Ship Wreck at Shelter Bay

This the sailboat that sat on the reef for a day and a half.  The poor guy must have been just sick to his stomach.  The hull and the rudder are severely damaged.  There is actually a hole in the hull but it's difficult to see in this photo.

Apparently they took on lots of water.  It was up to the floor boards.  They have a lot of work ahead of them poor guys.

I didn't ask too many questions as they were probably annoyed with everyone coming by with the same comments and questions.  I simply asked if the crew was fine and not injured, other than egos.  Thankfully, no one got hurt.

The propellor and shaft are fine.

Shelter Bay Hen Party

Joan on Panchita organized a wine and cheese, manicure pedicure party at the end of D Dock at Shelter Bay Marina. Each woman introduced herself and summarized their boating history. At least three women had completed or were very close to completing a circumnavigation with their spouses. Nancy will finish theirs next fall and Lynn on Canic will complete theirs by May of this year.

A double ender sail boat of about 40 feet hit the reef approaching the marina at 3 am (yes, I know, why would you enter any place at 3 am?). Apparently their charts did not show the reef. They hit it quite far away but the wind and swell drove them further up onto the reef to the point where they were in about 4 feet of water quite close to the marina entrance.

Randy and I snidely commented that they must be French because the French are always driving up onto the reefs in the San Blas. Oops! They are from Canada; BC in fact.

They ended up paying over $300 per hour to have a tug boat pull them off the reef. They drove her into the travel lift yesterday and started draining out the water. There is a small hole in the fiberglass and the rudder is completely chewed up. My next post will have a photo.

Randy just finished a hellish tour from Munich to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Etheopia, Kuwait, Dubai, Munich, Luxembourg, Liege, New Jersey. He is now in Miami trying to get here today.

Lost Elvis Lettering

Here's our new lettering! I hope Randy likes it. I had to choose it in his absense. Letras Alfarro did the work. He's from Panama City. He did a good job but it took him a month and a half from the time he showed me his samples to the day he showed up with the letters. Thank goodness I didn't pay him in advance.

We have decided to transit the Panama Canal again (North to South, Caribbean to Pacific) on March 24, 2010. Stanley is our agent again. He's very jolly these days as he has much more business during the "dry" season. Our neighbours who use Stanley, Woolloobooloo (Simon) got delayed in their transit. They are hoping to get through tomorrow.

Cristobal Marine said they were going to inspect the vacu-flush heads today but I have not seen them around. There is no "vacu" and hence no "flush". It's always something.

Panchita (Ted and Joan) are back early from the San Blas due to the fact that their refrigeration quit. Equinox (Hank and Betsy are coming in tomorrow with autopilot problems. It'll be nice to have some old friends around. We met Panchit and Equinox back in Huatulco last February. We all set out to cross the Tehaunapec together.

Our plans after the canal transit are to visit the Las Perlas Islands, Panama and then take Lost Elvis back to Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. We will commute, as little as possible, from Mexico while we make money for our next trip to the South Pacific in March 2010. But you never know, one of Randy's nicknames is, after all, "Random".

San Blas again

We took Lost Elvis to the San Blas again. The first few days we spent with our friends Greg and Christine. The first stop was Portobelo where we caught the last night of Carnival. We toured through Chichime, Swimming Pools, Salardup, Carti and Porvenir. We met Hank and Betsy (SV Equinox) and their guests, Gary and Liz in Salardup where we set up a swim up bar using our dinghy as the bar. In Swimming Pools, Equinox and Lost Elvis hit the Monday night cocktail party where we met and in some cases re-united with Southern Belle, Runner (Reg and Debbie), Blow Me Away (Aaron and Cathy), Bubbles (Sheila and Alex) et al. Blow Me Away gave us the number of Eulogio (651-79850) who runs the jungle jeep ride back to Panama City from Carti. It's $30 per person and they pick you up from your boat in a nice panga. Greg and Christine left Carti on February 24 in the jeep ride. The jeep will drop you off wherever you want in Panama City. Our friend suggested Hotel Discovery (225-1140) in Panama City as it's only $25 per night. We stayed in Carti for an extra day as the Kuna were celebrating their 80 year revolution against the Panamanian armed forces. The celebration included a parade, dancing and a wandering play re-enacting the event. The grande finale was drinking Chicha in the Chicha hut (segregating men and women) as the Sailas (shamen) chanted. In Porvenir we lost our hold in the anchorage (again). It was a disaster and of course, it happened at night. We had to re-anchor in an uncharacteristic storm that came from the south. The southern storms usually blow in the summer. Our plans to leave Porvenir were dashed by the storm which gusted to 35 knots and was conistently over 20 knots with 5 foot seas at 3 second intervals. It took us over an hour just to make it back to Chichime where at the usually flat entry, waves were breaking. Chichime had 12 boats anchored and the entry was a mess so we went to Salardup again to wait out the weather. Hank and Betsy did the same. The next day brough fair weather, winds and seas and we had a lovely sail to Isla Linton. Sunbow (Sharon and John)was an hour ahead of us. Effie was in Panamarina. We all dined at Caballo Loco (a french restaurant). The next day Randy, John and Sharon took two dinghys through the mangroves to pick up Alan and Mac who are leaving their boat in Panamarina for a month or so while they head back to the US. The voyage from Islan Linton to Shelter Bay was and adventure; 6 to 78 foot following swells at 7 seconds or less and strong winds. Our auto pilot couldn't take it so Randy and Alan took Lost Elvis back to Shelter Bay in shifts. On the way in our furling rigging on the staysill broke at the furling drum so Alan furled it by hand with a wrench. As we were furling the main (in mast) the pulley on the boom broke. Time to call the rigger! Now we are poolside at the marina.... playing guitars and drinking beer.