Panama, Shelter Bay Marina – The Job Offer??

Sorry guys.

I kind of left you hanging there wondering how things went with the jobs at Shelter Bay Marina.

To tell you the honest truth we do not know any more than we did when we wrote you last.  Despite a lot of running a round, talks and a few sail repairs we know less about the job offer than before we left.

SO WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING?

Lets just start at the beginning.

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SAILING TO SHELTER BAY MARINA

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We left the harbor of Portobelo for the short trip to the mouth of the Panama Canal.

You know you are getting close when you are joined by hordes of anchored cargo ships awaiting their turn to transit to the Pacific Ocean.

You weave your way through these and approach the giant break water that protects the mouth of the Panama Canal on this side.

The Marina is just inside and to the west (left) of the main opening in the breakwater.  Do not worry.  You can not miss the channel markers.

Everything seems to be built to a grand scale here!

Once inside the breakwater you have all the docks of Colon City.  The major Panimanian port on the Caribbean side of the Canal.

And the entrance to the Panama Canal straight ahead.

To get to the Marina you ‘dodge’ west and follow the well buoyed break water.

Give a shout on VHF channel 74 and the marina staff we give you directions to a berth and have some help to catch the lines inside.

We stopped off at the Marina entrance and paid a visit to the fuel barge.

And then headed over to the slip they assigned us.

You would be proud of my humans.  They made it in without hitting anything.

So we made it safe and sound.

Home

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BEFORE WE START WORKING AGAIN

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Before we started taking jobs at Shelter Bay Marina we had a quick celebration to have.  One of my humans got another year older.

She was a bit to embarrassed to model her gifts.  But you all know I love a bit of ‘dress up’, so I did the honours.  I can not stand letting anyone else get all the attention.

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THE JOB OFFER?

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Well the marina was not so sure on that.

Although we had been invited to come to the Marina to run the sail loft, it turns out they had already another couple doing the job.  They had to talk to them first.  But they were out of the country and on holiday at the moment.  Would we mind completing a few ‘out standing’ jobs’ until they got back and had time to sort it out?

So we did a few jobs in the interim.

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MORE HOSPITOLILIZATION FOR THE DELAHUNT BOYS

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This time it was me instead of the human.  And to keep up tradition in this family.  I did it in style.  I managed to collapse both my lungs and almost suffocate.  The fancy name for this is:

pneumothorax (pneumo- + thorax; plural pneumothoraces

Here is a link for you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumothorax

Of course I managed to show symptoms, that something was wrong, two days after running into a piece of rebar.  And on a bank holiday.  So, after surviving the night they rushed me off to the University Veterinarian Training Hospital in Panama City where they stabilized me in an oxygen rich tent.

The fussy stuff is lung tissue, or the lack of!

The initial x-rays were not good.  I had less than 1/4 lung capacity on one side and half on the other.  It took them all a few days to figure out it was caused by trauma to chest cavity.  As soon as they started to suck the extra air out of my thorax, my lungs could start to re-inflate again.

Back up to 80% lung capacity I was happy to be able to go home to the boat again.

It will be a few weeks before I will be chasing any balls.  And I will do my best to keep a better look out.

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SO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE JOB?

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We are unsure at the moment.We will tell you what happens at the end of the week!