Kindness of Strangers

One of the most rewarding things about cruising is the people we meet. Or in this case, haven't yet met.

After we packed up New Morning for summer storage we had 4 large duffle bags of "stuff" that we were bringing home, plus our personal backpacks for laptops and miscellaneous, and a camera backpack with our good SLR and lenses. We checked the four duffle bags as luggage, but needed to carry the backpacks. Being slightly disoriented in the big city (Panama City) and making the transition to land, we let down our guard, relaxed at the Admiral's Club, got on the plane and had a quick mimosa. Arriving in Miami we looked around and realized, no camera bag!

The Admiral's Club in Miami called the club in Panama and sure enough we had left our bag in the club. So we thought easy, just send it on home to us with the next AA flight. Not so fast. To make a long story endless, the Admiral's Club will not package anything for shipment, and FedEx will not pick up a shipment unless it's packaged. Catch 22. Enter the cruising network.

Fay contacted Brad and Gloria of Kindred Spirit who put our dilemma on the San Blas cruiser's net the next morning. Rob of Akka responded. Rob picked up our camera bag in Panama City, cleared it through customs in Miami, hauled it to New York, placed it in a box and shipped it off via FedEx. We received it in Sausalito the next day. We spoke briefly on the phone, but have never met (though we hope to this fall). This is the kindness of strangers that is so rewarding, and so common, in the cruising community.

Thank you.

How can the Pacific be in the East?

After a week of very hot and sweaty work, New Morning is on the hard at Shelter Bay, just a couple of miles from the canal. The transition from New Morning to Sausalito is always a little sad, but we leave one home for another, and enjoy them both.

We've found that we need transition time between New Morning and California. Time to make a gradual adjustment from life on the water to life in California. From Shelter Bay we took a taxi to Panama City and on the way we stopped for a tour of the Gatun Locks at the Atlantic side of the canal.

It was really amazing to see the huge ships we're always dodging at sea up very close as they go through the locks. The ships are just barely surrounded by water, just enough to float them. It's like an adult sitting in an inflatable wading pool made for children. The largest ships that the canal can accommodate (aka Panamax) leave about 18" between the ship and the side of the lock, and no more than 2m below them (maximum draft is 12m or about 39'). Some ships have to unload ballast water, or even offload containers, to fit through the canal.

After touring the canal, we drove on to Panama City which is the largest city we've seen for awhile. It's big and busy with shopping, cars, traffic (lots of horns) and people wear more than shorts and a t-shirt! And the internet connection was fast and reliable.

We spent a good part of Friday checking out grocery stores and shops for provisioning when we return in the fall. We will provision in Panama City for a few months in the San Blas islands, then again for the Pacific crossing and six months in the Pacific. We found stores where we could buy everything we could want. Unlike last season we won't be packing up boxes of food to bring to New Morning.

Back at the hotel we got very disoriented as we watched the sun set to our left, but the Pacific ocean was visible to our right, to the east. Huh? We had to take a look at Google Earth to appreciate that contrary to our preconception, Panama lies essentially west to east and the canal runs north/south. And if you're not confused yet, Panama City is actually just a little bit east of Miami.

So we're on our way home and New Morning will rest in the rain for six months. We'll update the pictures for our 2009-2010 travels within a couple of weeks. And our new schedule will be on the web site shortly under "What's Next".

Reset

Over the last few days we've considered our situation. Unfortunately, though progress has been made, none of the three major problems we thought we had addressed last summer have been resolved. Our new autopilot steers really well, but the port cylinder ripped apart the mounting bracket. Both brackets need to be re-engineered, fabricated and installed. Our refrigeration boxes still have some major flaws and we still have a leak at our D1 starboard chain plate. It's also become clear that these problems will not be resolved quickly.

And in the course of trying to change the impeller on our engine I managed to snap off one of the screws on the wear plate for the water pump. This in turn revealed a problem with the plumbing of the shaft seal vent line which results in siphoning sea water into the engine raw water plumbing and creates a continual flow of water through the now poorly sealed impeller wear plate. Net, net, even with the main seacock to the engine closed, we have a significant leak in the boat. We need to install a valve in the shaft seal vent line and replace the water pump.

On the plus side, we would like to spend a lot more time in the San Blas Islands.

Mixing all this together and stirring in the seasonal weather considerations, we've decided to haul out New Morning on Wednesday and store her on the hard at Shelter Bay for the summer while we address the major maintenance issues.

Unfortunately there are very few services available here so Fay and I are doing all the work to prepare New Morning for storage. It's also incredibly hot. At sunrise the temperature is about 83F, and then during the day it rises to about 93F while the humidity swings between 70-75%. We work from 7am - 5pm, consuming at least a gallon of water throughout the day in an attempt to rehydrate ourselves. The bugs from the adjacent jungle keep us inside the boat during the evening when it's cooler outside the boat, so we retreat to the forward cabin which has air conditioning. We're looking forward to finishing the preparations, getting New Morning moved onto the hard and heading home.

Our plan is to return in late November when the rainy season in Panama has ended and cruise San Blas for three months. This will set us up for a more typical seasonal schedule for transiting the canal, cruising the Galapagos and then on to French Polynesia in the spring of 2011.