Keith’s Perspective on Our Trip to San Diego and Return to Shelter Bay Marina/Le point de vue de Keith sur notre voyage à San Diego et notre retour à Shelter Bay Marina

San Diego was really fun. I got my braces off, and we visited friends and family. It was weird being back in San Diego, especially the part where we couldn’t go to the boat. We took a red eye back to Panama on Friday (we got here on Saturday). 

Moments after the braces were removed.

San Diego était tres amusant. J’ai enlevé mes bagues, et nous avons rendu visite à des amis et à la famille. C’était étrange d’être de retour à San Diego, surtout la parti où on ne pouvait pas aller au bateau. On a pris un vol de nuit pour retourner au Panama le vendredi (on est arrivé Samedi). 

Dutch Pancake at the Original Pancake House
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More Lying Low at Shelter Bay Marina

On Thursday morning, February 6, Eric finally felt rested enough that he was ready to tackle some not-so-fun engine room projects. While Christi and Keith did school, Eric changed the oil on the generator. 

Eric also arranged to have the bottom cleaned. It $3.50 foot, but considering the guy was literally cleaning with one hand while holding a speargun with the other hand, we agreed that it was worth the money. He was also wearing a full wetsuit, which had to have been hot given the warm water temperatures here. 

In good news, he found one of the mats that had fallen overboard last week. It had a lot of growth given the amount of time in the water, but Eric was able to clean all the growth off. 

It was now day four of no water, and people were getting desperate. The marina had arranged to bring in three tanker trucks of water to fill up the boats. They injected the water into the pipes. When we (and everyone else) turned on the spigot, very little — meaning virtually none — water flowed out. It seemed there wasn’t enough pressure to force the water to flow through the pipes.

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Exploring the Former Ft. Sherman

On Wednesday, February 5, we decided to start the day off with a walk in the jungle. We took the road that led to the former officer’s housing, but this time, we turned at the intersection where the church was.

The paved portion of the street didn’t extend very far beyond the church. The pavement ended at shed which marked another intersection. Straight ahead was fenced, but the gate was open and we presumed there was a pathway behind the gate. We didn’t go in there.

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Lying Low at Shelter Bay Marina

On Sunday, February 1, we were extremely jet lagged and moved slowly all day. Since we were out of perishable food, we wanted to take the marina bus to town to go to the grocery store. While we were in San Diego, a rally of boats arrived that had crossed the Atlantic together. Between the rally boats, the Ocean Posse boats congregating here, and the boats that still hadn’t been able to leave due to continuing adverse weather, the marina was jam packed. The bus didn’t run on Sundays, and was already full for Monday. Sign-ups hadn’t started yet for Tuesday.  

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Flying Back to Panama and the Ocean Posse Party

On Saturday, January 25, we all woke up before 0600 PST, despite going to bed so late. Even though we were in San Diego for a week, our body clocks never fully adjusted to the time change, and we felt off-kilter all week. We mostly focused on taking care of “life chores,” the most exciting of which was getting Keith’s braces removed.

On Friday, January 31, we flew back to Panama via a red-eye through Miami. We had been warned that Panama will not allow people with a one-way plane ticket to fly into the country. Like many countries, they welcome tourists, but they want proof that the visitors don’t intend to overstay their welcome. We were told that we’d likely be forced to purchase a ticket back to the US prior to boarding the plane. 

Prior to leaving Panama, we’d gotten a letter from the marina stating that Kosmos was docked there. Eric attached it to our US Coast Guard vessel documentation showing that Eric and Christi owned Kosmos, along with a crew list with Keith on it. 

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