The sunrise on Tuesday, February 11 again looked like there was a fire in the sky that was giving off a lot of smoke.
Tuesday was another quiet day. We’ve found another downside to being right in front of the marina. In the morning, the marina mowed the lawn, and the wind blew grass clippings all over the boat. Eric determined that the wind generator was working well, so after he cleaned off the grass, he turned off the wind generator and brought the dinghy back onboard.
On Wednesday morning, Eric changed the wing engine fuel filter. It was easier than, but also messier than, anticipated. In the early afternoon, Eric led a D & D session with Keith and several of the kids in the marina.
In the evening, we went on a nature walk with Carlos, who works at the marina. His hobby is botany, and he does these nature walks as a side gig. Several people had recommended that we hire him, but up until now, he’d been booked solid with ARC boats. Now most of the ARC boats were gone and he had time for us.
Carlos had been a young teen when the US military left Panama (in 1999). His brother had been working at Ft. Sherman as a contractor. Carlos had tagged along with his brother and remembered what the base looked like back then.
He started the tour by explaining that during canal construction, there was a lot of excess dirt that the military utilized to create land. He said much of the flat area within Ft. Sherman, particularly near the edge of Limon Bay, was man-made, including this cove. While Carlos was talking, the resident lizard came out to say hi.
The sunrise on Sunday February 9 almost looked like there was a fire in the sky that was giving off a lot of smoke.
Sunday was another quiet day. In the morning, Eric got dinghy down. He went for a ride around the marina, looking for crocodiles, but didn’t see any. He wanted to go out to the anchorage, but it was too windy. With the dinghy down, he turned on the wind generator to make sure it was still working properly. He ran it all day on Sunday and Monday and was pleased that it was working fine.
Some of the cruisers had talked about a secret beach behind the boat yard. On Sunday, Christi decided to look for it. She saw a trail along one of the fences.
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).
This week has been fun. On Saturday we went sightseeing, then went to the grocery store.
Pedro Miguel lock
Cette semaine était amusante. Samedi on a été faire du tourisme, puis nous sommes allés au supermarché.
construction of tunnel to left, container port in the middle — just south of the Bridge of the Americas.
On Sunday we crossed the Panama Canal (see my other post for details). On Monday we went on a hike in the jungle with our friends, then we all had breakfast at the marina restaurant. Then we all went to the pool. After that our friends left. After that the craziest thing happened. We went up to the lounge to see if there were any kids there, and some of them were setting up a D&D campaign. Dad volunteered to DM, so I played D&D with them.