Panama and Prep for the South Pacific

All the Oysters had to be in Shelter Bay by February 6th in order to be measured for the canal and prepped to be ready. In addition the Oyster team of technicians was phenomenal in making last minute repairs as this will be our last real opportunity to get boats prepped before Tahiti which is 3500 miles away. In spite of having, what Oyster said, was one of the best prepared boats in the rally we had to replace a water pump for our generator, replace out alternator, fix a leak in our furling motor, and replace our throttle. The Oyster team was instrumental as they had technicians on shore. Say Thank God!

I don’t want to give the idea that is was all work and no play. Oyster organized a rum tasting and cigar tasting that we all enjoyed. They were also nice enough after I asked them to organize a Super Bowl party. I was hoping that they could find a television with English language at a bar somewhere but Oyster and the Marina went all out and hired an AV company that constructed a 15 by 30 feet screen on the dock and we all watched from the bar. Unfortunately I had LA giving 4, the damn Bengals covered!

We were really excited to see Vanessa after 5 weeks. As Cullen said “I’ve never been away from Mom so long”.

I felt a little bad for Vanessa as we spent a lot of time working on the boat to get Irish Blessing ready for a 3500 mile crossing without a lot of mechanical support. We did have a couple funs days in Panama City. The Old Town is gorgeous and the new area is known for replacing Miami as the Latin America center of business.

Panama is a wonderful combination of the old and the new. We had a wonderful celebration with the Oyster fleet at Fort Lorenzo.

Vanessa flew home with a tearful goodbye but we will see her in 3 weeks in the Galapagos where Kearney and Riley will be joining us also along with a host of friends and family including Cecelia Condrey, my sister Kay, Ted and Lesa, and the Teagues. It was now time to get busy provisioning as once we leave Panama we will not see another major market till the end of April. Sure hope I keep catching fish.

We hired a provisioning service that brought us the major groceries and the food just kept showing up in waves. As big as a 64 foot boat is, I had no idea how we were going to stow it all. Some how Harry and Issy kept finding places to stow food. The language barrier is always a challenge. I asked for lamb shanks and got 5 pound legs of lamb. I asked for 5 pounds of bacon and got 5 kgs (11 pounds). We gave 1 leg of lamb back but found room for the bacon. All cardboard has to be left on the dock as critters/ cockroaches will lay eggs in it and overtake your boat so we spend a lot of time breaking it down to minimize that risk.

A boat is a great equalizer, I suppose you could have the crew do everything, some do. Frankly I don’t see how they would do it all, how they would be able to stay for 15 months, and it is more fun to have everyone dive in and help.

We depart Panama in 2 days on February 25th. Other than picking up a few odds and ends in Galapagos our next major grocery story will be on April 25th in Tahiti. The freezer is full, every crevice is crammed, some how we stored 6 cases of wine, 5 cases of beer, a wee bit of Jameson, and we are going to be finding canned goods in the bilge 10 years from now (hint, you write of the name of the canned good with a sharpie on top of the can so when the label comes off you still know what you have). Tomorrow we all put on mask, fins, and snorkel, grab scrub brushes, and do one last clean of the water line and hull as the Galapagos will send a diver down and if there is any marine growth on your hull they will send you back out to sea to bob in 8 foot waves and clean it out there before they will let you back in the harbor. Looking forward to the Galapagos.

As opposed to the last passage which was rough and high winds the passage from Panama to the Galapagos known for exactly the opposite. We will approach the Doldrums which is an area around the equator where there is little if any wind. We will probably have to motor for 2 to 3 days and before we get there we will cross the equator and go into the South Pacific. Harry is the only one who has crossed the equator so he will host the crossing ceremony where first timers (pollywogs) go through a humiliating ceremony and become full fledged shellbacks (crossing the equator on your own ship). I will send the embarrassing photos on the next blog. Best to all, from John, Cullen, Mikey… and Harry and Issy. I think they think we’re a wee bit crazy but too nice to say. John