Diary for Sailng on Windwanderer.


Monday 15th July 2013

2013-07-15

Monday 15th July 2013

Well today the Admeasure guy came out to the boat, what a nice guy.

All went well even though he almost ate us out of choc chip cookies...haha

A bit of a surprise for us was that our boat is a lot longer than we thought, we are 54ft on deck but our over all length including the dingy on the davits is 65ft, man no wonder the beast is hard to handle.

We are always surprised when people say its only the two of you?

So I guess in their eyes they look at the size of the boat and think we are crazy.

To be honest she is really easy to handle, when we are sailing there is never a problem, once the sails are up and The Captain is happy with the angles and all that, there is nothing much else to do, but sit and either enjoy the ride, or hold on for grim death, the later more so...haha

As for steering into ports and such to anchor, well she does tend to have a mind of her own, it takes a lot for her to turn, and she kicks up a fuss a lot but we eventually get her to behave and anchoring, we have it down pat now, when the anchor chain decides to behave, I'm always at the wheel and The Captain fights with the anchor and chain, this works really good although I stress so much about trying not to hit other boats, while he is playing up front.

But am learning to back off or give more power when needed.

So anyway after we filled in all the paperwork and stuff, we had to go ashore and pay.

now the guy told us just to dingy around the harbour a little bit, to a place called Club Nautico and then catch a taxi, to Citi Bank, easy....no

Well we motored and motored, dodging huge tankers, boats of all kinds, wrecked boats, washed up close to shore, in and out of inlets, huge waves, you name it we did it.

A few times some locals in small boats told us to avoid this and that and go this way and that.

After about what felt like an hour, me stressing and freaking out, it was a scary, very industrial area and run down, actually the wrecked boats freak me out more than anything, and we are talking huge tankers here, there is a lot of them all on their sides, just rusting away.

I'm not sure why they scare me so much, they just do, it's not like some creature from the black lagoon is gonna crawl out and kill us, or they are gonna break into pieces and fall on top of us, or evil spirits, are gonna attack us, yeah I know I read and watch a lot of horror stuff...haha

But I seriously hate these guys.

We eventually came across a guy on a yacht, went over to him to ask where this place was and he told us we were there....haha

We were sure we had missed it about 30 minutes ago.

So we go tie up, and are told that we have to go to the office to pay, for the dingy.

Long story short, security guards, locals, office lady, no English spoken, we paid $6 and and was given green wrist bands to put on...why? no idea....haha

So off we go and catch a taxi, to the bank.

Talk about a rough area we drove through, it says a lot when the taxi driver locks all your doors.

We come to the bank and there is 3 security guards, all wearing bullets proof vests and checking bags and using a scanner before letting you into the bank.

At least we felt safe inside here and it had Air Con, man I was happy to stay here all day...haha

The captain goes up to the counter and is told they are at lunch, we have to sit and wait, no problem at all, I was like a kid in a candy shop..so so happy just to be sitting someplace cold.

Then the fun began, he goes to pay, they won't accept credit cards, only cash, no problem we are in one of the biggest named banks of the world, just get cash out and pay that way.

Are you kidding, they would not give us cash out, The Captain had to walk down the street to another bank and try there.

The big issue is we are in Colon, the most dangerous place in Panama looking like tourist and having to carry $2800 dollars in cash down these streets.

I stayed in the bank The Captain, armed with Mace Spray, goes off trying to look like a local.

So he goes to the other bank and they give him a $1,000 in $20 notes, well that's not enough, so goes to the ATM, and he managed to get two lots of $500 from two separate cards in $5 notes...haha

He was gone for ages I was so worried that he had got mugged, but he comes back with pockets bulging.

Man what a relief, but we still did not have enough cash, so out he goes again, they had a ATM at this bank as well, so with fingers crossed he tries that one, we were sure they would have put a hold on our cards by now, but no he managed to get another $1,000 in $20's this time.

So all is good we pay up, than taxi back to the dingy, me crying as i had to leave the Air Con, The Captain crying for having to pay so much money...haha

The journey back to the boat was not quite so bad this time even though we had a fully loaded cargo ship barrelling down on us at one stage, but as luck had it, the waves were behind us this time, so we kinda surfed our way back, and it was a lot quicker.

The plan was to go around to a place called Shelter Bay to a marina there and stay for a few days, but it was just too late when we got back, so decided to stay where we were one more night among the Cargo ships.

At least there is something going on all the time here as we are anchored just off the entrance to the Canal, although we can't actually see the canal, but we watch all the boats coming and going.

Well tomorrow is anther day.