5 July to 23 July 2013 Various Places in UK
We stayed at Brett’s house for a couple of nights to recover from our jet lag then set off on an odyssey around the UK, visiting family & friends and buying stuff that we couldn't get in Panama. We rented a house in Hastings, a small seaside town and spent four fabulous days with our two sons and their partners, eating fish and chips and generally chilling out - we were very lucky with the weather because it was blue skies for the whole time that we were in the UK.
It was an exhausting three weeks because everyone we visited wanted to entertain us, so we were staying up too late and drinking too much every night. I went to see our doctor, who sent me for a routine blood test and it came back showing a problem with my liver - he told me that I need to cut back on the drinking… We also went to see our dentist, which resulted in a couple of fillings and bought new glasses & contact lenses after having our eyes tested.
We dropped off some boat gear that we’d brought back to the UK – Comar repaired our AIS-Multi unit for free; Standard Horizon tested our portable VHF radio that seemed to be very low power and supplied us with a new antenna for no charge; and Ambassador Marine checked our Rope Stripper and provided some spare parts at a very nominal cost – it’s nice to find helpful suppliers.
We bought so much stuff that we had to pack it into two extra bags. One of the heaviest items was a new Lower Rudder Shoe, which is a large bronze casting weighing 20 kilograms. Fortunately, it split into two halves, so I was able to pack each half away into separate bags. We ended up with four bags, all just below the 23Kg weight limit.
A few days before we flew out, we travelled up to the Wirral with Glenys’s brother, Gareth and scattered Glenys’s mother’s ashes, which was a poignant end to our visit.
24 July 2013 UK to Panama City, Panama
The night before our flight, we stayed at Brett’s house and had to get up at four o'clock in the morning to make the six o'clock check-in. We were expecting to have some hassle about having two extra bags, but it all went smoothly – we just had to pay an extra $200US.
The flight out to Newark (near New York) was packed, but it went quickly because they had a good entertainment system with on-demand films – I maxed out and watched three movies back to back.
In Newark, it was a pain having to clear through immigration and customs. We picked up our luggage from the carousel and had to drop them off by a conveyor belt, where our precious bags were dumped on the floor with hundreds of other bags. I wanted to wait until our luggage had been loaded onto the belt but, after ten minutes, the pile was just getting bigger and it was obvious that we’d be waiting a long time, so we gave up and left our bags to their fate.
We had four hours of waiting around to catch the flight to Panama City – I hate airport lounges. The flight itself was cramped and had no films, so I tried to sleep and was rewarded with a cricked neck.
Initially everything went smoothly on arrival at the airport, we sailed through immigration and amazingly, all four of our bags arrived safely. Unfortunately, the customs officers were scanning every bag with an X-ray machine and of course they spotted the two halves of the large bronze rudder shoes that I was bring back from the UK. They wanted to know what they were, so in halting Spanish I tried to explain that this was for “mi barco” - this didn't help and we were taken to one side to explain.
Unfortunately, no one spoke any English and it was nine o'clock in the evening. I produced some clearance documentation for our boat and a letter written in Spanish stating that we were berthed at Shelter Bay Marina and asking the authorities to assist us as required. All this documentation seemed to placate them a little bit, but they were insisting that we leave our bags with them and go back the next morning, probably to see a more senior officer.
In typical Latin American style, a couple more customs officers wandered up and we continued to argue that we were on a “barco in transito” and that it would cost us lots of money for us to go to our hotel and then come back again. Eventually, after much waving of hands, they decided that we were too much trouble and let us go – phew!
We finally arrived at our hotel in Panama City at half past ten, had one nice, cold beer and collapsed into bed.
25 July 2013 Panama City to Shelter Bay Marina, Panama
We had a lie in and a leisurely cooked breakfast in a fabulous restaurant on the top floor of the hotel, looking out over the skyscrapers of Panama City.
We decided to take a taxi back to marina. We could have taken the express bus to the Quatro Altos shopping centre in Colon and then a taxi back to the marina, but the bus would have dropped us off at a crossroads and we would have had to lug our four heavy bags a quarter of a mile from the intersection to the shopping mall. “Hey look at us - a couple of gringos with four big heavy bags. Come and rob us!” The taxi cost $140, but was well worth it.
Back in the marina, we were glad to see Alba still floating and dry as a bone inside – it was a good idea to have dehumidifier running while we were away. It was very hot inside the boat, but I soon had the air conditioner going and we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking our bags and stowing everything away in lockers. Surprisingly, it all disappeared somewhere.
We retired to the bar for happy hour and dinner - same old faces in the bar; it feels like we never left.