Making Ready to Depart Shelter Bay, Panama

We have been back in Panama for 3 weeks now, most of our time being spent on getting Serena Ray ready for another season of cruising.  Our route this year will take us west (and slightly north) to Bocas del Toro, near the border between Panama and Costa Rica.  We will spend about a month there before heading North and offshore to the Colombian Islands of San Andreas and Providencia (they lay off the coast of Nicaragua).  From there we will visit Roatan, Belize and Isla Mujeres, Mexico before crossing the Gulf to Key West, FL.

We have enjoyed our time here in Shelter Bay, meeting new friends and exploring the area known as Fort Sherman.  This area was a military base during the time the US operated the Canal and most of the buildings still stand...albeit in pretty poor condition now.

Officer's quarters near the marina

Beach near the Marina

Our day here usually starts with a 3 mile hike around the old base...listening to the Howler Monkeys in the adjacent jungle.

Much of our time is actually spent working....doing necessary chores on Serena Ray... oil changes, engine preventative maintenance (we have 3 aboard), washing the algae off the boat that accumulated during our absence....and then waxing (wipe on/wipe off) and also installing new equipment like the FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Camera).  The FLIR allows us to see ahead of the boat at night.  Last year coming down the Central American coast, we often encountered small fishing boats (pangas) several miles offshore at night with no lights of any kind.  One of our cruising buddy boats (m/v Pax Nautica) had a FLIR onboard which proved extremely useful navigating through these areas.  There was a least one reported incident last year where a cruiser accidentally ran into and over a panga....putting the local in the hospital for several days.  We decided this was a pretty good investment given the waters we will again travel, much of it at night.

We did also have an opportunity to spend a couple days in Panama City with new friends aboard s/v Jedi (Nick and Josie).  They have a car here so we all piled in for 2 days of shopping and eating...not necessarily in that order!!

A cruiser never misses an opportunity to provision.  Our rule is that if you see something you need, buy it now, as there is no guarantee you will see it again.....Note that 4 people, luggage and both carts of food actually fit into their Honda CRV..quite impressive!!

We plan to depart Shelter Bay in the next couple days.....our next post will be from the Bocas!!  Until then........