice girl from the office, was also in the rib with Alex the dock master.....'Mister John!' She calls out ' I have made a mistake, you still owe us 19,000 pesos!! ' No what's wrong, how can we help just relief that we were still able to pay them .LOL. Alex had thought that we had decided to drop the hook and leave early the next day so had offered Christina a lift to collect her money. Well we had no pesos left and so we did a deal ... It was twenty bucks or nothing ....Christina was very happy with twenty bucks as she kept apologising for her error we told Alex of our dilemma and our plan for the following day. 'Si, Si no problem ....'

Up early the next day and with a light north westerly we sat having our breakfast talking over the plan for getting back on our mooring when there is a knock on the hull. It's Juan Carlos ( Juan Ca for short ....I know it's terrible but everyone calls him it and I guess ignorance is bliss!) , the assistant dock master and he's wondering what is happening. Well JC ( a much better nickname in my opinion) speaks no English so out comes the iPad and John uses a translation app we have to explain to him what is wrong and our master plan. Laboriously but successfully John speaks to the iPad and the iPad then speaks to JC in Spanish and it works! ' Si, Si no problem!' 
So with me bringing up the hook and JC back on the pontoon ready to take our lines ....we are ready to execute 'the plan'......
Well John puts her into reverse and she starts to move then the most horrendous noise emanates from the engine room. It is difficult to describe....it sounded like all of John's spanners we're spinning around a tumble dryer!! This could mean only one thing....we had no reverse. Revert to PlanB ..... We would have to sail onto the end of the pontoon. JC understood my gesticulations and moved onto the end of the finger pontoon ready John busied getting lines altered and fenders down as I sailed her slowly, very slowly to the dock. Several tacks later we had to do a 360 to line her up and I was used the bow thruster to edge her towards the dock. It became obvious we would not make the end of finger D but looked good for finger E. JC did his Usain Bolt impersonation sprinting around the dock arriving just as John was jumping ashore. We were back! 
The following Monday we made a trip back into town to see our good friend at immigration. The Marina had phoned to explain our problem and the Immigration Officer was all smiles welcoming us back to Colombia and stamping us in for 90 days. 
John had the gearbox out within a day and declared the gearbox terminal.....now all we had to do was source a new one, get it to Colombia and fit it! Simple!