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Starblazer - 02/02/2014 – Cruising, boat maintenance in exotic locations.



The above definition of cruising leaves out two other major items, passage
making and fun.

First the fun part of cruising: making landfall in new places, exploring
local culture and shopping. Entering the breakwater for Shelter Bay Marina
and the Panama Canal was very easy, Portsmouth Harbour often has more big
ship movements in any 15 minute period and as for Dover…. Our time in
Shelter Bay was quite busy including shopping for the next month to six
weeks. We seem to have bought an awful lot of steak, I might get fed up
with it by the time we empty the freezer!

We had a day trip to an Embera Indian village which included a 45 minute
trip up river in a dugout canoe. The best known tribe in Panama is
undoubtedly the Kuna who live in the San Blas Islands. The Embera are
spread between Panama and Columbia and seem to live a far more primitive
lifestyle. The group we visited, on the banks of the Chagres River,
established themselves here 50 years ago when they found they couldn’t adapt
to city living having escaped the civil war in Columbia. Unfortunately the
area they live in has now been declared a National Park and they may no
longer hunt or cut down trees as they once would. The government suggested
to them that they should become a tourist attraction and welcome visitors,
while still pursuing their normal lifestyle. They make decorative plates
out of grasses using only natural dyes, carve intricate items from the fruit
of a type of palm tree and make beadwork jewellery amongst other things.
They decorate their bodies with patterns painted on, using the dye found in
a fruit. They look just like monochrome tattoos but wear off in about 10
day. I don’t like tattoos, however I have a fetching bracelet on my wrist,
for a short time only! They cooked us lunch of battered fish, corn cake and
fried plaintain, served in a pouch made from a banana leaf, it was very
tasty. The cooking hut, like their family dwellings, was elevated to
protect from flooding and wild animals. I’m not sure how the open fire and
the wooden construction co-exist. We were also treated to some music and a
dancing display by the women and girls. It was a lovely day out.

Passage making is another important part of cruising, be it 1100 miles or
crossing a continent! We made our canal transit on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday afternoon we anchored in an area known as the flats, to wait for
our advisor. Then we motored towards the Gatun locks, forming a nest with
two other boats just before we entered the first lock. Gatun has three
linked locks which raise you a total of 26 metres. The locks are huge, they
take some very big ships! The three locks took nearly two hours and we
finally anchored in the Gatun Lake in the dark. Our advisor left us for the
night. Early Friday morning our new advisor arrived to take us across
Panama to the Pacific. We motored about 30 miles to the first lock where we
nested again, then quickly reached the two linked Miraflores locks. From
there we untied and made our way under the Bridge of the Americas into the
Pacific and on to the anchorage at La Playita. It was an interesting
experience but not unlike our lengthy trip through France with Fair
Encounter in 1993. On the River Rhone, the Bolene lock lifted us 26 metres
in one go, in about 15-20 minutes! Of course, the French locks are part of
a modern Hydro-Electric Power barrage system whereas the Panama Canal dates
from 1914, hence the difference.

After the passage making we have more ‘fun’. Saturday we went on a 5-6 hour
guided tour of Panama City. Harry, our tour guide, was very entertaining
and Clemente, who accompanied us to the Embero Indians, also took part. We
learnt a lot about the history of Panama and the city itself, did a fair bit
of walking and saw all the principal sights.

Now for the ‘maintenance’. At anchor in Portobello the generator refused to
run. On the way to Shelter Bay it ran for 2 hours, allaying our fears of a
major problem. On Friday evening it would only run for 20 minutes, not long
enough to charge the batteries. Sunday morning John set about tracking down
the problem with the engine cooling water. He expected to find a blocked
pipe, what he didn’t bargain for was a blockage in the jacket around the
cylinder. The cylinder head was relatively easy to clear but the cylinder
itself was more problematical. In our spares kit he was given (sold) some
core plugs which he took to be a hint! The cylinder has four core plugs
which he removed to discover thick gunge almost completely blocking the
water ways. The trickiest part is yet to be completed, replacing the
cylinder over the piston. When John tried, one of the rings unfortunately
snapped so first thing Monday morning he will phone England for advice. Our
fallback position is to source a 12 volt high pressure pump for the
watermaker and rely on the main engine for battery charging. We shall see.

The generator is a luxury but rather important! Apart from powering the
watermaker, it runs the electric kettle and microwave when we are at anchor,
it also runs the breadmaker and the washing machine. We could possibly use
the big inverter for the breadmaker and washing machine but that takes a
toll on the batteries. Cruising also throws up challenges!

We hope to get ourselves sorted in time for the get together on the Las
Perlas Islands on Wednesday.

Joyce


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