Panama - Linton Bay Marina - 5 weeks Living on the Hard

The weather is hot and humid. 32-35 deg C (90-95 deg F) daily, with humidity above 80%.

Thankfully we have our small aircon working 24/7 bringing the temps inside Meshugga down to a manageable 25 deg C.

Living and Working on the Hard as any sailor knows, has its hardships amid constant work, noise, dust and dirt.

I’ve added below compilation of photos of life aboard on the Hard.

Access into our Starboard Front Cabin from the Salon, covered with heavy duty plastic so that the fiberglass grinding does not contaminate the entire boat. The contractors access the cabin from the cabin bathroom hatch.

Our cockpit which looks like a workshop and parts storeroom

Starboard view from Meshugga includes our neighbor Luis, a local Panamanian who runs a Welding Shop

Port view across other boats on the hard to Nancy’s Resturant

The Vege man who arrives every Tuesday and Friday, with Nancy’s in the background

Looking aft, you can see we are ‘blocked’ in as we’ll be on the hard longer than the yachts behind us

Our Flybridge on Laundry Days

Between our hulls, are tables and pallets of materials

At 12 noon, the whole yard comes to a standstill as all the workers and contractors take a 1 hour lunch

Polishing of the hull of the yacht behind us

Dulcinea our neighbor and good friends from South Africa, Ally and Matt Thomas

We have a large extractor in the Starboard Front Cabin, to extract all the Fibreglass Dust, via this big orange outlet tube

The Tube goes into an old Duvet cover, with slots cut into the cover to breathe and the dust into a large Dustbin

Repairs and improvements, a new boarding ladder for our dinghy

One of our Contractors is removing all the old Antifouling and Primer from the Hulls as we are changing the type of Antifouling Paint we’ll apply. He wears full body suit and full face mask. It’s such an awful job, holding a sander for 8 hours a day, and being covered in paint dust in 35 degree C temperature. Worth every penny we pay him.

Garbage galore

The Contractor who is sanding the Hulls, works on different parts, all depending on the Sun/ Shade, and whether it’s raining, so it currently is a patchwork of where he has cleaned.

A general view from the car park over the yachts on the hard

The Marina’s new Security Gate House, still to be painted

Customs Office

You might recall a few posts back that I went to the Dermatologist in Guatemala. In addition to the Lesion on my Face, (Actinic Keratosis) Pre-Cancerous patches on the Face, I had/have a problem with my lips. The Dermatologist diagnosed it as Actinic Cheilitis, which is Pre-Cancer of the Lips aka Sailors Lips. The Dermatologist prescribed a course of HydroCortisone crème for 14 days. Unfortunately the damage is too severe, and so I have had to further do the next course of treatment, which is a Topical Chemotherapy Crème for 15 days, which creates blisters and Lesions. I have completed the Treatment, but full Repair of the Lips will take a further 4-6 months. My lips (especially the lower lip where most of the damage is) are swollen and incredibly painful to the touch especially when eating, brushing teeth or showering. Hopefully I’ve caught it early enough 🤞 A further negative of the Topical Chemotherapy treatment is loosing hair, and the past 3 weeks has been awful every time I brush or comb my hair, I loose a lot of full strands of hair. I hope that as I’ve now stopped the treatment, that the loss of hair will abate too.

Panama - Linton Bay Marina - 2 weeks on the Hard

So it’s been two weeks since we Hauled out. News is that my toe is definitely broken…. Treatment remains the same - RICE. I limp around and go/do things more slowly, but that’s okay. My toe is well strapped to the toes on either side.

Saturday was Ally’s birthday, but due to boat stuff, both Dulcinea and Meshugga decided it’ll be better to celebrate on Sunday, so we all piled into our rental vehicle and set off for El Castillo Restuarant about a 40 min drive away.

Not as though we don’t see the sea every day…. Just saying….

Nicholas has selected a Contractor (he had three quotes). Our Contractor works with two chaps, so it a party of three. They have cordoned off the Starboard Front Cabin with heavy duty plastic and duct tape, and enter the cabin via the forward Heads (bathroom) hatch (ceiling window), with a ladder to get down. Inside the cabin there is a huge extractor and an air conditioner. The contractors work in full suits (like Hazmat) and with full face covers with breathers, so that they don’t breathe in fiberglass or get itchy. It’s been a very noisy two weeks with the Contractors cutting out the Tabs and all areas where the fiberglass has ‘let go’ and where we have tears in the bulkheads.

By end of day, I need a few Tylenol due to headaches from the constant grinding noise and vacuum cleaner and extractor fan going flat out.

Nicholas is taking photographs and I’ll get those from him in due course and post a blog on the repairs.

Here at Linton Bay Marina we are about 3 miles away from a small convenience / hardware store which stocks basic stuff. However, the vege man, Charlie who I met two years ago, and who used to come to the Marina with his truck with fruits and vegetables each day, now has a store on the grounds which is a Refrigerated Container with loads of fresh fruits, vegetables, cheeses and dairy products, and a few freezers with meats. In addition, another weekly truck arrives with great fresh produce as well as coolers with prawns/shrimp and fish on ice. I look out for him as he does not seem to come on the same day each week, and I buy 2-3 pounds of Camorones (prawns/shrimp) for a pig-out.

Camorones sauted in butter, garlic, chillie and ginger with brown rice.

Thankfully we have Aircon running 24/7 inside Meshugga as outside temps are 35 Deg with 80% humidity. It’s great to be able to sleep in relative (to us) coolth - as our Aircon only gets the temperature inside down to 25-27 deg C. At night (for us) it gets positively chilly inside with the Aircon running and the nighttime drop in heat, and in the early hours we need a light blanket over our top sheet :-) Nicholas has linked up drainage hoses to lead out from our kitchen sink as well as our shower and basins -  so we live aboard comfortably.

Panama - Linton Bay, Haul Out

The little Bird that caught a ride for about 20 of our 26 hour trip from Bocas to Linton. All little birds like our bendy chart table light as it’s like a branch. This one was no different. He didn’t budge all night and slept soundly.

Stunning Sunset on arrival

Now that we’re here in Linton Bay Marina, it’s time to start prepping Meshugga to haul out and arrange contractors to assist with our repairs.

A week after our arrival, Matt and Ally arrived from Bocas del Tora with their new Crew, Kian. We naturally had to meet up for drinks and dinner to compare notes on our identical trips.

The Linton Bay Marina Office, Chandlery and up on the first floor the Restuarant, The Black Pearl.

Local Panamanian Beer, Balboa.

New Dulcinea crew Kian, and Matt

Me and Himself

Ally and I

This is going to be a much bigger/longer haul out than any of our others. 

We discovered movement in the furniture in one of our cabins which portrays that there might be movement in one or more bulkheads.

This means that we needed to remove all contents from lockers and cupboards, and then for Nicholas to uninstall all the furniture, bed furniture, wall cladding, ceiling etc., to find out if we had compromising of bulkheads.

The findings are not good, and we immediately reached out to experienced Boat Builders and Lagoon for input and to make plans for its repair.

The Marina kindly made a storeroom available for us to rent, and I’ve spent my days hauling our cart back and forth between Meshugga and the storeroom.

The start of my unpacking cabins.

I am horrified at the amount of stuff we have aboard, the weight and volume, and am now on a drive to sort, pair down, sell, donate and turf.

Thursday was Haul-Out day. The Haul however is pretty straight forward…., except as we turned 180 degrees in the channel to reverse into the Lifting Pen, we suddenly had no reverse or forward propulsion on our Port Engine. Lucking there was only a very light breeze blowing, and we drifted sideways onto the fuel Dock, where I threw handlers our lines.

Whilst running thru the cockpit to throw lines to the handlers I kicked my toe on Nicholas’ Table Saw Stand, which he’d taken out to lower once we were chocked. (And is not usually there so I did not register it whilst quickly moving from Port to Starboard to lower fenders etc., to be ready to go alongside the Fuel Dock).

It seems like I either broke or have a severe sprain to my middle toe on my left foot. The bruising has subsequently deepened and spread up my entire foot, and I’m trying to following RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) for a few days to try accelerate healing and minimize the pain.

The Marina brought a large dinghy, and side towed Meshugga into the Lifting Pen, which is 39 foot wide (we are 33 foot wide), so we have 3 foot on either side. The Travel Lift slings are dropped and lowered in the water. Divers go down and ensure that the slings are positioned correctly, and then the Operator slowly starts the Lift.

We had coffees whilst Meshugga was high pressure washed of slime, and on inspection quickly saw the reason why our Port Motor lost propulsion. A stray rope was caught as we pivoted 180 degrees, and was around the shaft.

Then it’s a Very Slow walk across to the assigned area for Meshugga. The Operator,  Kevin, ensures that Meshugga does not swing back and forth, and at a snails pace moves the Travel Lift about 150m to where they’ll position us.

But the lowering of Meshugga was the tricky part with needing our hulls to pull back into place, so that the bulkheads can be fixed back into their correct positions.

Nicholas and Matthew using water levels to check that the entire boat was level.

We had a team of people both on Meshugga and on the Ground, co-ordinating with Kevin to ensure that the bulkheads and hulls are in the correct position before chocking the skegs.

All went well!!!!

We are now on the Hard. Water and Electricity connected. We will stay aboard whilst we uninstall more furniture, and remove more stuff from the boats.

We’re the Blue Dot.

It was a long, hot, tiring, stressful day, as we’d left our berth at 8am, and final chocking was only completed at 5pm, so we showered and had a little celebratory Haul Out dinner at Nancys with the Dulcinea crew.

Excellent pizzas, Balboas and Mango Juices!

We await final quotes from Contractors, and then the work will start.

Guatemala to Panama - 3 weeks of stress

After spending a few hours sleeping, in the lee of the headland, we prepped Meshugga which included Nicholas going up the mast to the very top to install the New Replacement Wind Instrument (as the previous had been hit by lightning in Rio Dulce) and erecting our long VHF Shakespeare Big Stick which is 8 foot above our Mast Height and gives us 25 mile coverage for AIS and VHF.

The anchorage was rolly, with a terrible swell, so it was very unpleasant for Nicholas to be up 120 foot off the water. 

That done, we had a quick discussion as to whether to leave immediately or wait. Looking at the weather predictions, (it was Thursday midday) we had to get directly east to turn the corner at the Honduras Banks 400 miles away by Sunday early evening. I said let’s Go, and put time in the bank.

However, at this time of year, the wind is predominantly from the East, and our hope was that the forecast Easterly wind would remain light and seas flat so we could Motor Sail almost directly into the Wind.

That didn’t exactly pan out. 200 miles later we were only approaching the Honduras Bay Island of Guanaja in 2 days (48 hours), that’s Very slow, as we had stronger winds, more sea swell, and had to tack to make headway. Further we had discovered that we Both forgot that we should have filled up our two Diesel tanks in Rio Dulce, and had set off with only one tank at three quarters, and we needed to save the fuel for crossing the notorious Honduras Banks.

As we closed the Honduran Bay of Islands we got weather updates and it showed a huge Thunder/Lightning storm would hit us soon, so we angled into Guanaja, and anchored close to shore in the lee of the high mountains.

Entering the anchorage, going past Dunbar Rock Hotel/Restuarant

Showing how high the mountains are close to this anchorage

Sods Law: We had a direct hit, and even though Nicholas had unplugged all our instruments, the lightning hit our Shakespeare Big Stick, split it, travelled down the cable and we had smoke coming out of our Chart Table Instrument Panel, which thankfully we had open. There was no Fire. The strike however jumped from the cable to the Splitter Box (which allows one cable to receive both AIS and VHF),  and both the cable connector and Splitter Box was fried black.

Storm closing in

In addition to the Shakespeare Aerial and Splitter Box, the Lightning Strike took our ALL our interior lights, and importantly our Raspberry Pie (which is the Computer which controls all the electronic On/Off switches for All our Instruments, etc.).

Gathering our thoughts, Nicholas contacted Kieran and asked him to use TeamViewer (Starlink was still working), and try see if the Raspberry Pie was salvageable. It was not. Lucking we had a Spare Raspberry Pie aboard, and Nicholas installed it. Kieran was able to ‘see’ it, but regrettably the attached Distribution boards were fried, and we did not have Spare boards. Nicholas then spent hours making ‘hard switches’ for all the required navigation instruments etc that we’d need to continue our journey.

By now we had missed the weather window opportunity to be at the East end of Honduran Bay by Sunday evening, so had to wait for the next weather window which thankfully was only 4 days later. You might recall from my previous Blog that we bought two Wind Instruments, so we installed the Second just prior to upping our anchor. (Tough pill to swallow, that our previous one only lasted 48 hours - for $500).

We set off in light Easterly winds, which was predicted to go South East and then North/ North East. Thankfully the prediction came to pass, and we were able to get well off-shore on the South Easterly, to enter the Honduran Bank at about 60 miles off-shore. These Banks are Notorious for Piracy and we were prepped with valuables etc all put away, and any means for repelling the potential Pirates ready. Flares, Spearguns and the like.

We went into Stealth Mode the first night, with all lights, navigation, interior etc and AIS off. Our Radar was still on (we had the chart plotter and instruments in the salon on low light with a towel over to diminish any possible light), and kept 24/7 watch outside for lights of any boats. Stressful but fine. Daylight brought its own problems as our Sails can be seen way off.  Still all good. 

The next night we entered Nicaraguan waters, and Nicholas felt my desire to stay Stealth was an overkill, so he switch on Masthead Navigation light, AIS, Cockpit lights etc. Whilst I slept, he had three boats visible, and one altered course majorly on an intercept course and dramatically increased speed. (Not a normal maneuver for a fishing boat). Nicholas immediately instituted Stealth mode, and Meshugga went dark. He had both motors at full throttle in Turbo. On Radar he could see the Boat reach the point we had been and start a search pattern. Nicholas had made drastic changes of course and distanced us from the Fishing/Pirate Boat. Not saying it was a Pirate Boat, but one cannot be too careful on these Banks where boardings, robberies, assaults and rapes have happened - and why would an innocent Fishing Boat try to approach a Sailing Boat at night…… just saying.

When I came on watch at 2am, I was a little paranoid, even though we were still in Stealth Mode, I took evasive action at any Fishing Boat I saw either on Radar or Lights outside. Thankfully by morning when Nicholas took over the Watch we were approaching deeper water, but still my stress continued as we passed Nicaraguan Reefs where we could see Boats on Radar,  - probably innocently fishing. It would only be later that night that we were well away in deep water.

All this action had used up most of our fuel, and the weather showed that there would be a huge dead wind patch (Parking Lot) for 24 hours close to Linton Bay, which was our destination. Looking at the Chart we decided to alter course for Bocas del Tora, which would only be 20 miles closer if we changed course now, and we would have wind to get there, and we could get fuel in Bocas. However it would then still be a 165 miles from Bocas to Linton, but one we could do on the next good weather window and with fuel.

We had a Brown Boobie come land on Meshugga. It was an adult. Usually this signals extreme tiredness followed by death. The Boobie (which I nicknamed Bob) spent the night on the side deck.

Next day Bob went fishing and I watched him successfully catch a few fish. That’s Good. All his fishing was conducted around Meshugga, in easy distance for him to get back to us. Bob constantly came back to rest between fishing sprees. That night Bob chose our aft Solar Panels for his perch.

We arrived at the Channel Entrance to Bocas del Tora at 10pm, in pitch dark, with an outgoing tide. We’d read the guides that advising that most of the channel bouys were non existent, but still we entered with flood lights on - just in case. We anchored at 1am in a mooring field close to the Bocas del Tora Marina which had a Fuel Dock.

All this time Bob slept soundly on the Solar Panels, not concerned by our flood lights or the motors, and even after we anchored he was still fast asleep. However when we awoke after sunup, Bob was gone. Hopefully he’ll find a new family to join in Bocas, Panama.

We dropped the dingy and went into the Marina and scheduled a time to come alongside to fuel up. Next we contacted friends Matthew and Ally Thomas who were somewhere in Bocas on the Yacht they manage, SV Delcinea, who are from Cape Town and whom we’ve known for 20 years.

They were at Red Frog Marina, some 5 miles away, so after filling with fuel we motored and anchored off Red Frog. Such Fun to catch up. Last time we’d seen Matt and Ally was in Grenada in 2019.

A weather window was available next day, so we left Red Frog Anchorage mid afternoon for a 26 hours Motor Sail to Linton Bay. We weathered a Huge Thunderstorm with winds going from None (1.9Kn) to 45Kn within minutes. 

We rushed to the Flybridge, dumped the Main, let out the Genoa, and Bore off. As we followed the wind downwind we ended up going directly back in the direction we’d been slowing sailing from, this time at 10kn speed. As the initial wind from the Squall abated, we were able to reef our sails and hope that we’d not have another Lightning Strike. This time lucky! 

We arrived at Linton Bay, anchored and chilled. After contacting the Marina and moving into our assigned berth, we registered with the Marina, and started the Customs and Immigration procedure. All legal, we started the with plans for hauling out and contacting contractors to get quotes for assistance for work to be done on Meshugga.

It’s hot and humid. Thankfully our Aircon works, and gives respite to cool down after working outside on deck or moving items to our rented storeroom.