I have been aboard for a month now and it seems time to pen
something.
So we have arrived at the Las Perlas
Islands, 50 miles from Panama city. It
is a big relief to have finally got sailing again after 10 days in Panama. The
canal was fascinating (25,000 dead from disease and accidents in the
construction) but it is a long slow route from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
once you have seen one lock the next 5 are all the same. I seem to be blasé
about locks having experienced the mega locks on the Rhone.
Having arrived in the Pacific – a great landmark -we
then spent 5 days in a marina on the Pacific side whilst we waited for the
fridge to be repaired. At one point its internal temperature was 20 C, less
than ideal! Panama city is dirty as the hills trap in the pollution with the
consequence that Juno is continually dirty; this switches Captain Frew into
frantic cleaning mode, which is tiring for him and us to watch and to help from
time to time. Having said this the city is fascinating and the Panamanians ‘muy amable’ – you see
I have had to extend my few words of Spanish as most people here have no
English.
The non-sailing highlights have been very memorable. Contact
with 2 local indigenous people; the Kuna Indians (second only to pygmies as the
smallest humans) who live on the San Blas Islands and the Embera
Indians who live in the Panamian jungle. Also in Columbia we
visited a fantastic coffee plantation established by Brits in the late 19th
century, entirely powered by water pressure and using the same equipment today.
It has had a colourful life including being occupied by Farc
guerrillas.
It has been mentioned in earlier blogs that I am reliably
stable, but they don’t know what’s going on unseen under the water;
those ducks feet kicking away unseen. I
have just finished a book about a psychopath; I see some similarities, they had
better watch out!
I have been sharing a cabin with a married woman; this is
the first time for me in 28 years of marriage that I have shared with another
man’s wife. Some of the
consequences of this were not being able to sleep naked; no snoring, folding my
clothes and sleeping with the door open.
Anyway she has now departed and so I have the cabin to myself and can
revert to type. The next time I share,
hopefully, will be with my dear Jeannette.
I have had an ear infection from diving in the San Blas, but
having seen a doctor yesterday, I am well on the road to recovery. It would
have been bad if I was unable to dive in the pacific islands. Apart from this the month has shot by. It
took a few weeks to relax into boat life after the hustle and bustle of
departure; I was still completing tax returns and things when I arrived in St
Lucia. But now I am on my way and things are good, missing some special people,
but I know I will see them again in six months, which does not seem so far
away. We have many adventures ahead and
can’t wait to share some with J in Tahiti in April.
Juno now comes a close second in my affections to my family!
She is speedy, secure, shapely; everything a man could desire. That’s all
for now.