Last time we left you, we had just transited through the Panama Canal and dropped the hook in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. This time we will tell you a little about what we have been up to in Panama City and in the case of Ailsa, the UK!
So Ailsa flew home to see the family for a couple of weeks a few days after we arrived leaving me on the boat to sort out many things ready for crossing the Pacific.
Whilst back in the UK for two weeks, Ailsa managed to pack alot in! She and Judith (her mum) first went up to Stirling to see our middle son Caleb where he is in his final year at University studying Philosophy
Back in Nottingham again, our eldest son Ethan and his girlfriend Becky came over from Belfast in Northern Ireland to stay for almost a week.
Vinnie, our youngest also took a trip up from Bristol, where he is studying film and television production at Uni. He stayed for a long weekend and caught up with his mum.
Ailsa even had chance to have some nights out with old friends too.
Meanwhile back in Panama City. I took a trip back to Colon and helped our friends on Coral Moon, Donna and Mark as a line handler for their transit of the Panama Canal. It was a lovely day and a bit less stressful for me as just a line handler instead of the skipper. We were rafted up with a catamaran for all the lock transits. I shared in their joy of arriving in the Pacific.
It was great for me to have Donna and Mark close by on the anchorage. We had several trips out together to source parts in Panama City. One particularly memorable day was spent hunting for stainless steel tubing for solar panel installation. We found an amazingly cheap place. However, the tube came in 6m lengths, impossible to get back to the boat. We asked if we could cut it? No problem, the said and directed us to a chop saw outside where we cut the steel ourselves, sparks flying everywhere, in sandals! No health and safety here!
Yes, we now have starlink on board Azimuth. So far it is pretty amazing. Very fast and works anywhere in the world.
We also even took a couple trips just for fun. A couple of great days out in the Old Town part of the city. This included a trip to the very interesting Panama Canal history museum.
The pictures of people looking sad were those that we sent to Ailsa, to convince her we were having a really bad time without her!
Shopping trips were a plenty and Azimuth started to fill up with food and booze ready for the crossing to the Marquesas. And in the interim, I got on with the list of jobs …. which at times felt never ending! The freezer fix was particularly troublesome, took me a long time to track down the leak and fix it, and finally re-gas the damn thing!
Ailsa arrived back on 14th March, after a long exhausting journey. Still from the UK to Panama, via Amsterdam in 18 hours is not too bad. It was lovely to have her back onboard Azimuth. It had been a strange couple of weeks for me, as we haven’t really been apart since we left the UK, almost two years ago.
More shopping ensued, and the final jobs were ticked off the list. We did get chance to have one more little outing to the old town together.
Eventually our time was officially up in Panama, and we needed to check out! Three months seems to have flown by in this amazing country. It has been a revelation and totally unexpected. We just thought it was a place you travelled through the canal. No it is so much more. A diverse mixture of cultures, landscapes, wildlife and people. We highly recommend a visit.
Checking out was easy. However, so far the weather has not played ball. There is literally no wind for the first 900 miles of the trip. So we are currently “hiding out” in the Perlas Islands. about 25 miles from Panama City waiting for the right weather window. As I write this, it looks like about a week away.
So we fueled up Azimuth at the local marina, for 80p a litre! Cheap! And sailed to Las Perlas. Great sail in light winds with lots of birdlife to see on the way.
Its perhaps a good job that we did stop here in Las Perlas, because Azimuth decided to have her last stand before the Pacific. So far I have had to fix the Generator (fuel filters and control panel fuse), water maker (priming pump and high pressure gauge), projector (wiring), oh and this morning the toaster went on the blink too! We are in the process of cleaning the bottom too before we set off, its covered in weed.
Not al work though, last night we helped Mark celebrate his birthday with beers, burger and sausages on the beach!
Join us next time as we set sail to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia! There may be several smaller posts and position updates as we sail across the Pacific to the Marquesas, so watch out for those. Depends whether Starlink is good! Adios!