Carnival started last Friday and goes through Wednesday. It doesn't quite shut down the country, but it emptied the marina of about half the boats and there is definitely less traffic. Even the ATM is out of cash. In Panama apparently most people go to the countryside where various smaller towns specialize in Carnival parties so the traffic leaving the city last Thursday and Friday was pretty crazy from all reports. But now the streets are strangely unclogged, but of course most stores are also closed!
We've been working on remedial maintenance projects (autopilot, voltage regulator), scheduled and routine maintenance (fuel filters, engine bolt checks, covering up sharp points on the foredeck to protect the spinnaker, etc.), and just general departure stuff like checking to see if the running lights are working (they are!). I'm stocking up on more oil for the engine and various consumables and spares (can't have too many spares!). We spent most of a day going through the boat to make room for four months of food. Fay has spent days figuring out what to purchase and returned from her first trip to the market today (not crowded) with at least 200lbs of food and beverages which we're now trying to stow. She tells me she has at least two more trips to make.
Last week we finally received some hydraulic fittings that we needed for the autopilot and Andy, our mechanic, came by today to put it all together. Everything went very well until we started bleeding the system of air. The procedure calls for turning the wheel against the force of the autopilot to force it to pump more and it was doing a good job of bleeding the air out of the system when BANG! the steering broke. Actually the chain on the starboard wheel broke. Needless to say it should not break, but if it's going to break, then breaking in the slip is much preferred to breaking during rough weather. So it looks like the autopilot is working, but now we can't steer by hand. Back to the cycle of figuring out what parts we need, where we can purchase (Panama?) and how soon we can take delivery.
We're sort of like vampires now, we come out when the sun goes down and things cool off. We're up way before sunrise and finish our projects on deck within 30 minutes of feeling the morning's first rays. It's just too hot on deck during the day to do much. Fortunately the air conditioning in the forward cabin is working well so we can always duck in there to cool off, or write a little email. And now the sun has dipped down, it's cooling off, the breeze is gentle, and it's time for a margarita!
