I am very happy to tell you that rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. As you can see I am ALIVE AND WELL.
I never realized that my lack of correspondences would prompt a lovely couple from the US to fly out to Panama and come to Shelter Bay Marina looking for me.
“I am so sorry for worrying you Richard and Diana, but admit it, you were looking for an excuse for a holiday anyway”.
I really do not have a good excuse for neglecting the blog. I am sorry guys. It just seemed to me that the ‘day to day’ routine of the humans working was……well…..a little boring.
If you really are interested, than I guess I should take the time and tell you what we have been up to.
SHORT VERSION
Eat, drink, work, repeat
LONG VERSION
Of course there is lots more to living and working in Panama than that!
But the whole purpose of us all stopping here, before heading off to the Pacific, was to make some money and get some work done on the boat.
I am happy to say, with my help, the humans have managed to do both.
*Note to anyone with out a boat yet
******************* You are never done fixing your boat! *************
But we have had lots of fun along the way and made some great new friends.
Here is a little run down of how a typical day goes around here at Shelter Bay Marina.
Morning starts with me trying to get a bit more of a ‘lie in’ while the humans participate in the Marina’s morning net for visiting cruisers.
Broadcast on the VHF radio each morning it lists
-the weather
-canal notifications
-local information, discounts and the Marinas free bus service
-activities in the Marina
-and the popular ‘buy, sell and trade
Than we are all off, skipping the morning yoga classes so I can have a good run on the beach.
One of the humans heads over to open The Sail Loft for business and get the free herb garden watered.
The humans could not get the budget to paint the old theatre building, in which the Sail Loft is housed. So they invited the cruisers to paint it themselves. It is quickly getting covered in boat images, boat and crew names and any other paintings the cruisers fancy leaving behind.
Day
While everyone else is having fun, I put the humans to work. If they are not working in The Sail Loft than I have them working on our own boat.
4:15pm I have them leading Aqua-fit in the Marina pool.
Then it is back to The Sail Loft in the busy months or a more relaxing evening in the slower months.
Night
The cruising lot are social butterflies and many are willing to share their talents and skill. There is something to do every evening in the Marina. Movie nights, information talks, BBQs, games and music.
There are some specially organized trips, festivals and the occations shopping trip to Panama City, but that really sums up what you have been missing.
See, I told you it was all very boring.
But,
it is going to get a little crazy soon. Lift out time. The dreaded ‘life on the hard’.
A reminder of just two of the inconveniences when you are living on a boat lifted out of the water.
You think that is bad. Well it gets worse.
The humans have decided to Copper Coat the bottom of the boat in preparation for our cruise around the Pacific islands.
Sounds like a great idea, until you hear that they want to do all the work themselves.
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I am sure you will want to know how that job goes.
I promise I will keep you informed.
In the mean time:
If you have any questions about ‘stopping and working’ while you are cruising, please add them to the comments section and I will do my best to answer.
14 thoughts on “Shelter Bay Marina – Rumors of my death have been greatly exagerated”
Having just splashed after living on the hard, we sympathize. BUT it also sounds like you are moving forward finally!
What we are moving forward to is several months of hard graft to remove years of antifoul and prepare the hull for the Copper Coat. Then we have to wait for the rainy season to end here to guarantee a couple of days for the epoxy coat to cure.
But the Marina did offer to build us some stairs. There is always a silver lining.
Miss you guys. I was hoping that April was going to make it back to Ontario sometime this summer but know you are trying to organize your next sailing trip. Keep well. Love you 💋
Aunt Pat
We are ALWAYS organizing the next adventure. And we are ALWAYS fixing the boat. We still don’t now what are actually doing next and when.
Hi guys, we thought you may be back in the land of work, hence the lack of key strokes….
Lovely to hear from you again Quinny, Maisie is all grown up now, well two and has almost stopped eating our furniture….,
Look forward to seeing Dad in his space suit!!!
Great to see you again Quinn
Well hello,
You all seem to be doing great, haven’t seen a posting for some time, was beginning to wonder!
All looks ship shape and going for the big pond by the sounds of it, I guess then west coast of the America’s and Canada, fantastic.
All good here, went up to see Pauline the other Saturday, she’s well and in good spirits, the rest of them made as ever.
Keep safe,
Richie & Michelle xxx
The human’s are all excited to hear from you two. Great to hear Pauline and the gang are well.
I am sorry for being a neglective correspondent. I did not feel I had anything exciting to report.
But now we have the preparation for the four week passage, across the Pacific, to French Polynesia. As long as Brexit is delayed, we will all have up to 3 years to explore these island groups and their neighbours. But we hear supplies are difficult and expensive to get out there so we are taking our time to get the boat sorted and stocked up with spares.
As always with boats, as soon as we start one repair we find 10 more we have to do. So do not be holding your breath awaiting a departure date. We have decided to ‘just get on with it’. Fix the boat while we have access to supplies and a job to pay for them.
I will try and keep you better informed of our progress.
All the best,
The Quinnster
Hi Quinn
Glad to see your blog is up and running again. It looks like you are all keeping busy. At least it is not all work as I see there is the aqua – fit, yoga, BBQ’s and I expect plenty of beers!
All the best
Roy
Dear Roy,
You have to mix the yin with the yang!
Hi Quinn, glad all is well with you and the humans. It is hard for me to fathom that there is a more exciting place to be than Green Cove Springs, but then, maybe I need to get out more!! Charlene and I love checking your blog and seeing how you have managed your crew. Miss seeing you on your walks. Tell your crew not to get to rowdy on liberty that’s a lot of ladder to navigate. The silver lining of stairs would be awesome. Say hi to the humans for us.
Wish you the best, stay well.
Jay
Dear Jay and Charlene,
The crew of Spirit of Argo are missing you guys too. The last time we lifted the boat out of the water was our visit with you in Florida. Hard work, but many happy memories, especially of your hospitality! We hear that the internet coverage of the Pacific is a bit ‘spotty’. This may mean we will have difficulty sharing our westward adventures at times. We will do our best. In the mean time we have to get the engine back together so we can motor over to the lift out.
All the best to you both!
Great to hear you are planning on venturing out into the Pacific. While we are not going thru the canal, we are planning on sailing to Panama and San Blas islands next spring. We have made it as far as Santa Marta in Colombia. I have mentioned the sail loft to several boaters heading that way that need sail or canvas work done.
Looking forward to hearing of your travels.
Wow! Great to hear from you guys. We did not go to Colombia, because of the way we circled round the Caribbean, but heard it was very pretty there. Thanks for sending work for the humans to top up my ‘dog food’ fund.
We are still using your cleverly designed depth gauge transducer ‘holder’. You will remember we left the USA with a spare, as it started playing up in the Bahamas on the way north. It was working again, but we were concerned. You were kind enough to cut a temporary holder for us and make sure we left with all the necessary emergency supplies if it failed. And it did in Cuba…the worst place for things to go wrong. You saved us!
Anyone reading this comment and wants to see the design go to the search button on this blog and look up the Cuba review. We put a description and pictures on there.
We hope to see you both when you get this way. Happy travels.