Friday, November 26, 2010

CHANGE OF PLANS



Since last we wrote we have changed our plans and are now going through the canal. This winter will be spent cruising the beautiful San Blas islands. Every cruiser we have spoken to has said that the San Blas islands are one of their favorite places in the world, which leaves us with great anticipation for our next season of travel. We are planning on crossing the canal in 1-2 weeks and should have plenty of details to start blogging again (hopefully nothing too dramatic). We are getting excited to start moving and seeing something besides Panama City's skyline, not that it isn't wonderful. We have really enjoyed Panama City and have met some amazing people, but are overdue on a departure. For all those who have dreams of traveling the caribbean by sail boat, you are always welcome to meet up with us. We love having visitors. Wish us luck on going through the canal. Brady

Monday, November 1, 2010

SORRY!


I know it has been a long time since our last entry, but I have excuses, really. OK, not really. The truth is that Panama is not a very big country and we have already seen the majority of what it has to offer us on the pacific side. My sister, Stacy, is coming for a visit on the 3rd of November (WOO HOO!) and we are seriously getting the itch to move on. The reason for the layover is that we can only visit parts of Colombia, which will not take long, and Ecuador does not have much to offer either. From there, crossing the Pacific should happen around February. This is when all of the Pacific Puddle Jumpers set sail from Mexico, Panama and Ecuador for the islands of the south pacific. The cyclone season in that region is from October to March and you shouldn’t arrive too soon before March unless you like hurricanes...Since we last posted, there have been a plethora of mechanical problems and I am learning to fix most of them myself. A brief re-cap: replaced headsail bearing, rebuilt fresh water pump (port side), replaced upper sail-drive shaft bearing (starboard), portable generator fell into the ocean, while running (still working on that one), replaced faulty wiring on bilge pump (port), repaired hole in fresh water line, re-plumbed refrigerator cooling line from salt to fresh water. So you can see that I have at least been busy.
Fortunately, Panama is a good place to find supplies. Brady has been back to the U.S. to visit her mom, we have re-visited the Perlas Islands (three times), and will probably head back again with my sister. Hopefully, we have come to the end of our boat project list (wishful thinking) and will be heading south before too long. Meantime, we are exploring the city one little bit at a time. Apparently, Panama has a family day at the...horse track. Wouldn’t want to wait too long to expose the children to the wonders of gambling at the track, so of course, we went. The kids enjoyed seeing all the horses and Dad gave a good lesson on why you shouldn’t bet the horses by losing every time I did. Finally, Halloween was an altogether different experience. One pirate captain, one pixie princess, two fairies, and mother nature set off in a dinghy to trick-or-treat through the anchorage. Surprisingly, they got a pretty good haul before hitting the shore. From there it was off to our friends neighborhood for some real candy action. About one in 10 houses was decorated to the nines and that is the candy signal here in Panama. We walked around for about an hour and saw four other kids motivated enough to trick-or-treat. The rest just followed behind us asking for our candy...The concept hasn’t quite caught on fully, but it was a great time. The final stop was the Multiplaza mall, but it was near closing and most of the stores were out of candy. One McDonald’s dinner for the me and the kiddos and another Halloween is over. Until next time...Ciao! Troy