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.